Weeknote 10/2025
“You may break your heart, but men will still go on as before.”
(Marcus Aurelius)
There are many ways to write a weeknote. It’s possible to write them as a series of bullet points, a list of things you have done during the previous seven days. It’s also entirely reasonable to approach them in a more descriptive way, as a form of essay which informs the reader not only what you did, but how you felt about it, and the things you may have been thinking along the way.
This weeknote is going to combine both approaches, and I’m going to begin with a list.
This week, I have:
- Presented remotely at an Awards Network event that happened in Glasgow. My slides are here. I also created a prototype skills mapper with which participants experimented. To do so, I had to extract skills descriptors from the PDFs shared by the four Scottish bodies behind each framework. As I pointed out to those assembled, such data should be both human- and machine-readable.
- Filled in some forms for some work I hope is going to start soon with the Responsible Innovation Centre for Public Media Futures (RIC), hosted by the BBC. The work would be some research on AI Literacies, and take place over the next few months.
- Continued development on Badge to the Future, which now has its own domain. As it’s better to show rather than tell, I recorded a few videos which are available in this playlist. I’m pleased to have got transactional emails working, which means that recipients are notified when they’ve been issued a credential. I’m using Lovable for development and I recorded the videos using Screen Studio (both paid accounts).
- Had a chat with Tom Watson whose work I’ve come across relatively recently. We seem to have a lot of shared interests and don’t live that far away from each other, so I’m looking forward to a follow-up conversation. I also had a couple of conversations with Laura James, whose looking for work post inspired my own. We discussed potential opportunities with F-Secure, where she is now VP, Research.
- Ran a session called F*ck Around And Find Out (FAAFO) which went well enough that I’m going to run another one. There’s not enough opportunity for people to mess about with new technologies in a peer-led environment where someone is a couple of pages ahead in the metaphorical textbook.
- Collaborated with Angela Gunder for the first time on a Reclaim TV-hosted session for Open Education Week. Entitled AI Literacies for Open Educators: An Exploration, we were joined by Genevieve Smith-Nunes and Nicola Pallitt to contextualise some of the points we made. The recording can be found here or on YouTube, and the slides are also available.
- Published 10 posts over at Thought Shrapnel, with perhaps my favourite being the one reflecting on an article in The Guardian where a heterosexual couple swapped ‘mental loads’ for a week. There was much to learn from that experience.
Now, onto the more discursive part which gives some context to the above…
Until January 11th this year, I used to run three times per week, go to the gym three times, and rest for a day. I was the fittest I’ve ever been, and able to lift weights heavier than I could in my twenties. Now, not even two months later, I’ve paused my gym membership and have to drive everywhere. Even the slightest incline means slowing my walking pace to almost a shuffle. My decline has been precipitous and I’m concerned — not about dying, as that’s not something that scares me — but, rather, about living with a debilitating condition.
My GP has given me a preliminary diagnosis of Angina, prescribing statins for high cholesterol and blood pressure tablets to help dilate my blood vessels. Given my exercise regime, vegetarian diet, and moderate drinking habits that this turn of events is likely caused by a combination of genetics and stress.
I’m hoping that a Cardiology appointment this coming Wednesday with the ‘rapid response chest pain’ team is going to diagnose exactly what is wrong with me. Thankfully, none of this affects my ability to sit at a desk and do my work: if you met me on a Zoom call you would have no clue about any of this.
Some might say that it’s unwise to share such health information at a time that I’m looking for work. However, I believe in radical transparency. In sharing how I really am with people, including friends, family, and colleagues, I’ve discovered a lot of health problems out there — especially heart-related issues with men over the age of 40. I’ve chatted with people who casually told me that they’ve been on statins for a decade, with people who have holes in their heart, and those who haven’t been able to exercise since contracting Covid during the pandemic.
So, I think it’s fair to respond to the question, “How are you?” that I’ve been better.
Now, I’m not naïve enough to think that I’m going to get back to “normal” and return to doing what I used to. The chances are that the second half of the Pennine Way will remain unwalked. I’ll not be running 1,000km in a year again, nor walking 84 miles in 72 hours. Instead, while grieving appropriately, I’m also thankful that I did it while I could. Perhaps the next part of my life will be spent doing more yoga, visiting megaliths, and taking a dog for a walk. We’ll have to acquire one first, though.
One bright point of this week has been the builders starting work on my home office. We’re converting part of our double garage, around 2.6m square. Even though they only started on Thursday morning, the shell is there and the pipework for the radiator is in. It’s shaping up to be a cosy space to work in, which will be a blessed relief after spending 10 months working out of our utility room. I never want to have a meeting disturbed again by a washing machine cycle starting, a boiler firing up, or my daughter coming home from school and casually getting something out of the fridge behind me. I’m temporarily set up in our ‘spare lounge’ which is, according to the floor plan of the house, actually a dining room.
Next week, I’m supposed to be going to the CoTech Gathering in London, travelling down on Thursday, staying over with a colleague in the network, and coming back on Friday night. My ticket and train are both booked, but I’m going to have to see how I feel, and listen to what the medical staff tell me on Wednesday. Other than that, I’m playing a bit of a waiting game regarding work: Amnesty still haven’t signed off the statement of work we’ve proposed; and, as I mentioned above, the BBC RIC project hasn’t kicked off yet.
Photo: I discovered this week that one of my neighbours (Stevie Warwick) is the same age as me, and played in the Northumberland County Schools football team. That’s my dad, Keith Belshaw, on the far right-hand side. He was Secretary of Northumberland Schools for many years, and also ran his own successful County team as well as the grassroots side I played for.
Football fans will notice that Michael Carrick, former Manchester United and England midfielder, and current Middlesbrough manager, was in that team. I played against Carrick on several occasions, as he played left wing for his school team and I was a right fullback. James Harmison (‘Harrison’ in photo), who was on my grassroots team along with a couple of other lads pictured, comes from a sporting family including his brother, Steve Harmison, who played cricket for England.