Set Backs & Steps Back

Mixed Metaphors

So our poli:droid adventure has not been plane sailing by any means. Back in October when we received the fantastic news that we had been accepted into the 2020 competition! We were so excited to get going with hatching the ideas we had been brewing for so many months prior. But life has a way of throwing curve-balls which derail the best of plans…

Bed Bound

This fine countries great NHS never fails to surprise… Whilst he knew it was coming at some point over the next 12 months, the news that Alex’s operation to finally fix his leg tendon was actually going to be happening within days rather than months, came as somewhat of a shock. When it was then scheduled for 1st October and the successful entrants due to be announced shortly thereafter – things got tense!!! He was confined to his bed for 7 weeks after the op, slowly finding his way back to his feet since.

Knocked for Six

October also had a surprise in store for me and my family when we were given the news that my 8 year old daughter Kayla had Leukemia (ALL). Considering she wasn’t showing any symptoms of being ill, this was more than a surprise to us. I think is somewhat understandable, everything else in our lives hit a full stop as we were rushed to Addenbrooke’s, where my wife and I stayed with our daughter for three weeks uninterrupted as she started Chemotherapy. Once things then started to stabilize, we were able to alternate being with her at the hospital and being home with our son Zach, this became our lives for the 3 months that she was kept in or near the hospital receiving treatment.

Dusting Off, Cracking On!

Whilst both myself and Alex have clearly had challenges, we have remained determined to still compete in PiWars 2020. As it happens, having to stay in bed with little else to do than be on a computer or watch TV, this actually ended up giving Alex a fair amount of design / dev time to put into the project and Alex quickly started making good progress with the initial draft models.

Spending so much time at the hospital, I didn’t quite have the same undisturbed time to put into poli:droid so much of my early contributions were in helping to conceive and refine the modular approach we are taking. Thankfully though, things with my daughter have stabalised and although she still has a long way to go, we have been able to spend most of our time at home recently, allowing me evenings and weekends to make strides on the development.

More on that to come….

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