Accidentally in Code

Tag: vacation

  • This Week

    This Week

    I need a vacation, and by vacation I mean I need to move away and find a new job, on a beach, with rum.
    Credit: Flickr / Lulu Hoeller

    Life

    Fun in Dubai, meeting up with a friend I did ski instructor training with – we’ve hung out in Canada, and Sydney, and now Dubai, but never the UK… despite us both being British! Then quick turnaround, headed to Berlin to hang out with another friend over from Australia, which was awesome, I’ve missed her so much. And got the keys to the apartment I’m subletting from the start of January. I’m excited to come live in Berlin and hopefully add to my 4 words of German…

    This past week or so has ended up being a vacation, which I seem to have scheduled rather than planned. But still – I’ve taken so little time off this past year, a long weekend for the Luminale in Frankfurt, and a ski trip that I missed because I was stuck in NYC have been the extent of my vacation plans! So I feel refreshed and energised and excited to get coding again. Also, more clarity of thought than I feel like I’ve had lately – there’s something about stepping back from your day to day that helps you see it more clearly, I think.

    Work

    Just bits and pieces that couldn’t wait, and a couple of hours between naps and flights sorting out screenshots etc for the app store.

    I am pretty psyched that I have nothing scheduled Jan/Feb and can just focus… since the iOS app is details away from shipping, I’m going to start porting to Android soon. Will be fun!

    Media

    Went a bit mad and bought 24 novels in one go. Maybe a fit of excitement after dwelling in the regency period for so long. Finished with Venetia, one of my faves. Read One Hundred Christmas Proposals, which is a (thankfully short) follow up to One Hundred Proposals which I had quite liked, but it was nauseating. Also read Saving Grace, by Jane Green, which was great, and The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes which I loved, highly recommend, Keyes is such a great author (I wish I could find all her books for Kindle). Getting Rid of Matthew was OK, and Not Without You by Harriet Evans, I really, really liked.

    Still plodding through The Black Swan. It seems to be about 10% content, and 90% random stuff about the guys life, which I am not particularly interested in.

    Product links Amazon.

    Published

    A new edition of Technically Speaking is out.

    On The Internet

  • Relaxing

    Relaxing

    Relax /2
    Credit: flickr / Gianluca Neri

    Currently, I’m taking my first vacation since I started work in January. It is basically my first vacation, ever (I think it’s not really a vacation if you’re still in the education system, because of The Guilt). There is nowhere I should be, and nothing else I should be doing, than this.

    It’s nice to take a break.

    I read a blog, ages ago, by Penelope Trunk (I think), saying that if you like your life you shouldn’t want to take a vacation from it. And I did think at first that it would be nice to just stay put. I flit about enough anyway, that flitting about is what I do, and thus doing more of it is not a break from the norm. But, if I didn’t have a flight to catch, I would have ended up continuing to work last Friday. It would be easy to do other, non-work work too. This way, I’m free.

    My boyfriend and I are with my parents, taking a tour of Nova Scotia and heading to Prince Edward Island. One night in Halifax, two in Lunenberg, one in Wolfville, a night in Picktou. Then, four days in Charlottetown. I don’t like repacking my suitcase every morning, so I’m looking forward to being somewhere for longer.

    I’ve been reading a novel a day. Along with chunks of non-fiction (finished one, read another, started third). It’s nice to be away, chill out, be by the sea.

    But – it’s not what I would choose for a break, if I were organizing things. I’d choose a city or a spa. A city – because I wish I lived a city life, and unfortunately that is not an option just now. It’s nice to go and visit. A spa, because I would like to have a more relaxed existence, where I made more time for exercise and, frankly, had more spa treatments.

    My idea of a vacation would be to go and spend time in the places I wish my real-life had more of.

    That being said, it’s nice when someone else decides and organizes things. One, because then I don’t have to decide or organize, but also because you get a different experience than the one you would have picked.

    Which might sound like a weird thing to want, but this is why I like other people choosing me jewelry. I find myself buying similar things, over and over again. The ones I love most are always a bit more unexpected, that someone else choose for me, and I wouldn’t have chosen for myself.