Here’s what I’m currently up to:

February 2021

January wasn't a great month. It started off well with the announcement that The KLF were releasing some of their deleted back catalogue on streaming services.

But then I contracted Covid-19.

It started as an odd taste in my mouth; not a loss of taste or smell, just an odd taste similar to an acid-reflux taste. After that I started feeling tired a lot and developed a cough. I worked on for a few days but kept my distance from my family. I booked a Covid test and it came back as positive the next day. I had a meeting with a client at 2:30pm and as soon as it was over I went to bed.

I pretty much spend the next 6 days in bed with chills/fever and aches and pains. Eventually I had crippling headaches and was struggling for breath, so I called the NHS 111 number and an ambulance was dispatched.

Once in hospital it was discovered that I'd developed a Pneumonia in one of my lungs and was also suffering from the effects of Silent Hypoxia. This is when the body struggles to store oxygen in the blood. After having oxygen and anti-biotics I started recovery. I was released from hospital after 4 days and recovered - in isolation - at home.

Whilst I was in hospital I had my eyes opened to so many aspects of this horrible disease. The nurses, doctors and other staff are performing heroics day in day out. I saw nurses working 12 hour shifts and literally sobbing in the corridors afterwards. They are pushed to the limits and can barely cope.

When this pandemic is over I sincerely hope that the NHS staff are given full recognition for their services. I'd suggest a national holiday named in their honour.

🏡 Working From Home

The Corona virus pandemic continues to affect the lives of everyone. We're now in Tier 4 in Staffordshire and so everyone at Kaweb is working from home for the forseable future.

I've got quite used to working from home. Going to an office daily would feel strange now.

💻 Currently working on:

• Updating and adding features to a Magento 2 website (at Kaweb).
• Developing bespoke Laravel & Vue sites (at Kaweb).
• Migrating a Magento 1 site to Sylius (at Kaweb).

📚 Reading:

• "Clanlands - Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other" by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish (Audible) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this and am looking forwards to the Men in Kilts series on Amazon Prime soon.
• "The Silmarillion" by J.R.R Tolkien ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  Tough going but eventually finished it. If you want to understand the history of Tolkien's Middle Earth then this is the book for you.
• "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman (Audible)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman (Audio-book on Audible) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Audio-book on Audible) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• "Artemis" by Andy Wier (Audio-book on Audible) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• "The Obstacle Is The Way" by Ryan Holiday [Amazon Link] ⭐️⭐️
• "Hidden Wyndham: Life, Love, Letters" by Amy Binns [Amazon Link] ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  I'm a huge fan of John Wyndham's novels and enjoyed this book about his life and loves. Amy Binns has done a remarkable job of finding information on a man that kept his personal life so secret.
• "The Unicorn Project" by Gene Kim [Amazon link] ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  A must for any software developer wanting to take the next step in their career.
• "How Not To Be A Professional Racing Driver" by Jason Plato [Amazon link] ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  An absolute hoot from start to the end. Jason is as funny off the track as he is fast on it.

🎧 Listening

Music

• Whilst Ive been convalescing in isolation I've had time to listen to a couple of albums. I've re-discovered Daft Punk's 2013 album 'Random Access Memories'. For whatever reason I'd not really given it a proper listen but wow! what a masterpiece. "Giorgio by Moroder" is simply stunning.

Podcasts

• Hospital Records Podcast
• F1: Beyond The Grid
• The Indie Hackers Podcast

👨‍👩‍👦 Other

Whilst I've been off sick with Covid my wife has also had to take time off and has been helping home school our son. He's using my old Macbook Pro and Microsoft Teams to take lessons three times a day. Its a seismic shift from going in to school and having normal lessons but Finlay seems to have taken it in his stride.

🤣 Favorite Joke

What happens if you put a stick into a non-stick pan?

The concept of a ‘now’ page was inspired by Derek Sivers’ Now pages. A list of other 'Now' pages can be found at http://nownownow.com/