New Blackberry

I had had enough of the trackball failing and the damn thing wasn't synching with my diary. I took my trusty blackberry to IT and within a couple of hours I had a new one. Yippee. Now if I were a real tech head I would be up to my neck in iPhones, iPads and all sorts of other devices, but for me the company blackberry is functional and does what I need, plus a little more. It is exactly the same type as before, only it has a colour screen, the handset is a slate grey colouring and the keys/track ball make a satisfying 'click' when I depress them. I like that. The satisfaction of a good 'click' is a good thing. The other good thing is that I no longer have to make do with a rather fuzzy camera. This one seems to work much better, as evidenced by the clarity of the images on my second picture (the first was a little fuzzy due to hand shake!):

Pretty good eh? More to follow in due course.

The Cost Of A New Duffle Bag

Of course First Capital Connect haven't found my duffle bag, the one I lost here, inspite of me being able to pinpoint it pretty accurately in terms of exactly where I left it and having called within 5 minutes of me getting off the train.

In it was swimwear, goggles, swimming hat, washbag and contents of the washbag. Not too hard nor too costly to replace. But of course nothing is as simple as you think it is.

I bought some very natty swimming goggles:

Speedo, with a little carrying case (black) and some interchangeable bits (in the plastic bag). But they hurt my left eye which seems to stick out a little more than my right and when the glasses are tight, I blink 'against' the goggle, and it hurts. So I bought some more:

These are Zoggs 'Predator' goggles (strange name for swimming goggles) and they are fantastic. They 'suck' the skin without being too tight, and my left eye doesn't hurt when I blink. It is a shame I had two goes to get there but that is the problem when losing a duffle bag. 

When I bought my first pair of goggles (the Speedo ones), I also bought this:

A micro-towel: super-absorbent, packs down very small and seemed just right. But there is a big glitch; it doesn't stretch around my waist, so I can't wrap it around me. Crucial for a towel.

Here is the micro-towel with my foot. The towel may be super-absorbent, but it is just too small. I wouldn't have known that by looking at the packaging. Anyway, I bought a new towel. 

Much better, and bigger, though only the standard size of towel. Boy, that small one is small.

I got a washbag, which is the only thing I haven't had to replace, and I am gradually filling the washbag with the appropriate toiletries.

The moral of all this: "Don't lose your duffle bag"

A Good Reason To Like Facebook

In amongst the disquiet about the value of Facebook - there was another article in the supplement of The Guardian today, entitled 'Social Networking: Failure to Connect' - the response I got to my tweet/status update about being passed 'clear' for another year on the cancer front was really heartwarming. Thank you everyone who bothered.

No Cancer

This is a thyroid ultrasound image. It is not mine. But it is like mine. I had my thryoid ultrasounded today: well what is left of my thryoid. I had cancer in my left thyroid in 2000 and it was surgically removed. Though it is the best type of cancer to get supposedly, it is still a pretty significant operation, coming in at 4 hours and a neck held together with metal clips for 10 days thereafter. I don't want to go through it again, and I don't really want to take pills everyday if the right one has to go as well.

When I returned to the UK, I was told that best practice now is to remove the entire thyroid, and I was advised to have the operation. If there is no thyroid at all, it is easier to detect any abnormal levels of thyroxine as the pills taken provide a regular measurable reading. Detection is harder when half the thyroid remains as the bodies production of thyroxine is not as regular as the dosage in pills and therefore harder to know if the cancer has returned.  So it is chiefly a detection (of cancer returning) issue rather than a likelihood of it returning. That's what I have understood anyway.

I didn't want the operation, and after a few sometimes testy meetings with consultant doctors, it was agreed that I would continue to have regular ie annual ultrasounds to see if there was any abnormalities. Thankfully this time there are not. There are no flecks, odd dots or anything sinister. Phew.

Losing My Duffle Bag

I left my AT&T duffle bag on the train today. It seriously annoys me doing that. It only contained my swimming gear, a towel and a sponge bag (full) which is not too much hassle nor too expensive to replace. It is the fact that I left it.

Of course First Capital Connect are totally useless and there is no way that their lost property central office can call the station where the train terminates (even though I rang in to report the loss before the train would have terminated), so I doubt whether I will ever see my AT&T duffle bag again.

And that is a shame. Not only is that duffle bag very practical - it folds up better than a backpack, I don't carry the stress on my right shoulder as I can sling it over my neck to carry it and it is a good size for things like swimming stuff - but I am very attached to it. Patricia Woodward gave it to me early in my time in the US when I was working on the AT&T account.

And more than that. Duffle bags, as far as I define them in that classic cylindrical shape with a drawstring at the top and one strap way, are an endangered species. For me to lose it is a poor show, but for First Capital Connect not to manage to return it to me is even worse. I only wish I had a picture of it.

A Couple Of Interesting Things

Whilst having the tour of Shakespeare's birthday place last week, I learnt a couple of interesting tid-bits. Firstly, the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" comes from the days when the mattress for a bed was laid on top of a rope that was woven into the frame of the bed. The nearest analogy I can think of is how a tennis racquet is strung. When the rope got loose, it needed to be tightened using a neat little tightening tool. The expectation was that with a 'tighter' bed to put the mattress on, the better the occupant would sleep.

People also used to sleep sitting upright, or at least propped up, as they believed that the devil might come and take you if you slept lining horizontally. The only time humans laid out horizontally was when they were dead and if you slept in that position, it was thought that the devil may come and take you away. So if you see a much shorter bed dating back a few hundred years, it wasn't just that people were shorter, it was as much about concern about the devil.

Little boys were dressed up as little girls because the infant mortality rate amongst boys was higher than girls. People believed that by dressing little boys up in dresses and the like, the devil would not be able to spot them as boys and therefore not 'take them'.

Fascinating. Also shows the power of collective beliefs.

Clouds Over Holkham Beach July 2009

Direct Action

I really don't like First Captial Connect. Many people don't. Here is someone who clearly doesn't. Yesterday they were queues outside the station as people waited for the service to be resumed after a problem with the overhead cable. Today, it was a cracked line at Farringdon. So I turned around, went home, and tried again an hour later. I got on a train and the journey seemed to be going smoothly until we stopped outside St. Pancras. The driver told us we would have to back up to the last station as St. Pancras had too many trains in it. Great! I was going to be late for work, two hours late, for the second day running. I was annoyed. Whilst in the train, I found, and called, the complaints line for First Capital Connect (at least they have one) and got through to a very pleasant chap. I told him he was very nice but I hoped he was able to move job very soon as it was a dreadful company. I also told him the service was a shambles and then asked my fellow passengers to shout "shambles" into the phone. It was a little hit and miss; some people shouted quite forecfully, others looked on quizzically. But he got the message, and it cheered the passengers up a little, at least those who understood what I was doing. Next time I will orchestrate it better by informing my fellow passengers what I am planning to do, then get a much heartier and full response.

Cool boy summer shorts

Judging at the IPA

I had the honour a few weeks of being one of the industry judges at the 2010 IPA Effectiveness Awards. These awards have the reputation of being the most rigourous and difficult in the marketing and communications world. It is worth taking a further look, here. They are only held every two years as it is felt it would be too ardous on potential entrants to have them every year. 'Even' years are open to agencies, media owners and clients worldwide, and 'odd' years are limited to campaigns with a total annual marketing communications budget of up to £2.5 million and have to be submitted by agencies, media owners and clients in the UK only.

Two things separate them from their Effie cousins above anything else, in addition to the every two years piece. Firstly, they absolutely require evidence that the activity paid back on the investement made ie fees, production and media. If the paper doesn't show this has been achieved then it will be disqualified. Secondly, the entries are far longer than the Effies: with 'even' years being limited to 4,000 words and 'odd' years being 3,000.

This year was, by all accounts, a very good year. A very high number of entries, just under seventy, and the majority of a high standard. There were about 30 industry judges who are split into two groups, each group will mark about half the papers and everyone in each group reads all the papers that are allocated to that group. Each paper is generally reckoned to take about one hour to read. The box of the papers you have to read arrives one day in a big box with a judging form and a survival pack that includes; Nurofen, Pro Plus, an energy bar, an energy and a small bottle of champagne. Very sweet. So with briefing and a day's judging I guess I notched up close to 40 hours on it. And what a privilege.

The quality of the entries was fantastically high, and very enlightening, in the main, to read. The judging day, with a group of very well informed judges, with a broad range of experience (see here for more details on the judges) was equally enlightening and great fun as well. The discussion throughout the day was extremely high and enjoyable.

A number of observations about the papers really popped. The really good ones are clear to read. Superflous adjectives grate. There needs to be more general knowledge about econometrics (so many papers have them now, over half, and we were too often hanging on our econometrics specialist's every word). It is a time consuming task to write a really good one. If you can make the paper work without economics, do it, as it will likely be easier to follow. Too many charts is as bad as too few.

A big thanks to David Golding, convenor of judges and Marie Oldham, the deputy convenor, who steered us through the day with a deft touch and from our short-listing of entries the client judges now have to decide who gets bronze, silver, gold and grand prix. I am already looking forward to the awards dinner in November.