David Hughes

Notes From Afar

Month: January 2013 (page 1 of 1)

23 January 2013

The Train

I’m on “the train”. I emphasise “the train” as when I was a child this was the train.

The train runs from Bletchley to Bedford, stopping at two of the villages I grew up in. My Grandparents lived in Bedford, and so when I went to visit them I’d travel along this line.

My bike would be stowed in the Guards Van (remember those?) and I’d be sat next to the window watching the familiar sites of the Millbrook test track, and the rather less glamorous, but equally fascinating London Brick Company pits and works.

The Bletchley to Bedford line forms part of the wonderfully named Varsity Line which ran from Oxford to Cambridge. Sadly the Oxford to Bletchley leg was closed some time ago, although there has been talk of it being reopened, which would be fabulous.

Driving cross-country to Oxford you can see old embankments, bridges and tunnels which I assume mark the old line to Oxford. Taking the Varsity Line to Oxford would be a very pretty journey through some lovely countryside.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to look out of the window at snow covered memories.

3 January 2013

MK Geek Night – 2012

I deliberately omitted one of the biggest highlights of last year from my 2012 post as it deserves a post all of its own. When Richard and I launched MK Geek Night I don’t think either of us honestly expected it would grow as quickly as it has. We went from the idea of a few local web types meeting in a pub, to an evening event with speakers and sponsors.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve had from the web community; almost every speaker we’ve approached has happily agreed to speak, and we aren’t taking no for an answer from the other two…

MKGN #1 – June 2012

We were blown away when Jon Hicks and Brendan Dawes, two of our favourite speakers, agreed to speak at the inaugural MK Geek Night.

Our fabulous venue,The Buszy, can hold 200 people, I’d said if we had 100 attendees I’d be happy. In the end yet we came incredibly close to selling out that first event.

The evening went very well, and the feedback we had from attendees was great – we just needed more seats and better beer.

MKGN #2 – Sept 2012

For the second MK Geek Night we secured two of the tallest men in web design in Cole Henley and Ben Bodien.

We had more seats and better beer and we sold out!

We also had an evening of audio problems apparently caused by the sheer volume of bodies in the room, but even with the audio gremlins we had another great night.

MKGN #3 – Dec 2012

The first MK Geek Night Christmas Special sold out in days; we even had our sponsor Heart Internet offer tickets as a competition prize.

We had two fabulous speakers in Aral Balkan and Dave Addey, who stood in at a days notice for Sarah Parmenter who was unable to to make it, but promises to join us in 2013.

This time we had professional quality audio after a bunch of lovely chaps got in touch and offered their services for free – did I mention how much I love our community? The added bonus is that we now have recordings of the talk that we will be releasing as podcasts – soon.

MKGN #4 – March 2013

As if our incredible Christmas Special wasn’t enough of a high to end 2012 on we released tickets for MKGN #4 the following day and they sold out in eight hours. Eight hours!

2013

2013 is looking like an even bigger year for MK Geek Night. We have incredible speakers lined up right the way through to the 2013 Christmas Special, and we have continuing support from our marvellous sponsors.

But most importantly MK Geek Night has developed its own community and its own momentum, and I’m happy and proud to be part of the team that guides that momentum.

2 January 2013

2012

I had initially planned to write a review article for 2012, looking back on the books and music I’ve enjoyed through the year, but that doesn’t feel as relevant today as it did a few weeks ago.

I’ll remember 2012 for some fantastic highs, but for ending with a series of lows.

2012 was one of the best years I’ve had at work, which makes what came later even more odd. I finally succeeded in recruiting a complete User Experience team, and took over responsibility for the Site Optimisation team based in the US, which gave us the capability for a complete “test and learn” development cycle. I am hugely proud of the team I assembled, and the work we did in 2012.

In August I had the most fabulous family holiday. We hired a stunning villa in Minorca, and spent almost every waking hour in or around the pool, and enjoying the wonderful views out over the Mediterranean.

A week or so after we returned from Minorca we spent the evening at the Olympic Stadium for the Paralympics athletics finals. This is without doubt one of the greatest events I have ever been to, and one of the my most memorable evenings. The atmosphere was incredible – better than any music concert – I’ve never seen my son so excited. A once in a lifetime event.

2012 was shaping up to be really great year, and I was very much looking forward to 2013 both professionally and personally.

Then, half way through November we learnt that my father-in-law had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

And then, at the beginning of December I was made redundant.

It wasn’t the end to the year we were expecting, but it made us appreciate this Christmas all the more.