There’s something about January that makes you want to hibernate. The Christmas decorations come down, the days are short and grey, and suddenly your sofa becomes the most attractive place in the house. But looking back at my camera roll from this month, I’m reminded that even the quietest months have their moments worth capturing.
Life This Month
January started exactly how you’d expect – recovering from the festive season and easing back into routines. The slow cooker became my best friend this month. There’s nothing quite like coming home to the smell of something that’s been bubbling away all day, especially when it’s dark by 4pm.
We’ve been doing more meal planning this month – writing out what we’re having for the week on our little board in the kitchen. Sounds simple, but it’s genuinely reduced those “what should we have for dinner?” conversations by about 90%. Bangers and mash, pie and chips, the classics. Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
EV Adventures
Mid-month we took a little road trip, which always involves the familiar ritual of finding a charging spot. The InstaVolt rapid chargers have been reliable – pull up, plug in, grab a coffee, and you’re sorted. Range anxiety is definitely becoming less of a thing as the charging network improves.
The car’s been behaving well despite the cold weather. Did have to check the oil levels on the other car towards the end of the month though – sometimes the old faithful needs a bit of attention too.
Cozy Evenings In
The best part of January? Those evenings when you’ve got nowhere to be. The RGB lighting is doing its thing, creating that cozy ambient glow that makes the home office feel less like work and more like a spaceship cockpit (in the best way). We’ve been making the most of these quiet evenings together.
Tech Corner
Since we’re talking about home setups, here are a couple of things I’ve been tinkering with:
Docker Tip: Cleaning Up Disk Space
If you’re running Docker containers at home (Immich for photos, Home Assistant, Plex, etc.), your disk space can quietly fill up with old images and volumes. Here’s a quick command to reclaim some space:
docker system prune -a --volumesWarning: This removes all unused containers, networks, images, and volumes. Make sure you know what you’re doing before running it. For a safer approach, start with just docker system prune which won’t touch your volumes.
AI Workflow Tip: Local LLMs for Privacy
Been experimenting with running local language models using Ollama. If you’re privacy-conscious but want AI assistance, it’s worth a look. Install it, pull a model like Llama 2 or Mistral, and you’ve got a capable AI running entirely on your own hardware. No data leaves your network.
ollama pull mistral
ollama run mistralPerfect for those moments when you want to brainstorm ideas or get coding help without sending everything to the cloud.
Looking Ahead
February’s just around the corner, and while it’s still firmly winter, the days are getting noticeably longer. Got a few home projects on the list and hopefully some better weather for getting out and about. But for now, I’m quite content with the slow cooker bubbling away and the RGB lights glowing.
Here’s to a good month ahead.
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