Version 8.1

Archive of Simons Now page for 2025

15 December 2025

Think we are nearly ready for Christmas. All the decorations and lights are up. Have been to Glow Wild with Sister and her husband so really int he festive mood now. And you may notice I have again added the snow on the site for December. It's intensity increases everyday - not that anyone will notice and even I find it difficult to spot the difference!

Work

Work has slowed down for the end of the year yet things keep popping up.

24 November 2025

Completed the insulation in the Studio – the roof being the last part, should have done that first, and i need to seal a few bits with the squirty cream (expanding insulation foam) before i can start cutting the OSB for the internal cladding.

Work

Completed a Bing de-indexation recovery for a client New client - WordPress site and it's a bit of a tough one. Lets see if I can make a difference. Another migration for a large company being worked on at the moment.

Oh yes, the project I worked on that was shortlisted for a Drum award won a bronze! Hurrah!

Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077 got released for the Mac and I'm a few hours into that and enjoying it immensely and this may be the first RPG game I have ever played through twice - though this version has a host of extras since i played the Stadia release.

03 November 2025

Lots more work on the Pottering Studio, as it is now called, cladding finished all bar the trims, all walls are insulated and I knocked up a temporary workbench so it can be used while we wait for the first fix electrics.

Meanwhile I found time to go to the October BrightonSEO , met up with old friends and made some new ones and had a great time. SEO is not dead by a long way! (Though it is ageing…)

Biggest news has been the release of the Affinity 3 Studio - and it is free, no subscription unless you wish to use the Canva AI, which I'm not keen on anyway. I was worried that Canva might make it subscription only but they have pulled a master stroke that I think will get a lot of Adobe users interested. So far everything I have seen in V3 is either the same as V2 or better.

Work

The Chrome extension is still in private beta and I still need to set some prime time aside to think of how to improve it further. If you would like to have a play then you can find it here: Simons Schema Analyser.

A project I worked on has been shortlisted for a Drum award - I'm listed in the credits but it was very much a team effort. Hope they win!

14 October 2025

The pottering shed work has slowed a little but a third of the larch cladding is on, window fitted and sealed up. I will do a set of articles when its finished.

22 September 2025

The pottering shed has its proper rubber roof on and all the trim added. i have also added the french doors - reclaimed from our house after we replaced them last week. They fitted perfectly (after i had cut some rebates) and now the shed is weatherproof - just in time I think as today is quite cold! I have completed the insulation on one wall, three to go.

Work

The Chrome extension seems to have been well received. Its still in private beta and i need to set some time aside to think of how to improve it further. If you would like to have a play then you can find it here: Simons Schema Analyser.

1 September 2025

The potting shed has its roof on and a tarpaulin protecting the OSB. I have the rubber roof but am waiting for a series of dry days to install it as there is a lot to do!

Work

I have released the initial versions of a small Chrome extension, Simons Schema Analyser that reviews a web pages schema contents and lists what is built and what is missing. It was more for my own use but there have been 97 installs already even thought the extension is not publicly available! i need to do more work on it as i know there are still issues - but it does work!

11 August 2025

The potting shed is coming on well with the base and two walls constructed and in place. The walls are C24 4"x2" with an 11mm OSB skin which has been covered in a breathable membrane. I have cut the timber for the other side wall and the intention is to put that together and raise it this week. that leaves the front wall which will be taller to accommodate the doors but i will have to wait for a little while to get hold of those

Work

There is a huge amount going on in the SEO world at the moment - it is hard to keep up and i think it is only going to get worse this year. I'm expecting to be very busy over the next 6 months.

Taken on a new small client to manage their website for a couple of days a month.

If you want me to have a look at a project of yours, please do get in touch.

Gaming

Have played The Roottrees Are Dead on Steam - very enjoyable puzzle game where you are trying to work out a family tree from clues scattered about. Not yet learnt the rules for Stupor Mundi now it is on BGA and am meant to be playing it.

21 July 2025

It's still hot!

I have started building a potting shed (in this heat? - yes). Have watched a ton of very good videos on building outdoor rooms. So far the base is built and i have spent more on tools than materials - though I think I have every tool needed now to build this shed and also rebuild the other shed. Suggestions welcome though! I will be writing this project up at some point.

Work

Delving into some CRM and donation tools for a clients website - lot to learn before i can spec anything up.

Hobbies

Progress on Whitesands Quay. Slipway former is in place and I have build the mole of the quayside wall. That's clad in Wills sheeting and half painted. I have also made a start on the main quayside wall. I need to write this up at some point!

30 June 2025

It's so hot!

Have been strategically closing curtains and blinds and opening doors and windows during the day to keep the heat out and its mostly working. We do have a portable air conditioning unit we have one in the bedroom at night and that makes it comfortable enough to sleep well.

Work

Sorting out a charities wordpress site at the moment. This hasn't so far endeared me to WP at all and is just confirming my reluctance to use it at all.

Also have been working on a pitch for a site currently on WP to migrate it to another CMS, and the site went down for a day while I was writing things up - and not it wasn't me, they had upgraded a plugin.

If you want me to have a look at a project of yours, please do get in touch.

Hobbies

A bit of progress on Whitesands Quay. Have 3d printed a slipway and started work on the beach and quay area.

9 June 2025

Fixed the wood store as the floor collapsed under the weight of the logs.

Lots of Great Tit and Blue Tit fledgelings hammering away at the birdfeeder, with Yellowhammers, robins, jackdaws, chaffinches, bullfinches, Great woodpeckers wood pigeons and rock doves all feeding off the fallen seed from the ground! Probably the voles too, so I am having to refill the feeder nearly every day. Also Had a badger, fox, Roe fawn, kit and grey squirrel as well as Roe and Fallow deer wandering into the garden. Not seen the nuthatches for a while which is a worry though I have heard them.

Work

Just finished a huge site platform migration with over 650k pages in the old site - and only about 14k in the new as there had been a lot of unessesary and unhelpful duplication. I'm sure decisions were made for the right reasons at the time.

Gaming

Played Dredge on the Mac - was good but the story plot was a bit lacking, though i did like that there was no set path in it - you go fishing and its fun.

19 May 2025

Got absolutely wrapped up with Andor over the past few weeks and watched the last three followed by Rouge One in one day - and Star Wars (IV A New Hope) the next day as they are all sequential. possibly the best Star Wars series so far. Murdebot on Apple TV is next.

Spent a bit of time creating a 3d printed insert to go inside a front door handle to give the screws more purchase power. This justifies the expense!

Work has been going on in the garden - concreted an anchor ring into the ground to padlock the ladders to. Fixed a bucket. Greenhouse is now fully paved, had beds down one side and across the end but rodents were tunnelling in and the extra heat retention of the slabs seems to be working well!

Work

Did some work on a Charities WordPress website - had not been collecting GA data or able to use Yoast for 9 months since launch because of a mistake the developer made - I assume it was a mistake.

Gaming

Weekend games here was superb! Next one booked for August. played:

28 April 2025

Spring Brighton SEO has come and gone - it was as fantastic as ever. I have now started to wade through the videos of talks I wasn't able to be in and will probably rerun some of those I did.

Got myself some new tools and a new rolling toolbox system to put them in for some big upcoming home projects this year.

Meanwhile I have added a small feature to the Spotify played list - a time stamp. It was already there in the API data I was picking up but I wasn't using it on the page.

And in other news my mother in law broke an iBuleve tube key, for rolling up the paste tube from the bottom, and asked me if I could repair it - couldn't as it was too fragile to glue and be useable. So I took the measurements and created a new one in Tinkercad and 3d printed it - she is delighted! And it works!

Gaming

Got a weekend games session coming up in May so have been 3d printing some token trays - they have come out well and will be useful!

02 April 2025

Spring is really here and I have been out foraging for wild garlic leaves and turning them into fresh pesto which just tastes sensational! Wild garlic is only around for about 6 weeks so is super seasonal and that makes is taste all the better for it!

Work

Working on a new site for a local business at the moment.

BrightonSEO coming up next week and that's always very exciting to learn new things and see old friends!

17 March 2025

We had a week of lovely winter Sunshine so got out and went on a day trip to Rye, and then a couple of days later to Sheffield Park.

Work

Working on a new site for a local business at the moment.

The Genealogy artwork project is also on the blocks and being worked on.

Some interesting things going on in the SEO world at the moment, unsurprisingly AI is involved but in 2025 we cannot avoid it.

Hobbies

Am currently working on the beach and quay on Whitesands Quay and have made some good progress.

Gaming

Have had a few games of Great Western Trail: El Paso on Board Game Arena and it is quite good. Need to try some different tactics as reviews have said there are lots of different strategies. It's much the same as the main Great Western Trail but more compact.

26 February 2025

It's been wet and cold over the past couple of weeks. Started using my ReMarkable 2 to sketch out notes and ideas.

Hobbies

Now have a filament 3D printer and am getting to grips with it - have already been printing the chassis for my 4 wheel balcony coaches and have included a slot for the Greenwich couplings.

Gaming

Finished Factorio, well got a rocket up and kept that going for a few more days for fun but now have stopped that game as I was over optimising everything.

4 February 2025

It's been bitterly cold with temperatures dropping well below freezing for several weeks. -7.5C is the lowest so far!

Work

Interesting Genealogy artwork work request came in today that we are going to price up.

Gaming

Jumped back into Factorio and started a new solo game.

13 January 2025

New year! new resolutions! No no new ones as I don't do resolutions as it is an instant path to stress and disappointment.

Work

Winding down a client over this month and next so we will have capacity for new projects this year!

If you want me to have a look at a project of yours, please do get in touch.

Hobbies

Have designed my own wooden guttering 3d prints that came out well so have added some to the pub.

Gaming

Had quite a few games of Orléans over the past few weeks - it's very good.

Always happy to play so please do invite me for a game of something! Me on board Game Arena.

Reading

Still slowly reading Hello World by Hannah Fry. 'Still' because I fall asleep almost immediately these days. I used to read books avidly but not so much these days.

Ideas

About Now Ideas is an interesting site that allows searching of small sites like this that have About, Now and Ideas pages. This site now has all three!