Weeknote 46/2025
We went to see the Christmas lights be switched in my home town of Morpeth last night. The singer of the band playing before the countdown roared "ARE YOU FEELING FESTIVE?" To which the only sane response would be "Not yet, we're still standing in the dark and it's only November 15th." The crowd, however, finding such a response too nuanced and difficult to articulate, instead gave a muted cheer.
Everyone knows that trying to start anything new in the last six weeks of the year is a fool's errand, but that doesn't stop organisations, keen to "hit the ground running" in January from putting out requests for proposals. As I told one potential client this week, trying to do significant user research just before and just after Christmas, unless you've got participants already lined up, is optimistic at best.
Anyway, I've submitted one proposal, worked on another, and had a call with an existing client about the next steps for their project. Laura and I did a bit of work on the Amnesty International UK (AIUK) community platform project, and the consortium I'd organised for the CivTech 11.9 challenge decided to withdraw from the process due to "a miscommunication around IP." I'll tell you more over a drink someday if you ask... 🙄
I spent most of the week recovering from my time in Barcelona. Not only did I have a great time on the Friday at the Mozilla Alumni gathering and an enjoyable time at the Mozilla Festival over the weekend, but I made full use of my extra day in the city on Monday to explore both bits I'd seen before as well as bits I'd hadn't.
Having walked around Barcelona in shorts, t-shirt, and sunglasses, it was a bit of a shock to the system to come back to dark, drizzly Newcastle. I do enjoy living in the North East of England, but mainly between April and September if I'm perfectly honest. I'd quite happily decamp to warmer climes for six months of the year.
On Friday, I had the latest in a series of countless tests relating to my still undiagnosed health condition(s). This one was an ultrasound checking my liver, kidneys, pancreas, and spleen. All are normal, apparently, so why do I still have discomfort at the bottom of my lower left ribcage? I'm somewhat a medical mystery.
Next week I have a tilt table test which someone described to be as "the most terrifying thing they have ever experienced." Yay. The most terrifying thing I've ever experienced so far was having my wisdom teeth taken out 25 years ago during a clinical trial for a new painkiller where I was pretty obviously given the placebo 😬
My daughter's team smashed Huddersfield Town in the cup 8-2 and then she refereed an under-10s boys match this morning which finished 5-5. The quality was abysmal, but it was entertaining. She's got an England Talent ID session in early December along with her matches against various Academy teams in the Junior Premier League.
We've got plenty of AIUK work to get done now that the contract has been signed with a hosting provider. I'm going away with Hannah, my wife, this evening and so won't start work until Monday lunchtime. Then the tilt table test will take up some of Tuesday afternoon. So it won't be a full week.
Photos of Morpeth Christmas lights switch-on and Barcelona taken by me this week.