Dean Sas

Valentines get-away

February brought a chance to spend some time alone with Sara during an overnight Valentine’s break in the Peak District. We decided to walk from Hope, up Lose Hill, along the Great Ridge and then down to Edale. I’ve never walked the ridge from east to west before.

The walk up the hill was muddy – I fell over once and nearly went a couple more times and close to the top, the rain picked up and a bog tried to eat my boot. It didn’t get any better as we walked along the ridge. It was misty and the wind blew the rain horizontally into our faces. It was definitely type two fun.

After Back Tor, we decided to abort. We trotted down the hill to the Penny Pot cafe where we had a lovely cup of tea, some hot food and began to dry off. Once the rain tailed off a little bit, we escaped down the road to the Rambler Inn and spent the afternoon getting a bit squiffy. Suitably merry, we got on the train and returned to Hope, for a hot shower and a nap, before enjoying the drinks and food at the Old Hall and the Cheshire Cheese Inn.

It was a reminder that you don’t have to go far to have an adventure, and you can always salvage something of a bad situation.

Family Time in the Sun

We spent Easter in Turkey, getting a nice change of weather, recharging our batteries and just spending time together as a family. We spent most of the days jumping in the water from our poolside room, reading, and sipping cocktails and mocktails. Even the unexpected—my first encounter with Turkish healthcare—couldn’t dampen the mood for long. Visiting the Temple of Apollo in Didim together added a nice touch of culture to a lazy holiday. It’s kind of humbling to be stood where Alexander the Great once did.

Falling for Sintra

Lisbon charmed us with its narrow streets, old trams, pasteis de nata and lots of history. We explored a castle full of Peacocks, the Roman amphitheatre and saw some monumental sculpture – exactly the kind of thing we love. Sintra, though, stole our hearts. The colours and setting of the Pena Palace, the gardens and the walk down the hillside into town were all amazing. The Palace was very busy and the gardens and walk down into town was very tranquil in comparison. There wasn’t enough time to see all there was to see in Sintra, and so we must return one day.

What I appreciated most of all though, was the rhythm we fell into as a family. Exploring in the morning, cooling off in the pool later in the day—it was a perfect balance.

Waves, walks and history

We took the first part of the summer holidays with my parents, in the small seaside village of Harlyn, close to Padstow, Cornwall. We had a small house just 100m from the beach and so me and Hugo spent a good chunk of most of the days splashing around in the waves and playing on the beach.

We took the chance to get plenty of walking done. Up and down cliff-top walks, in and out of rockpools, drinking in the views, stopping for pasties, and getting caught out by the tricky Cornish sun.

The British weather being what it is, we couldn’t spend all of our time outdoors. We also visited Lanhydrock house where we were allowed to climb the scaffolding to see the ornate plaster ceiling up close, St Michaels Mount where we got caught out by the tide, and Tintagel.

Sara and I took advantage of my parents being with us to have a night out in Padstow in celebration of being a couple for twenty years. We ate at Rick Stein’s restaurant and then visited as many of the pubs and bars in Padstow as we could manage before getting the very last taxi back.

Besides the unnerving print of David Inshaw’s Dining Couple I was sat across from while eating, the thing that sticks in my mind about this holiday is the three generations of us walking, talking and exploring ❤️

Working in Vienna

I was in Vienna to spend six days with my team. Given I work from home most of the year, having a week where I choose to spend most of my waking time with my team is intense, but very fun.

It was my first time in Austria, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from it, except schnitzel. We landed as there were news reports about possible major flooding, which caused some anxiety, but in the end it didn’t impact our plans.

During the day we worked in a nice (but very warm) meeting room at a co-working space. It was good to connect, exchange perspectives and figure out some nice team process changes. We stayed in a conveniently located hotel, with a big lobby, where we continued our traditional meet-up game of Coup in the evenings.

We had a bit of time to explore the city and I found Vienna to be really nice, liveable. We met with some of our colleagues who lived there who confirmed this sentiment. There are some amazing imperial buildings full of museums that I’d love to go back and visit.

On the culinary front, I tried Sturm for the first time, which was really nice, and not something I knew of before. I also learned that schnitzel in Austria is just as good as it is here (which is to say, meh).