---
title: 'Vibe Check #21'
date: 2024-12-01T08:09:08.851Z
slug: 2024-12-01-vibe-check-20
author: Thomas Wilson
tags: 
    - vibe-check

---
I used to write a *Vibe Check* blog post at the end of each month.  I haven't written one for six or seven months, and I miss writing them.  But also I have been busy. 

![Mists on the River Thames](https://www.herearethose.photos/api/files/9efeb603-e2e9-4176-b21c-136e78cd04f4/cdn?viewport=lg)

![The view from Brill Hill](https://www.herearethose.photos/api/files/87680c45-66f0-4ea5-bab1-ee72a86cbe05/cdn?viewport=lg)

November 2024 was a very autumnal month.  Here in Oxford it's been blustery, and it's been flood-y.  Parts of the Tow Path, both up- and down-stream have been intermittently under 5cm-50cm of water for the last couple of weeks.  We had a flurry of snow a couple weeks back, too - making the world crisp and etherial for a few hours.

It's also been my penultimate month at my current job.  In the new year I start a new position, returning to a more leadership-y role.  I wanted the transition from *Head Of* to *Senior*, but I don't think it matches my sensibilities.  I am, for better and worse, unable to see something and *not* voice my opinion of it.  I know about grasses and fences, but I'm hopeful that being able to lean into this a little more will make me happier.

It's winter, and so I have adopted my favourite winter sport: knitting.  This year I'm learning to make socks.  Having started one on double-pointed needles (DPNs), I frogged it…

> Another word in knitting for “undo”, is “rip”.  When you are undoing stitches, we often say you are “ripping it”.  IE: “Rip it, Rip it” sounds like “ribbit ribbit” and that’s how we get the term Frogging. ([knittinginthepark.com](https://www.knittinginthepark.com/to-frog-or-not-to-frog/))

I've now started again on circular needles: the ones are that two needles, connected with a little cable running between them - though "cable" in knitting means something else.  I forget how good knitting is for mostly-listening work meetings.  It's something to do with my hands, and helps me focus, and not want to check emails/slack (which I would never do in a meeting, obviously).

Christmas approaches.  I think the household will see its first decoration before the sun goes down on Monday (it is Sunday as I write this).  I *love* Christmas decorations.  Make the house all cosy and bright, as the rhythms of the natural world continue to slow themselves.  I find the first six weeks after solstice the most difficult - nature needs a rest, as we all do, and as it lies in wait of for friendly conditions.  It very sensibly seeks to wait-it-out. 

I am reminded always of how much more harrowing winter would have been for my ancestors.  How lucky I am to live in a time with fairy lights and central heating, microwaves and freezers.