Carvery and Gladiators

At the risk of sounding asinine and like an 8-year-old’s diary, I went to a carvery today and it was nice. I ate beef and pork and gravy and it was yummy. OK, maybe that is a little too much. Though in fairness…I did and it was.

The Anchor Inn

We went to The Anchor Inn which is our local carvery, and also the unlikely site of an unusual Geoguessr victory, where I happened to be dropped in a neighbouring village next to the pub where I’ve eaten before. The food was great, but just the very nature of a carvery is delightful.

Day drinking. Check. Mounds of meat. Check. Unlimited potatoes drowning in gravy with a submerged yorkshire pudding. Check check check.

Whoever invented carveries was clearly onto a winner, and to run them in such a nice old pub and to make them so affordable. Call it a win from me. There were lots of multi-generational families eating there and I love that - I can see that having a Sunday dinner together sounds wonderful, but hosting a Sunday dinner sounds like a faff. So why not go to the local carvery and have somebody else handle it?

Cost. Sure. We paid £67 for 4 meals, 2 drinks and 2 puddings. But I don’t know. I guess I’m fortunate that I’m in a position where I don’t have to worry about cost all that much. It feels weird to admit that, but I’m a seniorish person in tech and have been for most of the last decade. If I can’t buy my family a £67 carvery for four…well I must be doing something wrong.

Children’s Parties

I also visited the village hall in Whixley for a joint birthday party - a mermaid disco with balloons, party games, and a chocolate fountain. It’s interesting watching the different personalities emerging at a kids birthday party - my daughter struggled to warm up and get involved, and is clearly on the shy side of things.

I don’t know if you can teach ‘anti-shyness’ or if it’s just something you’ve got to watch them learn. She got there eventually, but it took some great work from her friends and an authority figure encouraging her.

I got offered beer, wine and zero alcohol beer at the party, which I thought was interesting. Beer and wine are always a nice offer at a kids party (though if you’re attending you’re usually driving), but non-alcoholic beer really does seem to ‘be a thing’ at the moment.

## Gladiators

My whole family watches gladiators and it’s one of the highlights of the week - watching the eldest two do the gladiator poses during the intro never fails to make me smile. My oldest said today that he wants to be a gladiator when he grows up (till now he’s played his cards close to his chest and said that he’ll decide when he’s older) and has begun training (lifting his bed up with his sister on it).

It’s pretty niche as far as careers go, but he’s already begun the strength training.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow will officially be the first day of my parental leave. I’m still loving Claude Code and have set up a domain for one of my side projects. It has shocked me how easy it was to get everything up and running - I’ve had this project idea for years and it’s been a slow grind. With Claude it’s taken 3 days to have a fully deployed website.

I’ll actually be attempting to not spend the whole day coding and instead to do family things. Wish me luck.