Found out I can stay in my flat for another month cos the next people aren't coming, which is a weight off cos trying to move this week would be stressful. On the other hand, as someone used to moving approx every one month, really starting to feel the 'how can people live in the same apartment/house all the time' feeling. For years? Seriously. It's weird.

I mean, I understand it, I don't need anyone to explain to benefits or appeals, it's just if I try to imagine committing to any one space for a long period of time... shudder.

🏷 travel life

Week in review: 29 June - 5 July

Packed up and cleaned my flat. Roadtripped to the Greek border.. and back again. Unpacked.
Had a little jaunt with Albanian police thanks to walking past the buses with my backpack. Came to nothing.
Not a very productive week; a bit of nodejs.
Attended most of the DID WG remote face-to-face.
Swam in the sea.. Still a heatwave.
Did paddleboard yoga.
Enjoyed a storm at last.
Made more doughnuts.
A bit of hacking on sloph apps.
Watched Shanghai Fortress and Big Fish.. and Stargate.

🏷 hacking albania yoga life week in review travel

Sun 5th of July at 11:59pm (+02:00)

Storm!! Thunder, lightning, rain! Big waves! Actual breeze! Long overdue after the last stifling, still, sweltering couple of weeks. Opening balcony doors all the way to welcome it in. I feel better already.

🏷 albania weather travel life

Sun 5th of July at 10:49am (+02:00)

On Friday the Greek Deputy Minister of Civil Defense said the Kakavia land border with Albania will not open. Today a "spokesperson for the Greek government" said the Kakavia land border with Albania is on list of border crossings that will open. I still feel like it's sort of a complete 50-50 chance if I'll be leaving Albania this week. Makes it hard to adequately buy groceries. And plan my work schedule. And.. maintain my sanity.

I did waste like 3 hours this morning researching alternatives. Or maybe it won't be wasted! Who knows at this point.

🏷 coronavirus albania travel covid19 greece life

Mon 29th of June at 7:35pm (+02:00)

I honestly don't have the brain space for github to be looking different just now

🏷 hacking life

Wed 24th of June at 10:08am (+02:00)

Week in review: 15 - 21 June

Got offered a ride to Greece a couple of days after the border opened, started prepping to leave, then the border didn't open; prepped to stay another 2 weeks.
Coronavirus cases are rising in Albania, SURPRISING NO-ONE exactly two weeks after they lifted many of the restrictions.
Against my basic instincts, I did go out a lot this week because everyone is acting like everything is back to normal and it's easy to get swept up in. Probably should stop that.
Some of the going out was to work from cafes because my internet went out though. I'm back on nodejs stuff again..
Also did a bit of editorial work on the DID spec, and hacked on sloph apps (it's been a while).
Watched Fargo and Jaws (and Stargate Atlantis).
Swam in the sea and sat on the beach.
Crocheted some things.
Went to a paddleboard yoga class! I didn't even fall off. It was early in the morning and the sea was so calm, but still ridiculously warm.
Fighting an ongoing war with local mosquito population, which is managing to move in droves into my flat even though I keep all the bug nets on the doors and windows closed all the time. I'm very good at catching them in a wee glass and putting them outside, but they thank me by whining around my head at night and eating me.
Got a haircut!!! Communicated with "bzzzz?" and hand gesture. Then the lady was spontaneously inspired to plait the hair that was left and it looked really cool.
Made food..

🏷 ods nodejs food vegan albania travel week in review life hacking

Sun 21st of June at 11:59pm (+02:00)

Went from being offered a ride to Greece the day after tomorrow and having to come to terms with suddenly leaving Sarande, to finding out the Albania-Greece land border is staying closed until July 1st actually, within the space of an hour. Rollercoaster. I'm exhausted.

And on top of that, nobody can give me a straight answer on whether I count as an EU citizen for the purposes of mid-pandemic border crossings.

🏷 covid19 travel life coronavirus

Mon 15th of June at 5:55pm (+02:00)

I worked way too much this week, and got up at 0630 to finish some stuff before today's Co-op meetings, so to enforce taking the rest of the afternoon off... my building's wifi went out. Then the water.. and then the power.

I have started a new crochet project. And went to the beach.

🏷 hacking life #cooplife albania

Fri 12th of June at 6:29pm (+02:00)

I dreamt standup again, as if I don't have enough meetings when I'm awake.

🏷 work life ods

Tue 9th of June at 8:38am (+02:00)

Week in review: 1 - 7 June

Thought about going to Montenegro instead of Greece, but their entry restrictions currently require you have a residency permit from one of the countries on their okay-list, even if you haven't been anywhere near your country of residency/citizenship, so long story short I can't.
Worked on some of the more tricky aspects of storing and presenting data that's been scraped over and over again and might be duplicative.
Had lots of meetings.
Kept going into town because the watch-fixing-man told me every day to come back tomorrow.. which gave me the opportunity to drink lots of freddo espressi at the cafes that are open now.
Found more yarn! Far away, but, panic over.
Crocheted socks. I think I've finally figured out how to do a neat join when going in rows and turning.
Watched lots of Stargate. Read the terrible Merlin book.

🏷 hacking memorious food life week in review crochet ods travel

Sun 7th of June at 11:59pm (+02:00)

My local supermarket has arbitrarily and suddenly stopped stocking yarn. I had so many crochet plans, dreams about the colours I knew they had, and am feeling quite devastated. I do know this is not the worst thing happening in the world right now. But crochet has been going far towards keeping my head in a good place these past months. Hopefully I can find a new supply, but I'm going to have to walk a lot further for it. But I'm not getting my hopes up because this is a small town and the supermarkets probably all seasonally rotate their stock at the same time.

🏷 crochet life

Mon 1st of June at 8:37pm (+02:00)

That thing of reading about other peoples' lockdown experiences and realising that it's not very different to my regular life, that many introverts are having lately.. but more specifically I'm discovering that meeting friends regularly in-person is a huge part of life for most people - and I guess was common for me too at one point - but that I completely went without since I started travelling and just got used to my friends and family being almost entirely online (aka in my pocket) for years now. I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just that it's interesting seeing people adjusting to it (or failing to) and I don't even remember having much of a period of adjustment, it was quite natural for me. Maybe I'm just an antisocial asshole. I love all my friends and family, really I do, even in pixel form. Maybe this is why I spent so much time in my teens and twenties, eventually seeping into my academic work, fighting the idea that online is 'not real life', etc.

🏷 covid19 coronavirus life introvert lockdown

Mon 4th of May at 2:43pm (+02:00)

Open Data Services Co-op usually get together in person quarterly. We weren't able to this month, for obvious reasons. But we replicated our usual style of gathering online this afternoon, and it was positive and productive and I ended the day crylaughing with my colleagues. Even though we spend tons of our times in video calls on a normal day, somehow the video call replacement of our in person gathering still stood on its own as a special event. I'm super appreciative of my colleagues who sorted the agenda and planned and facilitated sessions, and just in general of all of them <3

(Next week: enforced fun)

🏷 #cooplife life ods Open Data Services Co-operative work

Thu 30th of April at 6:34pm (+02:00)

Well it's not been a very productive day so far, so I'm taking a break to make bananabread. If all else fails, at least there's cake.

🏷 mbaking life cake vegan food

Thu 16th of April at 5:34pm (+02:00)

Week in review: 6 - 12 April

Watched lots of Stargate SG1 and some random movies (Wandering Earth, The Platform)
Spent lots of time looking at crochet patterns for jumpers but didn't actually start anything until Sunday evening.
So much baking and cooking. My sunflower seeds finally sprouted. Made successful bread!
Started reading an Albanian political thriller called The Successor that I found in the flat. (A paper book!
Worked on a scraper for London politicians interest declarations but spent too long trying to fix it for edgecases.
Had lots of coop meetings.
No curfew updates.

🏷 ods vegan life week in review food coronavirus hacking

Sun 12th of April at 11:59pm (+02:00)

In light of current guidance about not going outside, I have added a very important tracker to my website..

screenshot of a webpage that says number of days since rhiaro went outside