World Of Winfield

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James Went To Zadar

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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?

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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

James Went To San Diego

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Las Vegas was over, and it was time to get in the car and drive to San Diego. Why San Diego? Well, again, my sister had suggested it as she had already been to San Francisco – I might have chosen the latter. But as soon as I did the briefest amount of research on San Diego (basically finding out that it was the craft beer capital of USA plus lots of Latinos), I thought that it might really, really be my kind of place. And we did very limited research beforehand, as we both thought there was no point … Continued

James Went To Las Vegas

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I’ve never really been that bothered about going to Las Vegas. Well, maybe when I used to play a lot of online poker, say 15 years ago, but that was more the dream of qualifying for a major poker tournament in Las Vegas, than actually going to the place. I always had it in my mind as a bit pretentious, a bit fake-glam – and that isn’t me. If I’m going out to a bar, then I’ll always choose a graffitied shithole, over an Instagrammy glam bar. And the same applies to my holidays – they are booked in places … Continued

Invasion

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Gutted to see the invasion of a sovereign state start this morning, by the dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin. I honestly didn’t believe that he would invade. Well, a part of me was unsure, but I was 80/20 convinced that he wouldn’t invade. Why didn’t I think he would invade? Well, I thought it was far too risky an operation. I didn’t see how the Russian people would support an invasion of a neighbouring country and the likely deaths of thousands of people – including from the Russian army. In 2014, there were protests in Russia from the mother’s of … Continued

2022 Goals

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Right, time to set myself some goals for 2022. Maybe I can get this post written before April? Most of them are in my head anyway. But until I put them down in writing, they aren’t proper goals, are they? Big Life-Changing Stuff Be paid like a senior engineer. Well, this was in the pipeline and was finally confirmed before I even starting turning this from draft comments to an actual post. Though at the time of writing, I still hadn’t actually been paid at the new rate. Maybe there will be a company-wide pay rise or a software engineering … Continued

17 Moments Of 2021

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Time for a little lookback at the moments of 2021. They are mostly highlights, but I didn’t want to totally forget the more difficult times – it feels easy to forget the misery of the first 3 months of 2021 when we were in perpetual lockdown. So, starting with… 17. That miserable lockdown I remember thinking during the first lockdown how lucky we were that it happened in spring, especially given how glorious the weather was. I also remember realising around November 2020 that the upcoming winter was going to be really difficult. It was. It was long and often … Continued

Review of 2021 Goals

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Yes it is that time of the year where I look back at what I achieved in the first 3 months of the year whilst I was on detox, and then talked about doing for the next 9 months, with a review of my 2021 goals. So the way this will work is that I will copy all the goals from my 2021 goals post, italicise the original goals, write about what I didn’t achieve beneath that and give myself a score. Fun, huh? Well I like doing it. HEALTH Lose 10kg. I can do this. I think I will … Continued

Mehry Christmehs

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I went into the Christmas season in fear. Not because of covid, but because of my social life. Somehow I’d agreed to go out 9 days/nights out of 10. At 41 years old. Oops. Of course, this didn’t actually happen. Some gatherings were cancelled, most work things were cancelled (except the one where I got covid). I even pulled out of one gathering without being prompted – and normally I turn up to the opening of a fridge if invited. Hell, I even pulled out of going for a roast dinner on the last Sunday before Christmas, just to try … Continued

Another Year Without Escaping This Damn Stupid Country

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It’s easy to have a downer on the country that you live in – see all the fucking stupidity that goes on, of which thanks to our government there is sufficient. I’m pleased that I’m long past the point (by about two decades) where I thought Britain was the best country in the world, though perhaps it was the best country in the world two decades ago? Yet it is easy to go on holiday somewhere, say Albania, fall in love with the place and remark about how much better life seems away from Britain. The weather, the food, the … Continued