Category: Work Life

Meeting Up With Folks While On A Business Trip To Manchester, 6 to 8 October 2010

My arrangements for these meet-ups are mostly lost in the mists of time. Back then, I think we still sometimes made social arrangements by picking up the telephone and talking to people – an archaic practice to say the least – certainly not Ogblog-friendly.

But a combination of the physical diary, some e-mails, travel records and some slightly surreal correspondence on the King Cricket website with King Cricket’s mum have helped me to piece the trip together.

My main day of meetings, for/with UNISON, was 7 October. But I saw some benefit in going up the night before and staying over that night to catch up with some other folk and have some leeway for the UNISON meetings too.

I booked into an apart-hotel on the edge of the Northern Quarter – well located for Arena Point and “Central Manchester proper”, relatively inexpensive and you get enough space to really be able to work as well as relax. I think it was this one; The Light Aparthotel. I remember being given a two-bedroom apartment rather than the one-bedroom place I had paid for, so I really was able to spread out and enjoy plenty of space.

I arranged to meet my cousin Mark Briegal (second cousin once removed, actually, since you ask) after work 6 October for a quick drink before he returned to the bosom of his family in Warrington. We met up in Sam’s Chop House, which was a very suitable venue. It was really nice to catch up, albeit briefly.

I then went on to meet Ashley Fletcher (a good friend from Keele) for dinner at Bem Brasil on Lever Street, quite near my hotel. I’m used to Manchester portions being big, but this was one huge meal, with people coming round with cuts of meat regularly. Good fun and ridiculously inexpensive by London standards. I had sent Ashley a copy of my draft play, Ranter, which he had discussed with a few friends who are familiar with the 17th century history involved. No issues with the history elements but Ashley had a very bright idea for a twist in the denouement. I still want to write one more new play before I give Ranter the edit/rewrite it deserves. Might be quite a wait.

After my swathe of business meetings on the Thursday, I met up with Alex Bowden, aka King Cricket, at Sam’s Chop House. I had assumed Alex was based in Manchester, as he supports Lancashire and had talked about Manchester a fair bit on his website. But it turned out he lives in Macclesfield, which made me feel bad that I had dragged him up to Manchester just to meet me! He didn’t seem to mind too much. It was a very pleasant evening. I do recall Alex telling me the time of the train he needed to catch back to Macclesfield and then having to gently remind him of the time, not to get rid of him, but to avoid the need for him to run or (worse) miss the train. I was, coincidentally, reminded of my evening with Alex quite recently when I had a very pleasant but slightly surreal dinner with Ant Clifford that ended similarly – click here – I remember thinking “what is it with people who live on the edge of the Peak District almost missing trains”?

What I cannot remember is who suggested Sam’s Chop House in the first place; Mark or Alex. Because my main arrangements with Alex are preserved on e-mail and are silent about the venue, whereas those with Mark must have all been phone/SMS, I am guessing that the original idea came from Mark and that I then suggested same to Alex by SMS on the day we met. It had several benefits; I knew where to find the place (as presumably did Alex), I liked the place, I knew it offered decent beer as well as decent wine and I quite fancied trying the food at Sam’s on the second night. So Alex and I ate as well as drank at Sam’s and jolly good it was too.

I did some work on the Friday – I think I might even have fitted in a follow-up meeting at Arena Point that morning, before (according to my travel records) taking the train to Banbury.

My physical diary says Hil and Chris for the weekend, but clearly we ended up cancelling that and going to see Phillie and Tony instead. Another story, I suppose.

But returning to the surreal correspondence on the King Cricket site with King Cricket’s mum regarding Sam’s Chop House, I think I realise what must have been going on. KC’s Mum writes kindly on the King Cricket website…

As KC hasn’t answered your question yet maybe I can Ged. I believe you met in Sam’s Chop House. Meeting you was obviously of sufficient import that KC mentioned it to me.

…but I think that KC was following that well-known protocol when meeting for the first time with people you know only through the internet, “make sure that at least one of your loved ones, e.g. your mum, knows exactly where you are going and why”. Very wise, although in my case I assure you not necessary, merely wise as a standard precaution.

Several Work-Life Balance Testing Events: The Second Long Finance Conference, Beyond Crisis, History Of Nearly Everything & Payroll Giving Awards, 20 September, 28 September, 30 September & 5 October 2010

20 September 2010: Second Long Finance Conference, Guildhall

Not content with being berated by the Evening Standard and mobbed by a groupie after singing at the inaugural Long Finance Conference…

Inaugural Long Finance Conference, Singing, Talking, Dinner And BASIC Event, 1 February 2010

…I agreed to write another singalong for the second Long Finance conference. Another high-falutin’ bunch, including Neal Stephenson and Faisal Islam graced our event. Here is the rubric on the event.

I thought I took great care to choose a suitably reverent but not religious tune for this event and explained such on the lyric sheet:

Interlude

WHO WOULD REAL COMMERCE SEE
(Song to the Tune of “He Who Would Valiant Be” *)

Who would real commerce see,
Let us come hither;
Market stability,
Come wind, come weather;
There’s no discouragement, shall make us once relent;
Our first avowed intent, to see long finance.

Growth came so thick and fast,
For many seasons;
Few thought it wouldn’t last,
Despite the reasons;
Up graphs and surging charts, disguised the trend in part;
Still we can make a start, to be long finance.

No goblin nor foul gnome,
Can much restrain us;
We know that in the end,
Truth will sustain us;
Stale thinking go away, we’ll find a better way;
And labour night and day, strictly long finance.

Who would real commerce see,
Let us come hither;
Market stability,
Come wind, come weather;
There’s no discouragement, shall make us once relent;
Our first avowed intent, to see long finance.

We would like to thank Steve Cunliffe for kindly providing the soundtrack.

* This traditional folk melody is also known as “Our Captain Cried All Hands”, “Monksgate”, “Blacksmith” and probably several other names. With acknowledgement to John Bunyan’s poem “Who Would True Valour See” and to Ralph Vaughan Williams who spotted this lovely folk tune’s anthem quality.

Nevertheless, one battleaxe attendee accosted me and complained bitterly that my use of that tune was sacrilege. No amount of explaining satisfied her; sacrilege was sacrilege. I thought at the time that I got off lightly with just a verbal handbagging – she looked ready to let rip.

I discussed this with Brian Eno some days later, who suggested that, across two gigs, a total of one rubbishing by the press, one flattering groupie and one nutcase hater was about par for the course.

Anyway, the speakers and we organisers had a dinner with Dudley Edmunds at The Farmers Club that evening, which was an interesting and pleasant way to end the day.

28 September: Beyond Crisis, Gill Ringland, Gresham College, Museum Of London

I was to give a lecture in the same series a few weeks later…

Changing Money: Communities & Longer Term Finance & You, Ian Harris, Gresham College, Museum Of London, 16 November 2010

…so felt it was only polite to turn up to the other lectures in the series. In any case, Gill Ringland is always good value and this Gresham Lecture was no exception.

The Gresham site says that the lecture was at 12:00 midnight but believe me it was early evening:

30 September: An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson, Gresham College, Guildhall

Two days later I was in the Gresham fold again and also back at The Guildhall; the scene of the “crime” that was my Long Finance song.

Bill Bryson‘s lecture was excellent.

The Gresham site says that the lecture was at 12:00 midnight but believe me it was early evening:

For some reason, Bill’s is embeddable whereas Gill’s is not:

I seem to recall a pleasant reception afterwards too and a brief opprtunity to meet the great man.

5 October: Payroll Giving Awards, Scheduled For No 11 Downing Street But Actually At the Treasury That Year

I was still chairing the panel of judges at that time.

I recall some amusing business with regard to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who didn’t want to commit to travel to the event unless they had won, but we were of course sworn to secrecy over the matter.

I managed to find a way to encourage them to come without actually telling them that they had won. i think I used language along the lines of:

The last thing I’d want is some angry policemen from Northern Ireland in the room at the end of that evening, but I would very much like you to come along if you possibly can.

I think the gentleman got the hint because they came and were thrilled with their win, which was much deserved that year. Here is a link to results.

Nick Hurd did the presentations that year (as he did again two years later) – he came across as somewhat tired and emotional at the 2010 event – unimpressively so.

We had been scheduled for No 11 that year, but something went awry with those plans. We did land No 11 the following year, thouygh, to make up for it.

Still, we had a very good evening at the Treasury in 2010.

Middlesex v Surrey Day 3, Lords, Stumpfmerde & MTWD Match Report, 30 July 2010

Another day of county championship cricket at Lord’s that needs a bit of explaining.

Michael Mainelli and I had formed a bit of a tradition that, each year, we’d spend a few hours at Lord’s watching first class cricket and chatting strategically/laterally/crazily about our business, Z/Yen.

In earlier years, before such sessions took place at Lord’s, we called them “Stiermerde sessions”, not that bullshit came into it…of course it didn’t. Once such sessions were at Lord’s, we called them “Stumpfmerde sessions” instead.

Michael must have enjoyed it because his e-mail that evening included:

Great Stumpfmerde and thank you…

My response included:

Indeed I have cleared my e-mails and shall down tools. But I couldn’t do so before scribbling and uploading today’s match report.

http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/main/middlesex-ccc/s66/st161035/surrey-completely-clerihew-cornered

Very enjoyable day. And productive Stumpfmerdwise and bookwise too.

Oh, and you really did miss lots of excitement by leaving early – 6 wickets in the last hour, five of them to the youngster Toby Roland-Jones who is the product of your charming neighbour’s brother at the Middlesex Academy. What a happy coincidence!

Just in case anything ever goes awry with the MTWD website, I have scraped that strange match report to here.

I must say that it had completely escaped my memory that I witnessed that exceptional breakthrough performance by Toby Roland-Jones on a Stumpfmerde day – in my mind I would have completely separated the two events.

Here is a link to the Cricinfo scorecard for that match.

I’m glad I spotted the star quality that evening. Neville Cardus would not have spotted it better. Nor would Cardus have reported in clerihews.

Jez Horne & Sarah’s Pre-Nuptial Party, Z/Yen, St Helen’s Place, & Devonshire Square, 28 July 2010

Photographs with grateful thanks to Monique Gore

This was a super evening with the Z/Yen team.

Jez and Sarah were soon to get married – which was a near-perfect excuse for a team evening that didn’t involve tennis or cricket. Outrageous.

Mary, Linda & Gordon

Linda Cook, our social-secretary-in-chief, organised an evening of wine tasting at the office (through her brother Gordon) followed by crazy golf in Devonshire Square, which was “a thing” in the City, that summer of 2010.

Libations aplenty, bound to improve the results when blind tasting and playing crazy golf:
Linda, Gordon, Michael, me.

There are lots and lots of photos from that evening, almost all of which were taken by Monique Gore. The story is better told through pictures than words, really.

Sarah and Jez taking the wine tasting very seriously
Janet, Sonia and Alex studying the wines
Gathering for results time at the wine tasting
Chiara, Steph and Simon Mc look on in horror at my inept crazy golf
Chiara and Steph soon recover their composure
Ben dwarfs the Palace of Westminster while Mary & Sonia look on
Monique, Flynn, Leo and Kirstan demonstrating their ball skills

The whole album, with thanks again to Monique, can be viewed by clicking the link below – there are more than 120 pictures to be seen:

Jez's Party 012

Z/Yen Cricket Pairs Tournament, Kensington Memorial Park, 19 July 2010

The 2010 manifestation of Z/Yen cricket was steeped in logistical difficulties, if the extended e-mail correspondence is anything to go by.

Initially we were due to play on 11 July with Children’s Society folk at Bentley, as we had done the previous couple of years…

Ian Harris Invitation XI v Charles Bartlett Invitation XI, Bentley CC, 20 July 2008

But that Sunday idea fell through for lack of willing participants.

We had in any case planned to have a team bonding cricket session on Monday 19 July. We’d originally planned to play in Regent’s Park, but with that location unavailable we arranged for the match to be played at Z/Yen’s spiritual cricketing home, Holland Park. That facility got closed on us at the last minute, so the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, bless them, switched us to Kensington Memorial Park instead.

I’m not sure that the locals around Kensington Memorial Park had been informed that recreational cricket had been switched from Holland Park for a few weeks. Several of the locals let their unease with cricket be known to us in no uncertain terms during the evening.

But before the evening, there was a great deal of too-ing and fro-ing regarding the nature of the tournament and who might play with whom. In the end, the pairings and rules uploaded here, designed and crafted by Jez Horne, became the tournament.

Despite handling all of constantly moving goalposts regarding the logistics of this event, there’s no evidence that Monique Gore attended that evening, by which I mean there are no photographs from it. Monique’s attendance normally meant photographs.

Back then, if no-one was there with a camera (remember those) then you might not have any photographs to show.

The headline picture depicting Simon McMullen, one of the eventual winners, was taken the previous year.

How do I know that Simon was a winner? Now & Z/Yen tends to record these matters and the result of this event was thus recorded.

If it’s summer that means there must be some sort of Z/Yen cricket match and 2010 was no exception. We decided to play a pairs tournament this year, which made sure that everyone got a go. Indeed, Xenia Mainelli was drafted in as a last minute replacement for
her mother and came a close second – and who are we to judge whether her contribution or that of Louwrens was the key to that
partnership’s success.

Chiara von Gunten, fresh over from Switzerland and experiencing
cricket for the first time managed to take two wickets, which is quite an achievement.

Congratulations to the winners, Jacques Malan & Simon McMullen.

Rumours of match fixing at Z/Yen cricket matches are most certainly untrue, but we can confirm that the 2011 cricket match will be won by Ian Harris in partnership with Linda Cook.

Perceptive readers might have noticed that Simon’s picture was taken at the Lord’s academy, thus demonstrating that practice pays off. Indeed the photo was taken on the day that most of us Z/Yen folk played a practice game at the Lord’s academy, as witnessed by Garry Sobers, no less. Have I ever mentioned that before?

The Day Garfield Sobers Watched Me & Z/Yen Play Cricket, Lord’s, 30 June 2009

Z/Yen Nets At Lord’s Followed By Drinks In The Star, 6 July 2010

Ahead of the impending Z/Yen cricket matches that season (which ended up being scaled back to a pairs tournament in Kensington Memorial Park), Steph Rochford was keen to have a go at the Lord’s academy and I was keen to encourage same.

Here is a summary from our extended correspondence a few weeks earlier:

At the moment it looks like you, me, Jez, Ben, Alex and little Si.
Thanks,
Steph

From: Ian Harris
Sent: 07 June 2010 15:57
To: Stephanie Rochford
Subject: RE: Cricket Nets?

Steph

Booked for the 6th – two nets and one coach.

Try not to overextend the numbers – 3 or 4 people in each net is the “sensible maximum” if everyone is going to get a decent go, so 6 to 8 for the two nets.

Don’t forget that you’ll need to sort out protective gear if you are going to have a go at keeping – helmet should be easy in any half-decent sports shop but “abdominal protectors” and the like for women cricketers are probably only available at shops that specialize in cricket quite a bit. Unlike the helmet (which you really do need to try on and make sure is right for you), you could probably get those other bits and pieces on the web. Keepers gloves and keepers pads we have in the Z/Yen kit.

Best

Ian

In the end I think it was about half-a-dozen of us in the nets and jolly good fun it was too. I think Steph might have abandoned her wicket-keeping ambitions quite quickly but I think she did sensibly procure an abdominal guard.

The other thing I remember very clearly about the evening was a gathering of about 10 of us in The Star – a now late lamented pub in St John’s Wood. Four or five Z/Yen people gathered there and were waiting for those of us from the cricketing party who fancied some libations after our net.

Star, St Johns Wood, NW8 (6934060680)

The soccer world cup was going on at the time. Alexandra Flynn, who has some Uruguayan extraction, was “put through the wringer” by Steph with regard to a controversial moment a few day’s earlier. At one point during her monologue, Steph, more or less without pausing for breath, said words to the effect of:

…oh my goodness I’ve just heard myself sounding off about this – I’d better stop right now…

…which came across to me as very self-aware, in a eureka moment sort of way. There was much myrth about that and indeed throughout the evening, which I remember fondly as a very pleasant few hours with the Z/Yen team.

Z/Yen Tennis Evening At Boston Manor, 1 July 2010

Leo Fishman’s textbook shot (economics textbook, sadly, not tennis textbook)

Z/Yen’s mighty gladiators prepare for battle

Z/Yen works outings and events tend to work out successfully – not much can go wrong if you organise a jolly with activities, libations and grub.

But just occasionally, such a jolly turns out to be very special indeed; exceptionally enjoyable at the time and exceptionally memorable long after the event.

Such was, in my opinion, the Z/Yen tennis event at Boston Manor Tennis Club (BMTC); especially the first time we did it, in July 2010.

Janie and I play tennis at BMTC every weekend, unless absence or extremely foul weather prevents. We knew it would be a friendly, informal venue for a bit of sport and a barbecue…

…and an opportunity for BMTC to make a little bit of money towards its floodlight project – which met its objectives within three years of Z/Yen’s visit.

Anyway, this idea seemed to catch the collective Z/Yen imagination, as we ended up a group of 30 or so for the event; 16 playing, 14 trying to put the players off and all 30 of us eating and drinking.

Maury Shenk “cannot be serious”, foreground, with Ben Morris at the base line

I wrote the event up at the time on Now And Z/Yen – click here for link.

Actually the unsung hero (or should I say heroine) of the evening was undoubtedly Monique Gore, who organised pretty much everything (apart from the tennis itself, which was organised by Jez “Games Teacher” Horne) and also took over 100 photographs. You can click here or click through the photograph below to see all of the pictures:

TenniZ 075

Monique is an excellent photographer. Observe, in the picture above, she has managed to produce the visual illusion that I know what I am doing playing doubles up at the net. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I do look the part in that picture – as does Chiara hitting the ball in the background – thanks Monique.

The above picture does remind me of one early memory of the evening, which found its way into the Now and Z/Yen report:

It was Chiara von Gunten’s first working day, so we hope she doesn’t get into the habit of knocking off work every day at 15:30 and spending the rest of the afternoon enjoying sport and revelry. Within about 15 seconds of starting practice with her randomly-picked doubles partner, Ian Harris, she had “caught him amidships” from behind. Not a good career move on your first day, Chiara.

Strangely, the above incident didn’t adversely affect Chiara’s career in the end…probably because she was so good at her job.

Leo demonstrates a textbook shot…unfortunately it is from the economics text book, not the tennis text book

You could be forgiven for assuming, if you only saw the above picture of Leo Fishman swatting a fly…I mean trying to hit a tennis ball…that Leo wasn’t too sure what she was doing…

…but I knew that Leo comes from good tennis stock – I spent many hours on the tennis courts at Keele in my student days while her grandfather, Professor Les Fishman, was playing with his entourage on one of the other courts.

So it wasn’t a complete surprise when Leo and Joey took the coveted trophy that year; presented by Jez.

But it wasn’t all fierce battle

To quote from the Now and Z/Yen write up:

With the barbeque sizzling and the refreshments flowing, the tennis competition soon became secondary, although plenty of people enjoyed some makeshift tennis after the tournament ended. The revelry went on long after dark, which takes some late-night stamina at this time of year.

The above memory is my most abiding one – a surprisingly large group of people lingering on, enjoying the glorious long summer evening and each other’s company until very late.

It wasn’t all about tennis

One memory absent from the Now and Z/Yen report was the appearance of Angela Broad with her friend Doreen, who was briefly in the country at that time. Doreen’s chauffeur parked the ginormous Mercedes “inconspicuously” on the far side of the car park. This worked in a way, because if you weren’t looking out for it, you probably wouldn’t have noticed it from the courts or associated that vehicle with our event. It must have caused a bit of a stir amongst the regular park users, though. Janie and I thought it was very funny at the time.

I’d love to know if other people remember this particular event as fondly as I do…

…and do people have some other/alternative memories of that evening they would care to share

Middlesex v Surrey T20 At Lord’s With Z/Yen Team, 17 June 2010

I almost missed out on reporting this one – in my diary with question-marks and the like, but it seems we organised a mini-outing for the very keen to this match.

Looks as though Jez did most of the organising:

I’m just dropping you all a quick line with the arrangements for tomorrow night. Firstly, I may be slightly late as I have to go and get my wedding registered in North London, but as long as they run on time (famous last words), I should be at the gates with plenty of time to spare. As a precaution, I have given all of your tickets to Simon S…

I chimed in with some of the more vital logistical details:

I suspect it might be quite busy on the Tavern Stand side again tonight, so I suggest that all those who arrive in decent time come straight in and help me to hold sufficient good seats…I’ll probably aim for a little closer to Father Time in the Lower Tavern Stand, Jez, for the “Turkey Corner” effect.  It’s the least we can do for brother Ben.

“Brother Ben” is Jez’s younger brother who, perhaps for contrarian reasons, supports Surrey almost as fervently as Jez supports Middlesex. Other guests that night were the two Kiwi Simons (Strez and McMullen), Ben Morris, Heinrich Groenewald and Louwrens Verwey.

The scorecard – click here – suggests that this was not one of Middlesex’s better matches nor one of the better matches from a neutral spectator’s point of view.

I’ll guess that Simon McMullen’s (first left in the picture) favourite memory of visiting Lord’s was the previous year – click here or picture below.

2009 at Lord’s. Simon M, Me, Linda, Jez, Garry Sobers and Nick

Samba Drumming – Z/Yen Team Event, St Helen’s Place, 11 May 2010

Z/Yen team events on the whole tended to be sports-oriented affairs. Cricket, tennis, horse racing…sometimes watching, sometimes playing, sometimes both.

Becky Dawson, our resident musician-cum-administrator, suggested that something musical as an activity event would make a welcome change. We agreed, suggesting that if she organised it, we’d do it.

So, presumably through her musical connections, Becky found us the Inspire Works people – click here for their website – and suggested Samba Drumming as something that would be fun and manageable for us.

Some seemed to take to the big drums…

…better than others!

There was a Now & Z/Yen Blog piece about it at the time – click here for that piece on the Z/Yen site…

…or here for a scrape of the piece in case the Z/Yen site piece moves.

I recall personally getting on better with the shakers than the big drums

I also recall that everyone had a really good time, both while drumming and with the celebratory drinks that followed.

There are quite a few more pictures, all thanks to Monique Gore if I recall correctly, which are available through the Flickr album link below:

Samba Drumming 001

 

Dinner At Le Café du Marché With Michael Mainelli & Jeremy Smith, 6 May 2010

We arranged a dinner at Le Café du Marché to celebrate the third anniversary of the sale of Jeremy’s bit of the Z/Yen business to Aon.

We had some e-mail bants about the arrangements; Jeremy to me:

Cafe du Marche booked for 3 at 7:00pm on Thursday 6th May in name of Jeremy Smith…

…me to Jeremy in reply to the calendar invitation inferring that the dinner would start at 19:00 and end at 19:30…

…I’ve accepted your calendar invite only tentatively, as it seems like a lot of effort for a 30 minute chomp!!…

…Jeremy in response…

…OK OK – I’ve changed it  (well the location to a kebab shop – rather than the length)

Fortunately that last bit wasn’t true – Le Café du Marché was and I think still is a very fine restaurant in Smithfeld.

We had a very good meal and it was nice to catch up with Jeremy. At the time of writing (November 2017) we still catch up periodically, although not usually in quite such high-falutin’ locations.