Week Notes 21#36

A very social week, and my first five day week since July:

• (Most of) Purple Pandas returned for their first day in the office:
  • There was some really great energy in the office - it felt really lively, and kinda like first day back at uni, with everyone being excited to catch up
  • I mistimed the commute, so was running a little late, but managed to shave 10 minutes off the expected time from Google so I was happy with that
  • Seating positions in E@T are a little odd - as there's only 2 people to a 6 person table - but with social distancing it makes sense
  • Had a nice team breakfast, although it was a bit odd not being able to sit together, and it was a shame that it wasn't pancake day
  • With lunch not being as social, seating wise, we ate quicker than usual, and then had a nice walk out - was good to chat with a few people more casually, and I feel it opened us up to better conversations
  • Had a pretty good first handover for production support - ended up being 90 minutes of me speaking mostly non-stop, but was really great and the energy and presence of the team was good
  • Spent some of the day chatting to people - in and out of team - but also spent a bit of time with headphones on getting stuff done, but having the option to tap out and join conversations happening around me which was nice
  • I think we got an alright balance between Slack and in-person conversations, and the impromptu handover meeting was still remote friendly, which was great - but need to keep on it
  • Not enjoying the needing to book hubs/meeting rooms, it's such a shock to the system after so long of being able to just meet
  • It was a bit difficult with masks - although I'd started in one, between my desk and everywhere else, it got too difficult to keep doing it, so I stopped part way through the day. Going to see how I feel over time, and depending on how much I'm in the office, and how safe I feel, I'll switch it up
  • I'm excited to go back in again on Tuesday!
• Was nice to have Carol and Helen over on Wednesday evening
  • After not seeing Morph for a while, I tracked him down to being on the bed in the loft, having the best time, being super toasty and sleepy
• All day agile training on flow on Thursday was interesting, but after a day of socialising and being a human in public, I wasn't quite as switched on as it could be
• Had a spicy end to the week with my /salary/ page - it's sparked a lot of good conversations, had some lovely engagement on Twitter and LinkedIn, and quite a few DMs from people about it
• Carol's leaving do was good - was nice to be back to seeing people again
  • Lots of rain led to us moving inside - I wasn't quite sure I was ready for it, but it seemed OK, and Canal House is quite airy
  • Felt like the salary post may have overshadowed a little bit
• Anna and I met Carol for lunch on Friday at Homemade which was lovely - a nice way to end the week, and a bit more normalcy
• Saw Emma, Andrew and Flora for the first time - really nice to see their new home, but more the little teeny tiny human!!
• Quite a few bits around the house:
  • Got the cameras up
  • Got the locksmith coming this week
  • Managed to get the windows people in on Friday, and due to some misunderstandings, it was not to quote.. Fortunately I've got a personal email and hopefully will get a realistic quote soon
  • Made some good progress on sorting the garage
  • Got a cleaner which will hopefully be a regular occurrence
• After months of not helping, I've deciedd I'm going to no longer co-organise PHPMiNDS - it's been quite some time of me not helping, and the team are doing great without me, so instead of having the guilt of not helping, I'll step away
• Made good progress on ephemeral PRs for EZ, which if it works, will hopefully reduce a lot of pain for teams
• Ordered another very large box of Reese's 😂
• Didn't get to see Charles, but hoping to see him soon
• Was very excited to release v1.0.0 of my Gherkin formatter, before realising that actually, it still doesn't work because comments are very hard. Annoying, and means I'm still not quite ready to get my Spotless PR in
• Discovered Poppets in Lidl - very much enjoyed the dark chocolate + mint combo
• Suffered GitLab issues while trying to post this!
• Today is my five year anniversary at Capital One!

Watched:

• Ugly Betty - it's aged fairly well, but the transphobia / non-inclusive language is a bit difficult
• Downton Abbey
• What If?