Barry Frost

Barry Frost -

Week 230 - Snooker - 2026-01-19T17:45:10Z

• This week, I went back up to Ally Pally for the Masters snooker. I think this is the seventh year in a row (ignoring Covid) we've gone. It was probably the closest match I've seen: John Higgins beat Judd Trump in an 11th frame decider. The Wizard was visibly delighted with his win and it was comforting to see a professional sportsman older than me win!
• I paused Dry January so I could have a couple of pints at the snooker. Unlike previous years, I wisely avoided filling my bladder after the mid-session interval, so I was able to comfortably sit through seven uninterrupted frames.
• But I've not been missing alcohol. I've been enjoying Athletic's Run Wild IPA which is very close to the real thing. I might continue to limit booze to special occasions and see how I get on. It can only be a good thing for my health.
• I've signed up for a trial of Fastmail. I'm considering switching my primary email/calendar away from a legacy Google Workspace account so that I can de-Google my services and give my money to a company that values privacy. Fastmail looks very good, I just need to bite the bullet and push the migrate button.
• C has begun indoor cricket sessions in Welwyn. I took him on Sunday. It's good exercise and he's loving it. His batting is solid, but he's still learning not to run wherever the ball goes when fielding.
• These dark drizzly days aren't doing much for my cheery disposition. Roll on spring and sunshine please.

Week 229 - Escape - 2026-01-12T18:09:52Z

• On the last day before returning to school and work we all challenged ourselves at the Agent Brains escape room in Letchworth. Our "Back to the Future" themed room was eighties themed, with an appropriate soundtrack, puzzles and decor. It was surprisingly tough but we escaped within the hour, thanks to a few generous clues from the operator(!) Recommended.
• Back to school, and this term H is old enough to be allowed to walk to school on his own. It's only a 5-minute walk from home, there are no roads to cross and we still walk in his younger brother a few metres behind, but he's proud to have passed a little milestone.
• Another growing-up moment: we've been watching the new Traitors series, and he asked if he could too. "It's the only thing people talk about at school!" We agreed. It's family-friendly and before the watershed. Apart from live sport, it's probably the first programme he's wanted - and been old enough - to watch with us.
• C continues to make progress with his piano-playing. His teacher asked that we upgrade his second-hand keyboard to a proper piano or a better keyboard with weighted keys. His birthday is coming up and he's very keen, so we visited a music shop in St Albans to try out the options. Of course, we were steered towards the pricier models, but we settled on a more modest option to last him for a few years.
• Now that Ikea's new range of super-cheap Matter smart devices are available, I've been planning replacements for our ageing wi-fi bulbs. I need to visit an Ikea shop to load up on buttons, sensors and bulbs. I'd also like to swap our Alexa boxes for HomePods when the rumoured new range is out.
• Arsenal were drawn away in the third round of the FA Cup, so H and I missed out on our annual cup match. After watching us lose in 2025 and 2024 in the freezing cold, we enjoyed the 4-1 win against Portsmouth on the sofa. It was made even sweeter knowing that Pompey fan, Andy, was in the crowd.

Week 228 - Games - 2026-01-05T21:07:18Z

• I really enjoy the post-Christmas lull. We've caught up on sleep, enjoyed long walks around parks in Stevenage and Hertford, watched football on TV and generally ignored and forgot about work and school for a bit.
• L's parents came to stay for a couple of nights. We brought out H's new Cluedo set for some intense games. After a slow start it clicked for both boys who loved it. They're now working their way through other board games, Lego and puzzles with each other. Jackpot.
• My scraped car is now being picked up for repair in three weeks' time. In the meantime it looks scruffy.
• I'm not generally a fan of New Year's Eve but we had an excellent time at the Mathiesons'. The children went off to play together while the adults ate snacks, had a few drinks and played some board games. Cards Vs Gravity was silly fun, but Hitster was crap, although that may be because my music taste ends around 2005. Will's homemade quiz was superb. We all even stayed up past midnight for the first time.
• We then joined my sister and her children at my parents' for the cousins to play. My parents also had Cards vs Gravity, although we found that some of Simon's strict rules from NYE weren't in the official guide. Hmm. We also found it's much easier to play it sober without shaky hands.
• Tech support son: I fixed my parents' recent patchy wifi. EE had replaced their old router which broke their wifi extenders which were tied to the old box's SSID.
• For Christmas I bought my mum a subscription to NYT Games, mainly so I can compete against her. But I also found out my sister is also a subscriber. I now have to drop everything to find more words whenever they get Genius at Spelling Bee. The puzzle rivalries have begun.

Week 227 - Christmas - 2025-12-30T17:20:51Z

• Christmas week followed a welcome and familiar pattern: we hosted a set of parents (mine this year), I did the cooking and L coordinated the present-giving.
• But first, the football. I took H to the Emirates for Arsenal's Tuesday night League Cup quarter-final with Crystal Palace. Arsenal won 8-7 on penalties, finishing very late. Luckily it's school holidays so H could recover his lost sleepw.
• While we were at the football, L took C to see a local Cinderella pantomime (not the adults-only Sinderella alternative).
• On Christmas Eve, I took my dad to the local pub for a pint before we started on the ham. As is traditional, I boil, glaze and roast a big gammon joint and we eat half for dinner.
• This Christmas we decided to swap a big turkey for a big chicken: most of our family prefer it, it's cheaper and there are fewer leftovers. My adjusted timings were a bit off - it was ready too early - but hot gravy and the rest of the trimmings made up for it. And then I could relax.
• My present haul included several new tops to wear, a Kindle (to replace my 2011 model), and some very good books, including Will Larson's Crafting Engineering Strategy.
• The boys received plenty of Lego and STEM-related kits, intended to (mostly successfully) draw their attention away from Switches and iPads. They also happily received their stockings from Father Christmas who they claim to still believe in. We'll take that. Stay young!
• I don't think we watched much festive TV, apart from Amandaland and the Gladiators special (the boys' favourite). I was more excited to watch the excellent final episode of Pluribus, and now face a frustratingly unknown wait for the next season. More and quick please!
• Then, to burn off some of the extra calories (me) and restless energy (boys), we put on our football boots for a Saturday kick-around in the park. The boys defeated their father 10-8. I was left to scrub our muddy boots which predictably took almost as long to clean as we spent outside.

Week 226 - Repair - 2025-12-22T17:44:02Z

• It's been my last week of work for the year. Apart from planning a few new customer engagements for January, it's been uneventful and mercifully quiet. I'm back working in two weeks when the boys go back to school.
• I spent lunchtimes on a few chores: getting a haircut, a dentist/hygienist visit and buying a few last Christmas shopping bits. All done. My presents are wrapped, I've finalised the Ocado grocery order and now I'm fully Christmas-ready.
• On Saturday we met up with Tim and Debbie and their son in Wendover near where they live in Buckinghamshire. We ate a big lunch in the Bel and the Dragon and then let the fuelled-up boys run around together in a nearby playground before it got too dark.
• While having lunch the side of my car was scraped by a van in the car park. The scraper fortunately left a note with his details and sounded quite shook-up on the phone. I now have to go through the pain of getting it repaired through my insurance company during the Christmas period, and then claiming back my excess. It's going to be a faff.
• However, it's one of those things. It won't spoil Christmas. I'm looking forward to relaxing into a routine of lazy days at home with my family, eating and drinking a little too much, and switching off. Merry Christmas to you! 🎄🎅

Week 225 - Lunch - 2025-12-16T13:55:58Z

• We had our company Christmas event this week. It was a much scaled-back affair compared to last year's overnight party at a Cambridgeshire hotel. This year was a quiz and catered lunch in the office kitchen 😐
• Both boys had their school nativity plays, back-to-back on one very long evening sitting on little chairs in the school hall. As usual, the productions were a modernised/disco version of the nativity. C did well as a donkey; H was a dancing squire.
• I had another Friday trip to Paddington for a boozy lunch with old work friends. We worked through a fair amount of red wine, enough that I nodded off on the train home and had to go back a couple of stops.
• On Saturday evening L had her own boozy night with three teacher friends making cocktails at each home on a kind of pub/house crawl. I hid away watching an unconvincing Arsenal comeback to beat Wolves.
• I then took C round the shops with me to buy the last of my Christmas presents on Sunday. My responsibility is to buy for my wife and parents and thankfully (and sensibly) L does the rest. I'm all done.
• Just one working week left for the year.

Week 224 - Piano - 2025-12-08T16:48:15Z

• Last year I forgot to get L an advent calendar. The last-minute Paw Patrol effort from the corner shop wasn't well received. Don't deprive her of decent chocolate, was the lesson I learned. This year I bought a premium Dairy Milk one for her nice and early - and she bought me exactly the same!
• Christmas has properly started: L went to an evening class to make a wreath for the door, I've put up outdoor lights along the front of the house, and the new (bigger) tree is up, albeit with inadequate tinsel coverage for my liking.
• A poor sporting week: H's team lost 1-3 (Saturday 9am away kick-off 😧), Arsenal lost 1-2 away to Villa and the less said about England's capitulation in the Ashes the better.
• More positive was C's debut musical performance at a little concert put on by his piano teacher. He's only been learning for a couple of months, mostly with a cast on his right arm, but bravely played a perfect We Three Kings in front of an intimidating audience of parents and children.
• My pride for my son's musical success was tempered by the pollution of my Apple Music Replay 2025 with his favourite songs from Bluey and Mario, played through smart speakers linked to my Apple Music account.

Week 223 - AI - 2025-12-01T14:37:32Z

• It's Black Friday/week. I had previously noted down potential presents for L and the boys which I hoped would be discounted. I was semi-successful so I've officially made a start on my Christmas shopping.
• L bought a nice artificial Christmas tree. It went up and came back down again. Too small, so we're awaiting its bigger brother.
• In AI dystopia news, this week I watched a company training video which had a glitchy AI presenter warning about AI deepfakes impersonating executives 🤦 It even incorrectly pronounced our company's name.
• I also taught H a valuable lesson about trusting AI responses. He had Googled for a football statistic - how many goals has Isak scored for Liverpool this season. The Gemini answer above the search results said zero, but I clearly remembered Isak's League Cup goal. He didn't believe me until I showed him the result on the BBC Sport website.
• Ignoring what I've just written about bad AI, I thought it would be fun to build my own MCP server and feed it data about me. Coding with the new Claude Opus 4.5 model I wrote a spec and set it to work ingesting my public Swarm checkins, parsing my weeknotes and building a local server. With Claude Desktop on my laptop I could then ask basic questions about gigs I'd been to with Andy or football matches I'd seen. A fun bit of hacking.
• The weekend has been cold, windy and rainy. I took the boys to Lego club at the library and then camped out at home watching football and TV series. All Her Fault finished superbly, but could have been a tight four-parter instead of boring us in the middle of eight episodes.

Week 222 - Negroni - 2025-11-24T12:03:36Z

• Double Nelson for week 222.
• It was my birthday. While our boys were at school, L took to me to the opening morning of the Wes Anderson: The Archives exhibition at the Design Museum. I'm a Wes fan. They had all the costumes, behind-the-scenes photos and the exquisitely-detailed props. I nerded out on the typography on the book covers and posters.
• We had lunch at Vermuteria in Coal Drops Yard which makes a very tasty Negroni d'Or. I plan to try to recreate it at home when I can source bottles of the expensive rare booze: Contratto Bianco and Kina L'Aèro d'Or.
• We then rented The Phoenician Scheme when to round off the day; it was the only Wes film I hadn't seen. Perfect.
• Sunday lunch was at the Robin Hood & Little John pub on the other side of the village. I ate roast beef and had a large glass of red wine.
• With a warm glow in my tummy I was all set for the North London Derby on TV. I felt very confident. Arsenal's 4-1 demolition job confirmed it. We are on fire.
• In celebration, I made us tuna melts using a recipe I'd bookmarked. It had all the ingredients: harissa paste, jalapeños, lemon zest, gherkins, sun-dried tomatoes, mustard, spring onions, mayo, mature cheddar, Doritos and, obvs, tuna. I enjoyed it, L not so much.

No title - 2025-11-21T18:12:13Z

Photos from our visit to Wes Anderson: The Archives at the Design Museum in London today.

Week 221 - Power - 2025-11-17T16:04:24Z

• It may be the changing of seasons and gloomier days, but I've found myself a little down this week. Getting outside for lunchtime walks and playing with the boys usually helps clear away the cobwebs. I'll keep an eye on my general mood so that I don't let things slip.
• I bought a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) mainly to protect my NAS (network attached storage). It's a basic APC 650VA device with eight sockets. We have occasional power cuts in the village and when the power returns my NAS stays powered off. I forget to turn it back on and my backups subsequently fail. The UPS is effectively saving me from having to press a button - peak laziness.
• H's under-10s football team lost their third match in a row to local Hertford rivals. They fought back from 3-0 down to draw level, only to then concede a last-minute winner. It's a cruel game.
• My parents and my aunt and uncle stopped by on Sunday. L was out for the day so I hosted. I made a lemon drizzle cake - that's two excellent cakes in successive weekends. The boys were very well-behaved, bringing out their board games to entertain their relatives.
• It rained heavily this week. No flooding, luckily. Temperatures are forecast to drop next week with maybe even some snow. Brrr.

Week 220 - Bang - 2025-11-10T14:27:07Z

• I joined Andy at the Leicester Square Theatre for Russell Howard's warm-up show. Scrappy, in-progress shows where the comedian jumps around and ad-libs are somehow funnier than polished sets.
• At work the HR team asked me to help present in their company-wide training sessions on annual performance reviews for our leaders. I have clearly gained a reputation with HR as someone pushing for leadership training, so I guess I brought it on myself! It seemed to go well.
• I walked C to our village's Guy Fawkes Night fireworks at the sports field. It was packed. We queued for an overpriced burger-van burger for him and then ooh'd and aah'd at all the whizz-bangs. He loved it. At some point we both stepped in dog poo in the dark so I had to scrub and disinfect our shoes back home. Not for me.
• The house exterior painting is mercifully finished. Our windows can be shut and cars parked back on our drive. Next we need to coax back the scaffolders to dismantle their platforms and poles.
• The Celebrity Traitors concluded spectacularly, we finished the nerve-shredding Blue Lights and have now started Pluribus which has already gripped us.

Week 219 - Paint - 2025-11-03T11:54:13Z

• It's November already. It's school half-term. The leaves are changing colour. Hallowe'en is over. Christmas awaits.
• While I stayed behind at home, L and the boys visited her parents again for a few school holiday days. This meant I ate microwave curry and watched films she probably wouldn't like (A House of Dynamite, [new] Superman and The Banshees of Inisherin).
• In home renovation news, we're having our window frames, doors, soffits and fascias repainted. Scaffolders arrived on Wednesday to build platforms over the side extension ready for the exterior painters who started on Thursday. Despite the inconvenience - moving cars off the drive before 8am every morning, sitting in a freezing house with windows and doors open, making all the teas - it's been fine. The workmen have been reliable and efficient. One coat to go.
• Our boys' Hallowe'en trick-or-treating hauls seem bigger than last year. The village has new houses with families which might explain it. Neither boy is too obsessed with sweets, thankfully, and will gradually eat their way through. It's also tempting to hide some and use for sharing next year!
• C's piano/keyboard playing is really coming on. His fingering is much better and he's happily using both hands.
• My parents visited on Sunday to give H their birthday presents. He asked for board games and received three to enjoy - it's a welcome alternative to football-football-football. We also played a little with his micro:bit.
• I made my excellent banana bread which I'm confident is the best of all cakes.

Week 218 - Otters - 2025-10-26T17:36:27Z

• H reached double figures this week, celebrating his tenth birthday 🎂.
• His family treat was an otter-feeding experience at Shepreth Wildlife Park with his little brother. We were (repeatedly) lectured by the handler that otters are not pets (yes, we get it) as the boys threw the adorable little animals sprats and prawns. After lunch with us at Wagamama he had a bowling party, a hotdog and cake with his friends. Being ten is pretty good.
• We had another set of parents' meetings at school. They've both started the new school year very well.
• After the hospital consultant was happy with my elbow last week, it was time for my last physio session. My arm still isn't 100% straight, but the physio gave me some new strengthening exercises which will continue to help.
• This weekend L was suffering with a nasty headache, so after I drove H to his football match (a scrappy 2-1 win against Stevenage at home), I took him and his brother for haircuts in Welwyn. I was responsible for making hair decisions and correctly pushed for shorter cuts. At £23 each I want my money's worth.
• We finished watching The Sopranos. It richly deserves its reputation as one of the finest series on TV. What a compelling set of characters, and the ending was perfect. Now it's over we can safely research the actors and storylines without fear of spoilers!
• A weekend of excellent Premier League results for Arsenal, plus a massive 4-0 win against Atletico in the Champions League on Tuesday. It's a very good time to be a Gooner. Let's see how far we can go.

Week 217 - Lawn - 2025-10-19T19:51:45Z

• This Tuesday marked 25 years since I posted my very first blog post. It was the first of 84 entries on my travelblog which I updated as I spent a year travelling and living in New Zealand. In the days before Facebook, WhatsApp or smartphones, it was the best way to connect to my family and a few friends who read it. But I also wrote it for myself, a bit like these weeknotes.
• I used Blogger to publish. The service FTP'd HTML files to a directory on a server at my local university (I think http://rdiu.anglia.ac.uk/barry) where I had worked part-time. Simple, but it worked. The original host is long since dead, but it's nice to see my raw content has been preserved by new (2003) owners Google when I log in.
• We had our lawn relaid. It's now much wider and replaces the bumpy, patchy grass around where the play boat and flower beds were. The bad news for the boys is that we can't play football on it until April.
• I had my final x-ray and consultation at the hospital for my broken elbow. It's not completely healed after 4.5 months but they were happy enough to not need another visit. Phew. What a lot of faff for one little fall playing football.
• I drove H to the far side of the county for his football match against Ware. His team lost 1-2 but that was a big improvement over the 1-7 reverse fixture. It was notable for being recorded using special cameras on a pole at the side of the pitch. We got to rewatch the action, including when H comically collided with another boy off the ball.
• He had a busy Saturday: the football and two birthday parties. Sunday was a cosy, quiet day indoors while it rained. We all ate a big chicken pie and vegetables for lunch and snoozed on the sofa before Liverpool were beaten by Man United at home. Arsenal are firmly on top of the league. A splendid way to end the week.

No title - 2025-10-14T19:06:31Z

Gigs in October: The Beta Band at the Roundhouse and Gene at Hammersmith Apollo.

Week 216 - Flying - 2025-10-12T20:22:18Z

• I spent the last week in sunny San Diego for work. I met up with the rest of our Professional Services leadership team for meetings and an All-Hands presented by our parent company's CEO.
• The journey was just as I remembered it from my last three visits: 15 hours from home to hotel and very dull. I tried and failed to sleep using my new Trtl, so instead watched films on the little screen and exhausted my podcast backlog.
• Each morning I was in the office in La Jolla before 8am, partly because our office is next door to the hotel, but mainly because of the eight-hour time difference. After long days working I dropped off my backpack in my hotel room and headed back out for dinner and drinks together. As a result this weekend back home I've slept and done very little.
• Food in La Jolla was pretty good. Sushi at Blue Ocean, large quantities of Mexican at Red O and many moreish dim sums after a worthwhile wait at Din Tai Fung. The Rubi club sandwich from nearby Rubicon Deli was as good as always.

Week 215 - Bongo - 2025-10-10T17:21:35Z

• I had two London gigs this week in one weekend. Crazy.
• First up was The Beta Band at the Roundhouse with Andy. They played pretty much all of their classic The Three EPs which worked surprisingly well played live, Dry the Rain being my highlight. Plenty of bongo-playing. And great acoustics in the round, er, Roundhouse.
• It was Steve Mason and friends' first tour together since December 2004. Neatly, the next night was Gene's first London gig since December 2004 with their own Steve Mason on guitar.
• L and I joined similarly-aged friends at a packed Distillers pub for pre-gig drinks before moving on to the Apollo for the much-anticipated return of Gene. When Gene split we were all in our mid-twenties, childless, fresh-faced and with full heads of hair. Much time has passed. The old songs were still tight and were lustily sung back to the band. They finished on "Who Said This Was the End" and hinted at a tour next year. I'll be there.
• I did the sensible thing when buying the tickets last year and also booked a hotel to save on the back-and-forth. Clever me chose the perfectly reasonable and fairly new Premier Inn in Hammersmith. We were able to smugly skip from venue to bed in minutes - via the pub, of course.
• Earlier in the week we visited another potential secondary school for H. It seemed fine. It's hard to assess schools for him while remembering my own school days. The lessons, the homework, the exams, the anxiety... Even though I had a relatively good experience, I wouldn't want to go back and start again. He's got it all to come 😬

Week 214 - Last-minute - 2025-09-28T20:10:18Z

• I've booked flights for another work trip to our San Diego HQ next month. There's not much glamour in transatlantic work travel, but it'll be helpful spending a week together with my American colleagues for some workshops.
• A nice man with a big van visited for us to clear our garden of: a deconstructed wooden pirate ship, fence and gate panels, two broken garden chairs, an old chiminea and a very big bag of garden waste. We now have so much more space. Next we're getting the lawn relaid.
• I took H to his Saturday morning football against Welwyn Hurricanes. It was especially important for him because he was facing one of his good school friends who is also an ex-teammate. At half-time the score was a well-deserved 0-0, but then Welwyn took the lead early in the second half. It was a feisty match but his team kept battling and equalised in the very last minute. A sweet draw.
• Talking of last-minute goals, watching on the sofa, I lustily celebrated Arsenal's 96th-minute away winner against bogey team Newcastle after going behind. Arsenal deserved it after the injustice of the VAR-disallowed penalty, the noisy fans and our recent tight losses.
• I've been watching Europe spank the US in the Ryder Cup golf this weekend. As I wrote two years ago, I'm not much of a golf fan, but the team format is addictive viewing. I'm writing this halfway through the singles matches, and although Europe are still well ahead overall, the US are fighting back. Hopefully there's not a late twist in the tale of this one.

Week 213 - Grown-up - 2025-09-22T15:12:52Z

• We visited a local secondary school with H this week. He has two years to go at his primary school but we wanted to get an early idea of the options. We visited twice: first for its open evening and then a separate guided tour by two sixth-formers.
• H was initially nervous but loved it: the scale of the buildings, all the different lessons he could do and especially seeing all the sporting options. A good start. Next month we have the nearest, default option.
• I worked out it's been 28 years since I’ve stepped foot in any secondary school. I'm unsurprisingly the same age or older than the staff. While my son was a little anxious around the older children and teachers, I was comfortable wandering around and asking questions. I guess I really am a grown-up.
• Mice arewere back scrabbling around in my garden office wall. The traps went back down underneath the building and quickly "silenced" them. I need to go check for the gruesome results.
• H is now being issued with homework at school. This week was a year 5 maths question that I struggled with when he asked me for help. I did A-level maths and then maths courses at university... I may need to return my certificates.
• One of my team at work, who I spent a half-hour with in a face-to-face 1:1, has tested positive for Covid. This weekend I've suddenly felt congested, had a sore throat and headaches. Uh oh. I think I need to find a lateral flow test that's not expired.