Argh. After a good evening last night burning garden rubbish and clearing the end chunk (the bit which I really want to grass over and plant a fruit tree in the middle of), I hoped I’d be absolutely knackered but instead my addled brain woke me at 4am and I’ve been awake since. The last time I did that I ended up taking photos. Benjamin decided that he wanted to get up at 6ish too so he’s been keeping me company through the mists over Wrenthorpe.

Still, I ended up having a bath (and trimming the goatee I seem to be regrowing) and sorting my head out. Some bizarre things I’ve browsed this morning so far:

• The Wikipedia entries of Lembit Opik and the Teletubbies (although they weren’t related searches really).
• RFC4472, Operational Considerations and Issues with IPv6 DNS.
• A Device for Measuring Musical Talent (seriously, ModernMechanix rocks).
• The Most Popular Words in Google 2006 – seems to be the usual suspects, no surprises there.
• K9 Animated Series Confirmed – did they not bloody learn after the 1981 spin-off K9 And Company?

Yesterday I felt very proud of myself – I actually managed to invent a Yorkshire Pudding method which worked. From memory it involved 4 eggs, 200g plain flour, pinch salt, 300ml milk, 2tbsp tepid water, and some pepper. Wazzed it all up in the blender and poured it into the smoking hot fat – they rose really, really well.

Anyway, I’m rather hoping it’s going to be a quiet day. I’ve got a lot to do for ${new_contract} and I’m not sure my head will allow me to stay awake if the phone keeps on interrupting. I’ll probably end up shutting off MSN and IRC, and keep out of harm’s way.

For the past 6 years or so I’ve teleworked to some extent – be it while travelling on the job while I was at Gemstar or when I was doing my three-days-from-home at CentralNic. Today’s one of the more pleasant days – I’m sitting working by the Rochdale Canal in Sowerby Bridge, in The Moorings (photo from where I’m sat here).

Believe it or not I find that working from pubs is actually quite productive because I simply don’t have the distractions of IRC and MSN. I can get some bandwidth if I really need it using either the Vodafone 3G network or the Orange GPRS network (it’s very rare that both are out at the same time, although my gripes with Orange are well documented), and working in a sandbox under Linux gives me a full development environment and there’s very little I can’t deal with. Of course, I can’t upload code on-the-hop but I’d consider that an advantage in terms of code reviews.

Teleworking can get interesting – some pubs get stroppy if you plug your laptop in, some have locals who just won’t shut up, some landlords just give funny looks, but most are just glad of the daytime business. In my experience, as long as you have cash for beer, a mobile, a comfy chair, a bit of GPRS and a decent battery (and power if you don’t), you’re fine.

Now, if this client would just turn up I’d be 100% happy

It’s almost 14 years since the original Mundane Life (probably still browsable on the Wayback Machine knowing my luck). Sharing odds and ends of things isn’t too bad an idea as long as it doesn’t get personal I guess, so here I am.