Mark Carroll's Journal

Another roadtrip

Sat, 09 May 2026 13:08:35 GMT

Our weekend trips away from home displace activities like my writing here. Last weekend, we stayed near Sunderland, renting a garden flat looking out toward Roker Beach. The weather on our full day there was unremittingly dreich. We had some luck getting a good parking spot on our last morning there: before we departed, we walked out on to Roker Pier from where we could stand at the lighthouse and watch dolphins in the North Sea.

Our route took us near the Solway Aviation Museum which made an excellent pausing point, R.'s sons got a tour of a Vulcan. In subsequent reading I now learn that the Tornado can carry nuclear weapons and that the UK's buying F-35A's for carrying them too. I had not realized that there was interest in delivery other than from submarines.

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A small update

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 16:17:13 GMT

It's been difficult for me to get around to much lately around the day-to-day needs so here's a small slice of latest events. First, the weather's been glorious lately, it almost makes it feel okay to live in Glasgow; I could get used to this. Yesterday, we took our dog L. over to Glasgow Green and today I still hope we get to bring him for a walk along the Clyde.

Recently, we got coffee with R.'s childhood friend and their partner: they were passing through Glasgow, which was great. It is interesting to see here somebody who lived so near R. far away and long ago.

Yesterday, R. observed that our mattress really isn't great in how it transmits disturbance on one side of it over to the other. So, this morning we headed to IKEA to replace our VALEVÅG pocket-sprung mattress with an ÅNNELAND hybrid mattress. I was skeptical about how well we would be able to fold our old mattress and fit it into the car but R. led and it all worked out. The council waste centre was rather busy on a sunny weekend afternoon but there was parking near the mattresses and, with the help of R.'s sons, the mattress replacement is now complete.

We also stopped at Sainsbury's, which is near IKEA. It's one of the more pleasant supermarkets to shop in: the aisles are generally wide and the self-scanning handheld device's UI isn't annoying.

I realized that I've generally been sleeping rather well for quite some time now. I think it may be the change in job: having dropped a couple of grades in responsibility, going from leading teams to taking Jira tickets, the stress is reduced commensurately.

On not-in-office days, I've been using the cross-trainer more often than not. I am pleased to be achieving this change in habits. My calf is a bit sore but, as always, ignoring an issue seems to work fine: if I don't use it as an excuse not to exercise then the exercise tends not to make it any worse. My eating has not been anywhere near modest enough but the food has been tasty so, well, there's that.

At work, I have an on-site visit in NYC coming up and I have already checked that the hotel also has a cross-trainer. It will be interesting to try getting between Newark Airport and Penn Station by rail: it looks easily achieved but is a new experience for me. We do have business Uber but I got on so badly with the Uber app and their customer service that I am happy to avoid it.

Often, I've felt as if my body and mind were moving through molasses: I can do what I must but everything's effort, whether mental or physical. More recently, that's happened less. It seems premature to link the improvement with exercising but time might tell.

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Artemis II's crew module returned

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 16:50:48 GMT

It is a considerable relief to have the crew of Artemis II safely back on Earth. I wonder in what state the heat shield is now. We stayed up late (for us) last night, streaming Coachella until nearer the reentry time, so we slept in somewhat this morning. It will be great if we manage a successful moon landing and return, for which even more things must go well.

The talk of a moonbase is exciting though this decade seems courageous, I would have thought anything remotely worthy of the name to be a whole order of magnitude tougher still. I wonder how eager future administrations will be to keep pushing the effort. Nonetheless, I should be very happy were we to continue actively working toward such a goal.

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It's no longer winter

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:28:47 GMT

A few years ago, driving from Portland, ME, back down to Belmont, MA, on Hallowe'en, we experienced a heavy blizzard. This Easter Sunday here in Glasgow, the morning started off with a lovely blue sky then gray turned to sleet then to handsome snowflakes that are settling. Update: Now the sky's back to blue.

The snow could at least confine itself to winter. I still vote for using R.'s citizenship to live on a tropical island instead! Fortunately, our dog L. is wholly unfazed by rain and snow.

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De la Terre à la Lune

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:41:13 GMT

I am a fan of manned spaceflight. If we are confined to this planet only, especially if we remain such poor stewards and with such capacity for destruction, then we will be limited and eventually gone, leaving nothing behind but artifacts.

I was concerned for Artemis II, fearing that something like Apollo 8 was a jump too far too fast after a long fallow period, and that showhorses had too greatly replaced sober experts in program management. It was with considerable relief that I watched the astronauts achieve orbit and I am glad that their time in orbit has provided the confidence for their present journey onward to the moon, incidentally arriving at around the dates of first contact for Star Trek and Babylon 5.

I do not know if my children will get to see us establish a longer-term presence on the moon, perhaps even among asteroids, but I can dream. In the meantime, at least I can reasonably hope for the astronauts' safe return.

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A week in Paris

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 17:38:37 GMT

R. and I are back from a week's tourism in Paris. I enjoy how we continue to find ourselves agreeing often: R. certainly sees why I prefer Paris to London, it's so pleasantly walkable. ( I am always happy to go back. )

Being dragged reluctantly into the modern world, I ( tried using public transit via smartphone ticketing. )

For me, Paris tourism is typically some combination of walking and Métro around central Paris visiting various attractions and just taking in the environment. We hadn't prebooked much so we had some freedom to go as our whims and increasingly aching bodies would take us. The weather was generally good, I consider us lucky. We kept sufficiently on the beaten tourist path that I scarcely had to ( attempt to speak French. )

The gardens varied rather. Many of them seemed to be wide, dusty, pale gravel paths, lawns, conical shrubs, cuboid trees, statues, hedges with right angles, etc. We wandered through the Jardin des Plantes which at least had flowers, a variety of rather well-grown ones indeed, though no fewer right angles. I think the Japanese might be rather better at the kind of garden I like.

Paris has a considerable abundance of publically accessible magnificent buildings that I enjoy seeing and being inside. ( I enjoyed a few of the museums. )

In this visit, we did not ( eat out at fancy restaurants. )

Last night's return flight was from Charles de Gaulle into Edinburgh so we took our usual commuting route, the train into Queen Street, as part of our journey back home to Glasgow.

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Glaswegian matters and beyond

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 23:28:30 GMT

At the weekend, I happened to be further up the Clyde at the right time to see the bow of a new Naval frigate being transported up the river to the shipyard where the warships are assembled. I didn't know what kind of ship it was for at first, I learned that later online.

Glasgow has a great city center, rather walkable and with the subway for longer hops. Next to Central Station is a fancy building some decades older than the converted Victorian mill that I live in. At least, there was, until a vape store somehow caught fire. Now there are cordoned-off streets, the smell of smoke, and a considerable number of sad, shocked people and even more rather inconvenienced ones.

I have no love for vape stores in the first place, I tend to avoid patronizing establishments that expand their range to vapes. Given vapes' propensity to catch fire in waste processing centers, etc., goodness knows who thought it a good idea to allow a vape shop to locate next to a critical transit hub in a historic landmark whose construction substantially predates fire safety codes. Perhaps we shall find out, with luck when I am not feeling grumpy and vengeful.

My commute may be quite unaffected: when I pass close to the area of the fire, I'm in a subway tunnel on my way to Queen Street, the other main railway station; I hope that tomorrow's train to Edinburgh isn't overly crowded by passengers displaced from Central which won't be open yet.

I refueled our car this evening, I figured that gas prices aren't dropping anytime soon. In probably 2003 I tried holding off filling the car with gas, back when I drove an old Ford Crown Victoria (with around a seventy litre fuel tank), but eventually I had to give in and pay the higher prices. At least, with mostly just driving around the city in our hybrid in the near term, today's gas should last us for a good while.

Update: My morning train's quite full but I arrive comfortably early enough to have snagged a seat easily. A pox on the selfish passengers who use their coat and bag to occupy two seats while others are still boarding.

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Tall brick buildings

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 21:19:19 GMT

On the way east into Edinburgh, one can catch sight of the tall red-brick warehouse building marked Jenners Depository. This reminds me of a different tall red-brick warehouse building that my memory places on the way east into Truro along the A39. However, some looking online fails so badly to find anything of the kind that I have probably somewhat misplaced it. It's some consolation that some further poking around online reveals that what I saw on the train into work recently was Niddry Castle.

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Some weekend travel

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 18:33:14 GMT

It turns out that the Kingdom of Fife's south coast is within fairly easy reach for us. We took a small trip and did our usual Scottish tourism of ruined castles and churches, and chilly beaches, this time mostly overlooking the Forth.

We tend to stay at Travelodges because they are cheap and dog-friendly. On sitting in the typical rather short bathtub this morning, I realized that perhaps adults are meant to only shower in them, rather than washing their body one third at a time, and that the bath feature is intended more for dogs and small children.

The weekend started out with some good weather, we returned home once the rain moved in properly.

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Hidden mysteries of the Clockwork Orange

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:15:43 GMT

I sometimes wonder about quite how they organize Glasgow's subway system. For example, I had guessed from service frequency that they often have as many as four trains running on each circular line. Is one train allowed to leave a station until the train ahead has arrived two stations ahead? Or, maybe it need only depart the next. I don't know how they guarantee separation. I have also wondered how they manage various situations, for example, what if a train breaks down? I suppose maintenance is centred partly on ensuring that they don't in a manner that unexpectedly blocks the line and strands the passengers. It's hardly a wide tunnel.

I have noticed that it's not uncommon for the outer line to pause at St Enoch while the driver pops out for a minute. There's also talk of a depot, one morning (last month, I think) the subway wasn't running because the line from the depot was icy, suggesting some track that isn't underground. Recently, I happened to spy an exciting clue: travelling on the outer line from, I think it was, Ibrox to Govan, I glimpsed a line branching off along another tunnel then rejoining a little later. I wonder what other side tunnels there are.

A bit of googling suggests that they can have as many as six trains running per circular line, though I wonder how typically that actually happens. It also suggests that the tunnel I saw may be a branch to the not-submerged depot so perhaps the inner line also has a branch in the same segment.

Incidentally, Glasgow has an excellent transportation museum which includes a couple of older subway carriages and is packed high with exhibits. Last time we visited, it even had Imperial military folks from Star Wars happy to pose for selfies with visitors. Dundee's transportation museum is funnier in offering modest but quite random mystery tours on an old bus.

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Broken record of recurrent thoughts

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 18:12:07 GMT

I mention a few recurring topics, probably because I still haven't properly addressed them. For instance, ( I remain overweight and unfit. )

I also need to get back to writing code in Haskell and in Rust. Quite how and when this happens, I am not sure. I do need ( to sort out my personal computing. )

R. is thinking about when and how we move to live somewhere else. For a couple more years yet, high school catchment area remains quite a constraint, though I can look around ( for where we might move to someday. )

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A spectral surprise

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 18:13:10 GMT

Given the short winter days this far north, I commute largely in darkness. The railway carriages are well-lit and variably heated. After I settled into my seat for my journey home this evening, I glanced around to see who else is around me. In the window, I saw the reflection of a lady a couple of seats ahead of me.

Curiously, looking in my actual carriage, I couldn't see her at all, she could be seen only in the reflection.

It turned out that there was a train at the platform alongside, I suppose she was seated on that one instead and I spied her directly. At least, we've now set off and I no longer see her!

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After the holidays: family

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 16:54:15 GMT

R.'s sons are back with us after their usual holiday with family in Asia. Our dog L's still not quite well, poor guy, no urgent fears but medical testing continues until we can get him back to normal. R's sister came along to visit before she returns to Asia; this afternoon they are all out in Glasgow city center. I am happy to stay at home with L. and relax, I am currently listening to Rylan on BBC Radio 2 while L. snuggles beside me on the sofa. Yesterday, assorted family headed to York on the train, via Edinburgh and Newcastle. R. brings me nice things back. It turns out that some Viking museum center place there has some ride around an egregiously stinky exhibit. I've been to York a couple of times for not-pleasure reasons but have not yet even ventured inside York Minster.

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Moderately distant beaches

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 15:42:51 GMT

Our couple of small road trips down into England afforded some success though plans were a little derailed by sites having holiday closures that weren't previously obvious. Fortunately, my plans include fallbacks so, among other things, our dog L. had a good time running around on Bamburgh Beach in Northumberland (near the impressive castle) and Roanhead Beach in Cumbria (near Morecambe Bay). He also got to see swans at Annandale Water from as close as I dared let him get. Roanhead Beach turned out to be enormous: by coincidence, we arrived at around low tide when there is an awful lot of walking along the sand that one can do before getting near any sea. I also learned to avoid Windermere: narrow roads full of tourists.

L.'s been suffering some gastrointestinal issue over these holidays; there has been an infection going around. They now seem to be on the mend but it slows us down and distracts us while we focus on making sure they're okay. We actually left Northumberland early to make it to an appointment with our regular vet. With luck, we won't need a second appointment.

After a quiet New Year at home, we'll go to visit family in Dundee then be back at work. R. works tomorrow too, at least from home, helping to fill out the support rota.

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A small seasonal success

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 22:26:29 GMT

Occasionally I get around to writing here, or doing other things, but not very often apparently. Between work, sleep, chores, errands, etc., for the remaining time I find myself opting to passively and motionlessly consume entertainment. Even after a long sleep, it's often with reluctance that I begin to actually move any muscles. Sometimes I start the day with ambition and enthusiasm but I tire out easily, more mentally than physically.

Still, a small success: this evening I finally got Christmas cards written and ready for posting. I have moved around a lot and mostly lost touch with family and friends, and I suspect posting cards is an increasingly archaic activity anyway. After some omitting people who've not sent me a card for years and may well have moved house, I am now down to sending a whole six cards this year, nearly all to people rather older than I. Nonetheless, I am glad to do a seasonal thing. I shall post the cards on my way into work tomorrow morning.

I am taking some time off from work over Christmas. For the most part, it will be just me and R., and L. our dog. We have a couple of small road trips planned into England, perhaps with sufficiently clement weather for L. to explore parks and beaches and the like. L. remains a fine little fellow. We finally got the breed test done, he turns out to be mostly Shih Tzu with a bit of Lhasa Apso.

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Seeing things

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 16:42:29 GMT

I had thought it a good idea to choose glasses with fairly large lenses, figuring that I would have more of my visible field corrected. However, seeing as my distance vision is fine (though worse than it was in my youth), I find that it's not as practical for me to peer over the top of my glasses, I have to take them off or at least slide them down a bit. Well, now I know for next time I choose some. Additionally, another unanticipated effect of my choice is: having opted for rimless, if I put them down then it is harder to find them afterward.

I saw a surprising sight a while ago, commuting to work: travelling from west to east in the morning at a rather northerly latitude, at one point I noticed the sun on the left of the railway carriage. It turns out that, approaching Edinburgh, the more northerly railway line bends rather south for a spell before passing south of the airport instead of north of it.

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Books that I am reading

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 17:17:44 GMT

I'm now reading a pair of books that I am happy to continue with, though I'm still fairly early into both. Each offers me a bit of a view into a different time and culture.

I have Julia Lovell's abridgement and translation of the Chinese classic, Monkey King: Journey to the West. Excellently, it is small enough to fit into the lower-inside pocket of my coat which makes it ideal for bringing along with me, including on my commute. Just earlier today, I found myself wishing I'd brought it when I found myself facing an unexpectedly long queue in the post office. It's fun and I appreciate a touch of absurd satire.

I also picked up the previously mentioned Credo by Melvyn Bragg. It's a nice change for me to read material set in the Dark Ages and, so far, I find it interesting and engaging; it handles the religious side well. As a hardback, it's a rather weighty tome: I am happy to read it at home but it's certainly not routinely accompanying me on travels.

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Scottish railways

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 18:07:49 GMT

A joy of commuting by train is seeing the Scottish Gaelic station names. My journey is from Sràid na Banrighinn to Waverley Dhùn Èideann and, along the way, highlights include that Falkirk High becomes Bràighe na h-Eaglaise Brice. Otherwise, I am also exposed to Gaelic via BBC Alba which often makes for a pleasantly relaxing way to kill a bit of time, they have low-budget cookery shows and the like, with subtitling in English.

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This morning's commute

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 22:18:29 GMT

I still see new things from the railway carriage, or at least things I forgot seeing previously. This morning I saw some fields that had actual scarecrows. I wonder how effective they are.

I also saw somebody leave their bag on the seat beside them when we stopped at a station and people boarded to find a seat. I used to have a list of ways that drivers annoyed me but it grew so long it seemed a bad idea; I shan't start a railway passenger annoyance list.

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Pulling teeth from railway operators

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 13:21:10 GMT

Late one evening back in July, I boarded a CrossCountry train at Edinburgh Waverley that then failed to proceed further. In the end, my journey was delayed by an hour so, under the Delay Repay scheme, I was supposed to be eligible for a refund.

CrossCountry's claim process wanted a QR code and and a ticket number. Unfortunately, I was using one of their flexi season tickets in their mobile app, which prevents screenshots, and the day's ticket wholly disappears once the day is done. So, I asked their customer service people how I can claim. I asked several times and got no useful response at all.

Eventually, I fell back to an effective last resort: post them a paper letter. This triggered a slow sequence of back and forth by e-mail but, last week, they finally paid me my refund. It's absurd that it took three months, and probably cost them as much to deal with me as the £7.55 they paid me, but I still don't have my answer as to how people with those tickets are supposed to claim.

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An optical deception

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 16:39:40 GMT

I haven't yet settled on how to use my commute on in-office days. For a workday it totals 3½h door-to-door, at least I could try to use the inter-city segment well. One challenge is that I don't want to add much weight to the bag I am already carrying, especially as it has the mighty work laptop therein, and my water flask. In the meantime, the railway carriage window gets looked out of somewhat.

One morning last week, I had a surprise: I glanced up at the right moment and, in the distant cloud or fog, I could make out a row of three large, white, shallow pyramids. I very much wondered something like, WTF?. Ongoing observation revealed that I was seeing the towers and cables of the Queensferry Crossing, carrying the M90 toward Edinburgh. So, support for a bridge, rather than a row of pyramids.

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The state of our things

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 18:00:58 GMT

R. and I sometimes head into Edinburgh on the train for in-office work, sometimes on separate days, sometimes together. Today, R. went in, and I stayed home and helped out with pet care. I hope that I am becoming more productive as I grow more familiar with my employer's codebase. I also look forward to getting around to personal programming projects at home but not quite yet it seems, still I have to figure how and when to fit that in. A task this evening is to schedule our influenza vaccinations. COVID-19 vaccinations are becoming a distant memory, it's a pity our BUPA health insurance doesn't reimburse them.

( Our expensive family visa journey continues. )

I read John Wiswell's Someone You Can Build a Nest In which was gentle and engaging. Whether in science fiction or fantasy, I always enjoy insight into a fairly non-human character. Definitely a nice enough way to pass the time. (Though, R. noted that it is far more gory than I had noticed, somehow that all passed me by.) I might be running out of television to watch, though. There is a bit more Chief of War left but it is far more buttocks than smiles and R. noted arrant ahistoricity in the portrayal of Zamboanga (languages, buildings, clothing). We are giving The Mayfair Witches a try on Netflix, R. read the books long ago.

A local Tesco Express convenience store has opened quite near us so we have a very handy source of heavily discounted food that must be sold before it turns into a pumpkin, assuming it isn't already one. So, among other things, we found ourselves eating sandwiches recently. With luck, the store will soon correct their loud alarm siren that warns whenever somebody outside walked near the customer entrance.

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Infectious commuting

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 18:31:25 GMT

After I got over my cold, I seemed to get another, for the following weekend, which would fit with my contracting them on my commuting on-site days. For my latest day on-site, I realized that, for Reasons, I used my ScotRail card to ride the Glasgow subway, and my Glasgow subway (really, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport) card for riding the ScotRail trains. I'll be going back in on Monday via a less inverted arrangement. I use smartcards rather than cellphone apps because I dislike being reliant on my telephone and its apps all working.

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Commuting and retirement planning

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:54:22 GMT

Just on my walk to work this morning, twice I had to dodge tourist groups blocking the entire pavement. I thought that I had avoided this in escaping Cambridge, England, but apparently not. Not being attired for leisure, I occasionally have people ask me for help with local navigation. At least, a no-steps route at the Edinburgh end worked well for me today and took little longer. I don't feel enormously steady on many-steps and can experience some vertigo so it would seem foolish to make a frequent habit of them.

In considering the prospect of moving house a little south, it occurred to me that Glasgow's buses are best avoided and the south-side trains will go up to Central, not Queen Street from where the better Edinburgh trains depart. If I want an easy commute, it behooves me to remain near a subway station from which I can easily transfer at Buchanan to Queen Street. I wonder if there is any prospect of finding a garden flat (so better for L. the dog) in our youngest's school catchment area within easy reach of the subway; it seems a tall order.

At the last part of my way home tonight, I stop to pick up the car from a local car park. I left my parking space clear because the electricians are fixing a light above it. I did so on a previous day when there was word of their arrival, on which they helpfully spent their time partly on other activities that did not require cars to have been moved. So, second time lucky, one hopes. That first was a while ago, their work was interrupted by an unexpected-by-us holiday on their part.

Pensions guys presented to us at work and got me to thinking: I have a mountain of debt at a reasonable APR and I am in a high income tax bracket. I don't have much in pension savings so old-me will be in a low tax bracket. I expect that my debt grows faster than my pension. However, I can pay pre-tax money into my pension. So, better to direct spare post-tax money toward the debt or pre-tax into the pension? I wonder if a cranking of approximate numbers yields an obvious correct answer. It would be nice to not think about secondary factors like less debt means better APRs or that I can deduct paid mortgage interest from my US taxes.

Years ago I implemented a composable simulation language into which, were it handy now, I could easily plug these questions for a year-by-year simulation. Back when working on demonstrating that technology's application to financial planning, I was amused that such inevitably led to the question, when do you plan to die?, so this pensions question is a nice exception in that I can simply optimize for starting far-off retirement in the best position.

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Miscellany

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:10:29 GMT

Again, a small update with unconnected trivia:

Some while ago, I noted that I should read Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. (I never attach actual reasons to such notes.) I finally got around to starting it and found the story to increasingly match details of a series we had started recently on Netflix. R. helpfully reminded me that the latter's named … The Secret Agent. The plots don't match each other wholly; I have yet to learn how far they diverge.

Previously, I read Iain Banks' Raw Spirit, a book about travelling around Scotland trying different whiskies. I had not read it before, the subject matter not greatly appealing to me. Still, I am glad I did: it was generally entertaining, and mixed whisky notes with driving and car thoughts, also tellings of all manner of anecdotes. It is strange to get a sense of the author from his quite personal writing, and to have him travel so many now-familiar places, given that he passed away some time ago. Belatedly, I get to know a local whom I shall never meet.

Last weekend, R. and I went camping with our dog L. It was a rather hot weekend, which R. found draining. I was surprised not to have to wrap up very well overnight. On the first evening, I managed to slip on loose moss and face-plant onto a rock; I still sport a fine black eye. Also, my leg remains rather stiff, I suppose it will sort itself out in time.

My in-the-office days continue to be tiring. Annoyingly, I remain in a poor position to use the transit time well: I feel up to reading people's journals here, etc., and the free newspaper on the train home, but little more. I often feel fairly tired and just want to rest instead. Perhaps cooler weather will help, or I will get more used to the new routine. Until now, I hadn't had much of a commute since high school and my previous two jobs were wholly remote. In my last couple of years of school, I got into the habit of napping on the bus home.

( I grumble about Uber. )

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