David Hughes

I was in London for a Christmas event with a supplier on Tuesday evening. The event took place at a rooftop bar deep in the City of London – a venue I imagine would be fabulous in the summer months.

On Thursday, I co-hosted the 46th MK Geek Night, this time at a new venue, The South Central Institute of Technology at MK College, Bletchley. We had the usual new venue teething problems, but they were quickly ironed out by our awesome tech chums Andy and Ron, and a great evening was had by all.

Two great talks from AJ & Ceb and my friend Documentally, superb food from the college brasserie and excellent beer from local brewer GRID Beer Project.

On Saturday we headed down to Oxford for the “Oxford Triangle” of coffee at Society, lunch at Mowgli Street Food and hot chocolate at Knoops.

It’s notable the impact the new modern shopping centre has had on Oxford with many empty shops on the old High Street and a feeling of slow decline and decay, not helped by the constant stream of old diesel buses that rattle through Oxford constantly.

Rubber Soul

I’ve been listening to Rubber Soul by The Beatles this week. I normally listen to later Beatles – Revolver onwards – but thought I’d listen backwards through their catalogue.

I found Rubber Soul interesting as it feels like a transitional album, a stepping stone between the earlier I Wanna Hold Your Hand pop Beatles to the later Sgt Peppers, spending months in the studio psychedelic Beatles. Well worth a listen.

Saved By Alexa?

I don’t often dream, my wife says I do but don’t remember them as everyone dreams but I’m not convinced.

Anyway, I had a fascinating dream about different AI’s going rogue, each had a cool name I can’t now remember and I was just about to be killed by one when I was woken by the alarm I’d set on our Alexa. Spooky…

Books On A Train

I’d set an alarm as I was once again being dragged into the office.

The train I have to catch is always very busy and this trip was particularly annoying as I had to sit next to a non-commuter.

You can always tell somebody that isn’t used to commuting; they sit there in their coat, with their bag on the floor not the luggage rack, keep checking the time and which station we’re stopping at and generally take up too much space. When you’ve commuted for a while you learn how to coexist in relative peace with your fellow passengers.

This non-commuter did have one saving grace – he was reading a book, a real paper book.

This made nostalgic for when I started commuting in the days before Kindles and watching video on your phone which seems to be far more common now, when people read honest to goodness books.

It was fascinating as you could see what people were reading and what book was popular, I’ll always remember being on the tube and almost everybody seemed to be reading The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman.

A week like this week makes writing a weeknote a little challenging as it has been really rather quiet.

I forgot to mention that I managed to catch an Apple Studio Display on the refurb store and it arrived last week.

This week’s nerd action has therefore been planning and executing a cable free desk setup which was completed mere hours ago.

I’m now living the single cable lifestyle and can easily swap between my personal and work MacBook Pro’s simply by plugging in the Thunderbolt cable and choosing the right device on my Logitech keyboard and mouse.

I keep forgetting that I have the flexibility of the MacBook as the Studio Display feels so similar to my old iMac, although it is much slimmer and being the height adjustable model has more space beneath making the desk space feel more open.

On Thursday I had to visit my employers offices in Birmingham. I don’t think I’ve been there since September and I can’t say any part of the experience made me want to rush back. The train was heaving, the office is not designed for tall Mac users and Birmingham is most definitely not London.

I do miss working in London at this time of the year, seeing a dark and cold London brought to life by Christmas lights, popping into a warm pub for quick pint on the way home and meeting friends and colleagues for dinner and drinks.

Despite us having a quiet weekend at home, I woke this morning thinking I needed to drive home, it was a relief to realise that I didn’t in fact have to.

A relatively quiet week but ended with a great weekend away in London.

Formula One Degree of Separation

We enjoyed watch the Brawn documentary on Disney+ and I really enjoyed realising my one degree of separation from the main protagonists.

Episode one opens with footage of Ross Brawn whilst at Beatrix Lola using a rolling road inside a wind tunnel at Cranfield Institute of Technology as I did my work experience at Cranfield and helped install the very rolling road they feature.

I have driven one of Jenson Buttons’s cars. OK, it was a Renault Coupe he had as a company car whilst driving for Promatecme in Formula 3 but it was his and he had obviously ‘driven’ that poor car.

At least and least interesting I saw Keanu Reeves at Goodwood Festival of Speed when he was there a few years back with his own motorcycle company. We just happened to be passing his paddock space as he was getting onto his bike.

Unofficial Anniversary London Weekend

Every November, on the weekend closest to the 16th, my wife and I celebrate the first anniversary or f our first unofficial date which happened when I invited myself on her day trip to London.

The rest is history as they say, as 33 years later we’re still very happily together.

We essentially spent Saturday eating and drinking our way from Borough Market, to Covent Garden, to Fortnum’s wine bar and back to our hotel via China Town.

Whilst in The Rake in Borough Market we had an unplanned planning meeting and now have a loose plan which could guide our next 33 years together.

Much of this week was consumed by whatever lurgy I picked up in Bristol only returning to work on Thursday.

None More Black

One highlight of the week was the arrival of my MacBook Pro. All I’ve done so far is to set it up, but I can report it’s a thing of beauty and does an amazing job of not showing fingerprints. Phew…

As many have said it’s more of a very dark grey than a pure black, but much of that depends upon the lighting; in brighter lighting it’s a dark grey, Space Greyer if you will, and in lower light it looks closer to black, there’s a pleasing amount of variation.

West Wittering Weekend

I spent the weekend visiting family in West Sussex. On Saturday we took what is becoming our traditional walk around West Wittering, a beautiful beach on the south coast. The weather was perfect –  bright, crisp and little wind.

After the walk we headed home and watched Harlequins vs Leicester Tigers in the Premiership, followed by a gorgeous beef casserole and a couple of bottles of good Rioja for dinner – a perfect Autumn day.

I Am Speed

When I returned home I imported some RAW images into Lightroom on both my new MacBook Pro and my trusty old iMac as a test – the difference in performance was extraordinary.

Now I just need a Studio Display to pop up on the refurb store.

Another short weeknote after a short week ending with the dreaded lurgy.

Scary Fast?

I picked my MacBook Air up at the end of last week, and must admit I didn’t like it.

The 13″ MacBook Air feels just right, the 15” feels too big and larger than 15”, the proportions just felt off to me.

I had a 14” MacBook Pro when I was still self employed and much preferred the design and feel, not to mention the beautiful screen

Fortunately Apple had their Scary Fast event at which they announced new M3 powered MacBook Pros, so for a few hundred pounds more than the Air cost me I will now get a Pro.

I just need to see whether ‘Space Black’ is a fingerprint magnet or not…

Bristol Once Again

I drove down to Bristol Tuesday evening and had my longest trip to date at almost four hours, there just seemed to be traffic everywhere.

After that drive I didn’t fancy heading out into the rain so ordered room service and crashed out.

Wednesday was a doubly good day as it marked both the kick off of a major project and the first time I’ve had my team together in reality not a glowing rectangle.

I’m a big fan of remote work when deep work is required, but when collaborating creatively you cannot beat being in the same room together. It’s almost as if we’ve evolved over thousands of years to be the social creatures we are.

Sadly I woke up feeling terrible, lurgy not hang over, drove home and collapsed into bed which is pretty much where I spent the rest of the week.