Weeknote 28/2025

Last week, I mentioned that I’ve been struggling to get stuff done in the gym. Things came to a bit of a head this week, when four gentle pulls on the rowing machine took my heart rate over 140bpm, and then 30 seconds soft-pedalling on the exercise bike took it to 165bpm. I’ve been in touch with my GP to try and expedite further tests, but I’ve got to do some form of exercise.

As a result I’ve been going for morning walks in and around Morpeth, being thankful that I don’t have to walk far to get to some semi-rural spots. I’d initially intended to listen to podcasts but, actually, I’ve enjoyed just the sounds of birds and nature. Thinking while walking is the best, which reminds me that I should re-read this book.

Laura has been away this week, so I’ve done a bit of work with John and some by myself. We collaborated on some stuff around community metrics and recognition systems for the Amnesty International UK project, and I’ve been writing up the recent Summit that Laura and I helped facilitate for the Digital Credentials Consortium. I also had three conversations about potential future work, and a couple of chats just catching up with people.

My application to the Barefoot Co-op Development Programme was accepted this week, so I’ll be starting in September:

Barefoot provides practitioners with specialist training to gain skills, knowledge, and confidence to work as advisors in the co-operative and community business sectors. The programme is delivered online on a fortnightly basis for 6 months.

Building on your own prior experience in the sector, you will leave with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to provide quality support to co-operatives and community businesses, the tools and resources to use in your own practice as an advisor, and the opportunity to stay connected with your peers and a network of barefoot alumni.

We’re looking for a new generation of practitioners who want to support others to start up or grow their own co-operative and community-led organisations. Barefoot is about bringing co-operative and community businesses into a range of business sectors. Our alumni have gone on to work as advisors within community energy, HR, music venues, digital tech, and more.

Unfettered capitalism is destroying our world, and so I want to do more than just roll my eyes at people who decide to set up for-profit businesses. Becoming a co-op adviser would be in addition to my work through WAO and, although it’s unlikely to ever be a well-remunerated endeavour, it’s the kind of enabling role that I should be focusing on in the second half of my career.

I’m trying to reduce my spending on things I want but don’t really need, as well as getting things second-hand, but this week I did take advantage of a price reduction to buy a Garmin Venu 3 smartwatch. I’ve been really pleased my Venu 2s over the last four years or so, and realised some of the updated features would be quite handy. For example, being able to take calls through my watch, the ECG monitoring, and the updated health sensor, which gives more detailed advice about rest and recovery.

In other, more significant, purchasing news Hannah, my wife, has agreed to us having 24 solar panels and a large battery installed in a few weeks’ time. The 0% deal that Octopus Energy has been offering comes to an end next week, so we decided to get this done sooner rather than later.

The heat pump we had installed last month is 300-400% efficient, but also UK electricity prices are, on average, 3-4 times more per kWh than gas in the UK. So generating our own electricity, and storing cheap overnight electricity, is a way to ensure we have very low energy bills. When we’ve paid off our mortgage this means our outgoings should be much reduced.

It’s a shame, as I was looking forward to it, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be going on our planned family holiday to Madeira at the end of the month. Without a diagnosis, I can’t get travel insurance to cover me in the event of having to get back to the UK for medical treatment. To be honest, given my symptoms, I probably wasn’t up for the levada walks in the summer heat anyway, so it’s probably best that we do that another time.

Instead, we’re heading down to Devon, where my wife is from and where some of her family, including her sister, still lives. So we’ll hang out with them for a few days, visit some beaches, and indulge in cream teas. We can re-book our flights for another time/location, so we’re currently thinking about Lisbon in either the October or February half term. The trouble with travelling during the school year and football season, of course, is that we are much more restricted in trying not to miss academic work and sporting fixtures…

Next week, I’m looking forward to Laura coming back, finishing off the DCC Summit report and continuing work on the Amnesty project. There was some talk of us running an in-person session for a new client in London on Wednesday or Thursday, but I doubt that will happen now.

Otherwise, I’m hoping that Aaron and I get out for a walk next weekend and that the decent weather continues. Around 20°C is perfect for me, I reckon.

Photo of sign taken by me near Morpeth Common during an early morning walk this week.