Journal

Wonderful sense of Spring flexing its muscles. Spotted this cluster of fungi on branch of a dying tree on Barnes Common over the weekend. Still no sight of fish in our pond though. They must be in torpor, whereas I feel I’m coming out of something of the sort after completing the more-or-less final manuscript for the new book, Running Up The Down Escalator. Due out in June, if all goes well.

Elaine and I had seen The Lehman Trilogy a while back, courtesy of Barnes cinema. But this evening we took the Volans team to seer it live, on stage. Highly enjoyable and provocative, with one theme, the high wire leitmotif featuring Solomon Paprinsky, suggesting a thread that could run through the final chapter of my new book, which I’m about to pitch into.

Caught sight of a mudlark at work, with a torch, on the south shore of the Thames as I walked towards the far end of Waterloo Bridge from Somerset House. Think I may just use it as a background image for splitter slides in my new PowerPoint presentation templates for 2023. A bit like my own progress over the years, stumbling along, picking out and spotlighting interesting parts of a much wider landscape.

Walking home across Waterloo Bridge this evening, with Chinese students all around, I caught sight of this mudlark on the Thames foreshore, in front of the South Bank complex. One of those moments.

Have rather fallen out of the habit of posting here, partly because have been finishing off the new book, Running Up The Down Escalator, and partly because 2023 has taken off like a rocket. Today was somewhat typical in that respect, with Elaine reminding me at 06.30 that I should be at a Pi Capital breakfast at Brown’s Hotel in Albemarle Street by 07.45. A slightly manic start to the day.

I made it, though, to hear Brian McBride, president of the CBI. Asked him a question about green growth vs. regrowth, and he responded well – and then sent me the CBI brief on green growth later in the day.

Then, as I came out of Covent Garden tube station later in the morning, I was embraced by a bearded giant, Liam Black. A delight. Then, after some time in the office, went off to have lunch with Lynne Franks at Mildred’s in Soho. She helped us make Green Consumer Week a smash hit back in 1988.

We had a lot of catching up to do. Great fun. Ab Fab-obsessed members of the team had asked me to take a selfie with Lynne, which I duly did. May have been the first selfie I have ever taken : )