Euan Semple's Blog

My new blog home is up and running at euansemple.com. I am still working on email subscriptions and building my blogroll but its there, and I am happy with it.

I am hoping to migrate my old blog posts (all 23 years of them) to the new location soon but I have a paid subscription for this location until December so they will also remain here.

I’ve been thinking of changing blogging platform for a while as I find WordPress increasingly irritating to use. This morning I read that one of my favourite bloggers, Annie Mueller, has moved her blog to Pika. Pika looks nice and simple, like the early days of blogging. I’m tempted to move.

But…

Pika doesn’t have email subscription or comments. Not deal breakers for me but, especially for those of you who currently get posts via email, might be a pain in the bum.

Another possible pain in the bum is that the domain name euansemple.blog is currently registered through WordPress. I could move the domain to Hover and hopefully those of you subscribed via RSS wouldn’t see a difference.

But…

I am not currently using euansemple.com for anything other than email and am tempted to move my blog there.

Decisions, decisions…

What do you reckon?

Nice spot for an overnight near Pontneddfechan before walking tomorrow with my mate Mark.

I’ve just been trying to make an appointment to see the GP using the NHS app. I was doing so because they told me to do so at the end of the summer, rather than because I have any current systems.

The way the app is designed, you get forced into going down a decision tree and, of course, none of the options available are “I was told to make an appointment”.

This happens all the time with database front ends to systems and you end up bending the truth to make it fit the questions just so that you can get to the end of the process with some chance of success.

Sometimes there is gob smacking lack of foresight on the part of the system developers where even the most obvious and basic situation isn’t covered by the available options.

Bending the truth to make these systems work means we are leaving trails of falsehood in databases everywhere.

God help us all

Twice recently I have experienced examples of where a broken system blames the individuals who are stuck in it for the problems it causes.

The first time was when I wanted to reinstate the SIM in my Apple Watch. It didn’t happen in the button click way it was meant to so I ended up having to call O2 support. The lady I eventually got through to was trying really hard, and was doing her best to be helpful, but the system made it almost impossible for either of us to understand what was going on.

The more recent example was with a delivery yesterday by DPD. I got all sorts of conflicting messages as to why my delivery hadn’t happened when it was meant to, but it turns out that the driver, I think, had deliberately marked the package as a failed delivery (and even taken a picture of another location) intending to come back later – all because his manager had given him an impossible schedule.

In both cases, it was clear that the individuals were struggling with the system they were stuck in but, again in both cases, I was only given an opportunity to give feedback on their individual performance, not on the fact that the system itself was broken. I was left unable to provide feedback at all as to do so would have implied criticism of the individuals.

And this one had me in tears.

Hannah’s new singing showreel.

… well, you could hardly miss it, the way it stands out against the dark green background.

The reason for our recent trip up to Scotland was to scatter my dad’s ashes. He had asked that they be scattered in the same beautiful bit of wild moorland near our home town of Strathaven where my mum’s ashes were scattered a couple of years ago.

As we drove up the M74 I was remembering all of the motorbike trips that Dad and I used to do up and down that motorway on our way to France and back. I was also reminded of the hills that we climbed together, Blencathra, The Merrick, and Tinto.

Mollie and I went up in the van and met my sister and her two children there. It was a lovely sunny afternoon when we arrived and it was great to be able to show Mollie around my old home town including Strathaven Park which is really pretty and has a toy train and a paddling pool, all of which I clearly remember. In fact we have a photograph of my mum and a friend of hers who came out from Glasgow on the bus when she was I guess in her twenties so Strathaven Park has been a day out destination for a long time. 

We were very lucky to grow up in such a nice little town and when I was scattering dad’s ashes I said thank you both to him and to mum. Like all parents they weren’t perfect but they for sure tried their hardest and my sister and I both benefited from their efforts. 

What was lovely was that, just as we were about to scatter dad’s ashes, and then again just after we had done so, two groups of motorbikes went screaming past on the fantastic winding road which used to be one of dad’s favourites on his motorbike. It was like a fly past salute and felt very special.

Our recycling bin was damaged.

We are being sent a new one.

This leaves me struggling to know what to do with the old one…

Writing things down
I still have a hankering to buy diaries and journals. I have a house full of them, and don’t use them very often, but I am drawn to the idea of writing things down.

This was what has always appealed to me about blogging but I am very aware of how little blogging I have been doing. I am not really sure why. I guess it is mostly because I don’t feel as if I have anything worthwhile to say. But then I have always maintained that the point of blogging is to open up and write things anyway.

The bloggers I enjoy reading the most do this, do it regularly, and do it well. Two I get a lot of pleasure from reading are Winnie Lim and Tracy Durnell. Both of them write openly about their lives, and thoughtfully about the very human challenges we we all face.

I need to do more of this myself.