went on holiday to Sri Lanka. we met some elephants and saw loads of birds (the type with feathers).
for the first time ever I took the exact right number of books on holiday. I was three quarters through the last one as the plane landed. finished it yesterday on the way to work. pretty sure this is the first time anyone in the world has achieved this feat.
one of the things I read was ‘Ceylon’ by Leonard Woolf, which is an account of his 7 years there as a civil servant straight after leaving university - from 1904 to 1911. he was given a year off after the seven years, came back to London, married Virginia Stephen and decided not to go back to Ceylon. deeply fascinating to read not only about the place but his reflections on the British arrogance of imperialism and being a civil servant. not from the book but from another interview: “the more I was there the more convinced I became that it was wrong. And that we were behaving in a wrong way.”
I’m going to pick out a few bits from the book and put them in a note somewhere.
Ben wrote about clocks on public buildings. since about 2013 I’ve been having a recurring thought when cycling: “the campaign for more public clocks on buildings”. there is a clock on the north side of London Bridge, above the old House of Fraser, but it’s never accurate and has freaked me out a few times. there’s another outside the big Natwest building on Bishopsgate, a digital one, that also gives you the temperature: excellent for benchmarking the day’s cycling outfit with the temperature.
going up hills, I always think, “change DOWN, James BROWN”. no idea any more which song I adapted this from.
so there’s a couple of thoughts I have when I’m on my bike.
back to an airport on Sunday morning. I am sick of going to airports and would like to spend some time at home.
HMRC have decided I owe them some money from more than three tax years ago. it has put me in a terrible mood.
turns out gallivanting round London when you’re still a bit jetlagged is actually exhausting.
went to Daunt Books for an event with Hisham Matar on Wednesday night. the first time I went to Daunt I was a child and it was my schoolfriend’s mum’s book launch (yes, she worked for the BBC, yes, I grew up in north London). I remember gawping at the gallery and thinking I was in some kind of bookshop heaven. still feels the same way now, to be honest. more of that kind of thing this year!
a few years after Columbia Records’ copyright expired, GoodBooks have started putting Control on Spotify. dripfeeding a song a month, so it’ll all be there by the end of the year. still very proud of the record, the band and the few years of my life when I managed them. did I mention that I discovered I have a page on Discogs?
this week I mostly prioritised a rapid turnaround of my expenses.
skipped last week. wrote something. didn’t publish it. Friday was busy. have you done your tax return?
more travelling this week. have a feeling I’m not meant to write about where I was. how shady is that?
good trip though. met lots of nice people. ate a lot of nice food. had some great feedback at the end of the week. as someone who thrives off appreciation, that’ll keep me going for a week or two.
in every country I’ve been to, engineering and technical skills have been highly valued by people in government. and talking about transforming government and user needs has also been, mostly, bang on. but I’ve not seen much by way of ‘we need design’. there’s huge potential for design in government around the world.
a bunch of people stuff we’ve been working on at GDS in the design team has finally come together this week. the bureaucracy of organising progression in the civil service been wearing me down for months to be honest, but it’s fully gratifying in the end to see good people getting promotions.
I know why process exists, but it doesn’t half feel like it detracts from doing valuable work a lot of the time. slowing down good outcomes just a bit.too.much.
will be trying out my Sleepy Ride footrest on the flight home tonight. one day you’ll all have one! if it’s good. feedback to follow.
haven’t looked at Twitter for two weeks.
happy to confirm that Alice was not doing anything embarrassing in Beckenham Park Place when I saw her. maybe when the water in the lake there warms up a bit I’ll be back in that park for a swim and our paths will cross again!
three hours till we go to the airport. hotel swim here I come.
taking a couple of days off next week. excited to gallivant around London like I used to back in GoodBooks days.