Sometimes it's excellent fun to work with somebody to produce a website in a day. With no requirement for ongoing support, just get it up and running, instant gratification. In a way, it says, "Look what we can do when we set our minds to it!"

winchesterwebscene.co.uk

Yesterday, @sydlawrence phoned me to ask if i'd like to help make a new site for the Winchester Web Scene. Without a second thought, i said, "DEFINITELY!" We got together at 3pm today at the Bridge Patisserie. We drank lots of coffee, went on to the Bishop on the Bridge, then went back to Syd's house and ate pizza. We got the whole site designed, coded, integrating with Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, Gravatar and Campaign Monitor for email subscriptions, with a blog plus comments, events list and RSS feeds … in about 5 hours.

It was nice that two Winchester web companies, Marmalade on Toast and Eden Development were able to combine talent to work on a fun social project together. The two of us had a great time making it!

The site gives a far greater prominence to the Winchester Web Scene than the old Ning site did. Still in its first few hours of existence, the site has already had 71 unique visitors. The future of the Winchester Web Scene is looking very bright!

The next event is a barbeque at the Hyde Tavern on the 6th July from 7pm. If you live near Winchester and are interested in anything to do with the web, you're very welcome to come along! :)

I'm back! I have been away from the Internet for a week – a self-enforced leave of absence to try to avoid getting RSI. Happily to say, it seems to have worked – just typing as much as i need to at work, and having a rest in the evenings. I love programming and i love my job, so i really don't want to injure myself.

I have been trying out another keyboard layout: Colemak. It has similar aims to Dvorak but, unlike Dvorak, they actually used a computer to help generate the layout! Also, unlike Dvorak, Colemak layout is fairly similar to Qwerty, possibly making it easier for Qwerty users to switch. It keeps Z, X, C and V in the same place, useful for the obvious keyboard shortcuts.

colemak.com – the website for the layout.
Colemak on a TypeMatrix EZ-Reach keyboard – made for my own reference, but i imagine others may come looking for it too. If you want it as a PDF, let me know.

Work has been fun lately – we've been trying out pair programming and i'm really enjoying it. I took a while to believe that it really is beneficial for two people to program together, but i'm coming round to the idea now. Especially when trouble-shooting – there is almost no break in the flow because the combination of two brains focussed on a problem means that we come up with the solution pretty quickly. Plus it's also really good fun! :D I think the key is to have a separate pairing station set up with two keyboards and two mice plugged in. That gives a feeling of equality. With a little perseverance it soon starts to feel very natural to program together.

Social life has been fun too. The Spring weather is making me very happy. Church has been great, really enjoying it. In my week-of-no-internet i became totally hooked on Life On Mars – can't wait to see the second series!

I leave you with something that i saw in a bookshop in Southampton yesterday – made me LOL ;-)

So my epic holiday is nearly over … i go back to work tomorrow after more than 3 weeks away. I actually can't wait to get back! I so enjoy the work that i do, and i appreciate the structure of knowing what is going to happen each day.

Here is my holiday summary:

• A few days at home relaxing and getting ready
• Four days in Germany
• A week in De Panne, on the North coast of Belgium over Christmas
• Back home and time with family and friends
• Dealing with horrible damp mouldy walls that got really bad when we were away

For more details and photographs, read on … but beware of the mould pictures if they might squick you out!

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Approximately a year ago, you may have wished me a happy 2008. If you did, thank you! I had a pretty awesome year!

Reading back in my blog, it feels like a long year. In fact, i noticed a stark contrast between the two halves of the year, pivoting on the moment i got my new job. I was amazed by how much of a difference it made in my perception: the first half of the year feels much longer than a year ago, but everything since my new job feels very recent. Yet the two halves are separated by just one weekend! I also noticed how many more blog posts i made in the earlier half of the year compared to the latter.

So it's new year's eve again, the time when i get all retrospective and nostalgic. I actually quite like staying in on new year's eve and blogging. Here is a summary of the year.

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I managed to drag myself away from my computers this afternoon and have a lovely time outside.

First i went to visit this space of land that the WinACC local food group are hoping to renovate and turn into a city farm. I got these two lovely ducks on camera … they thought i had food for them. No such luck, heh!

I'll go back again soon and take some more photos of the area of land. If we go ahead with the transformation, it'll be really good to keep a photo blog! But today i didn't stay long because i was off to visit some friends and see the Christmas market. It was the first weekend, so it was predictably extremely busy, but again such a lovely atmosphere. The bells of the cathedral were ringing, there was carol singing, the crafts on offer were so beautiful and creative. We had mince pies and mulled wine! :)

This is without a doubt my favourite picture of the day:

Is that not just beautiful? Here are some other pictures of gorgeous lovely Winchester today …

There's more on Flickr.

I am waiting for some inspiration to occur to me about what to do for the rest of the afternoon. I know i have some chores to do (don't i always?!) but not too many today. I might watch The Bill which my sweetie kindly recorded for me in the week. I might work on the MyChores API a little bit … or i might just continue lying in bed. Blogging from my bed is the best thing, haha!

I went to church again this morning. It was perfectly fine. I met a few more people, including many of the musicians. I keep dropping hints that i'd like to join their band, but i haven't yet spoken to the people i would need to in order to join! I felt very content this week, and happy to be at the church. I love it that there are so many South Africans at the church. They are friendly and kind … and i love their accents! I'm probably going to pick up a bit of Afrikaans if i keep on going!

Work was good this week. I did a good job and i knew it. There's no doubt that the work i'm doing now is the hardest i've ever had to do. I'm not used to finding my job difficult. But hey, it's so rewarding to overcome a challenge and know i did it really well. I feel proud of myself. It's tiring, though. I had a lovely relaxing day yesterday, but i still feel like i need a bit more time to relax before going into another busy week of hard work.

Yesterday afternoon was spent with nyecamden who came to Winchester to meet me. We had a good time together. Visited the library to have a go on their wifi with our netbooks! :) Went to my favourite cafe, The Sanctuary for a delicious hot chocolate. We walked down to the cathedral green to idly pass the time. On the way we found several messages written in chalk on the pavement of The Square. I don't know who started it, but they were interesting to read. Many of them began with "This is …" and contained recollections of Winchester and happy memories.

I added to the messages, with "This is my favourite place to live". It's true, i love Winchester. Such a beautiful city, steeped in history and culture. I am very happy to live here.

Thank you Nye for the picture! :)

It was a great final day of RailsConf. I think some of the best seminars were today. I was especially impressed by the Advanced RESTful Rails lecture. It really *was* advanced … i took loads of notes!

I had a really nice chat with Eleanor – it's great to meet another female programmer who is as excited about Ruby as i am! We decided to skip a seminar and have a drink and chat on the comfy chairs downstairs. I hope we can meet again since Eleanor lives in London.

The ever-awesome Geoffrey Grosenbach called out to me at the end of the conference: "Aiii-meeee!! Would you like a PeepCode tshirt?!" I said i would, very much! It's a really good fit, and beautiful shocking pink colour! I'm just delighted that Geoff knows who i am, after helping me with the AJAX tutorial on the first day! :) DHH also smiled to me a few times since our random meeting in the lift. I guess you get noticed, as a girl at RailsConf!

The journey home was good; it went smoothly. Credit where credit's due, Heathrow Terminal 5 did not delay on getting our luggage to us. We had a taxi home which took me right to my door. I was in time for a lovely evening with my husband. :) I opened some cards and presents, ate some birthday cake (which my sweetheart had made) and drank some Bailey's which i obtained at the duty free – i had some Euros left over to spend, haha!

I imagine i may feel a bit of a come-down tomorrow, but i'll be around my colleagues and we'll be chatting about the things we learned … probably investigating some of the JavaScript testing frameworks and maybe trying out some more Low Pro. So it's all good! :)

I just got some flowers from a friend!

These are a thank you gift for helping to make Shea Bliss – Natural Shea Butter Body Care – the webshop is now open and ready for business! :) I personally use the products, and they do wonders for my skin … really good quality, and they make excellent gifts too!

My job continues to go very well indeed. Most of this week i have been working on Nudo Italia – a site for olive groves in Italy. You can adopt an olive tree and receive all its produce for a year. So all week i have been looking at stunning views of Italy! :) I ordered a pot of their olive oil … it came last night and tasted absolutely delicious in a salad dressing!

Today we are going to Portsmouth … a bit of shopping and a treasure hunt and barbecue this evening. I hope this lovely weather holds out! :)

Resumo: Mi tre ĝuis Bifeston hieraŭ. Mi vidis malnovajn amikojn, amikiĝis kun novaj amikoj, kaj faris abundo de trikado.

So i am really glad we went to BiFest yesterday! That was definitely one of the best i have ever been to. Nice points were: it was well spread out with plenty of spaces we could go and not feel cramped up together, they provided a buffet tea for us, we got to watch Doctor Who (yay!!) and the weather was simply amazing for us!

I was able to see and catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. It seemed as if there were several new people there, but there were also many people noticeably missing, which was a shame.

The craft corner was a massive success, building on previous years. I think there were at least ten people doing some sort of knitting or crocheting during the day. I like to joke that bisexuality is synonymous with knitting! In truth, i believe it is all thanks to Ludy! I got a lot done on my blanket yesterday (pictures to come later today!) and i taught somebody how to knit! Yay! :) I also got chatting to somebody else about crochet, who had a totally excellent idea of a group crochet project where multiple people can work on the same thing simultaneously, using multiple threads, joining in or dropping out as they please. This sounds like something for BiCon! :D

Doctor Who was so much fun with a room full of people watching it together! We were all laughing and cheering and shouting at the television! A very interactive television watching experience!

All in all, i had a great time, met some lovely people with whom i'm hoping to keep in touch, and i do hope we'll be able to go to BiCon this year. I am thinking of running an Esperanto workshop at BiCon, to introduce other people to the delights of the language! :)

Resumo: BiFesto estas unutago festo por ambaŭseksemaj homoj. Ĝi okazos morgaŭ en Londono.

BiFest tomorrow, yay! :) Who is going? I will be there, with my knitting, and i can't wait to see a lot of people i haven't seen in ages. It should be a lot of fun. I haven't been to a BiFest since that really good one in Brighton last year so i'm very excited to be going to this one.