Speech went well at MMU last night and my self-proclamation of being the new “Captain Carbon” for Manchester went down well. Just to give you a sense of how important it is we all tackle climate change, take a look at this clock which counts down the 100 months until an irreversible tipping point is reached in global core temperatures http://www.onehundredmonths.org/

After the talk, I met a couple of lovely people we know for a drink in the bar at The Palace Hotel. A delightful Scottish couple – in their sixties – from Fort William, who we met on New Years Eve this year, they’ve decided to take a mini-break in Manchester. It feels like we’ve known them forever already and they are so genuine, warm-hearted and honest. Friendships like this don’t appear that often and I feel lucky that our paths crossed.

In today’s time pressurised, “make it convenient for me” world, I used the valet parking at Manchester airport for the first time last week. Pull up outside the terminal, man greets you, unload your luggage he drives off in your car to be safely returned back to the arrivals halls when you get back. Supremely convenient, cheap (£36 for 4 nights) and prevents the usual horror of catching one of those buses in the long stay. Big clap for the people providing this service.

I’m still trying to see of a chest infection which I developed whilst away in Majorca last week. It’s meant I’ve spent pretty much all week at home, sat at the laptop, feeling pretty unenergetic. I’ll be glad to see the back of it. Funny that it’s all fallen apart now that I’m 40! It’s what everyone warned me of and I’ve stayed positive, deflecting all talk of life change and saying goodbye to your 30′s etc, I thought that was all nonsense. All i’ll say is what I proclaimed on my birthday, I’m going to be a “GOD”, that is someone that “Grows Old Disgracefully”.

Found a good website this week, which is a forum for sharing ideas around innovation and productivity, there’s lots of good stuff on there if you have the time to browse. http://www.lifehack.org/

After a years break (or in other words after giving up blogging after 3 attempts in 2007), I’m back blogging and am having another shot at laying down some pearls of wisdom for all to see. Every time I see Michael Taylor, Editor of Insider Magazine, he dutifully reminds me that it’s not that difficult to keep up and how I should get back doing it, so Michael this one’s for you.

To give a quick summary of the last year.

–>I turned 40
–>I’ve been made Vice-President of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
–>I’ve managed to pick up a few awards again in the region and the industry for things that I’ve done
–>My 60GB ipod is getting dangerously close to capacity so I’m still waiting for a bigger version to come out
–>I’m getting more and more reflective as I get older
–>My concern of the level of CO2 emmissions that businesses emit grows and i’m going to do what I can to increase knowledge in this area

Latest books that I’ve read: -

Meatball Sundae – Seth Godin (Excellent book about new marketing and I’m going to read some of his other stuff as I thought this was well written and very thought provoking)
The Zen Commandments – Dean Sluyter (Defo worth a read if you into self-enlightenment)
The Speed of Trust – Steven Covey (Good reminder of being honest with people)
Beat the 2008 Recession – Nicholas Bate (Focuses on doing the basics well, more aimed at SME’s)

Books on the side that I’m starting on next

The Leader on the Couch – Manfried Kets de Vries
Going to re-read Good to Great for the Hell of it – Jim Smith

Tonight I’ll be speaking at Manchester Metropolitan University about how to reduce your carbon footprint when using office technology as part of their zero carbon exhibition week. Here’s a thought for you, every piece of A4 paper has an embedded energy of around 17W. If you don’t print on both sides of the paper on your office printer, then you chuck away 8.5W of energy. MMU outputs around 47M sheets of paper a year, so there’s an easy win to be had.