July 2022 – Hello Curns

Weeknotes #13

Week commencing Monday, 25 July 2022

Commonwealth Games cycling at Lee Valley VeloPark

Quantified Self

This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 7/7 and Move 5/7. (86%, getting better).

Life

Wednesday 27th: Happy Birthday Dad!
Also 27th: Ten years ago was the opening of the 2012 Olympics. I considered blogging something because I still have wonderful memories of that time. But, ultimately, I am not sure I had anything new to say. I did check in with the Little Lego Athletes who joined me at some of the events back then. And Diamond Geezer summed it all up nicely.
On Sunday, we did do the Olympic Park legacy trail that’s been created to celebrate the passing of 10 years. Basically a series of photo stops on a 7km walk around the park. You don’t need to do the stops to appreciate that the route takes in most of the main sites (at least, the ones that still exist). The Olympic Rings photo-point can barely see the Olympic Rings. The photo collection is here. It nearly became a blog but I thought better of that too.
It’s fitting the UK is hosting another multi-sport competition this month. Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games Opening ceremony was brilliant. I am in awe of the creative people who imagine mechanical bulls, cars forming the shape of a union flag and can mix it all together with a message of inclusiveness and hope.
I also have tons of admiration and respect for what British sporting hero Tom Daley has done with his public voice. Using the Commonwealth Games to ~~remind~~ tell 1 billion people that in 35 out of the 56 Commonwealth nations homosexuality is considered a crime was superb.
These messages seem so at odds with the narrative coming out of the Conservative leadership contest it makes me wonder if it’s possible to live on two different timelines – or in two different countries – at the same moment.
On Sunday morning we went to the Lee Valley VeloPark for our own experience of Commonwealth Games action. The cycling centre is an outpost of Birmingham’s 2022 Commonwealth Games and it’s not in Birmingham (so quite handy for us). And it had tickets when we looked on Thursday. And the cycling was really interesting but the crash towards the end of the session was horrible.
Pre-digital nobody messed with your carefully crafted compilation tapes and CDs or your curated photo albums, diaries and scrapbooks. The digital providers of today’s equivalent definitely will. It must be somebody’s law that this is inevitable. This month’s example, Instagram who are off in pursuit of the (apparently, more engaged) youth on TikTok.
Chris Stevens, who created an online country music stream that became a UK country music radio phenomenon and my morning listen, presented his final breakfast show on Friday. What a thing to have achieved. When the breakfast show changes it can be a disorienting to a listener’s routine. I’ve said that before and I hope my routine is not thrown out too much on Monday morning.
And, in what seemed like a very swift end, Vanessa almost simultaneously announced she’s leaving Radio 2 and the BBC London breakfast show (almost immediately). I don’t listen to speech radio anymore but she’s one of the UK’s best talk radio hosts. Her Radio 2 departure announcement is wonderfully worded. And hand-written.
I am tempted to add a ‘Media’ section to my weeknotes. It’s inspired by Martha Edwards’ retrospective-style weeknotes. I’m recording my idea here so I can come back to it in a few weeks.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.

—
Archived at The Wayback Machine

Weeknotes #12

Week commencing Monday, 18 July 2022

Two chimneys from Battersea Power Station — The redeveloped Battersea Power Station

I’d like to start recording my weekly exercise goals here. I use the Apple Watch and will measure completed rings. This week: Stand 5/7; Exercise 3/7 and Move 1/7. Only 43%. Not good.
The heatwave arrived at the start of the week. My team had planned to work in the office on Monday. As some people ended up being out of London and would not have attended anyway, the rest of us took TFL’s advice and stayed at home.
The outside thermometer at my house did record over 40 degrees Celsius on Monday – and more on Tuesday – but that was in the direct sun and I don’t think that recording is accurate. Meanwhile, military officials said the runway at the country’s largest air base ‘melted’.
Turns out, from watching one of the Slack channels at work that quite a few people have Netatmo.
According to The Week, “Numerous studies have linked hot weather to reduced cognitive function leading to decreased productivity [and] errors of judgement.” Let’s hope all the decisions I made at work still stand!
There were wildfires in the UK which is not a phrase I think I’ve heard here before.
I finished Giles Turnbull’s The Agile Comms Handbook. My takeaway is to continue to write more. I think the more you write – here and elsewhere – the easier it is. But also that I want to adopt some of the strategies at work: maybe too late for this job but not for the next. Also, the first draft is always bad. Recommended if you care about communicating your work.
We walked to New Malden to find panko breadcrumbs. I’m pleased we were successful finding them as they are really useful to have around. Is it a bit lazy to have them in the cupboard?
Sunday to the Battersea Power Station complex. Since we were last there they have removed lots of hoardings and you can now walked all around the Power Station. It’s very impressive. We visited the shell of the building in 2006 and it would be fascinating to see it’s new life.
We were there to see a performance in the world premiere run of A-Typical Rainbow. It’s a play by autistic writer JJ Green. The theatre blurb says the play asks: “could a kinder, more joyful world lie at the end of the rainbow?” It was very good.
I do not subscribe to the view that the public has any kind of right, just because it’s mid-term, to view the internal machinations of the Conservative Party’s leadership contest. The candidates have not behaved as one would expect Leaders to behave. And now we likely have months of mud slinging between the remaining two. I feel like this and I am now a news-avoider. I wonder if people who actually watch the news feel this is good?

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.

—
Originally posted at curnow.org and archived at The Wayback Machine

Weeknotes #11

It’s getting hotter.

Week commencing Monday, 11 July 2022

I decided that I must not get too frustrated with myself when my weeknotes are published late. The important thing is the habit. But I will backdate the post so that they appear in the right week. This week, though, I am on track.
At lunch on Tuesday I went and sat outside. It was much hotter outside than inside and I came in after a short while. In the end the fan came on for the afternoon.
It’s been a week of heat and it looks like it will continue into next week. This was great news for Mum and Dad’s party on Saturday: although the room used for the event was a conservatory and did get quite warm. As we were near the canal, there was some very pleasant outdoor space and it was nice for people to be able to sit outside.
The party was wonderful. Lots of family got together to celebrate Mum & Dad’s milestone birthdays. The choir that Dad sings in performed and I gave a speech that turned out quite well in the end. We don’t get both sides of the family together that much anymore so this was a real treat.
I never know how to put together the kind of speech needed at these family events. Fortunately, PY kicked it off with a draft a 10 days ago. In the end we changed quite a bit but it’s so useful to have something to get started. I was quite worried about nerves getting the better of me as, unlike work presentations, there’s an expectation that it would be amusing. Thankfully, people laughed in all the right places.
When is a ‘story’ a ‘task’? Just one of the questions raised at work this week. I was quite glad that I only worked a 4-day week.
On Thursday afternoon I picked up a rental car and we drove to Shropshire ahead of the aforementioned party. It was a small Renault Clio but was quite lovely to drive with a nice big screen to utilise CarPlay so I had music and maps with no issues. I’ve rented more cars in the last couple of years than we have done in years. I’m going to check the spreadsheet but I am sure it’ll still be a lot cheaper than owning one.
Friday I pottered around Mum & Dad’s house and spent some time with my niece and nephew in a skate park. Afterwards, we drove to the location of the big party. We also had dinner together, which was lovely, but PY and I did not get there in time to see the pool and spa. We managed to rectify that before we left on Sunday afternoon.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here.

—
Originally posted at curnow.org and archived at The Wayback Machine

Weeknotes #10

I’ve been telling people I bounced for the entire day.

Week commencing Monday, 4 July 2022

First week back at Tai Chi after a couple of weeks and it was lovely. Practice was outside and, somehow, that makes it feel much more relaxed.
I took a quiz thing at work to discover how comfortable I am with digital transformation: “When it comes to digital, you’re interested in what technology can do, while remaining keen to make sure it doesn’t take over your life. You’ll generally be a quick adopter with an open mindset, but will strip away anything that doesn’t add value in those early phases of adoption”. Seems like a reasonable position to me.
The UK Government kind of imploded this week. Law and policy commentator, David Allen Green, had a fascinating piece on the constitutional consequences if Boris Johnson refuses to resign?. Basically, get the Queen on the phone.
In a fast moving week in British politics, almost by the time I’d read the article Boris has resigned.
But, most depressingly of all was was the video circulating on Twitter of Andrea Jenkyn, the new Education Minister, greeting the public with the finger. What’s happened to the people who run the country that they have such contempt for the rest of us who they are supposed to work for?
Mainly, however this week will be remembered for Bananarama at Kew The Music. It’s not the first concert I have been to post-pandemic but it’s the one where I just felt non-stop joy. I’ve been telling people I bounced for the entire day.
Just before Bananarama started performing, PY inflated some blow-up bananas. I thought lots of people would have them. They didn’t. I was a bit sheepish waving them around. And then other people started enjoying them and having their photos with them. And it was even more joyous. And I ran towards the stage and waved them some more.
Also, happy birthday James. Sunday’s birthday dinner was a lot of fun too.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here.

Weeknotes #9

Week commencing Monday, 27 June 2022

I keep reading that writing is good for you. Even though my last attempt at weeknotes lasted only 8 entries I continue to read other people’s notes; although not always at the point they were written. Alice Bartlett inspired me this time around. Let’s see how long it lasts.
After a week of staying in the house, Monday I tested negative for COVID and had full plans to head to the office on Tuesday. The next day, before heading out, I tested positive again and stayed at home. A little bit frustrating. All clear by Thursday.
I made it into the office on Thursday. Later in the day the Pride network had drinks. It was nice to socialise in the building again.
On Friday it was announced that Steve Wright is leaving his afternoon show on BBC Radio 2. One commenter quoted that it’s not often changes to radio station line-ups make the evening news.

Not often a radio show changing presenter makes the main evening news! Includes a Wogan House doorstep with the Big Show host himself! pic.twitter.com/rJHhG6Fj09— Stuart Clarkson (@stuartclarkson) July 1, 2022

Nobody in that BBC piece talked about the period from 1993 to 1999 when Steve didn’t present the afternoon show. My memory recalls that, for a while, he had a networked commercial radio show before coming back to the BBC. I can’t remember if the company I worked for distributed it or not. The UK Radio groups of Facebook were full of split opinions, which I guess is only natural after somebody has been doing a popular thing for 40 or so years.
On Friday evening I headed into town for drinks with a colleague and was reasonably surprised how early some of the places along the Southbank closed. That seems to have changed in the post-lockdown reopening.