Adrian is practising multiplication. Not just simple times tables anymore – now one of the terms is a double-digit number, so it’s two for one and some addition and memory training as well.

I make up the problems for him by randomly sprinkling numbers on the page. I usually skip one (too easy) and start at two. Work my way from two to nine and put each number on a random line in the first position, and repeat that until there’s a number on each line. Three cycles gives me 24 lines which is roughly what I can fit on a normal page of squared paper. Then put a multiplication sign on each line. Then do three cycles from two to nine again for the first digit of the second term, and then the same again for the second digit. Voila – random maths problems on demand.

Chestnuts are kind of weird. They’re so weirdly large and fleshy to begin with. And so weirdly smooth inside, as if they were man-made and polished, but thorny on the outside.

It’s chestnut season. Chestnuts are large and slippery and I actually need to look out for them if I don’t want to twist my ankle.

I’m happy that I’ve managed to keep up with my daily walks for exercise.

The washing machine started complaining about an E-18 and refused to drain itself. Upon inspecting the drainage filter, foreign objects were discovered.

Guess who forgot to empty their pockets before throwing their trousers in the laundry hamper…

We went for a walk on Järvafältet. Eric wanted to do some recon for their upcoming scout hike. And since we were going out anyway, we might as well grill some sausages, too.

I’m really pleased with the pop-up grill I bought a while back. Easy to pack, lightweight, easy to assemble. The only small problem it has is that the coals end up slightly too far from the food, but that’s easily fixed by propping up the bottom slightly with a rock once the actual fire is finished and the coals are down to a glow.

Mud cake (kladdkaka), of course, and balloons.

Friday night is movie night.

All the covid restrictions will be lifted on September 29th and it’s time to start getting rehabituated to office life again. At least a little bit. Show my face, get to know all the new colleagues who have joined and whom I’ve never seen – and the all ones I’ve interviewed but not met in real life.

I’m thinking Fridays at the tretton37 office to begin with, and adding some other day at the Urb-it office later.

It’s going to be good, I know, but the idea of getting up early and then having to commute there and back still doesn’t makes me happy. But tretton37 treats us all to lunch once a month and tomorrow is one of those days so that’ll give me that extra push to get me out the door.

Since I have no permanent desk at the office any more, I’m going to have to carry an awful lot of stuff with me if I want to work comfortably. There will be a desk and a chair and a monitor, and I’m sure I’ll find an OK keyboard. I’m actually not too fussed about keyboards these days, as long as they provide a minimum of tactile feedback and aren’t completely flat.

But I’m going to want my wireless mouse, and my mouse mat with wrist support. And since I’m sure I’ll spend a few hours in meetings, I’ll want a proper webcam (because the built-in one in the Dell laptops is, unfathomably, situated under the screen for a truly horrible camera angle) and a proper microphone (because the built-in one sucks, and I’ve never become friends with tiny in-ear headphones, and a large headset is even bulkier than my microphone/speaker puck). Plus the computer, and a pair of indoor shoes, and my rucksack is going to be full and heavy.

It turns out that my webcam fits perfectly inside the lens bags for my old Nikon lenses. The bags are just the right size and shape, and soft and padded of course. I lost the camera and its lenses in the burglary four years ago but I still have the lens bags. They’re well-made so I didn’t have the heart to throw them out. Now they come in very handy.

The sun is low enough in the mornings for candlelit breakfasts to make sense.

It’s been weeks and weeks since I had a proper workout. I’ve been going out for brisk walks every day during my lunch break, but actually working out hasn’t happened. I just haven’t been able to make myself do it. The dumbbells were literally covered by a layer of dust.

I did work out today, though! It doesn’t feel like much, but one workout is better than none.

To my great disappointment I discovered that the workout videos I used to watch on YouTube are now all full of ads. I guess they tried to get me hooked during the pandemic and hoped that I’d start paying for premium access to keep watching now. I’m really not fond of YouTube as a platform so that’s a total no. And the ads are so annoying – how the heck am I supposed to work out if the workout gets interrupted by an ad in the middle of my set of lunges?! – that the whole thing makes me like YouTube less than ever.

Luckily I can watch HASfit workout videos on their own site. And in fact I’m much more willing to support them on Patreon than pay for YouTube.

I’m going to miss my PopSugar workouts with Raneir, though…