What a week. I went to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, and that was only the third most interesting thing that happened in the last week.
Some work things I did this week
Recruiting. Lots of it. Three different roles for two different programmes.
After my recent shoutout for content designers I had a whole run of back-to-back intro meetings with content folk. It was great to talk to people about our projects and where they might fit in, but I quickly learned 15 minutes is not long enough to do this, and it’s exhausting doing these back to back.
Lesson learned: In future it’s 30 min slots and a good 15 min buffer in-between.
This content programme is still being defined but we have a much clearer idea how we’re going to resource it and confident we have plenty of great people in our network who can help us deliver.
I’m a little daunted by how much there is to do, and that isn’t helped by having two programmes about to start, neither of which has the detail mapped out. We’re hoping that becomes clearer in the next week or so.
Also did some workshop planning (which I love) and a lot of spreadsheet-wrangling (which I do not).
Some non-work things I did this week
My politics is hardly a secret – I’ve been a member of the Labour Party since I was a teenager. But despite poll after poll predicting a landslide I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that somehow they couldn’t be right and I’m about to be disappointed again.
Fortunately I had something to take my mind off endlessly scrolling Twitter till the result came in: a lovely friend Cate had booked us tickets for Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour for that evening.
I’m not even that much of a Swiftie (especially given The Incident), but the woman is an absolute icon and everyone says the show is a production not to be missed. And they were all correct.
So I went all in. Spent weeks listening to the Eras playlist. Ordered sequin-covered clothes that made me a walking mirrorball in the afternoon sun (here for it: should wear more sequins). Jonathan’s daughter even made me some friendship bracelets to swap at the show. I could bore you on how enjoyable this dorkiness was, but The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis has already done it here, and better.
“Lots of us are basic, and we deserve music too… Swift survived the gladiatorial arena of early social media, refusing to slink away or shrink herself. She takes every setback she’s suffered and gives it a hook that begs to be sung in the car. And she has offered millions of teenagers—and their parents—the purest freedom of all, the freedom to be an absolute dork.”
And dorky we were, singing along for nearly four hours with Swifties who’d come from all corners of the globe to the Johann Cruiff Arena here in Amsterdam, waving our arms in the air and watching the twinkling of the remote controlled lights on 70,000 wristbands. And it was kind of magical.
As we left the stadium, our wristbands still blinking in and out, my phone buzzed. It was the exit poll: a Labour landslide. 14 years, over. Time for the Labour Era.
But like I said, that was only the third most important thing that happened this week. On Friday morning – on close to no sleep after staying up to watch the results come in – I flew back to the UK for my baby brother Martin’s wedding. Which was colourful and joyous and had the most banging playlist you can imagine. Had my whole family together for the first time in years too ☺️
What a week. Exhausting but brilliant in every way.
Connections
I finally met the internet’s Simon Wilson, who happens to live in Saltaire, Yorkshire, where my brother had his wedding. We talked about design, government and the ups and downs of buying a doer-upper.
Hotels
It’s been a while since I stayed in a classic British regional town non-chain hotel. What it lacked in hairdryer quality and water glass volume it made up for in friendliness and fry-up. I didn’t hate it.
This tweet from Anon Opinion wasn’t me, but I had so many people ask that I have to concede it easily could have been.
What I’m reading
In a largely futile attempt to minimise packing for the UK trip I left last week’s unfinished read (Hags) at home and chucked my Kindle in my bag. So I started Amsterdam: A History Of the World’s Most Liberal City on the plane. An enjoyable and well-researched (if slightly dated) read on the culture and history of the city I now call home, but one I feel compelled to rush through as I hate having two books on the go at once.
Sharon O'Dea 