This blog is a truncated version of an email newsletter sent to my subscribers on the date above.
Hello! This week, my email comes to you in the evening instead of the morning. Thereâs no reason, I just like to keep you on your toes. Youâre doing well so far. Good job!
I hope you enjoy this edition. As always, if thereâs anything I can help you with or something youâd like to know - perhaps about social enterprise, digital content, or radio - just get in touch.
What Iâve been doing:
We moved offices at work. Never again will I have to weave in and out of people at Liverpool Street Station. Iâm still adamant there should be a âeveryone moves clockwiseâ rule in place on station concourses - especially at Liverpool Street Staton, especially especially at rush hour. Weâre now in Holborn.
They sent my commuter train to the station in the sky last week. Apparently the 18:15 was the last journey that specific train would ever make before they scrapped it. Lots of press on board and train nerds, too.
What Iâve been reading, hearing, and watching:
Every night Parliament sits, a light is turned on at Big Ben so the Queen can see her government at work. Seriously. Itâs called the Ayrton light after the inventor Acton Smee Ayrton. My middle name is Ayrton. Thatâs the only link I have to this story of the turning the light off.
On the subject of tenuous links, Big Ben is not the name of the tower and no, itâs not the name of the bell either. Itâs the name of a politician, Benjamin Hall, who oversaw the redesign of the Houses of Parliament. He was rather tall, hence Big Ben. That really is the only link.
Also, to show off my Big Ben knowledge a bit more⌠On the day The Great Bell was installed, it cracked. Turns out the hammer was too heavy for the bell. So the workmen hoist it down, a process that takes 30 hours, make a new bell, and some months later, reinstall a new bell. The same thing happened. Instead of making a third bell, they just flipped it, like a mattress⌠To this day the bell is still cracked, chiming at a slightly different note to the one that was intended.
Iâm full of useless knowledge like that. You need me on your pub quiz team.
Iâve been reading The New European for the past fortnight. Itâs everything a modern newspaper should be - design-led. I was talking to a friend about how newspapers shouldnât be ânews papersâ anymore but âdesign-lead, news on paperâ.
âIrresistible: Why We Canât Stop Checking, Scrolling, Clicking and Watchingâ is really good.
I saw âSecrets of Silicone Valleyâ on BBC iPlayer last weekend. Thereâs a really shocking story in the first twenty minutes about Uber in India; one driver ends up committing suicide due to the debt from car loans dished out by Uber.
I got a Five Minute Journal. The makers describe it as a âtoothbrush for your mindâ. You fill out half in the morning, half in the evening, answering questions like âWhat are you grateful for?â and âWhat one thing could I have done differently today?â Itâs remarkably useful. One journal lasts six months.
Michael Angelakos of band Passion Pit released a stripped down version of âWhere We Belongâ from sophomore album Gossamer. Itâs one of my favourite songs and the stripped down version gives it a new poignancy.