A bed of roses

Had a good chat with new colleague that actually included work! We added a couple of the new docs to the existing folder structure rather than starting from scratch. Apparently, there are links to specific documents that people are using, so it's a good thing I didn't take the unilateral decision to wipe everything!

Also had a meeting with our former placement student who is now back at uni for their final year - and wants to be working instead! There was another member of their team on the call and they and I were trying to encourage the student to just stick it out. It isn't even a full year, really, because final assessments happen in April. And they are working with us one day a week - hence the meeting. I thought I'd solved the problem I'd booked the meeting to discuss but then I remembered later on that there was something else. Doh! So I messaged both student and colleague to ask for help on that. Will look at the response on Monday.

Then daughter and little ones arrived. Younger grandson had managed to go all morning without a nap but was in a very good mood. Granddaughter was slightly less happy, despite downing a bottle and a half of milk! Daughter said she might need to do slightly fuller bottles - 6oz instead of 5. Grandson was zipping about like a mad thing as usual. All our ornaments are out of their 'right' place - either moved by him or by us! He's also found his way into the cupboard we keep our spare mugs in... I brought granddaughter upstairs with me for a third meeting. She finished her bottle and had a snooze - such an angel <3 Grandson still stops to give her a kiss or a pat.

Tonight I played another hour of Stray Blade - I think I'm about to meet the first boss. Then I watched HIGNFY; always so funny.

And now to bed!

I'm starting a new weekly evening thing tomorrow, so I switched today to be my in-office day and tomorrow will be my at-home day. I think a good chunk of Liverpool must WFH on Monday's because the roads were sooo quiet!

When I was getting ready this morning my Lush Argan bar decided to throw itself into the toilet... So I had to pop into Lush on the way home. Not that this is a bad thing. I love that shop so much! But if I hadn't been in the office today, it would have been a bit trickier.

There was also a march in support of Palestine on the anniversary of the Hamas bombing. Was that appropriate? I mean, it was Palestinians who committed the bombing and killed over 1000 people - but far more Palestinians have been killed since. And now Israel seems intent on starting an all-out war with Lebanon. Do they expect support from the USA? Will they get it? I read an article from Open Democracy today that talked about how hatreds become entrenched and it becomes almost impossible for one 'side' to understand the pain of the other. I continue to pray for the day we can live together in peace. Which connects to what I was saying yesterday.
 
My calendar for this week started out with zero white space - like every moment of every day was already full! Not all with meetings, I hasten to add - I use my calendar as my 'to do' list. But I was feeling exhausted just looking at it. Then I realised that the person I'd booked a 'catch up' with for this morning hadn't accepted and they didn't respond to my Teams chat, so I decided to just move it out to next week. Then another meeting got moved to tomorrow - not great from tomorrow's POV, but it gave me some breathing space this afternoon. So I pretty much got on top of everything without being worn out.

Next week, on the other hand, looks like a snowfield!

I also discovered that there are people in the world who know nothing about Fight Club. A colleague said they were going to 'Flower Club' tonight and I asked, 'What's the first rule of Flower Club?'. 'I don't know anything about it,' came the reply. *facepalm* Every other person (there were about 5 or 6 altogether) laughed, though. I thought Fight Club was at least large enough in the collective public consciousness that someone would get the reference even without seeing the film. And I reflected with my chat buddy about how I had a little chuckle to myself when I met Durden the Taylor in W3.

I watched Fuzz's penultimate episode of Rebirth. I'll try to get to the finale tomorrow. They've switched stuff around, of course, but it all makes sense. The flashbacks were interesting - filling in some of the blanks without having to 'live' them. I wonder if Sephiroth's solution to the multiverse is more Umbrella Academy or Ultimecia? :D I'm still wary of playing the actual game, though.

Then tonight I sat with the boys to watch the last two episodes of the NZ Traitors. I think they've been the nicest bunch so far and I genuinely didn't mind who won. The final challenge was a bit more unusual, too. Then we watched the latest episode of Only Connect and husband found one of the categories on one of the walls. It's the kind of quiz that has you scratching your head over what turn out to be quite simple clues, or staring in complete bafflement even when the answer is explained - or makes you feel like a genius because you see the answer right away.

That's all for tonight. Aiming for another good sleep.

Continuing with the PMF review with the PMs. I lined up meetings with all of them this morning but one got moved to next week. So, I spent an hour and a half in one room with three different people all with different ideas... and I was quite glad the fourth didn't make it in the end! But it was good to have the conversations because it helped me see where the gaps were in what I'd produced and pushed me to explain the choices I'd made. It's also apparent that our tracking of financial information is all over the place, but that's a battle for another day.

So, whilst I maintain the 'divide and conquer' approach is the right one, some space in between is probably also wise!

LM was the last of the meetings and went skipping off to make all sorts of changes to P4W when we don't have sign off from everyone! This is how we got into difficulties before - treating the thing as done when I hadn't even redrafted the process, let alone got agreement from everyone. One thing we did decide was to delay triggering the creation of a plan in P4W until the project actually starts, which sent LM down a rabbit hole of remembering how to set stuff up in Dynamics. Got there in the end but they were jumping in and out of meetings, then getting me to look at what they'd done whilst I was trying to redraft the process... Tigger is back, everyone!

I ended up working through my dinner, which is never a good thing. However, I got the redraft done and circulated and (I think!) managed to get LM to hold off further changes until after our PM meeting tomorrow. I'm liking the look of the thing more - there's a concise list of tasks at the top and a longer list of deliverables at the bottom and it just looks tidier.

This evening, I couldn't face the thought of gaming so watched the first episode of New Amsterdam because Freema Agyeman is in it. Ironically, playing a doctor :D I loved her as Doctor Martha Jones in Doctor Who and thought it was a real shame she only got one series and a few guest appearances. Of course, she was the-companion-after-Rose, so she had a tough gig. She's also great in Sense8. Anyway, NA had me in tears in the first episode, so that's a good sign.

There's also something new with Kristen Bell coming to Netflix soon - someone else I find very watchable.

And that about does it for today. Looking forward to sleep to recover some brain power :D

We've had it all today - wind, rain and sunshine! Gotta love UK weather :D

There was a session in the Impact Summit today that had me thinking about Richard Rohr - looking for both/and rather than either/or. And Laura Barnard held a book-launch 'party' - she really can talk all day about PMOs.

I made a start on rewriting our governance doc but there's still work to do, so I'll pick it up again tomorrow.

And I've done a 1-page summary of Harding's Choice looking at the main plot, which is Patel's development. Definitely something that will need work if/when we get to editing but it gives us a starting point for November. I also need a timeline for the actual crimes v the discoveries. I already have the crimes overlapping, but I don't want them to be discovered in the order they occurred. I have to keep reminding myself that Smiler picks lonely men with few to no friends and family to worry about them.

No gaming or telly tonight - although I did watch a couple of short things on YT.

Hoping for a solid sleep tonight :(

I literally paddled home today. This is the downside of living so close to work!

Met up with one of my Beta readers for a cuppa and we both shared stuff we probably hadn't planned to share - but it's that kind of friendship.

Got some work done - but I'm enjoying the quieter days. It's not that there's NOBODY around, but it's impossible to get a full group of people together, so things tend to just not happen. Life will get busy enough in due course, so I'll take the rest where I can.

Had a video call with daughter and younger grandson. She looked so tired :( Still no baby...

Finished the day with an episode of Umbrella Academy. The thing that's striking me most is how EARLY stuff happened. Events that I thought were in series 2 or 3 are actually in the first half of series 1! Thank you, brain.

But husband's steroid injection really seems to have done the trick. It's about time we had some good news.

And now for an early night!

I've been plotting out my talk on Chapter 1 of the Book of Ruth next Sunday. There's a really nice summary of the full story on YouTube, that also shows how it is an amazing piece of literature. There are lots of commentaries available online. It's the first book I ever spoke about at St Bride's some 20+ years ago. I love it because it's short and easy to understand. It has layers of meaning - love, loyalty, providence, compassion. It's named after a gentile woman who knew what she wanted and went after it. Two of the three main characters are women. I'm looking forward to digging in to it again.

I reached the final boss in BG&ER and died repeatedly. I looked it up on YouTube and it looks like there's a knack to it but I really think I want to go into it better prepared with items - which means starting from the beginning. I'm not in the mood to replay it right away but it will always be there. Just like FFX... *ahem* I'm going to replay Unpacking as a palate-cleanser, then give Infamous: Second Son a go. And maybe come back to BG&ER after that. I have beaten it in the past, so it's not as if there are any surprises; I might even do the treasure hunt thing that's been added to the Remaster.

I also watched the next couple of episodes of Becoming Elizabeth. Seymour was a creep and Elizabeth was young and trusting. And headstrong. I still love her.

And some more of Psych. Things are coming together! 

The final series of Umbrella Academy has arrived but I want to watch the whole thing from the beginning - 36 episodes. It'll be interesting to go back to the start and trace the characters' development. 

Now for an early-ish night.

I'm training-from-home on Thursday and Friday, so I was in the office today. Gotta make those three days up! Somehow, I managed to spend the whole day doing work-related stuff - but most of the afternoon was clearing out my sent items. This is a useful exercise, though - it means there's less electronic rubbish in my sent items (meeting invites and responses to invites, sets of minutes and or papers for meetings long in the past) and sometimes prompts me to pick up work I somehow managed to drop. Like I realised I hadn't sent the last lot of draft minutes from a project board to the PM for review - and the board was 10 days ago! 

Tomorrow looks like it could be just as tedious, so it might be time to tackle my 'archive' folder, which currently has 2k+ items in it. I don't need all of them!

On the way to the office, I called in to the Banardo's shop on the off chance that there might be a nice long, black cardigan. No cardi but I did spot a navy Coast dress with a belt and uneven hemline. It was only much later that I checked the size properly and worried it might be too small. I tried it on and it JUST fits. I am very much looking forward to wearing it tomorrow!

One problem with being in the office today is that I usually wash on a Monday. When I woke up the sun was shining, so I toyed with the idea of racing to get a load done and on the line - but first I checked the weather forecast, which said it was going to rain. So, I ended up doing the washing this evening and hanging stuff up indoors. The rain did indeed come but did not make the world any cooler - in fact, it's now stuffy and humid. Yay.

Spent some time with the boys watching old episodes of HIGNIFY and Only Connect for Comic Relief, then came upstairs for an episode of Psych, whilst they watch Traitors US. 

And soon I'll be rolling in to my lovely bed with its lovely clean bedding.

 I was ready to head out of the door and say farewell to the week - and my PC decided NOW was a good moment to do an update *facepalm* Luckily, it was a quick one. But seriously. Last thing on a Friday?!

Got home and set BG&ER to download, had tea, then came back upstairs to play the first hour. I'm remembering so many little things. The combat seems easier than I remember in the OG.

BG&E was one of a trinity of games I had for the PS2 simply because the PC was female. There was Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat about a female pirate who searched for treasure, killed enemy pirates and drank grog; I had to use cheat codes to get through it, but it was a fun game. Then I had Primal about an ordinary woman who discovers she's part demon and can transform into four different kinds; she has a side kick called Scree and rips enemies apart like they're made of tissue paper. Sean Pertwee is one of the VAs. I also needed a cheat code to get through the final battle - but I got the remaster (environmental graphics are still horrible) and it was much easier than I remembered.

And now I'm running around Hillys as Jade, taking photos of enemies BEFORE they can eat me, munching on Stakos and K-bups and hanging out with my boy, Pey'j. I like having a side kick. Some of the graphics seem a lot smoother and looking at the trophy list suggests there might be a new mini game - or I might just have forgotten it. There was a disclaimer at the start about the game being developed in a different time and the potential for people to be offended by some of the stereotypes. Are Rastafarian rhinos offensive?

Today's Friday Feature was about the 7 types of sidequests in every RPG. As always, Rob nailed it :D

I got my minutes written up from yesterday, and signed up to support a new project - the best slot for the first project board is when I'm on leave but the first meeting is more about scene-setting so there probably isn't much for me to do. I've drafted a terms of reference for the PB, though, and booked a meeting with the PM to go through the RAPID. I think this one is more a review/change piece than a software implementation but I need to check that!

I also checked the first 'training' episode from this year's Impact Summit, run by PMO Strategies. Align projects to strategy! And budgets to strategy. We're getting much better at that.

Finished the night off with two episodes of Psych - both a tad more serious than the usual fayre. I've now watched 5 series. And there are other things I want to watch - Farscape, early Doctor Who, Becoming Elizabeth, DS9... So much telly, so little time...

And now it's bedtime.

Opening the Mountain Door in Tunic is A LOT. If anyone really worked out all the steps you need to take to do it on their own, well done to them. And I have to offer kudos for the level of obsession with the game that would require. I just want a stupid platinum trophy, so I looked it up. I now only need two more trophies - the gun and the moneybanks. Weirdly, there isn't a trophy for the 'good' ending... Anyway, the plan is to box those off tomorrow, then face the final boss for the final time.

Then I'll stump up for BG&E:R20 - but I'll leave buying it until just before I'm going to actually play it, which is probably next weekend, now.

Otherwise, I half-watched the men's T20 final with the boys. I'm not a huge cricket buff by any means, but I do like the T20 format. It distils all the best bits of the game into a couple of hours and really brings out the excitement in it. I know the purists like the 5-day test match format, and that a 5-day game really can come down to a nail-biter - but it takes 4.5 days to get there! Skip 4.5 days, and all the meals, and just get to the fun bit.

I also watched a couple of episodes of Psych, and Emma (2020), which is now on iPlayer. It is still the best adaptation of Emma I've seen, and a very close runner-up to the 1995 version of P&P for the title of best Austen adaptation ever. The 2008 version of S&S is third. I have yet to see a stand-out adaptation of any of the others - although there's a 1995 adaptation of Persuasion that sounds at least passable. An interesting thing about actors in Austen adaptations is that they tend to be 'recycled' and turn up in other adaptations :D

Otherwise, a pretty normal Saturday. We're back to full-time weeks for a while - then I have a couple of days off in July, another couple in August (for our anniversary), and then the last week of August (a week's leave for the price of 4 days, thanks to the Bank Holiday). And then I sit down on the first working day in September and book the majority of my leave for 2024/25!

And now I'm sleepy, so heading for bed.

Monday feels like it was sooo long ago! But the week certainly hasn't dragged. Husband had zero appointments for the second week in a row - perhaps that had something to do with it?

For the next three weeks I've got the Fridays booked off. Three short weeks in a row sounds REALLY good.

Tonight I watched The Invitation. A couple of great British turns - Sean Pertwee and Ian Lindsay. Some vague racism - scripted, I hasten to add. Vampires. Watchable but not earth-shattering. Sort of wishing I'd gone for two episodes of Psych, instead.

Have I Got News For You was good. I even enjoyed Carol Vorderman! Ian and Paul are so loving the election high jinks.

I got in an episode of Fuzz's Rebirth LP - he stopped just outside Cosmo Canyon. CC is my favourite area in the OG and I've been sooo looking forward to seeing it in Rebirth. I decided not to watch the next episode, though, I've watched 27/30 and I don't want to catch up to him.

This week's Friday Feature from Playstation Access was about gigantic bosses. FFXVI made the list, so I advise staying away from that one if you haven't played the game.

Daughter is due to visit tomorrow. It's been three weeks since we last saw grandson #2! Getting withdrawal symptoms. And I have Doctor Who to look forward to, as well.

It might not be a 'school night', but I still need my beauty sleep. Good night, DW <3