Really happy to be part of an great advisory team for Fediforum and ultimately for the Future of the Fediverse.
https://fediforum.org/people/
https://fediforum.org/people/
I’m joining the Fediforum as an advisor
Category: just-plain-life
My last day in BBC R&D
Its the final day of my position at BBC R&D and I had a really good first leaving party yesterday.
This a day I have prepared for and didn’t really think would come, but over the last 7 months realised will come. It has been made slightly easier by the 4 different leaving dos I planned (2 in Manchester and 2 in London, drinks and dinners).
Its been great catching up with many different people, old faces and current faces. Its clear to me, I have really moved on and although that doesn’t distract from the difficulty of many layoffs in the BBC. I’m very aware so many people have been affected and
My focus is on my future and what I am doing next, I even finally set my linkedin as #opentowork. While in London for the weekend, seeing the R&D’s lighthouse (White City, W12), talking deeply with the security guards for a long while and chatting yesterday. It hit me, all the back and forth, leadership coaching, talks with friends, etc has got put me in a good place. I have made peace with everything and potentially this is great for difficult times ahead.
Quoting John Lennon…
Life is what happens when we are busy doing other things. Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are and something you give away.
Facing redundancy with a list of tasks
I wrote a blog post about how I have been since August 2024, when I first learned my position at BBC R&D was at risk and likely to close. Now its March and a lot has happened…
My position is still going to close and I have taken redundancy, which means I will leave at the end of March 2025. I had a stupid amount of leave to take and spend most of my time off. When I put in for the holidays it felt like a long time away but its come super quickly, along with my leaving date.
My huge task list for planning things out is still in action but with a lot of adjustments. I didn’t really account for the heavy amount of what I will call general zuck and how it zaps time away. Either way, I have done quite a bit.
Some things I have been up to.
I spoke at the first united artist AI social club which was good, yesterday talked about social media and digital legacy at the Children’s Media foundation coffee chat and have agreement to do some lecturing later in the year. I can’t say yet but I will become an adviser for a special EU project and will be a large part of a major festival later this year. There might be a second one with a very good friend, which I’m also keeping tight lipped about (fingers crossed on that one). Theres also a very related author who I’m in touch with who could really make this all have huge impact.
I have been working up some of my side projects including DJ hackday and the Adaptive podcasting applied to music is gaining some traction.
The dating book I mentioned previously is super close to being finished with feedback taken on board and the understanding the first edition is always going to be bad and have a ton of errors you can fix in the second and third editions. The book will include something special to keep the conversation going. I finally setup Gitea to finally deal with all the versioning as it was getting out of hand! I also stuck a bunch of my other markdown projects into it too including my Markdown CV, Markwhen, etc. On the digital legacy front, I have news but I’ll share that soon as things are announced.
Part of the redundancy from the BBC includes outplacement options once I’m officially given my formal notice. I was filling my limited spare time over the festival holidays with my family, seeing friends, writing my CV’s, life after layoff and Linkedin learning till I learned I will still have linkedin learning after I leave with the BBC outplacement service.
There is something I wouldn’t have access to a small amount of formal training funding, so looked into my options. I considered my declarative, linked data and semantic web background; considered my design background and even project management. However it became clear what would really help is coaching, as I had some incredible coaching after my brush with death. This was going to be very expensive and heavy going but I made it happen with help from my line manager, BBC HR and access to work being dyslexic. I was able to get leadership coaching over the last month. Unfortunately its only available while I still working for the BBC and that has means some long intense sessions every week and homework. Its been excellent and very glad I could make it happen right at the end of my BBC employment. Certainly best use of my time at this moment…This and going on holiday to Malta with my partner.
As I am just shy of 21 years at the BBC (weeks shy) I am never going quietly (into the night) and have setup 4 different events for my leaving. 2 in London and 2 in Manchester. Each city has a general drinks/snacks, then a smaller sit down meal. I know it seems over the top but as its close to my birthday too, so its a double reason to celebrate.
You could say why are you arranging your own leaving party’s?
But honestly with the amount of people leaving BBC R&D and different people with different plans, some to leave quietly some less so. Its just easier on everyone to arrange it myself (of course with help from colleges who are not leaving of course).
If you didn’t get the invite, let me know via email or the fediverse. Its been hard to remember who to send this all to…
A key part I have been doing is sorting out how I manage this all, because although tasks lists are ok this just don’t work for me as a long term sustainable solution. I do love Kanban’s (as I call it kambams) and used Trello in the past a lot. Then I switched to Microsoft planner at work which was awful but just about usable. Combined with the need have self control over this all… I started looking at self-hosting Planka on Yunohost. (Bearing in mind, I have been looking into knowledge management systems for awhile.
I have enjoyed Yunohost and bought a cheap Intel NUC PC on ebay for this and other applications I want to host them using docker but they were tricky on my Qnap NAS. I also do have Yunohost on a Raspberry PI 5 but I realised some apps need a AMD64 environment and with a always on VPN I can run and use them anywhere? I also looked at Wekan and keep trying to get Vikunja working.
But back to where I am…
The biggest issue right now is prioritising what I do, how much I setup now and redo after my leaving date. There are things like buying a new laptop I had to do and have decided to not include any work related stuff on to including Microsoft Edge, One drive syncing and Slack (although I do use slack for other communities so that will change). I have my PAC code for my work phone, so I can move that number soon enough.
I had planned to drive around on the scooter and see friends but the weather in the UK has been bad for riding and frankly its something I can do after April.
That’s where I am right now…
Focus on leadership coaching, finish up work (future of social report), write some recommendations for BBC R&D, a intriguing final email (maybe also in audio), lean in on the different opportunities from my network, have a great time at the leaving parties for March/April. Finally I should switch my Linkedin to open to work maybe?
I do plan to take a break straight afterwards for my birthday and the Easter holidays. Then I’m back and will be in touch with many of you, as the scooter is ready to go.
Yes I am looking at where to go next but I’m carefully looking at options, rather than jumping to the next place. I am very aware there are a lot people being made redundant, its rough out there. I can only rely on my network and unique skills to find my next steps.
The best spas I have been to…so far!
I do love a good spa and I have been to many over time. Sometimes they are ok, some have been shockingly bad. For example the 5 star nobu hotel in Barcelona was good except the spa which only happened because my partner made sure our junior suite (except they made some stupid last minute comment saying all suites except the junior ones include spa access!) was a nice spa but so cold! Nothing worst than sitting on a stone slab in a cold steam room!
I say nothing worst but the Mercure in Bournemouth had half of the facilities advertised and the Jacuzzi wasn’t filtering out the old water, meaning not only did my end up with a rash on the back of her neck where she had been resting; but I also caught a stomach bug from the dirty water for 24hrs and couldn’t eat anything! Makes the Nobu look positively heavenly.
On that note let’s talk the bests so far…
Starting with Sweden.
Centralbadet Stockholm, Sweden
This spa was a surprise it was underneath a park and buildings but was large with from memory at least 6 types of sauna’s and about 3 steam rooms. The pools were huge too and surprised me as I originally thought that was the whole place till went through a door into the spas. Honestly it’s a bit of a maze. It was reasonably priced from what I remember too. I would talk about Finland, Iceland and Norway but I haven’t been to any which are as good as this one in Sweden.
As it’s Scandinavian, I think there aspects of being naked but it was a long time ago so can’t remember exactly. Pretty sure like liquidrome to come, the pools are clothed and spas are naked.
Another aspect of this spa is it’s just around the corner from Urban Deli too if you are hungry. We need more of this type of setup in the UK.
My next big one is the one which got me into spas back in 1999.
My good friend who was born in east Berlin took me to liquidrome and I was kinda blown away. Every time I head to Berlin I find time to visit liquidrome, especially because it’s open till 1am on the weekends. It took a while to get over the naked spas, dripping only on to your towel etc but now it’s just not a thought. It’s changed over time but currently 4 saunas, 2 steam rooms, dive pool, outdoor pool, juzuzzis and best of all the sea water pool where you float with ambient music & lights above and below the water. It’s incredible!
I have been to Amsterdam so many times and only been to a spa for the first time in 2023 and it was a hotel spa Corendon Vitality Spa). Then Margaret last year clued me into Zuiver!
This is not a spa it’s a bloody retreat with about 8 steam rooms, 8 Saunas, 3 juczzis, steam baths, swimming pools and so much more inside and outside! Also open till late and like liquidrome. There is even a restaurant if you get hungry! All not super far from Zuid station.
Just like liquidrome there is some naked aspects. Twice a week they have naked days and for some reason I just seemed to end up picking those days due to conference days.
I can’t tell you how amazing it was being in the warm water wood barrow looking up at the night sky and seeing the stars. Then wondering over the huge sauna to get the full effect of the communal sauna (as I first experience in Oslo’s Salt) Next time I’m in Amsterdam I’ll be there for sure, hopefully with my partner too. Can’t believe it took me so long to explore the Dutch spa scene.
I sound a little down on Hotel spas but that’s not completely true. For example the Oasis spa in Barcelona and Serena spa in Lisbon were great for different reasons.
The Hyatt’s Oasis spa was just excellent in so many ways, I could have spent all day there. Not so many spas but each one had the touches which make for a great spa. Free water, free fruit, seats in the right places, lots of space and perfectly placed ice room, etc.
In Lisbon, I wanted to note Serena Spa for the best treatment I have had. Myself and my partner were treated to a special couples treatment called the 4 seasons. 1 hour of different flavours, smells and levels of impact. From the careful ice cold touches to the warm embrace of a hot towel and the leaves and vapour! Just amazing like they were experimenting with some new and exciting things.
i would give a thumbs up to the Onsens in Japan but when I compare them to the best I have in this list, they just don’t compare for what I’m looking for in a spa. It didn’t help that I didn’t feel comfortable wearing unfitting clothes and being stared at by groups of business men.
My new years resolutions for 2025
Following my review of last year… here’s my New Years Resolutions for 2025 which follows on from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 ones.
- Find a new position of employment
The word is out, I’m leaving BBC R&D after almost 21 years. I’ll be taking a few holidays and breaks but ultimately will be looking at new positions of employment. I may do something else like consulting, academia or develop one of the many side projects further. - Finish my dating book
Another throw back to 2024, The dating book is so close, self publishing is the way forward, rechecked with Grammerly again (avoiding the AI stuff, which I tested and it turned the chapters into something very middle of the road and not my voice) and I’m aware the first edition will be bad. But I’m very close but struggling with a book name, subtitle, cover, etc. I also made a stake to publicly release before Hannah finishes her PhD. The race is on! - Head even further a field with the scooter
Now I will have lots of leave and holidays, I’m thinking this is a good time to finally get this one crossed off. I could easily drive over to Hull or even Newcastle and get the ferry to Rotterdam or even Ijmuiden (Amsterdam). Maybe a week would be perfect and I could finally use those side saddles I bought. - Learn to drive a car
So with more time, I could actually start booking driving lessons and book a test. I’ve been told in the past, I likely won’t need many lessons as my road sense is high driving a motorbike for 27 years. I did pass the car theory once before and was flawless in the hazard perception test. Plus I now know my full bike licence gives me a car provisional. - Listen to 25 Audiobooks in the year
As mentioned in the review from 2024, this was quite easy which surprised me. There were some great books and I do like how it expands my mind. I’m going to expand it to 25 as there were a few shorter books last year. - Go to a new country
This is always a good one and honestly there are some key countries which I have passed through many times in the airport but never left. I’m looking at you Switzerland, Czechia and Austria. Although I am also thinking South Korea after needing to cancel in the pandemic and part of me is still regretting not heading to Hong Kong and feels like Taiwan should be higher on my list before its too late? - Go to a new Rollercoaster park
A regular resolution but a good one and if I head to another country, its certainly high on the list that I will find a way to check out what options for a day of pure rollercoasters. - See more of my friends further a field
My friends are diverse, interesting and great to be around; especially right now. During the Covid pandemic, I would call them up on the off chance and have some incredible conversations. It was amazing and some went on for 4 hours. So in 2025, I’m going to catch up with more of my friends I haven’t seen in years. Be it on the phone, online, in person, what ever works. - Personal knowledge management and task rethink
I’m a little annoyed with the way I’m managing my notes, tasks and projects. I liked using Trello but don’t like the closed nature of it, I like Obsidian but it is closed source also puts me off. I’m also using Todolist for tasks which is insane but I had to move from todo.txt which was just too basic for my uses.
I like what I’m seeing with Anytype & Tagspaces but also seen some interesting uses of markdown with Logseq? This whole personal knowledge management or as I use to call it personal semantic stores.
So now is a good time to relook at everything especially since I finally got Nextcloud working on my NAS (finally!). - Be more active about my personal health
Especially over the last few months, I have been pushing my health too much. On top of this, I am getting older and need to be better about things like sleep and exercise. More Volleyball, more consistency and more investigating those problems I keep ignoring. - Create a new social event
It’s been a while since geekdinner, barcamp, hackday, geeks talk sexy, 2nd degree dinner, Manchester futurists and much more. I’ve been hovering on creating a new type of social event post pandemic and come across a few good examples recently. 2025 is a good time to do something different and unique I feel, especially as it would be good to get back into the swing of things. - Do my bit for others in the community
One thing I certainly will miss after I leave the BBC is mentoring. I mentored quite a few people and even been involved in reverse mentoring (where I was mentoring someone further up the hierarchy about diversity and inclusion). I was part of Million mentors but struggled with work commitments, so now seems like a good time to do similar or potentially look at other things I could do, like helping people to manage technology?
How things have been since August 2024?
BBC restructuring isn’t anything new, there have been so many over the 20.5 years, I have been there. However, this time the changes have directly affected my role and position in R&D. BBC R&D is restructuring for many reasons which is way outside the scope of this personal post. The cuts are deep and sadly I am one of the people who was told at the start of August, that my position is at risk to close.
As you can imagine, this caused great stress and worry.
During the rest of the summer, I spoke to many friends, family, colleagues (current and previous) and of course my partner. I sought much advice to understand what I could do and make sense of my unsteady position. It was all a shock, I went through the grief cycle twice. Once at the start of August and then again when things became clear during my career consultation in November when things changed from likely to absolute.
Some of the best advice I had included, “Tell people” which I have been doing just not so publicly till now. “Sit like Buddha” don’t do anything rash and be clear-headed when making decisions.
This week it was made official…
I’m writing to confirm that you have been selected for redundancy. This means that unless you
find alternative employment in the BBC, your employment will be terminated on the grounds of redundancy.
The decision to take compulsory redundancy is mine after a lot of thinking and looking at what I value and want to focus on in the future. I will leave the BBC R&D on good terms wishing everyone the best. I’ll work for another quarter, leaving in March but have a lot of holidays to take and have things which I want to finish.
I will no longer be the BBC R&D Senior Firestarter which is sad as I built and crafted the position. Then became well-known for it. But using a quote in full…
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller
Over the last quarter; I stopped looking back and created a whole task list of items to manage the stress and gain some control over my future. I used it to manage, plan and focus. All while looking at where my values, talents and skills can have the most impact.
With my markdown CV in hand, I can honestly say I am open to new opportunities and considering taking forward a number of personal projects over the coming year; including the open-sourced Adaptive podcasting/music, Digital legacy/death, finishing my book, the related Ethical dating & matching rethink and some of my 2025 resolutions, while having a well-needed series of mini holidays/breaks.
There is a lot more I want to say about the unique culture created in BBC R&D, the amazing people I work/worked with, and some stories I’d like to share wider but I’ll save all that till later in 2025.
But here are a couple quotes I was reminded of over the last few months, both from Buckminster Fuller
“I’m not a genius. I’m just a tremendous bundle of experience.”
“The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.”
I think 2025 is full of doors, which might need simply a knock.
A review of my 2024 resolutions
This year has been full of ups and downs, its a year I’m not going to forget.
2024 is when I got Covid again for the 2nd time. Once again it was in another country (this time the Netherlands) while at MozHouse Amsterdam. Where I spent a lot of time this year due to 4 conferences (PublicSpaces, Mozhouse AMS, Dutch media week and Society 5.0).
Talking about travel, I ended up in Bristol, Audenshaw, Weston Super Mare, Lancaster, Cardiff, Amsterdam, Hiversum, Henden Bridge, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bath, Buxton, Harderwjik, Berlin, Newcastle, Gateshead, Oslo, Sheffield, Barcelona, Sitges, Hoofddorp, Zwolle, York, Huddlesfield, Newport and London; this year.
I’m happy to say I took the train a lot including the Eurostar into Europe a few times. However my train rides around the UK resulted in many delays and cancellationshttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/21/just-2-of-busiest-trains-on-key-london-to-manchester-line-run-on-time. I have worked out its resulted in me applying for delay reclaim over 50% of the time! For example here is my diversion from Bristol to Manchester via London due to the storm darragh.
My sleep has taken a bit of dive later in the year which makes sense as you will see. From average of 7.4 hours to 6.8 hours. Bedtime of about 1 am is working out; but my deep sleep goes into freefall when I need to get up early.
Most listened to podcast is Daily Tech News show (they keep change the artist tag) with Better offline and Podnews just behind that. Music wise, Tonepoet has the advantage, as my pacemaker doesn’t track me and I tend not to listen to single tracks on the go. Trakt indicates so far, I have watched 259 hours of TV shows and 318 hours of films.
Here is the review of my 2024 resolutions.
- Digital nomad things
Make or break year I wrote previously, well nothing moved on this front for me. I also been reading how digital nomads are causing a back lash. - Finish my dating book
Well I’m closer, really close. I attempt to use the gig platform fiver to get some external proof readers and it made was shocking how the scammers operate there. I’m still getting contacted by them right now, luckily its contained within the platform chat, which I have ignored.
I still have many thoughts about the title, want to change the epilogue a bit to related to something I’m involved in. - Head even further a field with the scooter
Not happened but this is likely to happen next for sure, when I have more time. Will add to next years list. - Learn to drive a car
Another one which looks like will happen next year when I have a lot more time for reasons which will be clear soon. Another hold out for the the next years list. - Listen to two Audiobooks every month
This has been a good challenge and I have blown through 24 books with 28, although 2 of the books were quite short but still well worth listening to. I did also start a number of books but gave up on them as they were annoying or just not interesting in anyway. Its likely I will keep the goal at 24 for next year too although I might have more time.
- Go to a new country
This year I finally made it to Norway for the first time. Its a country I should have visited ages ago to complete my Scandinavian travels but never did. I went to Oslo and really enjoyed the short time I had there. I do have ideas for potential short trips to Switzerland and maybe the Czech republic, although Rural France is booked for a wedding. - Go to a new Rollercoaster park
I ended up going to Wallai again but I’m considering going to a lot more in the 2025. I certainly can do better, especially with Thorpe parks new ride Hyperia on my doorstep as such. - Take the Diabolo skills up another level
I still can’t do the infinite suicide but learned a bunch of new tricks and even ones of my own, although getting out of them can be tricky and a matter of luck. - Move over to privacy preserving protocols and platform
This is happening more and more. Like many people I have pretty much ditched X/Twitter (although I do seem to get a few direct messages from the API which is strange). I lean on the Fediverse for all my social stuff and am generally very picky about new applications and services I use. For example I have been looking at knowledge management systems as I’ve been using Joplin too much like a notes store and could do with something new for project based stuff (feel free to shout at me, but I blame importing a bunch of Evernote & Standard notes stuff). I am always searching alternative.to for open and self hosting options. There is a big question of when I switch over my email to Proton, but thats still in the future right now. - Separate out my food waste
This is one I am happy to say I have done pretty much 85% of the time. Some tricky times is when I have a Airbnb guest and also when emptying the food waste bin into the main bin, which is generally quite empty now. This one is good and its just part of the routine now. - Start to mark out significant moments in my history
This one has started but I spent a lot of time working out how to best do it. I found a markdown schema/format called MarkWhen, which does exactly what I need. So far I have converted most of my significant moments but add more as I go. Plus I’m going backwards and finding dates for many more. Another good thing to have done and will keep on doing.
Its also another indicator that although I love XML, I am do get Markdown is pretty human writable, which is important for those little tasks. Also I need to play with SaxonJS which can convert between Markdown and XML with ease.
UWE Masters VR unofficial end party in Bristol after 4 years in the advisory role - See more of my friends
This has been ok, but I feel like I can do so much better than I have done so far. I might modify this one a bit in the next year to something less ambiguous
My top rollercoasters in 2024
I voted in Coasterbot‘s Votecoasters. You can too. As I did in 2021
The list goes beyond the 50 as I did spend time in Wallbi and some old rollercoasters no longer exist (goodbye Jetline).
Worth noting how a bunch of the 4D freespinners are group together and how a lot of the special one time riders are near the bottom (looking at you Th13teen, which needs replacing with something new!)
The pay or accept cookies enshittification business model
Its the first time I have come across this awful enshittified business model, which totally shocked me because I had only read about it. But frankly annoyed me so much I blocked the Independent newspaper from my network and devices.
I mean it wasn’t great anyway but now and then I would get something outside my usual scope.
Another reason why I need to look at my RSS reader more.
Should we all say I love you to friends?
I found this video and was pretty impressed with the conversation between Simon and Noah. There is a lot to unpack in the video but there was a question in the discussion which myself and my partner talked a lot about afterwards.
Especially the question…
Should we all say I love you to friends?
Its a really good point but I’ve been thinking about it ever since. With this in mind, I’m thinking about possibly saying it and potentially linking to the conversation some how (pretty hard to do in person of course).
My partner, as a female says it quite a lot to friends but as male, it still feels very loaded. Also she did say, she would feel a bit strange if I started saying I love you to my female friends too.
Since my brush with death, I have been hugging friends which is a lot more than I use to do while saying hi and bye to friends. Maybe I’ll give it a try and see what happens…
Look out friends… !
What do others think?