Category: Life

The brand-new Apple Watch 4 came out yesterday, so users of older models may be considering using Apple’s Giveback scheme to get some money towards the new one. But, certainly in the UK, this doesn’t work quite as well as you’d hope.

As the world’s (very unofficial) most carnivorous person, it would be a cold day in hell that I’d become vegetarian, right? Well, get the blankets and fire extinguisher out as I’m nearly (but not totally) there. A couple of weeks ago I became tee-total and, starting next week, I’ll be nearly vegetarian. Let me explain…

It was my wife’s 40th birthday back in June (which I’m sure she won’t appreciate me announcing here) and, as her present, she wanted to see a West End show. We booked tickets to see Wicked in August, which we now just back from.

When booking, I decided that a made rush down to London, a show and then rush back wouldn’t be the nice, relaxed day out my wife was hoping for, so I made an early decision that we should stay in London for one night.

Working for the WordPress.com VIP team, I deal with a lot of enterprise-level clients and, although I’ve been working there for over a year and a half now, my experience of technical support goes back over 25 years before this. So, I thought it was time to share some of my knowledge. And, you know, little of this is mind-blowing stuff.

So, let’s talk about improving your own support abilities by tracking the work of others.

24 years ago my wife’s family all got together at Killerby Old Hall in Yorkshire for a holiday. Last week it was repeated – same location but a much different family.

My wife’s parents have passed on and some of the family couldn’t make it but it’s still obvious that the family has expanded greatly over those 24 years.

Here’s my diary of the week.

One of the amazing rewards that Automattic gives to its employees is a 3 month, fully paid, sabbatical every 5 years. But it got me thinking… would there be a benefit in a more regular “micro sabbatical”?

The above photo was taken 24 years ago at Killerby Old Hall during my wife’s family holiday. Last week we returned to the same location.

At least 12 members of the family are missing from this photo. Yeah, it’s grown.