Life changes:

• Changed jobs. Left ReQtest, which had changed beyond recognition during the past year, and joined tretton37 as a consultant.
• Started playing Pokemon Go. Which is definitely not in the same category as a new job, but it’s something that is a part of my life now that I used to think I’d never do. But Adrian and Ingrid started, I sort of joined half-heartedly and passively, then Eric wanted to see it was all about, which made me start playing “for real” – and here we all are. I have mixed feelings about the game. I like it because it’s something that gets us all out of the house on those gray days. But I also dislike it because it’s such an attention magnet.

Achievements:

• Learned F#. I undertook this as a mini-project during my first few weeks at tretton37 while I had no client project to work on. It was quite a struggle at first, since I was determined to write “proper”, functional F# rather than following the imperative patterns I am used to. But it got easier with time. I can’t think of a situation where I would choose to use it “for real” but it was interesting to learn.
• Planted two sections of hedge.

Memorable events: mostly travels.

• February: family ski trip, the first one for all of us together. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4.
• April: ski tour in Jotunheimen. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6
• July: the Estonian Song Festival. Here.
• July: rainy family trip to Cornwall. Rainy. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6
• September: solo hike in Jämtlandsfjällen. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4

And two more distant events:

• The terror attack in central Stockholm in April. Not an event I particularly want to remember, and not one that touched me personally – but a sign of the times.
• The new commuter train stations in Stockholm. A mundane change that I am nevertheless reminded of daily.

Trying to fit all the gifts under the tree. (Which is already shedding needles like crazy.)

Two new stations were built this summer for the commuter train system, one at Stockholm City and one at Odenplan.

The one at Odenplan replaces Karlberg which is the station I used to commute to, so I pass it on my way to and from work (whenever I’m not cycling). It’s got fancy barriers along the platforms, with doors that open to match the train doors.

The other new station, Stockholm City, I haven’t passed through more than once or twice. I rarely have business in central Stockholm. But today I went shopping. (A shop selling outdoor clothing and equipment had a massive sale.)

My overwhelming impression is of spaciousness and light. And escalators. Many, many, many long escalators.

During my summer vacation, I picked up crosswords as a new pastime. After all the pressure at work in June, I needed/wanted something that occupied my brain but at the same time wasn’t useful or productive in any way. It mustn’t feel like work.

I quite like the crosswords that Dagens Nyheter publish during the weekend.

They grade their puzzles on a four-step scale. By now, after weeks of practice, I can mostly finish level three crosswords on my own, only using a thesaurus or a crossword helper site for the last few weird words. The level four puzzles are super hard, and I wouldn’t get anywhere with those using just my own brain – I use every tool I can find, short of asking someone else to solve the clues for me. (Which you can actually do – I discovered there are forums on the Internet where you can ask for help with specific crossword clues.) And still it takes me several days to finish one, off and on, if I succeed at all.

Now I’m back at work. This week, two of the remaining 5 developers joined me in quitting (and two more are clearly heading towards the exit door as well). So the work we are now focusing on is transferring our knowledge about everything to the team in India who will be taking over after us, which means lots of meetings and lots of documentation. This is incredibly boring and I’m finding it hard to remain motivated. In the afternoon, having already spent hours on writing documents, I’m just sitting there, yawning.

To keep awake, I have actually started doing crosswords during work hours. Five minutes here and there, when I feel that I just cannot concentrate on yet another bullet list, makes a difference.

This was our bill for rubbish collection during the last quarter of 2015. Stockholm Vatten collected 19 kg of mixed rubbish and 53 kg of food waste that will be composted or turned into biogas. Mixed rubbish is charged at 1,20 kr/kg and food waste is free of charge. Hardly any general rubbish, in other words, but quite a lot of food waste.

The reason is recycling. Since we got serious about recycling in 2014, we have drastically reduced the amount of actual rubbish we produce. A rubbish bin stands in the corner in the kitchen, but we almost never empty it. It gets emptied bi-weekly by our cleaner, and that is enough. It just does not get full in between, and since it contains little to no food waste, it doesn’t smell either.

Recycling our rubbish has made me more aware of rubbish and what we throw away. The amount of plastic packaging that comes into this house keeps astonishing me. We go through silly amounts of plastic bags, plastic jars and bottles and boxes, plastic clamshell packaging etc. And that doesn’t even include plastic shopping bags, because I use reusable textile bags instead.

Pleased to have “upgraded” from 32 kg to 40 in kettlebell deadlift.

I was too tired to attend my workout session today and I miss it. I’ve only been doing it for two months (less, really, because of the Christmas break) and already it’s a habit and I’m hooked.

It took me a few tries to find a session that really works for me. What I found is cirkelfys – “functional circuit training” with a focus on strength and technique but also a fair amount of balance, flexibility, general fitness etc. The exercises include everything from pushups and burpees to deadlifts and kettlebell swings. I like the high intensity, the variety, and the fact that I pick my own weights and set my own pace.

It’s been years since I last did any kind of sports, apart from everyday exercise such as cycling and walking (not to forget shoveling snow!). I’m neither in great shape nor particularly out of shape. So I’m neither the strongest nor the weakest in the group. Which doesn’t say much because of course the group is self-selecting; the most out-of-shape people don’t go to the gym at all, and the ones in best shape do more intensive workouts.

But the group workout does give me a picture of my relative strengths and weaknesses. I notice which exercises I do with more or less ease than the people next to me. Many of the exercises use weights, and there’s a set of weights laid out for us to choose from. By now I know where to go straight for the lowest weight (because there is no chance that I’d manage to do the exercise properly with a heavier one) and where to aim higher.

I’ve got muscles for walking around and carrying things, but not for lifting, and especially not for lifting anything above my head. I have strong legs and a strong core, but puny arms and shoulders. Sit-ups and burpees and squats: bring them on! But I really with struggle pushups, barbell row and barbell clean.