February 2008 Archives

It's been a very long time since my last post, mainly because my mind has been so on my work and my life in London. But having delivered a presentation yesterday at Urban Learning Space in Glasgow and having had meetings this morning in Glasgow before travelling here to Edinburgh, I thought I would take the opportunity to write a quick post to say it's lovely in Scotland, even if Edinburgh is a tad damp today. I plan to just have a wander down the Royal Mile later today before dinner this evening with business contacts, and then I plan to take a train tour up the east coast of Scotland tomorrow.

I do love Scotland - just beautiful country.

But back in London life is fantastic, work is sensational and I think I may well have acclimatised as I'm finding the weather rather comfortable. And the trees are all budding, and the blossoms are all out, and the Japanese magnolias are coming out, too. Hyde Park appears through the mist in the mornings on the way to work as if it has a secret to declare in a few weeks. Soho is always lively and fabulous, and I feel very much 'at home' in my office with my fabulous staff.

Finally, my boxes arrived from Australia a couple of days ago and I am truly *here* in the UK now - I've even started travelling! :)

So life is good. How are you? :)

... to all the lovers out there. And thank you to the two gentleman (boh great friends) who sent me a Valentine's Day message - you made my day.

It is a momentous day for Australia today. It is the day when all Australians who have any sense of decency have an opportunity to apologise for the atrocities that occurred in the name of welfare in Australian history.

I am sorry and I offer my shame and sincere apologies to the Stolen Generation and to all the indigenous people of my land. You have been hurt beyond belief and you deserve our respect and care.

Insignificant as it may be, you have my respect and care for all time.

I've said it before but I do love my job. Now I believe it behoves me to describe what I am actually doing.

I've recently been appointed Client Director of Xenial Ltd, a digital media production agency that specialises in social networking platforms and applications. Our flagship product is the site, gurgle.com, an active and committed community of pregnant women and new mothers, with the expert support of Mothercare, a brand with over 40 years experience in the process of parenting. Xenial also have the hugely successful UK-based social networking site, Bebo and media giant SkyTV as clients, and are in the process of securing business with other multinational brands.

As Client Director, I am responsible for the growth and expansion of the business for both local international markets, as well as ensuring my team continue to create world-class social networking websites and Web 2.0 products. We are focused on interaction design and usability as well as scalability as key components of our products and services. I have a fantastic team of developers, editors and designers, and I am privileged to have the financial backing of Fleming Media to support incubation of our ideas.

I am already planning a great future for Xenial. And I'm proud to be guiding an already great UK business on to bigger and better things.

I love my job :)

I mean it. While I generally didn't watch cooking shows in Australia, the number of cooking programmes on at dinner time in the UK mean that you almost can't avoid them. But there are also some fairly good cooks who do some great dishes. But they DO get scary. The phenomenal quantity of double cream, milk, creme fraiche, and cheese in the recipes described is quite possibly mathematically proportionate to the level of obesity in the UK. Unbelievable.

Seriously, Jamie, Hugh, Gordon and James, enough with the dairy. You all love your meat and veges, so perhaps go for a month where dairy and wheat are NOT actually involved in a menu?????