The Cardiff Routine

You know it. You sit down all excited to start writing that AMAZING COOL BOMBASTIC ORGANIC GLUTEN-FREE blog post. But than, you realize it.

So you sit there, staring at the screen (now you're staring at the cat, aren't you), or typing the words at the rate of 10 characters a minute knowing, deep inside, that you actually don't have a topic. You take a quick scan through the memory lanes: "traffic jam on the way to work", "jam with some friend", "crumpets with butter and jam". In short - lots of jam and some good stuff, but nothing too fancy. Nothing BIG! And most surely - nothing gluten free.

Until you realize, that the beauty lies in the small things and even the daily routine can be made interesting, if sufficiently inflated! Therefore, dear readers, this blog post will be about my daily routine, just like I once did back in the time when I came to Oslo. So let's get into it.

UPDATE: Much of the following was written still during the long cold winter, before the sun came! Now it's actually warm and sunny, like in Croatia.

Cardiff a month after I started writing this blog post

Wales a month before I finished writing this blog post (I think I'm a slow writer)

I wake up. It's 6:15 am. After a night with heating down, the flat is usually quite chilly in the morning so once the alarm rings, there's really only two options:
a) snooze and get the hell back under the covers!
b) wake up, get dressed and get the hell out!

You see that either way I have to get the hell somewhere, so we can say it is a very decisive moment of the day. I must, somewhat proudly, say, that I am fairly consistent with the option b), although it may come across less impressive if I admit I set the alarm that early only a couple of times a week. My eventual goal, however, is to get into the regime of my colleague, who wakes up, goes for a run and still beats me to be in work by the time I arrive, all despite having one more baby than me (I have zero, just to be clear)! Amazing will power! Or perhaps just loud-screaming baby at 5 am? Either way, very accomplished feat.

After waking up, a super quick routine follows. Splash on face, boiled water over prepped box of porridge, some push ups if time (and will) permits (usually not), packing the food for the day and off I am, on my way to the bus stop. Through my street, past the yellow Ferrari, by the fancy Chinese dorms and on to the Newport road, where the bus stop is.

Now, we come to the part which, since my move to the new flat and my switch from a train+bike combo to a direct bus ride became a hot topic. Indeed, it almost came to the point where I included the "bus ride" topic into virtually any conversation. However, I must say I am always very tactful about this inclusion ("morning Fero, how's it going?" . "F***ING BUS!")

Essentially, the basic theorem of the "Introduction to bus ride theory" says that there are two options how you can get to work by using a bus:
a.) SUPER-MEGA EARLY version
b.) HORRIBLY-DEADLY LATE version

The option a.) means taking either the 6:43 bus, or 7:13 one, although the latter often already runs into the traffic at the Dic*head Roundabout (we'll discuss the 3 jolly roundabouts in a sec), thus one often regretting snoozing for the extra 30 minutes of sleep. The option b.) means leaving for work around 9am, once the traffic has calmed down, although at that time, the buses do come with a certain element of randomness, expressed by this simple stochastic equation:

You see, the problem is due to something that Brits embrace more enthusiastically than a bottle of bubbly on a Saturday night. The roundabouts. Brits love roundabouts. It's their hobby and their passion. The roundabouts here are, however, not just any kinds of roundabouts. These are proper, complicated roundabouts with multiple lanes and special rules, they're adrenaline puzzles to be solved in high speed, they're whirlpools of cars, the ever spinning tornadoes of traffic, the points where every journey begins and where every journey ends...

It is therefore not surprising that two out of the three "jolly" (author uses the word "jolly" in a ironic meaning) roundabouts are of those big complex monster sorts. These are called The Deadly roundabout and the other one's nickname I forgot, though I can assure you it was sufficiently pejorative. That leaves us with the earlier mentioned Di.. ehm, roundabout, a funny beast, since he (roundabouts are guys) is not one of those complex or multilane ones, yet it's causing the most amount of frustration.

(UPDATE, I have been writing this blog post now for a while, and I am happy to say that the situation has improved. I am also sad, because this means I have less topics for discussions, leading to long pauses of awkward silence previously filled by complaining about buses and roundabouts)

I usually have my breakfast on the bus. I am just one of those people. But also, it's very hard to read. This is because the bus X5, that I chose to be loyal to has a journey, that takes path not very different from the following picture.

Journey of the X5 bus from Cardiff to Newport

At some point, the bus even makes a 360 turn on a roundabout, which I suspect is included to give the locals on board the daily roundabouts dose (4.76 is the minimum recommended dosage) and to provide panoramatic views of the posh St. Mellons area.

Anyway, I usually somehow make it to work and still in the jolly mood from the travel, I say hi to the ONS rabbits merrily hopping around on the campus, unaware of the heavy decisions on next quarter's GDP being made just few meters away! I then enter the huge 5 floor building, swipe my badge and head up to the first floor of block 1, where our Big data team sits.

Merrily hopping ONS rabbits

ONS is huge, not only in terms of the building size, but also when one considers the number of people working here. Just the site in Newport employs around 2000 people! Sometimes I cannot help but wonder what everyone is doing. Hell, sometimes I cannot but wonder what I am doing!

But throughout the bit-over-a-year that I am working here, I came to really like my job. It's really a nice mix of programming, research, fiddling with data, writing papers, presenting, and bit of managing too. It's simply a carrot soup with chocolate pieces, blackberries, chicken and beans, served with Italian tomatoes. What I want to say is that if all ingredients are good, it just cannot be bad!

Good thing about ONS is a flexible working time, giving you quite a bit of freedom to create your working schedule and vary it, should need be. And I really think no other benefit can match this. Once you try it, you don't want to go back.

Another nice thing are the extra-curricular activities one can choose to participate in. There's frequent bake-off competitions, diversity lunches that group expats or the ONS choir that runs every Tuesday lunchtime. The latter has now really picked up momentum, especially since we slowly started to bring over instruments, slowly and inconspicuously turning the choir into a huge band featuring guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, piano, violin and possibly more in the future, not to mention the many voices that actually know how to sing! Simply fun and something to look forward to every Tuesday. Plus the choir serves as a good ice-breaker whenever someone starts working in ONS:

Hi, your first day?
Yes.
You sing?

For some reason, I have so far only limited success making friends with this technique.

Choir concert

But in general, work is cool and I can see why some people stay in ONS for tens of years. It's simply a nice place to work in, it has flexi time and a rabbits on the campus - what else do you want?

After work, I hop on a bus, much in the same way that the rabbits are hopping around the campus, i.e merrily. I will not bore you anymore with the details of the journey back. Let's just say that if you want to build a picture of how it looks like, read this blog post backwards!

On Fridays, I would often work from home, which not only helps to reduce time spent commuting and rotating at roundabouts, but it also gives me the unique chance to do bit of "sourdoughing" (really not sure how to translate "kvaskovanie"). The thing is that making a home made sourdough bread does not take long time in total, but requires a minute here and there every 45 minutes or so, e.g. to fold the dough or transfer it to the proofing basket. If this sounds like Chinese to you, then you should pause reading now, go outside and stop the oldest person on the street and ask them how they did bread back in the past! For the result, dear readers, is worth it (I mean, the result of making homemade sourdough bread. But also the result of that conversation you'd have will be worth it. Old people bear lots of wisdom and wit!)

The result that's WORTH it!

My (hard) working from home position

Routine is one thing and I am one of those people that like to have one. It takes care of some daily decision making and thus saves one considerable energy that you can instead focus on other stuff. The non routine stuff. The spice of life!

One such spice happens twice a month on Wednesdays. Cardiff Toastmasters has become something of a second home and a family. A vibrant and bustling club, people from all walks of life and a vital dose of education, inspiration and motivation are just few reasons why I make sure this event is clearly marked in my calendar. Where else do you meet (among others) a hypnotherapis, professional rugby player, tax lawyer, bunch of students and a guy that cycled the length of Britain for a good cause, all sharing their stories and making steps to improve themselves and those around?

Cardiff Toastmasters

Another important spice is definitely music. I've realized I have been stagnating in this regard for a while now and so made a mental resolution to, from now on, take every opportunity I see. So I invested in some new gear, made a come back to the streets of Cardiff and resumed playing with other people - for if there's one way to get better in playing, it's by learning from others. Plus it just sounds so awesome when people find that way of talking to each other using music... It takes time, but the result pays off. Music is simply the connection to another world, going away for a journey and leaving all worries behind

Brumhilde - the recent new member of the family

Busking comeback as captured by paparazzi Alex

Jamming with "ONS music ensemble" folks, a spin-off from the choir at work

There's more things to mention - "chilling" with friends, park runs, or, when the nice weather coincides with the will of the right people, some memorable trips in Brecon Beacons. 

After 10k run along river Taff with Kika and Peto

Camping in Brecon Beacons. Weather like we had is to be appreciated!

But hey, this post is about the routine, right? So let me stop here. At least I'll save some inspiration for the next time and won't just blankly stare at the screen!