5.9 KiB
| date | photo | post_meta | tags | thumbnail | title | type | url | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-26T14:06:34.841845 |
|
|
|
/media/2025/01/26/1737900394_0.jpg | Week notes 04/2035 | posts | /posts/2025/01/26/week-notes-04-20351737900394 |
A shorter note this week as we are currently on holiday and I'm dictating my note to my phone.
I've been on my new role at Thomson Reuters three weeks so I thought it was the perfect time to go on holiday and forget everything that I've learnt so far (or rather we had pre-booked this holiday months ago and having been transparent about it during my interview process, my new manager has been pretty understanding about it).
On Tuesday I went up to London for work but was able to meet up with my uni friend Emily for a cuppa. I haven't seen Em since before COVID but she was in London on something of a mini tour, she performs as Louise and the Feathers. It was lovely to catch up. I'm starting to enjoy my new routine of going in on Tuesdays and lunching with my immediate team. I would normally go in twice a week but since we were preparing for our holiday I worked from home Weds and Thurs. This allowed me to pop out during break times and in the evenings in order to pick up last minute supplies for our holiday and for our house sitter. We caught the train up to Gatwick on Thursday evening for our flight early-ish on Friday morning.
Upon arrival in Barbados we were driven by coach straight to our ship without having to go through customs or any of the airport security. Our bags were brought straight to the ship and brought on board by the porters which was really cool. It took a few hours for the bags to find us in our cabin, which did lead to a little bit of anxiety, but everything was unpacked and put away by 9:00 p.m local time which was great because we were quite jet lagged and ready for bed.
Yesterday we had a full day in Barbados which allowed us to get off and explore Bridgetown. We walked 40 minutes from the cruise terminal to the nearby Carlisle bay, which is a popular sandy beach. We had an obligatory paddle in the sea and sat to dry off before walking back to the ship.
We don't normally bother with paying for Wi-Fi on a cruise ship since it's quite expensive and we actually quite enjoy the isolation from the internet. Normally we would cruise within the EU, which means that our mobile phone roaming works for free or for a small fee. However, roaming rates outside of the EU and in particular in the Caribbean are quite steep. A few days before we left, I read Terence Eden's review of Roamless who offer a pay-as-you-go SIM card that can be used in any country and offers relatively good rates for local data. Mrs. R had assumed that her grandfathered mobile contract would allow her to use her roaming package whilst here but quickly learnt that was not the case when they charged her £45 for downloading about 45 MB of data in the first 10 minutes of landing. Thankfully they cut off her internet access preventing her from spending hundreds or even thousands of pounds. I encouraged her to sign up for Roamless as well, but we also plumped for an onboard Wi-Fi package for the first time ever. I've been quite impressed with the speed and quality of the link and you can even stream videos over the network. This means that we only need to use Roamless when in port for an emergency which alleviates any anxiety we might have about being cut off or separated whilst on land.
We are at sea today and due to land in caracao tomorrow. We are looking forward to having a quieter day at sea and getting some reading and gaming done.
Initially I had planned to bring my steam deck with me and Mrs. R had planned to bring her Asus ally. However, the ally seems to have forgotten how to talk to its battery, meaning that it cannot be used unplugged and my steam deck takes up a lot of space in my hand baggage. We both decided we would bring our Nintendo switches which have been gathering dust for a couple of years since we got our more recent handhelds. I have been thoroughly enjoying playing with my switch and it has been quite surprising to ReDiscover how light the device is and also how capable it is. Sure, it can't play cyberpunk or a modern AAA release, but it has no problem playing some of the indie games that I enjoy like stardew valley and some of the remix and remasters that have come out recently such as red dead redemption 1.
I finished watching black doves on the flight over and I really enjoyed it. The ending offered some closure but also left the door open for a follow-up series. I also started watching High Potential. This is a serial crime drama following a Monk or Psych archetype where the main character is an unlikely neuro-atypical savant who teams up with the police to solve murders and crimes. The show stars Kaitlin Olson who is best known for her role as Sweet Dee Reynolds from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. It is quite nice seeing her playing a more likeable character but who still retains a bit of a sassy attitude.
I'm also still reading Sarah Kendzior's They Knew which was written at the tail end of 2021 but still offers very relevant history lessons about the state of things in the US. I will probably switch to something a bit more light hearted for my next read, especially since we are on holiday.
Next week we will be taking in the Carribbean and trying to relax and stay switched off for a bit.
I started by saying this post would be shorter than usual but it ended up being fairly long after all. Voice dictation is a pretty cool application of AI for sure! Until next time....!