For lunch today we cycled to the old Soestdduin railway station, about 14km from our house. It was around 30C, but with a little wind, and it was a pleasant ride, we were in no hurry.
Ater a fine three course Italian meal al fresco, we skipped the dolce, sipped an espresso, and cycled back. This time a slightly different route, taking us along the railway line through the woods, entering the city near the zoo again, and from there onwards home.
A good first day of our staycation.
A pretty regular week, the final week before our pseudo vacation during the month of August.
Did some macro-economic estimates of open data impact in different sectors
Used StreetComplete to add a few missing bits of info to Open Street Map, while taking a walk through the neighbourhood
Checked out Foam to replace the proprietary Obsidian tool for notes. It looks like I could make the switch given my use case, but I’m not entirely sure how, and the current set-up of VS Code underneath Foam still is a MS product, and phones home quite a bit during start-up. That can be counteracted but takes a bit of focus to figure I didn’t have time for this week
Prepared and took part in a half-day validation workshop for our EU study, at which some 125 people attended, and where I presented my findings w.r.t. meteo-data and earth observation/environment. Feedback was useful and my underlying assumptions and principles were generally accepted.
Worked on policy option scenario’s for the EU study.
Started a rewrite of the earlier report I did for the EU study, to incorporate all the feedback received, and the input from a number of Member States that hadn’t provided info yet.
Did the 2nd quarter book keeping for the various business and legal entities I’m involved with, as well as the Q2 VAT returns.
Had a meeting with my business partners. Decided on extending a temporary contract for one colleague, and offered our current intern employment after they complete their Master’s later this month. It’s pretty amazing we can do that in these times, I think
Discussed a tender after having been invited to join a consortium. Will decide on whether to do so early next week
Discussed some office politics happening at one of our client’s, which may have consequences for our engagement there over time. Office politics is often petty and distracting, and it apparantly survives just fine even when working from home en masse.
Had the car serviced for its annual road eligibility check-up, and had the rear brakes replaced.
Spent a lovely afternoon cycling with E and Y, and a lovely afternoon swimming/bbq’ing at my sister’s.
During the month of August we plan to work three days, and do things together four days. That way we can keep things going, but still also have time allocated to just enjoying ourselves. I don’t know yet if I will skip week notes in August, or just keep them brief.