Week 97 - Duck

  • I was in the office three days this week. I like spending time in person with my new team, including presenting my first all-hands on Wednesday, but it was a relief to spend a couple of quiet days working from home. Running a remote session using Miro over Zoom is perfectly fine, especially when in-office days are loaded with 1:1s.
  • Our company headquarters are in San Diego and I have my first visit (“corporate huddle”) coming up mid-July. My last US trip was in 2019 when I was at eBay, so I’m trying to remember what I need to prepare. I have my ESTA arranged, I’ve booked airport transfers, but I still need some folding money for tips. I’ve really not missed tipping culture.
  • My children shared how much they value me this week. My youngest noted that I have just two skills: opening jars and swatting flies.
  • We have a new cleaner after our previous one moved away. Annoyingly they’ve left bleach marks on a side table and on a towel. It was a bad start. L will have a word.
  • In other home news, we arranged a plumber to visit to fix a leaking pipe that no longer leaks. Rather embarrassing.
  • We walked down the road to the Welwyn Festival on Saturday. Standard fair fare: stalls, raffle, rides, ice creams and mercifully a beer tent. But the highlight for C was the duck race which he had been excited for all week. We sponsored a few of the 1,500 plastic yellow ducks that were dropped into the nearby river and then watched as they floated downstream to the finish line.