Sunday, 14 November 2010

Here We Go!

On Friday the books finally arrived at my and Lane4's door. Exciting times. The formal launch is on Tuesday night at the Lane4 Client Conference.

It's been a pretty wild ride so far, and when the dust settles I'll look to recount some of the highs, lows and amusing moments along the way. There have certainly been a few!


In the interim, you can click here to get a little more info on the book....
Britain and the Olympic Games

Thursday, 16 September 2010

Back in the Swing at 7-41am

I am writing this blog on the way into London. I was lucky to get a seat on the train, whereas two weeks ago I could take my pick. Britain is very much back to work after the Summer Holidays!

The other thing that feels noticeable in my train carriage is how few newspapers and ipods are out on display. The people either side of me are both hammering away on their laptops, and for many the working day has started in earnest.

I do have a sense that working life in Britain is changing somewhat. We often hear how mobile technology is making our working world 24 hours a day rather than 9-5.30, and I certainly think there is truth in that. We are having some work done on our house at the moment, and our builder cheerfully announced as I was heading to the station that before getting to us at 7am that he had already bought all the materials he needed for job for the next week online while eating his breakfast.

The flipside, of course, is that none of us cannot work at that level of intensity without eventually breaking ourselves down both physically and mentally. My sense is that as a nation we are both working and recuperating more intensively. During August and December, London can feel like a ghost town. As I write today, it feels like a train full of people feverishly working away at 7-41am.

I imagine more regular readers of this blog, who might have noticed its non appearance for a month or so, will be thinking that I chose that as my own time to kick back and put the laptop away. Actually I have been putting the finishing touches to the book in time for launch in mid November. Things are now a little calmer on that front, and I hope now to be back in the swing of things.

This blog has taught me that writing can be a pleasure and a relaxation exercise, and the book has become a natural extension of that journey. Rightly or wrongly as I speed past Wembley Stadium, I do not feel like my own working day has yet begun.