Week 35 of 2020 brings urgent surgery, new Make Life Work tech, Tenet, tyres and Sandringham.

Let’s outline this week’s events and updates in the interests of minimal effort on our last bank holiday:

  • Monday was back to work after 2 weeks off – didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things, and at least the first commute was straight forward. Funny now inbox damage was minimal – it’s all in our Slack equivalent (Ding) instead!
  • Tuesday, I started prep for restarting Make Life Work with a brand new website. Rather than new tech, I just opted for a default WordPress site and manually moved the content across (15 episodes), tidying it up in the process. Plan is to have it ready for the first episode next week.
  • Wednesday, we braved the local cinema for the first time since lockdown to see the globally anticipated Tenet. Unfortunately, we were all completely underwhelmed following the hype: watching with glasses and face mask was awful but the movie (for me) lacked character depth and actual plot.
  • Thursday, I started preparing tech for recording Make Life Work from next week. Previously, I used my work machine to record and iPad to edit but now I’ve got a new Mac. This series, I’m going to try using Zoom with local audio recordings. This should lend well to extra YouTube video content (guests permitting) and I’ve installed Reincubate Camo for external camera support using iPhone’s 4K tech rather than the pathetic Mac FaceTime camera. I also ordered a new Samson Q2U mic following plenty reviews and comparisons that should yield much better audio quality.
  • Friday, we noticed a screw in the car tyre so a visit to the local tyre repair shop was in order. I’d typically scrimp on budget tyres but, with it towing a bulky caravan quite a lot this summer, actually opted for some premium replacements.
  • Saturday was spent driving to and from Sandringham to collect my birthday princess from a week camping with grandparents. It was ideal time to catch up on podcasts, listening to Wired’s thoughts on returning to the office and Rob & Josh attempt parenting through lockdown.
  • Sunday was mostly spent at Northampton General with the boy needing urgent surgery. Sparing the detail, he’s now in recovery but the NHS staff were wonderful caring for him, operating on him within 3 hours of admission. What did bother me was the amount of people ignoring face mask protocol – no wonder we’re heading towards another local lockdown / second wave.