Internet At Last

Last Thursday, after 3 months in my current flat, I finally had my internet installed. While I'd like to blame this long a period on my internet provider messing up by spontaneously removing internet from my package when I moved, the real reason it took so long was because I put off dealing with the hassle of complaining. Regardless, now I have internet again and I'm back in business!

Extra Ramble:

Warhammer: Total War and Overwatch both come out this week. I'm looking forward to playing them, having watched the Total War streams in particular on twitch rather obsessively over the weekend. They are both very different games, playing one won't interfere with my enjoyment of the other although buying both will be expensive... Now that I think about it its been quite a while since I bought and played any games on release, I always find myself buying second-hand games, so that will be a nice feeling.

Outside of gaming I'm going to try using my blogs occasionally. I might even promote my maths content on twitter as I was collecting a lot of ideas for maths articles before I moved and lost my internet. I don't really have anything focused to say just yet, certainly not on this blog, but the simply act of regular writing is nice.

With this ramble over I now make my first post in 4 months.

Have a nice day.

Tom :).

Working On My Habits - Problems and Ideas

Simple Lifestyle Stuff - 1

In order to improve my lifestyle, and in order to help overcome the issues that have arisen from years of bad habits, I have decided to record in my blog the actions or ideas that I am attempting in order to circumvent my issues. I do not believe that simply facing a deep rooted issue head on and saying "I will now do this X times a week" or "I will do this from now on" will change my behaviours, it would be absolutely amazing if that was all it took.

The posts will highlight what I currently believe is the best way to deal with these issues. That is to look at it as, "What is my habit preventing me from doing? How can I achieve that even if I my habit continues?". If I assume that I will not break my habit, at least not in any short term, then I need to look at ways to work around the habit to get after what I want.

A Proper Morning Routine

The Habit : Getting up late every morning and having to rush to work or some other deadline.

What I feel I Am Losing Out On: Basic hygiene, eating breakfast, a warm-up before work.

Some ideas to try: 

Hygiene :

• Pack a toothbrush and toothpaste into my work bag. Buying a second set just for work would be easier than remembering to pack and unpack one set each morning, especially in a rush. 
• Shower straight after work if that is the easiest time to get it done (this also allows me an excuse to quickly switch into more relaxing clothes/dressing gown, and to immediately get out of "work" mode).

Breakfast :

• Stock fruit/some sort of breakfast that I can simply grab as I rush out of the door as it requires no preparation.
• Indulge in a good breakfast on the weekends. If I get up late then a cooked breakfast can even take the place of lunch, it doesn't need to be a big meal, just a few items that can be cooked by slapping them on the frying pan. Even one slice of bacon and some beans alongside a cup of tea is a very satisfying start to a day.

Warm-up :

• Make simple written notes at the end of the day summarising what happened and what you want to get done the next day. This can then be quickly skimmed over at the start of the next morning to help get back into the swing of things easier.
• Try having a plastic water bottle by my bed that I can drink from soon after I wake up, this might wake me up without forcing me out of bed thus making it easier to get moving at the start of the day.
• Leave the final touches of a non-time sensitive task until the next morning, this can be something very simple like an email, then when the morning comes very quickly sort it out/hit send/etc. This way the day immediately feels productive which is good for momentum.

Walks Around Leeds - Roundhay Park

Walks Around Leeds

I'm currently living in Leeds in the UK after having moved here over 7 months ago. Contrary to my what my Dad believes it is most certainly not "grim up north", in fact I've found the area pretty great. The countryside in particular is superb, and very easy to reach. As such I'm trying to make an effort to go on walks to explore the surrounding area.

As with my previous walking posts these will be quite simplistic. I'll make a few comments about the walk, a quick summary, and then link to a photo gallery.

This weeks isn't a great post as sadly I got very few photos of the park before my phone died, and none of what I'd call the good bits.

Roundhay Park

A large park situated within Leeds, it possesses two Lakes, one small the other a reasonable size, and a decent stretch of woodland. As such its a great place for exercising, walking the dog, or as a relaxing outdoorsy break if you simply want to get a way from things for a few hours.

I think the part of the park that I enjoyed the most was the small river at the northern end of the park. You could follow its path, accompanied by the odd mossy wall, down to Waterloo Lake. It was very relaxing to stroll along to the gentle sound of gushing water, although sadly this part was not photographed as I make very poor use of my phone so its rarely properly charged. I'd definitely go here again, though while you can get a good few hours out of it the park itself does not seem large enough for a day out walking.

The photos below show the large open grounds and some of the area outside of the woodland.

Roundhay Park

Secret Santa Fluff Post!

Ever year the old university buddies all meet up for a Christmas get-together. It involves a lot of games, food, and general merriment. It also involves secret santa. 

This year there were a few gifts of a Star Wars persuasion, and while I was a bit nonplussed with my gift to begin with I have to say it has definitely grown on me as its been sitting here on my desk.

Say hello to my bobble-headed Boba Fett, who I affectionately refer to as Bobble Fett.

I never buy toys/merchandise myself, and while I enjoy the Star Wars franchise (I really liked the new film) I still don't think I've seen the original trilogy in its entirety yet. However the head-bobbling of this guy is rather fun.

Do you know of anyone who received a secret santa gift that eventually won them over this year?

Walking The Thames Valley Path in Autumn - Part Four

The Thames Valley Path -

Kemble to Oxford in the Autumn

This last album covers the last stretch of the trip, from Newbridge to Oxford. Sadly my phone ran out of battery part way through, so the final approach into Oxford is not covered. Not shown is how my walk ended close to Oxford's train station, and I made my own way to my accommodation from there.

The trip was enjoyable, no part of the walk was at all stressful, and the accommodation comfortable. I honestly don't have too much more to say beyond that I might do another stage of the Thames Valley Path at a later date, whatever time of year that would be does not bother me too much.

I hope that at least one of these photos was found interesting by someone, thanks for reading!

As with all of the preceding parts clicking on the image below will take you to an online gallery of the photos for this stage of the walk:

Part Four: Newbridge to Oxford - 13.9 Miles

Newbridge to Oxford

Oxford Extra

Once I arrived in Oxford I stayed in the travel lodge on the edge of the town. I spent the next two days wandering around Oxford mainly checking out the antiques shops, Museums, and book stores. I was especially impressed by Oxford's Blackwells Book shop, it had the largest collection of academic maths textbooks I've ever seen and I rather happily picked myself out something bizarre and interesting as a souvenir -"Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam" as I knew I'd never stumble across books like these normally. 

I liked Oxford, it seems like an interesting place to live being surrounded by beautiful countryside, filled with culture and academia, and with good transport routes into London.

Walking The Thames Valley Path in Autumn - Part Three

The Thames Valley Path -

Kemble to Oxford in the Autumn

This part covers the walk from Lechlade to Newbridge. This was by far the longest part of the route, coming in at 16.4 miles, so I started and ended this day with some very good meals. I can safely say that the breakfast wrap I had upon leaving Lechlade was the nicest I have ever eaten! I picked up some great regional ham and cheese from the local store as I left, a chunk of Crunchy Red Leicester and a small cooked ham, and these lasted me into the next day.

As with all these posts, the photo album for this part of the walk can be accessed by clicking on the image below:

Part Three: Lechlade to Newbridge - 16.4 Miles

Lechlade to Newbridge

Walking The Thames Valley Path in Autumn - Part Two

The Thames Valley Path -

Kemble to Oxford in the Autumn

The second of my four posts on my walk from Kemble to Oxford, this part covers the walk from Cricklade to Lechlade. This was the shortest part of my brief trip and took just over 5 hours. 

Owing to the fact that I booked my accomodation quite late I ended up getting rooms at the most popular bed and breakfasts. While I booked a room for one, I imagine because the season, I was suprised to find that I was given a large family room all to myself with a double and two single beds inside. While the room itself was very comfortable the sheer size and the presence of all these empty beds was disconcerting, I thus consoled myself my nobbling all of the free biscuits in the room.

As with the last post clicking on the photo below will take you to a photo gallery for this part of the walk.

Part Two: Cricklade to Lechlade - 11.1 Miles

Cricklade to Lechlade