Susanna Codes

It’s between me, the sand and the sea  I was in a call about wind farms today and I was losing it. And some of my female colleagues were very excited too. And I thought: you see women don’t want handsome princes (some might do!). Women want wind farms! (Okay, only some do 😉). But in all seriousness it might be time to quote Geoffrey Chaucer and the wife of bath’s tale from the Canterbury tale. A knight does something terrible to a woman  And he is sentenced to death. But they take pity on him. He will be pardoned if he can answer the question: what do women want? He is given a year to answer the question and if he can’t he will be executed. He travels the land but every woman gives him a different answer. The beautiful maiden wants to be wed. The mother of 5 wants some peace and quiet. The elderly lady wants some strength and energy. He despairs and he writes all the answers in a big book. In his grief as the year comes to a close he sits and cries. A woman approaches him And...

Sweet About Me, Nothing’s Sweet About Me The myth of women always being nice has to die. And in 2026 that is the part of me that I am leaving behind. The part of me that gives too much only for it not to be appreciated. Dame Helen Mirren once said that the first two words a woman should learn should be „fuck off.” This might sound extreme but when you understand that we spend our whole lives being told to please people and make people happy And yet we are so vulnerable to risk and exploitation (this is something that I could talk about for hours, but I won’t on this blog, right now). So if you add a natural desire to not be mean with a heightened vulnerability then you have a problematic mix. Let me introduce one more factor: neurodivergence What if you are like me. You struggle to read between the lines some times (while also being amazingly good at it in other situations). You tend to see the best in others and want to trust them. You are vulnerable anyway and you need people to help...

Understanding Mocks in Testing - part 2 Ahem yes. I did not give myself much (or any) processing time but I will do later. So back to testing components then: When you get to the point in your test/custom render function When the query runs Then you don't call the query You use the MOCKED DATA instead!!! SO YOU NEED TO CREATE A STUB OR A MOCK FOR EACH SCENARIO YOU NEED YOU NEED TO CREATE A STUB OR A MOCK FOR EACH SCENARIO YOU NEED This is so important. This is SO important to me. Because this is something I have done before. And this is something I am quite good at actually. LOGIC. I have done this in AI actually  ANYWAY moving on So, you need the right mock for each scenario you are testing  I am feeling so tired but I want to get this done.  SO THEN YOU CAN GO: When a test fails - what is the code actually expecting? IS THE CUSTOM RENDER RECEIVING THE WRONG DATA? IS THE TEST RECEIVING THE RIGHT DATA? "The digging is what takes the most time after you have written the te...

Understanding Mocks in Testing - part 1 I know, I know - a learning blog. It's been a while but here we are. I know you are probably thinking I should get mocks by now. Well, yes and no. I have used them a lot in backend. But frontend has thrown everything for me  So here I am again to understand them properly. Anyway thanks.  This version might be long and boring. The main aim for this blog post is to get everything out of my head. I wish I was in the office with my two screens. This would make everything so much easier. Anyway - soon. When we write our component that component might have som return elements. And those elements that our component returns (this is how React works) might display some data. Or the components might REACT to some data (!!!) - a boolean might cause a button to be enabled or disabled, it might cause some aspects of the component to be hidden. Data basically is displayed in React components or affects them by causing them to change for example throug...

Kindness Kindness above all begins with being kind to ourselves. I think how freely I have been kind to others over the years - and then I think how much I have struggled to give this same kindness to myself. And it makes me really sad. The Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm says that we should be equally kind to ourselves as to others - BUT it is harder to be kind to ourselves and therefore we need to put in more effort. I look at how harshly I judged myself in so many ways in my mind and it makes me really sad. I am only just beginning to really give love and kindness to myself properly And yet it is the most transformative thing of all The first thing I want to do is to allow myself to say no to people. When someone asks me for something else at work other than my day job then I have to ask myself a lot of questions first and basically the answer will be no More and more often  The answer will be no Thank you

Say It Right Feeling completely recovered I am ready to go back to work tomorrow. Ready is a strong word; everything is messy and disorganised at home and as always I have not solved the mystery of what gluten intolerant people who don’t eat gluten free bread either should pack to work for lunch.  But I’m ready to work again.  I came back and worked for one day on the 2nd (worked INTENSELY) but then I got sick. So now I am ready for the day to day of my job. This afternoon as I was feeling better I did some walking before and after doing a food shop. And I have to say doing some exercise in the fresh air just changed everything. My mental capacity for work. My readiness and willingness to work. My ability and my enthusiasm  So my plan to survive my career is to make sure I walk outside every day. There are lots of beautiful spots on bus routes near me but the most beautiful place if all is right by my house down at the end of the world. So I have to get walking again. I s...

I dream of home, part 2 I dream of home. Not just the place but the concept. To me home has always meant the forest. I am going to cry as I write it out. Coming out of my house. Walking down the road. Turning a small corner - and then it’s a sharp turn up a hidden passage - up up up the steepest hill in the world (apart from another even steeper one in the valley down the road) - and then you are in the woods. And I cannot even describe to you how it feels to find another magical new spot in the woods. A big old oak tree that stands alone miles and miles from civilisation. The top of the hill. I live on a big plateau and at the top of the plateau my mum calls it top of the hill. I guess that name stuck. I went there some times on my own even though it was a massive hike and probably a little bit too dangerous to attempt alone. But once or twice I did it with someone. And sometimes we would just drive up there with or without doing a walk as well When I lived back there I would sometime...

Ever Just As Sure As The Sun Will Rise We are in the darkest time of the year. The last few days have been tough. I don’t really have the answers or the solutions. I will say that early morning sunlight and exercise are supposed to be an amazing combination.  Indeed when walking to dance class the other day I got hit by the sun and it touched something deep within me. I get really badly affected by the winter. I know this and it still hit me. Again the only solution I can think of is sunlight. And doing normal activities. Working. Dancing. I’ve been off work for a few days but I’ll be back soon. I have loads of dance classes lined up. And as soon as I’m sure I have no more flu I will try and integrate some early morning walks again. As there is nothing better for my mental health I’ve been meditating loads but that is a fine balance. Perhaps you can’t do general meditation too much but I do a very specific kind and I did too much. Moderation is key here  Tomorrow is a big reve...

I have no words  Starting 2026 with my heart broken.  Nobody orders grief and yet is has to come. The news about switzerland has just been too much. A place so close to home, I have family there, and I grew up as part of an international community - I was surrounded by Italians and French kids and so on all my life. I feel as if I knew these kids. I feel as if I met them. Those years as well were such formative years for me - the late teens and early twenties. To think that so many young people lost their lives so soon  Is breaking me apart and tearing me apart  I remember being 18 and I remember my high school friends all of the Italians and French kids that there were at my school (there were no Swiss because it was a European Union school). To think that it could’ve been us and it could’ve been our last night out and it would’ve all ended like that. Why was it them and not us. I don’t know I am in so many ways areligious and in so many ways pan religious. I tell p...

Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram I was brought up believing that everything always happens for a reason.  For a while this was impossible to see. Then I thought the reasons would be material. You know - wealth, riches, rewards, job opportunities… perfect partners.  It’s not to say these things haven’t happened or can’t happen or aren’t great. But that is not the reason The real reason is the happiness and the peace of God. I think you have to feel it to understand it. But to come back to the peace and love of the divine is really the biggest reward. Is really a much bigger reward than anything else. Thank you It is really the biggest reward of all. Thank you ❄️ P.s. according to Krishna Das „ Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram” is the mantra that the God Hanuman is always singing