Daily Life

Know your limits

Posted on 2013-09-07 16:41 by rv

Recently I keep running into limitations. My knee started acting up again, and is, in fact, still slightly hurting. I have to face the reality that as I get older this will only get worse. My days of mountain climbing are not quite at an end, but I'll definitely have to start taking it more seriously than I've done in the past. In this case I am comparing my performance against that of my past self, and have to accept that I can't expect to magically have the same body as I used to have. It's something I have to work for.

Another limit I'm thinking about recently is work-related. There's two areas of work where I'd like to improve myself in and, again based on past experience, am expecting more of: intellectual fulfillment and income. But this feeling of wanting to have more does not come from comparing myself against my past; I'm earning more than ever before, and since I joined Potato my work has seen millions of users. But at the same time I've been imprinting on myself the same ambition that so many of my peers have: that of being your own boss, having your own company, doing your own startup, setting your own rules.. The people I look up to in life all have moved in this direction, so naturally I am steering myself towards that goal as well.

But that's not something you can do blindly and expect it to work. Everyone has their own personality, their own quirks and their own hidden goals that they may or may not be aware of. In my case I've devoted a large part of my life to being flexible in where I live. This has affected some of my career choices, of course. Besides that, a lot of people in my profession can never let go of programming. Whenever they're not working (late) they're doing some side project at home. I'm just not like that. Usually after a long day of work I don't want to do any programming any more, unless there happens to be a side project that I'm extremely enthusiastic about. Occasionally I do get a random urge to program, but it's nowhere near as often as other programmers I know. Activity, like the place where you live, should be flexible.

Everyone is walking their own path, but when you have so much in common with the people around you it's sometimes hard to see where theirs ends and yours begins. Programming for me is a tool that enables me to live the kind of life that I want to live. It's a means, not an end. And that's ok.

Posted in Daily Life , Thoughts

Karting!

Posted on 2013-08-31 15:49 by rv

I woke up at 6:50AM today to get to the Daytona Sandown karting track, which was all the way in the South of London. But it was worth it. It was the first time I did a proper race with strangers; unlike the Potato karting event there were only 6 Potatoes+friends, and 24 strangers. After a 10-minute practice session we were off for a 40-minute race. That's actually quite long!

It was good to drive a proper combustion kart again. The karts weren't quite underpowered but were definitely not overpowered either, so it's always tricky to try and keep the power on. The track was very challenging and proved interesting and difficult to master even after 40 minutes of driving. The competitors came in all shapes, sizes and speeds, and with 30 people on the track I had pre-race worries that it would be a crowded affair, but the track was plenty long and there was lots of space for all of us.

I have to admit that after winning one of the Potato races, even beating Wills who loves racing even more than I do, I was rather overconfident before the race. This only got worse during the race as I ended up passing everyone all the time without getting passed myself, so for a while I thought I was in the lead. But I should have known better, as I did not pass Wills, and he wasn't even in sight. Turns out he was fighting it out with two other guys in close combat, and after that there was a 50-second gap until me. I did manage to climb from 8th to 4th and held on to it, so I guess it's not all bad.

After the race finished my hands and arms were shaking; it's quite hard work wrestling a kart into position, especially for an un-exercised person like me. Despite that I somehow managed to cycle home, which took about two hours, and now I'm completely exhausted. Great day.

Must do this more often!

Posted in Daily Life | Tagged karting

Earplugs

Posted on 2013-07-30 22:28 by rv

Every morning at 6:30 my housemate wakes up and starts doing the dishes in the kitchen right next to my bedroom. Then around 7:30 the street cleaning truck drives past right underneath my window, which tends to be closed but lately is open because of the heat. Even when closed I can hear the truck clearly though. In the evening there's loud music and the sound of dodgy people loudly swearing on the streets. Yes, England is just wonderful.

But you need earplugs.

Not much to say here. I've tried 3 types. Here's the verdict.

Gel earplugs: one-time use only, they feel disgusting and fell out quite easily.
Wax earplugs: one-time use only, kinda hard to put in and slightly painful at first, but they really drown out the noise well.
Plain old foam earplugs: reusable, washable, decent noise reduction and easy to put in. Recommended.

Posted in Daily Life , UK | Tagged earplugs

Short thoughts

Posted on 2013-07-20 16:01 by rv

Food in London

Polish shops are open 24/7 (or close to it). The food there is so cheap that it almost makes you forget about the bad taste.

Kebab shops: they're everywhere but 9 out of 10 kebabs taste like crap.

Indian food: they're everywhere but 9 out of 10 restaurants give you bad afteraffects on the toilet.

Tesco Express: all the food you could conceivably want to buy, yet somehow it all TASTES LIKE CRAP.

Pizza: 9 out of 10 pizza chefs have never seen a real pizza. The one that has doesn't deliver to your home. Seriously, people should be punished for calling something a pizza when it's clearly a piece of dog turd.

Pret, Eat and Itsu: these are, much to my surprise, London's last hope.

Landlords, foreigners.

Every time I talk to my landlord I realize what an awesome guy he is. He could've just kicked me out and forgotten about me, but he is taking care of every single person that is renting with him. The new place is still not finished, but I'm confident that it'll be nice. Not due to the builders, mind you. According to my landlord they're assholes first class, and he now regrets going for the cheapest option. Well, that's my spin on it. His version was a bit more.. racist. It's sometimes a bit too easy to be racist when you find that some people conform exactly to their nation's stereotype. Must be careful not to fall for that one.

Freedom / cycling

I wonder how many times I wrote a blogpost titled 'freedom'. Today I cycled 45km and I regained that old feeling that I never truly felt in the UK. I always felt threatened here while cycling; this country is not nice to cyclists at all. Whenever I used to cycle on a busy road, which is inevitable given the sorry state of the so-called 'cycle network' in the UK, I always felt worried that drivers would not give me enough space or bump into me. This was perhaps not entirely irrational, but I've only had one close encounter in the UK and that was in central London. The countryside is very much like Japan, and I feel confident again to take my rightful place on the road. That, combined with the fact that my butt is starting to conform to the new saddle, means that I feel free to cycle anywhere I want. Total freedom achieved. Country unlocked. Next!

Old age

When I was 25 years old I cycled across half of Japan; how could I possibly be more fit than that? I used to think that I would never get as fit as I was then, but lately I feel like challenging that. Even back then my endurance/stamina was not that good. I don't think I've got more stamina now than I did then, but it's close. I did lose a lot of muscle and gained a lot of weight, but I'm at a point where I have confidence that I can fix it. All I have to do is cycle more. A lot more.

Posted in Daily Life , Thoughts

In the saddle

Posted on 2013-07-14 20:05 by rv

In Japan I used to cycle from home to the seaside, which was about 12.5km. The route was pretty much completely flat and competely straight. The only obstacles on the way were traffic lights. 12km is the perfect distance for me to push myself, take a break and then cycle back. I used to be able to do that course in 34 minutes ?? seconds, I forget the exact time. Despite the traffic lights being fairly random I was quite consistent in hitting that time. It was the first I ever truly 'got' that sensation you get from physical exercise, of being relaxed yet hyped up, of being tired yet aware. It's when you know that you're alive.

Now I have new destination: my girlfriend's place! It's also about 12.5km away, but it has a bit more obstacles and challenges. First off, my home is on a hill, so leaving the house is easy and getting back is a pain. There's hardly a flat bit on the way, but I'd say it's about 10% flat, 70% significant downhill and 20% significant uphill. Nowhere near mountainous of course, but enough to make you stop pedaling when going down or start sweating when going up.

There's a couple of big multi-lane roundabouts on the course that are surprisingly easy to tackle because there's never that much traffic. There's always room for a bicycle to sneak in and take it halfway. The road narrows a lot in several areas where there's a middle section to allow pedestrians to cross. Cars tend to wait their turn when it gets narrow but I've had some bastard bus driver encounters where the gap was a bit too narrow for my liking (but still safe). What's worse, sometimes the road surface is crap because of heavy trucks pushing all the asphalt to the side, creating a sort of hill right where bicycles are supposed to cycle, and the only way to avoid it is by cycling on the middle of the road. Which is of course what I do. If this country can't provide decent roads for cycling then I feel no remorse about being in the way of car drivers when I have to.

Slightly past halfway there's a very weird multi-story triple roundabout, which I avoid entirely by going underneath it via a dedicated cycle way. It means I have to spiral down, then up, then down again (or vice versa). After that there's a bit of uphill and then another massive roundabout, always full of cars, where I have to go three quarters. Taking it through sidewalks is a bit of a pain, so it depends on traffic on whether I take it as a pedestrian or as a car. After that it's downhill all the way to my girlfriend's house!

I feel healthy again, and comfortable on the bike. This feeling coincided with the cycling trip and changing my saddle, both of which contributed to the feeling. The new saddle is tough and slightly painful in the beginning, but I remember the feeling well, and it's how I'm supposed to feel when riding a bicycle. When I feel my butt on the saddle like that, I know all is right with the world. And after the cycling trip in Holland I feel completely comfortable on my 'new' bicycle, which is now almost a year old. I know how it reacts, I know what I can and can't do with it. It's where I belong.

Posted in Cycling , Daily Life , Thoughts

I feel the need to cycle

Posted on 2013-06-06 11:41 by rv

Might be doing Sri Lanka this summer with Kamil. I'm feeling free-er and free-er lately. Japan is not finished yet. Perhaps I can do New Zealand this winter. Life is not about work. Life is about roads.

Posted in Cycling , Daily Life

I AM A WIZARD

Posted on 2013-05-31 21:19 by rv

Just now, I was watching a special about the Office UK on the right of my screen, and browsed Office UK videos on youtube on the left. Somehow, I managed to click a video, fairly at random, and I happened to choose a video which had the EXACT SAME FRAGMENT that just appeared on the right side of the screen, within half a second of each other. I AM A WIZARD.

This will never happen again in my entire life.

Posted in Daily Life

My room

Posted on 2013-05-20 22:16 by rv

Picture does not include sound.

Posted in Daily Life , UK

Brighton

Posted on 2013-05-19 11:06 by rv

Posted in Daily Life , UK

Moving

Posted on 2013-05-07 22:03 by rv

It looks like my days at Caldwell Road are at an end, at least for now. My landlord has decided to flatten my little apartment to the ground and builder two larger apartments in the same spot. In the meantime I will move out to a place that is closer to the station yet in a slightly dodgier area, more spacious than my current place yet shared with others. I am trading in privacy for convenience.

My landlord has been very accommodating to me. He's a proper human being, not an evil profit machine like my old landlord. He's offered to let me stay at reduced price at another apartment he's managing, so it all works out quite well for me. You may wonder why I'm not more negative about being 'evicted' from my home. There's a very simple reason for that: the contract we signed stipulates a one-month notice period and can be terminated at any time. So all my landlord had to do was tell me to bugger off and he would be done with me. Instead, he arranged a place for me, reduced the rent, he'll have a van and mover ready to help me move out on Friday, and best of all, he'll give me first choice of the new apartments once they're done. Brilliant guy.

The new apartments are supposed to be done in the beginning of July. I'm not sure if he'll make that deadline, but I can live with it if it takes a little longer. I've been here for about 9 months now. Time flies. I feel like I'm getting older twice as fast every year.

I'm quite happy here. The commute is a bit long, but simple and comfortable, and at least I don't have to be in godawful central London in the weekend. There's plenty of cycling to do around here, and as I slowly get in shape the fact that my house is in a bloody valley is starting to matter less and less. This place really is brilliant during spring and summer days. My previous place in Ealing was a rathole, no matter which way you put it. But I've escaped, and now I'm going somewhere else again.

New things were learned. Old things were put into practice. Yet more things remain to be found out.

Here we go.

Posted in Daily Life , Thoughts

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