Barry Frost

Barry Frost -

Week 176 - Fire - 2025-01-05T21:46:26Z

• We made it out for New Year's Eve - to Jenny and Ian's in the village for drinks and lots of party food. Our boys are still a bit too young to stay up late so we were all home and happily tucked up in bed by 11pm. Fireworks briefly woke me up at midnight before I rolled over and went back to sleep. Happy new year!
• Leaving the house for the first time after a gentle New Year's Day on the sofa we had a Thursday stomp around a very muddy Sherrardspark Wood. We wiped the worst of the mud off our trousers before a pub lunch.
• Our lazy week highlight was Saturday's trip into London for a Great Fire of London family walking tour. C had recently been learning about the fire at school and was excited to see the Monument, Pudding Lane et al. The temperature had dropped to sub-zero so the London Museum guide did her best to keep us moving around and engaged.
• We warmed up at Wagamama overlooking the Tower of London and then visited Aguamiel near Covent Garden for churros dipped in chocolate that we demolished in seconds. The boys are getting better at travelling around on the Underground but their road awareness could do with some work.
• I've started reading Atomic Habits. It's solid, logical stuff so far. I was thinking about goals for 2025 but I like the focus on habits and small improvements instead.
• The Christmas decorations are all down now. One more day of holidays for us all before school and work restarts.

Week 175 - Christmas - 2024-12-30T22:26:35Z

• As is now traditional, I marked the start of Christmas festivities by picking up the meat order from our village butchers. H walked down with me to struggle home with the food: turkey, gammon, pigs-in-blankets, bacon, chipolatas, sausage-meat, and a big box of vegetables.
• I voluntarily and happily did the cooking. I made a sticky, glazed ham for Christmas Eve (with lots of leftovers), the turkey-and-trimmings on the day itself and then a turkey, bacon and leek pie on Boxing Day. It's tiring but rewarding when it all turns out pretty well.
• The boys loved their presents. Their mother did an excellent job in choosing, as always. I assembled H's Rebounder and won our hit-the-target game (just), while C built his model Titanic - with lots of help. I've also been reading C my present contribution of Nelson, Hero of the Seas: we're both excited to learn about Nelson's naval victories at bedtime. I'm employing my best dramatic Dominic Sandbrook voice to keep him hooked.
• Wallace and Gromit were back to their best, I thought, in Vengeance Most Fowl.
• L gave me a bread maker - I'd heavily hinted I wanted one. I also received a starter box of flours, oils, seeds and yeast. So I guess I'm now one of those bread wankers. It's fun experimenting with the recipes and waking up to nice bread. The machine can add seeds and nuts from a little tray so I'm trying pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
• L's parents stayed with us this year, kept the boys entertained throughout and said positive things about my cooking. And then we visited my parents in Essex on Saturday and saw my sister and her children. A busy week so it's been nice to slow down for a few days after.
• Right, time to do my bread prep.

Week 174 - Church - 2024-12-23T11:51:22Z

• I finished work before Christmas a little earlier than previous years because of a few extra holiday days I needed to take off work. Rather than lose them I've spent three relaxing days to myself before the boys finished school.
• It also meant I could browse my way around a half-empty John Lewis to finish my in-person Christmas shopping. Just me and the old folk. I'm done 🎉
• It was youngest son C's turn for his school nativity play, this time at the village church. They combined years two and six: the older children singing in a choir and doing readings, the younger ones dressed up as Mary, Joseph, et al. C was an excellent third innkeeper who offered his stable. A few too many songs, lessons and prayers for this atheist, but I suppose I was sitting in a church at Christmastime.
• More in line with my idea of seasonal festivities was drinks with friends' families on Friday evening at Simon's. Our children are all getting bigger and staying up later, although the late finish meant ours were very tired the next morning. A quiet day on the sofa watching films and football was the answer.

Week 173 - Rainbows - 2024-12-16T12:58:59Z

• Our gas boiler had its annual service but also needed a new expansion tank and sensor. That'll be £770, please. Ugh.
• I'm deliberately avoiding devices at bedtime. It's probably sensible for my brain health. Instead I've been reading Project Hail Mary and have enjoyed being absorbed in a novel again. The protagonist is a scientist in space, there's an alien, the Earth is in peril - just my cup of tea. Recommended.
• Work's UK Christmas party was on Thursday at Swynford Manor, near to our Cambridge office. It was fun. I dressed up in Black Tie, met remote colleagues for the first time and had a few drinks. Staying overnight at the venue and taking the day off the next day meant I could get up late, have a Full English breakfast and then smugly drive home hangover-free.
• H's school nativity play was Lights, Camel, Action 2! which is loosely based on Strictly Come Dancing. My parents came along to watch. He was a dancing shepherd doing the conga.
• I then spent Saturday in London, first at Arsenal v Everton at The Emirates. I had failed to get tickets in the ballot but that gave me access to the Ticket Exchange and, after many page refreshes, I secured a seat in the Clock End. However, it was a frustrating 0-0. The twenty-something guy next to me was quite annoyed by that and made sure those around him knew. 🤷 These things bother me less these days.
• The football didn't ruin my day. I met up with Andy at Brixton Brewery (who had also watched a 0-0 at Bromley) for a few of their session beers in the tap room under one of the station arches.
• And then we went around the corner for Shed Seven at Brixton Academy. The Sheds are having a late career renaissance. They had two number-one albums this year and packed out the Academy with (mostly) 40-somethings having a nostalgic, lusty singalong to Chasing Rainbows and their other nineties hits. I don't get to many gigs these days but I've never heard it so loud in there.
• Just two working days left before my extended Christmas break!

Week 172 - Wind - 2024-12-08T19:59:29Z

• H has been accepted into the advanced group of his Players Academy football training sessions on Monday nights. We're very proud but we're trying not to put any pressure on him about where it might lead. Just remember to buy a big house and a massive yacht for Daddy, please.
• I had a couple of trips to the dentist this week for a check-up and hygienist session. They continue to be happy with my teeth although I was again nagged to use interdental brushes. I never hear about them accept when I visit. Are they some sort of dental scam?
• Work is simultaneously winding down for Christmas and gearing up for a big start to 2025.
• It's been a stormy week. L had arranged a night out at Adam Kay's show at Alexandra Palace on Saturday. We made it to the theatre just in time despite cancelled trains and strong winds blowing us around as we climbed to the top of the hill. It was worth it for Adam's clever songs and filthy diary entries from his days as a doctor, all with a Christmas theme.
• I've had more time to play with GenAI tools for coding and I'm a true believer. I've now subscribed to Windsurf which I find truly magical. I sit with a silly grin on my face while prompting it to write code and refactor whole codebases in a fraction of the time it would take me. It soon corrects its few mistakes when I point them out and doesn't get irritated.
• We're not even halfway through the Premier League season and yet every dropped point by Arsenal feels painful. 1-1 with Fulham. At least I'm still top of all of my Fantasy leagues.

Week 171 - Advent - 2024-12-01T21:03:52Z

• The Christmas tree is up and decorated. I'm not sure why but L relented and allowed us to use multi-coloured tinsel this year. Much more festive in my opinion, even if it's not as classy.
• My job in the decoration process is to get Alexa to play the right Christmas tunes and to make the mulled wine. We had a bottle of pre-made from last year to which I added orange slices. Lovely.
• L surprised me with an advent calendar. I can never remember if we buy one for each other but I didn't have one for her. I had to pop to the Costcutter in the village and buy the last calendar they stocked: one with a Paw Patrol theme. Redeemed just in time.
• Continuing with the Christmas theme, I've even been shopping (online) for presents. I decided to take advantage of the Black Friday offers and buy things early. I'm not finished but I've made a solid start.
• I've been enjoying The Rest Is History podcasts on my commute to work and walks around the village, in particular the Nelson, French Revolution and Roman Conquest episodes. Tom and Dominic are so engaging. It feels like you're part of their conversation.
• I've continued experimenting with Generative AI coding tools. I walked through the GitHub Copilot tutorials and then kept tinkering. It's no substitute for knowing the fundamentals: I had to point out a couple of mistakes it had made which it then cheerfully corrected. I guess I also need more practice. I'm going to give new entrant Windsurf a try.

Week 170 - Eating - 2024-11-24T20:44:26Z

• It was my birthday this week. I don't always take time off work to celebrate, but with a few holiday days left in the bank I decided to make the most of it with a longer weekend.
• After dropping the boys at school, L and I first took the train into King's Cross for some shopping and lunch. I bought new trainers (very "6 music dad") and a blazer from Uniqlo, then I had a Negroni and some tasty gnocchi at Vermuteria in Coal Drops Yard.
• Back home we'd booked a babysitter so we could visit the Cowshed for dinner at nearby Tewinbury. After another Negroni, goat's cheese and lamb, I was very happily full.
• The next day I met up with ex-colleagues and friends for lunch at Smith's in Paddington to eat steak and drink a bit too much wine as usual. I may be risking gout this week but getting old(er) isn't so bad.
• Storm Bert has been battering the country and was a good excuse to spend a quiet weekend sheltering indoors, watching football and relaxing.
• X/Twitter is over for me after 18 years. I've been busy following people on Bluesky and unfollowing them on X, ending any reason to go back and check my X feed. It's noticeable how over the last couple of weeks so many people have created accounts and quit X. Although I prefer Mastodon (and the Fediverse in principle) I'm spending my time on Bluesky because that's where the people I follow are posting.

Week 169 - Electronic - 2024-11-17T19:28:44Z

• I had another brief, last-minute trip to Munich this week. I flew out on Thursday afternoon and was back home late on Friday.
• This time it was for a visit to Electronica where Altium was exhibiting, but also to spend time with a couple of senior leaders (including my boss) who were over from San Diego. It was worth going: it was the longest we'd spent together for a while, plus a face-to-face opportunity to kick off a new project.
• The show was in Messe München, an enormous exhibition centre outside the city. I did my best to cover the thousands of stands and chat to people in the industry. In our fairly niche world it's fun stumbling upon people who actually know and use our software.
• Back home I was up and out to take H to his under-9s football match. He scored their first goal of a thumping 5-0 win, ending a run of frustrating losses. A positive result makes a cold morning on the sidelines much more bearable!
• I pulled on my own boots on Sunday for a kickaround with him while his brother had mini rugby. I won 4-2 in nutmegs. I then had three very muddy pairs to clean.
• I've renewed our broadband with TalkTalk for another two years. Even though the customer service is terrible, the renewal price was fine and I just couldn't face the hassle of switching away.
• We now have FC25 on the Switch - this year paid for by H's pocket money that he had been saving up. We've all been playing the new "Rush" 5-a-side mode. It's more like basketball than football: end-to-end, lots of scoring and with five players. The boys love it but I'm not a fan, most probably because I keep losing.

Week 168 - Night - 2024-11-10T21:59:23Z

• Two actual nights out with my wife this week!
• The first was to see The Bluetones in Hitchin on Thursday. It was our fourth time seeing them together. Our first was a very early date years ago at The Forum in London, the most recent was a lovely acoustic set in the same venue. Thursday's gig was to play the new EP and plenty of old stuff. They were excellent. Mark Morriss still sparkles in between songs.
• Saturday was at the local tennis club's annual quiz night. Our team of nine improved one place on last year's fifth finish, most probably because there were no anagrams. I answered a few tricky questions and even participated in the physical activity round. A few too many impossible tennis questions though.
• We needed a babysitter. Our previous one had gone off to university so we asked our neighbours' teenage son. He seemed happy enough to earn a few quid while watching Netflix for a few hours.
• I'm making progress with my ActivityPub server. I've cracked using HTTP Message Signatures to accept a follow request. I was stuck on mismatched digests for a fair while, but after five minutes with ChatGPT it spotted and fixed my mistake. AI is unsurprisingly better at writing code than me.

Week 167 - Magic - 2024-11-04T17:56:26Z

• I had a couple more nights by myself this week while the rest were still away. I cooked myself an amazing ribeye steak (and filled downstairs with smoke), cooked (too much) curry and watched AI/sci-fi films. Nice to recharge my introvert batteries for a bit, but I was happy when the family hurricane returned.
• The boys (and L) were home in time to trick-or-treat our way around the village for Halloween. I'm not sure if our children are any more road-safe when running between homes, but at least our village neighbours were still happy to fill up their buckets with sweets.
• Five years this week since moving up to Hertfordshire from Surrey.
• I took C to Lego club on Saturday at the library. This week's theme was Bonfire Night. Although he understood about Guy Fawkes and fireworks, he had firmly decided he wanted to build a fire-breathing dragon. His creation, technically on-theme, was therefore a big red dragon that spat out piles of fire to set Lego men on fire 🔥
• My parents then drove over to take the boys to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford. The boys have both enjoyed the books and seen the age-appropriate parts of the films, but it was C that dressed up in his Potter shirt and hooded wizard's cape and was bouncing off the walls with excitement. A big hit.
• We blitzed through season two of the excellent Diplomat. Even better than the first.
• During the quieter moments this week I've resurrected my ActivityPub server project and have been happily hacking away. I'm focusing on the server-to-server parts first, but I plan to implement a Mastodon-compatible API. There's a lot of Bluesky buzz about right now, but building for ActivityPub seems a lot more accessible.

Week 166 - Trophy - 2024-10-28T19:03:50Z

• It was H's ninth birthday this week. He's now at an age where he no longer wants toys. Instead he received a football kit (Arsenal away with Havertz/29 on the back), football boots (Adidas Predators to match his kit), football books, football games, etc. He did also get The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom which I'm waiting patiently to play.
• For his party we took him and a group of his friends to Ninja Warrior in Watford. We fuelled up the boys beforehand at a nearby McDonalds, but each emerged exhausted and drenched in sweat after two hours of happy bouncing, swinging, sliding and climbing.
• On Saturday I met up with some old colleagues in Reading for our (very late) FPL league post-season drinks and lunch. This was especially notable because I was the 2023-24 champion and needed to be awarded my trophy. James had 3D-printed this very nice imitation Premier League Man Of The Match cylinder which I promptly left behind at Nando's. Luckily it was still on the table where I'd left it. It's now safely home where it will surely stay when I win again this season (hashtag bantz).
• The rest of my family are currently staying with my in-laws in Wiltshire for the first few days of the boys' school half-term while I'm working. This does however mean I have evenings of things L doesn't particularly like: sci-fi films, curry/steak and red wine. It's a bit too quiet but I'm making the most of it.

Week 165 - Hike - 2024-10-20T19:56:16Z

• This week I flew to Munich for just 24 hours to visit a customer for a workshop. It was a pretty short and expensive but worthwhile trip. I think our hosts appreciated the effort of us flying in people from Poland, the US and the UK (me) to spend time together.
• Sitting in a meeting room of mostly Germans, I could observe their enthusiasm for lüften, the art of ventilating rooms by opening all the windows, despite the crisp outside temperatures. It helped with the stuffiness and kept everyone alert. They might be onto something.
• Most of the attendees were PC users and I noted that almost everyone brought along a wireless mouse connected with a USB dongle. I'm so used to software engineers with MacBooks; are PC laptop trackpads terrible or are Mac users just more willing to adapt?
• Back home I was volunteered to join C on his Beavers hike through the muddy countryside. It took our team (six Beavers and a leader) over three hours to walk the 12km to our finishing point, following challenges and eating our snacks. All of us made it to the end, despite one boy's blister and lots of zigzagging.
• For the rest of the weekend we were firmly in parent taxi mode. I took C to his rugby taggers and his brother to his football match, while their mother took H to two tiring birthday parties. Time for a quiet Sunday evening on the sofa.

Week 164 - Nuclear - 2024-10-14T14:57:06Z

• My cold from last weekend kept me off work this Monday. I was still foggy the next morning so didn't risk the drive up to our office in Cambridge in the rain. I've been mostly cooped up indoors 😔
• I rewatched Threads this week - the film about a fictional nuclear attack was shown again on BBC Four to mark the 40th anniversary of its first broadcast. It's still as shocking and grimly fascinating as ever. The first part (pre-bombs) is set in 1980s Britain when I would have been about six years old, so it's also a nostalgic reminder of childhood memories, although thankfully I wasn't blown up in a nuclear war. Part documentary, part drama, the tension brilliantly grows alongside the ordinary lives storyline. And then ecomes the bleak horror.
• In cheerier news I bought an Apple Studio Display for my office, replacing my old Dell 4K monitor. The 2x scaling (vs 1.5x with the Dell) is so much sharper and the integrated camera and speakers are excellent. I'm perfectly happy with the camera quality - it's only used for Zoom calls after all.
• The Dell monitor has now found its way to the Family Room, connected to a keyboard and trackpad. It's a cozy alternative base to plug in my laptop in the evening and do some hacking, or for L to use (and charge) her laptop via one USB-C cable.
• We've been playing games of Uno as a family. The boys love it, although struggle with holding their cards in their hands so spread them out on the floor. I stoically refuse to peek and yet have won the most games.
• By popular request, I cooked a roast chicken and trimmings on Sunday. "The best lunch ever," according to C, although that may have been because of the salted caramel ice cream after.

Week 163 - Celebrities - 2024-10-07T17:00:49Z

• I joined Andy in London for another live recording of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (or as the cool kids call it, "RHLSTP", etc.) It was an actor double-header, starting with Adrian Edmondson. When Richard inevitably quizzed him on The Young Ones he reminded us it was filmed in just 14 weeks over 40 years ago. He was on good form, although understandably a little sombre when talking about his relationship with his father, his school days and Rik Mayall.
• Michael Sheen was more upbeat. It's not often you can sit a few rows away from a charismatic, high-profile film star talking about his knob. There were plenty of jokes with Richard about the effects of ageing, particularly downstairs, topics that were ideally matched to the audience profile. I then miraculously made it across London in just 15 minutes from my theatre seat to the hourly train leaving King's Cross. Success.
• I found a chip in my windscreen last weekend. On my two-month old car. What could have been stressful was painless and all arranged online: my insurer took a £25 excess and then sent me to Autoglass who arranged a home visit in the week. The man arrived, filled the chip with resin and was gone within the hour. There's now just a feint mark. Phew.
• I've been enjoying Shed Seven's new Liquid Gold album. They've rearranged their best songs from the last 30 years and recorded them with an orchestra. It's a beautiful thing. They were never fashionable but this album just hit number one in the charts and they're packing out Brixton Academy in December (can't wait) so who cares?
• Other highlights while staying in this week: Ludwig, a detective drama where David Mitchell is awkwardly perfect, and the third series of Industry where beautiful young people somehow function in high-pressure finance jobs while on drugs, having lots of sex and seemingly no sleep.
• I have a cold so these weeknotes are late and probably a bit rambling because of the Lemsip. Wee!

Week 162 - Running - 2024-09-29T19:28:03Z

• It was the one week each year when I don't need heating or cooling in my office. So much rain though.
• I was in the air when the iPhone 16 pre-orders opened earlier in September so I ordered mine late. It arrived just this week. I went for a 16 Pro in Black Titanium. I'm going to give my old 14 Pro to L to replace her 11 Pro. I've got time to migrate across so for the first time in generations I decided to do the setup from scratch. With iCloud and 1Password, logging in to everything is a fairly painless process and means I can selectively choose apps, notifications and settings as a fresh user.
• If I wasn't giving my old phone to my wife it really wouldn't justify an upgrade. The slightly bigger battery and performance are welcome, but the camera technology feels like overkill for snaps of my family. If the 16 had a ProMotion (120Hz) display I'd have gone non-Pro.
• The iPhone materials and design are as beautiful as ever. But of course it went straight into a case (Silicone Case with MagSafe - Ultramarine, to match my Watch) because I will inevitably drop it.
• H competed in his first cross-country competition in the next age group up. He did very well and his school team finished second in the district. And then his football team won a Saturday friendly against Whitwell 6-3. His athletic and sporting ability clearly doesn't come from me!
• I popped into the pharmacy during the week and was offered a routine blood pressure check while there. It's a bit on the high side. I've not felt particularly stressed, I don't drink all that much, but I could do with upping the cardio-vascular exercise to help bring it down.
• So, it's time for a change. While my other son was enjoying his mini rugby I put on my football boots, had a kick-around with H (two nutmegs each) and joined L on a couple of laps of the playing fields. I'm not much of a runner but it did me good. It's my first step to a 5K.

Week 161 - Watch - 2024-09-23T17:39:15Z

• I was in the office for a couple of days this week and felt very tired as a result. How ever did we all survive doing this five days a week?! As always, a bit of face-to-face time is time well spent.
• I took the day off on Friday for another semi-regular lunch with six ex-colleagues, all of whom enjoy a drink. We returned to the same restaurant by the canal in Paddington and then sat outside the pub next door enjoying plenty of rose in the late summer sunshine. Saturday was necessarily quiet.
• I had travelled into London earlier on Friday with L so that we could a) have a nice coffee together and wander around the shops near Regent Street, but also b) so that we could pick up my new Apple Watch 10 and she could safely transport it back home without me losing it at the pub.
• It was my first time collecting from an Apple Store on a release day and, despite thinking the days of queueing up were over with pre-orders, we had a wait of about 20 minutes along the street before making it inside.
• I chose the 46mm size in Jet Black with the new Ultramarine (blue) Sport Loop. It's a welcome step up from my Series 4, especially the battery which had been dying before the end of each day, whereas I can wear this one for 23.5 hours straight for sleep tracking. The always-on screen is my other favourite feature.
• We spent Sunday at my parents' in Essex joining several cousins, aunts, uncles and - guests of honour - my mother's Australian cousins who had just arrived in the country for an extended holiday. Our boys weren't intimidated by all their unfamiliar relatives and despite being the only children they got stuck in, including games of football and table tennis in the garden.

No title - 2024-09-23T17:38:32Z

Apple Store, Regent Street, London on the Apple iPhone 16 and Watch 10 launch day.

No title - 2024-09-19T08:39:43Z

I was just adding a gig I’m going to on Last.fm when I saw my “member since” date: 16 August 2004 😯. That’s 20 years of scrobbling (since its Audioscrobbler days). Newer than my Gmail account but older than Twitter.

Week 160 - Flights - 2024-09-15T20:01:34Z

• I flew back to Altium's HQ in San Diego this week for a few productive days of workshopping.
• It's a long way to travel - 11.5 hours plus taxis and waiting - so it was a nice surprise to be given an upgrade to business class at the gate. Thanks, BA. I enjoyed the better food, comfier seat and a little more privacy, although of course my colleague Damien boarded after me and raised a quizzical eyebrow as he passed me at the front on his way to slum it at the back!
• Once again I stayed at the Marriott next door to the company's La Jolla offices but this time I was with several of my team, so I had friends with whom to enjoy excellent dinners.
• I caught the red-eye flight home, finally arriving on Friday with presents: fridge magnets for C (for his growing collection), a San Diego t-shirt for H and Kamala Harris chocolates for L. I was pleased to see there were many more Trump chocolates left on the shelf, a clear sign of the outcome of November's presidential election I'd say.
• We ended the week taking youngest son, C, to the first session of rugby "mini-taggers" in the village. He was one of the oldest chlidren but that didn't put him off. The friendly older Scottish organiser asked me to help out. We all enjoyed it, although there are colder and muddier Sunday mornings ahead.
• I have to mention the North London Derby. We all nervously watched on the sofa but it was never in doubt. That's three away wins in a row for the Arsenal 😘

Week 159 - Cricket - 2024-09-10T13:13:08Z

• The boys went back to school this week to start a new year. They're growing bigger (and cheekier) than ever. Both bounced happily through the gates without a care. We're lucky they love school - for now.
• We finished watching The Boys and have started on From - it's a mix of Lost with some mild horror. It's cheesy but easy to follow and so it's perfect for half-watching on a midweek evening.
• I've been following the development of Fedify, a toolkit for building ActivityPub software, for a little while. I'm slowly getting to grips with the concepts and I've been thinking about using it for my next side project. I want to build my own single-user Mastodon-compatible server, probably with Deno.
• I ended the week watching live test cricket. I joined Andy and two friends from university for England v Sri Lanka at a damp Oval. We'd been watching the weather forecast all week, hoping for the rain symbols to turn into sunshine and, miraculously, the sun burned away the clouds and we had almost a full day's play. England managed to throw away the match of course, but after several beers on a sunny Sunday no one really minded.