Category: work

Happy New Year 2017

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Garden / Allotment, Life, work

So 2016 is over. The general consensus seems to be it’s been a bad year. For personal reasons I’d have to say that I agree, and looking at the reasons that other people are giving – Brexit, Trump, celebrity deaths – I’d have to say I probably also agree.

On the basis of two of those reasons – Brexit & Trump – I have to say I don’t think that we’ve seen the worst of it yet. So I’m a little pessimistic going into 2017.

I don’t as a rule make New Year’s Resolutions, I don’t see the point, but I do have some goals and targets both for me personally and also with respect to work. I’ll be doing that shortly, but I won’t be sharing that here in detail mainly because some aspects are private.

Work

What I can say though is that my areas of main focus will be on growing my work base, and looking at some new areas that I’ve not really explored before. I hope to be able to talk about that in more detail, but I’m waiting for some news from a local university who have a student programme that looks to help businesses with this. If the news is positive then I’ll talk about it in more detail then, if they’re over subscribed and can’t help then I’ll be looking at some alternatives. Again, I’ll talk about it in more detail then.

I may also have to consider being an employee again, at least part-time. That will depend on what happens with my own business of course, but we’ll have to see.

Allotment

I think it goes without saying that I’ll be working on the allotment again this year. I’m hoping to bring more information, details of what’s going on, and hopefully videos etc. throughout the year.  At the moment it’s mostly quiet down there, a few over wintering vegetables, but the weather isn’t really conducive to doing anything much else for now.

Books

I’ve talked a little about different books that I’m planning to read this year, and I’m planning to do the GoodReads challenge again, but more to keep track of what I’m reading rather than aim for a particular target.

2016-12-30-18-50-50

The photo above is of the bookshelf were I keep most of my books “to be read”, obviously there are a pile more on my kindle, and really I don’t need to be buying more books this year. I probably will though as there are some that I do want to read this year (and a couple that are already on pre-order) but I’m intending not to buy new books if I have read at least one from the “to be read” pile first.

Films & TV

Again a couple of movies that I want to catch at some point, but really we’re watching less TV all the time. There’s some good quality programs out there, but sometimes they’re a little like a needle in the proverbial haystack.

Life In General

I’m hoping for some good things this year. Beyond that I’m going to be trying to live more intentionally, and think much more about what my needs really are. The consumerist lifestyle doesn’t really interest me, although I do acknowledge that some things I’d rather do without are now more like necessities e.g. with online billing etc. having a computer seems like one of them. However my needs are relatively small so I’m going to focus on the basics and what I already have, live simply and enjoy life.

Wishing you all a very happy New Year. I hope that it brings you everything that you need.

Fourth Quarter Review 2016

On By TontowilliamsIn Annual Review, books, Film, Garden / Allotment, Life, redundancy, tv, work2 Comments

Each year for the past few years I’ve been doing a year end review; books I’ve read, films/tv programmes I’ve watched and other things related to work and the allotment. You can read the end of 2015 here, if you’re interested.

This year I’m trying something a little different, and am splitting my year into quarters and trying to do a review at the end of the quarter. It helps me remember stuff more easily, and is more up to the minute than waiting to until December and trying to do the whole year in one go, or at least that’s the theory. The first quarter review is here, the second quarter review here, and the third quarter review is here.

Work

This quarter has been very quiet, mostly due to things going on in my life outside of work (see below), I have however been thinking a lot about expanding my business and will be exploring this in the New Year. I’ll be talking about this more (I hope) in the coming months, but a couple of things need to happen first. I’m quite excited about this, and hope it will see things grow.

Allotment

This time of year is when things start to quieten down a bit on the plot. I still have quite a few things growing: parsnips, chard, leeks, Brussels sprouts – all of which I am harvesting still – and purple sprouting broccoli, regular broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, garlic and broad beans – all of which are crops for the early spring.

I’m going to try and keep track of things from a financial perspective a little more next year, I want to understand just how much money we’re saving by growing our own, compared to buying things in the supermarket. It feels like the difference is quite small, and being honest I’m doing this for more reasons than just saving money, but I’ve never really tried to quantify the benefits.

Books

My reading has slowed down a bit this quarter, but there are two books that I particularly enjoyed:

Dogging Steinbeck by Bill Steigerwald [GoodReads] this is the author’s account of his retracing the steps of John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley”, and uncovering that the original may have been more of a work of fiction than non-fiction. It was an enjoyable read, and the author also kept a detailed blog, of this journey, including photos and videos. Around the same time that I was reading this I was also listening to the audiobook of “Travels with Charley” [GoodReads] in the car, so I was  able to track where Steigerwald had gotten to, compared to Steinbeck. It was a good way to “read” both books alongside one another. As things at the time weren’t going well with my Dad (see below) it was a welcome distraction to have Steinbeck and Charley with me in my car, and Steigerwald at home each evening.

Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs by Monty Don [GoodReads]The title of this book might not mean much to people outside of the UK or who don’t watch Gardeners’ World on TV, but Nigel – a Labrador retriever – belongs to Monty Don who is the presenter of the programme. The dog has become a little bit of a personality in his own right, and this book is about him, plus some of the other dogs that the author has owned over his lifetime. It’s a good read whether you get the references or not, and particularly if, like me, you are a dog person.

Films & TV

I don’t really recall anything much that stands out this quarter, probably because we haven’t actually been watching much. We have been watching (or rather recording and watching later) a few daytime series on BBC; The Coroner, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, and The Father Brown Mysteries. All very good.

Life In General

Not a great quarter. As you may already know my Dad passed away in November, and we have had to put my maternal Grandma into a nursing home. Many people have said how bad 2016 has been, and frankly I couldn’t agree more. For me though it will always have more personal bad memories than perhaps other years have had.

Finally

If you’ve read all four quarterly posts, what do you think? Does it work better than one end of year round up? Let me know in the comments.

I wish all my readers a very Happy New Year.

A Ban On Petrol And Diesel Cars

On By TontowilliamsIn work, writing5 Comments

A short piece that I wrote for LinkedIn yesterday:

sign-giving-order-no-motor-vehicles

On Friday (9th December 2016), The Independent published a story that Jeremy Corbyn is considering a ban on petrol and diesel car sales as a future policy of a Labour Government, amongst other things.
Could It Actually Happen

Now obviously this is a long way from being the policy of any government but let’s just say that in 2020 a new government comes into power and this is a keystone policy of their manifesto; a ban on all new fossil fuel car sales within 10 years and let’s also assume that the legislation achieves Royal Assent within a year; so some time around May 2031 you won’t be able to buy a new car that is powered by petrol, diesel and probably LPG as well.

A big ask? Yes. Impossible? No.

It’s obviously not a simple issue but leadership from government is likely the only way it would happen. It would need a considerable amount of discussions with many groups – car makers, petroleum industry, fuel sales and local authorities to name a few – and that had better start now, otherwise there’ll be issues at the ballot box, so don’t forget the car owners either.

Infrastructure

Assuming it happens, what about infrastructure. For electric vehicles it’s going to need far more that the current minimal level of charging points, and possibly a shift towards inductive charging in many places because plugging that many vehicles in just isn’t going to be possible. Think for example of all those “on-street” vehicles that are parked each night, and not necessarily outside of their owner’s home, but if the street had an inductive charging plate underneath the tarmac and with compatible vehicles – not a problem. Although what about the underlying infrastructure – the power that is required to feed those charging points? The local grid operators will most certainly be looking to upgrade to meet demand, and spikes in demand (when everyone comes home from work and parks their car) will require some balancing. Smarter grids, and delivery of associated technological advances are also going to be needed. This isn’t just a simple policy centred in one area i.e. cars, it has massive implications for many sectors.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and gas from biodigesitble waste (as mentioned in the article) would be less of an issue to refuel and could be achieved through adaptation of existing forecourts, but would still require a massive infrastructure shift in order to generate the fuel in the first place, but diversification by current providers could provide solutions if they were willing or a massive opportunity in the market for others.

Car Sales

So what about car sales. There are currently about 90,000 electric vehicles on the road in the UK, just under 30,000 of these were sold in 2015 (these figures include hybrids and plug-in hybrids and also includes some light vans), compared to a total of 2.6 million new vehicles sold in 2015 i.e. just over 1% of new vehicles were electric. So how do you go about moving this trend totally in the other direction, and what impact is it likely to have on the second-hand car market, particularly the newly new and under three years old vehicles, particularly around 2031? Also what exactly is going to constitute a car – anything with 8 seats or less or will it include small commercial vehicles as well?

What Next

Well I could go on, but I have been and would continue to be speculating, and this piece is already long enough. This is one report in one newspaper and political scandals have been made of less. So let’s wait and see for now.

Personally if it’s true I think it is the sort of bold policy that is required in this country but it needs some proper research and discussion before anyone should actually include it in their manifesto.

The contents of this post are the views of the author alone, and do not represent those of any employer or client that the author is working for, either now or historically.

Third Quarter Review 2016

On By TontowilliamsIn Annual Review, books, Film, Garden / Allotment, Life, redundancy, tv, work4 Comments

Each year for the past few years I’ve been doing a year end review; books I’ve read, films/tv programmes I’ve watched and other things related to work and the allotment. You can read the end of 2015 here, if you’re interested.

This year I’m trying something a little different, and am splitting my year into quarters and trying to do a review at the end of the quarter. It helps me remember stuff more easily, and is more up to the minute than waiting to until December and trying to do the whole year in one go, or at least that’s the theory. The first quarter review is here, and the second quarter review here.

Work

This quarter marks the anniversary in my change of employment, going from being and employee to self-employed. Looking across those 12 months I’d say it’s been pretty productive, although things have slowed down a bit over the summer. There are a couple of things on the horizon, but as ever they rely on things outside my control, so it’s a little difficult to say at this stage how things might pan out. Having said that I currently have a close family member in hospital, so having the time to be able to visit has been a bonus, and something I can’t ever see that I would have been allowed to do (quite rightly) when I was an employee, so things seem to work out.

I am hoping that things will pick up, as I do like being my own boss, but if they don’t I will have to look for alternatives.

Allotment

It’s been a very good year on the allotment so far, we’ve spent most of this quarter not having to buy any fresh produce from the supermarket, as we’ve been able to provide our own from the plot. This has started to ease off a little now, and I am having to buy odd things – either as crops have started to slow down their production with the shortening days or because things aren’t quite ready yet. In some areas though e.g. potatoes, onions, garlic, we have lots stored that will see us forward for many weeks yet.

I’ve also been trying to do regular update videos on my YouTube channel, and often embedding them here too.

Books

I’ve been reading pretty consistently and have gotten through a number of books this quarter including a couple of “biggies”. I’ve started adding a “currently reading” item to my Quick Links entry each week (when I remember too!).

There are a few that I’d like to mention specifically, and in no particular order they are:

“Normal” by Warren Ellis – This was actually a novella released in 4-parts, one a week over a month. What I liked about it the most was how it told the story in that weekly pattern and how well this worked. Whether or not that was intentional I don’t know, but I don’t think it would have worked as well as just a single book. It reminded me a lot of one of those weekly black and white serials that used to be shown in cinemas e.g. King of the Rocket Men, when I get time, I’m going to sit and reread all four – hopefully in a single sitting.

“Joyland” by Stephen King – I’ve had a copy of this for quite some time, but had never gotten around to reading it until recently. What I liked about it the most, was that it reminded me of some of the early Stephen King books, which I enjoyed far more than some of from the late ’90s / early 2000s. I’d stopped reading his books not long after Geralds Game and The Tommyknockers, so can’t speak for other ones he may have written more recently, but I did think that Joyland was more of the old King.

“Seveneves” – Neal Stephenson – This was one of the biggies and took me a while to get through, but it was worth it. Although it is a work of science fiction, it has a very believable story and characters and despite it’s size held my interest throughout.

“The Book of Yaak” – Rick Bass – Rick Bass has had a mention in both of the previous quarter reviews, and I still have a number of his books that I haven’t read yet, so may well feature again. I really enjoy his writing, both fiction and non-fiction. This is a work of non-fiction and brings to the fore another area of this writers passions. As an environmental activist this book highlights the issues in the Yaak Valley in Montana and the tensions between preserving the old growth forest, the nature and wildlife that it supports and other areas that are important for their nature conservation and the pressures of development and modern intensive forestry. It’s a treatise to the area and the issues, and a fascinating read. It stirred the passion in me for some of the environmental issues that I feel are important.

Films & TV

It’s been a bit of a summer of sport with Euro football and the Olympics and Paralympics. I don’t generally watch much sport, so we’ve been watching a lot of reruns or turning it off. Outside of that there isn’t much to report. We’ve watched a few DVDs but nothing that really inspired me enough that I want to mention it here.

Life In General

Pretty good. As always there are areas I’d like to work on. I’d like to be writing more, and I’d like my business to grow a little, but for the reasons mentioned above I’ve been occupied in other areas and am grateful to have had the time to be able to do those things.

Allotment Update 18th June 2016

On By TontowilliamsIn Cooking, Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Self-sufficient, work

2016-06-18 11.29.09I had a really productive weekend on the allotment. I’d been itching to get down to the plot all week, so was pleased when Saturday came around. It’s odd, that as I work for myself, I shouldn’t feel guilty about going to the plot during the week, assuming that my “paid” work is up to date and I’m not letting a client down by being there, but I guess some habits are hard to shake and being on the plot Monday to Friday still feels a little weird. Maybe if I did it a little more frequently it would feel less weird?

Anyhow I knew that I had a lot to do, mostly weeding, as we’d had a warm, humid but wet week, so everything but in particular the weeds was growing well. Some of my plants in particular the leeks and the most recently planted brassicas were in need of some weeding.

I had a little experimental dig of my early potatoes. Technically they shouldn’t be ready until the beginning of July, but they’re already starting to go over, so they appear to be ready. I dug the end of the short row, as that area is one that I’ll need again fairly soon, for my overwintering brassicas. I dug the first couple of plants and got a kilo of spuds for my efforts. We had some of them for supper that evening, along with the chard, runner beans and a “crustless” caramelised red onion and cheddar quiche that I knocked up later on.

The spuds were amazing. They’re a variety called Arran Pilot, and tend to be quite a floury potato and can go quickly to mush if over-boiled, but I cooked them in a steamer and they seem to have held together much better. Whether it is the more gentle cooking action of the steamer as opposed to boiling I don’t know, but anyway they were delicious and I don’t think we’ll be buying potatoes from the shops for a while now.

2016-06-18 09.45.45I also lifted all of the over-wintering onion sets and shallots. They too had started to lean over and were ready to be harvested. They need to be dried a little, and sorted through, which I’ll do some when in the next few days. I noticed there were a couple that need to be eaten sooner rather than later due to basal rot, but the vast majority should store well. Another item that we won’t need to be buying from the store for some time. I dug over the area where they were, and sowed some mixed coloured beetroot there. I’ve left some space as it’s close to where the courgettes and cucumbers are, and I expect they will spread out a little.

The radishes and turnips were next on my list, as they haven’t done anything apart from bolt and go straight to seed. I’m not sure why, but I removed them, dug over the ground and have replaced them with Perpetual Chard (a gift from Dale Calder in Canada) and some Rocket. The latter I had previously sown earlier in the year, but it failed to germinate, so I’m hoping for better luck this time.

The rest of the time I spent weeding and tidying. It looks as though the first of the soft fruit (loganberries and gooseberries) might be ready this week, so I’ll keep an eye on those but otherwise there is plenty of other veg coming to keep us fed.

Is Brexit The Nuclear Option?

On By TontowilliamsIn work2 Comments

This post first appeared on my LinkedIn Page.

Artist Impression of Hinkley Point C: EDF Energy/PA
Artist Impression of Hinkley Point C: EDF Energy/PA

The UK is full of talk of Brexit and what it might mean for the Country if the public vote to leave the EU at the referendum vote on June 23rd. There are many statistics and arguments being given on both sides. One of the other pieces of news that I’ve been following is Hinkley Point C.

The new nuclear power station that is a combination of British government, the Chinese, the energy company EDF, and the French government. The will it / won’t it tug-of-war as to whether the project will go ahead, seems to change weekly and even daily. The latest news is that EDF are delaying their decision (once again) until the summer, and that’s less than a week after the French economy minister Emmanuel Macron said that the project was going to proceed. Understandably, State Aid has reared its head, and that needs to be resolved.

But what if the UK votes to leave the EU on June 23rd, what of Hinkley Point then? Francois Hollande has already said that if the UK leaves the EU:

“There will be consequences in many areas: on the single market, on financial trade, on economic development between our two countries.”

This was connected to a speech in relation to immigration, but it’s obvious that there could be wider implications, including Hinkley Point C. EDF are clear that they can’t proceed with the project without state intervention, and have alreadylost one finance director. Would the French government continue to back the project and EDF?

It seems that in addition to all of the other issues surrounding Brexit, Hinkley Point C might also hinge on that public referendum.

Lets say that we do vote to leave the EU, there is no Hinkley Point C (an early French government announcement wouldn’t perhaps be a surprise), what are the ripples that might cause? Well if Vote Leave prevails it seems likely that David Cameron will also, and Hinkley Point has been heavily supported by George Osborne, so I don’t fancy his leadership chances, which leaves Boris or A.N.Other.

Whichever way the vote goes, it’s going to be an interesting few months ahead.

 

[For reference, I’m undecided at the moment as to whether we should stay or go, but I will be voting when the time comes].

The contents of this post are the views of the author alone, and do not represent those of any employer or client that the author is working for, either now or historically.