Barry Frost

Barry Frost -

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.

Week 212 - Together - 2025-09-14T19:26:23Z

• I organised a two-day in-person workshop for my team this week. Although I'm contractually linked to our Cambridge office, we work remotely at different ends of the country, so some travelled down and stayed overnight in the nearby Novotel.
• It was the first time meeting Dan and Steven in the flesh, so I cranked out some tried-and-tested ice-breakers for everyone. Initial reluctance turned into competitiveness, and it helpfully got uncaffeinated people on their feet. The rest of our time was spent in a retrospective, a team purpose discussion and a mutually-beneficial group session with the API team.
• Our team dinner was at Dishoom's Permit Room in the centre of the city for excellent posh Indian food.
• I've been enjoying weekly episodes of Alien Earth. I assumed I'd seen all the films but had missed 2024's Alien Romulus. It was far better than I expected, despite the terrible Ian Holm CGI.
• C now has a cast covering his broken wrist. I'm a bit jealous because I didn't get anything to show for my broken elbow. With his permission I decorated the cast with "Daddy" and "AFC", of course.

Week 211 - School - 2025-09-07T08:23:00Z

• We travelled back from last week's holiday on Ibiza.
• It wasn't exactly a warm welcome home at Stansted airport: we had an hour queueing for our passports to be checked and then a 45-minute wait for a surge-priced Uber.
• Next day it was straight back to school for the boys. In previous years there have been a few nerves and night-before anxiety, but they were both excited to go back and see their friends.
• Maybe a little too excited: C broke his wrist on Friday after falling while climbing in the playground. An x-ray confirmed the break. He now has a splint and sling to wear. It's not bothering him too much: he can still hold a Switch Joy-Con in his hand.
• The boys are now in years five and three, moving ever closer to secondary school age. We've started the search and have a couple of open days booked in this term. Boundaries and rules seem to have changed and there may be additional schools available. It's confusing and uncertain.
• With access to my laptop again I've been hacking. I've set up my own PDS (Personal Data Host). I firmly believe in the IndieWeb principle of owning my own data and this lets me self-host my Bluesky posts and other content. Whether I want to pay for and maintain a VPS for this is a different question! Using the PDS's API I can also build a website that serves my content without needing Bluesky's AppView. A fun new project, and perhaps the basis of my next personal website.
• Football is back for H's new under-10s team. He had his first pre-season friendly on Saturday. They were pretty rusty and lost 4-3 to a local Hertford team.

Week 210 - Ibiza - 2025-09-07T08:20:36Z

• I've been on holiday with my family. We spent the week in the sun on Ibiza, near Cala Pada beach.
• We stayed in a resort on the quieter side of the island, away from the clubs and mayhem, although we were a little concerned on our flight over that we shared the plane with hen dos and groups of lads on the lash. Our hotel was thankfully just for families.
• Our days settled into a reassuring routine of eating at the buffet, lying by the pool and of kids' club activities for the boys. I'm not much of a sun-worshipper, and it took me a few days to detach myself from normal life, but I came to enjoy the pressure-free days of reading and daydreaming while lying in the sun.
• Facilities were very good. The boys enjoyed archery, football, crafts, table-tennis and lots of swimming. H and I visited the sports bar to watch Arsenal lose 1-0 away to Liverpool, along with some cocky southern scousers. - you can't pick your hotel neighbours.
• It was all fine. The resort was very safe, very easy and convenient for families with children, but a week with watery beer and organised entertainment was long enough for me.
• We did make it out for a couple of day trips. We visited the old town: L insisted we climb a hill at midday in 30C heat to see Baluarte de Sant Jordi, the town's bastion and fortified walls. And we took the little ferry to Santa Eulària des Riu to buy knick-knacks at the market.

Week 209 - Firsts - 2025-08-25T14:55:31Z

• The rest of the family came back from their stay at L's parents' and normality resumed. I'd missed their happy chaos.
• At work we had our annual company day off on Friday. I spent a quiet day at home after a few busy work days this week with late finishes. L spent the day getting pampered while the rest of us caught up on blog posts and gaming.
• I was at the Emirates again for Arsenal's first home game of the season against Leeds United. This time it was just H and me. It was a day of firsts: Premier League home debuts for Gyökeres, Madueke, Mosquera and Zubimendi, not to mention 15-year-old wunderkind Max Dowman (who I later found out comes from my hometown, Chelmsford), it was H's first PL match and his first competitive win.
• The Emirates was very noisy, and the huge reaction to the visibly delighted new signing Eberechi Eze who was presented just before kick-off with fireworks and flames further ramped up the noise levels. H heard a few words he knew he shouldn't hear: he now knows what we think of Tottenham. A thumping 5-0 win left everyone very happy on their way home.
• Less boisterous was Sunday's cricket fun day at nearby Knebworth Cricket Club. Our boys needed some encouragement at first, but then joined in with older boys playing on a practice pitch. L enjoyed the chocolate cake and tea; I chose a pint and peanuts.

Week 208 - Banana - 2025-08-18T10:44:41Z

• My wife and children are staying at her parents', enjoying the neighbour's swimming pool, bat-watching and the local carnival. C bought a second-hand guitar which Grandpa is teaching him to play. Meanwhile I'm back home working hard, and on the plus side getting some evening quiet time with the Switch and TV all to myself.
• I loved the first two episodes of Alien Earth. Its dystopian, cyberpunk Earth fits well with the Alien universe. There's a familiar, slowly building tension with the naïvety of the unknowing humans.
• Mickey 17 was a bit disappointing, however. I enjoyed the novel it was based on (and its sequel) and while the film loosely follows the plot, it missed the mark with its changes.
• The council's web developers changed their terrible bin collection page again, breaking my little script that scrapes the data and produces a subscribable calendar. Before AI, this task would irritate me. Now I just ask the friendly AI agent to fix it and a few minutes later it's done.
• Also in AI news, I had a play with ChatGPT Voice for the first time. It's impressive. In contrast to assistants like Siri or Alexa, I was able to have a fluid conversation. Its tone and speaking style feels so human-like. I've added a shortcut to my iPhone lock screen.
• On Sunday I had three over-ripe bananas and an hour to kill, so made some banana bread. I followed this recipe but using dark brown sugar instead of white. Success. Not too dense, not too crumbly. It went down very well with a cup of tea before the football.
• Talking of which, the Premier League is back. Arsenal hung on to a 1-0 lead to beat Manchester United away. In the old days winning away against United generally meant Arsenal won the League. 37 matches to go...
• Ludicrous Display is back for another season of Fantasy Premier League. After winning all my mini-leagues last season, I'm quite relaxed about it, but my eldest is determined to beat me. Standards must be maintained.

Week 207 - Yurt - 2025-08-10T21:31:28Z

• I had a busy few days of work at home while the rest of my family joined L's parents glamping in Northamptonshire. They stayed in fancy yurts with beds and a hut with a kitchen. I was jealous of their campfires and days out, but I did get to enjoy some peace and quiet and my choice of evening TV.
• I rewatched Rogue One in a new light after finishing the excellent Andor series which is its prequel. The storylines and the characters had more context and colour knowing their backstories.
• All four of us went down to the Emirates to see Arsenal's preseason friendly against Athletic Club. We can say we were there to see Gyökeres score his first goal as Arsenal won 3-0. The sun was shining, everyone was in a good mood, I had a couple of pints and the boys enjoyed their hot dog and burger. Not bad. Even L conceded she's starting to enjoy watching football.
• The Frost boys were proudly wearing our home shirts (including my new Gyökeres shirt, my first club shirt in 21 years); Mummy was stylish in her matching red trousers and white t-shirt.
• Before the match we stopped off at the Armoury, Arsenal's club shop, but it was dangerously(?) full and after queueing to get in we could barely move inside to browse, let alone buy anything. It was always going to be busy given the number of families with cash to burn, but it was a shame the boys didn't get to spend their pocket money.
• On the Sunday we drove over to my parents' as did my sister and her family. We enjoyed my dad's quiche, played table tennis in the garden, played Scrabble and Switch indoors and sat in my sister's new Kia Niro EV. I set up CarPlay and her dashcam, even though she said I wouldn't be able to work it out. Incorrect.

No title - 2025-08-10T18:25:57Z

Frost boys wearing our Arsenal shirts, climbing the stairs into the Emirates Stadium. Dad wearing 14 Gyökeres, sons wearing 9 Jesus and 11 Martinelli.

Week 206 - Spicy - 2025-08-04T12:29:29Z

• I spent the day at the Oval on Thursday for the first day of the fifth test of England v India. The weather forecasts were dreadful but we had mostly a full day's play in the dry, apart from a crazy period where I put on suntan lotion and then ran for cover ten minutes later when the heavens opened. You could see people in the stands opposite putting up their umbrellas as the rain swept viciously towards us seconds later. An excellent day of cricket, picnic food, pints and catching up with Andy.
• England had the best of the first day, restricting India to 204-6, but eventually lost on the fifth day in a stunning last-wicket/six-runs finish. Test cricket is the best cricket.
• The physio gave me more exercises for my elbow. It seems to be a tiny bit straighter.
• It was our eleventh wedding anniversary on Saturday. Jim from next door babysat the boys while we went out for the very tasty tasting menu at the White Hart in nearby Welwyn. We opted for the wine pairing: the spicy jalapeño margaritas with the tomato and avocado ice cream starter were my highlight.
• We took Ubers to the restaurant and back. After previous poor experiences of cancellations or long waits it looks like local coverage is now much better.
• I gave L colourful flowers (ones with the "least pollen and flowers smell" - my instruction) and she bought us tickets to see the Wes Anderson: The Archives exhibition at the Design Museum in November. I'm very excited about this. I dropped some very heavy hints.
• We watched The Accountant 2 (meh) and many more Sopranos. Meanwhile I finished reading Julia which I really enjoyed. It dovetailed respectfully with Orwell's 1984 but had its own perspectives and conclusion.

Week 205 - Ticket - 2025-07-27T20:54:46Z

• I was one of the lucky few to see Oasis on the first night of their reunion tour at Wembley. Andy and I met up with Matt who put in all the effort last year to get the golden tickets. Oasis were very good as expected, the setlist was spot on... I just couldn't tap into the communal joy of the 90K around me dressed head to toe in Oasis gear having the best night of their lives. 15-year-old me would have loved it. Maybe it was too popular. Maybe I'm just a music snob.
• Our cat Poppy has started to wee in her bed. We've tried a few different things to stop her: new beds, new blankets, even a night light in case she's unable to find the cat flap to go outside. So now we've disposed of the bed altogether and put a blanket in a different corner for her. Let's hope that's done it.
• I had my first physio session for my elbow injury, and now have daily arm exercises to do. I go back next week.
• We spent Sunday doing hard labour. My parents visited and my dad brought a pneumatic drill, his electric saw, a pick-axe and a sledgehammer to help us remove some concreted-in posts, a fence and gates. We now have more space at the end of the garden, although my arms are scratched and my muscles are sore. Good exercise for this desk jockey.
• And an amazing end to the week with the England women retaining the Euros in Switzerland. My boys were jumping around the living room during the penalty shootout. And nice to see both goal-scorers and the penalty kick winner were from the Arsenal.

No title - 2025-07-26T20:24:30Z

Oasis - first night at Wembley 2025

No title - 2025-07-25T10:50:04Z

I’m off to Wembley later to see Oasis 🥳 which completes the Britpop Big Four of gigs within the last two years: Blur (Wembley in 2023), Suede (Ally Pally in 2024), Pulp (O2 in June) and now Oasis.

Week 204 - Kong - 2025-07-21T18:06:35Z

• I took the day off on Tuesday for a well-needed lunch in London with old friends/colleagues. The sunny weather had ended but we still polished off many bottles of wine inside and outside. We should probably try a new restaurant and pub, but it's all perfectly adequate and it's the company that matters after all.
• We booked a specialist cleaner who came to clean our embarrassingly dirty oven. It's remarkable being able to properly see the food you're cooking through the glass door.
• It was "Funky Hair Friday" at the boys' school. They styled their hair into Mohawks and L sprayed them red which I told them was in tribute to Freddie Ljungberg.
• Elbow update: I've booked a physio session next week to help with my goal to straighten my wonky arm.
• The boys pooled together their pocket money to download Donkey Kong Bananza on the Switch 2. They're both several worlds/layers deep now and thoroughly absorbed. It looks stunning but is a little too involved for this 2D gamer.
• It was our local village fair on Saturday, starting with a parade along the High Street in heavy rain. We joined the school group wearing our waterproofs and holding umbrellas, but by the time we arrived at the fairground C was soaked through and asking to go home. The sun came out later on, but by then he was dry and happy on the sofa (playing Donkey Kong of course).

Week 203 - Alarmed - 2025-07-14T14:15:04Z

• I got through to the final boss elbow consultant. He made my arm click when rotating but was optimistic I'd be able to fully straighten it after physio. No further hospital visits needed until a three-month check-up.
• I discovered something about our house alarm. With my brain preoccupied with my orthopaedics appointment, I left the house mistakenly alarmed. The cleaners, who have a key but no alarm fob, arrived while I was out and triggered the alarm. It did its job perfectly, however it really does sound for a long, long time!
• We've received three kitchen bins this week. The first was returned because it was too white, the second was the right colour but delivered badly dented so went back, and the third is mildly dented but we're far too tired of talking about bins to return it.
• Maybe I was a little too excited about Windsurf which has now effectively been dismantled by Google. My personal subscription has just renewed so I've got time to research alternatives. I'm currently looking at Anthropic's Claude Code which is more expensive but seems more stable.
• I joined Andy, Ben and two Tims to watch Surrey ease to victory over Glamorgan in the T20 at the Oval. I was dreading the 30C heat but thankfully we were in the shade. Plenty of refreshing Brixton beer also helped.
• Wrapping up the week in style, I wore surgical gloves and a face mask, and double-lined a bucket with carrier bags to tackle my least favourite chore: disposing of the solidified turds Poppy the cat had buried in the gravel down the sides of the house. She is a prodigious poo-er.