Alasdair Craig

The week of Sep 14, 2020 – Sep 20, 2020

Working from home will become permanent…

Monday: Exercise session with Johnny. Still not feeling strong. Worked late. Watched TV with roast chicken.

Tuesday: Our experiment with time tracking software DeskTime has thankfully been shelved. I’m intrigued about it for own use and my own productivity point of view. But I don’t want from an employer/employee point of view. We walked around the neighbourhood which was nice. Susan has given herself an editing deadline.

Wednesday: Exercise with Johnny.

Thursday: Huge news at work is that the temporary work-from-home situation is going to be permanent. Nice pasta supper. Susan and I chatted about me moving in permanently. The lcokdown period has been a good test that it should be easy.

Friday: Lunchtime run/jog/walk around Harfield. An unsatisfactory work day. It’s nice to see Susan getting motivated on gardening. Lazy evening. Early to bed, tired.

Saturday: Mica visit to buy some cement for my homemade dumbbell experiment. Score shop and Lansdowne Boards visit. Visited mom and we had a good chat. Gardening with Sue. We walked to Ken and Di to collect keys. Watched Vikings.

Sunday: Collected a new fold-up table that Sue bought through Facebook. Set it up as a new temporary office table. Second attempt at completing the cement dumbbells. This time I used a 1:1 mix, probably overkill. Susan is getting her editing motivation back.

My work week was divided into: New development 80%; Bug fixing 20%.

Podcasts listened to this week: <none>

The week of Sep 7, 2020 – Sep 13, 2020

Feeling good…

Monday: Exercise session with Johnny. Nice evening, don’t remember why, but it was nice. Watched TV.

Tuesday: Online meetings. Admin. Looks like my work day time tracking will be monitored. We made good progress on the cat castle.

Wednesday: We dropped off a birthday present for Brenda. The cat castle Is looking good. Finished reading I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes. Watched A Million Ways to Die in the West. Pretty good.

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s gripping, easy to read and I enjoyed it. I fully agree with other reviews that there’s pro-US social commentary throughout, but not distractingly so.

Thursday: We went for a drive to see the sunset from Fresnaye. Nice to be out and about midweek. Chicken stir-fry and TV watching.

Friday: Takealot delivery. Made the second half of the two concrete dumbbells, but I’m not confident I got the right sand/cement ratio.

Saturday: Nice weather, early indication of summer coming. I did a little work in my garage including washing and lubricating my mountain bike ready to advertise for selling. We went for frozen yoghurt in Rondebosch.

Sunday: Rainy weather again. Did some DIY, mainly gluing various things that are broken. Visited mom. Watched the F1 grand Prix. Nice phone catch-up with Robert. Then weekly catch-up with Rob and Marion. We watched Terminator, entirely forgettable.

My work week was divided into: New development 60%; Meetings/meeting preparation 30%; Bug fixing 10%.

Podcasts listened to this week: <none>

The week of Aug 31, 2020 – Sep 6, 2020

Spring is here, but so is load-shedding…

Monday: First day of spring and Susan’s garden is showing some new growth. I, on the other hand don’t feel strong and couldn’t perform well with today’s exercise with Johnny.

Tuesday: I took a midday walk to my flat and back. Collected mom’s car and we dropped it off. The central locking system has been disabled and hopefully the battery issue is thereby resolved. 

Wednesday: Exercise session with Johnny using my new yoga mats which Susan so kindly bought for me.

Thursday: Little to report. I attempted to do my tax return but it was incorrectly prepopulated and I couldn’t complete it. We checked in with Loki’s owner who gave us the good news that he’s fine and will be back roaming the neighbourhood soon.

Friday: End of sprint day. Interesting meeting, I think I’ll be back in the office come January. Nice weather. We did some gardening. Watched TV.

Saturday: Load shedding is back.

Saturday: A good morning in my garage, finished the box build. Susan’s loves it. Fashioned a triangular shaped temporary screwdriver from a nail. I did a little DIY. An unexpected power outage.

Sunday: Made a start on making concrete dumbbells. Visited mom. Watched the F1 Grand Prix. WhatsApp video call with Rob and Marian.

My work week was divided into: New development 60%; Meetings/meeting preparation 20%; Bug fixing 10%; Office IT, network admin 10%.

Podcasts listened to this week: <none>

The week of Aug 24, 2020 – Aug 30, 2020

Susan’s birthday weekend…

Monday: Ordered a birthday present for Sue on Takealot. Exercise with Johnny. We went for a walk around the neighborhood.

Tuesday: Busy work day. Frustrating last minute bug fix before a release.

Wednesday: Frustrating day spent at the office and fixing network problems. Still managed an exercise session with Johnny.

Thursday: Lunch time outing to collect mom’s car which continues to drain the battery. Took it to Claremont Fitment Centre. We dropped in at Sally’s on the way.

Friday: Waiting for a call from the fitment centre that never came. End of a long week. WhatsApp video catch-up with Susan’s folks.

Saturday: Susan’s birthday. She liked my (first) gift of a knife sharpener. Tinky and Anthony came round to drop off a gift. We stood around the table maintaining a social distance. We then went to Stodels in Bellville for my second gift of plants. A very cold morning. We came home and planted them. Then we watched TV. 

Sunday: I went for a run around the neighborhood before putting the final coat of varnish on the box. Watched Formula 1. Catching up with Susan’s folks via WhatsApp is becoming a Sunday evening routine. Supper then Vikings.

My work week was divided into: Building install 47%; Office IT, network admin 37%; Documentation 10%; Meetings/meeting preparation 7%.

Podcasts listened to this week: <none>

The week of Aug 17, 2020 – Aug 23, 2020

We’re missing Loki…

Monday: A frustrating day with online deliveries going wrong and happening all at the same time as exercise with Johnny and rain. Chilled evening. We made a start on decorating the cardboard cat castle, even though Loki cat hasn’t returned for a few days.

Tuesday: Load shedding is back. We played rummy. Caught up with mom by video chat.

Wednesday: An unexpected electricity outage necessitated me working at the office. This was the first almost full day there since March.

Thursday: A walk around the neighborhood. We made yet another nice soup, this time sweet potato and leak. Coconut milk added an extra level of flavour.

Friday: Overnight toothache. Managed to get a dentist appointment and Dr. Roussouw hopefully has sorted it out.

Saturday: A busy day. First some varnishing in my garage. Then a quick visit with mom. A pizza for lunch (shop bought but with extra ingredients added to it), then Susan and I did some gardening. We watched TV. Started the series Biohackers.

Sunday: We cleaned and tidied the house. I put on another coat of varnish. Susan made an oxtail stew. We caught up with Susan’s folks by WhatsApp. Watched TV. A very good weekend.

My work week was divided into: Bug fixing 50%; New development 40%; Building install 10%.

Podcasts listened to this week: <none>

The week of Aug 10, 2020 – Aug 16, 2020

Kalk Bay …

Monday: Public holiday. We took a drive to Kalk Bay and browsed through a couple of shops. This was really nice. It’s the first time since the start of lock down that we’ve done something like this.

Tuesday: Work. Video catch-up with mom. Susan’s really not feeling good. We made a very nice korma curry using a mix of spices prepackaged from Rosmead Spar. Started watch the series Vikings.

Wednesday: Exercise session with Johnny. Susan still not feeling well. We had a video catch-up with her mom.

Thursday: A morning at the office, doing server related stuff and waiting for the generator service guy.

Friday: Load shedding in the morning forced me to skip midday exercise session with Johnny. Made a soup. Watched TV.

Saturday: Quite a busy day. We visited the UK Emporium shop to buy tinned rice pudding for mom. Then a quick stop at my garage to collect a few things. I sharpened Susan’s hatchet and chopped some firewood. We watched the F1 qualifying, then some TV, then Cyril’s latest speech.

Sunday: A spent a chilled morning at my flat and in my garage just pottering around. A difficult decision to make on moving in with Susan.

My work week consisted of: Building install 30%; Bug fixing 20%; Holiday 20%; Testing 10%; Office IT, network admin 10%; Meetings/meeting preparation 10%.

Podcasts listened to this week: <none>