NORTHERN PLANNER

Anyone dare post about Sir Sorrell? I don’t.

So it was the Northern Planning excursion to Manchester last Thursday. Gemma, Rob, Simon and JamesB all made it, along with some new faces from Love and Chris. Somehow I managed to not take a single picture of anyone, sorry about that.

Yet I did get shot of the tinnies I shared with JamesB on the train from Sheffield. The girl opposite looked in disgust –  until we offered her one. Felt like a student again.

We were too busy buying booze and sandwiches to purchase a ticket prior to boarding the train. The conductor didn’t seem too pleased with us, only James’ innocent lost boy act (while swigging the beer he’d obviously had to time to queue for)persuaded him to sell us a ticket and not add a fine too. 

The night itself was fun. Somehow I managed to only talk to a few people, and didn’t get a chance to check what girly drinks Rob Mortimer imbibed. Simon attoned for his bill dodging last time by giving Rob and I a Box less Ordinary, replete with Yorkshire Tea Cake and the famous velvet book.

Simon has since mentioned he struggled to stay awake on train home, as did I, it was relief to arrive in Leeds. The heavy petting students in the carriage helped keep me awake, as did some sozzled texts from JamesB. Sounds like he and Mortimer had lots to talk about on the train.

Looking forward gto the next one, maybe in Sheffield? Look what you’ve started Russell.

A much needed day to get to get to grips with lots of stuff flying around at the moment. The next few weeks will be a bit busy, it’s good to take some time out and really think, as opposed to do. Can’t resists a quick nod towards last night’sfun in Manchester:

• Tinnies on the train with JamesB who thinks Manchester’s seedy in a good way.
• Yorkhite Teacake from Simon, to make up for bill-dodging last time.
• ..and a ‘Life Less Ordinary’ book.
• Got a little bit boozed and texted all sorts of drivel to Twitter.
• Rob eschewed Cointreau

More next week. Bye.

Some interesting stuff on pretesting here. I warn you though, it’s Millward Brown. They may not be popular in some circles, but how do you know you’re right if you never listen to another view.

With that in mind, I watched The Great Global Warming Swindle last night. I believed that humans were affecting the climate before, and on balance I am now, but it was useful to see some counter arguments.  This article suggests that most film’s arguments are based on debunked data, but there are still some points that need answering. If anyone can point to some more information, I’d appreciate it.

The ever wise Scamp is setting us all straight on the directors issue. Some useful comments already, go look and say what you think. This kind of thing makes me love blogging even more, you don’t get away with being wrong, or saying something in the wrong way for very long, and plenty of people are kind enough to show you why. I’ll repay the favour if he ever decides to post about ..er..tea.

Rob Campbell moonlighting in Harry Potter film shock..

On the subject of chatting about random stuff, it’s the late night planning non-coffee morning in Manchester this Thursday. Looking forward to seeing the people I know and meeting those I don’t.

Simon’s heroically organised us and we’ll be in Trof, on Thomas Street, just down the road from Blu from around 7.30pm. Be nice to see you if you’re around.

I think that a big part of being a decent planner (and person) is being someone who others like throwing ideas around with – and not caring who thought of it. Stu said something really interesting today about passing things on. Loosely about not just buying something for the way it looks, or even how it works, but also being mindful about who you might want to give it to when you’re done with it, or who might want to buy it. Or even how your own tastes might change.

Lots of connections began to form. There’s the obvious stuff like what you might want to sell on Ebay, but also a few cultural bits kicking around. JamesB’s got me interested in repair culture and keeping stuff for longer – sustainable capitalism might mean we need to live with what we buy for longer – or make sure it’s useful for someone, or something else. There’s the economic conundrum of how we get bored with shiny new stuff quickly, but don’t have enough time with loved ones, some fuzzy stuff about customisation, personalisation and also the way I still treasure my Dad’s wooden Dunlop Maxply tennis raquet, but would never use it. It’s all a mess of thought spaghetti right now, but you never know.

The M62 is just a motorway, one that’s usually rammed with traffic too. When you’re crawling along imaptiently, it’s easy to forget that it’s one of the crowning achievements of British construction. The height, and the weather made it quite a challenge – the terrain certainly looked like hard work yesterday. It’s not very Northern of me, but there’s a positive in most stuff if you look hard enough.

On my first TV shoot, as a young account exec (with hair!)I was told that my job was to keep the client the client away from the director at all costs. Any queries absolutely had to go through the producer. It said a fair bit about highly strung directors as far as I was concerned, but there you go. So a casting session yesterday, where you could you talk to him direct AND make suggestions was a bit of a surprise. I think it’s important to have some influence if you can though, if you’re the kind of planner that thinks tone, manner and all that is important.