The Springing Back

‘Ello. Been a while. I had a rest from the weeknoting, just needed a break.

Work is wild. Unexpected changes mean we’re having to replan everything, change our approach, which is tiring. We’ve experienced a couple of hiccups in the teams, which a few people we unfortunately lost would have picked up. But there’s hopeful things underway too! A couple of pieces of work look rather promising, which is nice.

Anyway, that’s about as much as I’d like to talk about work. My intention with this weeknote was to talk about something different. I’m putting too much of my self into work, and I need to spend more energy on living and enjoying life outside of work.

Need a small team to move fast?

If you’re looking for people who can make things, like prototyping early ideas and testing them out, or designing and building a new feature, get in touch. I’m partnering with principal developers and designers, and we’d love to work with you.

Spring

Ain’t it nice? The sun is properly warming my bones, upping my mood. Even managed to spend two mornings working in the garden this week, joining calls in the sun. Makes a massive difference.

Product for the People #7

Product for the People is an unconference series for product people in public service – central and local government, the NHS, charities, higher education and beyond. I run it with Jukesie and Debbie.

Before the unconference on 4 April, we’ll be hearing from two speakers. Given you can’t spend 5 minutes without hearing about it these days, and since Sir Kier seems pretty hot on it, we’ve got two people coming to talk about AI. The aim is to cut through the hype and hear about practical experiences of applying AI.

Matt Webb will be talking about how he learned about AI by playing with it. Matt runs Acts Not Facts and has built some very fun things, but he also worked on GOV.‌UK Chat and invented weeknotes.

Dev Morgan will talking about mindful friction and keeping humans in the loop. Dev is product lead at Projects by IF and has manifested lots of ideas too. He also wrote the soundtrack to Monument Valley!

The Joke

Finally finished reading Milan Kundera’s classic, which I picked up at the end of January. To be honest, for a large section of the book I wondered why I was reading it. It was dull and a little depressing. But it was key character and story development, and the final third of the book is hilarious. It artfully juxtaposes folk communities and communism too, loved it.

It was written in the ‘50s and has definitely not aged well, but there’s lots to enjoy in it still.

The Heathcock and Gorse

Last weekend we went to Cardiff to celebrate our anniversary. 10 years! Well done, Tinder, you sparked it off and we kept the flame burning.

Anyway, we went to The Heathcock in Llandaff on Friday. We had oysters, Welsh rarebit (natch), mackerel with horseradish, sole with mussels and chicken gravy (!), followed by a whole roasted gurnard. Loads of fish! Washed down with a bottle of Sancerre, thank you very much.

On Saturday – after a disappointing result against England at the Millennium Stadium – we popped to Gorse in Pontcanna. Cardiff’s first Michelin-starred restaurant! The tasting menu was sublime, and the wine pairings were damn good. Even got to swap notes on Domaine Sérol with the sommelier (because I’m a w***er now).

Here’s the sort of thing to expect if you head there:

  • Broth of native Welsh seaweeds
  • Preserved mushroom, pickled juniper
  • Trout tartlet, turnip and fig leaf
  • Solva crab with horseradish and marigold
  • Mackerel, wild mussels, lovage and spruce vinegar sauce
  • Parsnip roasted in yeast, mature Caws Cerwyn, pickled seasonal mushroom and Winter truffle
  • Roasted monkfish, morels and smoked pike perch roe
  • Parker house roll with our cultured butter
  • Breconshire fallow deer with beetroot and pickled elderberry
  • Rhubarb, toasted hay cream, lavender and egg yolk
  • Toasted oat llymru, smoked raspberry jam, apple caramel
  • Lemon thyme brown butter cake with pear jam and coriander
  • Carrot jelly with chamomile sugar

Lunch club

Look, I’ve tried floating this idea before, but I’m just gonna start a lunch club for freelancers, happening once every two months.

London Loop

We’ve only got one more section to walk. We started the London Loop in February 2020, a couple of weeks before lockdown, and we’re so close to finishing.

I’ll save a full review for when we’ve finished, but do give it a go if you’re a walker.

Running

It’s good news! After following the exercises the physio gave me, I’m back to running 4 days a week pain-free. And, boy, have I missed it.

Bookmarks

I’ve not read as much as I usually do. Work has been truly exhausting, and some nights I’ve been in bed by 8.30 p.m. Anyway, here’s the usual run of links. Best bits at the top.

· Weeknotes

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