This blog's been disappointingly quiet for the last year or so. There's been a lot going on, and not much 'spare' time to tend a personal site. I've also been more active on twitter (I'm giz if you want to follow me) which has seemingly become appropriate for the short and spontaneous posts that I've got more time for.
I've just reached the end of my first year at Channel 4 which has been frenetic and enjoyable, and not without moments of interesting uncertainty. My first few months were trying to make sure that our plans for NextOn4 were as new media focused as possible. Many of these plans started to gain momentum as the year went on, most notably getting our 4iP innovation fund launched and staffed. We've also been rebuilding Channel4.com, to create a scalable site focused on Channel 4's content (you can follow the roll-out via our new blog at Platform4). And I've spent a lot of time on Project Kangaroo, and particularly its referral to the Competition Commission. The year ended with a painful restructuring and cost saving project to prepare for an impending and difficult 2009, and an intensifying of the debate about the future of Channel 4. I passionately believe that Channel 4 should have a unique and important role to play going forward, and that the changes required are necessary and achievable. We'll see what unfolds in the next few months.
On the personal front, 2008 was a year of big projects. We moved out of our new (old) house so that it could be gutted and rebuilt. The wiring, plumbing, heating, lighting and decoration were at least forty years old (and in some cases a lot older) and it's been rewarding to see the house gradually come back to life. A huge project that consumed time, cash and emotional energy. We moved back in July with one bedroom and one toilet functioning, and the five of us sleeping on the floor dodging bats. I spent much of the summer there alone, amongst rubble, dust and involuntary expletives. The builders (who were generally brilliant) finally left at the end of November, we're expecting our singing painters back in the new year, and we'll be lucky to have unpacked the last box from storage by Easter. Perhaps the best moment was when we became anxious about the progress of the plastering, only to see the plastering crew from Quantum of Solace show up after filming finished early.
Other adventures included an epic and league winning season by our eldest's football team, our daughter's first summer camp in Canada (two weeks away on a forested lake), a significant birthday celebrated with a slap up meal which we cooked with friends in London, and a weekend trip to see the magnificent giant spider wander around Liverpool. I also walked with three friends through the Wiltshire countryside during mid-summer's night, to arrive at Stonehenge in time for a very rainy solstice (once was enough for that one). And in November one of my old music teachers managed to smuggle me into a recital he was giving at Notre Dame in Paris: a wonderful, ear splitting and vertigo inducing hour revisting a foreign country in a foreign country. Finally, just before new year, we got a dog, who's already monopolising time, affection and biological detergent. There's more on flickr, although you'll need to be a 'friend' to see much of interest. And all this against a background of close family getting older (not always imperceptibly) and the complex tangle of feelings as batons get passed. Not to mention the backdrop of banks, glaciers and political landscapes melting down.
The above summary could be expanded into dozens of posts. But in all likelihood it won't be. There's only a day left before 2009 starts up in earnest. And it's not looking boring. Happy New Year.
