Month: July 2021

Sorry New York State I Have Moved On

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I get it NY state. I know I am a catch. The thing is I have moved on. You need to get over me.For some reason even after I have moved overseas over nearly 4 years ago I keep getting emails about renewing my drivers license. That is normal. I get it you are trying to be friendly. The thing is the license expired years ago. By your own rules its expired. Even with you special Covid rules about renewing. It has expired.

You need to just get over it. Me and my tax money left in 2017 and its not coming back. You will always be my first drivers license. I have fond memories.

Ted Lasso’s Pop Culture Infusion

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Last night M and I watched the latest Ted Lasso episodes. We were both pleased to see that season two’s first episode was out. I find the show pretty funny and I’m trying to learn football along with Ted. Ok only sort of.

I love the Random pop culture references the writers throw in all the time. After this last episode it was pretty clear (to me) that I was going to have to put on some Gin Blossoms afterwards. Not at all ashamed to say I liked them in University and still do.

This morning as I was walking to Sainsbury’s sure enough I put on a Gin Blossims playlist. Thanks Ted.

Once I got to Sainsbury’s I realised they don’t open until 11 on a Sunday. Full disclosure I realise this when the doors would not open and the place was dark 🙂 The only way this story is related to Ted Lasso is the Sainsbury’s story happened while listening to Hey Jealousy.

I’ve been in this country for 3 1/2 years and sometimes I forget where I am. I somehow was expecting New York hours on a Sunday. On the plus side Costa Coffee was open. I don’t have my coffee before leaving for the market so I was able to sit and dictate this post to Siri.

W Sisters and the Last Day of Infants School

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It does not feel like it was that long ago that my kids were in enrolling in school after we moved to London. My oldest was in Reception and youngest was in Nursery. They were both in the same Infants school.

This week marks the end of the school year. It also marks the end of an era. Both kids now have moved on from the Infant school to the Junior school.

When the oldest moved on last year it felt different yes, however not that different. The younger one was still in the was still in the infants school. Now both girls out of the infants school it forces me to address the fact that they are getting older. The alternative is for me to irrationally ignore that fact that they are getting older. Of course I am going to go for irrationally ignore that and enjoy they are still adorable even thought not in that Nursery or even year 2 kind of way.

With the girls out of school since Wednsday I took 2 days off. We went to a museum they really like, their favorate ice cream place as well as a play date. I feel very accomplished.

We Are Inching Closer to Following Football

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I think the whole family is slowly getting into football. The girls convinced me to stay up a bit beyond their bedtime to watch the beginning of the game. I did however they really did not get to watch much. Their interest was good.

I can see some aspects of the game that keeps things interesting. Even after the girls are in bed now I have the game on the BBC! We will know I am hooked when I purchase team swag. I haven’t, yet…

My Experience With Our School Acceptable Usage Policy For Parents

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One of our daughters is moving up into a new school. As part of this transition there is a lot of paperwork to fill out. I could rant that in 2021 why is there 25 pages or more of physical papers i need to fill out instead of some online form. I could however this post isn’t about that. Within that paperwork is a document that I need to sign called the “Acceptable Usage Policy for Parents”. It relates to technology and social media.

In theory i like the idea of the document. It outlines what us as parents should be doing and not doing related to our kids, other kids and the internet. The document is written for people of all levels of technical experience. That is why when i read the section that starts with “I understand that whilst home networks are much less secure than school ones…” i could not stop laughing. I thought it was very cute they thought their network was more secure than most people’s houses. For one thing with so many people and devices coming and going from their network i doubt that statement is true for most people. It is laughable in relation to my home network.

I am not even a network security expert. I know most of my non-tech friends think I am however I am no where even close. The last time i logged onto a firewall that wasn’t my own must have been 2006. Still yeah sorry school that I won’t say its name, no you are not more secure than home networks. I wouldn’t even think of joining your network without a VPN.

Thanks for turning a morning of filling out boring forms into an entertaining blog post though!

Note the photo is unrelated to this post. I needed something “techie” as the default photo for this. I took the photo of my iBook circa 1999 a week or so ago when i powered it up to check it still works. It does.

I wouldn’t

Apple Watch Went British

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My Apple Watch is sporting UK colours for the Tokyo Olympics. Well in commemorating the Tokyo Olympics Apple came out with Country colour watchbands. I was already debating another band for my watch so I was intrigued at the options.

Out of all the national ones to choose from I thought i could only get away with the UK or US ones.Out of all the options I kind of liked the Swedish one the best. Since I don’t live there and really have no affiliation to their Olympic team I went with the Great Britain colour scheme.

To all my American friends and family that is not a political statement. I kind of just liked it better than the stars and stripes American one.

I am still torn on who I will be rooting for in the Olympics. Either no one since I doubt I’ll watch it or the US team.

For full disclosure that watch face is on my watch however i am not using it since other than for this photo and to show off how cool it is. Using it totally takes away from the added value of the shortcuts on almost all the other watch faces of the watch.