Weeknotes 247

It’s been properly raining for the first time in ages. Colder days, darker evenings, leaves scattered across the grass.

It was a very busy week at work with three teammates visiting simultaneously, and therefore many more face-to-face conversations, pairing sessions and group meals than usual.

I found it incredibly productive and therapeutic to be able to work together in the same room, although of course the intensity was also exhausting and I’m looking forward to some comparative downtime next week.

After one such meal on Wednesday evening I got into a bit of bother with my bike and took the opportunity to record a video:

Obviously it annoys me that anyone could lock their bike up without considering the topological consequences of their actions, but — spoilers — it was all fine in the end and I avoided a trip to the bike shop.

Yesterday it was time to Google “tom stuart baked potato” again to find my own recipe so I could cook the first baked potato of the season. It came out well.

In fact, f it, I’ve just redirected tomstu.art/potato to that page so I don’t need to search for it twice a year. Sorted.

This morning was bright and cool as I cycled through some kind of jam wool festival on Southwark Bridge. Oh London.

My rear brakes have been out of whack since Wednesday’s impromptu bicycle maintenance. Today I pulled gently on the brake cable to adjust it and it immediately snapped, so it looks like I’ll be going to the bike shop after all.

Emboldened by last week’s uncharacteristically proactive triumph over inconvenience, I decided to fix a toilet seat in my flat which has been broken for, I would estimate, about five years.

This minor delay was due not only to my apathy and manual ineptitude but also to my lack of knowledge about which part of the toilet seat needed to be replaced to prevent it from sliding around independently of the bowl. Paul helped me, surprisingly, to find a baffling array of relevant and expensive spare parts, but in the end it was this reassuring man who convinced me to buy this unlikely product for five quid.

And it worked! I still wouldn’t characterise toilet seat repair as a fun and hygienic activity, but it wasn’t a big job and I’m relieved to have crossed one more pointless annoyance off of my list.

Meanwhile, this week my dishwasher stopped heating the incoming water and therefore began impotently moistening dishes instead of actually washing them. The internet suggests it’s a common failure of this model which, because the pump and heater form a single integrated unit, costs more to repair than the machine itself is worth. That makes sense because I literally just bought a new and very expensive appliance so inevitably it’s time for another.

Ideally I’d like to buy a dishwasher from the same place as the washer dryer but I’m really worried they’ll get the same two people to deliver it. I’m too embarrassed to get them to carry another bulky item up & down my stairs and I’m not sure I’m psychologically ready to buy more normal milk yet.

A kind reader asked why I didn’t donate my unused milk “to a neighbour or a food bank”.

I mean, it did occur to me, but I couldn’t work out how to do that. I’m not going to walk around my building knocking on doors asking if anyone wants to drink my milk. Imagine me showing up at a food bank cradling a single pint of (now room-temperature) milk: does anyone want my milk? it’s normal

Enough people have now said “Industry season three is good” that I decided to watch Industry season one, which might sound perverse but does make mathematical sense when you think about it.

It is in fact pretty enjoyable, despite its jarring combination of the BBC’s trademark Holby City aesthetic and HBO’s fixation with full-frontal nudity. The characters’ behaviour doesn’t make much emotional sense even when you ignore the incomprehensible finance jargon, but it’s still very easy to watch.

I’d decided I was making a clever and original observation when I thought “this is basically This Life for Generation Z isn‘t it?” but then I saw Phil noticed that four years ago which means it’s merely clever and not original after all.

Barry might have the best title sequence, but Industry has the best “previously on”.

I’m happy to see that the GOV.UK Service Manual’s Building a robust frontend using progressive enhancement page was updated this week and made it to the top of Hacker News today. The technology industry would collectively save unimaginable quantities of time, money, energy and stress if this single page were required reading for everyone involved in building a web site. ♻️

Don’t ask questions, just consume product.