Last week at POST!

I just can't believe this is my last week at POST. I guess that shows just how interesting it's been, as the time has flown by. After this week I'm flying out to South Korea for the World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC) so this will be a quick post about the activities in my last week, and then when I get back I'll write an overview of my time here.

Mon/Tues

I spent these two days finalising the note: making sure all the comments from the reviewers had been incorporated, and then deciding which other bits to cut to make room for the extras! It's amazing how obsessed you can become with shrinking paragraphs so that more can fit on a page... By Tuesday afternoon the note was ready to send to the director Chris (@cptyler) ahead of the final sign off on Thursday afternoon. I then made sure all the reviewers were entered into the POST database and that all their comments were recorded. On Tuesday evening, along with one of the other fellows, I went to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies' meeting on "Scottish independence: What would it mean for UK energy?". This showcased the difference in what the UK government and the SNP would expect would happen to the energy markets on devolution - there is quite a discrepancy!

Wed
With my note sent to Chris, I had today free to do some much needed planning for my conference trip - including going over my presentation to try and re-familiarise myself with my own research!

Thurs
Today was the day of the final sign off! In the morning I finished a draft of a scope for the board on e-skills and cybercrime - the idea that increasing the level of basic online skills should protect people from malicious behaviour online.

My sign off was in the afternoon - almost 3 hours going over the note with Lydia and the director, Chris. The feedback was overall positive, but there were a number of changes and re-shuffles that I tried to get done straight away before I forgot what my scribbled notes meant! I did manage to get most of them done before heading off to meet a friend for dinner and then staying up late to finish my packing for Korea. I got a nice view on my walk to Waterloo though...

Fri
Last day! I can't believe it...
I finished off the changes that Chris had recommended, and then sent it back to him so he could have a final glance over it. I then spent a while formatting the references so they are all the same and adding hyperlinks where needed. Then lunch with the fellows in the sunshine and some admin things: expenses, tidying, e-mail forwarding etc.
I had a final coffee meeting with Lydia, just chatting about the POST process and whether it could be improved. For me, once i was down here everything went to plan, so it was all good from both sides!
One final iteration with Chris and the note was done! Perfect timing - finishing at 4:30 on the last day :-)