Weeknotes 308

We made it through November. Well done everyone.

I was exhausted on the train home last Sunday and needed some respite from the external world. I pulled up the hood of my jacket and tightened the drawstrings to cover my eyes so I could take a nap. After I woke up, the vision in my right eye was blurry and I had a moment of drowsy panic when blinking and rubbing didn’t fix it. Thankfully it returned to normal after a few minutes and as the nap wore off I realised my eyeball had been squished out of shape by the tension of my hood. Don’t do that.

The Thanksgiving period was mercifully quiet and I spent an almost meeting-free week working from home. I got loads done which is a balm for all the recent irritation. It’s extremely helpful to be reminded that I am, in fact, capable of being intelligent and productive when circumstances permit.

Three gym trips. I’ve noticed myself trying to pack them in earlier in the week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday this time) to “get it over with”, which is definitely better than not going at all but might not be the best strategy for maintaining a consistent level of activity. Next week I’ll make an effort to spread them out a bit more so I’m not seesawing between energetic and sedentary extremes.

On Tuesday I met James for lunch at Curious Yellow Kafé. I couldn’t have the Swedish meatballs (because, in what feels increasingly like an anachronism, they really are made out of meat) so I got the vegan fry-up instead. It was pretty good and the cafe’s a nice welcoming environment in general.

On Wednesday I met Alice for lunch at Dauns, where this time I could have the Swedish meatballs, so I did. They were tasty but made for a slightly strange and unsatisfying meal, plus the place has a standoffish vibe and weird layout — do you want to crowd awkwardly around two adjacent sides of a four-sided table, or would you prefer to sit right next to the toilet door with your coat hanging above your food? — so I don’t know whether it’s worth it for non-brunch occasions.

Still, both meals were psychologically restorative, plus Alice gave me a little encouraging card which cheered me up tiny tears.

MY HOME IS ON THE SWEDISH: Prompted by the news that IKEA’s smart home hub can now act as a Matter controller, I belatedly enabled its Matter bridge functionality so I could start living in the future.

That caused an avalanche of duplicate devices to show up in the Home app, so yes okay now I’m seeing two of everything, but!, all seven buttons on the (sadly defunct) sound remote are now visible in Home! This is great because it finally gives me an easy way to control lights and trigger automations without having to faff about with a phone or tablet.

All that remains is the chore of adding the Matter incarnation of each device to my automations so I can turn off the hub’s HomeKit support and lose the duplication.

Piranesi continues to delight. I’ve only got a quarter of the book left and I’ll be slightly bereft when it’s over. Should I be considering Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell or should I just be grateful for what I’ve had?

I’m hanging in there with Pluribus, which helped its cause by being slightly better this week. The episode ended with a vague suggestion that something might happen next week and that’s enough hope to keep me engaged for now.

While I doubt there’s a human alive who heeds my Sudoku video recommendations, I really enjoyed this solve of a gloriously self-referential puzzle. If you watch it and don’t find yourself shouting “what about the seven?” at the screen then you’re a better person than me.

I’m dropping so many balls at the moment. Emails and text messages are going unanswered because I don’t have the headspace to deal with the logistics they imply. I feel bad about this but I don’t know what to do about it except work through things methodically and prioritise the genuinely time-sensitive items (e.g. tax-related, Christmas-related) at the expense of the rest. I don’t like the feeling of being beyond my capacity to handle completely normal levels of life maintenance and admin, not least because it doesn’t bode well for how resilient I’d be in the face of an actual crisis.

If I haven’t got back to you, I promise I’ll get back to you.

My sanity is being tested by a persistent earworm. I refuse to give it power by naming it.

I popped into the Barbican Waitrose today and filled my backpack with 1.5 kg of their Own-Brand All-Bran. I’ll have some for breakfast tomorrow and report back.

After I got home from Waitrose I had a cup of tea and a slice of panettone. Bloody great.