April 2025

Spring, Swan Lake, Birthday

April has been a bit of a slog. I had a cold, hayfever, sore back (from toddler wrangling), Jack was ill for a week with a nursery bug (so we missed a weekend away) and I fell off the running & exercise wagon. That said, I did manage to fit in a bunch of stuff around client work, and now the sun is shining and everything seems better.

I started the month with an EdinburghJS hackathon organised by Ljupche and James. We spent the day hacking on “Shiny” new tools at KPV Lab. I am pleased that we can run events like this where other organisers get involved. I want to make sure that the Edinburgh and Glasgow JavaScript meetup communities don’t rely solely on me for organisation, and provide opportunities for new organisers and hosts to run with their own ideas. If you want to run or host then let me know.

Despite coming down with a nursery bug for a week, Jack has had a lovely month. We’ve been out at Portobello, running in the park, and up at the museum. He’s so chatty, fast and active these days!

Jack in the Meadows in front of the blossoms

H and I had a date night out seeing Swan Lake. We ate at Junk in Newington before the show. The food was great. It’s “junk” food, but remade for a restaurant. We had burger sliders, fried chicken, “pizza”, and chips. We ordered too much and they gave us our leftovers in foil shaped like a swan. The ballet was great!

It was my birthday later in the month. I did one of the things that I like best which is to have a massive sandwich and spend some time with Hazza and Jack.

I mostly fell off the exercise wagon for the middle two weeks of April. I am still ahead of my annual goal for running, but only just. I started to get back into it at the end of the month, another gym session with Pete, and a run around Arthur’s Seat where I saw a basking terrapin!

In books this month I read James Gleick’s “The Information” in advance of a book reading group on Claude Shannon, and have made progress with The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze talking about the Nazi economy. H and I watched a fair bit of Nordic crime drama, the best of which was probably The Chestnut Man.