One Man's Notes

One thing from the before times I really miss: just grabbing my laptop or iPad and heading to a coffee shop to work for an hour or two.

If home working turns into a long-term trend, I guess we’ll have to find ways of recreating those social lifelines.


First impressions of Big Sur: amazingly fast on my ancient 2013 MacBook Pro. The visual refresh takes a little getting used to, but it’s close enough to the current iPad look that it feels fairly familiar.

A couple of hours in, and I haven’t hit any problems yet.


Hello, Big Sur.

(That sounds like something from a really bad prison movie: “Jim, if you want to survive in here, you need to keep Big Sur happy…”)

The Big Sur login screen.

The balance of my wardrobe has changed during the eight months of lockdowns and remote working. I wear far fewer smart jackets, shirts and jumpers, and far more sustainable outdoors gear.

I like this change.


Looks like the Big Sur update is in the process of completely hosing Apple’s online services.

The company normally handles these peaks of demand much better. I wonder what went wrong?


Should I?


Charles Arthur:

[…] classical orchestras are just tribute bands for old music

🤯


Today’s experiment: my Canon M-series camera as webcam…


I’d love to say that I’ve got used to the famine/feast aspect of self-employed life.

But it would be a lie.


”Before Ramsbury, I was a nowhere man, living, as my parents did before me, in a multitude of places without really putting down roots in any one. Ramsbury made me a somewhere person.”

— Peter Marren, The Consolation of Nature

This is true of myself and Shoreham Beach.


Why I do beach cleans — in just three photos


The new “Apple Silicon" MacBooks looks very tempting as a replacement for my elderly MacBook Pro — but perhaps I should hang on until next year.

It might not be all Zoom, all the time, by next summer…


The vaccine news is, at least, promising. It does give us a glimpse of a future where the virus is much, much less of a threat, and that makes me wonder: will we see a struggle between those who want to embrace a new normal, and those who want to force us back into the old ways?


There’s no doubt lockdowns are hard; that unfamiliar feeling of liberties removed, of freedoms curtailed. But last time, it helped bind communities and families.

Will this one do the same?


Just successfully sourced my coffee filters from a local business rather than going reflexively to Amazon.


Shell.

A seashell on Shoreham Beach

Met this chap on our beach walk today. Seemed nice enough, but not very talkative.

A figure made of seaweed, driftwood and old sunglasses.

Today’s news about the US presidential election gives me a little hope for the first time since 2016’s Brexit vote that being of fundamentally decent character still might matter.

I’m not willing to inflate the balloon of hope too much just yet. But a little hope is nice.


It’s not exactly puzzling why we chose to live here, is it?

There’s something utterly magical to me about beaches in the off season, when it’s just us die hards out there…


Birthday beach walk with my daughters.

The Tinworth family on Shoreham Beach.

I’ve slipped out of the habit of using my 9.7 iPad Pro, and that means I’d forgotten what a lovely size of device this is for reading and email. It’s probably due an upgrade when the new iPad Pros hit next year.

Maybe I’ll even be using it when travelling again by then.


This is strangely delightful in the twilight world of an uncertain presidential result: Neon Trump comes to Hackney

(It’s guerrilla art)


Hospital visit concluded. My youngest’s head wound cleaned and glued together. And I didn’t have to stoop to bribing her to be brave. She managed that all by herself.

I’m so proud of the courage and self-possession she has as a five year old. Long may it last.


Have to say - I wasn’t expecting to be spending time in A&E on the first day of lockdown.


So, lockdown it is, from tonight. I’m very lucky to be living very near to these places. It’s going to be much easier for us than so many others.

Boats on the river Adur. The churchyard of St Mary de Haura.