What is Simon Cox up to now?
I update this page about every three weeks, sometimes sooner if I have something additional I want to drop in.
15 September 2026
Having read Becky's Now page I realised I could be diarising these Now notes so I have dug back through my code repository to bring back all the previous versions of the Now content.
14 September 2026
Have built out a site for a friend taking their original 1990's built site to a new level. She is currently updating it in raw html so have rebuilt it in 11ty, reworked to the css to provide a responsive layout and I have just finished a version with PagesCMS so that it can be updated quickly and easily.
Have also been fixing a few things on this site now that Speedlify 2 has launched and popped up to 18th fastest site at one point - 25th today and top site on Cloudflare! Next run for my site is sometime today so i may drop further!
Work
Have done a webinar with David Bain last week for the SEO in 2027 series and have another with Sean Barber this week. If you want me to have a look at a project of yours, please do get in touch.
Hobbies
Lot more work on the Shepherds hut laser cut kit with a lot of improvements. Now in 4mm and a new 7mm scale version. Realised the wheels were incorrect so recreated them and have added a set of steps. Am also trying out some new board material which is good and a lot more cost effective
Gaming
Have played through Caravan SandWitch - loved it. No shooting no death just tasks to complete with an interesting storyline.
Daily games being played at the moment. With a cup of Tea Ordinaire, this lot gets me set up for the day and the old noggin ticking over:
- Tiled Words - Sort of a crossword.
- Clues By Sam - discover the innocents and criminals.
- Bee Sort - less taxing but fun.
- The daily spell - Work out the words - I'm doing the hilarious The Importance of Being Ernest.
- Map Tag - Target where you think places are - 938 is my best daily score to date.
- Putt Day - Daily crazy golf.
Always happy to play online so please do invite me for a game of something! Me on board Game Arena.
24 August 2026
I have refactored how my 11ty builds with a new stage directory for local viewing of the site seperate from thefinal build directory so that posts that are draft can be seen locally but do not get deployed. It's an enhancement of what i had in place and I think far better.## WorkBeen slow this year but that's ok - I have plenty of things to be getting on with. 0 commit commentsComments0 (0)Lock conversation
13 July 2026
Went on a trip to Canterbury with my oldest friend Nick to see the Small films Exhibition at the Beany Gallery - hopefully that will become permanent. After we lunched at the Millers Arms and then went to Canterbury Auction Rooms to view the pieces coming up in the Peter Firmin Sale. Nick and I are massive fans of Noggin the Nog and we grew up with Smallfilms dominating children's TV. They are timeless tales with the most exquisite illustrations from Peter and sublime narration from Oliver Postgate. Next day for two days was the online auction of over 500 lots and by lot 3 the site had crashed causing a delay of an hour and we all had to switch platforms. The estimated prices turned out to be a miscalculation of interest and the auction lasted 17 hours over two days - not including the hour postponement. You should still be able to see the Peter Firmin lots and the hammer prices here. My article about installing OKF, Google Cloud's Open Knowledge Format, on an 11ty website - has gone down well in the SEO world. I am continuing to monitor the visits and am logging the different bots and how they got to the files and have been updating the post with insights. It also includes a link to the live Data Studio Dashboard I have built to monitor the bots.
Hobbies
Three new 009 Rapido Kerr Stuart Sirdar's turned up - had been on pre order for a very long time and it was worth the wait. That's the only real progress on Whitesands Quay this month.
13 July 2026
My article about installing OKF, Google Cloud's Open Knowledge Format, on an 11ty website - has gone down well. I am continuing to monitor the visits and am logging the different bots and how they got to the files and have been updating the post with insights. I t also includes a link to the live Data Studio Dashboard I have built to monitor the bots.
22 June 2026
Wrote a piece installing OKF, Google Cloud's Open Knowledge Format, on an 11ty website - and have done it on this one. Am now monitoring the files to see what happens. Been on the lookout for a Chilean blue eagle that escaped from a local country fair last week - might have glimpsed it fly ove our garden. Saw a lighting storm 140 miles away in France - spectacular!
Work
Have made some significant optimisation gains on a Word Press Site client - still more to do but its complex as I did not develop the theme.
Hobbies
I have actually made more progress on painting the quayside area for Whitesands Quay! Walls are now finished and painted up including the ramp sides and I have even created the cobblestone ramp and painted it up.
Gaming
Went away for a Board games weekend with chums and had a great time. Have been playing The Return of the Obra Dinn on Steam - got a bit stuck!
01 June 2026
I have built a small subdomain to monitor the local river level. Our house has a slight risk of flooding so its good to know the river level. Fortunately there is a DEFRA measuring point a mile away but it only shows 5 days worth of levels. This is handy but i like to compare historic levels. There is an API available that has 1 years worth of data so I built a site to pull this data to show the current and store it for a long term review of the river levels. Eden Brook river levels
Work
Currently working on another Wordpress site doing some overdue optimisation. Site is only just over a year old and whilst looks good, the design agency farmed out the build I am cleaning it up. Also pitched for some interesting work on a brand that has multiple sites that wanted to merge them all. My considered opinion was that they would struggle if they did that and only a couple of sites would benefit. As I always say - each and every website is unique!
Hobbies
I have actually made a little bit of progress on painting the quayside wall for Whitesands Quay! I need to keep the momentum going!
11 May 2026
I was at BrightonSEO at the end of April/start of May and had a brilliant time catching up with old friends, making new ones and soaking in a lot of knowledge from the talks.
Having stayed at one, rather expensive, hotel for the past few years we decided to find somewhere else after the room they gave us last year was unsatisfactory in many, many ways. We found a hotel room that s more like a little apartment and only 5 mins walk away from BrightonSEO, plus my new favourite pub is on the way! So i have already booked it for the next event!
Work
Finished a hosting migration and feature update for an old WordPress site - not my favourite CMS but it was for a good cause. It has reminded me about the technical debt we put ourselves into when creating websites. It also reminded me why I do not build any of my own sites with WordPress.
Hobbies
I have been drawing up a model of the Fountain Hotel in Deal - have been researching it over the years and want to make a small model of it. I have already cut a first version of the front using my new Creatlity laser, including the brickwork which would have take hours on the little Neje laser I have.
20 April 2026
Bread baking isn't going great - am getting great expansion with the starter but not so much in the bread. Currently investigating. Also an attempt at gluten free bread was only suitable for building construction purposes. Currently on hold.
I have a new laser - Creality Falcon A1 Pro and it is substantially faster, more powerful, has a larger area and is safer than my small Neje. Everyone in my family is getting wooden boxes for presents for years!
03 April 2026
Got the ball rolling on the planning application issue and they now have a huge amount of local opposition.
Meanwhile I created a TV listings page for fun that uses the BBC api - I will expand it to the other channels when i have some spare time. I learnt a shed load of stuff building it.
Great tits are nesting under the eves which is about knee height as I sit so there is a lot of noisy nesting activity going on - but it's that time of year. i also purchased some new bird feeders from Finches Friend - really good but took the birds a few days to acclimatise to them. The nut hatches love it!
Back to bread making after a year off and discovered a new to me way of keeping a sourdough starter. Told my brother in law and he told me that's how he has been doing it for years. Thanks.
Hobbies
Did some 3D filament printing this week and created some cable tidies and a storage system for tot top of my Bambu Lab X1-Carbon that fits nicely with the AMS on the top. Probably could do with something similar for the Elegoo Mars for the tools I use on that.
Gaming
Played Harold Halibut (not Henry Haddock as I keep calling it) and really enjoyed it though not a challenging game and it's a little bit sad in parts, but I kind of identified with it a bit.
10 March 2026
Years ago we lived very happily in Croydon and then the Council decided to change to resident parking hours from 9-5 Mon-Sat to 7am to 7pm 7 days a week. Our small road could cope with parking after 5pm when everyone came home and Saturday was the only issue. The proposed change would have meant mayhem parking for everyone. So we fought it. We had a BBC camera crew follow us for 5 hours up to the big planning meeting at Croydon Town Hall where they had never had as many residents to a meeting and had to open two overspill rooms to accommodate us; and there will still protesters left outside. We won and the Council backed down. They tried again 10 years later, on a smaller scale and we mobilised again and beat them back. Not long after that we moved to the country side for the peace and quiet.
Except now someone has put in a planning application that will blight our house and I have been agitated again. I will not sit still and take it - what I do have are a very particular set of skills.
Work
Still wrangling a WP site but have also completed training on a Wix site for a small local business and that's gone well.
Gaming
Had a cracking Board Games weekend here and played a good number of games.
26 January 2026
Been an odd couple of weeks. Have spent an inordinate amount of time on the next local magazine that I got off to print last night. Bit longer than normal as its the 50th year it has been running - I have only been volunteering on it for about 11 years of that, creating the page layout. It's is only 4 times a year and brings together the local villages really well.
Work
Shifted a Wordpress site to a new host - not that keen on WP sites as they are usually a big old mess. This one needed a lot of updates and fixes that for various reasons I wasn't able to do on the old hosting. Now waiting for the final sign off and then we can do the DNS changes.
Also have another site for a local business launched. I need to spend some time on the local SEO to get the business rolling in.
Hobbies
I built a web page cataloguing our CD collection. Started with a Google sheet where I input the barcode, or any code I can find, and that triggers a call to an API or two to bring back the data about that disk. I then download the csv file, add it into an 11ty data folder and run a script to pull the images from the APIs. If there are missing images i manually source them and add them. Then I build the page and the result is a web page grid of the albums we have that is searchable, sortable by artists, album and release date. HTat's it - not going to publish it and I don't know what to do with it now. We don't even have a cd player any more.
Gaming
Went through all the endings in Cyberpunk 2077 - great game! Got a big board game session coming up end of Feb so need to gen up on some rules.
05 January 2026
Well Christmas was a blast - had a magical time walking around Glow Wild at Wakehurst, and a rollicking time watching the Robin Hood Pantomime at the Astor Theatre in Deal. Also, as part of out National Trust at Christmas visits, we visited Scotney Castle and the old Castle looked like a fairy tale sited on an island in a completely frozen lake.
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 am also making progress on the main quayside wall. I need to write this up at some point!
Gaming
Cyberpunk 2077 got released for the Mac and I'm quite 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. I am now deep into the Phantom Liberty new content and its great!
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!
What I'm Listening To Now
This is a list of the 18 tracks I last listened to on Spotify. If you give the page a refresh in a few moments it might update if I am listening right now!
and a bigger list of the tracks I listened to just before these.
Archives
Archives of the updates for previous years:
Simon Cox Now archives for 2025
Simon Cox Now archives for 2024
NowNowNow
This page was inspired by the Now Now Now movement. You can find out more about it at nownownow.com.