Less retire – more pause.

I’m taking next week off – mainly to concentrate a bit more on my rehab to be honest – and this week I have handed over almost all my responsibilities for the Welsh Government work to Naomi (just one workshop to facilitate after my break) and given I don’t know what or when my next client gig will be it feels like a decent spot to wrap up this rebooted season.

This week has been a mix again →

I MC’d the Alpha Show and Tell finale for the Welsh Gov work. It went well – there was a lot to cover which we managed and it spurred some useful conversations – can’t really ask more than that. Also we got some lovely feedback after from the stakeholders.

I wrote a blogpost about the Alpha – and miracle of miracle I accepted feedback about the first draft and did a pretty major rewrite. This is pretty uncommon – I’ll never worry about feedback for formal writing (reports, proposals, business cases etc) but because so much of my blogging is personal I take blog feedback poorly usually – even for work related posts. This time I decided to be a bit more professional and the post is much better for it.

One of our teams is doing some work related to online harms/’safetytech’ and I’ve been lurking around the edges of it – attending a couple of workshops/playbacks and doing some reading. The team has done first-class work so my role has been mainly to stay out of the way unless called for but to stay involved enough so that if I do need to help I can. It helps that it is an interesting project.

More IR35 ‘status determination statement (SDS)’ work this week. Given we are a company that leans heavily on associates/contractors there really is a lot to do and there is a lot of client nervousness. I feel like Sarah – our People Person – has it in hand though and that we have good coverage for us and our folk. Still there is a lot of ‘paperwork’!

As I’m about to have a little break between clients (unless something changes) I’ve started looking at all things DOS. Well our DOS anyway. Looking at win rates, types of wins, refreshing answers, putting together a better ‘style guide’ – there is a knack to writing 100 word answers that both answer the question but also have a bit of personality. I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying it is ‘fun’ but it stretches different mental muscles which is nice.

I bought an Air Fryer so I guess that officially means I’ve become middle-class? Though I also have an old ‘pleather’ recliner in my graffiti covered yard where I like to sit with a beer in the sun which is a bit ‘Shameless’ so who knows.

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Read ‘The Relentless Moon’ – the third book in the ‘Lady Astronaut’ series. Enjoyed it more than the second book but less than the first. 

Read ‘Dark Sacred Night’ by Michael Connelly which I enjoyed but it had clearly contributed to the latest season of Bosch in some ways which got it muddled in my head and sometimes in pursuit of accuracy I think Connelly can go a bit heavy with the procedural stuff.

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Oh and I turn 48 tomorrow. 

My god I got old.

Though it was pointed out to me this week that attitude wise I am basically either a teenager or a retiree with little in between so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Still. 

48.

Feels.

Old. 

I have ordered a cook it yourself steak dinner from The Ox and got all the makings for some ‘Old Fashioneds’ (with Rye) and am joining a few friends for hopefully one of my last Zoom socials (which truth be told I’ve mainly avoided since the early Covid days).

Onwards.