We’re one week before the second half of this year. I feel I haven’t done much in the past months, and this week felt similarly unproductive. On the upside it seems the probability of us being able to go on a summer trip to Denmark has risen. The Covid-19 statistices have moved in the right direction both here and in Denmark, and it seems that Denmark will open the border for Dutch tourists without the need to quarantine in time for our trip.
This week I
- Met payroll and did some bookkeeping
- Prepared and then postponed a workshop originally scheduled for early next week
- Had the weekly client meetings
- Wrote a short article on upcoming EU legislation for a client newsletter
- Spent two days at my company’s ‘workation’ where the rest of our team stayed the entire week. It was good to see the entire team (two interns for the first time face to face, even though they’re at the end of their internship, and our latest hire for the second time in total and the first time in exactly a year). We had intensive sessions, discussed the future of our office, and hung out over self made pizza (see image). It felt good to see the entire team again.
- The weekend was mostly spent on removing and installing a dishwasher with E doing most of the work by far, and on fixing the plumbing in the kitchen. Now everything works and is leak free, so a win for DIY.
- Did an hour long presentation and discussion on the upcoming EU data legislation, and realised I need to write it up in sharable form, such as in this blog
Pizza made by my colleagues Frank and Emily, during our ‘workation’ meet-up, using a mobile pizza oven
We’re half way in 2021. This past week I finally felt more focused and better generally, compared to previous weeks. Also Denmark has scaled down the obligations for travelers from the Netherlands, meaning that if the case numbers don’t deteriorate in the coming weeks, we’ll be visiting Denmark this summer. That if is still a big if, as the case numbers have bottomed out in the past days, and have started rising somewhat again. We still have two weeks before we need to make the final decision to go or cancel (without charge that is).
This week I
Did the logistics needed for getting our car serviced and inspected before the summer, the old dishwasher removed.
Followed up with a client for whom our work has started but for which the signed contract hasn’t arrived yet
Planned two client workshops and did preparations for both
Gave a presentation on the new EU legal framework for digital service and data usage
Had the weekly client meetings
Created a github pages site for a client that will contain a wiki on the mentioned EU legal framework in Dutch. It’s built using Respec, meaning the source is all markdown files, which in theory should make it possible to push material directly from my own notes to Github.
moved my old day logs from late April to early July last year from my local WordPress on my previous laptop to my mark down notes. Been keeping these day logs for 14 months now, without missing a day. That I’m keeping up that rhythm itself is a sign they’re useful to me.
Had a meeting with the director of the NGO I’m the chair of the board of, to discuss employee contracts, re-opening the NGO offices, the client portfolio, and announcing the two new board members we’ve brought on board.
Did some pruning in the garden. The combination of plenty rain and nice temperatures has led to an explosion of growth in the past weeks, and some of it got in the way.
Had friends over for a visit, chatting and having drinks in the garden. A novel experience after a long time.
Prompted by getting interested in Aaron Parecki’s post about downloading one’s Foursquare history and uploading it to your blog, I requested my data download from Foursquare/Swarm with the intention of deleting my account there. I also went through the history I have there, and added some pieces of info to my travel notes through the years based on it.
Replaced some teflon coated frying pans with stainless steel ones. And bought an electric pizza oven after seeing last week how well the one worked that my colleague F has.
This weekend a triathlon took place in our part of town, here an image from the swimming part. It meant we had our coffee someplace else, as the cycle route to our intended destination was blocked as it overlapped the event’s cycling leg. Image by Ton Zijlstra, license CC BY NC SA