Footy

Hooray, Aussie rules football is back on TV here.  It seems like we've missed most of the season for whatever reason, but better late than never.  And just in time, because there hasn't been much rugby on and I am getting increasingly bored with "soccer" (it doesn't help that Palace have got absolutely nothing to play for, so I don't really care if they win or lose).  I'm fairly indifferent to the American sports on right now, so hopefully this will help satisfy my sports viewing fix.  And it also happens to be one of my favorite sports to watch over the last few years.  The only catch - the game on this evening has a female commentator, and she sucks.  It just doesn't seem right - in much the same way that watching a football game with a female commentator just feels wrong.  Yes, I know this is horribly sexist of me - but I can't help how I feel.          

Vacation

Despite taking some days off work this week, I'm still feeling incredibly tired and not de-stressed at all.  I need a proper holiday.  

Watchathon

My cable provider is currently running a Watchathon, when a lot of premium and streaming services that I can normally pay to get through my cable box are free for a week.  So how have I been making the most of this?   What kind of quality shows that are normally unavailable to me can I now indulge in?  Shows that I have never seen before but which are critically acclaimed - like The Handmaid's Tale or Mrs America?  No, I have just finished watching Season 4 of Line of Duty, and about to start on Season 5.  I've seen the first 3 seasons, but not these next 2.  And as utterly preposterous as this show is, it is wildly entertaining and extremely bingeable - perfect when you only have a week to watch as many episodes as you can.  I know the UK is or has just aired Season 6, but I don't know when I can watch that here.  But I'm just happy to catch up on all the prior seasons.     

Song of the Week #55

A tune from a band that I think is/was much bigger in the US than in the UK.  This is a great track - though hopefully I've copied the original below from the 70's and not the remix from the 90's which seems to be more prevalent on YouTube.

Sizing

I'm due to get a couple of freebie jackets from work - and the first one arrived today.  It is a rain jacket - quite good quality from a reputable brand (North Face), but not something I will ever wear.  Especially as I totally misjudged on the size.  I went for 2XL on this one - and it is WAY too big for me (fortunately I think I went for XL on the other jacket I'm due to get, so I'm more hopeful that one will fit me better).  I don't quite know why I went for this size - maybe because I was paranoid about getting one that was too small for me (as has happened in the past).  But this is just silly, and a serious misjudgment on my part.  It is just about wearable, so I am keeping it - I just don't see any scenario where I will voluntarily wear it.  I've actually already got a freebie rain jacket from a while ago that does fit me, and I never wear that - but that is because this one doesn't have a hood, which seems nonsensical for a rain jacket.  

A Year Later

What a difference 12 months of a pandemic makes.  A year ago I was eagerly going for hikes throughout the week, happily taking loads of photos of plants and trees in full bloom at this time of year.  Today, I can barely be bothered to go outside, and when I do it is almost exclusively in the local neighborhood, and I have absolutely zero interest in taking any photos.  That is just one example of the the mental toll that the pandemic has taken out on me.  I forced myself to take a couple of photos this week - included below.  But my enthusiasm level feels like it's at an all time low - I just can't be bothered to do anything.  I have some vacation days from work coming up this week - immaculately timed to coincide with crappy weather after 2 weeks of gorgeous weather.  Typical.  To be honest, I could really do with some longer time off work to properly recharge - but that will have to wait.  But I will try to get off my ass this week - I've already got a plan for what I want to do tomorrow subject to the weather. 

PS5 Update

For whatever reason, I've become obsessed with buying a PS5 over the last few days.  But it's nigh on impossible unless you're prepared to pay an exorbitant price for one on eBay or from another third party seller.  Which I'm not.  If you want to get one at retail price, then you have to go though the website of one of the big retailers (think Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, etc.).  And on the rare occasions when they are restocked and become available (once a week, at the most), then you're lucky if you're able to snag one before they sell out in a minute or two and once again become unavailable.  There are Twitter accounts you can follow so that you'll be informed the moment they become available on one of these sites, but since I don't even have the Twitter app installed on my phone then the chances of me getting a console right now are absolutely zero.  And it's not like I really need one - I'm a long way from being an avid video game player nowadays.  So I really don't know why this has suddenly become an obsession for me.  I need to stop.  I can easily wait another year when hopefully you don't have to go through this hassle to get one.  

HBO Dramas Featuring A-List Actors

The good - Mare of Easttown (Kate Winslet)

The bad - The Undoing (Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant)

Return to Site

After lots of pushing back, it finally seems like my office is officially moving from "require work-from-home" to "encourage work-from-home" on July 12th.  So returning to work on site is entirely voluntary.  However, there are some caveats - only 50% building occupancy will be allowed (which is just over 100 people, but 60-70 people are physical location dependent so that doesn't leave much capacity for the rest of us) and, perhaps most significantly, all the COVID safety protocols will remain in place.  That means we need to have our health and temperature screened every morning, we need to practice physical distancing (which is a problem when you work in an open-plan office) and you have to wear masks.  I think that is the deal breaker for me - I don't have an office so I would have to wear a mask all day in my cube, and that's something I'm just not prepared to do.  So as much as I hate working-from-home, I'm not prepared to go back to the office just yet under these conditions.  And from speaking to a few other people, it seems like most of my colleagues won't either.  What is surprising is absolutely no mention of whether you need to be vaccinated or not.  I wonder if there is some sort of legal reason for not allowing to make that a condition of returning to the office.  Because I think it should be.  Some other long-term positions that my company has started introducing as a result of the last 13 months: expanded work-from-home flexibility (up to 3 days a week), expanded access to remote roles, eliminating core hours (which wasn't really something I adhered to anyway) and part-time options.  I suspect in my position that I could become a remote employee should I choose to - though they stress this is the exception rather than the norm.  But it's an interesting option to consider if/when I ever consider moving home.

On a separate note, I was offered the chance to become a people manager this week and have a direct report.  Someone is leaving our group, and they want to convert a contractor to a full-time employee to fill in the gap - actually someone who I had previously interviewed and recommended (they went for someone else) and my manager suggested this person could report to me.  But I needed to make a decision on the spot, so I turned it down.  I don't need the stress and hassle of a direct report - particularly as I think I'm going to become busy soon as the study I work on starts enrolling subjects.  I did ask my manager whether this reflects badly on me, she said no but I still sensed some disappointment from her that I wasn't interested in this opportunity.  I also know this dents any potential future promotion possibilities.  It means that less qualified people will get promoted ahead of me, which is frustrating but I have to accept - I don't want or need the extra responsibility that comes with a promotion, and I'm happy with where I am right now.  For better or for worse.  That won't stop me complaining about it though!

Song of the Week #54

For some reason, this song has always been stuck in my head since I first heard it as a teenager.  And not in a genre of music that I typically go for.  Did I hear it in a film or on the telly?  Was it even on one of the first compilation tapes I ever owned?  Whatever, it always gives me great joy and a pang of nostalgia to hear it. 

European Super League

I wanted to write something about the proposed European Super League before it disappears from the news cycle.  I don't think I'm going to say anything that loads of other people haven't said already, but what a crash and burn.  It took just 2 days from the announcement for all the English teams to formally withdraw from the competition.  What a farce.  Clearly this was something concocted in the boardrooms, with absolutely no input from anyone who actually watches or plays the game.  It has absolutely dominated the sports news for the last few days - even here - and reflects so badly on the teams that agreed to sign up.  It's nothing more than a ploy for the rich teams to get even richer.  And to call the 6 English teams the "Big 6" is an absolute joke - I think Leicester, West Ham and Everton might beg to disagree that they're not better than somebody like Arsenal or Spurs.  Obviously I'm totally against the proposed competition - but sadly I think the Champions League will eventually evolve into something like how they propose, it's already nearly there with more or less the same teams getting to the final stages.  But it is stunning to me that they didn't seem to predict the universal outrage and protest to the proposal - it just goes to show how oblivious these rich owners are to the game and the supporters.  It doesn't surprise me that the owners of many of the English teams are American - they will never understand the passion of domestic "soccer" or the concept of relegation, which doesn't exist in professional American sports.      

Jigsaw #4

Well, that's another 1000-piece jigsaw done and dusted.

My last lego one.  Time for a different subject matter.  I have some James Bond jigsaws to do, but sadly they are waiting for me in the UK.  So what else?  Maybe some UK-themed ones, since who knows when I'll next be able to visit.   

More Ring Fit Adventure

I've been extremely lax with playing Ring Fit Adventure on my Switch.  And after an extremely lazy week, I've decided I really need to make more of an effort.  So starting today, I'm going to play it every day.  It doesn't have to be for long - maybe no more than a 10-15 minute workout - but the main thing is to make it part of my daily schedule.  I know I've said this before, but I can feel myself getting more unhealthy by the day so I think I mean it more this time.  Yes, the game can get rather repetitive - but at least I do work up a little bit of a sweat when I play it, so that can only be a good thing.   

Muck

I'm quite pleased that my landlord, or more accurately one of my landlord's sons, has been cleaning the outside of my home this afternoon.  It's long overdue.  But what I didn't consider was just how much mess would be left behind.  So now my deck, my patio, my patio furniture, my doormat, my bird feeder, my bird bath and anything else outside is absolutely coated with gunk.  It's ingredients are a wet combination of tree debris, moss, dirt and whatever else has been pressure washed off my roof or from my gutters.  It really is quite unpleasant, and I've already started to tread some of it inside.  So I guess that makes up my mind what I'm going to do tomorrow - some outdoor cleaning of my own.  Good job the weather remains sunny and warm - so much so that I've been wearing shorts today.  And also a good job that I had some idea that this might be happening so I moved my car down the driveway - it still needs a clean, but at least not as much an urgent need as it might have been had I left it in the carport. 

Pie

Sometimes I really crave some decent British pub food.  There is a pub attached to the British shop where I go to get overpriced sausage rolls and chocolate.  But I’ve only ever eaten there once quite some time ago, and it wasn’t very good.  But I was prepared to give it another go.  Until I saw this on their online menu:

No, no, no, no, no.  If I’ve learnt anything from watching way too many Gordon Ramsey clips on YouTube, it is that shepherd’s pie should be made of lamb and not beef.  This is actually cottage pie.  This basic error means an instantaneous disqualification from me ever going there again, and it appears that I need to find somewhere else to satisfy my craving.  There aren’t exactly an abundance of British pubs round here, but maybe one of the many Irish pubs can come close.  

Vax Day

Today was the day that Washington state expanded it's vaccine eligibility to every adult.  The irony is that today was also the day that some counties in the state had to rollback their reopening activities due to case count/hospitalization rates.  However, apparently we are still one of the safest states in the country during the pandemic.  And I am part of the 35% of Washington residents who have received their first dose.  Sadly, I feel like we are still a long way away from not wearing masks and not practicing social distancing - and that is a real shame.  Some states have already ended their mask mandates (unsurprisingly, they are all Republican states) - so once again I doubt there is any sort of national policy on the "return to normalcy".  But it can't come soon enough - I am sick to death of working from home, not going out and not seeing my friends and family.

Oven

This is now my 4th day without a working oven and broiler (yes, Americans call grilling broiling .... whatever).  Apparently my landlord says he will get the part that needs replacing this weekend, the oven temperature sensor - but he took a long time to order it.  No, turning the power off and on did not fix it - this is not a computer.  Fortunately the stove tops are working, otherwise we would have a complete disaster.  But it appears that I am being punished for canceling my meal delivery service.  

Song of the Week #53

As promised, the second best breakup song ever.  A slightly different tone to last week's selection! 

Some more visitors

Managed to get a photo of this pair of interlopers:

Some other updates:

- The hummingbird feeder has been redeployed after the salmonella outbreak, and is once again seeing some use (I think it's just the one hummingbird - the same hummingbird as before - using it).  

- I've seen a big fat rabbit a couple of times, but the last time I frightened it off and haven't seen it again since.  My grass really needs to be cut, so it is prime feeding ground for rabbits right now.  

- An unwelcome visitor has returned for the first time in ages - my landlord's black cat.  It's been a while, I wondered whether it was even still alive.  But chasing the cat away was what caused me to frighten off the rabbit - and indeed frightened it off in the direction of the cat.  Whoops.     

The Week Ahead

What to do when the forecast for the week ahead looks like this:

And your manager is on vacation all week?  I suspect I might be taking some extended breaks from work (despite being relatively busy).  I've got no excuses not to make the most of this good "not staying at home" weather.  It's only a shame that I think the local schools are out this week, so I fear the scenic coastal hikes I'd most like to do might be quite busy.  

Wrestlemania

Yes, it is the best weekend of the year for "professional wrestling" - Wrestlemania!  And for the first time ever, I shall be watching it live.  I've never done that before because I've never been prepared to pay for it - but now I get it for free through one of the streaming services I've actually got, I can finally change that.  Yes, it sucks.  Yes, I'm too old to still be watching wrestling entertainment.  Yes, I actually hate the people that run WWE because they support Trump.  But here we are.  But wait what's this - it's under a weather delay?!  That's hilarious - serves you right for hosting it outdoors. 

The Singularity

I did some shopping at Walmart this week.  As I was going up and down the various aisles, I realized that someone was stalking me.  Or more accurately, something.  I don't know whether you have these yet at your Tesco or your Sainsbury's or, most likely since they are affiliated with Walmart, your Asda - but Walmart has these big automated floor cleaning machines.  Like giant Roombas.  And this thing was following me around like a Terminator - it was crazy, and somewhat horrifying.  It's bad enough that these monstrosities are replacing employees, but this one seemed to have developed some kind of nascent AI.  Like an unhinged Robocop, it seemed to be targeting me for elimination - thank god it wasn't weaponized.    

Adverse Events

I spoke in haste when I said I didn't suffer any side effects from my vaccination shot - for the last couple of days, my arm has been absolutely killing me.  A lot more than any flu shot has ever done.  I've also experienced a few other symptoms - tiredness, a headache - but frankly I was experiencing these before I had the shot, so I doubt they have anything to do with it.  Nonetheless, I've used this an an excuse not to get out of the house or do any sort of exercise for the last couple of days.  At the very least, I think I need to go out for a walk tomorrow.  But my efforts to play Ring Fit Adventure on the Switch have quickly ground to a halt after a week - and won't restart until I feel no pain in the muscle where I got my shot (it is feeling better after a few days, so hopefully I'll be back to normal soon - at least until I have my 2nd dose...).  Now I wish I'd got the Pfizer shot, supposedly the side effects are a lot less pronounced than for the Moderna one I got.  But at least I don't have to worry about blood clotting. 

Song of the Week #52

A gem to celebrate 52 weeks/1 year of this nonsense - really just an excuse for me not to spend time coming up with proper blog entries!  Though I was posting music videos before then, so this anniversary is really quite arbitrary.  I feel I'm increasingly guilty of posting videos of songs that I see in react videos on YouTube, so I hope you don't watch as many of those as I do.  Enjoy this classic - maybe the greatest breakup song ever (I'll do the second best next week).

First Dose

I had my first COVID vaccination this morning, and I've got to be honest and say that I was thoroughly impressed with the operation at this site.  I was in and out of there in less than 30 minutes, without leaving my car once.  And it was a less than 15 minute drive to get there from my home, without even needing to go on the freeway.  It wasn't clear which parking lot on this college campus I needed to go to, but I guessed correctly and once you're there you follow the directions and it's clear where you need to go.  Basically, there are 3 stages to the process - they register you, they vaccinate you, then you are asked to wait around for 15 minutes to ensure that there are no side effects (and I haven't experienced any yet - though apparently the second dose is supposed to be worse).  All the nurses and volunteers there were nice and friendly.  And I was quite surprised that it didn't seem nearly as busy as I thought it might be - I feared I might be queuing up or waiting around for ages, but there was none of that.  Makes me feel very lucky that I snagged my appointment when I did.  And this is what you get at the end of it:

A somewhat disappointing sticker - I rather hoped it would be something similar to the iconic "I Voted" sticker.  But yes, you also get the all important vaccination record card.  Washington state is one of the few states that keeps electronic records of vaccinations for everyone (and I just registered on the website to confirm that this shot, along with the others I've had such as flu shots, are on there which they are) - which is maybe why they just give you a blank card to fill in yourself.  But I think this COVID vaccination record card might be so important because it will probably be the primary way to confirm that you're vaccinated if you ever need to prove it to travel or even to return to the workplace.  Without any sort of centralized national records, this is the closest we're ever going to get to the "controversial" vaccine passport (even though you fill it in by hand!).  So you don't want to lose that card!         

Cancel Culture

This is probably an inappropriate use of the term "cancel culture", but I did cancel 2 subscriptions this weekend.  I canceled the meal delivery service I was using - the meals were just not good enough to justify the expense.  And they weren't varied enough either - one of the main reasons I wanted to use the service.  That's not to say that I wouldn't considered another meal delivery service in the future - maybe one that involves more meal preparation using fresher ingredients, rather than these pre-prepared meals I had been getting.  The other cancellation I made this weekend was a lot tougher decision.  But I canceled my TIME magazine subscription.  Since the pandemic started, I haven't been reading it very much - its become a fortnightly issue rather than a weekly one, so a lot less focus on "current" affairs.  Besides, I'm a lot less interested in consuming any sort of news than I used to be anyway.  Controversially, I would also say that the most recent featured articles in the magazine do not particularly interest me - catering a bit too much to the politically correct crowd by seeming to exclusively cover minority or niche issues that I don't particularly care about (maybe I should, whatever).  For example, the most recent cover article was on how the pandemic has changed a generation of students.  Something I, frankly, couldn't care less about - what about all the other generations that have been impacted?!  Everyone has.  I was okay when they were bashing Trump, but now we've moved on from that there isn't anything left to justify getting it.  

Tired

I haven't had a decent night's sleep since forever.  And nothing good can come out of that.  Who to blame?  Well, obviously me.  But what to blame?  Maybe my dwindling bladder causing me to need to go to toilet in the middle of the night.  Maybe staying up too late watching the telly or listening to a podcast.  Maybe playing mobile games on my iPhone in bed.  All of these are things I can take measures to rectify - but I haven't yet.  I need to go to bed earlier, I need to not drink so much before I go to bed, and I need to read a book in bed rather than endure the dreaded blue light from a phone or laptop screen.  But I think most significantly, I need to spend a night sleeping somewhere different - I haven't done so in well over a year.  Not even a single night.  No wonder I'm thinking about getting a new mattress this summer - it's getting overused.     

Vaccination Update

Well, this happened rather quickly and unexpectedly.  I have an appointment for my first vaccination on Tuesday.  Yay!  And no waiting around for my 2nd dose, I also have an appointment for that exactly 28 days later.  I went on the (unofficial) COVID vaccine finder website this morning, saw this place had available appointments - its less than 5 miles away - filled in my details on the website and managed to snag an appointment.  The location is a college and the vaccine is being administered by the "Seattle Visiting Nurses Association", apparently the largest community immunizer in the state so that is reassuring - and I think it might be a drive-thru clinic.  I think I'm getting the Moderna vaccine - which is good, no dodgy AstraZeneca shots here (which I don't think is approved for use in the States yet).  So let's see how it all goes - I think this site has done lots of vaccinations already, so hopefully it's a smooth and well-oiled machine by now. 

Good Friday

Was it Good Friday today?  It's easy to lose track of this since the US, quite surprisingly, doesn't have a public holiday for Easter.  Apparently it is an observed holiday in some states, but not in Washington.  I did take a trip to the local British food shop last week where I was able to get both some British chocolate Easter eggs and some hot cross buns (neither of which they ordinarily do in the US, though I have found hot cross buns at some supermarkets before).  But my willpower is so weak that I ate them all last week - which I felt bad about, especially the Easter eggs which I should have savored more as they weren't cheap.  So to celebrate Easter I've got to wait for my next "British candy" subscription box, which should arrive next week and I hope contains some Easter-related treats (some different varieties of Cadbury Creme Egg would be a welcome treat).   

Paradise Valley Conservation Area

For the last few months, there has been very little variety in the hikes I've been doing - either sticking to the neighborhood or driving to places I've been to many times before.  Hence the lack of blog posts and photos.  But that changed this week, when a couple of days ago I went to somewhere I've never been to before called Paradise Valley Conservation Area - east of where I live.  And what is surprising is that it is only about 20-25 minute drive away.  So why have I ignored here until now?  Perhaps these signs that greet you at the trailhead might be the reason - something that I also remember mentioned in my hiking guidebook:

Yikes, that is ominous.  But I doubt you'll actually ever have an encounter like that in real life.  But still added a certain amount of tension to the hike!  But no, it was fine.  I combined a number of the trails into a 5.5 mile loop - which with good signage and not a massive amount of elevation change was a quite manageable workout, apart from the last mile which was horribly wet, muddy and slippery.  It was fairly generic Pacific NW forest environment and not particularly photogenic - but did afford a certain amount of solitude, which is welcome.  I suspect I'll go here again - it's close enough to make it a reasonable exercise break from work.  But the first actual evidence of any big wild animals, and I'm done with this place.