A bed of roses

This time last year I was watching two episodes of Traitors with the boys, celebrating the closure of two projects, waiting for a business-led project to start, and trying to get my monasticism-based prayer group off the ground.

Today I wrote the summary paragraph for the fourth book in my 'trilogy' - it's getting more like H2G2 all the time :D I also listed some more secondary characters who will be very important to the whole story. Time to get my name-creation hat on again!

I'd had an email telling me the latest parcel from Peace with the Wild would arrive this morning, so I sat downstairs to wait for it. When it didn't arrive I checked my emails again - now it was saying between 2-3pm *sigh*

I came back upstairs for one of the external meetings - it really feels like I'm part of the group, now. One of the other people works for one of the NHS Trusts and always has a different background - their trust encourages staff to submit photos of their local area and they're used as their corporate background.

After dinner, the parcel arrived. Not much this time but it helps with my efforts to be eco-friendly :)

Then I came back upstairs to work through a chapter of the Impact Engine System book whilst watching Dave climb Mount Gagazet with Rob ranting at him :D He managed very well, though, and even did a bit of grinding. He saved at the top of the mountain. We know what comes next... Good luck, Dave! This week's Friday Feature was about how NPCs might react to the behaviour of PCs :D

This evening we watched the final of The Traitors. We agreed the creators of the programme are very clever in the twists and turns they create for the players. 

Now I'm watching the final episode of this series of A House Through Time. It's fascinating to see something of what was happening in Germany at the end of WW II. I've only really considered it from the pov of Britain - naturally enough, I suppose.

A year ago I was making progress in Veilguard, celebrating LFC wins, grumbling about misogyny on telly, wondering if the new way of starting projects would work (actually, it is - sort of), enjoying Secret Cat Forest's new area, and learning how to publish Power BI reports.

Today began with a bit of research into Toki Pona because I had a horrible night's sleep and then couldn't wake up enough to do some 'real' writing.

In the office I did some emails and then went down to the cafe to meet a friend. I was airing my concerns about Zack Polanski and they said they'd seen him on a panel talking down to a female member of the panel. It's really not filling me with confidence.

Then I had a meeting with a couple of colleagues to plan another meeting, which gave me some jobs to do. We also ended up talking about how many department stores used to be in Liverpool - but neither of them grew up here, so at best they're only places they've heard of, not necessarily been into.

I had a 'working lunch' and then got stuck into yet another round of 'fix the Power BI reports'! Friendly Dev had sorted the problem I was having yesterday, so then it was over to me to get the data to display correctly. I also realised that the colour-coding for the bar displaying the tasks was not in the version of the report I was working with. It was something I was playing with last year and I don't think it ever got published. Anyway, it is now published! When the reports work, they make me very happy.

On the way home I did a bit of shopping and then it was time to come home and check on husband's arm. His new CGM sensor didn't go in properly, so his arm was bleeding and the sensor had failed. I think it might have been on a part of his arm without enough meat. We cleaned him up and got another one in, which did work. Getting a replacement is a job for Friday.

And Younger Grandson's birthday presents arrived. Must remember to check if we have enough birthday wrapping paper!

Liverpool are playing Marseille tonight, so I got an hour of GoY in. I was wandering around the 'empty' patches in the middle of the map and then started following the outer edge. My discoveries were: the gate to another area that I can't access yet, a Pillar of the Fallen with a very nice Ginkgo patterned weapon set, a Shrine (nearly gave up on that because I couldn't time my jump!), and a painting spot. And I had to take down a couple of groups of baddies because they insisted on fighting - what's a girl gonna do? On the whole, though, it was a relaxing session.

And now for an earlier night!

A year ago I was glad I'd gone to church, tidying up in the back garden, watching Dancing on Ice, enjoying the new area in Secret Cat Forest (which still isn't complete), and downloading the app for the solar panels.

Today I did a sketchy timeline for KTTK as a starter for 10. It gives me a rough idea of what Jerrick and each of the three women (and therefore their male companions) are doing at the same time. This will help with the chapters and character pov's for each of the books.

I had to go into the office today because the AI Academy was launching. We were fed and then squeezed into what was probably expected to be a large-enough room but wasn't - and then had to move to a lecture theatre. A colleague and I agreed it would have been better doing it all on the ground floor. But I am now officially a member of the first AI Academy cohort - personally selected, no less!

One of the PMs was trying to give their project updates using my Power BI reports but firstly the data wouldn't appear and then when I got it on screen it was showing out of date information! I spent some time fighting with it to no avail, so I've booked a meeting with the Power BI dev for later in the week. I shouldn't have to keep redoing the reports - unless I've actually made changes to the reports themselves! I don't know if Power BI is fussy, or it's something in the data itself that keeps making it skew. Whatever it is, it's bloody annoying.

We had tea and then I headed over to church for PCC, which was friendly and at a good pace, but still took 2 hours. And I forgot someone's name... BUT I'm not the Secretary, I'm not the only person involved in Safeguarding, and someone else has agreed to share the HPL PCC with me - so the responsibilities are shared.

And now to bed!

A year ago I was gaining some momentum for my prayer group, watching Rex Sterling play FFX and Ender Lilies, playing Veilguard and thinking about my work objectives.

I began today by reading the opening paragraphs of James in different version. Most are fairly similar but there are some more unusual ones.

We decided to try the Punk Bunny coffee beans for breakfast. They are sooo dark! But, apparently, dark coffee actually has less caffeine than light - it just tastes stronger. We agreed it wasn't the best we'd tried but by no means the worst. I might try for a different variety next time I order from them, though.

I got the living room and bathroom cleaned and we treated ourselves to tasty things from the sandwich shop. And then the grandkids arrived. They were very active wanting more and more and more toys brought out, whilst running around eating cake and ice pops. But there was no real fighting today (at different points, both of them helped themselves to the other's food and drink - fair exchange is no robbery, says I!) and they were both in a very affectionate mood. Younger Grandson has a thing about tickling people - he just sort of wiggles his fingers on your sides - and today Granddaughter joined in. YG also told GD she was a 'good girl' a couple of times. When I told Daughter she said he'd said the same to her when she made his breakfast - it's always nice to be appreciated!

When they'd gone, I finished off some side stuff in GoY and decided to continue the story next time I played. I found some more foxes who all wanted to be petted and another wolf den - only one left, I think. I'm also collecting places where there is fancy armour to be found but not completing the quests; I think I'm going to complete the story in the current area and then gather up the armour. After tea, I did continue the story but haven't completed it. Instead, I wandered around the area around my home for a bit but didn't really find anything interesting. So, yeah - next time I'll just go for the story and then binge on side stuff, including fancy armour.

I've just watched the second episode of A House Through Time. Quite a few of the residents of the Berlin house have joined the Nazi Party, seemingly because it was a good career move apart from anything else. Meanwhile, the Jewish residents are finding ways out. In London, Italians, including the Head Waiter at the Savoy who had actually served Churchill, have been rounded up as 'hostile aliens' and some of them shipped off to Canada. And there's a resident in the London house who has refused to join up and registered himself as a conscientious objector. How would we behave in similar circumstances?

This time last year I was baking son's birthday cake a day early because work, doing safeguarding training, writing up minutes, and assessing the differences between Copilot and Decisions.

Today I expanded the paragraph for MC's story, 'The World Behind the Wall', which is the final part of the 'Keys to the Kingdom' trilogy. I really feel this has legs! I'll pop the expansions in here tomorrow when I have more time.

Then I needed to get out of the house early because the head of our division was doing a presentation on how wonderful we all are. There was some sort of technical hitch, so we got to chat amongst ourselves for 10 minutes or so. I was sitting next to my former line manager, so it was nice to have a bit of a catch up with them. On the way back to our building I described my woes over finding a backpack that is Just Right and they suggested Cheshire Oaks, which might actually be a good shout. Eventually the presentation got going and we are in a pretty good place as an institution - certainly better than some others.

In the office, I had a chat to Big Boss about lining up projects with university strategy. I got a metaphorical nudge in the ribs when the Director of Strategy gave their presentation. So, I seem to have volunteered myself to do some assessment of what's in the strategy v what projects we have in the pipeline. But hey, THAT's my job!

I also met my mentee who had made some progress since we last met, although they'd only had a couple of weeks in work because Christmas Break. They've taken away some more ideas and I sent them some information on the Johari Window, which is such an interesting exercise to do. I was trying to build their confidence by asking about achievements and things they were proud of, and then asked what their boss or spouse or best friend would say - and then I remembered the Johari Window, which allows you to find all that out without an awkward f2f conversation! We're going to try for another meeting next month.

One of the PMs and I had a chat about an upcoming Project Board, which we think we should move. It's the last one for the project but there's still some fixing to do. We went through the action list and there was something against me that I hadn't done, so I boxed that off. I also beefed up the ELS section of the governance doc and sent it to the PM to review.

Tonight we had another go at filling in the Safeguarding Dashboard and got some more stuff ticked off. There's also work we're doing that we can't capture on there because it only becomes available as you 'level up'. We've got an action plan to share with PCC, which is mostly, 'When you've done your training, we can progress'. There were supposed to be four of us in the meeting but one couldn't make it at all and another said they'd be late. Myself and the remaining person had charged through the dashboard and it looked like I'd be able to watch all of Traitors with the boys - then the other person came in and was showing us what they'd been doing. Which was all great but I wanted to go downstairs! But safeguarding is SO important and I'm very grateful for what they've done.

And I did get to watch most of Traitors.

A year ago I was learning more about Nova, getting the solar panels installed, and worrying about husband having pneumonia.

Today started with expanding the paragraph about 'For Love and Glory', Part 1 of the 'Keys to the Kingdom' trilogy. I felt very accomplished.

Then I made a trip to Lidl on the way to the office. It was grey and miserable when I left the house but by the time I got into town it was pouring down. Luckily I am a good Brit and always have an umbrella.

In the office, I had a chat with one of the PMs about a project they are trying to get closed and all the things that have happened that made the experience less than optimal. There are lots of reasons but all of them are external to the PM and largely outside their control - except that, somehow, they are supposed to control them! We also had a chat about senior colleagues and how we'd like them to behave. Yup - there go the flying pigs! There is also something I can do with the PMF to beef up the ELS stage. It's always been there as a safety net but this project has REALLY needed it.

One of the external meetings happened today and I got in OK. Another person on the call had the same experience as me yesterday, so we both felt better about it. I'm guessing whoever called the meeting didn't run it in the end...?

Next I scurried across town to Argos to meet my mother and step-father. Pretty much all the Toy Story toys were out of stock and YG already has the rest. Darn. So we tried B&M since daughter said there was a set of Spidey & Friends cars he wanted - not in the one in town there weren't! I said I'd order something online and they can pay me back. A quick look at Amazon revealed at least 4 different versions of Jessie dolls (as an example), so I asked daughter for some help in choosing. She's messaged back but I haven't checked it, yet.

I captured the docs I wanted from a project that finished last Autumn and handed the site over to the business. Sometimes it just makes more sense.

A colleague from another department connected me with someone who's interested in PM - has done a Masters in it, in fact! Well, I'm always happy to talk projects.

And I did some prep for tomorrow's PRG, which has been cut down to 30 minutes - because people are 'busy'. But are they productive...? 

I also got my 'congrats on 25 years service' letter - I get £300 to spend! An internet hunt for fancy backpacks threw up some possibilities but nothing quite hit the spot. But I have a year to make the choice. I definitely want an extra controller for the PS5 - partly as a spare, partly so both grandkids can play.

So, lots of hunting, not so much spending :D

A year ago I was having a normal Saturday completely devoid of excitement (except whatever flutters DAV and Doctor Who created!).

Today I woke up quite early (for a Sunday) but really struggled to get out of bed. Managed in the end and got to church around 9.30am to support the Rector. Last week's newbie returned as did one of the Autumn newbies, and a brand-new newbie who is the house-mate of a long-term member. I was also on welcome duty with the new Churchwarden who was telling me their woes with solar panels. They live in a big Victorian town house that's also in a conservation area, which needed some work done on the roof (new roof? not sure) but they decided to put solar panels, in 'heritage black' on while they were at it. They checked the Council's rules and felt they were good to go. Then they got an order from the Council to take them down! They paid some heritage expert in London to draw up a document explaining why it should be OK - it's on the bloody roof for crying out loud! Apparently, there's about a meter of pavement where you could spot them if you really craned your neck and their neighbours have gone for plastic replacement windows and cutting down trees which are far more visible. But no, the Council won't budge. Bureaucrats...

Back home, I got straight into my PJs and got under a blanket because it has been cold, wet and miserable all day. We had an early dinner and then I came upstairs to play GoY. I'm still focussing on hoovering up the side content in this area and avoiding the main story. There are enemy hideouts to infiltrate, bamboo stands to chop up, wolves to help. If I ever go to Japan, I want to experience a real hot spring.

Son had control of the remotes so there was a mix of snooker and YT weirdness until The Floor came on at 7pm. One of the players has Video Games as their subject - looking forward to seeing them play! Two players shared the £5k bonus with 5 squares each. I'd be terrible at it - my brain just doesn't react quickly enough.

And I've finished the day with another episode of Ripple. You just never know how a chance interaction is going to affect someone else's day. It feels trite but... well it's true. This is why we should lead with kindness. Do I always achieve that? No. But tomorrow will give me new opportunities to practice.

Today's wisdom from James is that we are tempted by our own desires not some external force. I know THAT feeling! 

A year ago I was having a minor panic over husband, hearing more than I wanted about other people's health problems, prepping for meetings and learning a bit more about Nova.

Today was WFH, so I took the morning slowly. I've got names for the adult siblings in Nova's story. Except I really should call it Jerrick's story. Even though Kirana is the (reluctant) heroine. I listened to Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris - my mother used to listen to them quite a bit when I was a kid. It's been ages since I last heard them. Thank goodness for YT!

I also watched some short videos from First Time Classics who is reading P&P for the first time. He thinks Mr Bennett loves his wife - I have to disagree. He likes her only so far as she amuses him. He's a TERRIBLE father and may be responsible for the entail that takes Longbourne away from his own children (thanks to YTer Ellie Dashwood for that one!).

After breakfast I got stuck into some work-work, which was mostly another chapter of The Impact Engine. I'm definitely getting more from it by taking the time to actually read the chapters and think through the worksheets. In particular, I'm looking for ways to improve our reporting, which starts with understanding how we support the strategy. And then get other people to see how that's a better approach. We're actually quite a way along the journey Laura Barnard describes, it's just about polishing it up so it's more obvious.

I got a couple of episodes of FFXmas on Playstation Access, then watched the Friday Feature - 7 games every PS5 owner should own. I've got two from the list. Split Fiction does look interesting, but I don't have anyone to co-op with.

I went to the farewell service for our SSM, which was very well-attended - mostly by people from other places they've been involved with but some familiar faces. Then it was back home for tea.

We watched WILTY and then The Traitors (after catching up on last night's episode at dinner time). One player thought they'd got the game sussed but were completely outplayed. I don't know if I really like any of them in this series!

I made some progress in GoY. There's still lots to explore around the Ainu's area but I decided to push on with the story - but still managed to get very distracted :D Foxes and wolves and bears, oh my! The bears are REALLY aggressive - I want to leave them alone but they insist on charging at me. OK - I'll take your fur, if you insist! And I've started finding Shinobi Steel, which I need for upgrades.

Finally, I watched an episode of Ripple to finish the night.

This time last year I was tramping through slush to get to work, stressing over CGM tech and husband's blood test results, writing reports for church rather than tweaking a character sheet template, looking forward to solar panels and gardeners, and playing DAV.

Today I dozed after turning the alarm off and ended up without enough time to do any writing. But that's OK - I'm tracking my progress as a way of checking in not to beat myself up.

I was ready to leave the house even earlier than planned but as I got my backpack on I felt water coming through. My Vovic bottle had finally given up and was leaking. Thankfully, none of it got on my laptop! So I had to swap to my other empty bottle and made a mental note to pick up a new one on the way home.

Then it was off to Redmond's to meet Favourite Colleague. We mostly talked Doctor Who and discussed our hopes for the re-re(-re?)-set. RTD has to go for a start! They also told me they'd had a bout of cellulitis, but no idea how they'd got it :O I recognised the symptoms they described from when Eldest Grandson had it when he was about 4 :( As we were chatting, Big Boss popped across after hearing my voice. They were surprised that FC and I were meeting up, but they either didn't know or had forgotten that we used to work together. In fact, FC was one of the people on my original interview panel.

I'm coming up to my 25th anniversary at the uni, which I think means I get a long-service payment. I've decided I want a second controller for the PS5 and a decent backpack with lots of pockets. I had a little look on t'internet when I got into the office and there's a good selection. It has to be able to hold my dinner and flask and stuff as well as my laptop.

The Power BI dev pulled the extra fields for the lessons learned report into the dataset, so I spent the afternoon polishing up the extended report. We now have the summary dashboard including timelines, updates for all projects by stage (note to self - get back to going over the PMs' updates), top risks and issues, which projects support the uni's aims and objectives, which systems and teams are affected by each project, overall lessons learned, and project requests. The LL is just a single long list at the moment, although it can be sorted - it might be good to do a list for individual projects and one for the ones that apply to all projects. I'm just glad it's finally done. I've asked for feedback from the gang.

Yesterday I was prepping for my 1:1 on Friday. We've been kicking around the idea of a team-bonding exercise of some sort, so I had a little hunt on the internet. I want to do something FUN rather than the usual 'two truths and a lie' or 'team culture' type stuff. My interest was piqued by escape rooms and murder mysteries, but the external companies all want a minimum of 10 people and there's only 5 of us (or 8 depending how you count it). We do have an internal staff development team and I wonder if they could do something like that.

I've just watched Traitors with the boys and I was right about the Secret Traitor! Nobody was more surprised than me - I don't consider myself a good reader of people in general.

Now for another early night!

 A year ago I was helping sort the snow-induced chaos of Sunday morning and bringing home a piece of blessed chalk (which I found in the kitchen the other day!), and playing DAV.

Beginning as I mean to go on this year, I started the day with a writing task - sort of. I read back over some of my 'notes and jottings' for Keys To The Kingdom and found some really interesting early ideas. I want to try to capture some of them tomorrow, particularly around the symbolism of 3, 4 and 7. It will also force me to name Auron 2.0 and Nova's companion!

Over the last two weeks I've dipped into my work email account to clear out non-work related stuff but I still had a LOT to wade through today. The day began with an online meeting for the PMO service catalogue thing I'm helping with. I made some contributions and the person 'owning' the service went away to do some editing.

Had a nice catch up with Chat Buddy. It felt like no time at all had passed since our last conversation. And I watched Dave complete FFX, and then went back to Ep 7 where he met Jecht's shoopuf :D I suggested in the chat that he should play FFVIII next and there were other suggestions for FFIX and Legend of Dragoon. Any of those would be good.

And my copy of Guardians of the Crystal arrived today! I'm really looking forward to flicking through it.

I went out in my wellies to pick up husband's prescription. The remaining snow has frozen making the pavements rather slippy but the wellies have a good grip so I made it home safe and sound.

I got in touch with the curates to revive the idea of the prayer-group-for-leaders that I want them to help me with. My plan was to meet them before Christmas but it didn't happen - but new year, new energy! And I'm still trying to organise a meeting with my friend from church that I haven't seen in AGES.

Whatever else the arrest of Maduro has done, it's surely destroyed any moral high ground the US might have had left to cling to. Not that we have much of that, either.

I've prepped my paper diary up to Saturday, which should mean I get to bed at a reasonable time each night. We shall see...

Speaking of which, it's time to sign off!