It’s been a couple of weeks since our last post. Jules is back at school, giving Dee the space to ramp up her job search — with a twist, as she’s looking to move into agile project management (i.e. scrum master, product owner, etc.). Not something she’s (yet!) done, but seems like a good move (she’ll be good at it) and will be something she can enjoy — just as long as we can convince someone to take a chance! (She may invest in a scrum master course and certification, since recruiters at least will be looking for that.) Wish her luck!
We start week 4 of I Quit Sugar today, with a smaller than usual cook-up: I made some faux rice (cauliflower and broccoli) while Dee has made some delicious pesto (above). Thai prawn curry tonight, but this afternoon we’re saying goodbye to our friends the (other) Masons — they’ve sold their Annandale house and are off for a good long (12 months?) caravaning holiday. I probably don’t need to tell you I’m jealous…
As mentioned on Hangouts, we’re considering moving (e.g. to Concord) for considerably cheaper rent, a backyard (!!) and a slightly longer commute. It’s truly bizarre how much rent varies from suburb to suburb, but considering Sydney has the second most unaffordable housing in the world it’s nice to know we can save some money — while still keeping Jules in the school he loves.
I’m keeping myself busy, too:
I’m training for the half-marathon in September (and have actually bought the entry!!). Gym and/or running most days and I’m finally seeing some muscle definition and fat minimisation (if not weight loss — scales may not lie, but I’m 100kg (+5kg) and skinnier than I’ve been in ages. Must be all muscle?). As a reminder, a half-marathon is about 21km, and I’m currently running about 4km without a break … so I’ve still got a way to go. (Hopefully more fat loss will help, too.)
Work isn’t too busy, but I’ll be finishing up on the project in a couple of weeks AND I’m a “founder” of another business — a marketing friend had an idea (hush hush) and I’m coding up an Android app and backend for a demo which he can use to try to get seed capital. He’s in London at the moment, but may come back to Sydney so we can work on it together. (I’m also going to launch my distinguished: clothing and accessories store tonight — it’s all about the hustle!)
But clearly I STILL don’t have enough to do because I’ve also started writing a book on “full stack” engineering — a little philosophy, a little technology and pointers to everything from Javascript to NoSQL to machine learning and AI … oh, and to that end I’ve started a Machine Learning course this month (from Stanford, on Coursera). All in all, I can probably benefit from a slightly longer commute, just to get through my six-hours a week of course work!