October 2021

Busy month of birthdays and parties, communities of practice, hacking for sustainable fashion, concluding Make Life Work S07, another House Finesse mix compilation and celebrating Black History Month with DJ Programma guest mix and some recommended short stories.

Work

Started capturing a personal weekly retro, rating key factors out of 10 (e.g. productivity, stress, learning), noting top 3-5 highlights, frustrations and lessons learnt
Went to the London office twice and Birmingham twice
Started work on an in-house tech podcast with the first pilot hybrid recording and creating a community of practice to support
Created mini COPs across the EM community based on joint initiatives including Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity (DEI), Emerging Talent, Tech Brand and Vibe Survey Feedback
Co-hosted a multi-team platform day in London to discuss roadmaps and ways of working for the coming quarters
Only the one Lightning Talk this month from Alastair on making web apps with Blaze
Enjoyed Rudimental, Horse Meat Disco and plenty impromptu friendly chats at the big Reassembles party at Alexandra Palace
Participated in (and won!) a “Fashion With Integrity” sustainability hackathon with Kim, Millie, Tia and Sashi

Life

Weekend in Preston & Blackpool for Mrs J ‘s birthday, visiting Madame Tussaud’s, the Dungeons and Tower
Met up with old uni chums Lisa, Phil (and kids) for some Sunday lunch in Chester
Impressed with The Boy signing up to local RAF Air Cadets and taekwondo club – trained ninja in the making
Trapp’d panic room and Jurassic Grill in Kettering for The Boy’s birthday
9 workouts over 4h26m

Sides

Concluded Make Life Work S07 with Silvia & Ely and Mubashar Iqbal
Released the quarterly House Finesse Halloween ‘21 mix compilation
Featured 2 guests on House Finesse; Anna C and DJ Programma
Analysed On The Side engagement following some quiet months that, thankfully, picked up over recent weeks
Extended my Personal Dashboard with financial analysis (spend breakdown, pension and shares tracking), podcast downloads and social account engagement metrics

Weekly & Daily Trello charts, annual Strava splits, Goodreads month & year, #ArchiveCollection and tweet count

Watched 📺

Squid Game on Netflix (with the rest of the world)
Pose on BBC iPlayer
Brassic S03 on NowTV
Stath Lets Flats S03 on All4
No Time To Die at Cineworld

Read 📚

Genome (The Extinction Files, #2) by A.G. Riddle
The Visit (Black Stars #1) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
These Alien Skies (Black Stars #4) by C.T. Rwizi
2043…A Merman I Should Turn to Be (Black Stars #3) by Nisi Shawl
Pandemic (The Extinction Files, #1) by A.G. Riddle