Week 25 of 2020 brings a Marshall Woburn speaker, noisy Prime notifications, Zoom salutes, immune footballers, Google Lighthouse, Donut, Overcast on Mac, turning 40, lockdown funerals, Father’s Day, Little Fires Everywhere, The Other One and The Fever King.

  • Lockdown life has continued to provide endless deliveries and DIY chores around the house to make it more homely and comfortable. This week, we took delivery of new bathroom appliances for the newly decorated walls plus a new Marshall Woburn speaker for the “snug” living room. Bathroom fittings will have to wait but I took no time at all testing out the Woburn along with a Tidal subscription for hifi streaming. I realise we have been indulging quite a lot through lockdown but we’re actually saving a fortune in travelling costs so why not treat ourselves? #tech
  • On the delivery front, the family Amazon Prime account has been taking an extra load lately with Father’s Day and my birthday approaching. Again, very lucky but it does introduce challenges when trying to avoid all the order updates in emails and push notifications. #tech
  • As we’ve all familiarised with video conferencing as a social norm, I raised a thought about signing off with a salute or bow. I’d love to see some other alternatives that bring a smile to your video calls with peers. #tech
  • As the FA (prematurely) restarted the end of the season, I was curious to see what the experience was like – especially as some of the top-flight games were even broadcast on free-to-air channels for the first time in nearly 30 years. Seeing empty stadiums was a bizarre phenomena but I still can’t believe players are safe to challenge each other in contact-sports whilst the 2m social distancing rule is still in place for the masses.
  • Personal side projects have taken a bit of a break lately but I’ve still been supporting and promoting some of the collaboration projects; Andy continued to deliver on F1 Calendar, now with optimal Google Lighthouse scores, and On The Side saw record engagements from the previous week of Donut pairing, specifically on direct messages between members. #sides #f1cal
  • My new work Mac finally arrived this week after some COVID-19 delays so I was quick to get my local setup into a comfortable but minimal mode. To accompany the workflow, I also discovered an unofficial Overcast menubar app called PodcastMenu, allowing me to easily consume the podcasts I’m subscribed to and synchronise the playlists. #tech #work
  • This weekend marked two weeks until the end of my thirties so I took to Twitter for suggestions on how to wrap up the decade. Responses included mid-life crisis vehicles, piercings and drinking – the latter is easy, the other two quite tricky to accommodate through lockdown.
  • Friday and Saturday was taken up with a couple funerals; one friend of the family on a video stream, another family down in Devon. The video stream was a surreal experience, unable to share emotional moments physically. The trip down to Devon wasn’t exactly ideal neither, especially as we actually saw family members we couldn’t greet or console with the typical hugs, but we managed to make the most of the trip with an afternoon on Babbacombe Bay beach. This year is proving to be quite the mental challenge on so many levels – I’m looking forward to returning to some sort of “normal”.
  • Sunday was father’s day, naturally providing quality time with the kids along with the treats of a cuppa-in-bed, endless hugs and some lovely gifts suited just for me (collection of coffee and laptop cover). The weather was glorious so I spent the best part of the day outdoors, including 2 hours in the hot-tub, resulting in a typical British sunburn.
  • On TV, we’ve been getting in to Little Fires Everywhere on Amazon Prime (Witherspoon is brilliant as ever and the twists in the plot are never-ending) and The Other One on BBC (enjoyable comedy with some favourite female actors).
  • The Fever King by Victoria Lee has got my attention back during my daily reading habit – the plot and characters have finally engaged and I’m thoroughly enjoying the sci-fi / techy / Harry Potter hybrid, even if it is probably aimed at a teenage audience.