Now | October 2026 - Coffee Journeys

This is my “now” page inspired by Derek Sivers. It answers “what I’m doing now?“. My life, projects and priorities. I post an update here every 1-3 months.

What’s up as of October 2026?

October started with a small live map of our corner of London, built in an afternoon. A week later, a round of security news sent me back under the bonnet to check that everything I run was safe. Then came half-term in the Cotswolds, where patchy phone signal made switching off easy. Making, mending, resting: I’m slowly learning that each one needs the other two.

🚇 Our Corner of London, Live

It started with James Potter's ZONE ONE, a live map of central London, and a simple thought: I want this for where we live. One afternoon with Claude Code later, we had our own version for Loughton, Buckhurst Hill and Woodford, right where the city fades into Epping Forest. Central line trains, buses and planes now move across it in real time.

Back in Kraków, we loved watching our tram glide across a map while we waited at the stop (or sit at the same junction for four minutes). We use public transport more here now, and I missed that feeling. These days we stand at the stop and watch our bus wait at the lights.

The real heroes are open data: Transport for London, the UK's bus data service and OpenStreetMap. Our kids insist the only proper way to watch it is the retro "tycoon" mode with pixel vehicles. The whole story is on the blog, and the map lives at map.zagor.org.

🔧 Looking After What I Built

A week later came news of a batch of serious security holes in Node.js, the engine behind the map and much of my home setup. My question was simple: do I need to upgrade anything? The answer took an afternoon. One program turned out to live in seven places across three machines, and the oldest copies were hiding inside tools that quietly bundle their own.

The bigger surprises were the silent failures. A tool meant to keep one app up to date had been crashing since March. On the server that runs the map, automatic security updates were switched off entirely. Nothing broke and nothing complained, which is exactly the problem: automation nobody watches is just a story you tell yourself.

So I turned the afternoon into a habit. With Claude Code I built a small security check I can run with one command: what's installed, what's known to be vulnerable, and what's open to the outside world. It only reports and never fixes anything on its own, so the decisions stay with me. Building is the fun part; looking after it is the part nobody sees.

🏰 Lego Knights in the Cotswolds

After an intense few weeks at work and on my side projects, we escaped to the Cotswolds for half-term: honey-coloured limestone villages, built on medieval wool money. Phone signal is patchy almost everywhere there, so we took the hint and made it a mini digital detox.

Despite wind and drizzle, we walked a lot and found Tolkien twice. In Stow-on-the-Wold, a yew-framed church door is said to have inspired the Doors of Durin, and in Moreton-in-Marsh the Bell Inn claims to be the Prancing Pony. Our medieval Lego knights came along for the photos. They knocked on ancient doors, pointed at something far in the distance, and climbed mini mountains to share an imaginary supper in a circle.

From the outside, our cottage looked like a barn, because it once was one. Inside, it felt like a small castle, with a games table in the middle of the living room and boards that swap over. One evening we played cards, the next a beautifully crafted chess set, and on the last night we watched The Lord of the Rings. We left a line in the guestbook: "A perfect place to slow down, unwind, and make lovely family memories."

#blog

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers “now page” movement.

Updated: 29 Oct 2026