It’s that time of year again. In the UK, A-Level results arrive this week, GCSEs next. Traditional and social media will be full of articles about “what to do if you didn’t make the grade”.
I won’t be writing one of those.
Yes, I messed up my A-Levels. I scraped into my chosen polytechnic, graduated from university with honours, and built a reasonably successful career. But that was over 30 years ago. I’m also male and white, and that privilege has opened doors that might not have opened for others. My experience isn’t a template.
What I do want to write about is the magic of a gap year.
After 14 years of education, maybe you need a break before doing more. Maybe you want time before resits or reapplying to different universities. Maybe university isn’t for you at all. Or maybe you just want to live a bit before deciding what’s next.
Gap years are amazing.
Challenging the “gap year = unemployed” mindset
Some people will tell you a gap year is “just another name for being unemployed”. I think they’re wrong.
A gap year can be a year of growth, challenge, adventure, and learning about yourself in ways that a classroom can’t teach.
Two gap years, two very different stories
As a parent to two adult children, I’ve seen this first-hand.
My eldest son, now 20, took not one but two gap years.
The first followed his passion for cycling. He worked as a holiday rep leading cycling tours, returned to the UK to work in a warehouse, and tested whether he could make it as a professional cyclist. The racing results don’t matter — he’s great, but greatness isn’t the same as being exceptional. What mattered was what he learned along the way:
How to train 16 hours a week alongside a full-time job.
How to plan every meal and every drink to fuel performance.
How to deal with disappointment when a promised training arrangement fell through.
How to adapt in a foreign country, find a house share with a professional cyclist (thanks Sophie), and live his best life until returning to race in the UK.
His second gap year was more “traditional” — travel to a variety of European destinations, a few weeks volunteering for a charity in India, more warehouse work (he needed to fund it all), and more racing but this time without the professional ambitions.
There were challenges too. An internship had led to the promise of a job, but that never materialised. Undeterred, he followed up and found a new opportunity with the same firm — only for that to go quiet as well, this time because of an administrative error that meant no contract was ever issued. By then he was applying elsewhere. And it was the self-confidence built over two gap years, outside formal education, and without relying solely on his parents for guidance and support, that made him shine as a candidate in his assessment centre for the role. That confidence also helped him be certain the degree apprenticeship was the right route for him — so much so that he let go of his deferred place at The University of Sheffield.
Looking ahead
My youngest son is 18. He’ll get his A-Level results on Thursday and we have fingers (and toes) crossed that he gets the grades for his place at Exeter University. But before that, there are travel dreams to chase — which will also be funded by casual work.
Oktoberfest is already in the calendar (inspired by our Interrailing trip together last year). Applications are in for a ski season. There are plans for a few months in South East Asia. He’s seen his brother’s adventures and has role models in his parents and maternal uncle, who all travelled extensively before him.
When I first travelled, I had no idea what I was doing — I was the first in my family to go to university, the first to go Interrailing, and the first to fly around the world (that wasn’t on a gap year — I took time out after a few years in the workplace — and, by then, my career direction was set and it would have been very difficult to change).
The takeaway
Of course, not everyone will have the opportunities that my sons have. I wrote of my privilege, and my sons benefit from this too — perhaps even more so. They have both had part-time jobs alongside their school work, played sports, and taken part in many other extra-curricular activities that expanded their horizons. And my wife and I will continue to do everything we can to support them, just as we always have.
But here’s my message: think about a gap year.
It might not be for you — and that’s fine. It might be harder to make it a reality — but I urge you to consider it, if you can possibly find a way, because it might open your eyes to a world of opportunity. At the very least, it could give you the kind of stories, skills, and confidence that make you stand out from the crowd, spark curiosity in future employers, and set you on a path you might never have found otherwise.
And that’s why a “gap year” is certainly not a euphemism for being unemployed whilst living with your parents.
Two decades on, we came once more, To southern Spain, and sun-kissed shores. Nerja welcomed with skies so wide, Where sea and mountain gently collide.
From terrace high, the blue expanse, Each morning caught us in a trance. Fresh coffee, then to the beach we’d roam, Before the heat would drive us home.
Villages basked in golden light, The sea turned silver come the night. Warmth on skin, cool drinks in hand, We let the days unfold unplanned.
Laughter echoed, glasses clinked, We paused, we smiled, we stopped to think. Days defined by time and place — Sun and family, gentle pace.
One final day in Málaga’s hum, Before the holiday was done. Now back to clouds and colder climes, But held inside, those warmer times.
(A collaboration between me, and ChatGPT… showing why I should stick to tech and leave the poetry to poets…)
But no. I listened to my son — who, to be fair, meant well — and took a modern, app-based approach. “Use Bolt,” he said. “It’s just like Uber. I use it all the time.” And that, it turns out, was the problem.
We’re on holiday in Andalucía, trying to get to a nearby village for dinner. I booked the ride through Bolt, selecting a pickup slot between 17:00 and 17:10. The app stressed the importance of punctuality: we had to be outside on time, or the driver might only wait five minutes before cancelling. Fair enough. So at 16:57 we were all standing by the road, ready to go.
By 17:10, nothing had happened.
Then the app admitted defeat. “No drivers available.” Ride cancelled. “WTF? I booked that hours ago”, thought I.
Platform to nowhere
OK, so Bolt has no drivers and our evening plans are in disarray. So I tried Uber. First, it quotes a price. Then it suggests paying extra to “increase the chance of getting a ride”. You know, because surge pricing and nudging people into premium options is apparently what counts as innovation now. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work either. After taking my money and several minutes of repeatedly trying to get a driver to take the ride, feasting on my iPhone battery and drinking my mobile data allowance, it finally gave up on the cutesey “sorry about the wait” and admitted that there we no drivers available.
So here we are. No car. No ride. No confidence that we’d even get back if we somehow found our own way there.
I did everything right. I booked in advance. I turned up early. I trusted the system.
And the system is broken.
The slow death of a good idea
This is the very definition of enshittification — the gradual degradation of a service as it prioritises growth, then revenue, then cost-cutting. What starts out as a great user experience slowly turns to dust as the platform corners the market and lets quality slide. First they undercut local businesses, drawing customers in. Then they ration supply, push up prices, and shrug when things go wrong.
Talking with my son about his experience back home, and it seems the traditional minicab firms are fewer and fussier — because they’ve been undercut too. Just like high street shops were when Amazon trained us to expect fast, cheap delivery with no human interaction. And what happens when the competition’s gone? Well, you can guess what happens to the prices and service levels.
App-based everything
It’s not just transport or retail. It’s food delivery, hotel bookings, eBooks, music, even how we consume the news. Everything’s an app. Everything’s global. Everything’s slick — until it isn’t.
And I’m clearly not alone in thinking this. I recently reshared a post on LinkedIn that echoed a lot of my frustrations. From self-checkouts to smart homes, booking travel to banking queries, we’ve been sold the idea that technology makes everything easier. But the pattern seems to be this: companies use technology to reduce their own costs — while shifting the work onto us.
We scan our own groceries. We manage our own bookings. We dig through online portals to find PDFs that digitise our paper records. We chat to bots that often can’t help, and fill in digital forms just to get the most basic of services.
Grumpy Old Man
So yes, I may joke about my Grumpy Old Man Syndrome, but the underlying point stands: just because we can do something digitally, doesn’t mean we should. Especially when the “innovation” really just amounts to taking humans out of the loop and putting consumers to work.
Of course, some people prefer the new ways. Not everyone wants to chat with a travel agent or ring up a cab office. For many, the ability to access data and services 24/7 is empowering.
Progress means keeping options open
But what matters most — and what so often gets forgotten — is that there should still be a choice. Because if everything goes digital with no fallback, we risk excluding those who can’t (or don’t want to) play the app economy game.
Maybe I am just an old man yelling at the cloud (service). But the app-based, gig-driven, digitally transformed economy isn’t always a step forwards. The frictionless experience often hides a lot of pain behind the scenes — for drivers, small businesses, and occasionally, for frustrated tourists standing by a road in southern Europe, hoping the app will work this time.
The world is increasingly run by tech bros in California. And we’re all a little poorer — culturally and economically — for it.
Featured image: created by ChatGPT
Post Script
[14/7/25] Yesterday morning, I walked to the local tourist office. I know, really old school! There, I spoke to a really helpful lady, who advised me on local buses and taxis. We called a central number for taxis in the town — no advanced bookings can be made but the first off the rank came to collect us. And we had our evening in the next village. It was lovely.
After decades working in IT, I really should have known better. I do the training. Every year, like everyone else, I click through the e-learning as quickly as I can, answer the quiz at the end, and move on to something else. I’ve even been that person who feels suitably smug when he spots the simulated phishing attempt and logs a support ticket, just in case. AKA a smart arse. A real joy to work with, I’m sure.
But this time, I slipped up. I was travelling back from Germany and needed to buy a CIV ticket for the UK leg of the journey – from St Pancras International to my local station. The ticket office at the station could only help with the outbound leg – and that was no use to me, because (to my eternal shame and against my environmental principles) I flew out. With Ryanair. For a short hop. I wanted to take the train both ways, but couldn’t justify the cost to my travelling companion. Even though the alternative was Ryanair.
With time running out, I tried Mark Smith, The Man in Seat 61, for advice. No luck. In a final attempt, I contacted Eurostar via X (formerly Twitter). I usually avoid X – because of Elon Musk – but I needed to get an answer quickly.
Spot the warning signs
I got a reply. From @EurostarUKcs – apparently the “Eurostar UK Support Line”. The odd capitalisation should have tipped me off. So should the fact they only had two followers and had been set up in May 2025. But I missed that. I followed them back. I sent them a Direct Message. They replied. This looked like help. And then they insisted on speaking by phone.
I was on a moving train so I explained that a call wasn’t ideal. But they called anyway, on WhatsApp, from a +245 number (Kenya). And that’s when it clicked. This was a scam.
Damage control
I hung up. Deleted the message history. Contacted Eurostar (the real one) just in case anyone tried to change my booking. Luckily, I hadn’t given away much more than the sort of information you might post in a public forum. But it was still more than I should have.
I got away lightly. There was no harm done, just a dented ego. But the whole episode was a timely reminder: it’s not just your mother-in-law who gets phished. It can happen to any of us – even the smug ones who think they know better.
Lessons learned
Don’t assume every official-looking account on social media is legit – especially if it’s brand new and barely followed.
Be wary of unsolicited calls – especially via WhatsApp or from unusual international numbers.
Trust your gut – if something feels off, it probably is.
I share this not because I want sympathy, but because it’s important. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. Stay alert.
This content is 1 year old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
My June/July 2024 retrospective was written as I was preparing to head off for a couple of weeks’ travelling with my youngest son, Ben. Well, after a few weeks back at work and with August’s roundup on the horizon, I thought I’d look back over what we got up to on #MarkAndBensExcellentAdventure.
A few words about Interrail/Eurail
Ben and I travelled by train, using a ticket called an Interrail pass. Interrail has been around for years and works across 33 countries. It’s also known as Eurail. Confusingly, European residents use Interrail and international visitors use Eurail. I know. It’s counter-intuitive. I just had to get over it, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference in practice. Oh yes, and “European” is defined by geography, not politics (so the UK is still European).
There are various passes available – either global (which is European, not global!) or single country passes. Passes can be valid for a block of time, or for a certain number of days over a period. I spent €833 on two 15-day second class global passes (one youth, one adult). For reference, one train journey in the UK can cost hundreds of pounds, so that seems very good value. The passes can’t be used in your home country, except for one outbound and one inbound journey. For us that was a CIV journey on any UK operator from Bedford to St Pancras International and onwards by Eurostar to Amsterdam, and the return back from Lille to St Pancras International and on to Bedford.
When I first “interrailed”, in the early 1990s, you couldn’t use Interrail on high speed rail services (e.g. TGV). Now you can, but you’ll pay a supplement for a seat reservation. Interrail reservation space on some trains is limited (so book ahead). Interrail/Eurail will sell you the reservation, for a premium, or you can buy it from the in-country train operator.
Professional me was interested in the “digital transformation” of Interrail since I last used the scheme. Basically, instead of a dog-eared piece of paper with journeys filled in by hand, it now uses an app. The app is pretty cool actually and shows where you are going/have been (in map or list form) as well as helping to plan and activate journeys on your “pass”.
There is a paper option, I think, but I didn’t use that. I also needed to download separate apps for various cities’ public transportation services. Normally they have a day pass that can save money but it varies from city to city.
One final point, in some places, an Interrail pass will provide other discounts. For example, in Interlaken, our travel on the BLS ferries was included if we added it as a rail trip, and the funicular to Harder Kulm was half price. Other discounts can be seen in the Interrail/Eurail app.
The trip
Here we go, day by day, with a brief summary of what we got up to. It’s in bullets, because if I write it in prose you’ll never read it all!
Day 1
Not the best start: East Midlands Railway train from Bedford cancelled; jumped on a Thameslink service, which was delayed at Luton because the relief driver was delayed (presumably stuck on the cancelled EMR train); then switched trains again and made it to St Pancras International in time.
Huge queues for the Eurostar but well-managed and we made it through security, and were the first passengers onto the platform (thanks to Real Time Trains telling us which door to wait close to).
Dinner and back to the hostel. Dutch food is better than its reputation suggests. Well, I suppose it wasn’t really Dutch food, but we found an excellent Hummus Bistro.
Up early to catch the train to Berlin. It was delayed. And then delayed some more.
The DB Train Manager was excellent, as she asked people to move their luggage to help others find a seat.
The train was cancelled at Hanover but, instead of saying, “off you pop, get the next one”, there was a replacement ICE in the next platform and we sped across Germany to Berlin.
Checked into our hostel. Nothing special but it was good enough for us. Warm, dry and good transport links to the city.
Delayed leaving Berlin (it disappeared from the departure board for a while, which was disconcerting), not yet upgraded to the new stock, but I really wanted to do this!
ÖBB/Nightjet provides a little goodie bag with things to help passengers sleep. Slippers, ear plugs, eye mask, face cloth, water and snacks. There’s also a breakfast order to complete (and a pen to complete it).
A while after leaving Berlin, the steward took our tickets (which have to be printed on A4 paper), took the breakfast orders, and converted our cabin from seats to beds. I’d thought we’d use the seats for longer (and convert it after dark), but the bed is still comfy.
Our room has a wash basin, mirror, etc. but I realised there’s only one shower for the whole carriage. Not much chance of getting in there in the morning, so I tried it in the evening instead. As to be expected, water pressure is limited, but it’s warm and it did the job!
I spent the rest of the evening relaxing on my bed, watching the trains as we called at a variety of stations, and my son said it felt a bit like the scary Thomas story when Oliver and Isabel hide from the diesels as they run away to Sodor!
Part way through the night I gave up on the tiny pillow and used the duvet instead. I think I woke every time the train stopped. So much for the “clickety-clack” (or modern continuous welded rail version) helping me sleep.
Shortly before 6, an electronic alarm woke me… set by the steward. After getting dressed and repacking all my gear, I ate my breakfast, though our order was incomplete as the catering had no working facilities to make hot drinks.
So that was the end of my Nightjet odyssey. I finally got to experience a sleeper train! Perhaps, if we do it again on a budget trip, I’d go for a couchette… but I might have to try the full experience again one day with the new Nightjet coaches…
We’d realised that heading west across Austria to Swizerland would be slow… but we could squeeze in a quick trip to Munich/München:
I booked us a pitch at The Tent. When I stayed 30 years ago it was just a space on the floor of a big marquee but now there are various accommodation options.
After wondering around a bit, and a visit to a beer garden, we headed to the Hofbräuhaus for an authentic Bavarian meal and entertainment. Great fun!
I loved the short time we spent at the bar next to Pfistermühle – chilled house and a bottle of beer!
Then back across the city to catch a tram back to The Tent.
Another day in/around Interlaken, starting with a train to Brienz then a ferry (paddlesteamer!) to Giessbach falls.
We swam in the falls, and hiked to the top, then headed back to Brienz and on to Oberried am Brianzersee for some more lake swimming.
Ben left his phone behind on the station but, because this is Switzerland, it was still there when we returned!
After eventually getting back to Interlaken, we found the funicular to Harder Kulm was open (it had been closed in the morning due to technical issues). The views are incredible… though a rainbow on the Jungfrau was an extra bonus.
Then, back down to the campsite for a simple meal and some sleep.
Then it was time to catch another train to Lugano, and on to Milan/Milano.
This took us through the Gotthard base tunnel (not the more scenic pass) and also gave some glimpses of the Italian Lakes, though nothing that made a good photo.
We had enough time in Milan for a couple of hours in the city centre and a very good meal (Italian, of course).
Up early, to catch the train to France, via Genoa.
We set up camp near Nice, at Parc des Maurettes. I was a little shocked that the floor was stone (I literally had to bash the pegs into the ground with a rock), but that was to be our home for the next three nights…
After pitching the tent, we caught the train to Juan Les Pins and walked back to spend the evening in Antibes.
34°C and still very warm overnight. Gravel floor. Noisy neighbours. I didn’t sleep. In fact, I spent most of the night in a chair close to the campsite reception, where I had access to power and Wi-Fi for some photo editing and battery charging.
In the morning I did some washing, and booked into a hotel for the next two nights. One with air conditioning.
Ben was visiting a friend in a nearby village, so I had to move all our luggage (two large packs and two daysacks) on my own. Luckily it was downhill to the station at Villeneuve-Loubet and the hotel was immediately adjacent to Nice-Ville station.
After checking in, I got a couple of hours’ sleep, before Ben came back and we explored Nice. Which was nice.
Monaco Monte-Carlo. Boats, cars, a visit to see the Prince’s cars, lunch, the foyer at the casino, a look at the racing circuit. Cool.
But Monaco is just, not real somehow. It’s dripping with wealth but, after a few hours, it was time to go.
We stopped off at Cap d’Ail for a swim, and then at Eze, where I was charged €20 for two cans of Coke.
Then we waited for a bus to Eze village, that didn’t come. So we caught the train to Villefranche-sur-Mer, which was lovely. I later found that, at one point, I had been just a few metres away from a friend, staying there with his family, but we had missed each other!
We left Nice and caught the train to Cassis, and a bus down the hill from the station towards the town.
Cassis was probably my favourite destination on the whole holiday. I’m planning a return visit with my wife.
Somehow, even thought it was last-minute, Ben and I had managed to book two spaces in a shared dormitory at Cassis Hostel. We lucked out there. It was cool enough, even without air-con, and the infinity pool was the icing on the cake.
In the evening, I’d earned a swim in the hostel pool, and a lovely steak dinner (washed down with a local red wine) along with soaking up the atmosphere in Cassis:
After catching the bus to the station, and then waiting around there for a while, we finally caught a train to Marseille and then on to Avignon.
Avignon is pretty, but not as impressive as I remember. And you have to pay to go on the bridge now. We didn’t. You get a better view from above anyway! Look carefully towards the horizon (in the other direction) and you might also see Mont Ventoux.
Another piece de boucher (steak) dinner, then back to our accommodation.
I was glad we’d switched from camping to an aparthotel next to the TGV station as a huge thunderstorm came through that night…
Up early to catch the 7:15 TGV to Lille. Four and a quarter hours to cover the entire length of France. This is why high speed rail is such a benefit for those countries that have invested in it…
The trains from Paris were full (at least for Interrail) – probably something to do with the Olympics – but I’d booked a TGV that bypassed Paris and then we were getting a Eurostar that came through from Brussels. That meant a few hours hanging around in Lille. Ordinarily, that’s no problem but we had our luggage and were tired.
We found a cafe and hung around there for a bit before heading back to the station.
Then, onwards towards the UK, through the channel tunnel and back to the land of poor phone signal.
The last leg back to Bedford was uneventful, and we were re-united with Mrs W!
4755 kilometres; 44 trains; 42 places; 10 countries
(The 8 countries the app shows is wrong. We passed through Belgium and Czechia. We also travelled to Monaco.)
On reflection
I was the one who wanted to take the sleeper train; I was the one who suggested Amsterdam would be a good first destination; and I was the one who insisted on booking our trains out and back a couple of months ahead of time; but the rest was all down to Ben. We quickly realised that it wouldn’t work to go to Copenhagen on the way to Berlin, and he wanted some flexibility in the second half of the trip, but what we did is remarkably similar to my trip, 30 years ago.
For me, this was a trip down memory lane, but wonderful to share it with Ben. For him, new adventures, a sense of what travelling can be and, I hope, some lifetime memories of a trip with his Dad.
This content is 1 year old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
In 1999, I left the only company I’d worked at since graduation. After 5 and a half years (plus a year or so during my degree), I moved on from ICL and followed a colleague to Capita, to be part of a new Microsoft practice. I still remember the conversation on the night before I started: “so, what’s it like to be unemployed, Mark?”. Leaving a place where I was comfortable and respected to start again elsewhere was a big deal for me so I wasn’t amused. Even more so as I’d taken out a mortgage on a house a year or so earlier.
I can’t remember the timings but it soon became clear that a recent re-organisation had changed the focus. The Microsoft practice was no longer a priority. My colleague left Capita soon afterwards. I remained, in a strange organisation, like a fish out of water. I made the most of it, built up my technical skills, and annoyed a few people by taking an outsourced client through the Technology Adoption Programme for Exchange Server 2000. (I was told that “our standard is Exchange 5.5. – you can’t just put in a new version”. Well, I did.)
I stuck it out for 18 months before I left to travel and work in Australia. That was a shorter trip than originally intended (a different story, which involved returning to the UK to settle down with Mrs Wilson). The point is that I learned not to build my career around other people. If I moved jobs again, it would be for me (or in one case, redundancy).
So why tell this story? Well, I’ve written on previous posts about my journey into my current team – and I feel like I’ve found a place that suits me and where I can make a difference. But June was an unsettling month as we prepared for a change of leadership for the Node4 Office of the CTO. It’ll all work out – but I won’t pretend I found it easy. And it reminded me that, however much respect I have for my outgoing CTO, there’s only one person responsible for where I take my career – and that’s me.
Right, enough of the career history lesson. What did I get up to more recently?
At work
Work highlights included:
Renewal of my Microsoft Azure Solution Architect Expert certifications.
Attending the second and third modules of my level 5 leadership and management training (inclusive leadership; and driving and implementing strategic change). I missed the first module in April, so will have to go back next year to learn about developing my personal leadership brand.
Two days at Commsverse – a Microsoft Teams conference organised by, among others, two of my former colleagues (Mark Vale and Martin Boam), at a really cool venue (Mercedes-Benz World). I have a whole load of blog posts planned from that event, though the backlog is pretty huge now. In the meantime, here’s my Twitter thread:
I’m taking a couple of days out to go back to my collaboration/unified comms roots at @Commsverse. Yesterday was brilliant first day, with lots of fascinating sessions and catching up with contacts I’ve not seen in a while. Come and see me today if you’re there too! #commsversepic.twitter.com/rYtG1cyOmv
I managed to get a couple of posts published on the Node4 site, even if my own blog has been a bit quiet:
An updated approach to Virtual Desktop Infrastructure: Azure Virtual Desktop on Azure Stack HCI. This one is all mine, written earlier this year, after Microsoft released Azure Virtual Desktop on Azure Stack HCI. This filled a gap in our End User Computing options for hosting applications, which means we’re no longer torn between complex and expensive server farms, or desktops running in the cloud – we can have the best of both worlds. It’s timely too, with the changes in the landscape that have affected VMware and Citrix VDI products in recent months.
I also got my paws on this one, though only as an editor:
Here's an article by my @Node4Ltd colleague Mairead O'Connor about Hybrid Cloud. Read the post to learn why it's more about an evolving mindset, the fact that one size does not fit all, and a need to be pragmatic #Node4#HybridCloud#PragmaticCloudhttps://t.co/VPt9dzV8Dd
A trip to the North East, to help a client define their future technology direction, including facilitating a workshop with around 15 of their team to identify the challenges that they face.
Preparing for the audit (and hopefully renewal) of Node4’s Azure Expert Microsoft Solution Provider competency in a few weeks’ time.
Time spent together as a team, planning the future for the Node4 OCTO.
At home (the tech)
CCTV
I’ve been looking to install some CCTV at home for a while. Whilst many would recommend I go down the Ubiquiti route (UniFi Protect), I decided to save some money, using Reolink cameras with my existing Synology NAS.
So far I’ve installed an RLC-811A, which was also my first foray into PoE-powered devices (with a UniFi PoE adapter). Despite the low price, it’s remarkably good camera, both day and night, with the added bonus that it’s supported by Home Assistant.
Latest addition to the home network. My goodness that was simple to set up. Fixing it to the house and running the PoE cable might be less so… time to go and borrow a ladder! ? #reolinkpic.twitter.com/tWnQPPfdlv
Sadly, it wasn’t enough, but was it really just a co-incidence that, as I changed my addressable LEDs from blue to red and white, England scored a goal in the Euros final?
Whilst I’m not getting to many of Matt’s cycle races at the moment, I did head up to Darlington with him for the British National Circuit Race Championships. The race didn’t end as we hoped – he crashed – but his on-bike camera footage has 2.8 million views on Instagram at the time of writing!
He was back on the bike the next night as we went down to London for the Via Criterium at the London Cycle Festival. Oh my. What an awesome event. And a good result for Matt too…
And he’s got some decent results in some of the other crits… here’s Otley:
Crit season now and I can’t be at all of #VeloMatt’s races. Loving the video coverage since the team got a 360° camera and he took over the socials though… this was Wednesday night in Otley #CyclistsDad#RideRevolutionhttps://t.co/Is3lrpDwAj
That bike didn’t last much longer though… this happened a week or so later, but he did at least jump back on and ride it to the finish!
Arghh. I thought parenting was supposed to get easier as they get older? At least he’s alright, and he still managed to be second across the line ????????????? #VeloMatt#CyclistsDad#RideRevolution
(Back to cyclocross soon, where the bikes are less likely to break in a crash…) pic.twitter.com/E8T8qLDS3E
And only a couple of days ago, he got caught up in a crash at Sheffield. I’ll be glad when the crit season is over.
I’ve been just as busy travelling around the country with Ben, as he visits the universities he might like to apply to. I missed the Warwick weekend but with Exeter, Bath, Bristol, Nottingham and Cardiff it’s been full on. And, just as when I did the rounds with Matt a couple of years ago, it’s left me wishing I could do it all again, knowing what I know now!
Back on the university tours, this time with son v2.0. Enjoyed our trip to Exeter this weekend (though could have done without the half term holiday traffic…) pic.twitter.com/M43N0cluk3
I haven’t written much recently about our TV watching, but in addition to my Tour de France addiction that has to be fed each July, Nikki and I have enjoyed:
All the light we cannot see, on Netflix. Set towards the end of World War 2, this mini series shows how the paths of a blind French girl and a German soldier collide, guided my the medium of radio. As a bit of a radio guy, I found it quite magical, along with this (unrelated) tweet: Where was Hilversum, anyway?
Douglas is cancelled, on ITV. Episode 3 is difficult to watch, but persist – the twist at the end of Episode 4 is worth it!
Travelling
I wrote most of this post as I was preparing to head off for a couple of weeks’ travelling with my youngest son. In fact, that’s why the June retrospective is mashed up with half of July… I’ll be off travelling for the other half.
It’s also meant a very busy week getting ready. New purchases from outdoor shops: lightweight sleeping bag; new walking trousers; new trainers. And cleaning my down jacket (because it might still be cold at night in the Swiss Alps). Rab Equipment are ace:
Great experience with @rab_equipment. I lost the stuff-sack for my ~5yo down jacket. Bought another for a few quid and it arrived next day. Service like this (added to the great gear) is why I’ve been happy to invest in one of their jackets for each of my sons. UK company too ?? pic.twitter.com/KTPZAI5M0K
Tomorrow morning we should be catching the Eurostar to Amsterdam. Or we will be if today’s Microsoft Azure/Microsoft 365 outage and the separate but still severe Crowdstrike/Windows outage don’t affect my journey! I really must stop catastrophising…
A few things that caught my eye over the last few weeks…
Improving your messaging:
Great advice in this piece about how the BBC’s Technology Editor spoke to Finance folks about how to better communicate their message(s) https://t.co/iMJvbknCyF
Just had my first experience of #Copilot-generated meeting notes. First impression is, "hmm, impressive, but very much a summary, missing some context, nuance, and all the things that make them make sense when we go back to them in x months' time"
It's incredible that AI systems built largely by young men are getting really good at drawing beautiful women. But struggling with basics like fire safety. pic.twitter.com/Rnv6laCS5R
It seems I have a new soapbox… more on Copilot meeting notes:
It seems to be every day someone is extolling the virtues of #Copilot meeting summaries. Is it just me that thinks they are not very good? Yes, clever, but very imprecise and lacking nuance/context. I suspect we’ll go back to those notes and they won’t help us much…
And this is what two professional writers think of AI (and more):
I may be a teeny bit biased (it’s no coincidence that @Nikki_LMC shares my surname ?) but I enjoyed reading this @tweetsbyLMC post about what it’s like to be a writer. Note the last few paragraphs about AI-generated content! #writing ? https://t.co/5yOfh6zP6F
Especially when senior Microsoft personnel seem to “forget” that we have copyright laws:
Microsoft AI CEO says the social contract of content on the open web "is fair use", "anyone can copy it", it's "freeware".
This is categorically false. Content released online is still protected by copyright. You can't copy it for any purpose you like simply because it's on the… https://t.co/TAZuroT2rH
I do get cross when people suggest that a company running Microsoft software is somehow making bad choices and should be avoided:
My advice to junior developers. If you see this list of techs then it’s a sign the company has focused on one tech stack. Your role will be about integration, and extending COTS products; and projects will aim to solve business challenges, instead of arguing about technology https://t.co/ijb0REpXkW
“ […] return to office decrees can increase office attendance by as much as 14 percentage points, but push employee engagement scores down by 26 points” – just one quote from some interesting analysis in the ?@FT? #HybridWorkinghttps://t.co/TaiVKhkSHs
How have I never seen this before? It’s genius. Like a combination of my recent @AdmiralUK and @ITVX experiences rolled into one… and the @YouTube algorithm just served it up to me…
This content is 1 year old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
May’s update was late, and June’s is in danger of rolling into July, so here’s a few highlights from my life in and around tech…
At work
On the work front, it was a short month – I was on holiday for the last week and with public holidays too there was lots to cram into a few short weeks. Nevertheless, I still managed to:
Continue to develop Node4’s new ransomware scanning service.
Finalise a dozen product data sheets for our public cloud services.
Submit some blog posts to our marketing team to support upcoming campaigns.
Keep pushing some pre-sales activities forwards.
And mine and Bjoern Hirtenjohann (/in/BjoernHirtenjohann)’s internal Node4 podcast on public cloud was released:
The @Node4Ltd podcast we recorded a few weeks ago was released today ??. It's internal only (I'd love to create an external version) but it really hit me how using a proper studio with professional equipment (and a great editor ??) makes a huge difference to production quality ?? https://t.co/cHWlo0QTlj
But the biggest activity in the month was presenting at Node4’s Infrastructure Symposium. One of our Practice Directors brought all his teams together to learn about the products and services that we jointly deliver. With four (or five, depending on how you look at it) companies all merged, there’s been a lot of change at Node4 over the last year or so. Getting everyone together is a great way to break down boundaries and understand the direction we’re headed in. And for me it was a chance to outline that our cloud offers span public, private and hybrid delivery models – and that we will deliver what’s right for the client, not for us. We call this Pragmatic Cloud (and I freely admit we didn’t come up with the term, but it I like it a lot).
I also celebrated my 9 year anniversary of joining risual/Node4 in May. And, for those who were confused by my comments last month, I was saying that my recent move has been overwhelmingly positive and I’m in a better place than I have been for a long while!
Elsewhere
Away from work…
My youngest son, Ben, passed his driving test. I was ready for a big insurance bill, but what I wasn’t ready for was: a) no decrease on the bill for the 19 year-old’s insurance (now with 2 years’ experience); and b) a 350% increase in premiums between him passing his test 2 years ago and the 17 year-old passing now. Even with a black box, parents as named drivers, etc. the car insurance bill for the two old cars that our family share with the teenagers was around £4500. For contrast, the bill for my Volvo (with just me and Mrs W as drivers) actually fell and is now back under £500. Public transport is just not reliable enough where we live, so the choices are: a) drive the teenagers everywhere; or b) pay the money. I’m still getting over this assault on our savings… some families just won’t have that money and I dread to think how many uninsured cars there are on the road as a consequence.
Car insurance quotes for newly-qualified teenager now up 3x on what we paid 2y ago for the eldest. Family car insurance bill looks like it will be £4-5k, maybe more. We’ll find the money, because we have to, but I wonder how many people don’t and just drive uninsured…
My eldest son, Matt, continues to race his bike up and down the country. After a catastrophic failure of the fork steerer tube, his Canyon road bike was hastily replaced. That meant a drive to Wakefield to collect the new bike, but it is rather lovely. I don’t get to all his races these days but I did manage to watch him in Ixworth and I was in the team car again for the Lincoln GP. Unfortunately, when he went to Ireland to race the Rás Tailteann I had to make do with watching for updates on Twitter!
Another great afternoon of crit’ racing at Ixworth today. P7 for #VeloMatt so another 10 points towards his Cat 1 licence (and first race on new bike). Added bonus in that I got to meet @AlexDowsett who was gracious enough to pose for a selfie with me #CyclistsDad#RideRevolutionpic.twitter.com/Q4ost8oH5s
It feels very odd having a few weekends without #CyclistsDad duties… #VeloMatt rode the #UCIGravelWorldSeries@GrallochGravel race today ??????????? and next week he’s off to the Rás Tailteann #Ras2024 stage race ??????. I’m back at home… trying to catch up on my admin
Ben and I have been planning our Interrail trip – and now we have bought our passes along with inbound/outbound travel. Plus, we’re going to be taking the NightJet sleeper train from Berlin to Vienna! There were a few challenges with seat availability (things have changed since last time I went – we can use high speed rail, but there’s limited availability and we need to pay a supplement). This is more of a problem when dates are fixed so we had to change our route a little. On the flip side, with the start and end locked in, the middle section of the holiday is now free for us to be flexible.
I completed the home network upgrade. Was the switch from AmpliFi to UniFi worth it? Time will tell. It’s certainly more flexible but it’s cost me more and my house does not lend itself to structured cable runs. Maybe I should have just replaced the broken AmpliFi mesh point but it felt like I could fall into the trap of the sunk cost fallacy.
That’s the end of the Wi-Fi upgrade… the final power supply arrived a few minutes ago, so the house is now UniFied up, with an AP on each floor (and in the Man Cave), in the best way I could do it without a reliable Ethernet backbone… pic.twitter.com/ejh29BILso
Octopus Energy sent us a Home Mini, which should give more granular data on electricity consumption, once I get the Home Assistant configuration right (I’m still tweaking).
I’ve also continued to play around with Home Assistant, including a bed occupancy sensor (which I can link to turning off the lights). I will admit that’s probably a step too far into nerd territory.
The month ended with a short break in Spain. Originally scheduled for May 2021, we never did get to go on a family holiday to Barcelona and the Costa Brava, though Matt made it out there on a training trip to Girona earlier this year. So, half the holiday, with only one of the “children” (though he is now twice the size!), Nikki, Ben and I spent a glorious few days in an around Begur.
Writing
These retrospectives are a bit of a blogging catch-all, but I did write a post on LinkedIn that turned into a blog in its own right. You can read it at the link below:
Matt Ballantine (@ballantine70)’s 100 coffees story:
The Protestant work ethic, interchangeable divisions of Outlook time, meetings without agenda, serendipity, and sending his Dad viral on the Internet… @ballantine70’s wonderful story of #100Coffeeshttps://t.co/7DDAkctT67
Commentary on technical debt and the British Library’s ransomware attack woes:
Interesting thread on the British Library hack and technical debt. It’s worth noting that, like actual debt, it can substantially juice your returns while the environment remains benign, and running with little leverage looks disappointing. https://t.co/EYTIYgJhSn
Seeing lots of talk of families and location tracking, like it’s a bad thing…
…we use it a lot. Helps us all to get context about where a family member is and if a) they are safe b) they might be home soon c) are in a location where they might be able to help us out
Why it’s better to find a real application compatibility fix instead of just giving users admin access:
Interesting thread on app compatibility and avoiding the default action of reducing security just to make it work. Shows the value of app packaging skills too… https://t.co/UnNmJVr2a8
Interesting thread on why encrypted messaging services are hard. TL;DR is that encrypted messages are relatively straightforward, protecting the metadata is the tricky bit https://t.co/xciEE4hYEq
Finally, shipping sunlight for green energy. Not as bonkers as it sounds!
Interesting thread on why encrypted messaging services are hard. TL;DR is that encrypted messages are relatively straightforward, protecting the metadata is the tricky bit https://t.co/xciEE4hYEq
This content is 1 year old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
Another look back at some of the things I’ve been up to over the last few weeks…
At work
April marks a year since I started my transition to a new role at Node4. I didn’t move over full-time until July, but that’s when I stopped running what was formerly risual’s Architecture team and joined the Office of the CTO. This is not the forum to share the full details but suffice to say I had manouevred myself into a position where I was very unhappy – neither close to the tech nor able to best use my skills to provide value to the organisation and to our clients.
The change in role has been a breath of fresh air: the focus has changed a few times and there have been some bumps on the road; but one thing is core – I get up each morning and think about how best to add value. Whether that’s building out collateral for our public cloud portfolio, developing a new offering to guard against ransomware, helping clients with their IT Strategy or getting some structure around our “thought leadership” outputs.
The month ended with Node4’s “Go To Market” conference, in Nottingham. It’s an opportunity to set the agenda for the coming year and make sure we’re all headed in the same direction. This was the first time I’d attended and it was also a brilliant opportunity to meet some of my colleagues from across the business.
I managed to get myself into the video somehow, despite not officially being one of the presenters…
After two days of socialising, I was completely wiped out and needed some time to decompress. It’s left me thinking a lot about introversion. On the flip side, I also need to work on my FOMO… being one of the last to go to bed on the first night was not smart. At my age, I should know better.
Blogging
As usual, I didn’t find much time to blog this month, but I did write a thing about Enterprise Architecture, based on Dave Clark and Sophie Marshall’s good work…
It’s not often that I go to the theatre but I saw the 1990s TV sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey was returning in theatre format with the original cast. I then failed to book tickets, missing it in Milton Keynes by a week. I asked myself if I could be bothered to go to Birmingham instead? Well, why not… I had a birthday so that was an opportunity to do something different!
I loved it, but it’s definitely written for an audience of a certain age (and I fit that demographic). For those less familiar with the original TV programme, it’s still amusing, but it does help to understand the characters and how they have developed over 30 years.
A matinee theatre show in a major city gave us an opportunity for a day out. So, afterwards we wandered down to The Custard Factory in Digbeth, for food and drink at Sobremesa and Rico Libre.
Oh yes, and I couldn’t help but be amused when I spotted that the image on the vinyl wrap in the train toilets contained an empty vodka bottle…
Travelling to Birmingham for the day and taking the train ? ??. @LNRailway have wrapped the toilet to make it more attractive. Pity they didn’t Photoshop out the empty #Smirnoff vodka bottle ? pic.twitter.com/CQmqFKs7M3
If last month was about Meshtastic, this month has been Home Assistant. After initially installing on a Raspberry Pi to try it out, I quickly moved to a dedicated device and bought a Home Assistant Green. There was nothing wrong with the Pi installation, but I could use a Raspberry Pi 5 for other things. I’m still getting to grips with dashboards but Home Assistant has pulled all of my various smart devices together into one platform. This thread tells some of the story:
Annoyingly though, iCloud’s “was this you?” messages are not very helpful when you have automated services using your account:
Hey @Apple, it would be so much easier if you told me the IP address that was used to sign into my iCloud account. Twice now I’ve changed my password, only to find it’s a legitimate service running at home (Home Assistant) and not fraudulent. The timestamp is not helpful. IP is!
I’ve also been upgrading the home Wi-Fi, moving from a consumer AmpliFi mesh to a solution based on UniFi equipment. That’s been an adventure in itself and will probably be a blog post in its own right.
And, I “went viral” (well, certainly had far more engagement than my normal tweets do), with a family service announcement for Wi-Fi updates…
Does anyone else have to schedule IT infrastructure maintenance windows at home? I mean, Wi-Fi/Internet access is a critical service with teenagers in the house, right? #GeekLifepic.twitter.com/A3QhNU7qh5
#FlexShaming over at the Telegraph again. Missing the point that flexible working is more than WFH. It is part time work, job shares, compressed hours, annualised hours, flexi-time, four day weeks. Everyone who does not work full time 9-5 is not sat on their sofa. https://t.co/XToO73s3G9
In 2004 if you reported a story on your "blog" citing 2 sources, you were dismissed as oh that "blogger." In 2024, mainstream media reports a story with a single anonymous source, without as much fact-checking and it is a scoop and viewed as gospel. How things change in 20 years!
A lovely post from my friend Andrew looking back on his blogging history. Mine’s 20 too this year… Blogger was my platform before WordPress but it’s interesting to reflect on why we did it, and how Twitter/X changed things, before it too started to fade https://t.co/mjTDAtnixu
On whether or not it’s useful to refer to “cyber”:
Really like the distinction in this discussion about why it’s important to have a term like cyber (or something else) to distinguish from other types of security… meaning it’s not just nonsense marketing terminology https://t.co/gzKkHqHc5t
As is usual, supporting Matt with his cycling races has meant a fair amount of travel and this month’s Premier Inn destinations have been… Tiverton and Stockton-on-Tees. Stockton was the overnight stay for the East Cleveland Classic, where I was in the team car all afternoon – and what an experience that was!
Last week was #VeloMatt’s first “National A” road race on closed roads (the East Cleveland Classic) and my first time in the #RideRevolution team car ?????????????. Stressful at times but fun too. I haven’t edited the video yet and it’s been a week already so here’s a little clip ? pic.twitter.com/NTYiow9WBK
But the big one was supposed to have been the CiCLE Classic in Rutland, until it was unfortunately cancelled on the day due to biblical rain. I do feel for the organisers in these scenarios, but even more so for the teams that had travelled from overseas.
#VeloMatt’s on the start list for today’s CiCLE Classic but there’s nothing happening yet as parts of the course are flooded ?. Waiting to see what (if anything) gets raced today. Defo a delayed start… lots of waiting around keeping warm… https://t.co/OCdNTWs3e2
Away from cycling, but very exciting, is starting to plan an Interrail trip with Ben this summer. I only have two weeks’ leave available, but i’m pretty sure we’re going to have a brilliant time. It’s not the first time for me – I went solo in the early 1990s – but things have changed a lot since then.
Planning an Interrail trip with my son this summer… very exciting but not sure the @ThomasCookUK book from when I went in the early 90s is very relevant today… pic.twitter.com/YUH6xIoIPM
This content is 1 year old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
I managed the weeknotes for 9 weeks. The last one was posted as I was sitting on a plane, about to take off for a long weekend away with my wife. And then I started to take stock. I don’t have time for them. What had been a weekly reflective activity had become a chore.
And then the unwritten thoughts started to build in my mind. There were still things that I wanted to share. And the feedback had been positive, though the weekly cadence was probably too much.
So here we are. A new concept: Monthly Retrospective; 12 posts a year instead of 52. Maybe a better chance of me getting it out of the door on time too? I don’t promise it will be published exactly on the end of each month (I’m a week into April as I finish this post), but it will be there or thereabouts…
So what’s up this month?
Here’s a quick summary of what’s in the rest of the post
We have the events – typically evenings, attended to expand my knowledge.
We have the entertainment – music, film, TV.
We have life – family and friends.
And we have the photos – snapshots of life viewed through my iPhone.
So let’s get started…
In tech: at work
I’m busy, busy as always at work, with more organisational changes to keep me on my toes. One thing I’ve tended to avoid in recent years is working on bids. This is partly because I find there’s invariably a slow start and a mad rush to complete before the deadline, and partly because I prefer to work on a consulting-led sell where I have helped to shape the solution. In a competitive tender scenario someone else has influenced the client, so you’re already on the back foot, second-guessing what the client needs cf. what the invitation to tender says they want. In this case, one of my colleagues asked me to help out, and we have a few weeks to create our solution. It’s also a really interesting project so I’m enjoying pulling this solution together.
Meanwhile, the ransomware service is also moving forwards, though not as fast as I would like (or, more to the point, as fast as my boss would like). All being well, I’ll have something to shout about in next month’s retrospective.
In tech: at home
I’m still playing around with Meshtastic, with one node travelling mobile with me and another soon to be set up at home. Here’s the thread with the progress:
New toys from China arrived in today’s post… (x2). Hoping to have some fun with these (one static node at home and one mobile in the car)
Other home projects include researching which CCTV cameras to put up (almost certainly from Reolink) and how to get an Ethernet cable to them…
In tech: some of the things I stumbled across this month
Some bits and pieces:
Advice to help build genAI prompts:
Very interesting to see this… it’s become clear to me in recent weeks that the prompts provided are a huge factor in getting good results from LLMs… and, for balance, here’s the OpenAI guidance https://t.co/pgsQckMg4Ohttps://t.co/0PFsDThF7R
Remembering some security advice I used last year:
Last year, whilst working to define a client's IT policies, I found this guidance from @NCSC really useful. This morning I needed to dig it out again so sharing for the benefit of others. It's mostly common sense, but some of it still disregarded too often https://t.co/MRfzfg5P7n
March saw me getting out to a few tech events in the evenings
Milton Keynes Geek Night (MKGN) is always a good night out. In truth, it’s not really geeky these days – more creative – but I enjoy most of the talks and after a dozen years of attendance, I know a lot of the people in the crowd. This was the thread I created with the highlights from MKGN number 47:
I’m at #MKGN again tonight and the first talk has Johan Haroon talking about how technology is distracting us, and how we can recapture and hold onto our focus pic.twitter.com/Y9iaLOYMzO
A few days later, I headed down to London for the Windows Azure User Group Meetup. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use Node4’s London office, so I worked from the British Library and other locations for most of the day, before heading over to Elastacloud for the event in the evening. After Richard Conway (in/richardelastacloud) introduced the evening, Steph Locke (@TheStephLocke) from Microsoft talked about AI Landing Zones before Andy Cross (in/crossandy) gave a hilarious demonstration of how the death of coding is a little way off yet, even with multiple AI agents collaborating…
Towards the end of the month, I went to the inaugural NN1 Dev Club event, mostly to see what it’s about. I’m not a developer (though I might like to be…) and it seemed a good opportunity to get to know some of the tech folks in another nearby town. I enjoyed the talks – both PJ Evans (@MrPJEvans)’ tales of home automation (“Boiling Nemo”) and Dr Junade Ali (/in/junade)’s tales from the world of security research (“The Science of Software Engineering”) – so I’m sure I’ll be back for more events in future.
In entertainment
When I was about 8 or 9, I read a book at school. I couldn’t remember much about it, except that it was about some children travelling across Europe, it was set in WW2, Warsaw was a part of it, and I really enjoyed it. I asked a group of friends if they remembered something like this and one asked ChatGPT. ChatGPT thought it might be The Silver Sword, by Ian Serraillier. I read the synopsis and that was it! Why I never thought to ask an AI, I have no idea, but it worked. I then had a very enjoyable few hours in the car listening to the audio book…
On the subject of books, some more reading has arrived:
Explosive action (deliberate pun) Trigger Point, S2 (ITV).
Laid back and delightfully silly Detectorists, S2 (Netflix).
Stunning landscapes mixed with murder mystery Shetland, S8 (BBC).
None are new, but they had been on the list for a while. The jury is still out on Shetland without Douglas Henshall in the main character role though.
I’ve also decided that I need to get out to some gigs. My wife’s not into the electronic music that I enjoy so much and I was thinking about heading down to Greenwich with my youngest son for a Day with Chicane. Unfortunately the gig is 18+ and he will be 3 months short of adulthood, so maybe that will wait a while longer.
In life: a trip to Tallinn
The month started with a trip to Tallinn, Estonia. Nikki and I were celebrating 21 years of marriage and we had a fantastic weekend exploring a new city. As a country that’s been in and out of Soviet control several times in modern history we were not sure what to expect. What we found was a beautiful medieval city, food that seemed more Scandinavian than Eastern European, and public transport that was cheap and plentiful.
Our hotel was only just outside the old town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so we didn’t actually need to use the transport much (the city is compact enough to walk). Even so, €2 each way for a bus to/from the airport seemed amazing value.
Similarly, we ate and drank well at remarkably good prices compared with the UK – whether that was hot chocolate in Pierre Chocolaterie, hot wine in Ill Draakon (a medieval-themed bar), or one of the modern Estonian restaurants that we dined in. (For future reference, they were: Kaerajaan, Rataskaevu 16 and Pegasus). I came home thinking that, for the most part, the UK is a very dull and overpriced culinary destination.
Other highlights were a visit to the top of the tower at the Niguliste Museum for views across the city. We also enjoyed a walk along the old town walls. Outside the old town, we took a short walk to Telliskivi and visited the photography exhibitions at Fotografiska.
If you’re inspired by this and you fancy a trip to Tallinn (highly recommended), we flew with Wizz Air from London Luton and the Visit Tallinn website has a mine of information.
Oh yes, and linking back to tech for a moment, I forgot that the delivery robots I see in Milton Keynes and Northampton have Estonian cousins…
You may have seen me tweet out the delivery robots in Milton Keynes, Northampton and elsewhere… well, today I found some of their Estonian cousins… ? pic.twitter.com/3l1JXgbfJu
I may have been born in Northampton, but I identify as Welsh. And certainly when it comes to international Rugby Union, my team plays in red. I wasn’t going to say “no” though when I got the opportunity to watch England host Ireland at Twickenham. What a game! The final drop kick was at the other end of the pitch to me, but it was a brilliant match to be at.
As ever, my sons are a huge part of what I get up to outside work. With Matt away in Spain, I was able to get to watch Ben play Hockey a bit more, including the Eastern Counties U17 tournament. Now Matt’s returned and he’s racing as much as he can, trying to get his Category 1 (and maybe Elite, if he can get enough points) road race licence. That needs my support sometimes (passing bottles, driving on the longer trips). At the other end of the scale, it was exciting to be able to watch him pick up a win at our local race:
It’s fantastic to see the support he gets from his own teammates and some of the guys he’s racing against too (the video cuts off Richard Wiggins exclaiming “he’s got it!” just as I hit record). #ProudDad
After a couple more races that I didn’t get to see (and didn’t exactly go to plan), he wrapped up the month with a particularly eventful weekend. On the Saturday, a couple of punctures meant his race only lasted a few minutes, but that was probably lucky as we then found the steerer tube at the top of his fork had a huge crack in it…
That afternoon and evening, he rebuilt onto one of the spare cyclocross frames that were waiting to be set up, and then raced the Fakenham town centre crit’ on Sunday. It was a wet afternoon and my heart was in my mouth for the whole race but coming in third after an early break and leading for a good chunk of the race was a great result.
That’s all for this month… please let me know what you think in the comments and I’ll be back in early May to recap on April… plus, hopefully, with extra time for some other posts in between.
This content is 2 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.
Another week, and lots of positive feedback from colleagues on these weeknotes, so they keep going. This time I’ve written it over the course of the week, rather than in one huge writing session at the weekend. I’m not sure it really helped… it’s still way too long. Anyway, here it is.
(I’m also slightly concerned that some people think I have too much time on my hands. I really don’t. I just stay up too late and don’t get enough sleep!)
This week at work
I struggle to write about work at the moment. I’m doing lots of cool stuff, but I don’t really want to tell competitors what Node4 is developing. Even so, it’s no secret that we’re driving forwards with our Digital delivery (that’s why Node4 bought TNP, risual, Tisski, and ThreeTwoFour) – and public cloud is a big part of that, particularly in the Microsoft space.
My presentation to the Node4 Go To Market community on our public cloud transformation capabilities seemed to go well. And it would be remiss of me not to say that, if you want to know more about how we can potentially help your organisation on its Microsoft Azure journey then I, or my colleagues, would be pleased to have a conversation. Feel free to get in touch on email, or book some time with me.
Beyond that, I joined an interesting call with IDC, looking at the European cloud market in 2024. And I’m just getting involved in a project with some cool tech to help address the ransomware challenge.
Most exciting though is that I’ve submitted a request to join Node4’s Innovate Leadership Development Pathway for 2024. This looks to be a great programme, run over several months, that results in an ILM qualification. The reason I’m excited is that, for the first time in a while, I feel that I’m in a role where I can exploit my leadership potential. I had a career diversion into management, because I thought I needed that experience. Then I got out of it, only to fall back into it (and was very unhappy for quite a long time). Management and leadership are very different things, and over the years I’ve learned that I want to be a leader, not a manager.
Coffees (virtual and IRL)
Much is made of “watercooler moments” as a reason to return to the office (RTO). Well, is there any reason that such moments can’t happen outside the office too?
“Coffee here is a metaphor. A metaphor for being intentional about making space in our working days to create serendipity, build relationships, reflect, have new ideas, share old ideas and a wealth of other benefits that come from conversations without agenda.”
Earlier in the month I had some “coffees” with some colleagues I no longer work with on an daily basis. It was brilliant just to check in and see what they are up to, to keep myself in touch with what’s going on in a different part of the organisation. This week, in addition to some “quick chats” with a couple of my peers, I met several people outside the company for “coffee”. Their roles included: a Chief Evangelist; a Managing Director; and a Digital Transformation Consultant.
One I hadn’t seen since we worked together over a decade ago. Another is part of a “coffee club” that Matt set up to encourage us have a monthly conversation with someone we don’t normally talk to. And one has become a friend over the years that we’ve been catching up for coffee and occasional lunches. My own lack of confidence makes me think “what do I have to add to this conversation”, but invariably I learn things. And I assume that the value of meeting up with no agenda to “just have a chat” goes both ways.
Some of the things we talked about
Our conversation topics were wide and varied. From family life to:
Recognising when to buy services vs. learning to do something yourself.
“Thought leadership” and qualitative vs. quantitative metrics – looking at the “who” not the size of the reach.
Next-generation content management systems.
How localisation is more than just translation – sometimes you might rearrange the contents on the page to suit the local culture.
How UK town centres seem to encourage chains to flourish over independent retailers.
The frustrations of being an end user in a world of corporate IT security (managed devices, classifying information, etc.)
Being proud of your kids.
What travel was like when we were young, when our location wasn’t being tracked, and when our parents must have been super-worried about where we were. (Is the world more dangerous, or just more reported?)
Finding your tribe by showing things in the background on virtual meetings.
Bad service and food vs. great coffee but no space. And on what makes a good English breakfast.
Parenting young adults and supporting their life decisions.
Publishing newsletters, weeknotes, blogs. Owning your own content, and why RSS is still wonderful.
Fountain pens, a place for everything (and everything in its place) – and why I’d like to be more like that… but have to accept I’m just not.
Four day weeks, balancing work, health and exercise (or lack of).
That’s the whole point. No agenda. See where the conversation leads. Get to know each other better. Learn new things. Build relationships.
And all three “coffees” ran out of time!
This week in tech
Here’s something I wrote a blog post about. I had intended there to be more posts, but I overestimated the amount of time I have for these things:
I don’t understand why Google opening a new data centre in the UK this is news. All of the hyperscalers already have data centres in the UK. This is just another one. I’m not sure that they contribute much to the economy though, except maybe in construction and through services consumed (electricity, water, etc.). As for the PM’s statement that “Google’s $1 billion investment is testament to the fact that the UK is a centre of excellence in technology and has huge potential for growth”. Poppycock. It shows there is a demand for cloud computing services in the UK. It’s got nothing to do with excellence.
I found a new setting in Microsoft Teams that makes my video feed look like I’m using a decent camera! It’s so much better than the old background blur.
I was just about to ask my colleagues what fancy webcams they were using. Their blurred backgrounds looked so much better than mine on #MicrosoftTeams calls… then I found this setting! pic.twitter.com/fvDo2znsWN
Reminder: if someone talks about "old people" as a group who don't understand how to do things online, they're thinking about people who've already been dead for a decade or more https://t.co/YGJoQozDad
Parcel delivery firm DPD have replaced their customer service chat with an AI robot thing. It’s utterly useless at answering any queries, and when asked, it happily produced a poem about how terrible they are as a company. It also swore at me. ? pic.twitter.com/vjWlrIP3wn
? "French police officers decided not to investigate a robbery. The robbery would have increased their district’s crime rate that in turn would have cancelled the officers’ end-of-year bonuses." – Frey et al. (2013), Organization Studies#quantifiedsociety#indicatorismpic.twitter.com/kznUxbOs1C
I defo had similar reaction to you and after paying for it I’d say it was interesting but I agree with “Tom, 44” in The Times article. It mostly assumes the food you log has a barcode or is home cooked (difficult when eating out) and I have a backlog of “lessons” creating anxiety
And I have a holiday to look forward to… or at least a mini-break. Mrs W and I have just booked a long weekend in Tallinn for a few weeks’ time…
This week’s watching
After finishing our recent dramas, it was time to start something new. Several people had recommended Lessons in Chemistry (on Apple TV) and we’re really enjoying it. As an aside, we still have a long way to go on diversity, inclusion and equality but, oh my, we’ve come a long way since the 1950s.
This week’s listening
I listen to a lot of podcasts when I’m walking the dog, or when I’m driving alone. The Archers is the first on my list but please don’t judge me.
I also like to listen to The Bottom Line, though sometimes find Evan Davis’ views on modern work to be a little “traditional”. This week’s episode on e-commerce returns was fascinating, though I do wonder why no major UK retailers (e.g. Next, John Lewis) or online-only retailers like Amazon or even Wiggle wanted to take part…
I used to listen to The Rest Is Politics – it’s a great podcast but there is just too much of it – I found the volume of content overwhelming. But I did listen the Rest Is Politics Leading interview with Bill Gates. I was looking for a link to the podcast episode to share, but I found it’s available on YouTube too, so you can watch or listen:
Some of the things I took away from the interview were:
It’s well-known that Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, but it’s clear he was a very smart kid… he quietly mentions finishing his classes a year early.
I was interested in his responses to tough questions – like asking if his approach at Microsoft was “flattening competition not creating excellence”. And on monopolistic views of the world and how they needed to lower prices to gain market share. Remember the mission was to get a computer onto every desk and into every home.
On his position as a rich and powerful person, and why he follows the philanthropic path that he does of trying to kill malaria rather than direct giving to those in poverty.
On family, the impact he can have on his granddaughter’s future world, and the advantages/disadvantages of growing up with wealthy/famous parents
On the future of AI.
On politicians he admires (and giving very guarded responses!)
His rather odd (IMHO) views on climate change.
On learning from Warren Buffet, and on a lifetime of staying curious.
Maybe that’s what I should call this blog… “staying curious”.
After initially being flattered to be contacted by a major UK newspaper for comment on the importance of public sector work to Fujitsu, I declined to comment. Not sure if it was my media training or common sense, but it feels right. I had already written a brief post on LinkedIn, but a lot will have changed in the time since I left and anything I can remember would already been in the public domain.
More thoughts on the Post Office Scandal
I was going to write about this last week, but I was still reeling from some of the comments I’d received on social media, so thought on for a bit more.
Understandably, this is a very emotive subject. Lives were ruined. Some who were affected took their own lives. It’s nothing short of a tragedy.
Even so, it was upsetting to be told last week on Twitter/X that anyone who has Fujitsu on their CV should never work again (or words to that effect). I was at ICL or Fujitsu for around 16 years over one internship and two periods of employment. In common with most people there, I had nothing to do with (or knowledge of) Horizon, other than knowing of its existence, in a separate business unit. And, in common with most people who saw the recent ITV Drama, I was shocked and appalled.
I can’t defend Fujitsu – but I am going to use someone else’s words, because they sum up the situation about their future in the UK public sector market perfectly for me:
“A lot of innocent people [may] lose work at Fujitsu. All of us who have worked for outsourcing partners will know the nature of contracts means many will know nothing of other ongoing projects. Today many workers at Fujitsu [may] be ‘at risk’ for something they had no control over.”
From a technical perspective, I found this video from Dave Farley to be an excellent explanation of the types of technical issues in the Horizon system that led to accounting errors. Then add in believing the computer over the humans, together with an unhealthy dose of corporate mismanagement (as is being uncovered by the ongoing inquiry), and you get the full horror of the Post Office Scandal.
This week in photos
Looks like I didn’t take many, but I did wrap up the week with a nice dog walk in the winter sunshine.
