People are so lovely. We’ve had countless check-ins from friends offering to get shopping for us while we’re isolating, and our dear friends a few doors down dropped a ‘reverse trick or treat’ parcel of goodies on our doorstep. Feeling very looked-after.

🦠 We just had a call from the government track and trace team. Five days after getting a test and two days after getting a positive result. How can they expect to get virus transmission under control when everything takes this long?

🦠 Son felt ill on Friday night, took him for a COVID-19 test on Saturday at 10am. Tested positive, but only got the result on Tuesday afternoon. Track and trace with those he was in contact with only really happening now. Not exactly ‘world beating’.

Met with the founders of Readwise yesterday to talk about my experience of using the platform, and the Readmill-shaped hole in my life. There is so much more to Readwise than first meets the eye. I’m now in the process of consolidating all of my highlights and quotes there.

Why would you need to capture this data as I unsubscribe from your marketing emails?

I will absolutely be going to the Smoke Fairies’ live streamed event. I had tickets to see them live this month but sadly that couldn’t happen. The gig has been professionally filmed so I’m looking forward to turning the volume up!

Not the headline I wanted to read this morning.

‘Proportion of people in England with Covid antibodies has fallen, study says’

Really getting into Readwise and seeing the value of their platform. There’s lots of good technology here that felt hidden when I first started using it. Highlighting real world books and articles looks magical.

🎶 It took a while to get here from Canada, but it was well worth the wait. Not sure how easy it will be to buy from Discogs sellers overseas once Brexit kicks in.

🎬 Flicking through Disney+ last night I watched Steamboat Willie (1928). Contains a cat that chews tobacco and spits on himself, and a vicious Mickey Mouse who strangles a tune out of a duck, then kicks a piglet off its mother so he can play music on her teats. Different times!

Excited that my Luminelle Records parcel made it here from the US. I’m not sure I’ve ever been this into a record label before. All of their artists I’ve heard so far have been excellent.

Album Club #116 tonight and it’s an amazing choice by our host. So sad we can’t do this one in the same room together.

I’m not sure how useful this is. Why bother telling me at all?

Joining Helena Deland’s streamed launch show on Bandcamp for her new album Someone New. Feeling the time difference between Montreal and the UK right now!

Helena Deland’s debut album Someone New is out today. I preordered it based on her beautiful EPs. Had one listen so far this afternoon at work and looking forward to giving it my full attention over the weekend.

Going all in on Readwise.io for a while. Spent a bit of time this evening prepping and uploading my old Readmill highlights to the service, so they will get played back to me over time. So grateful that the Readmill team made such a classy exit and I had the data to hand.

What are we going to do when people in critical safety roles, like pilots or surgeons, start suffering from post-COVID-19 brain fog?

Attended the Microsoft 365 UK user group for the first time this afternoon. Great presentations on Teams adoption and data protection. Thank you to Joanne C Klein for answering all my questions!

📷 Berkhamsted, UK // 14 Oct 2020 // 7:47am

The view from just outside my garden office. A chilly morning, with clouds that look like they are from an oil painting. Work started very early today.

Posted for the wonderful micro.blog’s A Day In The Life #adayinthelife

I have a 4am start tomorrow to coordinate some IT infra work in Beijing. Past experience tells me it’s a roll of the dice as to whether I’ll be fully ‘with it’ or not. I secretly quite like having the excuse to quit the day and go up to bed three hours earlier than usual.