I feel old.

Before this year I felt like I was slightly ahead of the curve, somehow cheating time. Now it seems as if the clock has caught up.

Within the space of a month I:

1. Ran a half marathon PB¹
2. Threw myself around the Marlow Frankenstein
3. Went hiking in Sedona and The Grand Canyon

A list I recounted to my physio as he diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis and prescribed me with twelve weeks of rest and rehab exercises. At least I had an answer as to why it was agony trying to walk each morning.

I spent a few lonely weeks not going in to the office, and stopped doing any running or bouldering. I went from ~25 miles a week to zero, dropped a few climbing grades whilst at it, and had to skip the annual snowboarding holiday.

The constant allure of biscuits means I have piled on the weight I had lost prior to my PB. My trousers and shirts are creaking at the seams.

I’ve got back to tiny amounts of running, but it’s incredibly demoralising. Being both very difficult because of how out of shape I am as well as the new requirement to manage the pain in my feet.

All in all, I just feel a bit awful.

Work

The last year has involved the unexpectedly quick transition from “AI is just a fancy auto-complete” to “AI can write almost all of my code for me”.

This is the biggest shift I have experienced since responsive design. The former was a bit less depressing.

Since early 2024 we have been visiting Tibet Kitchen for lunch on a Tuesday².

Around April 2024 Abby set up a “Ti-bingo” board, and we diligently began collecting the little order slips they would hand us each week.

One fated afternoon last month Flora was handed the coveted 69 slip and our quest was complete.

Behold its glory!

Uninterested by this obvious success the higher-ups decided they needed to make significant changes to the team. I am furious and heartbroken. We were the best. I love you all.

Rumour has it, the bingo board is cursed.

Play

The aforementioned hiking trip in Sedona and The Grand Canyon was spectacular.

Tom, Milly, and I tagged on a few days of holiday after the December work trip so that we could see what else Arizona has to offer. It certainly didn’t disappoint.

It’s always interesting, crossing the rubicon from colleagues to pals but I don’t think I annoyed them too much as they drove me around³ in the frankly ridiculous SUV that we rented.

I also spent a week in Pisa with Chris and Natália which was a perfect blend of beach, art, culture, food, walking, running, and trains.

During that holiday I realised I was completely disconnected from art. We happened to stumble on the Tracey Emin exhibition Sex and Solitude on our day trip to Florence. It seemed a little ironic to be at the exhibition of an English artist whilst in Italy but I’m glad we didn’t let that stop us buying a ticket. I had forgotten how much I love wandering around art galleries.

On my return I briefly took up sketching before coming to terms with the fact that I already have too many hobbies and I am also rubbish at it.

Paint

I have hammered more wars than can possibly be healthy. Attending two team tournaments, multiple singles events, as well as joining the local league that runs at Tabletop Republic. It’s been really great getting to know the local community and see a lot of familiar faces along the way.

My ability to actually play the game is still severely lacking so I can count my wins on one hand. At least I was able to add a wooden spoon to my small collection of hobby awards⁴.

After the London Grand Tournament in September, I vowed that I wouldn’t play T’au at the next one and immediately set to building a new Emperor’s Children army.

I got to 2,000 points of assembled models pretty quickly, and then batch based, primed and base coated before getting every model “battle ready”. Which you can think of as the bare minimum required to fly under the radar of the tournament referees.

Once the whole army was ready for the tabletop I was able to start playing games, and those games have spurred me on to work in to models and get them actually looking good.

I’ve really enjoyed the pace of this project, and the positive feedback loop of getting to put models on the table quickly which inspires me to finish them off and make them look the best I can.

I also built myself a big crab guy.

Paint Work

I have some sort of renewed focus to ship things for the Paint Pad. I’m going to hope that lasts a while longer than usual.

I did manage to get the new version of the hobby log⁵ out the door. A small number of users have taken to it, whilst the vast majority of users don’t know it exists.

Marketing is potentially the biggest problem that needs solving but I have absolutely no energy for it.

I still have a huge backlog of paint ranges that people want adding to the site and I have decided the only logical answer is to let people add them themselves. I’m figuring out exactly how that should work at the moment.

Things

• Book: Ordinary Saints
• Comic: —
• Game: Hades II⁶
• Film: Barbarian
• TV show: The Celebrity Traitors
• Album: We Could Be Brave by Michael Cera Palin
• Gig: Pool Kids at The Garage
• Podcast: The Rest is Science
• Show: Riki Lindhome: Dead Inside at Soho Theatre
• YouTube: Cracking The Cryptic⁷
• Twitch: quinndota

Finally

As I scroll up and down this post, pecking away at each section I continue to wonder how writing is supposed to work.

David is the greatest runner I know. He’s a pretty alright person as well.

Matt and I are akin to the Chuckle Brothers.

I only see extended family for sad reasons.

It’s hard to keep in contact with everyone I care about, especially when I frequently fail to reply to messages.

This post was written by hand in a text editor like it’s the olden days.

I have caught Angine de Poitrine fever along with the rest of the internet.

Invites to 40th birthday parties are the new invites to weddings.

Time to try and get back in shape. The gym is calling.

I’m flying back to Arizona this afternoon. What a weird little life I lead.

Onwards.