2025-01-12

Spent the week down in Dunsborough with my parents; we rented an AirBNB right opposite the beach at Dunn Bay. Really relaxing and cruisy; my morning routine was to wake up at 7:30, go for a long bike ride (either towards Busselton, when I’d turn back after 16km or so, or up to the top of the MTB Park, where I’d follow the various green runs back down again). After that I’d change into my bathers and head to the beach for a dip in the water to cool off before returning to the house to make a strong coffee and read in the sunshine while watching the blue fairy wrens hop around the garden.

Finished a couple of books (“Snapshot” and “Tales from the Cafe”) while down there, and made a start on “Bliss”, which serendipity found for me when I entered the small bookstore in town; it was made into a movie in 1985 so I know I’ll be watching it some time this year.

The place was pet friendly, so Bailey got to go on his first family holiday, which he loved. Much of the beach was dog friendly, and he even paddled out a little bit. Jack and I had fun skimming stones.

Nice meal at “Blue Manna” in town, and lunch at “Amelia Park”. Played games and listened to music. Cooked a couple of nice steak dinners, making a delicious Diane sauce. Was surprised at the extend of mum’s memory loss; she had a few senior moments such as losing her toothbrush and using mine instead.

Bruce and Mel joined us for our final day, as my folks needed to leave early. Happy hour at a bar in town was nice, as was brunch the following morning before the drive back after making sure the Ioniq 5s were fully charged.

Dzung and I bought some new outdoor furniture while down there. Free shipping and we’ll have it on Wednesday. We’re also considering a new lounge, just need to confirm the measurements of the rug that it will sit on.

Straight to Rob’s birthday pizza party after arriving back home on Saturday. Met lots of Agworld folk that only knew me from my git commits (I left the company almost ten years ago, resigning on Monday the 16th of February 2015, and have been working remotely ever since).

Had a long chat with Andrew, whom I hadn’t seen since leaving Agworld. Jack, Krystal, Andrew and I entered Nanowrimo in 2015, and I wrote “Insoluble” then. You can read it on Medium if you’re so inclined, get it on Kindle or even order the paperback! Anyway, I digress. We had a long chat, Andrew talking about his older son who is now training as a fighter pilot in Germany, and his younger son who is going into year 11. I spoke about my interests during which it dawned on me that I really like exploring how technology can help with three things that are often not given the attention they deserve: discovery (i.e. how to find unknown unknowns), creativity (i.e. how to have an idea and build something new) and community (i.e. how to foster trusted relationships amongst a group of strangers). More on those things later this year perhaps, for now I don’t want to set the weeknotes bar too high so I’ll end things there.