No Bank Holidays for Old Men

A combination of having to get up early for work and the Easter four-day bank holiday weekend mean that it’s been a busy and tiring week so far for me.

I’ve been trying and failing to stop myself from passing out as soon as I get back home each day, but I’ve still managed to watch a fair bit of the Artemis II mission. I was glad to see that they’ve now achieved their main mission objective of going around the far side of the moon.

Turns out they didn’t need to use their Speedmasters after all.

art002e009288 (April 6, 2026) – Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. Image Credit: NASA

I also found time to make a few small tweaks to the blog, including adding a ‘Music Playlist’ in the sidebar at the suggestion of Claude – an allegedly conscious AI chatbot that’s helped me fix a few things using it’s programming abilities. All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with the way things look here at the moment.

As I usually say whenever I start a *new* blog though – things here may still change or move around at short notice, so don’t panic if things here look broken or slightly different from the last time you visited.

I’m on a training course tomorrow so I get to have a small lie-in in the morning, then just one more early shift to go before I finally get my four-day weekend off.

First of Seven

It was good to have a couple of days away from work, and even better that the weather’s been decent for a change except that it still felt a little cold and breezy out in the spring sunshine.

I intentionally slept in late on both of my days off, but even though I went to bed super early last night I’ve only had a minimal amount of sleep before having to force myself out of my pit in the middle of the night in preparation for the first of a week of early shifts.

Now I wouldn’t normally have had to wake up quite so early, but once again the National Rail is closed for bank holiday weekend engineering work, which means I’m relying on buses, and have to take the earlier one in order to avoid being late for work.

So, for all the above reasons, posting here will probably be light for the next week-or-so.

Timezones

The clocks went forward in the early hours of Sunday morning so we’re now running on British Summertime rather than GMT, although summer itself still seems a way off just yet.

It’s been a long week of late shifts and I’ve been prioritising my sleep over staying up late after work. But even though I’ve been getting in a good amount of sleep each night I’ve still been feeling tired when I eventually rise from my pit each morning.

At least I’ve only got one more late shift to go until my rest days, which, this week are Wednesday and Thursday.

I don’t have much of any significance planned for my days off other than watching the Atemis II launch, which, at the time of writing has a targeted launch time of 18:24 EDT (23:24 BST) on Wednesday. Then I’ll likely continue to follow the mission in real time on the NASA website.

As there is no currently agreed Coordinated Lunar Time on the moon, the mission will likely operate on Universal Coordinated Time, so that’s BST+1 for us Brits.

Instead of wearing my Omega Speedmaster, which I’ll save for the actual Lunar landing, for this mission I’m going to be wearing my ‘Mission to the Moon’ MoonSwatch. I’m hoping that the Artemis II crew won’t need to use their Speedmasters like the Apollo 13 crew had to back in 1970.

Godspeed, you steely-eyed missile people.

NMIXX in London

NMIXX were playing at the Hammersmith Apollo yesterday, as I found out when I piled though the station alongside a few hundred fans on my way home from work last night.

Some of the fans were carrying banners whilst others had lightsticks or were clutching oversized photos of the members. And although I’m not really a fan of the group or their music myself, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit envious seeing all those who got to go to the gig.

I was surprised to learn while writing this post that there’s a pop-up store at Waterloo station with timed slots for entry, so I’ve booked an afternoon slot for later today so that I can have a quick look around even though I’m not sure if I’ll have time to stop by on my way into work or not.

Strange Times

I worked my first night shift in a couple of months last night, and consequently, when I woke up mid-afternoon after six hours of sleep I was tired and disorientated, and I had a dull migraine that was almost certainly caused by the spring sunshine attempting to burn it’s way through my bedroom’s blackout blinds.

A couple of paracetamol later and I’m sitting in front of my computer, finishing off my third cup of coffee and contemplating ordering myself a pink mohair cardigan in the mid-season sale. Bearing in mind that I did actually buy the flared jeans that I said I was going to get last week, and these are strange times fashion-wise for an old man like me.

Anyway, the fashion strangeness continues:

Korea Herald » Dress like a poet, express inner identity and stay on trend
“A quiet, introspective mood is reshaping fashion. Dubbed “poetcore,” the trend channels the romantic sensibility of writers into understated silhouettes… extending literary influence beyond bookshelves and into wardrobes.“

Yes, ‘poetcore’ is apparently a thing.

And this:

FEMA Official Claims He Sometimes Spontaneously Teleports, Including Once Directly to a Waffle House 50 Miles Away
“I ended up at a Waffle House, like, 50 miles away from where I was.”

Strange times indeed.

auglie – secret

A great little electro-ambiient track that’s been on my Apple Music playlist ever since it dropped at the end of last year.

Links to stream or purchase on Apple Music, Bandcamp and Spotify here.

Journeyman

I took this photo on the train into work this morning as I thought that the sunrise looked particularly spectacular.

Unfortunately, this is my last early morning shift for a while, and consequently, it’ll be a a couple of weeks before I get to see another sunrise (or a sunset for that matter) again.

Len Deighton is Dead

According to the BBC, British spy novelist Len Deighton has died. He was 97 years old.

Perhaps his most famous work, 1962's The Ipcress File was turned into a Bafta-winning film starring Michael Caine,

The story involved Cold War brainwashing and the development and testing of atomic weapons. Unlike James Bond, however, Deighton's secret agents were ordinary working-class people, often frustrated by the incompetence of their own side.

I particularly liked this quote of his:

“The best thing about writing books is being at a party and telling some pretty girl you write books. The worst thing about writing books is sitting at a typewriter and actually writing the book.”

Is the Herman Miller Embody Chair Worth It?

I’ve been wanting to replace my cheap and uncomfortable eight year-old IKEA computer chair for a while now, and did have it in mind to pick up a discounted or even a second-hand Herman Miller Aeron office chair in the Black Friday sales last year.

But instead of an Aeron I’m now thinking to go all in with the upgrade and treat myself to a super expensive HM Embody gaming chair instead. However, even if I could pick one up in the sales and as good as ithey are at supporting your back and your body, I’m wondering if the Embody is too much chair for me?

I realise that I’m not going to be able to answer that question until I actually get to sit in one for real, so I’m planning on stopping by the MillerKnowll flagship store to try one out for myself before I even start to think about spending the money and ordering one online.

Still, no matter how I try and justify it by telling myself it’ll be worth it given the amount of time I spend in front of my computer each day, £1715 is almost certainly too much money for a gaming chair, no?