The Life of Dan

JP Morgan - 472nd (in the women's race)

2009-07-12T17:35:00.002+01:00

Every year Capgemini enters a big team into the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge – and this year was no exception. Among the 12,000+ running in London on Wednesday there were 90 from Capgemini, including Ali, Andy and I...

Head over to the Borneo for this! Blog to see how we did.

Sutherland

2009-06-19T00:50:00.001+01:00

Reflections in loch at dusk

This was the view from our cottage.

What an amazing place!

It was a wonderful weekend - great to be on a proper Cunningham family holiday, to enjoy fantastic Scottish food (especially that venison!), witness Sadie's mountaineering talents first-hand and just to be in such a remote, peaceful and beautiful place.

Training for Kinabalu

2009-06-19T00:44:00.001+01:00

Me and Dad climbing up Mt Arkle

Properly started training for Mt Kinabalu now!

Spent three great days in the Scottish Highlands - the far north-west coast - which is absolutely stunning.

On the second day, Colin and I (and Sadie, our dog), went up Mt Arkle - a long, hard rocky ascent up to 787m.

The mountains in this region of Sutherland are quite unique. They are part of The Moine Thrust - not a painful warm-up exercise in the gym, but a geological feature left over from the formation of Scotland. These mountains are made from quartzite, 530 million year-old rock, resting on a slanted base of Lewisian gneiss. It's almost white, hard, sharp and definitely quite challenging to scramble over.

After setting off at 4pm, we managed the 18km round-trip in just over 4 hours. One of the joys of the far north in the summer is that it doesn't really get dark!

Turns out Sadie's quite a mountaineer too, with no fear and able to scale almost anything.

That was 787m. In November, Mt Kinabalu is 4100m. It's going to be tough.

The Go Game

2009-05-23T21:10:00.005+01:00

It's important to play.

The concept or urban gaming is always something that's intrigued me: a group of people coming together in a city and turning it into their playground, interacting with their surroundings and with each other in a completely new way.

Technology is one thing that's making these kinds of games possible, but more than that I think it's our desire to be part of something, part of a community, connected to one another and our surroundings.

In a big city like London, everyone is in their own bubble. Sometimes, it's good to break out of that bubble and try something new!

When I approached The Go Game to see if they would be interested in collaborating on a London Urban Adventure to raise funds for Raleigh and The Princes Trust, I was overjoyed that they were just as excited by this concept as I was. And now, it's happening next weekend - the first London Go Game for Good:

London Go Game - Sat 30 May

This event's open to absolutely everyone, so if you're going to be in London next weekend, get a team together and sign up now at:

www.thegogame.co.uk/community

Hope you can join the game!

Bolognese Frustration and Mock Duck

2009-05-17T19:01:00.005+01:00

Day 21 of 28

Feeling healthy rating: 6 out of 10
Feeling frustrated rating: 9 out of 10
Weight: 75kg (-1kg)

Definitely counting down the days now.

About a week ago, this moved from being a fun novelty, to just being a very frustrating experience.

As you might have seen if you were following my tweets, the absolute peak of frustration came earlier this week. After waking up late and missing breakfast at home, I had to make do with a cereal bar. Then at lunch Boots had run out of vegan sandwiches, leaving literally no option there.

But the saving grace throughout all of this was that I had already planned what to have for dinner. I was going to make a really delicious Shephard's Pie with quorn mince and sweet potato.

When I got home, Susie was cooking spaghetti bolognaise, so I decided to follow suit and make my own version with quorn.

So I ran out to Tesco, where - yes! - I got the last tin of chopped tomatoes, the only ingredient I needed.

So, after half an hour of conjuring up a delicious quorn bolognaise, with red onion and just the right mix of herbs, it was tasting pretty good.

I started to tidy up while it simmered away on the hob. As I picked up the empty quorn packet to toss into the bin, I saw this:

Possibly one of the most disappointing moments of my life

EGG WHITES?

Why the hell do they have to put egg whites in quorn??? And why did I have to look at the packet?

Seriously disappointing.

But, as Susie pointed out, this is what makes it a challenge. And I am committed to making it through the 28 days, so I didn't eat my bolognese.

Today, I had this interesting delicacy which Patrick found in Brixton Wholefoods (which has lots of vegan foods including vegan cheese):

Mock Duck

It kind of looked like duck. But it certainly didn't feel like it. I'm just quite happy that I managed to get through an entire portion.

So, 7 days until The Week of BBQ. I am seriously looking forward to so many good, real, proper cheesy, meaty and delicious foods.

I now at least partially understand how it must feel to have a real food allergy or sensitivity and have to cope with the constant frustration of having to explain it to everyone and be incredibly limited in your food choices. It is really hard. And I have a great deal of respect for everyone who can't just eat what they want.

The purpose of this endeavour is to raise money for Raleigh and The Princes Trust.

It's all about rethinking things. I'm rethinking what I eat for a week. The Princes Trust is about helping young people to rethink their lives, to see new possibilities and opportunities. Raleigh is about providing them with challenging experiences to help them see these possibilities.

Read more about Raleigh's Youth Agency Partnership programme.

Watch a video about what The Princes Trust does.

I'd like to ask you to rethink what you're doing to help society. Could you spare a few hours each month to volunteer? Could you make a regular or one-off donation to help us raise funds for these causes?

A huge thank you to Tariq, Niall, Declan, Patrick, Mum, Kate and Christina for your donations.

First week of veganism

2009-05-02T14:39:00.006+01:00

Day 6 of 28

Feeling healthy rating: 8 out of 10
Feeling frustrated rating: 7 out of 10 (and rising with this BBQ going on beside me)
Weight: 76kg

Well, I'm still alive. No apparent weight loss or signs of malnutrition yet, and I'm feeling pretty good with all the healthy eating that seems to go side-by-side with a vegan diet. Plenty of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, pulses (mostly hummus) and good, fresh, organic stuff.

I don't think it's a bad thing at all to be forced to be so conscious of what you're eating, making sure you're filling that food pyramid.

Occasionally stepping back and re-thinking a big aspect of your life (such as what you eat) is quite a challenge, but a rewarding one.

Definitely avoiding dairy is the hardest part. Sandwiches, pizza, pasta are all a bit lacking without cheese, and so many baked products and snacks are out of the window without milk. So that's quite difficult and frustrating.

Meals of varying success so far:

Day 1 - came home to a DIY pizza workshop that Charlie had set up, at which I made myself a colourful veg-fest of a pizza topped with onion, pepper, olives and spring onions. It was a bit sad not to have any mozzarella, but a worthy meal nonetheless:

Day 1, dinner: Vegan pizza

To my horror, most beer isn't vegan. It's settled in vats which use animal derivatives such as isinglass (fishy) or gelatin (meaty) as fining agents. Luckily, Meantime ale (one of my favourites) is suitable for vegans, as are all these.

Day 2 - got home late from work, and made the mistake of trying to get something quick from the worst Tesco Express in the world. As they didn't have baking potatoes I ended up having Baked Beans with Gnocchi. Not really recommended:

Day 2, dinner: The shop had run out of baking potatoes :-(

Day 3, lunch - asked the confused waitress in Miso Noodle Bar about ten different questions about whether the vegetarian ho-fun stir fry contained any egg (no), milk (no), was made with rice or egg noodles(rice), or was cooked in butter (definitely not, that actually got a laugh from her!) then when it arrived felt compelled to confirm again whether this was tofu or omelette. Ahh, vegan paranoia!

Day 3, dinner - time to get serious. found a whole bunch of great vegan recipes on BBC Food. I made Spinach, Aubergine and Chickpea curry, with plenty of freshly ground coriander and cumin seeds. Very successful and went down quite well with everyone:

Day 3, dinner: Spinach, Aubergine and Chickpea Curry

Day 4, dinner - discovered to my great delight that Wardour St is really kitted up well for vegans. I had an absolutely delicious and extremely mega-healthy-tasting hearty meal from Vita Organic. Got a scoop each of mashed pumpkin curry, spicy noodles, chickpea stew and apple and beetroot salad. It's all vegan and wholefood, and even cooked at under 46 degrees Celsius to preserve all the vitamins. Extremely satisfying, fully recommended, and proof that vegan food can be extremely good:

Vitaorganic (photo by Andrew Hunter)

Day 5, dinner - another late night at work, which meant that dinner was a falafel sandwich in the train station on the way to the pub, where I drank some organic cider as none of the beer was certified vegan.

Day 6, BBQ - right now I'm sitting writing this with the smell of smoky BBQ meats enticing me from the garden. I've managed to resist some awesome-looking Colombian Chorizo and the next challenge is lamb koftas. Going to get some caramelised taro on the go soon!

If you want to see me keep this up for a full 28 days, please please please give what you can on my sponsorship page - http://www.justgiving.com/borneoforthis

All donations are going to Raleigh, who are working with The Princes Trust to provide underprivileged kids in the UK with personal development opportunities that inspire them to see that there is a way out of whatever difficult situation they may be tackling.

A huge thank you to Murray, Susie and Flor for your donations so far. And to Connie for volunteering to ship some home-made hummus over the Atlantic!

The Kinabalu Challenge

2009-04-12T01:00:00.002+01:00

Extreme Ironing on Mount Kinabalu

Well, I might not take an ironing board but I am going up Mt Kinabalu.

This November (rainy season in the Malaysian Borneo), me and three of my colleagues are going to spend nine days hiking, cycling, kayaking and rafting through the jungle to the 4100m summit of Mt Kinabalu.

It's going to rain hard, the leeches are going to bite hard and we're going to have to spend the next six months training hard and preparing for this tough challenge.

But we're not just doing this for the adventure, we are doing it to raise money for two great charities - Raleigh and The Princes Trust.

Around one in five young people in the UK are not in work, education or training. Youth unemployment costs the UK economy £10 million a day in lost productivity, while youth crime costs £1 billion every year.

The Princes Trust gives practical and financial support to the young people who need it most, helping develop key skills, confidence and motivation, enabling young people to move into work, education or training.

Raleigh runs expeditions and challenges to inspire people from all walks of life to make a difference to their communities and reach their full potential as global citizens.

We aim to raise £10,000 to support young people nominated by The Princes Trust to go on Raleigh expedition, and to experience something that will change their worldview forever and turn their life around.

Read more about what we're doing on our fundraising page:

http://www.justgiving.com/borneoforthis

We have a massive target to reach, we are determined to reach it, but this relies also on your support. So please, visit the link above and give what you can and help us to support Raleigh and The Princes Trust to turn young people's lives around.

Growing veg, stage 2 - community, chillies, beets, science and seaweed

2009-04-05T15:34:00.002+01:00

Beetroots planted!

Feeling like part of the local community after joining and buying seeds from the Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses Seed & Produce Growing Club last weekend. We even got some advice from a fellow urban food grower!

Chillies, coriander and beetroots hopefully on their way...

I've been checking up on our 5 varieties of chillies (probably too regularly), but no sign of germination yet. Based on the best chilli-growing advice available, we're moving them to the bathroom cupboard where they should get the optimum conditions - warm (should be 25 degrees celsius+) and humid. I really hope they work.

Beets planted out in the garden yesterday, along with Miracle Gro slow-release plant food. We're using science!

Hopefully going to buy tomato plantlings and scatter some seaweed on the patch today, which according to science contains plant nutrients and hormones that boost plant growth in only the most awesome ways.

Pancake Day, 24 Feb 2009

2009-03-22T19:44:00.001Z

24 Feb 2009

Probably my favourite holiday.

Growing veg, stage 1

2009-01-11T19:50:00.002Z

Tulse Hill, 11 Jan 2009

We dug the vegetable patch this weekend.

On the shortlist is currently potatoes, kale, chillies, peppers and tomatoes (for which we will fashion something out of glass).

The 6th annual Potato Fair and Seed Exchange will provide further inspiration and hopefully yield some weird and wonderful things to add to our list.

It feels good to be on the road to being less of a slave to Tesco, and the prospect of delicious home-grown veg for our summer parties is a fine one indeed!

Resolutions, To-Do Lists, To-Read Lists, Lists of Lists...

2009-01-03T00:29:00.002Z

So, I was going to make this list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, but actually I'm now not sure if that is really the best way to approach life.

We tend to fill our lives with to-do lists (well, I do anyway - I have several sitting in front of me right now!)

But what possible purpose do they serve?

They just make us stressed out because we always have something left on the list.

And what happens when we do them? The act often just generates more of them!

For example - I go through periods of finding lots of interesting web sites. These then lead to other links that sound interesting, and so on. I either open them all in tabs and never get round to reading them all, or save them to delicious and never get round to reading them all.

So, I have all these lists, tabs, bookmarks, e-mails, unread blog posts, news items, various bits and pieces with stars attached to them - and they're all just to-do items. It's all just clutter, isn't it?

It's time to put a stop to it!

Of course it's good to have objectives. But I'm almost certain that having too many is just detrimental to each one of them.

To-do lists force you focus to on the small, and then you forget about the big picture. The big picture is after all what is important. If you are focussing on the big picture, the little things that you have to do will naturally get done. Won't they?

So, I'm going to try something else. I'm going to focus the big things, appreciate the small ones, and let everything else fall serendipitously into place. Less lists!

That is my New Year's Resolution.

What do you think? Are you a list-writing person? Are lists necessary or evil? Is it a good idea to attempt to minimise them? Or are they actually what drives you to get things done?

Our collective potential

2008-08-21T18:15:00.000+01:00

This very compelling talk by Clay Shirky really highlights the incredible collective potential we have:

This is the fact that really bowled me over:

Wikipedia - by far the largest encyclopaedia ever produced my humankind - has taken about 100 million man-hours to produce.

In the US alone, 100 million man-hours are spent watching just the adverts on TV every weekend.

That's one Wikipedia-project per weekend!!

And globally, Internet users watch a trillian hours of TV per year.

Imagine if we spent our time just a little differently. Wow. What could we achieve?

But we are doing. We are spending increasing amounts of time producing, sharing, connecting and collaborating.

So with every 1% reduction in our TV-watching, that's 100 projects on the scale of Wikipedia that we can collectively create every year!

What does that mean for our potential for collaboration, innovation, doing good, being heard, fixing the world?

What would you do with those 100 million man-hours?

It is ready to be harnessed!

Reflections on the year

2008-08-16T02:20:00.002+01:00

(more a post for myself than for anyone else...)

One year ago today I left Venezuela.

Since then I have been: a person just quite joyous to be home, then a person a bit bored at home, then a crazy job seeker, a very motivated interviewee, an enthusiastic Christmas market stall-holder, a high-value IT contractor and finally I reached the objective of getting a position in the Capgemini graduate scheme and moving to the big big city.

Over the year, I’ve caught up with many great friends and – since moving to London anyway – certainly made a few more. I have begun to build up a social circle full of people who I enjoy spending time with – definitely work in progress but getting there. I have properly entered the corporate world – some aspects of which are great and some slightly frustrating. I’ve had a few adventures, but certainly not on the scale of the year previously!

It feels a bit like it’s almost been a year in transition, moving from one world to another, trying to find my place in this new world while at the same time trying to hold onto or re-establish the things I enjoyed about the old one – doing something creative that I’m passionate about, working with great inspiring people and living a life of exploration and adventure.

I’m part of the way there, but it feels a bit like compromises have been made, or things aren’t quite where I want them to be. This is the reality. And it is – at least somewhat – in my control. So I am going to make the most of it and I am going to steer it in the direction I want it to go.

And what will the next year hold? Seeking new challenges in my professional life, continuing to find great people to share my life with and making sure to live some fun adventures both around London and in some far away lands.

That’s the idea anyway. We’ll see what happens!

Expressed without words

2008-08-07T12:35:00.002+01:00

Wall-E is Pixar's greatest film yet.

The real beauty of it is the simplicity.

That so much can be expressed in a film where the two main characters say no words except for each other's names is an inspiring reflection on the human race.

Companionship, joy, surprise, dance, laughter, beauty, fear, purpose, love - all these things can be expressed without words. All these things can be shared across humanity, regardless of background, culture, language or preconceptions.

So this is not only a story about love; it is a story about humanity. More specifically, it is about our place on this planet, and what we are doing to ourselves as a society and as a world.

Wall-E is set 700 years into the future. Earth has been abandoned and the entire human race lives aboard a gigantic pleasure-cruising spacecraft. Everything is comfortable, every need is taken care of, every amenity is provided. Everything runs according to the pleasant and monotonous daily routine of "perfection".

But in that routine, life of course loses all meaning. If everything stays the same, and there is no challenge or surprise, then what's the point?

The sad reality is, right now, for many people, that kind of life is what they are striving for. We plug in our iPods, shut ourselves off on our daily commute, play our trivial games on our phones, go through our day’s work, eat our microwave food, watch our on-demand TV, absorb some advertising, then repeat. We spend far too much time on making trivial choices and enjoying completely superficial entertainment, slowly making things more and more comfortable and convenient for the next generation.

That can’t possibly be our purpose on this planet. That can’t possibly bring us real joy, fulfilment and happiness.

In the film, the real joy comes when humanity realises that no matter how difficult it will be, it must return to earth, cultivate the planet, take action, strive to become at one with the ecosystem of our world once more, and to reconstruct a society based on human passion and endeavour.

This is the real important message of the film: Joy doesn’t come from routine or comfort, it comes from seeking new adventure, challenging ourselves, finding a greater purpose, working together to achieve something that at first may seem almost impossible.

Laughter Clubs

2008-08-06T18:44:00.003+01:00

Children at Heart

The Laughter Club. What a great concept.

If all those around you are laughing, it is impossible not to laugh. One of the universal human truths across all cultures?

Apparently the human body cannot tell the difference between fake laughter and real laughter.

There are around 6000 laughter clubs in 50 different countries, with people just getting together to share in the experience of laughter and embrace the joyous ridiculousness of it all.

I think I have to try this.

Next session in London is Wednesday 20th August, 6.30pm at Lincoln's Inn Playing Fields near Holborn.

Learning to fly

2008-07-03T22:44:00.005+01:00

I am in quite a philosophical and reflective mood of late.

This is inspired by:

1. On Saturday, attending a great session called Life After Now run by a great guy called Houston Spencer. It was all about challenging our ideas of what we wanted in life, and how we intend to go about achieving that. A life of passion, if we so choose.

2. Which then led me to buy a beautiful and wonderful book - Jonathon Livingston Seagull: A Story.

The story is about a seagull learning to fly, really learning to fly. But it's really about life. And meaning. It makes you think, a lot. It made me realise a few things that I already knew about what really is important.

I urge you to read the Seagull book. It will probably change your outlook just slightly, in a very good way. It will at least make you smile, in a big way.

quite world people, great things

2008-07-03T22:18:00.003+01:00

These are the words I have used most in my blog.

Clearly I'm not very good at adjectives, but it definitely pleases me that world, people and things are what I care about (actually not sure about things, I wonder if I mean tangible or intangible things?), and community and experience are important to me.

Right now I am in quite a comfortable world, I don't have too many things and I have a few special people around me. I am part of several communities and I am experiencing a few great things.

Increasing the people, communities and experiences levels will be a good thing. Things things things. Everything's a thing. Oops, now I've done it.

CSR in balance

2008-06-08T19:28:00.002+01:00

One of the great things about the company that I work for is we do some really interesting Corporate Responsibility stuff. My manager calls it CSR in balance, meaning that he chooses initiatives that benefit both the community and as well as us, the employees, and in turn, the company. It makes sense. A couple examples of "extra-curricular" activities I've done already in my short time with Capgemini:

1. A community project with Raleigh International

Raleigh International gives people of all ages experiences that allow them to make a difference to communities and environments all over the world.

A couple weeks ago, 23 people from my programme spent a weekend in a big lodge somewhere in Surrey rejuvenating a nearby forest area for the community. It was beside a pretty poor council estate, and had previously been used by drug addicts, and filled with quad bikes, burned out cars, etc. But it's been under development for a few years so is now being used by the community in a good way now.

Filling up the dumpers

Our main task was to build a path through the forest to enable access for parents with prams, the elderly, dog-walkers, etc. Turned out this was quite a physically demanding task indeed, as we had to cart many tons of recycled motorway that we were using for paving. Lots of running around with very heavy wheelbarrows!

Constructing JD Corner

As well as definitely helping to foster a good team spirit and sense of community in our group, we were given quite a lot of responsibility in terms of deciding how we would structure the work and form work-teams to carry out various tasks.

Leadership

We all got a chance to lead some part of the project for about half a day - this is where the value of the experience really comes in. As the first leader of the path building team, people turned to me to make decisions about how we would start this off. So very quickly and with no more information than everyone else, I had to decide how we would do things and adapt this as we saw what worked well and what didn't.

One thing that was really interesting is as everyone gained confidence in what they were doing over the weekend, the effective leadership style changed into less decision-making and a more nurturing style, supporting and encouraging people who were by now quite exhausted but still working very hard.

I think this is quite an accurate reflection of situations that would present themselves during the leadership of a consulting project: having to make quick decisions with limited knowledge, and later on effectively using the knowledge that various team members have built up.

In the end we all felt a really big sense of achievement as we saw the first members of the public enjoying our beautiful woodland path:

The path receives its first actual user!

2. Bringing business to life for school students with Business Dynamics

I took my first proper volunteering day on Friday, with a charity called Business Dyanmics that goes into schools all over the UK to get young people excited about the world of business.

I like getting people excited about things, so I was up for this.

With just a short training session behind me, and a basic activity plan, I was pretty much thrown in at the deep end, in charge of a class of 30 13-year old boys for an entire school day.

Quite challenging

Having had almost no experience working with children, this was quite a challenging experience to say the least. Very exhausting, but very rewarding.

The idea of the day was to split them into teams each representing a small company who was to design, prototype, market and pitch an idea for a new roller-coaster at a large theme park - all the time relating what they are doing to my own experience and stories of the exciting world of business.

On one hand, it is quite an easy crowd as they do automatically have at least some respect for adults and they are excited to have a school day that's not just their normal lessons.

But as soon as you bring out the interactive activities and they're in teams working away with paper and card and a single marble shared between the whole class, boy have you got trouble!

I did manage to maintain order for a time, but at one point it did just descend into chaos with teams trying to buy and sell people from each other, people being fired, others quitting, the marble mysteriously disappearing, and even the odd outbreak of minor violence.

It was certainly a blessing to always have a real teacher in the room to bring everything back to order every now and then. They are amazingly talented people and I now have *a lot* of respect for them.

But very rewarding

I was very impressed with the creativity and enthusiasm of the students, and very encouraged that several of the teams realised that a key issue would be building and running their roller-coaster in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way.

Seeing the final presentations and discussing with them what their key learnings had been during the day was really great. They talked about growing in confidence, learning about working in a team, enjoying the day a lot, and wanting to do business studies and even start their own businesses when they're older.

Certainly kids these days are slightly less respectful of authority and harder to control, but I do think they are also more entrepreneurial and have more of a sense of the issues in business.

But a couple things I did have to clarify - no, I have not been on Deal or No Deal, and no, I do not (quite) earn enough to own a Ferrari :-)

Green Smoothies?!?

2008-06-05T12:12:00.006+01:00

118 188 recently launched a service in the UK whereby you can ask any question by text message and they will send you an answer. Any Question Answered (63336) have been doing this for years.

Today, I had a question. (I have been experimenting with alternatives to coffee in the morning)

I just bought a freshly-made smoothie this morning. It contained red berries, juice, yoghurt and an energy shot. It was pink/red but now it has changed green. Why?

Both sent me an answer within a few minutes, but you can see the quality of the answers really varies:

118 118: If you refrigerated the smoothie, the color might not change but if it does, that indicates that it already passed out. Thank you!

63336: Fresh cut or mashed fruit oxidise rapidly in the air. Depending on the initial mixture can go brown or greenish colour. Lemon juice would slow the rot.

Passed out??? That's not even proper English! (neither is color). Dubious.

Very impressed with 63336's answer though. Explained the problem, and gave a solution. I'm off to tell Pure California to put some lemon juice in their smoothies...

Bit of a random blog, I know. Have been enjoying things far too much to blog :-)

I built an awesome path (challenging and rewarding, painful afterwards), went on my first stag do (crazy and great times with old friends) and may or may not have participated in a "very irresponsible" party on the tube ahead of "them" banning alcohol on it (one of the most random nights of my life). Tomorrow I'm going back to school.

Yes, I am working too :-)

Maybe the smoothie was going green to celebrate World Environment Day.

London, Induction Week, Roundabouts, Barcelona and Urban Golf

2008-04-20T13:35:00.003+01:00

Wow, it's been quite some time. How things have changed.

This is going to be one of those "compress everything into one big post" things, just to warn you!

A joyous train journey – with all my valued possessions crammed into two very large suitcases – saw me make the move to London on March 7th to embark on the great career.

And it started off pretty great, with a week-long induction welcoming the ten of us into the Business Technology Consultants programme. There was lots of corporate branding, several Vice-Presidents, lots of chocolate and coffee to fuel us and (of course) some great team-building activities. By the end of the week I knew I was in the right place – a very valued business unit and intimate community within Capgemini with loads of opportunity to develop and find my place in a company that is innovating, progressing, growing and leading.

Then the shock of the first assignment as all of us were whisked away to the small town of Telford – roundabout capital of the world – for our first taste of the consultant lifestyle of long train journeys and living in generic hotels… and working long hours on a high profile and very time-critical project for a very big client. It was a lot of fun, and a good chance for us to bond further as a group, within the confines of our generic hotel in our generic business park of course. Although we did make a few notable forays outside, including one to marvel at the very first iron bridge in the world (in a town coincidentally called Ironbridge) and enjoy some fantastic Thai food.

And I spontaneously spent a weekend in or near Barcelona, mainly to piss someone off by missing their phenomenal party, but also to see a whole load of AIESECers who’d come over for Iberoamerica's regional conference. Best moment was arriving at the hotel at midnight and being greeted very loudly by 20 Venezuelans most of whom didn’t know I was coming :-) Great stuff.

They've come a long way. Last year we were less than half that number at the conference, and the AIESEC Venezuela was officially "on alert". So I felt very proud that those two things had turned around and the country is now a full member once again, and to hear about the successes of some of the accounts that I had started. It was really great to be in that atmosphere again, but I also know it was the right decision and it was time to move on.

It was really fun exploring Barcelona – it's a really vibrant city with a very nice lifestyle. I do miss the adventure of life in another country a little. I think it's the uncertainly, not knowing quite what to expect, being surprised by things. That happens less in London.

But it does feel good to be living here. There's a lot going on. I've had a lot of fun doing all those typical touristy things with various visitors from around the world. Last weekend Drew and Lina came to visit. The highlight was definitely Urban Golf. What an idea! Right in the middle of Soho, you can find yourself anywhere in the world playing golf. Naturally, we chose Pebble Beach, California. The idea is you have a big projector screen, and a set of very nice (and real) golf clubs and a bunch of balls to whack right into the screen, where they magically turn into virtual balls in a kind of Wii-like experience but on a much grander and more realistic scale.

At one point Drew did manage to get a ball to rebound off the roof and hurtle towards our table – where it could have caused havoc and only narrowly missed about three glasses. Apparently nobody's been injured "yet". I'd certainly feel much safer if they provided helmets. They should also give you 3D glasses and have a small fan to simulate the fresh air that I think is quite an integral part of the golfing experience. Golf carts would be a plus too. Man, it could be so much better! Anyone else have experiences with unusual sporting locations or novel simulation ideas? Or slightly crazy things to do in London?

The Road

2008-01-23T02:15:00.000Z

As the start of this week showed, our world is an extremely fragile place. Once something starts to move in a direction, things spiral out of control, effects multiple, people react, stock markets come tumbling down.

I think everything is the same. Politics, war, ecosystems, relationships, order. It can all spiral so easily out of control.

I just finished reading a book that affected me a great deal - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It was one of the most powerful, captivating and beautiful works of fiction that I have read. I got through it far quicker than I normally read a book (possibly my long daily commute helped me there).

The Road puts into your mind a very bleak picture of a man and a boy travelling through a destroyed world that has been ravaged by disaster. It is a desperate and cold world; a wasteland that could be the result of any number of actions that we as humankind – and as individuals – are taking.

It is stunningly written - easy to read and incredibly emotive. You feel that world. You are in it. The hopelessness, the desperation, the fear, the numbness. The cold hard reality. But also the sliver of hope that amazingly, we can hold onto no matter how bad it is.

And we must hope that this world does not come to be. In fact, more than that: we must prevent it.

Read The Road and enjoy it as the fantastic book it is. But also think about your responsibility. Are you moving the world down that road, or in another direction? Things need to change, we know that. But who will make those changes? Is it up to "them"? The people in power, with money, with influence? No. It's up to you. You are not them. This is your world. Only you can change it.

Small actions. Big actions. It all matters.

Inside the mind of a contractor

2008-01-20T15:57:00.000Z

This week I started a 6-week contract as a .NET developer for a small consulting company in Glasgow. It's great, and the timing is perfect for me, but it is a bit of a different way of working than I'm used to.

When you are developing a product actually for your own company, or for commercial sale, your motivation is really to make the product the best it possibly can be. After all, it's got to beat the competition. You have pride in it. You really feel ownership of it.

When working for an external client, things are a bit different. You are working to a specification, a set of rules. There are discussions about whether or not each and every possible feature is "in spec" or not. If something's not paid for and explicitly stated in the contract, it doesn't go in. (we seem to spend half the time at work having discussions like this! ...deciding whether or not each piece of work should be done... and only half actually doing the work)

I guess it really depends on the relationship with the client, and the motivations of both parties, and of each person.

Personally, I am the sort of person who likes to produce the best work possible at all times, I like to take pride in my work, and of course I do, but there have been times over the last few days where I've thought: this bit could be done in a much better way. But nobody is paying for it.

I guess that is just the real world.

I'm not sure I'm a fan of it though.

I definitely need to be in a company that works slightly outside of the real world.

I wonder if Capgemini is that company. They did once do a recruitment in Second Life so maybe they are!

Only two years left

2008-01-11T03:54:00.001Z

Think like this!

The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing.

Are these crazy times? You bet they are. But so were the days when we were doing duck-and-cover air-raid drills in school, or going through the scares of Three Mile Island and Love Canal. There will always be crazy times.

So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand.

You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide. Why not be great?

...from Seth Godin's Blog

m-banking

2008-01-10T03:25:00.000Z

Can mobile phones save the world?

Ten mobile phones per 100 people = +0.5% in growth in GDP per person.

Well, according to Leonard Waverman of the London Business School: "an extra ten mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country leads to an extra half a percentage point of growth in GDP per person." (The Economist: A bank in every pocket?)

That is huge.

GDP in sub-Saharan Africa should be around 6% in 2008 so adding 0.5% to that just with some cheap electronics isn't too bad at all!

But what is the magic of mobile phones?

Well, they enable a couple of big things:

They break down geographical barriers

In many developing countries, geography is a big factor in hindering trade and growth. Large distances and geographical barriers make infrastructure for transport and communications too expensive to build and maintain. Unreliable infrastructure means traders cannot get knowledge of the market, they waste time and money on trips that are not worth it, they cannot exchange information and knowledge, or form groups with significant trading power.

Mobile phones change all this.

Suddenly, you can get market knowledge, you can negotiate before making the trip, you can coordinate and exchange information without the need for a perilous and lengthy journey. You can trade. You can run a business.
They enable Banking

That's a great start. But there is something else just as fundamental to an economy that mobile phones enable: banking.
"Only 20% of families in Africa have a bank account. Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania have less than one bank branch per 100,000 people. Opening an account in Cameroon requires $700—more than many of its people earn in a year. In Swaziland, a woman needs the consent of her father, husband or brother to open an account or take a loan, and 75% of adults do not have a verifiable address.”
So, people cannot gain access to credit, they cannot gain interest on money they save, they cannot safely move their money from one place to another, they cannot transfer money to family members or for business transactions.

But mobile phones change all this.

Suddenly, your inexpensive mobile phone is also your life-line to the world of banking. You can use it to send money via text message, you can receive your wage via your phone, you can accept payments without carrying cash around, you can make a long journey without the risk of carrying cash with you.

All without ever visiting a bank branch or cash machine.

The real magic is that m-banking reduces transaction costs so much that it becomes profitable for banks and mobile providers to get together and start offering these services to even the poorest people while still making a profit.

You can even combine m-banking with micro-financing and suddenly people in hugely geographically dispersed areas can gain access to credit, build up a credit rating and start to build a sustainable future for themselves.

That's pretty amazing for a device that 3.7 billion people around the world carry in their pocket every day.

So yes, I think mobile phones certainly are playing a big part in saving the world.

Further reading:

There are some very exciting things going on in this space, with literally millions of people using services in Kenya (M-PESA), the Philipines (G-Cash and SMART Money) and South Africa (WIZZIT)

Last year, Western Union, present in more than 200 countries, started up a new mobile division, which in October announced an agreement with the GSM Association (representing 700-plus operators) to develop a commercial and technical framework for mobile-based global remittances.

And here are some of the best resources I found on m-banking:

CGAP Technology Program: m-banking
The CGAP Technology Program, co-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks innovative ways to use technology to reach poor people with financial services.

BusinessWeek: Upwardly Mobile Africa
Excellent article focussed on the huge impact that a single cell-phone base station had on the town of Muruguru in Kenya.

The Economist: A bank in every pocket?

The Economist: African banks: on the frontier of finance

Private Sector Development Blog

Adventuring into 2008

2008-01-02T00:21:00.000Z

Welcome to the new look life of dan!

As well as writing about the day-to-day adventuring that my life occasionally entails, the intention this year is to throw in some slightly more regular posts about a few things that are important to me: 1. technology, 2. how I see the world changing and 3. things that inspire me.

I hope you will enjoy!

The end of 2007...

Although I did slightly miss the giant exploding firework-filled puppets of Venezuelan Nuevo Año, it was great to be in Edinburgh again for both Hogmanay and Hoghogmanay. Highlights included almost being trampled by the Alloa Pipe Band as I turned a corner off George Street, mass 3-step line-dancing lessons, seeing people I hadn't seen in ages, balloon-related merriment on Princes Street and the obligatory waking up in a room full of about 20 other people. That's what New Year is all about in Edinburgh, and I do enjoy it.

And the start of 2008...

Anyway, what will 2008 bring? Potatoes, yes, hopefully the chance to meet up with a couple good friends "from" Venezuela in Europe in February/March and the great mission of finding an awesome place to live then living there, either in London or Woking (one being more likely to be awesome, the other being more likely to be a sensible decision - hmm, which sounds more like me?)

In the meantime, I'm just waiting for a sunny but non-windy day for the debut launch of my giant solar airship. Sisters choose the best gifts.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope to share many adventures with lots of you in 2008!