Weeknotes #300 — Round numbers

Sunny and chilly at Tottenham Court Road

A four-day working week. My brothers and I had all booked Friday off. We’d planned a surprise day in London for my mum to belatedly celebrate her 70th birthday. Last year we took my dad away to Berlin to celebrate his 70th, so we wanted to try and do something special with mum for hers.

We had such a lovely day. All my parents knew was that they had to meet us at Tottenham Court Road tube station at half past one in the afternoon. After a quick drink in a pub at Cambridge Circus, we wandered down to The Ivy in West Street for lunch. Our table wasn’t quite ready so they invited us to sit at the bar, which just added to the fun. As we sat there, I turned around and did a double-take as I came face to face with Rory Stewart, who was meeting his wife Shoshana for lunch. The atmosphere, food and service were all exceptional and we left with a lovely warm glow.

Lunch at The Ivy

Next stop was Archer Street in Soho, a beautiful cosy bar where the staff dazzle everyone as they burst into song every few minutes. We had a lovely couple of hours relaxing, laughing and enjoying the music.

We then wandered to the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand to see Back To The Future: The Musical. The production is a lot, with non-stop action all the way. The special effects were breathtaking, particularly at the climax of the story. I couldn’t understand why people around me were laughing so hard at some of the jokes that were lifted from the film. And then I realised that the movie is 39 years old, so it’s quite possible that for some people this might have been their first ever exposure to the storyline. I don’t think anyone is going to be buying the original soundtrack album from the production — it was no Hamilton — but it was a lot of fun.

Everyone went home feeling like they’d had a thoroughly great day out. It was so lovely to make some more memories together.

This was a week in which I:

Did a comprehensive review of our real estate/facilities financial forecast now that we have a better idea of the timing of future work.

Prepped for and ran the programme Steering Committee meeting.

Caught up with our audio/visual vendor on the latest design of the shared meeting space in our building. Reviewed the design with our CIO and COO ahead of a broader review with our sister company next week.

Started to look again at the software developer vacancy in my team.

Worked late in the office as new signage was installed, an illuminated company logo at one of our entrances. It was fascinating to watch it being put in with such skill. Connecting the illuminated letters to a transformer involved using fishing rod-like sticks to grab hold of the cables from inside the wall cavity. The whole job probably took six hours, spread over a couple of evenings.

Had to remind myself that “feedback is a gift” when someone grabbed me and reeled off a list of things that aren’t working for them in our refurbished office. You have to look past how it feels and listen to what’s being said.

Had our regular operational meeting with our Non-Financial Risk team.

Met up with our Group Head of Enterprise Architecture and our functional Enterprise Architect when they visited us in London. Talking to them made me realise that I feel as though technology has taken a back seat in my professional life this year, with my focus on our real estate projects. I’m looking forward to getting geeky again.

Had a final meeting with the key vendors from the work we did to build out a brand new office earlier in the year. The entire purpose of the meeting was to say thank you, and to reflect on what we’d achieved together. Sometimes you have to stop and look around.

Enjoyed our weekly Learning Hour session where a colleague presented about company culture.

Joined the first part of a webinar on AI for Everyone, run by O’Reilly Media. The presentations were short and snappy but I didn’t feel like I got too much out of them.

Took part in the latest Teams Fireside Chat where the topic of the month was Microsoft Places. There’s a lot going on in this space and — of course — some licencing to get our heads around. I’ve signed up to the new monthly Copilot Fireside Chat and expect it to be just as engaging.

Helped out the neighbours with a couple of problems with their house while they were on holiday. Carbon monoxide monitors are LOUD. They sent us a lovely little hamper of goodies as a thank you, which was completely unnecessary.

Had a physio appointment to find out what’s going on with the calf that I injured when I ran a half marathon back in October. Apparently the problem is likely to be “a grade 2 strain of [my] medial gastrocnemius”. I’ve got some exercises to do, but it’s likely going to be some months before I’m back running again.

Bought a ticket to see Gang of Four on their farewell tour next year. Their gig in 2023 was one of my unexpected musical highlights of the year, so I can’t wait for this.

Attended the Annual General Meeting of our cycling club. It was the first one that I’ve made in the two and a bit years that I’ve been a member. I love being part of the club. It was great to look back on the events of the year and say thank you to the people that make it all run so smoothly. Unfortunately for the new ride coordinators, they had to cancel Saturday’s ride due to the predicted cold and stormy conditions.

Spent the weekend in a tired stupor as one of our blinds broke. Although the sun doesn’t rise particularly early this time of year it was still a bit disturbing, alongside storm Bert rattling our tiles and spraying water at the window.

Media

Podcasts

Enjoyed John Gruber and Merlin Mann’s ‘holiday party’ (post-USA election) episode of The Talk Show. Merlin’s advice of asking whether someone needs to be “helped, hugged or heard” is great. They also talked about how the old people we see around us today are not the same old people that we saw around us decades ago, even though it feels like they are. I often think about this when I see someone who is in the autumn of their years, wondering what they might have looked like 20 years ago, which to me feels like it was just yesterday. On that note, it was a shock to hear about John Prescott’s passing this week. I did a double-take when I read that he was 86 and had been suffering with Alzheimer’s. His famous punch was 23 years ago. Such a short time for so much to change.

Articles

Blown away by this chart. Peer-to-peer information now has so much more of a role than ever before. It’s a shame that for many people this means that they only consume small video soundbites from questionable publishers.

Unsurprising but still mindblowing chart www.washingtonpost.com/business/202…
— Josh Nicholas (@joshnicholas.com) 2024-11-24T23:37:06.212Z

Video

Continued watching the new series of Bad Sisters on AppleTV+. I’m not convinced that it is as good as the first season, but we’re sticking with it for now.

We tried watching Loudermilk on Netflix as it was recommended to us, but we couldn’t get past the first episode. So corny.

So, we moved onto Shrinking, also on AppleTV+. Jason Segel is brilliant in the lead role — he comes across as a modern day Chevy Chase, in a good way.

Books

Ploughed through the rest of John Major’s My Old Man: A Personal History of Music Hall, which picked up again towards the end.

Started reading How To Lose A Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran. Seems like the kind of important and relevant book to read right now.

Next week: An online Album Club and a Thanksgiving dinner.