2021 01 08 — Weeknotes

3.01 — Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone — ready to rock for 2021!

Christmas and new year for me, was the same as everyone else’s by the sounds of it — quiet, not quite as expected but very nice. Ate too much, drunk too much but managed to have lots of walks and see parts of Crawley that I hadn’t seen before. What was nice though was that I actually managed to switch off and for me that is quite rare — we provided cover over the whole period but luckily all went well.

Was a relatively quiet week to come back to, as well as a short week as I had Monday off, which was nice. So managed to ease myself in gently to the week. Have started to (try at least) ‘commute’ to and from work as well, to ensure that I have some space to think, to get some fresh air and a break from being at my desk. Just a walk around the block, was pleased I managed to do for the majority of the week and really felt the difference.

Also trying to continue with being healthy, unlike over Christmas, and keep going with the running. Thursday I found myself running when it was minus 2! What annoyed me the most was I really enjoyed it, have really gotten into the running and wasn’t going to let a bit of cold stop me, although I did make sure that I was treading carefully, I didn’t want to have to limp back home.

Kicked off the week with a session with Socitm and planning for the policy theme that I am the lead on, Ethics of data and emerging technologies. There is a lot planned for the theme this year and we have a great sponsor for it as well with Splunk. Lots to think about with this one, look out for more over the next few months.

Most of the week was checking in with the team, where we are with the provision of kit for the mass testing and vaccination sites and time planning for the year. We are also recruiting at the moment so spent some time seeing where we are with these and planning those next steps.

Friday wasn’t a day that anyone was expecting with some major networking issues. Reports of colleagues struggling to connect into the network and poor performance once they were there (if they managed to get in) from 0800. The team were on it immediately and soon tracked it down to the Virgin network. Other London Boroughs also had similar issues… By the middle of the day Virgin had put in a workaround to sort and normal services were restored. Investigations commence as to why the issue happened and what will be done to prevent reoccurrence. Not a great start to the year!

Whilst I am writing this, very late in the week, have just watched the end of the Crawley: Leeds game!! Whilst am not a huge football fan, I like to follow the local club. AND… 3- 0. Awesome performance from Crawley! Leeds 62 places above them!!

Going to start to write about what I am going to try and achieve the next week, in the hope that it will give me more focus. My main aim next week is to get ourselves set up for the year and make sure that our budget framework and ways of working are there to support us. I am also going to focus on the commute to work and keep that going this week.

Tune of the week: Starting the year off with reminding myself how much I enjoy a mashup! Who doesn’t! AVICII & RICK ASTLEY — Never Gonna Wake Me Up (Mashup)