May 31

2015 Week Notes 19

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Rachel

10-16th May 2015

Doing

I started the week running Hackney Half Marathon. A closed road course in its second year, it has had a lot of publicity locally. There were some organisational issues in the 1st year, but it looks like they had definitely learnt from them, as I found the organisation of the day of a very high quality. Great runner village, great course and good support around Hackney all lead to me having a great day. I as really happy having a steady half run, with no walk breaks and feeling in control all way round.
On Monday, my parents came down for a few days visit, partly to see me for my birthday. I took the Monday off and we went to Greenwich for the afternoon, spending much of it wandering round the Greenwich Observatory. Lots of good science there and a chance for me to see one of of my favourite pieces – the Harrison Clocks.
On Wednesday, I was invited to a Zomato blogger evening that took place in the Andaz Hotel. An excellent evening in 3 of their venues – write up to follow!
The final activity of the week was a trip to the cinema to see Avengers:Age of Ultron. Overall, a good film, a lot of fun, but Stark is becoming a cliche and they seem to ignore some basic physics (yes, silly statement in a superhero movie, but I still think the ending was just ridiculous..I’m pretty sure to do real damage a hunk of rock would need to be far, far higher.). As it was a nice day, after a good lunch at the Duke, I came home via a stroll round Key Gardens and a couple of hours watching cricket on Kew Green, just a lovely relaxed day.

Reading

Just the one book finished, I’m reading longer ones at the moment and they are taking time.
Marketing Crack – Kicking the Habit an article about capitalism and one of the things that I never understand, how the requirements (often legal) to maximise shareholder value leads to short term, thinking and behaviours that are often antagonistic to long term survival in a changing world.

Running

the Hackney Half Marathon on the Sunday
Only 1 other run this week, Tuesday morning run club, a full team made their way out for the early start.
The rest of the week was a right off, a head cold moved into the chest, taking me out for a week with coughing

May 31

A trip to Gloucester

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Rachel

After spending the first day of my bank holiday weekend in Worcester, on the Sunday I explored the town of Gloucester. A day similar to the previous in that it took in Cathedrals and museums. First of all was Blackfriars Priory, founded in 1239, dissolved in 1539 and bought by a local alderman who turned it into his house. It was still lived in until the 20th century. the main church now has had all of the floors and rooms removed, just leaving the shell.

The centre of Gloucester is pretty compact and just a couple of street away are the docks (GLoucester used to be a fairly large port on the Severn). The former industrial area has been turned into a shopping and pedestrian areas, with a couple of decent museums.

The first one I visited was a military one, that told the history of the Gloucester regiments, along with a lot of local stories. After a good wander round that, it was back to the other side of town to go round the cathedral – on a Sunday the opening hours for tourists are shorter, due to services. Just round the corner is the House of The Tailor of Gloucester, as in Beatrix Potter fame.

At Gloucester Cathedral, there was another volunteer tour guide, this time for a tour round the crypt. My favourite story of that was of Robert Cuthose, the eldest son of William the Conquerer, who dies before he could succeed his father. During the WWII, his burial statue was stored in the crypt, on top of a large storage box that had been sent up for London – the Gloucester vaults were deemed to be fairly safe. At the end of the war, the box was revealed to hold the throne of England – so the Prince had ended up ‘sitting’ on the throne. The other royal burial in the cathedral was Edward II, a not quite successful King who ended up being deposed and disposed of. Edward was not the eldest, he only inherited when his older brother died – Alphonso, a name that cold have been interesting as an English king :-).

The final museum of the day was back at the docks, the Gloucester Waterways museum, all about the canals and the life spent on the canals.

A very good two day trip and 2 cathedrals knocked off the list. I’m busy planning my next one now – looking at a double header of Peterborough and Ely.

May 13

2015 Week Notes 18

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Rachel

Doing

the second day of my weekend was spent in Gloucester, with the Soldiers of Gloucester museum, the cathedral and the British Waterways museum. Here’s the write up of the Gloucester visit
Nothing much the rest of the week, except a lot of work

Reading
Another book read, a quite a few more articles.

This is how fast America changes its mind. Interesting look at how legislation can change and how there is a trigger point from when it becomes inevitable, looking at marriage (interracial and same sex), prohibition and ahead to marijuana.
How to Survive the Looming Tech Bubble: Ignore the gurus. A call for brand to ignore whatever social media gurus tell you is the next hot thing, as the article argues their history of success is not strong.
Our better selves are bold and inclusive. Published before the election, it is a call to rise above the fearmongering that is the spin from politicians and certain media outlets. A call that was not heeded.
26.2 miles and memories by Darren Waters. A write up from a Twitter friend about his experiences in the London Marathon.
Your Imaginary relationship with a Celebrity. A look at how people engage with their heroes on social media
The Dickonomics of Tinder. How one woman is using Tinder and how the app can move the balance of power in online dating.
Test drive of Petrol Car. Satirical review of a petrol car from the Tesla club of Sweden. As all good satire, makes you consider things.
What is the exit poll and how does it work brilliant article about the accurate exit poll from the General election. Now we need a good one to explain why all the ongoing polls did not work at all and everyone was expecting a hung parliament – which drove the media agenda – which potentially drove the end result.
A teenager’s view on social media. One viewpoint on how this teen and his peers are using social media. He appears not to be able to use Google id he’s never seen a similar article before, but it does give you the attitude of one type of teen. To look further, read danah’s thoughts on the piece which raises the need to remind yourself that one teen is not all teens and different groups use different things.
My Apple Watch review after 5 days by Molly Watt. I’ve read a lot of Apple watch reviews but this one is different. As per danah’s complaint that a lot of reaction to articles about social media or gadgets are from your typical tech blog, this one is most definitely not. it’s all about how a woman with Usher Syndrome (so with restricted sight and hearing) uses the watch and how it can help her interpret the world. Again, it shows that you need to look beyond your usual circle. Robert Scoble in his newsletter had this impression

So, do I recommend you buy it? Only if you can get enough value out of it by saving a few seconds here and there by not being asked to pull your phone out of your purse or pocket. Translation: rich people will probably get enough value. Busy sales people and execs probably will too.

this review shows there are edgecases now who will get a lot more out of it than rich people and execs.

Running

The first outing of the Tuesday running club was held, 7:30am. The actual session with the group was quite steady, 6 repeats of 5 min run, 1 min walk. Everyone was keen and had been out running on their own – and they have all entered both the Brighton marathon and the Richmond Running Festival half marathon in September as a first target. With additional running to and from the meeting point, I did 4.5 miles

May 11

2015 Week Notes 17

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Rachel

Doing

A spent all of Sunday marshalling at the London Marathon. and I wrote all about it at that link. A very good day and well worht volunteering if you ever get the opportunity.
Another trip to the theatre, this time with Wine Club, to see American Buffalo, by David Mamet, with Damian Lewis, John Goodman and Tom Sturridge. As with my previous visit (to see The Ruling Class), this was a revival of a play, this from 1975. It wasn’t quite as set in its age as the frist one, although it was staged as set in that time. The cast was good, but I think all of us were a little disappointed, with sections of it not keeping our attentions.
A last minute decision was made to go somewhere for the Bank Holiday weekend so a trip to Gloucester was booked. traveled there on the Friday – it was only just over 2 hours by train – and then took a trip up to Worcester on the Saturday first. A tour round the cathedral, A Tudor House and the town museum followed. There’s a fuller write up over in this post on the Worcester visit. Worcester cathedral is the burial place of King John, a good place to visit in the 800th anniversary year of Magna Carta.

Reading

Only 1 book read and no articles saved. Mmm, better do something about that.

Running

Still nothing. I’ll get round to it soon.

May 10

A trip to Worcester

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Rachel

This was the first half of my weekend away, a chance to go and tick two cathedrals off my list. Worcester is only 40mins by train from my base in Gloucester, but trains were only every 2 hours, so I had to make sure I kept to good timings.

I was hoping to take a quick look at the Guildhall, built in 1721, but it was closed for a private function. I only got to see the statues of the Charles 1 and 11 outside.

A short stroll down the High Street to Worcester Cathedral and it turned out I was just in time for a guided tour. It was a quiet day and there were only 3 of us on it, but we got a good trip around the history of the place. Although weirdly, the tour guide missed out two of the key burials in the building which was surprising given their impact on British history. First of all, Arthur, Prince of Wales was buried there, who died in nearly Ludlow. If he hadn’t there would have been no Henry VIII, no reformation, no Church of England and no Elizabeth 1. It would have been a very different country.

The second burial was of King John (well, most of him, his heart was buried in Newark where he died). Without him here would be no Magna Carta. I’m pretty sure that the changes associated with that may have come about eventually, but John was the catalyst. Arthur had a very ornate chantry for his burial, but John was placed right there in the chancel in front of the alter.

Although the foundations are Norman and a lot of the fabric is medieval, the cathedral has been extensive restored and there is a lot of George Gilbert Scott around the place

Just round the corner from the cathedral, there was the remains of the Royal Worcester Porcelein works, with a shop and a museum but it looks like the rest of the place is being turned into houses.

Heading back into town, I took a Tour around the Tudor House, run by a local community group, with a series of rooms set up to illustrate the house through various ages as it was occupied by a variety of trades such as weavers, tailors and bakers. In the 1800’s, it even had a bowling alley.

The final visit of the day was to the town museum, which had a lot of interesting displays, including one of Worcestershire Sauce through the ages. I was disappointed there was no history of Worcester display, as I tend to like learning about the towns like that.

May 09

2015 Week Notes 16

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Rachel

Doing

I had a physio appointment and a fracture clinic appointment, for the consultant to take a look at my finger. She wasn’t too happy and started talking about joint replacements – in, what appeared to me at least, a slighly gleeful as was she discussed a new type of joint she could try. Next appointment made for June, so we’ll see what my progress is by then.
Drinks out with the team and with clients. Over some red wine, we discussed running and marathons, leading to 4 of them deciding to sign up to the Brighton marathon next year and nominating me as ‘coach’. they followed through the next day and we now have Tuesday morning running club 🙂
Went to watch the new Avengers film. I did enjoy it, but still think the first one has the edge. Also, even though I can suspend my belief to go with superheroes with special powers, some of the silly things they did with straightforward physical rules were annoying.
I marshalled at my local club run, spending the morning handing out numbers and then clipping off timing chips. A good day

Reading

Just the one book read

What we can learn about runners from public data. It’s marathon season, it was interesting to read this analysis about runners who post information (often from apps) to public social media channels – with a focus on those who started running in Jan 2014 as their New Year change. Apparently, sales marketing and PR (that would be my profession then) is over indexing amongst runners. And keys to success (ie keeping running)? Maintaining regularity and going out on weekday mornings apparently
What the West can learn from Japan’s ‘lost decades’. Continuous growth is supposed to be the key to success. But a look at Japan’s economy takes the stance that not doing that is not that bad.

Running

None, absolutely none. But a pleasant few hours planning training and races for the rest of the year

May 05

2015 Week Notes 15

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Rachel

Doing

A marathon was done. And a very slow trip home was made. Well, Eurostar was fast, my legs weren’t. They didn’t feel too bad, so no need to walk down stair backwards!

My agency ran an event this week, field.work, lots of different views on data. I spoke on the first panel of the day, about readiness of business for the world of big data but couldn’t stay for the rest of the day with workload, but by all accounts, it was very successful and had a lot of great press, including a mention of me on Contagious. It looks like we may be running more

I had a lovely dinner with a friend at Helene Darroze at the Connaught, a lovely 2 star Michelin experience. Write up will follow. But I did love the menu, you had to take a look at the list and decide what you wanted using the game.

Reading

3 books read, lots of train travel!

A look at why Millennials are moving away from traditional banks by the co-founder of LinkedIn Max Levchin. An interesting take, although it does not make it clear what they are after, just something different. I don’t have issues with my bank, so maybe this is just a US perspective.

Running

i ran a marathon, I think that’s enough. I also did a full write up.

May 04

2015 Week Notes 14

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Rachel

This was a pretty quiet week.

Doing

A relatively quiet week, with a lot of work to get in to the 3 days in the office. On Thursday, I went along to a London launch party by Datasift, a company I’d watch Nik Halstead grow for years out of the early London start up scene. The party was held in canary Wharf, which had a wonderful view

It was wonderful to meat up with so many people from those days, many of whom I’d not caught up for years. I ended up going to dinner at the end of the night with Nik, Suzanna and a few others, which was a great. definitely not an early night, but didn’t need it to be as the only thing planned on the Friday was a trip to Paris.

It was a smooth trip over, then I dropped the bags and made my way to the expo to pick up my number. And that was it for the Friday, apart from starting the carb load. On the Saturday, I took a trip to Notre Dame to take a wander around that cathedral to add to the list. Magnificent building. Then back to hotel again for more leg resting.

Reading

Only the 2 booked, one of the Outlander series and also the new book by Ben Aaronovitch, Foxglove Summer. The latter is one of the authors I buy the physical book instead of the digial version. And I managed to make it last 2 days 🙂

Running

Nothing happening – it’s all about saving the legs

Licence to Roam

Life and stuff

Monthly Archives: May 2015

2015 Week Notes 19

A trip to Gloucester

2015 Week Notes 18

2015 Week Notes 17

A trip to Worcester

2015 Week Notes 16

2015 Week Notes 15

2015 Week Notes 14