I’ve decided it’s time to go more independent. And as a result of this I will no longer post new content here on Tumblr. My new home is now https://danielpietzsch.com and you’re very welcome to continue to follow me there.
Here are all the ways you can currently get my updates:
At the start of the year, I picked up swimming again. For the most part I managed to go once per week. It’s the one simple and accessible endurance sport that works for me.
I really enjoy being in the water, listening to the sound it makes as I move through it, and gazing down the blue pool. It’s a good full-body workout, but also very relaxing. I can easily let my mind wander. Which, in contrast, was never true for me when running (which I also occasionally tried in the past), and a big reason that didn’t work for me.
I currently swim a distance of 1500 meters – which means sixty 25-meter lanes – in around 35 minutes. Half breaststroke, half freestyle. That’s a very comfortable pace for me.
Since we’ll be moving soon, I’ll probably won’t go as often during the next month. But I hope I’ll start going regularly again once that’s done.
Today started with a shocker: Our camper was gone from the spot I had parked it a couple of days ago. My heart started racing as I thought it was stolen. I sent Nicole into shock, too, before I realised, I might have parked too close to a fire brigade access – although I took care I wasn’t when parking it1. Sure enough that was the problem and the camper only got towed. Phew! Still, this wasn’t and isn’t a cheap mishap: a big invoice for the towing plus more fines to come, when I interpret the note on the windshield correctly. I guess that’s fair enough. But man, I didn’t have a good day today.
To my defense, suitable parking spots for campers are hard to come by in the city. ↩︎
Journaling again. That’s how it goes when you don’t have anything pre-written. Because so far into this project, I’ve been writing day-to-day, which sometimes means my writing turns out really short or meta. Or it’s a journal entry like this one. So, here we go.
Yesterday night was pretty unusual: Nicole and I went out together, which hasn’t really happened much since we had Zoe. We went to see Mastodon and Kvelertak in Oberhausen. Felt exciting sitting in the car all by ourselves, with a Wegbier, driving into the night. ;-)
And we had a great time. Kvelertak put on their sweeping performance and had the best sound of the night. And Mastodon played an amazing 100+ minute set. We just wished they’d thrown in a couple more of our favourite songs.
Usually I take my camera everywhere, but this time I thought, “nah, let’s just enjoy the gig and do not carry the camera around”! And I regretted that decision. What was I thinking?
Then today I got the other left wisdom tooth removed. This time it was from the upper jaw; maybe that’s why afterwards it’s not hurting as much. Definitely feeling better than last time.
Today I got a wisdom tooth removed. I’m just grateful that we live in times of modern anaesthetics. Didn’t want to have to go through this procedure on Whiskey alone.
They only had time for one of the two teeth that are causing problems, so next week I have another appointment…
While I am speaking of Zoe: she is so much fun at the moment! She’s walking and running, she’s talking (sort of, in her toddler way), she’s dancing, she’s cuddly, she understands a lot of what we say, she’s curious, and – to our great delight – she started giving out kisses, too. 😍
Spent most of the day with dad clearing out our cellar and his old stockroom and driving all the things to various recycling facilities.
Things finally had to go.
I don’t think I am required to do any additional sports this week.
And the highlight of my day was returning home: I’m currently rarely gone for an entire day, which is probably why Zoe was so happy to see me again. She gave me the biggest and longest hug I’ve received from her ever. Best thing in the world! :-)
Beer empty. Films developed.
I was a little bit nervous this time: Because I had rated the HP5s at EI 3200 – a 3-stop push – and I have only done that once before a couple of years back. But the negatives came out looking really good!
While pouring and waiting and agitating I listened to Rick Rubin.
Didn’t manage to finish the article I originally intended to publish. Instead, I spent too much time today on some custom map tiles implementation for an app. But it’s Friday night. I should start fresh on Monday.
I think I’ll now have a beer and develop the two rolls of 120 film from December I have still lying around.
Yesterday I visited the Webworker NRW Meetup in Düsseldorf. I used to visit their meet ups regularly, but haven’t been to a single one in recent years. Simply because I wasn’t here all that much.
Last evening was about Vue.js. I haven’t worked with any of the three currently most popular (or shall I say hyped?) JavaScript frameworks – React, Angular and Vue – so this was a good opportunity to start learning about them.
The Meetup itself has grown quite a bit. When I went the last time, it was still held at Garage Bilk with maybe up to 30-35 visitors maximum. The venue is now at Sipgate and there were around 130 people. The new home is great: their staff welcomes you, flawless technical setup and free snack and drinks.
So, I drank a little, I ate a little, met Stefan, and learned about Vue.js. Successful outing.
We currently live close to the local library. It’s a great institution to have nearby. Not only can we conveniently rent out books, magazines and other media for us adults, we can regularly get Zoe new children’s books for free and return them once she loses interest. She currently loves books, so this is very handy.
I love books, too. Mainly photo books. And today I bought not rented: during our visit Zoe let me browse their current “For Sale”-shelves for like two minutes and I was able to pick a few that interested me. After learning about the price, I bought them all. It was €10 altogether. I probably would have paid this for the Magnum book alone.
I’m very happy about these very affordable finds, but I’m worried I have photo book tsundoku or BAS: Book Acquisition Syndrome.
While out in the city today shopping with my daughter, I got unsolicited parenting advice. Apparently I was allowing something they would’ve never allowed. That person basically told me I’m a bad parent. I was flabbergasted. And offended.
What’s wrong with people? How rude can you be? I overheard one comment in the past, and also heard from friends complaining about similar experiences. This was the first time I got into an argument with someone. I have the suspicion it won’t be the last time.
Yihaa! Touch down in Auckland, New Zealand. Feels great being back. And it also still feels very familiar. We love to here the NZ accent all over the place again. :-) And summer feels great, too!
This photo was taken yesterday afternoon, going out for a drink and dinner. We didn’t want to go to bed too early. Although that was much needed. After approx. 48 hours without a bed, we pretty much passed out immediately after we returned to our accommodation at around 8:30pm.
Now it’s the next morning and we slept really well!
(Sorry for the interruption to all these black and white film photos. ;-) )
We’re very excited to be visiting New Zealand for the next 6 weeks. It’ll be a mix of work and travel. And I will finally get to meet the Rankers crew.
If you’d like to follow our locations, I’ve just added a little feature to my homepage, where you can see our latest location update. But I will make a few posts here, too, I’m sure.
53/365: Not much happening today. Feeling pretty sick from a cold. Spent the day mostly sleeping, reading and playing Alto’s Adventure.