World Of Winfield

Category: Uncategorized

Could It Be Croydon Next?

By

From Bracknell to Harrow and then Croydon? Why the hell am I even considering Croydon? Let’s back up a bit. I want my own place. Preferably I want to live in Marylebone. If not, then Hampstead. If not, then Hackney Wick. If not then Walthamstow. There’s a problem here. The average price for a flat in Marylebone is £1,551,010.The average price for a flat in Hampstead is £946,658.The average price for a flat in Hackney Wick is £489,164 (getting closer!).The average price for a flat in Walthamstow is £393,681. Oh yeah, and my budget is £250,000. This is worked out … Continued

James Went To Skopje

By

I was at Luton Airport wondering why on earth I was catching the 9:40pm flight to Skopje. I needed a break from work, but why was I going to Skopje? Why didn’t I just stay in London and chill? Well, I wanted some warm sunshine, and Skopje I knew would be cheap – despite the collapsing pound. Plus I wanted to go to a new country – and I’d never been to North Macedonia (or maybe call it Macedonia…depending on who you want to upset). One of my goals for 2022 was to visit three new countries – and this … Continued

Why I’m Looking For A New Job.

By

I’m looking for a new job. Firstly, isn’t the image cool? I’ve got access to Dall-E’s AI image generator, and this is what I received from “unhappy software engineers, pained by Gustav Klint, in a Marks And Spencer’s shop”. Yes, M&S has finally pissed me off sufficiently to hit the feared button on LinkedIn – the “open to new positions button”. Yes, an influx of recruiters has begun. What happened? Well, I’ll tell you what happened. I was merrily coding away on my Outfit Generator project – using the new tech stack, a project that was promised to me in … Continued

2022 Goals Update

By

Well if it was a few degrees less hot right now, then I’d be going outside and enjoying the sunshine rather than writing a blog which about 3 people will read, but hey, I like writing and Lola is keeping me chilled right now. So I thought I’d have a quick look at how I’m doing with my goals for 2022. Goals I will/should achieve: Well I already achieved the being paid like a senior engineer goal by time I finished writing my goals. So that one is done. Roast to-do list should get to under 50 – I’m at … Continued

Am I Green?

By

You might assume that I’m ambivalent to the environment – after all, I was a climate change skeptic until recent years, at least until Donald Trump helped to persuade me that there might be an issue after all. Most of the skeptic in me is that I don’t believe the doomsday crap about the world is going to end in 20 years or whatever the latest string of nonsense is coming out of environmental terrorist groups. And I certainly don’t believe that a warming planet means that we now need communism – environmental damage is not an excuse for the … Continued

James Went To Copenhagen

By

Copenhagen. Or Copenhahahagen as I was soon to rename it. For some reason I’ve wanted to go to Copenhagen for a little while, but I couldn’t quite remember why. Maybe it was the pretty houses? Originally the plan I had in my head was to go to Copenhagen for a couple of days, then get the train to Sweden for a couple of days – maybe go to Gothenburg. But as time went on, it was proving difficult to find an Airbnb in either Copenhagen or Gothenburg – or any other Swedish city closer to Denmark. In fact, we couldn’t … Continued

Buying A Flat – My Red Lines

By

Like Theresa May’s attempts at a Brexit deal, I thought I’d set out my red lines and demand what those selling houses and providing mortgages need to offer me What The Flat Needs: Basically, I want to be able to watch thunderstorms, wearing only my pants and whilst playing minimal techno at a half-decent volume. Granted, we never get decent thunderstorms in London. Affordability: At the moment I’m paying £600 a month rent. Yeah, I know, it’s crazy cheap, but I cannot play music 9-5 during the week or walk around in my pants, unless my housemate is away. She … Continued

What am I doing? Where Am I Going?

By

I’ve been feeling fairly flat this week. Not down, not miserable, just flat. A slight struggle to motivate myself, for example to do healthy things – I sit here with a beer, bread and butter, and a large bar of chocolate which is unusual for a Thursday evening. I’m still doing stuff. Still working. Still doing the washing up. Still writing roast dinner reviews. Still researching where next to throw money away on the stock market. Just with less enthusiasm – well, no enthusiasm. To give it a football analogy, I’m grinding out 0-0 draws in the hope of staying … Continued

James Went To Zadar

By

My sister recently announced that she had 3 holiday days left to take at work and wanted to go somewhere – I said I’m up for a holiday and we ended up booking a trip to Zadar. We had quite tight time schedules so wherever we were going to go was going to be a flying visit – after some research I had a shortlist of Naples, Bilbao and Zadar – all places we could fly to on the Tuesday after work and return on the Friday. But Zadar was the clear winner – who can resist £68 return flights, … Continued

I Have A Deposit – What Now?

By

Thanks to the pandemic, I’ve accidentally ending up saving enough for a deposit on a flat. Well, thanks also to living in a shared house in Harrow so therefore paying cheap rent, and also thanks to my insight 10 years ago to get into a career with a huge future demand, software engineering, which went even more in demand over the pandemic and hence means I can demand large pay rises. So, yeah, thanks to the guy/girl who in Wuhan Institute who let the bug out the building in November 2019. The easiest way for me to buy a place … Continued