Weeknote 17
That was a WEEK.
And it ended well yesterday. And then the wallop of a migraine today. One of the worst I’ve ever had. <= this was yesterday. I am not feeling much better. It's taken me 3 days to write these rather thin notes.
It’s hard to remember through the difficulty of work stuff this week that we had the BEST news - we have a date for the work on the house to start! Phase 1 will start on 3 June - the “link” to connect the house and the studio and the reconstruction of the studio. We’ve now got about a month to find a storage unit, sort the stuff in the studio, move what we’re keeping and get rid of the rest. We might actually be able to move our offices out of the house by autumn.
Garden work continues to be ridiculously slow this year due to the never ending rain. And I’ve just looked at the forecast for the next 10 days. Nothing but rain. Dear god.
What I’ve been doing
This week with Planning Data has mostly been stuff I can’t really talk about as it involves people, teams and frustrations. Or at least I haven’t sorted out a way in my head to be able to talk about it. Migraine is not helping.
But the good is that we have trust from the client and we’re starting to work through how we resolve issues and move forward in a positive way. Onwards!
Excited to be heading back up to London next week to do some intensive work on outcomes, team shapes, etc with psd, Emma and Steve for the next statement of work.
Local Plans has made amazing progress this week with the relationship between digital and policy. It’s a slow journey with our policy colleagues - it’s a lot for them to have to produce the volume of policy they need to produce AND be open to new ways of working. But we can see they are committed to working in new ways with us, and want to come on the journey. Slowly we edge towards a user-centred policy development approach. And I’m excited about this. Better policy, better outcomes for planning.
We’ve spent a good chunk of the last month doing intensive work on developing the overarching backlog of work for local plans. This is looking much clearer and a common consensus of priorities is emerging. We know where to start, so let’s get cracking!
Went to Cardiff on Friday to see a couple of the Major Projects crew - Jukesie, Mark and Ben. One day, Ben and I will be in the same place long enough to say more than hi!
Lunch from Cardiff market.
What I’ve been thinking about
Not a lot this week, it’s mostly been hopping from meeting to meeting. Checking in with individuals and managing some difficult conversations and situations. It has been an emotionally draining week.
Some weeks are just like that.
Pupdate
If you were to ask Dilys how she is, she’d tell you she’s fine, when are we going for a 5k walk?
She is doing really well in her recovery, but is still on strict confinement for the next week. Fun times. She’ll happily sleep all day while we work. But once we sit down in the evenings, she’s up and ready to go. Returning to some gentle sniffing games to tire her out.
Sleep is healing.
Stitches come out next Friday and then we’ll get her in to physio. Not going to lie, I want to see her a tiny life vest doing hydrotherapy.
We're also navigating the insurance claim for the MRI, surgery and hospital time. Dreading this.
What I’ve been watching
We finished CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and have moved on to the new CSI: Las Vegas. Still love the cheesey one liners in the opening scene.
Final season of Discovery remains boring. I keep forgetting it is even on and scrolling my phone when we do put it on. Ugggg.
What’s blooming
The cowslips are loving this wet spring. They have self seeded all through our wildflower lawn. Two colours - yellow and this gorgeous red, that fades through to orange.
