Weeknotes 7

• Had a bit of a DIY mishap this week. Whilst putting some shelves up in T’s room, I managed to drill all the way through into his sister’s room. One of her Beanie Babies came very close to getting a hole in the head. Nothing that a bit of polyfilla can’t fix - the wall that is.

  It did make me realise how thin and hollow the wall joining their bedrooms is. It’s That’s sent me down the rabbit hole of how to improve the sound insulation of an interior wall. Most solutions seem to involve adding extra layers to the outside of the walls. It feels like there should be some way of filling in the cavity - as you would external walls.

  Any ideas? More research needed.

• My gmail email address is nick.oleary@..... What not every knows is gmail actually ignores the . in the address. This means nickoleary@... also works, as would n.ickoleary@gmail... and so on. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but it does mean I quite regularly receive emails for other people because they have missed typed their address. It’s always a fun experience to see how companies handle that when I report it.

  In the past I’ve received the complete confidential company accounts for an Australian winery. The accountant asked me to not open the attachments and delete them. I’ve received the tickets and itinerary for a family of four’s break to Cancún, which sadly clashed with a holiday we already had booked. In that instance the itinerary also had the wife’s email address listed, so I managed to reunite them.

  I’m currently receiving monthly reminders to get a different Nick O’Leary’s Toyota serviced somewhere in Texas. And just this evening I’ve received a receipt for $400 and confirmation of subscription to some sort of medical services company.

  If you’re going to use someone’s email address as a key part of the service you provide, verify the email address.

• We finished watching The Great this week. It may not be the most historically accurate program, but it’s been very watchable. Nicholas Hoult is clearly having a lot of fun playing the unpredictable and hapless Peter III. Looking forward to the second series whenever that may arrive.

• We’ve still slowly working through the last series of Downton Abbey having had a break from it for a few weeks. Only a few more episodes to go and then the movie.

• I’ve failed to read a single page of Mythos for yet another week. And the pile of other books to read has grown. I’ve got a couple weeks holiday coming up soon - whilst we won’t be going anywhere (kids in school, we’re still all locked down etc), maybe I’ll get some more reading done through the day… I suspect that’s wishful thinking.

• Interrupting these weeknotes as I’ve just discovered our drains are blocked and close to overflowing. An early trip to screwfix to get some drain rods then.

• The calm before the storm. But more on that next week.