---
title: "Vibe Check #1"
author: "Thomas Wilson"
date: 2022-02-28T19:58:00
slug: "2022-02-28-vibe-check-1"
draft: false
tags: 
    - vibe-check
---

It's basically March and the days are finally getting longer!  On Sunday, the sun was up to greet me as I made coffee.  Tiny sweet peas and strawberries bud on the window sill.  The flow of spring into winter feels miraculous.

It's getting lighter, but it's secretly the coldest, wettest month.  That's how it feels, I've no idea what the data says.

Things I've done this month which have brought me joy:

* Consumed a full Christmas dinner for the third month in a row.  I cooked some of the best roast potatoes I've ever made, and introduced three other people to their first meat-free roast.  
* Went for a two hour walk in the Chilterns, and discovered a feeling wholly like the green Downs of home.  Walk was promptly followed by a Sunday lunch and glass of wine in a prop'r pub, complete with locals, dogs, and an outhouse.
* DM'd my first ever game of Dungeons and Dragons, and I loved every minute, baby.
* Took a four day weekend, for no reason other than "I had leave to take".  The joy of taking an hour walk to read my book in a cafe, at two in the afternoon, while others worked.  Simple joy.
* Discovered some _excellent_ Columbian coffee from [Newground](https://www.newgroundcoffee.com/shop/coffee).  Truly, it's like apple cherry coke.
* Made my first Spring meal of the year (Anna Jones' [Spring Onion and Pea Fritters](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/06/vegetable-fritter-recipe-anna-jones-the-modern-cook)).  My favourite Spring meal remains pea risotto, cooked while consuming white wine.  Something to look forward to, brightly.

We're now _in_ to 2022.  It's begun, and the peace and hope of New Year's have fallen away.  I find my head more full of ideas and problems, of managing a maturing engineering team in a fast-moving organisation.  And also of a semi home-brew D&D campaign.  Routine and way-finding are butting heads (I should write horoscopes).

To my delight, I find myself still reading.  Highlights this month include:

* [Shadow of the Gods](https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/John-Gwynne/The-Shadow-of-the-Gods/25534879), by John Gywnne.  This is the first Norse-mythology book I've read (sorry Neil Gaiman), and right now I'm confused by all the names.  I've got five hundred and fifty more pages to get familiar with it.
* [Deep Work](https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Cal-Newport/Deep-Work--Rules-for-Focused-Success-in-a-Distracted-World/17808018), by Cal Newport.  Extremely good, tyrannically anti social media in places, though. 
* [The Last Wish](https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Andrzej-Sapkowski/The-Last-Wish--Introducing-the-Witcher---Now-a-major-Netflix-show/24718223), after being somewhat baffled by _The Witcher_ Netflix series, I find myself equally baffled by the odd dialogue in this collection of short stories.  Am I supposed to just _know_ what a Bruxa is, Mr Sapkowski?
* [Meditations](https://www.waterstones.com/book/meditations/marcus-aurelius/gregory-hays/9780753820162), by Marcus Aurelius.  It's not a book to devour.