|
Journal
- Latest
entries
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
Archive
Journal entries prior to May 2008 can be found in the old archived site here
|
|
Journal: July, 2008
Display brief entries | Display full entries
The week at Volans
And now we're flying
26 July 2008
A wonderful week for cycling, with sun most mornings as I biked across to Holborn, starting the days either at Volans or SustainAbility. The new office is really starting to come together now that the new desking is in, so people have migrated from the boardroom table in the front room to the large room, overlooking the gardens at the back. And the place is starting to take on the salon-like feel Sam and I always had in mind, and which is so nicely captured in the book The Medici Effect, by Frans Johansson, which I read recently - and several other members of the team consider some sort of bible. ... more >
Golden flying fish
Pez alado de sorprendente belleze
20 July 2008
'A winged fish of extraordinary beauty' is the translation of the sub-title above, which appears on a card from the Museo del Oro in Colombia, showing a stunning gold flying fish, which Tell (Münzing) and Ulrike brought with them when they came to lunch today. He's just come back from Latin America - and when he saw this flying fish there he thought of Volans. They also brought a dazzling array of cheeses and two wonderful wines, both from Marta's Vinyard (sic) in Mendoza, Argentina, one a 1999 Malbec, the other a 2003 Chardonnay.... more >
Gore as the new JFK - and George C. Marshall
The next giant leap for humankind
18 July 2008
We will probably never know what it would have been like to have had Al Gore as President, but his speech yesterday - 'A Generational Challenge to Repower America' - suggests that his vision could still help us rebuild from the rubble of the Bush years. And it chimes in very powerfully with some of my reading these two weeks that I have been on 'holiday' at home. ... more >
CRO Magazine inspired by The Power of Unreasonable People
New award for CEOs
17 July 2008
CRO Magazine has introduced a new award for social entrepreneurship, focused on CEOs, based on the three categories of social enterprise introduced in The Power of Unreasonable People. ... more >
Demos and the business of social change
Downloadable PDF
17 July 2008
My chapter on the business of social change appears in a new publication from Demos, The Future Face of Enterprise. The complete book can be downloaded as a PDF.... more >
Stalking Moses
Down Memory Lane 2
10 July 2008
After leaving Tangmere, we wondered whether we could track down Moses Farm House, of which I have long had fond memories, the family having stayed there on our way to Cyprus in the 1950s. I had called my parents this morning to see whether it was near Haslemere, as I remembered, but they couldn't remember. So Elaine had Googled it before we left, finding a Moses Hill near Marley Heights. Then as we passed Lurgashall on our way south to Goodwood, I noted that it rang a strong bell. ... more >
Tangmere
Down Memory Lane 1
10 July 2008
R.J. Mitchell and Supermarine Prototype K5054
After Goodwood, we continued south to the old RAF airfield at Tangmere, where we visited the Military Aviation Museum. I have always loved the name, whose origin is uncertain. 'Mere' implies a pool rather than a grand lake, according to Wikipedia, and 'tang' is thought to be of Norse origin meaning ‘tongs'. It could be that Tangmere was the pool at the fork, or junction of two ancient paths. The pool was later filled in to form a small village green. When I mentioned that Tim was shot down nearby (West Wittering) on 16 August 1940, the team at the Museum couldn't have been more helpful, fishing out the records for us. They also noted that Tangmere - which is where Tim was based during the Battle of Britain - was bombed on the same day. ... more >
Looking up sculpture in the Sussex Downs
10 July 2008
Today, Elaine and I drove down to Goodwood to visit the Cass Foundation's Goodwood Sculpture Park, somewhere we had meant to go for ages. As the photos show, the range of exhibits is quite remarkable - and the fitfully sunny weather lent a fleeting, evnaescent quality to some of the encounters. Hard to pick favourites, but mine would include Catamarans on a Granite Wave (which put me in mind of Sutton Hoo), DNA DL90, In the Beginning, Paparazzi, System No. 19, and the one I would hauled away if I could have done so unobserved, Wendy Taylor's Sycamore.... more >
After the Recession
More thoughts on Wave 4
09 July 2008
Here's a post I did primarily for Volans:... more >
Around the corner to Sutton Hoo and Easter Island
Visiting the neighbours
08 July 2008
Early on in our two-week holiday, which we are spending in and around London, Elaine and I went in to see how things are coming on with the new Volans office in Bloomsbury Place. Then we had lunch with Sam, before returning to the office to screw legs on to a new sofa. Then Elaine and I visited the neighbours in the British Museum, which is some three minutes walk away. We particularly wanted to see the Sutton Hoo hoard, after reading the book The Dig, but were struck by the standard of the exhibition design throughout. Then a raid on Waterstones and the old Virgin record store in Piccadilly on the way home. ... more >
Gilgamesh
The Oldest Story in the World
07 July 2008
Among the most beautiful things I have ever seen were the cuneiform tablets we were shown in Syria a few years back. This morning I finished a book I had meant to read since I began to write The Good Afterlife Guide over 15 years ago, subsequently abandoned because Elaine said I would be the subject of a universal fatwah: Gilgamesh. ... more >
Praise be to Boris ...
... and the spirit of the much-lamented Routemaster
05 July 2008
Stamped out - but No. 21 lives on in the imagination
When I met him recently, fellow cyclist London Mayor Boris Johnson and I very much saw eye-to-eye on buses - particularly on the need to get rid of the bendy nightmares and the potential for rehumanising this city's overground public transport by reanimating the spirit of the much-loved, much-missed Routemaster. Now he has joined Transport for London to launch a competition to design a brand new bus for London, inspired by the Routemaster.... more >
Helmetless under a blue London sky
04 July 2008
One of the great joys of cycling in London is the sky views overhead. Stopped several times today to take photos of the aerial extravaganzas overhead.... more >
Chatham House Rule in the Chef's Dining Room
03 July 2008
One of Britain's finest contributions to the art of well-informed conversation is The Chatham House Rule. Frustrating, too. Had dinner this evening at the Chef's Dining Room, Mews of Mayfair. Others around the table included the CEOs of well-known companies. The conversation revolved around climate change in general - and, in particular, the conclusions of Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund in his new book, Earth: The Sequel.... more >
|
|
