OK, here's the photographic evidence...

On Sunday, I did the Cancer Research "race for life" with some friends. Given that I'm not exactly a natural athlete, I enjoyed it more than I imagined I would ! I might even do it again, although maybe not this week. So, for all you lovely folks who sponsored me by making a donation to Cancer Research - thank you *very* much. And here's the public humiliation I promised. The photographic evidence of me running.

Ok, this is the "mass warm up". Not really my cup of tea - low-impact aerobics with a couple of thousand women, but hey, never let it be said that I'm not game for a laugh.

Then here I am, mid course, waving to the camera . Not tooo red and sweaty at that point. Very glad it's not a close up though.

I'm particularly fond of this one - heading towards the finishing line - being beaten by two small people !

And afterwards with Gaynor and Eileen - note the medals !

How much do I love....

... bank holiday weekends, London, my bicycle? Well today, loads and loads.


I'm very fond of a bank holiday weekend. It means that if I get a bit too trashed on Friday night, I've still got a full two day break, even if Saturday is dominated by a hangover. That said, I'm more a cheap date than party animal these days, so I rarely loose a Saturday in that way - but some feelings are pretty well ingrained.


This Friday was a bit of a mixed bag though. I had a great night out with some of fab colleagues at Notting Hill - it was the "thank-you christmas party" for the crew that organise and work all through the big staff Christmas party. We had a great meal, and I worked my way through all the "green" cocktails on the menu. Seemed as a good a reason as any other. My vote goes to the midori sour, with the mojito coming in a close second. For once, we were being relatively well behaved, and called it a night before it got to hangover inducing stage.... which meant I got home in time for the confirmation of the london mayoral election result.


No prizes for guessing I wasn't exactly chuffed with getting BoJo for the next four years. But, we live in a democracy (thank goodness) and the people have spoken. Let's just hope he appoints some good advisors and doesn't screw up this great city.


I'm so back in love with London. I don't quite know how this happened. For the last year or so, I've been grumping about this city - and trying to work out where to move next. But the malaise has gone. The mayoral election really brought home to me how much I *care* about this city. I got really worked up (still am, but trying to move on) about having someone run it who clearly loves it as much as Ken does.


I particularly loved London today. Lovely sunny day, so a great opportunity to go for a bicycle ride. I wanted to work out how long it would take me to cycle to my new job at JGP in East London. When I realised that JGP were in East London, I groaned. Not that I have anything against East London. Aside from its (lack of) proximity to West London. However, today I realised this could be A Good Thing. The cycle ride there is about 15 miles, and more straightfoward that I thought....

• Ealing to Hammersmith (mostly along cycle lanes)
• Hammersmith to Kensington Gardens (again, mostly cycle lanes)
• Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, St James' Park (the best bit)
• slightly hairy bit round Trafalgar Sq, Charing Cross, the Strand and Aldwych
• then through the City and into Whitechapel

Today it took me (and the Sidster) an hour and half, including stops for map-reading and faffing. And that was at a gentle pace, as apparently the bike saddle doesn't accommodate the gentlemans undercarriage very comfortably (!) Should be able to get that down to about an hour and ten when I've got the route nailed and I'm back in the regular cycling habit. I've not been a regular cycling commuter over the winter, so need to get back in shape. I reckon 30 miles a day should turn me into a lean-mean-COO-machine (well, should at least liberate my inner thin person)! Am hoping JGP have a shower, as I'll be a red sweaty beast by the time I arrive.

Cycling through London today just re-invigorated my love-affair with the city. How could I ever have doubted it. Great parks, great architecture, vibrant river, loads of people out doing stuff : going to galleries, cycling, skating, skateboarding, running, playing softball. It's just so alive. Alive with possibilities.

Mood Music, Spring, and New Awakenings...

The link between these three things is probably a bit tenuous, but hey-ho. Sometimes random is as good as patterns...

I blogged about mood/music last week - but today, I had a bit of a music-related epiphany.

Music whilst running. I don't know why I hadn't thought about this before (well, I suppose strictly speaking I have always listened to music in the gym, but I've never thought about running outside whilst ipod'd up. duhhh) - but hell, it made a cracking difference. Continuing my week long "Scissor Sisters" fixation, I'm pleased to report that the first album makes for a great pace-setter. I find it really hard to pace myself when running outside. So far, I've always found the treadmill easier because it sorts that bit out for me - but it's profoundly less fulfilling running on the spot - bugger all sense of achievement. But "take your mama" et al kept me on track and pumped up. I made 4K without a breaking into a walk. Which might not seem a lot, but this lady ain't exactly a natural athlete.

As well as being a personal best in terms of distance covered, running today was oddly magical. The weather wasn't that great (we got rained on) but all the signs of spring and new beginnings were there - the Gingko Biloba tree outside our house has got fresh green leaves; the street trees of Ealing are in blossom; the woods on the way down to the canal tow-path are peppered with the blue haze of bluebells. Simply glorious.

The plants aren't the only new things springing up though. Now the paper work is done, I'm really excited to announce that I'm off to a new job. I've had three and half great years at Notting Hill, it's been a ball, we've achieved loads, but time for a new challenge.

I'm off to be Chief Operating Officer at JGP. JGP is probably best known for http://www.jobsgopublic.com/ - the UK's biggest public-sector specialist jobsboard. But there's lots more besides (oh yes, I'll be blogging about it all very soon). I've been using JGP products for the last few years - and I think they're great (if I didn't, I wouldn't be taking the job!). So it feels like a bit of a Victor Kiam moment. All that lovely technology to get to grips with, and new people to meet.... it's fair put a spring in my step.

J

Twitter, Music and Mood

Over the last nine months or so, I've pretty embraced the Facebook thang. It was great getting in touch with folks I've not seen for ages, looking at pictures, and generally exchanging the inanities of daily life in a gentle way. I never did get the zombie thing, nor the stripper-name thing, but I quite liked the books, photos; and best of all the status updates. As a medium, it really got me interested in how the tinterweb is changing how we interact with each other. However, I'm getting a bit bored with it now - and am off exploring new stuff....

Twitter. Essentially, it's the functionality bit of FB that I embraced the most - in FB lexicon : the status update. In twitter lingo : a tweet. The answer to the question "what are you doing". In 140 characters. Think text message. Think short and sweet. There's a great little animation that answers the "why twitter" question here

So, I've been tweeting. There's a feed on the left hand side of the blog page (if you're reading this in FB notes, just click on "original post" at the top to get to the original). I'm interested in the discipline that the 140 characters impose. There's both the regular stuff of daily life, and some remarkably erudite discussion threads about technology and the new economy. What's tickling me most though, is "LOTD"

LOTD is "lyric of the day". It's a twitter bot - you send it a message quoting your song lyric of the day and the artist, and it re-tweets it under the LOTD username... hence during the day you can follow an eclectic mix of twitterers song lyrics : so far it's inspired me to unearth a few forgotten gems on my ipod. In case you're interested in how the bot works - here's the lowdown from whitneymcn, the brains behind it. Cute.

I've also been following a rather interesting blog (and twitter) of a chap called Fred Wilson, a VC in NYC, mostly about technology, new economy etc. But yesterday Fred made an interesting post about needing to "lift the funk". There followed an interesting thread of comments on various different approaches... but music featured in a quite a few

So these two things led me to thinking....

...There is a clear correlation between my mood and my tunes. Or lack of tunes. Not sure which way the cause and effect goes. But when I'm listening to upbeat tunes, I'm generally in upbeat mood. When I'm listening to chillout, I'm well, chillin' out. When I'm listening to Pink Floyd, I'm wallowing in self pity. The real danger comes when I'm not listening to music - that's when I'm really falling off the edge of the world (very rare I hasten to add).

Soooo, is there an app out there anywhere that enables the "friending / following" (whatever the terminology is) of our ipod playlists - would it possible to "take the mood pulse" of a group of friends, (or with my professional hat on - an organisation or work team) by music choices ? I wonder if there's any research out there that tells what the likely mood impact of music might be. Personally the higher the bpm, the more chirpy I am (no shit sherlock) - is that universal ? Perhaps there's something more neural that could be done? Is there a magic playlist for starting the day off in a good way ??

FWIW, at the moment, in the mornings, I'm really hammering the Scissor Sisters - "Mama" - it just makes me smile so much, I'm singing along on the tube (great stuff - people leave breathing space around me because they think I'm nuts)... and right now, it's chillout with Zero 7.

J

Satellite delay to the brain, flowers, gentrification and designer dogs

Woke up marginally groggy this morning, with a vague feeling that I should be somewhere other than horizontal in bed, listening to Sunday Service (one of only 2 hours per week that I can't bear to listen to Radio 4. The other hour is "any answers" when it feels like all the really annoying people in the world phone up R4 to share their Daily-Mail inspired bigotry). The thought process went something like this...

1. Ah, Sunday....
2. Eek, God on the Radio.
3. OK, snooze for a bit till the interesting news-thingy comes on at 9. Then the Archers at 10.
4. Snooze.
5. News thingy at 9
6. Faintly unsettling feeling of "shouldn't I be somewhere else?"
7. F*uckety f*ck f*ck. yes I should be an hour across town at Columbia Road meeting Helen.

So, leap out of bed, perform morning abolutions, stumble down stairs just as adorable husband (yep, still adorable) climbs stairs bearing boiled egg and soldiers for the good lady wife. Fully engage brain, eat breakfast. Remember that arrangement was to ring Helen at 9 to arrange meet-up, rather than actually *be* in east london at 9. Recover from indigestion of hurried breakfast and enjoy coffee and sight of husband in bathrobe. Even after all these years, I can almost purr when I look at him !

Anyways, lovely morning at Columbia Road flower market with Helen. A good opportunity to buy flowers, enjoy the ambience of the market traders yelling out the various merits of their goods, have a coffee and a catch up on the gossip. I bought a *huge* pile of rather garish bright pink flowers called "celosia brains" for the princely sum of a fiver - and they're looking just great in front of the fire place.

Helen and I have been frequenting Columbia Road for a good 6 years or so I'd guess, and we observed today how much it's changed - it's become v chi-chi ! It's still great fun, and I do enjoy browsing (and buying) in the shops that line the market, but it's really the flowers and the market characters that are the stars. During that time though, the little quirky arty shops have become a bit more upmarket (still quirky though) and I'm guessing the socio-economic grouping is firmly ABC1.

My first ever trip to Columbia Road must have been when I first moved to London in 1998, and I remember marvelling that the pub was open at 10am, so we went in for a coffee (it just wouldn't be right to a beer before noon) - and to my amazement there were loads of, well, frankly p*ssed people. I hadn't heard of a market licence before! Still plenty of merry folks around today - a particularly splendid pair of clubbers returning home looking a little the worse for wear at 10:30am... I'm only jealous that my energy wouldn't make it past midnight these days!

Today though, seemed to be "designer dog day". Whilst we slurped our coffees outside the Jones dairy, we noticed a number of hounds (and their people) walk by... but none of them was a heinz-mutt, they were all rather *fabulous darhling* fancy-shmanzy dogs. I saw a Weirmerama, an Afghan, two Standard Poodles (in chocolate brown - v lovely), a Chow-Chow, a Westie and a Old English Sheep dog.

All in all, a good day out, and getting to feel more at home in East London. Which is good thing, as I'm going to be spending more time there from July. New job, new environs... but more about that later !

I'm back and bouncing. Call me Zebedee.

The last month or so has been a particularly tough one at work, hence the lack of blog-posts. Not just in finding the time to write, but more that we've had some difficult things to deal with, that weren't really appropriate for writing about here. Writing about anything else seemed like missing the point. I've turned the corner in the last week though, so it's back to my brain buzzin' with lots of new stuff and the fug is lifting. So...

Tag Clouds.

I felt like I was the last one to notice that tag clouds are everywhere - until I mentioned it to a friend who said "what's a tag cloud?" However, I'm loving them, and the general concept of quick, snappy, word association. I reckon they're great for selection processes. This week I ...

• saw a word assocation list on a CV for a job application. Inspired. Made me laugh. Knowing the author, I'd say it gave a pdg indication of his corporate DNA. I'd hire him any day of the week ;)

• decided we should discover our own Notting Hill staff word-cloud and use it in our employer brand marketing materials. Nothing like a bit of authenticity to add value. If we can get the message across about "what it's really like to work here", we stand a better chance of attracting the kind of folk who will fit-in and thrive; rather than those that won't feel comfortable in our organisation. Square pegs and square holes etc.

• asked a digital media firm pitching for our intranet redevelopment business for the five words that would describe what it would be like working with them. It didn't floor them, quick as a flash they came back words that were resonant for us. They're so hired. More amusingly, when we invited the various firms in to pitch, Web Monkey asked them all to name their favourite type of biscuit (and then provided them for munching through the pitch - we look after our guests!) Not sure exactly what the relatively scoring mechanism for pink wafers versus hobnobs is... but it's it got me thinking.

I love the sheer economy of words in a cloud though. Rather than long prose, the tight, punchy message of a tag cloud is immediate. I guess it's the norm for the Gen Y that grow up with tinterweb and txt as communication norms - but even an older-fart like me is gettin' it.

So, my twenty words for this week ...

boing, fun, excitement, anticipation, optimism, trepidation, sadness, good-bye, fin-de-siecle, woo-hoo, adrenalin, discovery, serendipity, seperated-at-birth, sweat, over-stretched, full-roasted, home-coming, knowledge, friends.

Yours ?

Life on (and off) the ski slopes

I've been away for a week - skiing in Folgarida, Italy. Unfortunately the internet connection was a bit ropey, so I wrote this up last week, but coudn't post it until now, when I'm back home, tucked up on the sofa with the laptop.

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I'm in Italy - my first ski-trip to Italy - and it's great. I'd read that Italy has great food (it does) but awful loos (it doesn't). We're having a ball : sunny weather, few lift queues, beautiful ski area with lots of tree-lined runs, and so far, no injuries.

It's our annual trip with the group of friends that first got me into skiing about 8 years ago (although they've all been skiing together for longer than that). This year we're down to a core group of about 8, but in previous years we've been upto 16 or so. Skiing is definately a holiday that lends itself well to hanging out with old friends. There's something rather joyous about the familiarity of knowing that Lesley will have sorted out all the tickets, Collette will have remembered any pharmaceutical products you'll have forgotten (one year, she even managed a spare asthma inhaler where I'd left mine at home), and we'll have a pack of cards out whilst enjoying a few beers in the evening.

So a few beers... this year's highlight boozy night. Monday night... a couple of beers in happy hour, some rousing Europop (Anton Aus Tirol). Pile out of bar to stroll (stagger) back to hotel. Walk past local recylcing point, to witness a woman lifting the tail on her dog (a whippet/greyhound type mutt) and then wipes it's bottom with loo roll. This would tickle me even if I was stone cold sober, but after a few beers, there was significant risk of stress incontinence as I couldn't stop laughing...

Folgaria has a predominantly Italian visitor-base, but not exclusively. It's been fun to observe the different national characters playing out on the slopes...

• Italians. Ah, so stylish. Not much "grunge-iness" in evidence. Chic ski-wear - including a remarkable amount of fur trimming. Skiing style also really neat - skis and knees close together - all very swooshy. But the smoking was a bit of a surprise - loads of smoking - in the lift queues, on the lifts, whilst skiing - all looking v cool of course !

• The Dutch. We love the cloggies. A particularly lively group of about 10 Dutch skiers are here in Folgarida ... on the slopes they sported big yellow foam "clogs" that fitted over the top of their ski/board boots, and "milk-maid" hats, complete with orange plaits dangling round their shoulders. As well as an endearing ability to send themselves up, they just loved the Euro-pop in the Apres Ski bar. DJ Otzi with "Anton Aus Tirol" ellicited a particularly fine display of jollity and sing-a-long. (OK, we joined in too).

• The English. Well, aside from us, there's a particularly fine mad-granny character in the resort - I hope I have her pazzaz when I'm 60. She's been tearing down the slopes, drinking like fish and dancing like one of pan's people in the apres ski bar. A wonderful display of English eccentricity on a par with Morris Dancing.

• The Swedes. A small group of Swedes staying in our hotel have brought with them a small "table display" consisting of 6 swedish flags. They plant it on the table at breakfast each morning. Perfectly behaved, speaking perfect English, and looking like perfect IKEA people (nice knitted sweaters), but what's with the flags ??

I'm always completely impressed by the mainland european ability to happily converse in a language other than their own - most often, English. I had a good chat with a teenage Dutch lad, who's English language skills included none of the grunting I'm used to from my 16 year old nephews ! Sadly I speak no Italian beyond a few pleasantries (and the entire Pizza Express Menu), but my brain seems to have a very simple "foreign language mode" - and just the one mode - when not in England, speak French. Oddly enough, it wasn't hugely helpful in Italy !

Happy Days.

J