Mostly: I went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by sleeper train.
This makes this update less of a "what I got done" week notes, I'm afraid 🤷
The Train:
Good: The food, the general experience, seeing Canada.
Good: The station is right down town!
Bad: (for me) sleeping in a car which starts and stops is surprisingly unpleasant.
Bad: The train was hours late due to freight having priority. Obviously: if you're taking a 23 hour train you are not in a hurry, but also what is the point of scheduled arrival times under this system?
I've never liked a city as quickly as I liked Halifax. The climate feels a bit closer to growing up in Ireland (over on the other side of the Atlantic), but is still definitely Canadian. There's Irish on signs occasionally, and on billboards. It's about half the size of Ottawa and has a heavily used (and seemingly sensible) transit system.
H and I enjoyed staying in an apartment, and really thought about the burden having hobbies which require so much space and material creates. We have both started serious clear-outs of our stuff and reprioritizing of hobbies since coming home. I'd rather enjoy doing 2 or 3 things well than be stressed by the ~10 things I could be doing, all of which I am bad at. The most obvious way this manifests is in tools, especially infrequently used ones like the welder. I don't want a huge heavy piece of equipment (and attendant safety gear) because once every year or two I want to join two pieces of steel. It's silly.
I have the longest gap in my GitHub history since leaving work, I think. I brought a computer with me on vacation, but aside from processing some photos, I didn't push anything anywhere or take part in any for-fun programming.
Speaking of which: I have my cameras set to using a high-contrast black and white filter and have Shotwell using the camera's RAW developer. As much as possible I am trying to commit to shooting 4:3 or 1:1 monochrome this year. I took more photos on vacation than for months before that; I'd really like to shoot more.
Finally: I cracked my rib removing the tumble dryer so our washing machine could be replaced. It sucks: it's a small enough issue to not need treatment or painkillers (yay) but a big enough issue to stop you doing things and it's still, you know, a bit painful.