Week 9
Mon
As I mentioned in my last blog post, I was aiming to get my note ready to send out for internal review by the end of today. After discussion with Lydia and some last minute re-structuring I made it! After smug-ly sending it off before 5:30 I raced to the train and back home to my bike to celebrate with some laps of Richmond park in the sunshine. Which rapidly disappeared and was replaced by torrential rain, leaving me soaked and freezing! On the plus side, after the downpour this beauty appeared:
Tues
It was on Tuesday morning that I realised how many things I'd left "until after I've sent my note off". I spent the morning writing up interview notes and events I've attended in the last few weeks.
My Dad met me in the afternoon after he'd had a meeting in London and we had coffee in the Jubilee cafe just off Westminster Hall: it was good to relax and I think both of us needed the break! We'd had a pretty hectic weekend at my cousin's wedding. Let's just say I'm going to buy my sister a handbag big enough for her to fit her car keys in...
After our coffee, we decided to go and see if we could get in to watch a debate in one of the houses. After consulting the Parliamentary timetable (and the fact you don't have to sit behind a glass screen) we went for the House of Lords. It was easy to get into the strangers gallery - we just went to the chamber and filled in a form with our names and addresses before being given a ticket. It was interesting to see the difference between the every day working of the Lords and Prime Minister's Questions. On the one hand the Lords seemed far more civilised, but that's only until someone wants to speak... Because there is no speaker to order proceedings in the same way, they speak until everyone else gives up and that dictates who goes next! We also played a bit of "Lords spotting" - I got Alan Sugar and Dad spotted some I'd never heard of...
After dropping Dad off at the secret parliament entrance to Westminster tube station I decided to go back to the Lords, but this time to the Moses room to a debate on scientific infrastructure: Lord Krebs was reporting back from the Science and Technology Committee. As he is the principal of the college I went to at Oxford (Jesus), and it was a topic that I thought might be interesting I went along. I had to be guided by a (very nice) policeman because I didn't know where to go. The Moses room is quite small and I'm almost certain he spotted me on my arrival but couldn't work out where from! Maybe the Jesus College alumni team might be interested in me working for POST... (Lord Krebs sits on the POST board).
Once I'd listened for about an hour, I went back to POST to collect my things and then headed to the British Library to see their Beautiful Science exhibition. This was great - some really inventive ways of presenting scientific results: not just recent ones but also going back into history. I also went to their permanent exhibition and saw some really interesting pieces.
Despite a lightning strike delaying my train home, today was a pretty good day!
Wed
I had my last interview today, with someone working on the "Building Information Modelling" taskforce at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. This was incredibly interesting, but I'm going to struggle to fit it into my note! As part of the big data theme at POST there is going to be a conclusion note - so I think this may fit well in there instead. After the interview we had another one of our big data team catch ups, to see what progress has been made with the other notes and identify any areas of overlap.
I then spent the afternoon writing up my interview notes and following up on points that had come out of it.
My evening was spent in Ham Lake - my first open water session of the year! Glorious sunshine combined with my new neoprene hat and socks meant that the temperature was tolerable and I had a great time.
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Thurs
Internal Review day!
This morning I had the internal review for my note and it was less scary than I thought it might be! In general the feedback was good, with most of the comments being about re-ordering rather than re-writing, which was nice. It was interesting to hear different perspectives and a bit odd realising that in just 2 months I've picked up some jargon...
So the internal review process comprises of one advisor from each of the 4 areas (Energy and Environment, Social, Physical and Biological) and for me one of the other fellows, Daniel, who is working on a Big Data note. Each of them read and make comments to the note beforehand which then bring along. Apart from the reading out loud, it actually works quite a lot like a ClimateSnack meeting! (see previous post)
After my review, I started to make some changes before going along to Daniel's internal review. Again, similar to ClimateSnack as it became my turn to give feedback. Sometimes this experience is just as useful as receiving it.
I began to make some of the structural changes before I headed to the gym, but it was a pretty exhausting day being in reviews...
Fri
Today I spent looking out at the gorgeous weather implementing the recommended changes to my note. You can tell the advisors have been doing this for a while: one is especially good at spotting where you can take words out to save space.
I also decided this morning that it was about time I started making the most of being in London, and booked tickets to see Wicked tonight and to try out track cycling at the Olympic Velodrome on 2nd June - nothing like a bit of spontaneity!
Mon
As I mentioned in my last blog post, I was aiming to get my note ready to send out for internal review by the end of today. After discussion with Lydia and some last minute re-structuring I made it! After smug-ly sending it off before 5:30 I raced to the train and back home to my bike to celebrate with some laps of Richmond park in the sunshine. Which rapidly disappeared and was replaced by torrential rain, leaving me soaked and freezing! On the plus side, after the downpour this beauty appeared:
Tues
It was on Tuesday morning that I realised how many things I'd left "until after I've sent my note off". I spent the morning writing up interview notes and events I've attended in the last few weeks.
My Dad met me in the afternoon after he'd had a meeting in London and we had coffee in the Jubilee cafe just off Westminster Hall: it was good to relax and I think both of us needed the break! We'd had a pretty hectic weekend at my cousin's wedding. Let's just say I'm going to buy my sister a handbag big enough for her to fit her car keys in...
After our coffee, we decided to go and see if we could get in to watch a debate in one of the houses. After consulting the Parliamentary timetable (and the fact you don't have to sit behind a glass screen) we went for the House of Lords. It was easy to get into the strangers gallery - we just went to the chamber and filled in a form with our names and addresses before being given a ticket. It was interesting to see the difference between the every day working of the Lords and Prime Minister's Questions. On the one hand the Lords seemed far more civilised, but that's only until someone wants to speak... Because there is no speaker to order proceedings in the same way, they speak until everyone else gives up and that dictates who goes next! We also played a bit of "Lords spotting" - I got Alan Sugar and Dad spotted some I'd never heard of...
After dropping Dad off at the secret parliament entrance to Westminster tube station I decided to go back to the Lords, but this time to the Moses room to a debate on scientific infrastructure: Lord Krebs was reporting back from the Science and Technology Committee. As he is the principal of the college I went to at Oxford (Jesus), and it was a topic that I thought might be interesting I went along. I had to be guided by a (very nice) policeman because I didn't know where to go. The Moses room is quite small and I'm almost certain he spotted me on my arrival but couldn't work out where from! Maybe the Jesus College alumni team might be interested in me working for POST... (Lord Krebs sits on the POST board).
Once I'd listened for about an hour, I went back to POST to collect my things and then headed to the British Library to see their Beautiful Science exhibition. This was great - some really inventive ways of presenting scientific results: not just recent ones but also going back into history. I also went to their permanent exhibition and saw some really interesting pieces.
Despite a lightning strike delaying my train home, today was a pretty good day!
Wed
I had my last interview today, with someone working on the "Building Information Modelling" taskforce at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. This was incredibly interesting, but I'm going to struggle to fit it into my note! As part of the big data theme at POST there is going to be a conclusion note - so I think this may fit well in there instead. After the interview we had another one of our big data team catch ups, to see what progress has been made with the other notes and identify any areas of overlap.
I then spent the afternoon writing up my interview notes and following up on points that had come out of it.
My evening was spent in Ham Lake - my first open water session of the year! Glorious sunshine combined with my new neoprene hat and socks meant that the temperature was tolerable and I had a great time.
Thurs
Internal Review day!
This morning I had the internal review for my note and it was less scary than I thought it might be! In general the feedback was good, with most of the comments being about re-ordering rather than re-writing, which was nice. It was interesting to hear different perspectives and a bit odd realising that in just 2 months I've picked up some jargon...
So the internal review process comprises of one advisor from each of the 4 areas (Energy and Environment, Social, Physical and Biological) and for me one of the other fellows, Daniel, who is working on a Big Data note. Each of them read and make comments to the note beforehand which then bring along. Apart from the reading out loud, it actually works quite a lot like a ClimateSnack meeting! (see previous post)
After my review, I started to make some changes before going along to Daniel's internal review. Again, similar to ClimateSnack as it became my turn to give feedback. Sometimes this experience is just as useful as receiving it.
I began to make some of the structural changes before I headed to the gym, but it was a pretty exhausting day being in reviews...
Fri
Today I spent looking out at the gorgeous weather implementing the recommended changes to my note. You can tell the advisors have been doing this for a while: one is especially good at spotting where you can take words out to save space.
I also decided this morning that it was about time I started making the most of being in London, and booked tickets to see Wicked tonight and to try out track cycling at the Olympic Velodrome on 2nd June - nothing like a bit of spontaneity!
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