Attitude, passion

Attitude is a shop somewhere in an airport terminal in USA. I forget where exactly. Possibly Chicago. Passion is a restaurant in Ghent in Belgium.

Context

A road sign. Up a tree. In the middle of a park.

Separation of concerns

Charles Sargeant Jagger

I was at Paddington station a few days ago and I stopped to look at this superb statue (it's at the edge of platform 1). I noticed it was by Charles Sargeant Jagger!

Viking Ship Museum

I went to the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo a few weeks ago. As I arrived a group arrived on a bus. They were led round the museum by a man who talked about the exhibits and viking life in general. I quietly attached myself to the group and listened to what he had to say. It was really fascinating stuff. For example, at one point he mentioned that Norway has the highest incidence of multiple sclerosis in the world. And that the countries with very high incidence seem to be the countries the Vikings invaded!

Contact cards

A while ago I decided my old business cards were rubbish and I threw them out. They were boring, and like many software applications, full of stuff that rarely, if ever, got used. Who cares what my business is called? Who cares what my "title" is. I think part of the problem is the phrase "business card" and in particular "business". The card does not get you any business! It's simply for making contact. So now I have Contact Cards. I read Dan Pink's book A Whole New Mind a while back and in it he recommends drawing yourself in 5 lines. I found my attempt and used that. My friend Richard at Express Print in Taunton did all the rest.

More beauty in the detail

Tiny tiny plants are growing in the wall on the walk to Patrick's school.

More lift problems

Almost Instant Learning - Not

Fast track management. And an MBA in only 80 minutes! Just two of the many books spotted in the "instant learning" section of an airport bookshop. No thanks.

Beauty in the detail

Lichen covered bricks in an old weathered wall on the way to school.

Accu charity book giveaway

My wife and our three kids live in a fairly small end-terraced house. My work-related books are taking up too much space so I'm going to give a load of them away at this years ACCU conference. My plan is to choose a charity and ask everyone who takes a book to make a voluntary donation. I've already collected one boxfull. If you're coming to the conference maybe you'd like to consider contributing some books too?

Reverse numbering?

The Thistle Hotel, Barbican, London.

Family writeboards

I'm self employed and work from home a lot. I have a small whiteboard stuck to the wall near my desk which my son Patrick enjoys writing on. So I bought another mini whiteboard for him. I hadn't planned it - but gradually the whole family has starting writing little messages on his whiteboard. As my children grow up (I also have two teenage daughters) they're leading increasingly independent lives and we seem to all be in the house at the same time less and less. The whiteboard provides a simple and direct way to chat asynchronously. And I think that helps them express themselves more freely. I also bought a divers slate so I could jot ideas down as they come to me in the shower. They've adopted that too!

How do you paint lamp-posts?

Design them so you can fold them over!

Snow on rock pattern

At the bus-stop on Frederick's Gate, Oslo, while waiting for the 151.

Dan Pink's challenge to draw yourself in just 5 lines

I hope you don't want floor 7

In a hotel in Beijing. I wonder what the words say? "Please press the buttons gently" perhaps?

Heathrow Blue Screen