298: good skills

Here I am, back from a week in Cardiff in which I spoke to about a zillion people, added ‘soothing stressed Romanians’ to my skillset along with troubleshooting live web feeds, managing operations for five competitions and generally being the little ray of sunshine that you all know and love.

Yes, it was the WorldSkills UK National Finals again – last year we were in the frozen North (well, Manchester in the snow), and this year it was my hometown. I was placed at University of South Wales (turns out the neighbours are prisoners, not student halls…) looking after 3D Game Art, Graphic Design, Digital Media Production, Accountancy Technicians and Web Development. It’s such a great way to get some perspective, and I also managed to meet a lot of Illustration, Graphic Design and Animation tutors, someone from OfQual (we need to talk, I said) and the head of Inspiring Excellence in Wales. I convinced the library to do a National Illustration Day display, and saw live Welsh music at the launch of the Ymgolli/Immersed 2026 Festival. Students are still wearing Stone Roses and Nirvana T-shirts – nothing changes!

WorldSkills is a brilliant scheme embedding technical and professional education into the skills economy. There’s UK finals, Euros and Internationals and taking part opens a lot of industry doors for young people, building confidence and benchmarking against the rest of the world. My Graphic Design team, for example, were working to a real-life brief set by a marketing agency. Competitors come from FE colleges, apprenticeships, the army and industry, and the two competition days are intense.

I love Cardiff – even after 28 years in London/Essex, Wales is my hearthome – and I especially loved the reactions of my colleagues to normal Welsh interactions. They were initially a bit perturbed that every time anyone came to register, it became a full-on chat. It’s what we do in Wales – we talk to people, we like to know what’s occurring. It’s a habit that’s served me well over the years.

I also loved….

Seeing the Medal Ceremony: my favourite 3D Digital Game Art geek won, I got to escort some overwhelmed winners, got a hug from my stressed Romanian, and met several very proud parents (‘We’ve been divorced 9 years and we’ve been holding hands the whole time!)
Catching up with some of the competitors, tutors and competition leads from last year – sad not to have Cyber Security again though!
Being told ‘Have a lush day, love!’ by someone exiting a lift.
Hearing Welsh and the Cardiff accent everywhere I went.
Dragons. Someone abandoned a flag at the end of the ceremony – I adopted it and brought it back to Essex with me.

Dinner and a good gossip with my friend Jen, who I don’t get to see nearly enough. Fat Hippo burger and a Cherry Negroni, in case you wondered.
Pho with Isla when we’d had enough of hotel food
Happy nighttime buskers under a clock on St Mary Street
The magical projections on Cardiff Central Station, animating Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. I did let Jen off sitting through the whole thing with me

Lunchtime coffee with cousins
Wandering around Cardiff looking at lights and clocks
Late night putting the world to rights and singing along to classic rock when we decided to bomb back to London on Friday night

Cackling gangs of Welsh women out on a girls’ day – ‘we’ve only had one!’ – insisting on a selfie with a passing stag group.
A quiet hot chocolate in the sunshine, reading my book on Friday morning waiting for Miriam. Peace….
Taking my family out to dinner last night. I missed them, and I’m pretty sure at least some of them noticed I was gone.

That’s been my week! Looking forward to next year back in Cardiff again.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

The Fabric of Sin/To Dream of the Dead – Phil Rickman (Audible)

The Kingdom of the Blind- Louise Penny

297: is it time for the big coat?

Way back in the late 90s when I was a primary school teacher, we were talking one morning about how we celebrated Christmas/Eid (other celebrations are available, of course). There was a child in my class who I was pretty sure was a 70 year old man in a 5 year old’s body, and we sat bemused as he described Christmas where he and his cousin woke up and after they’d opened their stockings they went outside every year to play in the snow. He was adamant that this was what they did every year, because it snowed every year where they live (round the corner from the school, as it happened). Mind you, he was also firmly convinced that I lived in the school, and when I had my hair cut he asked which scissors I’d used.

Anyway. The point of that story was that it’s not even nearly Christmas but while we were waiting for a bus on Wednesday there was snow falling from the sky, but not enough to play in. Winter does seem to have landed though, with several hard frosts and serious contemplation of the Big Coat. Our new office turns out to be quite chilly, too – the downside of the lovely big windows – so the work blanket and wrist warmers are at the ready.

I do like winter, but not when it’s raining – wind and cold yes, wet and cold no. Cold and sunny is best, with clear skies in the morning when I go to work and the stars are still out. Good views of Mars at this time of year, which tells me it’s too damn early…

Apparently it’s going to be double figures and damp again this week, at least in Cardiff where I’m working on the World Skills UK Championships. Maybe not quite time for the Big Coat yet!

Other things making me happy this week

The British Library’s family festival on Saturday – creating imaginary worlds with families using Beth Suzanna’s gorgeous backdrop collages
Dark evenings walking back through Clerkenwell and the City. The route back to various stations passes through some very old bits of London.

Finishing all the Christmas puddings for Epping Xmas Market
Making plans to catch up with old friends next week
Not the Central

Now I’d better go and pack before Miriam comes to get me!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Legacy of Arniston House – T.L.Huchu

A Slowly Dying Cause – Elizabeth George

The Remains of an Altar/The Fabric of Sin – Phil Rickman (Audible)

The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening – Naomi Kuttner

A Fellowship of Librarians and Dragons/A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic – J. Penner, These are described as ‘cozy fantasy’. I should know better.

296: empathy for the Breville

or, now I know how a panini feels (this was the original title, but you may have noticed that I can’t resist a bad pun)

Well, this week I had a new experience, albeit one I’ve been expecting since June 2023 when I turned 50. On Monday I had my first mammogram: usually you get the call when you turn 50 but it takes more than two years to get to the letter ‘S’ in the alphabet, apparently.

The weather was truly appalling on this most auspicious of days, and I was soaked through by the time I waded through the ~~lake~~ car park at St Margaret’s Hospital to the mobile screening unit. Inside it was quite cosy with the rain hammering down on the roof, bringing back memories of summer caravan holidays in Wales. All it required was a seagull tapdancing on the skylight and my dad insisting that the mist would burn off and the illusion would have been complete.

Dear readers, I am not normally given to stripping down to the waist in public carparks but needs must when the radiographer says so. It was at least warm in the unit, but far from being given ‘privacy to undress’ as described in the leaflet she was in the room the whole time. Still, as she was about to get familiar with my assets…

It was marginally less undignified than a smear test but I did feel as if there should have been an opportunity for some stretches first since contortionism isn’t to be attempted with no prior warm-up at my age. Grace is, of course, my middle name* so I handled the whole thing with my usual aplomb and didn’t creak once. Well, not much. And not audibly.

The very space age machine I was confronted with looked like nothing more than a high tech sandwich toaster, with a metal plate on the bottom and a perspex tray above. In NI, apparently, you must put your boob in the tray (and it did have a handy cut out on the top) but here in Essex they grasp your assets firmly, drape you artistically (er…) around the machine, mutter ‘pressure coming, hold your breath’ and use the bottom of the tray to squish you to the plate. Twice, from different angles. And then they do the other boob.

A top tip had been to make sure I ate beforehand, as unlike when you give blood no one gives you Tovali lemon squash and a Mint Club afterwards. This would have made the whole experience a lot more fun, and might have given the rain a chance to slack off before I left, too.

Still, in two weeks or so I should have the results and anything weird can be followed up on quickly. Like smear tests, these aren’t fun but they do have the potential to save your life so for the sake of five minutes out of your day go and get checked out when the call comes. You can buy yourself a whole pack of Mint Clubs afterwards as a reward.

*It actually is. Or one of them anyway.

Things making me happy this week

My line manager shared her pictures from an exhibition at The Whitworth in Manchester – The Beginnings of Knowledge by Santiago Yahuarcani, a Peruvian artist. I don’t often fall completely for art but his pink river dolphins and mermaids enchanted me so much I ordered a print. It makes me happy every time I look at it.
Lovely neighbour Sue helping me take lots of bags to the charity shop
Fox’s Party Ring biscuits, and Thing 2’s latest cookie experiments (brown butter, Gingerbread Oreos and Smarties)
Not the Central Line, whose definition of ‘good service’ included a 49 minute delay this week. Also not people who think Christmas trees and full outdoor light shows are acceptable on 11 November. They’re not. Stop it.
My new Schools and Families Producer starting. Now I just need to let go of some stuff.
An interesting masterclass on bringing creativity back into education, and the Curriculum Review recommending the abolition of the EBacc.
All my friends in Monmouth being safe and dry, despite Storm Claudia doing her worst on Friday night/Saturday morning

Now back to the Christmas crochet! This week I’m looking forward to a session with lovely Play Build Play exploring the potential of our playful furniture with local families,

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Echo of Crows – Phil Rickman

The Smile of a Ghost/The Remains of an Altar – Phil Rickman (Audible)

A Slowly Dying Cause – Elizabeth George, whose grasp of British idiom has not improved.

295: team efforts

On Monday we finally announced that the new Centre will be opening in May 2026 – thank you to all the people who shared the various articles with me via Facebook, Instagram and so on. Maybe in case I hadn’t noticed what we’d been working on for the past several years? It’s good to know that people are as excited as we are about the project.

What *I* am most excited about, however, is the fact that I finally have a learning team again – well, I will on Tuesday when the Schools and Families Producer joins us. For the last 18 months or so it’s just been me and half a Community Partnerships Producer (albeit a most excellent one).

We started recruiting for these roles in July, shortlisted in August and interviewed in September. We had an amazing response, with 90 or so applications for the Schools and Families role and 40 for the Community Partnerships jobshare.

Out of interest and because AI is a big topic of conversation at the moment, I ran our job descriptions through ChatGPT just to see what it would come up with. As it turned out, during shortlisting I saw what it came up with – word for word – multiple times in the sifting process. Some of the applicants had made the effort to personalise their applications but most hadn’t. Fortunately we had some outstanding applicants for both roles and the problem was narrowing them down to a manageable number of interviewees. Honestly – please don’t rely solely on AI. We can tell. We want to know about you and your experiences, not what ChatGPT has filtered out of your CV and my JD. I also asked ChatGPT to create a set of interview questions and avoided asking them…

I decided to do the first round of interviews via Teams, as they were only 45 minutes long. As it turned out the dates coincided with a week of tube strikes across the London Underground, so being online made it easier. I didn’t ask the applicants to do a presentation in the first round, but rather used the interview as an opportunity to find out more about them. We shared most of the questions in advance for both interviews, which has become good practice for recruitment in the last few years. Job interviews are quite stressful enough, and after all it’s extremely unlikely that in the actual role you’ll ever be asked to think on your feet in the same way again. We also start interviews online by saying that we know life happens around you – cats, kids, doorbells, tech issues and so on – and that we’re very relaxed. We’re a pragmatic organisation in general – possibly due to having a female leadership team who understands the emotional load rather than, say, a male-oriented leadership team whose wives (or nannies) understand the emotional load and how it impacts the day-to-day. It does make a huge difference.

Second interviews were in person and we asked the candidates to do a short presentation. One asked how long they were expected to spend prepping for it as it felt like free labour. I’ve spent days on these things before, as they are for a job I really want though we set a suggested time of a couple of hours. However, I do know of people who have created these presentations, not been given the job, and then found their ideas reproduced by the organisation’s shop, for example. Unethical or what? I like to use the presentations as an opportunity to gauge attention to detail, creative thinking and presentation skills as there’s an element of delivery and public interaction in these roles.

With the communities role the second interview was also so that the other half of the jobshare could meet them – they’d be working closely together after all. All the candidates were great but the successful one – in both interviews – gave me exactly the same warmth and generosity vibes as the other half does. They had their first day together this week and it made me very happy. The synchronised goodbye at the end of the day was highly entertaining, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with for communities as the programme develops.

The Schools and Families person starts this week – she was outstanding in both interviews, despite having Covid in the second one – and I think the programme will be in safe hands. Then I can concentrate on the creative programme and the strategic side of the job instead of being 3.5 people at once. Hurray! It’s so good to be part of building a team that’s going to bring the Centre to life at last.

Other things making me happy this week

Helping out at the local fireworks event run by the primary school and Scouts – working behind the bar again, with help from Thing 2. We ran out of hot chocolate…
Welshcakes – always a hit. Fairly sure there won’t be any left for the team.
My first winter swim (having failed to get in last week) at 9.1 degrees. Once I was in it was amazing. Just Jill and I, but lovely to see Nikki and Jenny for the first time in AGES.
Coffee with Amanda on Thursday, putting the world to rights
The return of the Christmas sandwich and festive hot chocolates
Lidl’s Toulouse sausages in a toad-in-the-hole.

That’s it from me – today holds Christmas crochet and laundry. Of course.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Long Way Home/The Nature of the Beast/A Great Reckoning/Glass Houses – Louise Penny

Prayer of the Night Shepherd/The Smile of a Ghost – Phil Rickman (Audible)

294: the best laid plans

There are moments where life is just too…. peopley. Last Sunday was one of those moments. It was the first weekend in what felt like months (it was months, to be fair) where I didn’t have to be anywhere, there were no plans afoot and no one required my presence. I’d booked the Monday off as Thing 1 had an appointment, I had some fabric from the Stitch show which needed to be turned into something, and my living room was not full of teenagers. I was going to cut out the fabric on the Saturday, do my ironing first thing on the Sunday and then spend the day making a new version of the Folkwear Basics jacket.

Readers, I do not need to tell you that man plans and god laughs. Oh yes, she does. Loud and long. By early evening on the Saturday I had managed to cut out the outer fabric and then one of the big girls turned up with GT2 and his daddy in tow, all of whom then slept on my living room floor so sewing was out of the question. So was the ironing. I was disgruntled and after kicking about for a bit I threw all my toys out of the pram and stomped off to Harlow to meet Miriam for a coffee. Harlow was equally peopley but none of them a) were asleep on my floor or b) required anything from me.

Work has been particularly paper-based recently, without opportunities to be creative (some months are like that). It’s been productive in terms of gettng projects started and thinking about chairs and signage and practical things, but sometimes I really need to get hands-on and create something substantial with an outcome I can see and feel. This was one of those times, but instead I drank hot chocolate at Geek Retreat and went food shopping in Lidl, where I resisted all middle-of-Lidl things (yay me!) but did get some rum and raisin ice cream. Rum and raisin is my favourite, and it’s surprisingly hard to get hold of.

The creativity had to wait until Monday – the one benefit to the clocks going back was the inability to sleep past 6am. The ironing was done by 9am, with the help of a couple of episodes of Northern Exposure, and I managed to cut out the lining pieces from a piece of deadstock fabric in sunny orange before taking Thing 1 to her appointment.

This jacket pattern comes together really quickly – the two lining pieces and the two outer pieces are stitched together down the centre back, the sides and sleeves are sewn before putting them together and bagging out through a sleeve. The sleeves are bound with a bias bind which I chose to turn fully to the inside with a deep hem. The whole thing is top-stitched and voila! One new jacket. It’s an oversized style which is great for layering over hoodies and jumpers, and I do love a layer.

I also made a bag with the leftover fabric – another quick make using the Robin & Birch Nori Kimono Bag pattern. I made the large size and omitted the central ties, mainly because I never use them on the smaller version I’ve made. The finished jacket and bag (I won’t use them together!) are really tactile thanks to the fluffy fringes, and they have a good weight to them. It also has big patch pockets. Of course.

I felt a lot better after an afternoon of making and a lot of rum and raisin ice cream.

Other things making me happy this week

Crocheting yet more tiny things that fit in small jars – a tiddly pud this time. It needs some work, and also some googly eyes.

Testing ideas for a charity event we’re taking part in in December – glowing lanterns. Now to tell my colleagues they’ll be helping me cut things out for the next few weeks…
Panic buying sweeties for trick or treating, and now we have to eat them as we only had two. Mmm, Drumstick lollies.
Making banana bread with Maltesers – I forgot to put the eggs in though but hopefully there were enough bananas to make up for it!
Hobbycraft with Miriam, her Thing 1 and my Thing 2. There were these notebooks…
Bara Brith in the oven – I have a new starter this week on my team and I haven’t baked this for a while. Even I can’t get this wrong.
Making a lot of crochet ‘pigs’ to go in blankets….

Today I am to the lake for the first time in aaaages, and I’m SO looking forward to it. Really.

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Lamp of the Wicked/Prayer of the Night Shepherd – Phil Rickman (Audible)

How the Light Gets In/The Beautiful Mystery – Louise Penny