Journal

On Friday night Clair and I went for pizza at new joint in town, Frank’s Pizza. It turns out that friend of the family Peter works there and he showed us to a table at just the right time before it became really busy. I went for the sausage and peppers pizza, we shared a portion of Frank’s fries and Peter hooked us up with a new honey dip flavour to try too. Everything was really tasty!

On Saturday morning I made the hour-long drive to Biggar and enjoyed a walk with Rudy on Tinto Hill. It’s a medium-level climb and the weather was decent. Although there were lots of other dogs they mostly gave us space.

Later, Clair and I went to No. 10 down the road to meet Mark, followed by Sophie and Anya. I had an interesting chat with Sophie where it turns out that some of the coaching techniques I’ve been learning at work (active listening, asking questions rather than offering solutions) are things she does all the time in her job as an educational psychologist.

We continued on to the Stag and Thistle where we were joined by Tom, Lou and wee James, up from London. They’re still having bother finding a flat here but hopefully not for much longer. Craig F and Alan M soon joined. I couldn’t chat to them for long before leaving but it was nice to see them.

I’m not the most confident public speaker these days. So I had mixed emotions when my neighbour asked me to talk about my career at Pollokshields Primary School where he teaches.

However, I liked the theme of helping the kids to expand their horizons. And I’m keen to be involved in the local community, so this was a good opportunity.

I also had my fears dispelled somewhat when I heard that although there’d be lots of kids they were all around 11 years old. I’m working on my presenting and workshop facilitation skills at the moment so again, a good opportunity with – hopefully - a captive and gentle crowd!

I’m pleased to say it went well and generally gave me a warm glow. On reflection I think I prepared well, my nerves were manageable, and I communicated clearly. The kids were lovely and asked lots of questions! What characteristics do you need to be a good software engineer? Did my parents support my career choices? And so on.

They also gave me a lovely certificate and a large Dairy Milk bar (something that’s always welcome in our house).

Having a lovely Sunday morning stroll with Clair and Rudy through Crawick Multiverse, a land art installation. Here’s a bit about this interesting place:

Nestled within the rolling hills of Upper Nithsdale in Dumfries and Galloway, this major land restoration project has transformed a former open cast coal mine into a spectacular artland and public amenity.

A renowned cultural theorist, land artist, architectural historian and co-founder of the Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres, Charles Jencks was commissioned by the Duke of Buccleuch in 2015 to design an inspiring landscape on the former open-cast coal mine near Sanquhar in Dumfries and Galloway.

We made our way through the Amphitheatre and between “landforms” with names such as Andromeda, Supercluster of Galaxies and Omphalos. And we stopped to enjoye a lovely wee picnic atop The Milky Way. Most definitely something different, and Rudy seemed to enjoy his first spacewalk too.

I loved this insight into Adam Silver’s thought process. And it came at a timely moment since at work I’m currently trying to promote evidence-based, considered choices regarding user interface patterns.

I was recently sorting through some old stuff when I found a tatty old poster I used to love and that brought back good memories. It shows the gated basement vault of the original Tresor nightclub at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. Smoke is billowing out of the room dramatically and it includes the text The Extremist. I bought or otherwise acquired this poster on a night in 2005 when me and friends Davie and Tom visited the famous club during a trip to Berlin.

With Clair off having fun in Skye, the boys (me and Rudy) have been spending some quality time together. On Friday night we watched Dune 11. Rudy wasn’t too bothered but I really enjoyed it. It looks absolutely stunning, especially the all-white gladiator scene. And I thought the heavy, growling soundtrack marked a return to form for Hans Zimmer. While watching I munched on a paneer palak from local heroes Kebabish which, let’s be honest, is inifinitely better than popcorn.

On Saturday with the sun shining and some post-curry guilt, we set off early and walked up Drumgoyne Hill. It was steep but really good fun.

Recently my work colleague Francesco told me about a new Edinburgh branch of Homebrew Website Club. Exciting! I unfortunately couldn’t make their first event but just attended their second event. Here’s how it was billed:

Join us in Edinburgh for demos of personal sites, recent breakthroughs, discussions about the independent web, and to meet IndieWeb community members!

It was good fun! Great to chat about and personal websites and writing with fellow tinkerers. I’m sure I’ll be back.

I like the metaphor for personal websites of tending to a digital garden.

Like all gardens, they can become a bit unruly and need some weeding. Right now, as I consider updating some software and freshening things up, I realise that I’ve let it overgrow a tad.

So, here’s a post in which I’ll log my website’s current features. This should be useful in and of itself as a stepping stone to writing a proper readme. However it’ll also help me reflect on my website’s health and maintainability so I can decide which features to nourish and which to prune.

Note: this post will take a bit of time and a few sessions, so please regard it as a work in progress.

Today I met Mick, Richy, Kris and Colin at Balmaha and we climbed Conic Hill. It was a decent day for it and we all enjoyed the chance to catch up while getting a good dose of fresh air. Mick and Richy were even brave enough to go for a dip in Loch Lomond afterwards.

Later, we drove to Colin’s place in Kilsyth to freshen up then went on to the Coach House Inn at Auchinstarry Marina. After a bite to eat I could see the conversation was headed toward those same old stories. And I had resolved in advance to have a quiet night unlike our last get-together. So I dropped them at the next pub then headed home, leaving it to the professionals.

This was a great watch. Big Zuu (Zubair Hassan) approached his pilgrimage with good humour, curiosity and genenrosity. And I learned lots from it about Islam in general and muslim men and their friendships in particular.

Chef and rapper Big Zuu makes a pilgrimage to Mecca on a personal spiritual journey to try and understand more about his faith and what it means to be 'a good Muslim'.

I really liked some of the contradictory things Big Zuu tried to reconcile. For example could he be a good mulsim but also enjoy some western ways such as alcohol? How would he feel being in Saudi Arabia (Jeddah and Mecca) in light of negative way the region is stereotyped? And is the fee of nearly £8000 paid to the Saudi government the best place to use his money?

In the end there’s a nice theme where Zuu say he’s not perfect nor will he become so… but that understanding his faith is part of striving to become the best version of himself.