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I have been neglecting my blog for awhile! I have no excuse, I've just been busy socially and also unmotivated to write recently but I'm going to try to change that! Lots of good things still to be grateful for. I just can't believe we're past halfway through the year already!
Zoopla Work
There are so many things that have happened for the past two months at Zoopla! First one is I successfully passed my probation and the feedback from everyone is amazing! I'm so glad that my work is being valued and this motivates me more to continuously provide my knowledge and help out everyone as much as I can.
I've also been helping out the team to mature our testing strategy. This means integrating tools such as SuperTest to test our API which I have blogged about previously - API Testing using SuperTest and Jest. Using contract testing to test the contract between our API and data consumers and also focusing on the performance of our API by making sure we do load testing, stress and soak testing. The plan is to standardise contract testing within the consumer domain at Zoopla so I've been speaking to different colleagues on how we can do this. Looks promising so far!
It was also the month of mid year review conversations so I completed that for all my direct reports and I also gave a talk to some students to give them an overview on what it is like to work as a Quality Engineer.
Apart from that, we had a Big Rainbow Quiz last June which was a great way to learn more about the LGBT+ culture and a Zoopla Family Day which was an additional day off to spend more time with family and friends, away from your laptop!
TestBash Home
I attended my second TestBash Home this June and the talks were amazing. I created a few sketch notes for some of the talks that I attended which you can find below.
I also shared the above sketch notes to my team at Zoopla.
Accessibility Talk
This June and July, I gave my "Shifting Accessibility to the Left" talk four times! I haven't had the chance to create a new talk these days so it's good that organisers are reaching out to hear about more talks about accessibility.
You can catch a recording of the talk from Continuous Testing Meetup. I had my second dose of vaccine that day too so giving a meetup talk during the afternoon was a bit challenging 😂
Personal Developments
📚 I read Make Your Bed while I was waiting to have my Covid vaccine. It's a really short read about small tips that can change your life and is based on this YouTube video where Admiral McRaven gave an inspiring speech at the University of Texas. I also read How To Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie which was an excellent read. I also read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team which was recommended by my manager David. Finally, I decided to take a break from non fiction books and read It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. Ah, this novel was so heartbreaking!
🎧 Consistently listened to podcast episodes almost every day
💪🏼 Started boxing classes and I love it! I'm still continuing my home workouts but when I have the free time in the evening, I do beginner's boxing for an hour. It's a great way to meet new people too.
June Favourites
A 3 day trip to Isle of Wight with my very good friend Rafaela. Lots of nature walks, playing Jenga, riding a cable car, great food and company!
Finally had my first Covid vaccine!
My blog traffic is still going strong even if I'm not posting as regularly as before 🙂
Hanging out with friends and family more
July Favourites
Had my second dose of vaccine so I'm now fully vaccinated!
Gabby's graduation from nursery!
Eating Korean corn dog and crispy chicken skin 🤤
Amazing probation review feedback from Zoopla! 💜
Eating more Filipino food!
Buying school uniform for Gabby as preparation for September