Doing

• I won, via Twitter, a place at a wine tasting at Sam’s Brasserie. Well, I won 2 places but getting people to come out to Chiswick at the last minutes is not always easy! It was a superb evening, with the hosts taking us through a range of pairs of wines, comparing old and new world styles. We tried champagne, 2 red pairs, 2 white pair and a dessert wine pair. (if you’re counting, that’s a lot of wine even in tasting serving!). I had a great evening, sharing a table between a couple of old friends (althogh not convinced their driving to a wine tasting was a good idea, even if most of the wine ended up in the spittoon) and a couple on their first date – I was asked my opinion on the fellow, gave a positive review :-). Fully recommend going to one of these evenings if you get the chance.

  

• There was a quiz at work on Thursday, with a St Patrick’s day theme. My team did not win, but I did get a couple of good points by guessing the thing from the 1st 3 words of a clue – ‘Founded in 1759’. Yes, working for Diageo/Guinness does give you some information
• Friday was a disappointment, London was completely overcast and there was no eclipse visble. Instead, just watched the TV feed.
• Went out for dinner Friday, another one off my Michelin list. This was the one-star Quilon, an Indian restaurant near Victoria. Liked most of the meal – review to follow.
  

Reading

• only the 2 books read this week (although I may finish another before the end of the day)
• Harry Potter and the 12 year Boyhood. Interesting read about the practicalities of filming over a long period of time. Boyhood was a single film produced over the 12 years as the cast aged. The Harry Potter series had the difficulty of filming 8 films with the same cast. There are good questions raised about points when the child stars of the Harry Potter films may have sensibly been replaced but for a variety of reasons, they stuck with the same crew all the way through.
• These Urban farmers want to feed the whole neighbourhood. There’s a lot of talk about a sharing economy, but a lot of the companies covered when discussing this are definitely not into sharing, they’re into making profits. so Uber, where anyone can apply to drive, is all about maximising the margins for the company using minimally paid, zero-contract like workers. This initiative is a sharing economy. A piece of land granted by the city, a group of people who work to cultivate the fruit and vegetables and a mission to get people involved.
• Geena Davis is still locked and loaded A look at Geena Davis and her various initiatives to make people notice gender imbalance in films and tv.

Running

Training this week was a mixture of cross-training on the bike and just the one run attempted. Leg is still not right, but I’m pushing on with my run-walk training. It’s 3 weeks to go until Paris, 3 weeks to make a decision.

Doing

• Drinks with friend from work, where we decided we needed to get out of the office and go and have a good chat about none office things! We ended up going to Opera Tavern for some of their tapas and a good evening was had. We even managed to be home at a reasonable time.
• Thursday was night out with wine club. We were trying to eat at Bubbledogs but there was a 90min wait so we retired to the Charlotte St Hotelfor some celebratory champagne for an engagement. The hotel were nice enough to send out a little cake to share. Another night I returned home at a reasonably decent hour, before they got to the food.
  
• And the reason for an early leavetaking? The F1 started for the year, with the Australian GP. A 1am start for practice meant I needed to get some sleep, as the next 2 days with 4 session to watch in the middle of the night takes some effort!
• Another trip to the fracture clinic this week, with more xrays to check healing. The finger has now been freed from being tied to the one next to it and the focus now on is getting some movement, as its bending capability is quite restricted. I got given some silly putty to use to practice my squeezing on. Next sugeon appointment in 6 weeks, next physio in 2 weeks.
• Saturday was another evening out, meeting up with Suw who was over from the US. A great evening of chat and catching up!

Reading

• No none fiction books again (I’ll get there eventually) but just the 3 other books.
• Customer Service in a social media age A story in the Independent about how social media, especially Twitter, has changed how companies need to think about customer service. Not just the crisis management moment, but the day by day grind and complaints that come their way,
• Everything is problematic Fascinating piece about being an activist, how it narrows your thinking and your attitudes and how the author matured out if it. Is activism a youth phenomenon, as the brain is wired to be that passionate and focused on things before maturity brings a wider and more pragmatic outlook?

Running

A quiet week for most of it, just doing some cross training. On Saturday, ran the Thames Meander half marathon, which went from Kingston to Kew and back. It’s the first of 3 of these events, which are a joint half and full marathon (the full one runs to Putney and back). I’ve entered the full series as targets for the year. A well organised event, along the river towpath, so nice and flat. I went into it not knowing if I’d be able to finish, but kept it slow and steady and got to the end eventually. My slowest half yet, but given my fitness state, happy with it.

We’re officially into spring (well, according to the meteorologists) and the days are getting longer, with more daylight to do things. I just need to do more things.

Doing

• I took a trip round Key Gardens on Sunday, taking advantage of a sunny day to go look at crocuses, orchids and the Palm House
  

  

  

• The only outing in the week was to the running Club social night, where they awarded a couple of prizes for the Winter training handicap.
• I finished the week doing another section of the London LOOP, a 13m section from Moor Park to Elstree. It was a gorgeous day, the sun was out and it was really trying to be warm. A good day for a long walk.
  

  

  Reading

  • I’ve read 3 fantasy books this week, with my ongoing books still ongoing. I can read this genre very quickly, everything else takes a lot longer.
  • What Millennials want from work It’s too easy to assign what you know about Millennials in your country, o at least the stereotype of them, to all members of that age group. Here’s some global research that delves a little deeper.
  • How Brands must be social. If you’ve been working seriously in social media for any length of time, nothing in this list will surprise you. But it’s still worth stating as so many people don’t understand.
  • The new Nostalgia trend: it’s all in the reference. When information moves so fast a trend is over before it has chance to take real root into culture, one way to have trends is to use things that are heavily embedded.
  • The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness: A Procedure and Some Preliminary Findings this is the paper behind a piece in the New York Times and many other newspapers. Can a series of increasingly intimate and revelatory questions can increase your chances of falling in love. The answer is yes.

  Running

  Nothing. Just some cross training. After the half marathon, a spot on the leg flared up and left me in pain for the week. Icing, anti-inflamatories and no running was the diagnosis. The long walk on Saturday was a test of it and so far it’s not too bad, but still tender. Will try some treadmill running tomorrow.

  The odds of me running the Paris marathon are now very low. I an re-adjusting the plan and considering a run-walk approach, which is still going to be a hard slog given the lack of miles in the legs. Everything is paid for so I’m going anyway and will keep plugging away at the training and see how it goes.

Doing

• Lots of work in the first part of the week, with a Book Club evening on the Tuesday for a good chat and a glass of wine.
• The second half of the week was spent in Spain, watching formula 1 testing. I stayed in a town near to the circuit instead of in Barcelona this year, but despite it being a cheap hotel and easy to get to the circuit, I think that in future I my consider going back to Barcelona. I like the food experience too much! All my photos can be found here: day 1 and day 2

  

  

  

• Normally I’d stay for all the days of the test, but because of the last minute booking I had things to do at the weekend. So flew home Friday to be ready for the half-marathon on Saturday.

Reading

• I did not save many articles this week. I did read 3 books though, 3 fantasy books.
• I also managed to mistime the reading of the book club book, for some reason, I thought it was the following week. We were reading The Lie by Helen Dunsmore. Although the reviews from the book club cloud was not too complimentary, so I proably won’t be reading it

Running

• I started the week well, with a good run around Richmond Park.
• The week itself did not bring any runs – not able to run before work and then a few days holiday
• finished the week with a half marathon. This was at Dorney, running round the lake, a race I did last year. Although this year, with the lack of training, was slower. I deliberately ran at a slower pace. So overall time was 12mins slower than last year, but overall, happy with how the plan was executed.

Doing

• It was a pretty quiet week, the only night out was a leaving do for a oolleague at work
• I had 2 hospital appointments this week, one with the hand physio and one with the consultant, where had an xray to check how things are going. You can see that there is just the one nail in there. things seem to be going well.

  

• Went for a good meal at Antidote, just for a Saturday lunch. Pretty good restaurant just off Carnaby St, where one of my favourite chefs from Hedone acts as consultant, which you can tell from the food.

  
  Reading

• How to engage with Millennials. A good list of resources from James Whatley
• No books read, but getting closer to finishing some!

Running

Just the one run, a parkrun with a few miles there and back. Still trying to fix legs and make sure there is time to get out but not working well. I am going to have to change my training plan.