The Duchess was interviewed and photographed earlier in the week about our decision to rent out our garage as a polling station in the upcoming election.

Today’s she only starring on the front page of The Post, the newspaper for the Wellington region — kind of our version of the Hull Daily Mail — so it’s pretty cool to make the front page!

Nicely written article too, though The Duchess isn’t a fan of the photo (not the photographer’s fault, she admits herself that she’s always been anti-photogenic). Let’s hope the celebrity status doesn’t go to her head …

Oh and I know what my folks will be saying looking at that photo – should have done some weeding before they came round. Guilty as charged!

The article is available to read here: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/361105734/upper-hutt-garage-clocks-election-duty-again

Took The Duchess for her first forrin trip since the Spicy Cough fiasco of 2020 back to Fiji. We both really enjoyed the change of scenery and having a week on Island Time; just sleeping, eating, drinking and lying out in the sun or shade.

We returned to First Landings Resort near Lautoka as it’s locally-owned and had found it really friendly on our first visit 12 years ago.

Gorgeous sunny 29 degree days filled with Fiji Gold beer, walks along the beach or coffee at the marina next door, being serenaded by polynesian guitar music at every meal and booking in the occasional massage.

We had take one trip out to a school at the nearby village to drop off some books and pens, and who kindly let us visit a class during a lesson to say hello to the kids and discover more about how the education system works over there. The Duchess was in her element and could have quite easily stayed for hours if we didn’t have a taxi waiting with the meter running!

Bliss! (Apart from a few itchy mozzy bites, for some reason they went for me this time rather than The Duchess – probably not wanting to catch Sjogren’s Syndrome)

We’re both feeling re-energised for the rest of the year until the Christmas break. The tan has already faded though 🙁

Sat in on a team workshop this morning learning how to maximise the benefits of Copilot and AI to help you work.

Since I was already dropping notes into my Work Diary document (77k words / 255 pages in 4 months), I thought I’d test Copilot’s usefulness and asked it to count the number of swearwords in my diary.

All things considering that’s not bad for 4 months – I think I surpassed that in 4 weeks at my previous place …

Wr have signed up again to have our garage used as the local polling station in this November’s election.

The Duchess is also applying to do meet and greet duties again and help with the election count. Just hope she’s not all wobbly with vertigo this time!

Penny has been struggling this year with arthritis with a more pronounced limp and loss of fitness.

To supplement pain meds and (mixed) attempts to slim her down a bit we have also signed her up for some hydrotherapy sessions.

It’s a bit like a treadmill inside a bath with doors at either end, and our girl is not at all sure it’s a nice thing, but got through it with lots of cheese based encouragement.

Time will tell if it makes much difference I guess.

There have been some lovely sunrises this week, orange and purple skies showing off the clouds.

Pissing down now, mind. But great earlier. #4seasonsin1day

Great start to the season for Hull City, totally demolished Man United for a deserved win – hope they can keep this up!

Since I’m back into the English football I thought I’d also resurrect my old Fantasy League team name and set up a (fairly small) private league at work. (It makes more sense if you know your Ukrainian teams from the 90’s)

Our old toaster gave up the holy ghost recently and we treat ourselves to a new one. I also decided to splash out on a new bread knife that could actually cope with tough sourdough crusts.

It’s revolutionised my toasting habits!

Funny how small changes can make a big difference…

They are starting to announce bands and standups coming to Wellington next year and I am giving the Visa some hammer getting in quick!

Lined up so far:

• Simple Minds and Gary Numan
• System of a Down and Faith No More
• Squeeze
• Kevin Bridges

Keeping eyes peeled for more!

I’ve created a monster – The Duchess is now enhanced with AI. She’s been using ChatGPT for lengthy conversations about all kinds of things since I installed it on her tablet, even to the point of suggesting he (she reckons he’s male) should have a name. At least she’s not asking me to looking into articles and products she’s seen on Facebook any more now that her new best friend can do it for her. (Not jealous at all)

My new role has also come with a heavy use of AI to speed up my productivity and it’s literally causing me a pain in the neck. I’m getting into a flow state for a prolonged period which means I’m not taking regular comfort breaks, which means by the afternoon I’m hunched up like Jack Welsby and heading home with neckache.

It’s also meaning I’m spending long periods deeply concentrating on the task at hand which, while great for getting stuff done, is meaning by Friday morning my brain is fried and I’m sitting in meetings not able to take things in. The last couple of weeks I’ve had to leave early and head home for a nap. Poor old thing.

The good news is I’m now 10 weeks into the 13 week probation period, and as long as I don’t feck anything up badly in the next 3 weeks I’ll be able to work from home 3 days a week, which means I’ll have more flexibility in taking doggo out for a walk to cool my brain down and get some steps in, take a lunchtime nap if required to recharge, and get four or five commute hours back.

Tech companies would be in big trouble if they took AI away from their engineers, especially the developers who rarely write a line of code themselves these days.