Month Notes June 2026
Boy, it was hot!!
I took off the last full week of June because we have family from Argentina here. This was a great idea and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. But, I got ill on the Wednesday with some kind of Ear/Nose/Throat/Fever thing which has made heatwave holiday week less perfect. And I got prickly heat, too! So fun.
Both the kids have had lurgy and la niña even had antibiotics. I guess they infected me.
Having Argentinos holidaying in the neighbourhood means lots of time sitting around with mate 🧉 and snacks 🥯 and the weather means every afternoon is a paddling pool party for the kids. We’ve been for walks in the pine woods, and the parks, and it does make you appreciate how many cool things there are in the local area. So in those terms it’s been a great staycation.
Time off, speaking foreign languages, and generally changing pace all do wonders for my creative energy. Oh hey, you know what, I did play some OpenTTD after threatening to get back into it and this also has some mysterious effect on my ability to use a computer outside of work hours to create stuff. Somehow fake gaming productivity parlays into real productivity.
I also put OpenTTD on 5yo monkey boy’s Linux machine at the weekend so he could have a go painting some railtrack with no pesky competitors to stop him. He found the bomb tool and decided that blowing up farms and replacing them with forest trees was the best task. Maybe a future in regnerative agriculture?
The Big Work News
I finish at Markerstudy Group on the 28th of July (or slightly earlier if baby #3 comes before that).
I’ve wanted for some time to get out. Working at Paymentshield was one of the priveleges of my life. Working at Paymentshield under Atlanta Group was also pretty fine and I had some really great times, particularly working with the NashTech ODC in Hanoi and going through their Take The Lead training. Since our acquisition by Markerstudy Group, although I was 100% ready to give it my all, let’s say the company has not given its all back in return. It’s not for me.
I’ve been so jaded lately with Big Enterprise Software Development that my first choice would’ve been a sideways step into DevRel if possible. However, almost all DevRel roles now seem to be for companies making AI tooling that erodes quality and purpose. For the last few good ones, it turns out to be a tough sector to break into.
I felt such a need for a total refresh that I looked at Kotlin jobs! I had in mind that I wanted to change two out of the following three things: 1. .Net, 2. Teams, 3. Jira.
In the end, I happened upon applying at DayShape. While they’re another MS ship, they’ve concretely demonstrated before, during, and after the interview process that their Values are real, and it shows promise to be a tremendous place to work.
For one thing, they were very understanding about my growing family, saying I should start when I feel most ready and comfortable, so I’m not working at all in August. It’ll be the summer holidays, the baby will be here… and this one gesture had Helen almost crying with happiness.
In September I start at DayShape as a Tech/Team Lead.
I’ll go from managing 7 people across 3 scrum teams working on 5 platforms… to managing about 5 people in 1 scrum team working on 1 product. A much cleaner, clearer job role. I’m looking forward to that.
Still working from home, on the same family friendly 9-5 hours, with occasional trips to Edinburgh (a beautiful city).
Lot of change this year and God has been so good.
I leave you with some fanart that monkey boy did of the GCompris loading screen.
Bye now 🎎🛣