Nationality is confusing isn’t it? At least, it is for me. Last night I went to see West Belfast hip-hop band Kneecap at the Bitterzoet, easily the greatest concentration of Irish people I’ve ever experienced in a single room here in Amsterdam.

I’m one of them. While at the same time I’m not. I have an Irish passport, but I’ve never lived there, don’t have the accent and – importantly – only experienced the events and cultural experiences referenced in Kneecap’s controversial lyrics second-hand. At a gig heavy with political lines I felt more of an observer than a participant.

Later today I’m going to the pub with my friends to watch the Euro 2024 final, where I’ll be supporting England. But I don’t think of myself as English specifically. British, sure, but not necessary that constituent nation, despite being born and living most of my life there.

When England played the Netherlands earlier in the week I watched the game at a friend’s place, hearing the cheers and boos from the nearby pub as England scored their last-second win. In truth I’d have been happy with either winning; Amsterdam would have been a lot of fun today if they’d made it through to the final.

But now England are through to the final I’ll be putting on a red and white top and hoping it’s coming home.

Like I said, it’s complicated. On the whole it doesn’t matter. I live an international city where such experiences are common, and no one cares. But it does make choosing sporting allegiances harder. And every now and then – like last night – I’m reminded that I’m not one nationality or the other, but nor do I really belong to the place where I live. I exist in a kind of liminal national identity.

I asked Dall-E to create a photorealistic picture of the flags of England, Ireland and the Netherlands flying, and it’s even more confused than I am.

Some things I did this week

It was a frustrating week. We’ve got two projects about to start, but both are still with procurement. We’ve got client teams dying to get cracking, and a talented team stuck on the bench waiting for the green light. We made progress this week, but neither is quite over the line yet.

More positively, an intranet we’ve been working on for a while is really starting to take shape now. The first teams are publishing content, and suddenly the thing we’ve been talking about for months is becoming a reality. Seeing it in practice, people are suddenly alive to the potential it offers to change the way communicators work and employees find what they need. And that’s really satisfying.

When I started my own business no one warned me how much admin is involved. The business is going great guns; we’re landing juicy (and progressively bigger) projects. Our pipeline’s very healthy and we’re hiring some great people. But with that comes a proportional increase in paperwork. It feels like more and more of my time is spent on sales, onboarding or admin. Things I’m not good at and don’t enjoy.

I guess we need to look at hiring an ops person soon.

Some non-work things I did this week

I’m not exactly green-fingered. The other week I had to throw a cactus in the bin as I couldn’t even keep that low-maintenance plant happy.

In an attempt to prove I can, in fact, handle responsibility for living things I did a workshop to learn to make a terrarium. It was fun. I learned a bit about terrarium environments, how they work, and how to make one. Then got my hands dirty and made one. It’s cute.

The terrarium is now 27 hours old and is still alive.

Connections

I had a few drinks with my friend Lauren, a longtime global nomad who is working on a moonshot project to build a country on the internet. We talked about the joys and frustrations of being a global citizen and someone who’s on the move a lot. We both know people all over the place. So how do you know who’s where, so you can catch up if your travel plans coincide?

Luckily, someone’s on the case. Lauren introduced me to former Uber exec Lindsey Elkin, who is building Yayem, a private network and platform for curious travellers, global citizens, and next-gen nomads. I had a good chat with her about it, and about being a person who calls two or more places home.

What I’m reading

Not a lot. I worked late every day this week so managed another chapter of Hags but that’s it.

Travel

A whole week at home. The simple joy of not living out of a suitcase.

I’m in London (Shoreditch) at the end of this coming week. Shout if you are too and let’s grab coffee.