Meeting Gold Medal Winners

Busy one this week! A few things to tell you about, so I’ll get a move on…

Overtime

It appears I’ll never learn… It goes on.

Instagram

I joined Instagram just 4 short days ago and I already love it. You can get Instagram on both iOS and Android and I urge you to download it immediately if you haven’t already (I’m pretty late to this particular party). Phoneography is massive; there are so many blogs out there all vying to give you the best tips on how to make your phone snaps the most edgy/arty/hip/loved. I’ve started uploading but you can only see my portfolio (too far?) by getting the app yourself...

GoalBall

Medal winners...and Howard

Ever heard of GoalBall?... No, neither had I. On Tuesday evening I left work and headed for Queen Mary’s University SU to meet an Olympian and Paralympian…as you do. We saw Amy Williams’ gold medal (it was HUGE) that she won for GB in the Skeleton at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. We also saw one of ex-GB swimmer Giles Long’s Paralympic gold medals (he has three in total, as well as two silver and two bronze) that he won at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. The event was for TfL and LU employees and was one of several engagement sessions that have been running over the past months to get employees excited about the Games. I was actually only there to make up the numbers… On Monday afternoon I had received an email asking for people to register for the event as they hadn’t had enough sign up – the day sessions were full but the post-5pm event still had space…funny that. Anyway, I was happy to go, it sounded interesting…and we got food and drinks. Bonus.

GoalBall!

When we arrived we signed in, got a coffee and did a bit of networking (how wanky does that sound?!) until we were called to take our seats. Giles, Amy, and the Chief Operating Officer of LU and lead director in charge of TfL/LU’s Games delivery Howard Collins took to the stage and spoke for about an hour. Afterwards, half the group got taken to the sports hall and half of us had dinner! Another half an hour or so later the second group, me included, were lead to the sports hall and given blindfolds! Once in the gym, we were told we’d all be playing GoalBall. Rules of the game can be found HERE but in brief – two teams of 3 players defend their respective goals as they roll a large, heavy ball extremely quickly at each other attempting to score. All players are partially sighted or blind but all wear eye masks in order to level the playing field. Playing it was…eye opening (sorry). It was an incredibly strange sensations, being totally reliant on hearing and touch to figure out where you were and where the ball was! The ball has lots of small bells in it and the spectators watch in silence. Definitely worth a YouTube and I’ll be looking out for it on TV during the Paras.

Euros

I won’t say too much...just in case. But we’re doing alright, eh?

And what do Italians know about tournament football anyway………………………………….

Delish!

Sunshine boozing

Manchester get-together

Lovely weather on Wednesday meant the Manchester Meet-Up could, once again, be an outdoors affair. We bagged seats and a table on the South Bank Centre balcony terrace and chatted away for a long time. We headed to a lovely French restaurant where I immediately opted for the Italian Platter. All in all a lovely evening and one we’ve agreed must happen more often!!

Creative Problem Solving

Today, I’ve been on a Creative Problem Solving course over in West London. I sometimes find these ‘soft skills’ courses a bit of a doss day but this one was pretty good! Got a problem, come see me… (don’t actually do that.)

TED

I tend to plan what I’m going to write in each blog as the week progresses and I was genuinely going to write about TED this week. It appears the BBC beat me to it – bastards. So now you all know about TED let me make a recommendation or two:

In my opinion, the best of the lot comes from Ken Robinson. It is brilliant, funny and totally worth 20 minutes of anyone’s time. Another was a recording of a TEDx event all about ‘Hedonistic Sustainability’… please do give them a whirl!

Hackney Weekend

IS SO SOON. And I’M SO EXCITED. More on this next week.

And I think you’re bang up to date.

Until next time,

Bren x

Ps, Don’t really get what all the Jimmy Carr fuss was about. If I had his money, I’d put it in a LEGAL tax efficiency scheme too. Surely Cameron realises hundreds of people in the UK are doing this?... including some Tory donors *ahem*GaryBarlowOBE*ahem*

Morals Schmorals.

More pics from this week: