Monthly Archives: June 2024

2024 Goals Update

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I usually like to check in on my goals for the year at the end of June, once again it has come around very quickly! It feels like we have packed a lot into the first six months of the year, but we have still got plenty of exciting things planned over the next few months…

Spend more time with my friends

Whilst I have just spent a nice afternoon with Partho, his wife and dogs, at home eating BBQ (the best pulled pork I have ever cooked), it has definitely been an exception. We have been for a few bike rides together, but I have barely seen my other friends. By the middle of next month we have all turned forty, and are yet to celebrate together. More effort needed.

Make my blog more robust

I have made some improvements, but what it really needed is a full refresh of the infrastructure. I had started this, but had been bogged down trying to do it “correctly”, crafting the perfect infrastructure in CDK. However perfection can sometimes be the enemy of progress. There is no need for me to reinvent the wheel, when I can simply spin up a proven AMI on an AWS EC2 instance. I have a couple of other projects to get out of the way first but will be looking at the blog next.

Refresh my photography portfolio website

Not yet, but this is a good project for when the weather is rubbish.

Photograph a rally

Yes! I actually photographed two – a single stage rally at Donington Park and the Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages in Wales.

Complete a 50km bike ride

Not yet, but I have got a decent route planned, which I am hoping to do in the next few weeks.

Ride 25km with Owen

Owen and I have done a few more rides around the twenty kilometre mark, but we need to get something longer planned. Ideally it needs to be off road, but without too many climbs.

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

Another one that I can check off – I won a Bike Park Wales pass with Little Rippers, and Owen and I spent the weekend in Wales. We only managed two runs before Owen called it a day as he was feeling unwell.

Ride at 417 Bike Park with Henry

Not yet, I am hoping that we can fit this in during the school summer holidays. The bike park has been closed the last few weeks, but should be reopening soon.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Not yet, but next time I get a free day, it is where I am going!

Ride one more of the “10 of the best XC trails in the UK” with Partho

This has been one of my goals for a while, but for various reasons it has not worked out. We did get out for a fun ride in the Peak District, where Partho demoed a Cotic bike. He has now bought one, so hopefully that means we will be riding more together.

Sort out the boys toys

Massive fail. I have sort of sorted out their Lego, but our lounge started of the year with relatively few toys, after we had it redecorated at the back end of last year, but more have gradually crept in…

Tidy my garage

Another fail.

MR2 jobs

The MR2 has had at least one wash this year, and is booked into the bodyshop in a few weeks time to get some minor scuffs tidied up.

Make sure that my pensions and investments are working for me

Boring. My employer is rejigging our work pension plan at the moment, so using that as an excuse to put this off…

Get my weight down to 90kg

After eating all of the Easter treats, my weight is finally trending in the right direction, I need to have a few good weeks of eating sensibly and riding my bike lots before going on holiday at the end of July and hopefully that will get me back on track.

July looks like it is going to be a busy month for me, culminating it a family holiday to the South coast, apart from the bank holiday, August and September look a lot calmer, so hopefully I will be able to make some headway with my goals for the rest of the year.

Owen’s Eighth Birthday

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Owen turned eight earlier in the week, although his birthday party only happened today. His actual birthday started off fairly low key, opening his presents, then going to school. After school all his grandparents came to visit for tea and cake, and of course, more presents. Then we went to Hickory’s Smokehouse for dinner – it was not in our plan, but Owen had mentioned to a few people that it was his favourite birthday tradition, and Jen and I did not really take too much convincing!

Rather than a big party, like the last couple of years, we took Owen and a couple of his best friends to Laser Quest and then for lunch. I joined the boys for Laser Quest, and we had the place to ourselves! The boys decided that they were going to team up against me – I did not get off to a good start by starting in a dead end, but I did manage to get the highest score of the game, albeit lower than the boy’s combined score – probably because I had more targets to shoot at. After our games of laser tag we did a round of the space themed mini golf, which is the reason there is a photo of Astronaut Owen), it was only a small 9 hole course, but we enjoyed it. Finally we went on the VR experience, I went on a car race one, which made me feel a bit sick, and the boys went on an underwater adventure – which must have been very realistic judging by how loud Owen screamed when the shark swam up to him. After Laser Quest we joined Jen and Henry at Pizza Express. I think that the smaller party worked well, as Owen could spend more time with his closest friends, their only disappointment was that they could not carry on the celebrations into the afternoon.