Category: Personal

No posts for a while but I’ve a few short bursts in me, so here goes:

• The last couple of weeks at work were pretty busy. I was on an internal course on Lean and how it is applied to manufacturing and also to the wider business. Although that sounds pretty dry it was a fantastic course. While the Lean element was important it was the other skills covered by the course that were far more interesting. Leadership, people interaction, energy, work/life balance…the list goes on. While it was a lot for two weeks it was a real kick up the backside for me. The interaction between attendees was superb and I got loads from it. The trick will be making real permanent change based on the two weeks. Going well so far.

• Caught up with the new Avengers movie last weekend, or to give it it’s proper UK only title – Avengers Assemble. Spoiler free thoughts are that it’s a great popcorn film – lot’s of action, great effects and surprisingly it’s pretty funny too – and that means funny when it’s meant to be funny and not funny because it’s bad. Or cheesy. I really do recommend catching it in the cinema rather than waiting for the blu-ray, dvdv or – cough cough – some other method of watching it at home as it really is one to watch on a giant screen. I chose to go 2D rather than 3D – still not convinced about 3D as it feels like a gimmick, colours are muddy and it’s not comfortable for over two hours wearing another pair of glasses. One thing I will say – say until after the credits to see the usual Marvel extra after the ending. I don’t want to say too much more about the film…well, I lie. There’s quite a bit I want to say but that will have to wait for now. Roll on June for Prometheus and July for the big black bat.
• What an end to the Premiership today. Drama right to the last minute but for me the best team won over the season.
• As for Rangers…at this moment in time I’d prefer a restart in the third. Last few months have been a disgrace really. In fact last decade looks to have been a disgrace. Sad days.
• Good to catch up with friends this weekend. Good food, good chat and a wee trip around Glasgow. Good to get the camera out again and take some pics. Good, good, good. Lots of good. Need to do more…much more.
• Loving The Bridge on BBC4. If you’ve not watched it yet catch it on iPlayer.
• This is some of the most miserable weather for April and May I can remember. So wet and today pretty windy. Feels like November.
• Quietest period for games is about to come to an end. Ghost Recon is out in a couple of weeks. It’s been delayed for 2-3 years so I hope they deliver something decent although some comments on the beta don’t give me much hope.
• So many great new iPad apps recently. I’ve been convinced that when the MacBook Airs are refreshed in the next month or so that I’d pick one up but I’m having second thoughts. Unless of course theres some crazy retina display involved. Still, those iPad apps need a whole separate post as some of them are excellent.
• Struggling with keeping the exercise going over last few weeks. A couple of health issues and busy with work have meant getting time has been difficult. The good news is that my weight is steady so I’m really pleased although would still like to lose a few more kilograms.

Updates done so back to catching up with some TV. Or Xcode. Out of the blue I got back into developing an app and I’m enjoying it so far. Long may it continue.

2011 – your dead to me. Around a year ago I made some 2011 resolutions so before tackling 2012’s goals, how did I do on last years? (spoiler – not too well!)

1. Lose another 5kg – SUCCESS. This time last year I was 95.8kg. Today I’m 89.2kg. I peaked in January at 97.8kg but my lowest was 86.6kg so I’ve gained a couple of kg’s in the last 6 weeks. Primarily this is due to my sciatica returning meaning no walking, bike or running in the last 7 weeks and a couple of slow and painful badminton sessions. Festive eating hasn’t helped either. So while a success it’s a bit disappointing to gain in the last couple of months.
2. Publish my own iPhone app – hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha – FAIL.
3. Climb at least 6 munro’s – FAIL. Four munro’s and the longest leg of the West Highland Way. Weather, illness (me and my walking buddies all had issues throughout the year) meant far less walking than I’d hoped for.
4. Improve the podcast – FAIL. I was going to say partial fail but that would be pussying out. I’d hoped we’d have refreshed the website and the podcast by year end but instead that will be 2012’s goal. We did however get to episode 100. Nice. The website refresh has already started too, so hopefully that will be in place by mid January. Then it will be time to focus on the podcast (and website) content which won’t be so easy.
5. Drink more water – SUCCESS. Not majorly, but I have been drinking more water and less diet Irn-Bru which can only be a good thing. Right?
6. Cycle > 2000 miles – FAIL. So annoying! Total distance for 2011 was 1629.9 miles but the total at end of June was 1117 miles. What happened? Hill walking, illness in Nov and December and also a mad notion to start running all impacted in the last half of the year.
7. Reduce migraines – SUCCESS. I’ve never got to the bottom of my migraines. They are mostly clustered around May and September with a few sporadic bouts in between but this year there been less, partly due to a dizzy spell at work, a trip to the doctors and more effective (more powerful) drugs. Whether this has helped reduce them overall, or it’s just coincidence I’ll never know but there’s been less actual migraines this year than the last 3 years which is a GREAT thing. Long may it continue.
8. Read at least one book a month – FAIL. I really struggle to read books. I read a lot online and in magazines but I tend to start books and never finish. Total for this year is two books read, 5 others started but not finished. Out of all the resolutions made last year, this was the one I knew I wouldn’t manage. Idiot.
9. Be shapeless – WTF? No idea why I added this…I think it was some Bruce Lee reference? Ah yes – it was. Anyway, FAIL. I have not become water.

Now that I’ve reviewed the list 2011 doesn’t seem that bad, but I saw too many friends suffering this year for it to be classed ‘a good year’ and certain aspects of my life didn’t exactly go well either. It’s at this point I want to mouth off about certain people and some work stuff too…but I won’t. Must resist.

I did enjoy some new toys this year – the new iMac is working a treat as is the Civic. Great to drive and a nice step up from the Focus. I picked up an Airport Extreme which has been 100% reliable and something I should have done a couple of years ago. I also enjoyed in no particular order Game of Thrones, Fifa 2012, Uncharted 3, Angles, Words with Friends, The Killing, Halo Reach, The Trip, Forza 4, Drive, Mission Impossible 4, No More Idols, The Shadow Line, Instapaper, Reeder, 21, Rev, This Is England, Portal 2, Senna, The Walking Dead and 5by5.

It was also notable for the toys I didn’t get, namely the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. I’m still amazed that I managed to resist, but resist I did. I can see an new iPad in the next few moths though as new app’s are a tad sluggish on the old girl.

So what about 2012? Despite research saying you shouldn’t tell anyone what your goals are here’s what I’d like to achieve this year.

1. Lose another 5kg. Actually, get under 82.5kg. I got under 14 stones in 2011, so under 13 stones (or 82.5kg in new money) in 2012 would be very nice. Bloody hard but very very nice.
2. Climb at least 6 munro’s
3. Cycle > 2000 miles
4. Run a 10k
5. Photography – get out and actually use my camera

I’ve a few work related goals as well but thats not for the blog. Key to the fitness related goals are getting into a more regular schedule to fit everything in – time will tell if that will be achievable but key is staying healthy. There’s a nice podcast on resolutions that might help you achieve them over the next 12 months – Back to Work #47: Utter Failure & Hotel Steak. Well worth a listen.

Ultimately though, I’m looking forward to a healthy and happy year for myself and family/friends…and of course you too whoever you are. Happy 2012!

Anyone thats known me for a few years will know that I’ve recently lost quite a bit of weight. From Sept 07 until around Mar 09 I lost just under 6 stones. The weight has been pretty constant since then, if anything starting to creep back on. Crap.

Now when I say creep back on, I really mean a couple of kilo’s over the space of 18 months. When I say a couple, I mean 5-6 kg’s. Crapper.

This wasn’t part of the plan. I wanted to get down to under 90kg’s, which while still heavy would be a great weight for me and something I’d be deliriously happy with. But this year has seen me go from 92kg at Christmas to around 98kg a few weeks ago. I then started feeling sorry for myself, and also fell into the usual trap….these scales are wrong. Even as I write that I feel embarrassed.

However, there was no need – they were wrong! A sneaky weigh in on another couple of scales proved me right. I swapped over the batteries and it made no difference. So there you go – I need a new set of scales which was the perfect excuse to order the Withings scale – the first wifi body scale. I’d been itching to get it since I first heard about Withings at the turn of the year but the main reason had always been the fact I had a perfectly good set os scales already. Also they cost a pretty penny – I paid £107 including shipping. Ouch. I’ve now been using them for over a week and it really is a lovely gadget.

So as scales go, they look good but the really nice feature is that they are wifi enabled, automatically uploading your weight, fatty mass and BMI to the Withings website. The weight tracking works for up to eight people from one set of scales so your whole family should be covered. The website is Flash based and lets you track your weight and add notes when certain events (curry!) have impacted on your weight. So far, so good. There’s also a free iPhone and iPad app that allows you to track your weight from the comfort of your iOS device. These are pretty straightforward but give you everything you need to know.

As it’s all automatic it means I can track my weight daily. Total overkill but it’s part of the new weight strategy – track all inputs and outputs. Track weight, exercise and calorie intake. Withings also make sharing information really easy with a number of options available. I can publish my data on the web via a link or an iFrame. I can also share my data with other users who can access via an e-mail address. I can also link Withings to a number of other accounts – Google Health, Runkeeper, even WeightBot on the iPhone. Finally, I can auto tweet my weight after each weigh in. No where to hide 🙂

It had to be done – a new twitter account has been setup just for my weight. Special. I’ve also hooked Withings into RunKeeper. I track all my hill walks on RunKeeper and also now track my efforts on the bike. Having all that info in one place plus the weight is really nice. Also, I’ve paid for one years access to RunKeeper elite which gives me more detailed graphs, stats etc.

The final piece of the jigsaw is to now track calorie intake. Couple of iPhone app’s are worth considering and I had myfitnesspal.com recommended so I’ll give those a try. The up shot of all that is that I’m a couple of kilo’s heavier than a year ago which isn’t too bad as I’ve not been doing the same amount on the bike. I’ll be stepping that up between now and Christmas so hopefully I’ll lose a little in the next couple of months – not long until Santa’s here now.

As for Withings – great gadget, expensive and a bit over the top but I love it.

So my last post was just under two weeks ago from a hotel room in Bath. Talking up the course, plan’s for the weekend, more hill climbing. Blah, blah, blah. All that was thrown out the window though a couple of hours later. I woke up with really bad stomach cramps. A couple of minutes later I was sick. The rest of the night was spent in the toilet with the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had.

I blame the curry I had just a few short hours before. I’ve no proof and the meal at the time was good but such a violent reaction doesn’t scream viral to me. So I’ll be avoiding the Rajpoot in Bath in future – there service left a bit to be desired as well. This meant I couldn’t attend the second day of the course and I headed home earlier than expected. I still had a 5 hour wait at Bristol airport and i do apologize for anyone sitting close by that thought I had swine flu or some other nasty disease – I must have looked a mess. The five hours combined with ‘The Sickness’ did mean I got to see a variety of toilets at Bristol airport. Overall, not too bad and kept fairly clean although I found it odd that only one had an airblade – a trial perhaps?

That weekend went from bad to worse. No appetite, forcing myself to eat toast which didn’t stay down well and also a cough and cold. I felt pretty bad and seeing as I had the symptoms I got in touch with NHS24 to double check on swine flu. After a few hours I was told to self medicate as it wasn’t likely to be swine flu and sure enough, within a couple of days I was better again. Still, missed out on a great hill walk which we’ll need to reschedule but the food poisoning was great for the weight loss.

Roll on a week and I’m now on holiday. I’ve got lot’s to do and the weather hasn’t helped so far but there’s not much you can do about that, no matter what the MET office say. Got off to a good (but expensive) start as I’ve ordered a new pair of glasses. Hate choosing glasses but I needed a new pair – hopefully I don’t have issues with them when I get them next week. Last night though was a bit of a pain – one of the neighbours further down the street clipped my car as he was leaving. A scrape and a damaged wing mirror. Annoyingly he drove off without saying anything after he checked out his car but a neighbour across the road saw it, I heard it and saw him checking his car out and after speaking to his dad he admitted it and they’ll pay for repairs. It’s just the hassle now of getting it repaired. Seemingly he’ll be sent round to apologise later today which will be fun. Hey, maybe he reads the blog – own up to your fucking mistakes next time and it save’s a whole load of hassle.

Anyway, off to the bank and then it’s back to some books – Objective C is getting quite interesting.