Barry Frost

Barry Frost -

Week 188 - Mother - 2025-03-31T08:43:33Z

• I had holiday to use up before the end of March so I took Friday off.
• L and I drove into town for some shopping before a disappointing Full English brunch. The thick-cut bacon was burnt, they used refried instead of baked beans, the poached eggs were watery, there was not enough toast but way too many garlic mushrooms. Of course I paid and thanked them.
• Much better was having a couple of pub-garden pints back in the village. We moved inside when the sun disappeared, but it still counts as our first outside drinks of spring.
• Everybody has new trainers. These are mine.
• We wrapped up watching some TV series: the end of Breeders, then Reacher, and then I remembered I'd not seen the last two episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I enjoyed the fond farewell with the flashbacks/guest appearances in the courtroom, and the heavy nod towards the last Seinfeld episode. Let me not be the first to say it was pretty, pretty good.
• The clocks went forward, losing L an hour of her Mother's Day lie-in. I made excellent bacon sandwiches. The boys gave her the presents they had made at school, and then the presents that I had bought for them to give to her. When H was back from a friend's birthday party we all went for a no-coats, sunny walk across the fields to Spokes for coffee and massive flapjacks.

Week 187 - Singing - 2025-03-24T12:28:50Z

• The interviews have been better after last week's fake-candidate fiasco, in that we have real people turning up.
• I treated myself to a Stream Deck for my desk. I don't stream, but I do like the convenience of having 15 programmable buttons at my fingertips when I'm on one of many, many Zoom calls. I'm still experimenting. Most handy are actions to toggle the Zoom microphone and camera and controls for my AC via Shortcuts.
• It was C's turn for a school assembly, the focus of which was his class singing catchy loops of Jambo Bwana accompanied by a dozen glockenspiels and clapping. Very cute, but I've had an ear-worm ever since.
• We've started researching local secondary schools for H. It's begun.
• I firmly thought I'd seen their last gig together in 2004, but I'm so happy to see that Gene are reforming this October for at least one night together.
• This weekend I've shared the house with a sick son and sick wife. C has been (physically) sick a couple of times, while his mother has a major coldEveryone . They've both had to cancel fun plans and activities and so are a bit miserable. There has been a lot of screen-time.
• To escape the Sunday funk I drove my healthy son to Smyths Toys. He spent his saved-up pocket money on a Lego Lamborghini and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. We also returned home with medicinal chocolate bars for the invalids.

No title - 2025-03-20T18:27:01Z

My favourite band, Gene, are reuniting for their first gig in 21 years 🎉 I was at their last one in... 2004. See you in Hammersmith 🤩

Week 186 - Fake - 2025-03-17T17:56:11Z

• I've started interviewing again at work this week. We're hiring software engineers to work remotely in the UK. However, it's been a bumpy start. One candidate was clearly using a GenAI tool to answer our questions, but more concerning was a fake candidate claiming to be at home in Stoke who I strongly suspected was joining the video interview from a cubicle farm in the Far East. Scammers gonna scam.
• I tried baking a rye loaf in the new bread-maker this week. It was very dense and didn't rise like other bread, but it did go nicely with some peanut butter. The day after I did my normal white loaf to satisfy younger tastes.
• We spent three evenings gripped/terrified by Adolescence on Netflix. The series follows a teenage boy who is accused of murdering a girl and who we discover is submerged in incel culture. The stunning acting and one-take cinematography are impressive, but it's the storyline that hits home as a father of two boys. It's bleak, but watch it.
• L had a well-deserved day out at a spa with friends on Sunday, so I had a quiet day with two slightly sickly sons. We played some original Super Mario Kart, watched football on TV and went for a short stomp around the village to buy treats from the shop.

Week 185 - Pancakes - 2025-03-10T17:09:56Z

• L was working every day this week so I walked the boys to school before returning to WFH. Plenty of extra steps 💪
• This also meant I took the boys in on World Book Day. JK Rowling's bank manager must (continue to) be a happy person: in the playground, by far the most popular costume choice for the boys and girls was characters from Harry Potter. C was the evil wizard boy, H went as The Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
• On Pancake Day, the boys ate pancakes at school and then L cooked more at home. My paltry 1½ pancakes were at least traditional, drowned in lemon juice and sugar as is proper; theirs were spread with Nutella.
• The boys came home asking what they should give up for Lent. I told them not be daft. I understand the lesson and agree that religion should be taught, but there's no need to concern impressionable young minds.
• While L was out one evening I found 24 Hour Party People on my watchlist. The film charts Tony Wilson's story through Joy Division and Happy Mondays, two bands whose music I like very much. But it was sadly all a bit flat, even with Steve Coogan starring.
• I bought tickets for Andy and I to see The Beta Band in October, one of four gigs I've got upcoming this year from bands that split up years ago and presumably now have tax bills to pay.
• There were weekend draws in the unseasonal sunshine for both the Lions U9s and Arsenal. After, H and I took his football across the road to the park where his nippy, technical skills were matched by my speed (longer legs) and strength (bulk).
• While the sun shone I gave my dirty, salty car its first hand-wash and vacuum of the year. Satisfying and physically challenging work. It now looks new again and my back hurts.

Week 184 - Cat - 2025-03-02T20:58:43Z

• Poppy, our elderly tabby cat, has been poorly this week. She seemed her usual self during the day but we found morning puddles of sick by her bed in our utility room. There were red spots in one so I feared the worst, but the vet wasn't alarmed when I took her in for a check-up. She recommended less fibrous food to settle Poppy's stomach and so far it seems to have done the trick.
• The conversation about death with the boys will happen eventually but I'm glad it's not this week.
• Meanwhile, the Ofsted school inspectors arrived this week, meaning L was called in for supply work every day. The pressure on teachers is intense and seems unfair, even if they knew it was coming eventually. Whatever the outcome, the boys love their school and we're happy to send them there.
• The clouds parted and the sun shone this week. You can sense that spring is on its way. Being able to walk around in the sunshine without a big coat and gloves makes all the difference to my mood. And I had my first Creme Egg and hot cross bun of the year 😋
• It was a rare home game for H's under-nines this Saturday. Even better, it was an 11:15am kick-off which meant for once I wasn't up at an ungodly hour driving him to his match. The Lions won 3-2 and he scored a tidy goal he made for himself.
• I then spent a surprisingly satisfying afternoon with L clearing out cupboards and rearranging the utility room to make space for a dryer and replacement washing machine. The delivery men from AO took away our kaput washer and connected up the new Bosches which are now quietly humming away.

Week 183 - Loud - 2025-02-23T21:10:51Z

• It's been half-term holidays for the boys. It's been nice having them around while I've been working from home the end of the garden.
• I went into London on Thursday to see Mogwai at Brixton Academy with Andy. I'd seen them twice before so came well-prepared with earplugs. It was loud. My Apple Watch was furious throughout the gig at their 95dB wall of sound that it told me was causing permanent hearing loss. My ears were protected but the music was sadly a bit too muffled.
• They finished later than expected after a three-song encore so I had to hotfoot it across town to catch the last train home. Swapping lines from a delayed Victoria train to the Piccadilly line at Green Park was smart and I made it with minutes to spare. Sometimes I miss living a bit closer.
• Two bits of AI-assisted coding this week using Windsurf and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. First I wanted to export my Last.fm gigs into a Yaml file. After the agent incorrectly used a deprecated API method it switched to scraping the data. A bit of coaxing was needed to separate headliners from support bands, but I was happy with the results after about 10 minutes of prompting. Next I asked it to help me add dark mode to Micropublish. This took a bit longer. Once I had pointed out the areas it had missed (dialogs, panels and the tokenfield), I had a passable dark theme in a fraction of the time it would have taken me.
• My parents visited for lunch on Sunday. They came with presents for the birthday two (see last week), we ate chicken pie and talked about new laptops (them) and washing machines (us).
• Dad helped me attach a mud flap to the driver's side of my car. The original one had detached itself reasonably cleanly after a misjudged turn over a kerb, but the replacement still required expert Dad Skills to apply the right level of force to pop in its securing pins. Success.

Week 182 - Celebrate - 2025-02-17T17:37:54Z

• So much birthday-celebrating this week.
• First, C had his early birthday party at DJ's Jungle, starting with soft play, then party food, Happy Birthdays, and finally, laser tag in the dark on the soft play equipment. The last 15 minutes the parents were also given laser guns for an (outnumbered) parents vs kids match. The grown-ups lost. The most fun I've had at a children's party.
• On Valentine's Day we joined Andy and Emma at The Lamb & Flag for drinks on the way to Wyndham's Theatre for Inside No.9 Stage/Fright. Reece and Steve were excellent, as was guest star Phil Daniels who was kidnapped by mistake. There were a few moments that made you jump along with clever writing and comedy. It was so good. I'm very pleased to have booked our tickets a while back.
• Thought: I must have seen more Phil Daniels live cameos than any other celebrity. I've seen him several times with Blur doing his Parklife bit and then this week in the first half of the play. He seems to be enjoying life. Sitting in our row in the audience for the second half he was cackling away.
• The day after was C's birthday so L quickly put up decorations and arranged his presents when we got back. He's still obsessed with Harry Potter and Lego which made present-buying straightforward. He went to bed very happy and exhausted after a trip to the cinema and McDonalds.
• Thanks to L's parents staying another night to babysit we went out to celebrate her own birthday early. We ate dinner at a busy Cowshed in nearby Tewinbury.
• I got her jumpers, books, framed photos of the boys and a big print to go on our bedroom wall. Art is so subjective so I asked her for a few choices from a selection so it was a semi-surprise. I even hung it on the wall.
• We finished things off with a Sunday roast at The Lytton Arms and then a family walk I'd found around Old Knebworth. She then spent a happy evening on her phone with a glass of Prosecco pretending to watch TV.

Week 181 - Eggs - 2025-02-09T20:31:14Z

• I caught the early train into London on Wednesday for a breakfast meet-up. Joel had kindly invited a group of people he's coached to Dishoom in King's Cross for networking and spicy eggs. It's reassuring to talk to peers, swap war stories and remember everyone has similar challenges in their jobs.
• The early start wasn't actually too bad: I caught one of the recently-rescheduled non-stop trains from Welwyn North at 8am and was at the restaurant just half an hour later. London's not so far away when the fast trains run.
• H's Lions narrowly won their under-9s football match 1-0 against St Albans with a very late winner. I may have had a little jump in the air in celebration.
• Saturday brought a rarity: both boys were at play dates at the same time which meant pub time! We had two lovely hours in The Goat before picking up a Thai takeaway on the way home to watch Children of Men.
• I did some Sunday hacking, adding support to Micropublish for IndieAuth Server Metadata. I just about remembered enough Ruby to write the code and tests. It felt good to build again.

No title - 2025-02-09T14:42:03Z

I've released a new minor version of #micropublish that supports the new2022 IndieAuth spec change to support Server Metadata for endpoint discovery as an alternative to the existing (legacy) headers/body methods.

Week 180 - Substance - 2025-02-03T16:31:59Z

• I watched a few films and plenty of TV this dark, wintry week.
• For some reason I hadn't seen Dead Man's Shoes, despite reading glowing reviews and listening to a podcast where Paddy Considine talks at length about it. L was at her circuits class on Tuesday and the kids were in bed so I took the opportunity. What a masterpiece. It's bleak, chilling and very violent but utterly gripping.
• Another film on my watch list was The Substance. I knew less about this one, just that it was crazy. I really wasn't prepared. We watched it together on Saturday evening and both turned to each other wide-eyed. From the A-list nudity to the gore and the insane ending... Wow. It's lived with me ever since.
• Everyone's watching Severance, right? I really can't half-watch it while scrolling on my phone. My full attention is needed. And then after I dive into Reddit to catch up on the fan theories.
• My two sons and I had a boys' gaming afternoon on Sunday while their mother was out shopping. I hooked up the Switch to the big living room TV for three-player games of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Bros Wonder. For the first time we could race competitively against each other. I won the Grand Prix but then they ganged up on me to win the Battle Mode games. It really won't be long before they thrash me every time.
• Talking of thrashings, we all enjoyed Arsenal 5-1 Man City for some well-earned payback.

Week 179 - Loaf - 2025-01-26T17:35:17Z

• It's been a very quiet week, Monday especially so with my US colleagues off work. Of course there was a change in president over there. I'm trying to avoid doomscrolling but it's inevitable we will feel the effects here and in Europe.
• We spent a lot of time ferrying the boys around various clubs and activities. I took C to his first football training session at nearby Knebworth where he was happy to find three other boys from his school. He did well in the freezing cold. I then watched his big brother's team win 5-2 in Welwyn before taking C for an indoor rugby session on Sunday morning.
• I've been baking more overnight bread in my new bread-maker. Coming downstairs to the smell of warm bread is an excellent start to the day. It's really quick and gratifying. I need to be a bit more adventurous, though. So far I've not deviated from white/brown loaves with poppy and sunflower seeds. Maybe I could try banana bread?
• This week I had my last leadership coaching session with Joel Chippindale. He's an excellent coach and I've benefited from his expert guidance and reassurance over the last year. If you're thinking about similar coaching (do it!) I'd strongly recommend Joel.
• The Fantasy Premier League rivalry is growing in our home. I introduced it and must take some of the blame. H is outraged that both his mother and his little brother are beating him. It's even reached a point that when the latest scores are being read out on TV everyone is calculating what it means for each other's teams. I'm still top of all my leagues (for now).
• I've been playing with Cloudflare Pages and Astro's Server-Side Rendering (SSR). It all fits together very smoothly. It might even be a solid choice for a new website. Hmm.
• We finished watching the latest series of The Traitors. It's been one of the few things we've watched recently in realtime (apart from sport) and has been a guilty nightly pleasure. It's all nonsense of course, but very watchable. I'm sad it's over but I won't miss the participants' habit of referring to each other as yourself, e.g. "I've voted for yourself, Joe". Why?!

Week 178 - Maximum - 2025-01-20T15:42:24Z

• I finally felt better after post-Christmas stomach cramps. I had the same pains a year ago so there's a pattern: I wouldn't say I feasted like Henry VIII over the festive period but my body says I should take it a bit easier this December.
• I visited the office for the first time this year. It was a long day of meetings so I had to drive home in the dark and was reminded why I hate doing so. My cross-country route takes me down unlit roads where oncoming headlights from SUVs constantly dazzle me. It's exhausting concentrating so hard for so long. Bring on Summer.
• I've finished reading The Wall this week. It's just my kind of near-future dystopian novel. There's a clear message about climate change and the guilt of the older generations that has stayed in my thoughts. And it's a very readable, unique story. Recommended.
• Saturday I had another day out at Ally Pally, this time for my annual trip to the first of the Masters snooker semi-finals. We watched eventual winner Shaun Murphy cruise past Mark Allen, including Shaun's 147 break (you can just about see us in the crowd at the 3-minute mark before he pots the final black). There was a debate on the greatest individual feat in sport but the 147 must be close. We're booked again for next January.
• Unsurprisingly I'm drawn back into the latest series of the Traitors. The Faithful are so frustrating which of course makes great TV. Also gripping us: The Day of the Jackal. It's a little long but very watchable.

Week 177 - Freezing - 2025-01-13T20:30:32Z

• Back to work. I'd had almost three weeks off for Christmas, and felt a few night-before nerves similar to the ends of school holidays years ago. And after lots of lovely lie-ins my first day back started with an 8am global kick-off call, mercifully a cameras-off broadcast.
• As one of the inevitable tasks after being acquired we're being moved across to our new owner's IT systems. From the warm embrace of Google Workspace with Zoom to the icy slap of Microsoft 365 😭. I'd forgotten how utterly terrible the Microsoft ecosystem is.
• It's been freezing cold. Everyone has the sniffles it seems, including Stewart Lee who cancelled his comedy gig at Leicester Square Theatre on Friday night. Andy and I had tickets which were refunded rather than rearranged. The whole run is sold out so no Stew for us.
• Before Christmas my car windscreen was chipped. I did the sensible thing and got Autoglass to fill the chip with resin but it then developed into a full crack and so the whole windscreen needed to be replaced. So this Saturday I spent five tedious hours sitting in Autoglass Luton's waiting room while they installed and calibrated the many sensors and the camera. Cars are far too complex these days.
• At least I had the Arsenal v Man United FA Cup tie to save the week, right? Nope. H joined me at The Emirates to watch Arsenal lose in the third round for the second year running. It was 5-3 on penalties to United after extra time. At least there were no tears from H this time, just disappointment at losing after sitting in the cold for two hours. And he learned a few new words from frustrated Gooners leaving the stadium which I hastily encouraged him to ignore.
• 2025, please do better.

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.