One Woman’s View is now a book and officially on sale, you can order one on Facebook by sending me a message or it will be available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and on Cassaro Crafts at https://cassaro-crafts.sumupstore.com from tomorrow.
My first novel The Gabellotto’s Daughter is available for preorder on most eboook platforms now. The paperback comes out on August 22nd
https://books2read.com/u/mqY6NO
I’ve just finished an incredible week at Boomi World London. The technology Boomi has launched over the past year is genuinely mind-blowing — and tonight, after the event wound down, I finally had time to let it all settle.
Something came up repeatedly throughout the week that I want to reflect on: fear.
People kept asking — colleagues, partners, customers — “How are we going to cope with all of this AI? Is it going to take our jobs? Change everything we know?” And honestly? Those feelings are valid. Change is unsettling.
But then I thought about my mum.
She’s 85. Last year she got one of those robot vacuum cleaners. A few months before that, she’d asked me: “How is AI really going to change my life at my age?” — a fair question.
Then I remembered the vacuum. I told her: “That little machine knows where to go. He knows when he’s finished his job and goes home to charge. He even knows to change settings when he moves from the carpet in the living room to the tiles in the kitchen.”
She lit up. “He’s really smart,” she said.
“He’s smart because of AI,” I told her.
Simple use case. But it landed — and I’ve used that story many times since.
Then tonight another thread connected. One of the terms that came up at Boomi World was tokenomics— how we’re going to think about and spend AI tokens as a kind of new currency.
And I thought: tokens. That’s not a new word.
When I was a kid, tokens were what you used at the seaside arcades. Then they came back in the video arcades of my teenage years. Then home gaming consoles arrived — and the arcades faded. Then DVDs threatened to kill the cinema. Before that, VHS tapes threatened television. Then Netflix replaced the video rental shop.
Every single time, people worried. Every single time, we adapted.
We assimilated these technologies into our lives, our communities, our routines — and they became normal. Not because we stopped being human, but because we are remarkably good at finding our way through change.
So to everyone feeling a little anxious about the pace of AI right now — I hear you. But I genuinely believe we’ll find our way with this too, just as we have with every technology shift before it.
We always do.
Hi Everyone, I am pleased to tell you that I have my first book being published now. It contains many of the adventures that you have come to know through this blog and many more. I will let you know when it is available. There will be physical books as well as an e-book for Kindle!
Disclaimer: (Anyone who knows me understands that I am all for community work placements as long as the core skills of the role are met. Today this was not the case.)
On the first leg of my transcontinental journey today I started with a 45 minute delay. No problem there. I landed in Dallas and was met by my wheelchair attendant who firstly I thought was going to go into cardiac arrest while pushing me from the plane to the gate area. I briefly felt better when we arrived and there was no need for CPR. Secondly. the respite was short lived as I heard him whispering to himself. I ignored it thinking he was cursing his luck for getting an oversized passenger. I soon realised he was also answering himself. I know my situation was a bit complex with having to pick up my bag to have it re-checked for my London trip but he was clearly confused and when I asked him if he knew where we needed to go he responded with. “oh yea, sure”, in a bad impression of a Texas accent. It went rapidly sideways from here to the point of taking me outside of security and immediately back in where I had to go through the whole TSA routine for the second time in 15 minutes. Next thing I know we are once again outside of security to check my one bag , which has been doing the rounds with us. Finally we got my bag re-checked and guess where we had to go next? Yep, through security. This time the TSA guy just looked at me and laughed.
The wheelchair attendant was now ramping up his “internal dialogue” with “did you hear that?” I was under no illusion that he was talking to me. After passing the airline lounge (that was our intended destination), we circled back. As we arrived at the lounge check in desk I was saying my grateful goodbyes to my attendant only to hear the lounge check in guy say “oh ma’am you have access to the Flagship Lounge, it is much nicer there.” I said I was more than happy to stay where I was and he insisted I would feel more comfortable at the other lounge. I mouthed to him that I would go if he called a different attendant to take me as I was convinced by this point that my guy had a machete and a Voo doo doll stashed somewhere waiting for me!
An hour after arriving in Dallas I made it safe and sound to the Flagship Lounge with the able assistance of my second wheelchair attendant, whom I tipped generously! Okay, two more legs to go, let’s hope it is completely uneventful.
A few minor hiccups but all in all it was a great trip. I had good feedback on my presentation and I think I got people excited about Boomi. That is my job and I love it! I also made my first magazine cover. Well along with four other people but my face was still there and inside a very good article. I will say it was good as it was written in German so I have to take my colleagues word for it. On the plane home now which is always a wonderful feeling no matter how good the trip was.
Next trip is Las Vegas in 8 days time. Hopefully I will not come back with Covid or any other nastiness this time. Until then have a good one.
It is March 4th and apparently it is Carnival week as well as half term. What does it mean? It means that every family with children are on my train from Frankfurt. I knew it was Shrove Tuesday as I was hoping my day would be filled with pancakes and goodness. Instead I have a family with 11 children sitting in the three rows in front of me. The youngest is the only girl and she is about 2. She knows she is the boss and now everyone on this train knows it too. Heaven forbid one of the boys wants to sit in any seat because at that exact moment, Little Madame decides that is her seat, her book, her airspace.
The other thing I was not expecting was for the trains to run late. My train was delayed by 30 minutes by the time it arrived. We pulled out of the station and 3 metres later we stopped for 20 minutes. Finally got going and 5 minutes later we stopped again. I asked the young lady next to me why we kept stopping because the announcements were in German only, she said “because it is Deutsche Bahn. Don’t worry we will get there eventually.” I have travelled to and through Germany many times but never by train. We are almost at my stop so I will keep you posted on any thrilling updates from this trip.
We are now well and truly into the new year and the time has come to hit the road once again. Keep an eye on my blog to catch the best and worst moments of business traveling. If you haven’t seen any of my blogs on travel go back and take a look. Everything from stopping traffic for the daily water buffalo migration through the city, to being in traffic next to a cab when the elderly gentleman decides to pop his dentures out, to finding out why Business Class travellers are more flatulent than Economy Travellers.
As the new travel season kicks off I will, as always, record the highs and lows of life on the road. First up, an across the pond trip to Texas, then back to the UK before crossing the big water again bound for Las Vegas.
Looking forward to all the upcoming adventures, watch this space!
A few years ago I thought that I had reached a point in my career where I should start to throttle back and stop looking and reaching for the next thing. Maybe it was time to put this endless drive , to do better and be better , into a lower gear. I tried and failed miserably, I had to accept I am someone who thrives on pressure.. I actually perform better in this kind of environment and I was not ready to stop pushing my own boundaries personally or professionally.
On the personal front I decided it was time to get a hobby and learn an artistic skill. I was entering my later 50’s when I made this decision. I chose to learn to throw pottery. I will tell you that I do not have a creative bone in my body but I have always admired potters. Pamela bought me a short taster course and I was hooked. I started taking more courses (one and two day chances to improve) I am still not not a good potter but that doesn’t matter to me because I love it. It is the first time in my life that it did not bother me that I wasn’t “good” at something I do it for the enjoyment. Wow!
What was next, job change, yes that was another boundary push because we were just coming out of COVID and the world was suddenly an uncertain place but for me no better time to take the next leap. I landed at an amazing company with a fantastic job.
One year in and loving my potting and my job I got a chance to fulfil a life-long ambition, to learn to speak Italian. My awesome employer provides a learning platform which has one to one instruction on everything from Pilates to business coaching to languages. I took this incredible opportunity and after six months of classes 2 times a week I finally I had a breakthrough.
My instructor, who has the patience of Job, would tell me to “think in Italian not English.” She might have well said go take a walk on the moon. I had no idea how to do this. She says “it will just happen if you keep trying. “ So, when I have meetings with my Italian colleagues I always try to use my Italian. When I get to visit Italy, I order my food, I don’t always get what I thought I ordered but that is an adventure too. I talk to the taxi drivers who don’t mind me trying my nascent skills out on them, but I still can’t “think in Italian”.
Well today that changed. While on a flight to Dallas I was listening to some short stories in Italian. (A friend who is learning French on the same platform told me that it doesn’t matter if you can’t really understand it, it will help your pronunciation and accent. ) It has been frustrating not to understand what is being said, catching only a few words and short phrases but today when I was listening I subconsciously stopped trying to understand and just let the words flow past me me. Suddenly, I realised I could understand the context of what was being said. How did that happen? Then I got it, I was thinking in Italian not in English! I still have a long way to go before I can get more words than I miss but I could understand!! What a feeling, it truly is hard to explain the joy and satisfaction I felt.
The moral of the story is in the title. Keep pushing, keep testing yourself. It is worth the effort.
Hi Everyone, it has been way too long since I have posted anything and I want to get back to it. Let’s see a lot has happened for all of us recently and I wasn’t sure where to start. Maybe the best place is on my recent travels as traveling is always great fodder for my blog.
My wife joined me on a recent business trip where we traveled to Copenhagen. Like many of you, my wife, had not traveled much since COVID as the thought of being on a plane with people coughing and sneezing still does not appeal. We just boarded the plane and in the row in front us on the other side of the aisle, a man sneezed or rather more like exploded. He did not even attempt to cover his mouth and Pam elbowed me in the ribs and said “don’t breathe!” This is our code for pull your shirt up over your face so you don’t breathe in someone else’s bio matter. We just resurfaced when the guy erupted for the second time, again with no attempt to contain the sneeze. The instruction not to breathe was given again. At this point Pam was either going to deck the guy or get off the plane. I managed to get her to stay on the plane which was a good thing since we were already taxiing.
The next day we ventured into the city early to have a look around before meeting some friends for lunch. As we walked around a lovely pedestrianised area we saw a man pulling a food van with the name “Dan’s Sausage” written on it. We both laughed out loud. Then we saw a nice arcade of shops. Pam pointed to the sign arching over the entrance. It said “Joric’s Passage” again we broke up laughing. I said if we tell people how spent our morning they wouldn’t believe us. “Well we started by seeing Dan’s Sausage and then strolled up Joric’s passage.” Not what you would expect of a couple of middle aged women.
…are you prepared? If the schools and universities close and businesses tell people to work from home that is going to mean a whole lot more family time. Forget stocking up on toilet roll, make sure your Internet is working! Netflix and Amazon Prime will be a must along with the games your kids will be playing. Don’t forget some schools and universities will move their lessons online. All those devices laying around the house (yes the ones you always ask your family why you need them all) will be put into action. Let’s hope our broadband infrastructure is able to cope with all that extra volume plus the increased number web based conference calls and virtual meetings.
If not, it might be time to dust off those old box games that have been packed away for years. Who knows maybe Monopoly or Kerplunk could save your sanity!