Just a note to share something that brought me joy as I wind down after developing and delivering the crowd safety plan for the 60th anniversary of Notting Hill Carnival with an incredible team.
It has been a privilege to be part of this phenomenal event, and an honour to work alongside some of the most kind, dedicated, talented, and inspiring people I know.
There's not much I can share about my experience but I'm thrilled to share this video.
When I was shown it a few weeks ago, I almost fell of my chair in excitement. Although I love my work and find it fascinating, most people find safety to be a boring topic. So I felt proud when the communications team turned my very dry explanation (and homemade graphics) on cordons into the most entertaining safety briefing I've ever seen.
The intention of these notes is to be swift, shorthand and capturing thoughts as they fleet by, instead of leaving them swish in my mind and slowly wither.
It seems February is OFF February. A blog post from artist Tim Arnold alerts me to the movement to "turn off distractions and reclaim your time" this month. Having switched off social media in 2025, I feel I am doing well at OFF February. Are you giving it a go?
A friend told me they felt "disgusted" when scrolling LinkedIn and feeling pressured to post. That is a strong word and made me even more determined to demonstrate that we can operate successfully without using traditional social media. Anything where someone feels a slave to makes me want to exit stage left. Especially when these shackles make a very few people a lot of money and power.
I signed up to Alexandra Franzen's free workshop (in two days time) on how to build a successful business without social media, and two friends have signed up with me. I credit Alexandra for being one of the people who inspired me to quit social media way back when (I think 2020?) (There have been a few iterations of my social media accounts as I often retrograded), alongside Cal Newport after reading his book Deep Work.
Retreating back to my website and making her my online home brings me joy. My website is a Ghost site hosted by the awesome Jannis at MagicPages.co. I value both as they are individual/independent people/organisations and Ghost have been working hard at federating our sites. They did it, and you can follow my website from many social media sites, including Flipboard, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, or wherever you get your social web feeds. There's even a network within the Ghost dashboard so you can have a profile and follow others (set up similarly to Twitter/Bluesky). Social media, the decentralised way. Oh, how Aquarius.
