mikejharrison

Mum was eager to finish shopping and start the long walk home up Dartford’s East Hill.  My brother was sat on the pavement, struggling with his shoelace.  That was the trouble with our butcher’s shop.  The sawdust on the red tiled floor needed to be piled into mounds with your feet, and you only had until the butcher stopped talking to mum, so you had to work fast, and sometimes it got in your shoes. Mum wasn’t a fan of our game, but the butcher never seemed to mind.

“Hurry up and get that shoelace tied, or Mum won’t let us look in Phillips toy shop I whispered to my brother.”

I liked looking at the bikes in Phillips, but my brother preferred the train sets. The shop keeper was friendly but always very busy, quietly wrapping things in brown paper for excited children. “Mum, one day, can I buy the yellow racing bike?” I said. ‘Maybe when you’re a bit older.’ she replied.

Alternately pressing your hands down on your knees helped when trying to climb East Hill.  Your legs needed all the help they could get. I can only assume Sir Ranulph Fiennes employes a similar technique.  It seemingly took years to walk home.

I don’t know when the butcher’s shop disappeared; I’m ashamed to say, I didn’t even miss it.

Presumably not long after that, the shop keeper in Phillips quietly set down his roll of brown paper for the last time and called it a wrap.  What a shame.

Market forces dictate what’s on the high street. It’s merciless, and awesomely efficient. Put simply you use it, or lose it.

As I grew up, I didn’t use it.

But times have changed, just look at the upside.  Now I can jump in my car, quickly pop to the supermarket, everything I need is in one place, and I don’t get wet in the rain.

In fact, my wife and I are far too busy to go to the supermarket; I’ll just go online and get it delivered.  I don’t have to leave the comfort of my own home.  I won’t have to load the kids into their car seats.  I haven’t got to deal with anyone.

Our standard of living has improved.

Convenience.

Progress.

“Mike”

‘Yeah?’

“I was talking to one of the other mum’s in the playground today; it turns out she lives at number eight.”

‘OK’

“She’s really nice.”

‘Ha, you’ll probably find that most of the people that live round here are really nice.’

Except we don’t know.

The people either side and opposite are nice. The rest of the close, who knows?

Strange really, that people never seem to cross paths with the neighbours they share them with.

The trouble is, we’re so busy, and everyone else is too. I’m sitting here watching TV, and using my laptop – at the same time.  I wonder what everyone else is busy doing?   I’ll check Facebook.

Instant connection to friends and family, some great photo’s of what they had for dinner, but I’m still left wondering where the local community went?

It’s probably the supermarkets fault. They’ve destroyed our town centre, it’s nothing but pound shops. If we had a town centre, we’d still have a community. It’s about time they demonstrated a bit of social responsibility and were forced to give something back.

In fact, it’s the Councils fault. They have let the supermarkets ruin our town centre.  They’ve done nothing about the traffic, or the parking. They never listen to us.

It’s ok though, I’ve heard that Mary Portas is coming to sort out Dartford high street, and if that doesn’t work then it’s all her fault.

But maybe, it’s my fault?

Maybe to be a member of a community requires some effort on my part.

Maybe I should have spent a little more time, energy, and money in my local shops.  I should have realised that purchasing goods is more than just a monetary transaction. It’s a vote, for a deserving shopkeeper, who’s friendly service and warm smile I’d rather not live without. Or an investment in a young entrepreneur, who’s giving their all to get their fledgling business up and running, which I’d like to see succeed.

Market forces have improved the standard of living, yet seemingly reduced the quality of life.

When did I start passively consuming, and stop actively participating?

Oh dear, it’s all my fault.

Fortunately it’s not too late.

I assume i’m not alone in wanting to be part of a friendly community.  So what can I do about it?

I’m going to use Feynman’s problem solving algorithm:

1. Write down the problem.
2. Think very hard.
3. Write down the answer.

I’m off to have a think.

I’ve been thinking about this idea since I was little, and I’ve been researching it for years.

I’ve decided it’s about time I made a start.

Aim high enough that people think you’re crazy - and you’ve got nothing to lose.

Watch this space.

Thanks to the Zapier team, today we’ve improved our workflow by linking FreeAgent with Asana.

FreeAgent is a great piece of cloud based accountancy software. It’s simple, intuitive, and best of all, it doesn’t frequently demand your attention.  Allowing you to concentrate on more important things, like growing your business.

There’s a 30 day free trial, which is plenty of time to bring yourself up to speed, from then on it’s £25 per month for a limited company.  It’s cheap enough to test the water as a startup, yet scales well as you start to grow.  Handling VAT, and Payroll for the first time was simple, and I’m no accountant.

If you subscribe to FreeAgent via this link you and I both get a 10% discount, you can’t say fairer than that.

To manage projects between the team we use Asana.  This has got to be the simplest project management / productivity tool going.  We can set up a project, assign each other tasks, and keep track of our progress, with almost no learning curve whatsoever.  Their new inbox feature is great, significantly reducing the amount of email traffic between team members. And who doesn’t want less email?

Our previous workflow involved setting up the project on both FreeAgent and Asana.  Now by using Zapier we can just Zap it there.

We use FreeAgent to drive the project creation, so, drag the FreeAgent icon to the trigger square on the left, and the Asana icon to the action square on the right.

Our trigger will be ‘new project’, our action ‘create project’, then just hit the ‘Create this Zap’ button.

Click the ‘Add your FreeAgent account’ button, give it a name, and log in via the pop up window.

Click the ‘Add your Asana account’ button, give it a name, and type in your Asana API key (which can be found in your account settings, on the API tab here).

To build the new project, set the Status to ‘any’ select your main Asana workspace from the drop down box, drag the ‘Name’ field to ‘Name and the ‘Ends on’ field to ‘Notes’.  You can also type text into the ‘Notes’ field so you could add the following to be a bit more concise:

Ends on: {{ends_on}}

We can skip the filters, but it’s worth clicking on the ‘Click to load samples’ button just to check you’re getting the data you expect.

Click ‘Enable and start syncing new data’

Job done.

Now when you create a new project in FreeAgent.

The project automatically turns up in Asana.

Great stuff.  Thanks Zapier.

Halloween is coming, so I thought I’d teach my son how to carve a pumpkin.

First, check out the pumpkin.

Get scraping, and create the outline.

Fine detailing with a small chisel.

Well done William, not bad for a first attempt.

Was meant to be out in the garden this weekend building my new garden office, but the weather wasn’t on my side, so I fired up SketchUp and started the design work for the house. Thinking about a two storey extension to the side (in place of the garage) and a single story extension to rear, fancy knocking through the existing living room and dining room and re-developing the kitchen. But how far can a 1930’s semi be pushed?

View of upstairs, extended third bedroom and the double size bathroom.

View from the rear of the house. Velux windows in the single story pitched roof to throw light into the living space.

Living and dining room knocked through, with furniture providing logical separation.  The kitchen is slightly relocated and opens out onto the decking / back garden with the dining room table in close proximity.  Great for summer dining.  Small office / toy room and downstairs toilet in place of garage.

Bi-fold doors out onto the decking.

Fair bit of steel required. Think I’ll have to develop this concept a bit further to simplify.

Not a typical post this time.  I fancied doing a bit of painting for some reason, so thought I’d scratch the itch and paint a picture of the grandparents.

Blank canvas, on special at hobby craft at the mo.

Sketched the outline.

First two layers done, Mr and Mrs Pink - hence the colour choice.

Second set of layers on, beginning to take shape.

Detailing and highlights done. Quite pleased with the outcome.

Job done.

Engine cover and mounts sprayed ready for assembly.

The metallic black looks great on the engine cover.

Engine cover located, gently gently don’t want to scratch anything.

Engine assembled.

Metallic drive sprocket, yeah, why not.

Rear wheel complete, now lets get that engine on.

I cut up some rubber strip to protect the paint on the frame. Engine mounts on, and on goes the engine. Perfect.

Next step, brakes and gears.

Pressed the headset cups into the newly painted frame.  Then in go the springer forks.

Both wheels go on.  There’s not a lot of clearance on the rear, had to let the air out of the tyre to locate the hub in the dropout’s.  I guess that’s what you get when you opt for balloon tyres.

Pressed in the bottom bracket cups, and in go the bearings and spindle. On go the cranks and pedals.

Petrol tank on, just need to make some spacers and retainers for the leather straps.

Brooks saddle on, and we’re starting to get somewhere.

Next step, I need to paint the engine and mounts, and fabricate a stainless steel exhaust.  Right, I’m going in, it’s bloomin freezing.

Plenty of paint stripper was required to get the frame back to bare metal.  I then smartened it up by sand blasting.

A little bit body filler here and there to get rid of the water bottle and badge holes etc, and its ready for the paint.

Popped to the local paint supplier to check out some samples, and opted for Alfa Romeo Nero Black which is a nice rich metallic with silvery / gold metal fleck.

Paint applied to the tank, quite a few coats of clear lacquer to add depth.  Thanks to my Dad for the cracking spray job, great end result, well pleased.

Engine mounts next, and I’ve got to sit and design the art work / pin striping for the engine cover.

Pressed in the bottom bracket and head set cups, and I’m almost ready to start assembling.

Headset in, fits like a glove.

In goes the handle bar stem, and on go the North Road bars, upside down of course. I think they look much better like this. Not sure yet if it’ll make the riding position too agressive, I’ll have to wait until its rideable to know for definite.

On go the forks, but…..

Looks like I’m going to have to make a custom spring hanger bracket, as there’s no way the standard one will fit, its in line with the head tube.

Fire up SolidWorks, and get that kettle on, click.

Right, lets mark out this bracket and start cutting metal.

Rough it out on the milling machine, and I’ll shape the rest on the linisher.

It’s 8mm thick, so I’ll throw a bit of heat at it, and bend on the fly press.

Holes in, before I assemble with the headset I’ve got to find 8mm from somewhere, as I’m already using the full length of the steerer tube, and there’ll be no room for this too.

I’ll turn 8mm off the bottom step of the steerer tube, and that should do the trick.

Sand blasted the bracket, re-assemble the springer forks and head set, and we’re done.

Perfect fit.

So, in keeping with the period look, I’ve opted instead for a set of ‘springer forks’. Hopefully that’ll soften the ride in style.

There seems to be a lot of variation here, the steerer tube length, OD, ID, and thread length being rather important.  Quite a few phone calls, emails, and a bit of umming and arring and hopefully I’m good to go.

Length: 8”, OD:1”, ID:7/8”, Thread length 3”.

Whilst I’m waiting for more parts to turn up for my vintage motorcycle project, thought I’d make a start on the next project.

Inspired by Grand Designs last night, and Huf Haus, I decided to have a go at designing a home office and shed for the end of my garden.

Might start a bit of materials research and nail down the design detail further.

Well, I might as well start assembling the handle bars and stem so I can get the gear shift working.

Hang on, the new handle bar stem doesnt fit inside the front fork?  Aww, I’m sure I ordered a 22.2mm and not a 25.4mm, where’s my vernier?….

Stem’s right, seems I have a fork with a 21mm I.D.?

Kettle on, Click.

The ideas factory did its thing this morning, and a solution to the drive chain was born.

Quick mock up in 3D, just to check.

Engineering drawings produced.

On to the lathe, lets cut some metal.

Steps done, now for the boring bit (quick joke for the engineers) - I’ll try and think of some funny ones for future posts.

Turnings done.

It fits, horay.

My new Sturmey Archer AWC rear hub is a lot larger than the hub on the old wheel I used to align the engine.  A bit of modification is therefore required.  I might just get away with the PCD of the mounting holes if I’m lucky.

Hmmm, head scratching and a bit of chin rubbing ensues….  It’s a bit too close for my liking.  Looks like I’m going to have to fire up SolidWorks and have a little bit of a rethink.

Kettle on, ‘click’.

Finally the first lot of parts start arriving.

North road handle bars.

Brooks sadle, in honey of course.

Vintage style pedals.

Design starts on my new vintage motorcycle project.  When I say ‘design’ I mean thought.  I’ve got a feeling this one is going to require a lot of thinking.

“Morning Gents, feel free to take a seat.”

I’m not a big fan of meetings, I’m firmly in the ‘gather round the problem, have a quick discussion’ camp.

“Can I get you both a coffee?”

Sales pitches disguised as meetings, I like even less.  To be frank, it’s a waste of time and good coffee beans - neither of which I ever seem to have enough of.

“So, there’s two of you?  Oh, to take over when you retire, I see.  Nice.”

He’s got to be about 20 years older than me, fifty isn’t a bad age to retire eh?

“OK, nice to meet you too.”

The company pension plan was arranged 12 years before I became the Managing Director and it’s been through a number of different iterations over the years. It seems every year saw the birth of a newer, better product.  In fact, so frequently has it iterated, you’d think these two made money out of changing it….

“You’ve got some new investment opportunities that I might be interested in?”

Here we go again.

“Can I stop you there Gents, I’m not interested in making any further changes.  You know this pension plan is a legacy issue. We offer stakeholder pensions to the new recruits.”

“No, it’s not of interest to me to extend the plan to the other employees.”

“That’s right, I’m not in the company pension plan either.”

“Yes, really.”

“Look, I’m sorry Gents, expensive company pension plans died along with a job-for-life.  To be brutally honest, if I were in your game, I’d be looking to pivot - rapidly.”

So, what arrangements are Generation Y making for their future?

Well I opted for an index tracker, wrapped in an equity ISA, with automatic monthly payments.

My thoughts; it’s simple, cheap, and tax efficient - thanks to the ISA part.  No one will be telling me how old I have to be to draw on it, and I don’t have to buy an annuity with it.  I can leave it to the kids in a will, and as a last resort on an unforeseen rainy day, I can dip into it to save myself a spot of bother.

But what do I know?  The pension experts are retiring at 50, so they’ve got to be right?

“Goodbye Gents, you’re welcome, it is great coffee.”

Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wednesday will see the end of the default retirement age.  Employers will no longer be able to force their staff to retire when they reach the age of 65.

Nothing wrong with that.  In my experience, the more senior members of staff have a lot of valuable skills and attributes that they are willing and able to pass on to the Generation Y’s.  Plus a few more years worth of tax and N.I. contributions certainly won’t go amiss.

I’m just not looking forward to writing the risk assessments.  90+ year old’s flying about on 5 tonne forklifts?  Nice.

If you want to integrate social sharing to your website or blog, then Addthis provides a great way of doing it.

Google Sites

Addthis to your Google Sites as follows:

• Grab the code from Addthis.
• Whilst editing your page click: Insert > More gadgets, and in the search box type ‘Code Wrapper’.
• Paste the code into the Embed code window.
• Set your width and height (depending upon your button choice, don’t forget to leave enough height for the ‘Bookmark and Share’ fly out).
• Untick scrollbar, border, and title.
• Click OK.

Tumblr
There are some great pictorial instructions on Addthis to help you get up and running, however if like me you don’t have <div class=”bottom”> in your theme then:

• Search for “</div><!— post-content —>”
• Paste the code just above this line.
• Save and close.

You might find making this change breaks your site header image.  If so, click Appearance, scroll down and either click the clear header image button, or upload your image.

If you have Disqus enabled, you might have to retype your Shortname, also found under Appearance.

‘Amelia go swimming today Daddy?’

“Err, its a bit cold Chock, lets go to the park instead.”

‘Aww.’

“We’ll take your scooter, it’ll be fun.”

It’s lovely when your two year old starts telling you what they want to do, it makes it even harder to refuse when they refer to themselves in the third person, it’s cute.

“Right that’s it”, I thought to myself whilst pushing my Daughter on the swing. “Either get over your own self image, or do something about losing a few pounds. In a few years time, you’ll kick yourself for making excuses and missing these things.”

Now I’ve always been of the opinion that diets are useless, they’re generally just a marketing ploy to extract money out of people that don’t feel too good about themselves. So I started the research and analysis (I can’t help it, it’s the Engineer in me).

• Read some biology websites, get the facts – Check
• Couple the facts with a bit of Business & Self Development logic – Check
• Create my own plan of attack – Check

Plan of attack

Pre-start procedure

1. Decide why I’m doing it – To be fit and healthy, whilst playing/swimming with my Daughter.
2. Pick my target – 14 stone (about right for my height & age).
3. Pick a visual stimulus – A particularly bad photo, this’ll help when I feel like eating a load of cr*p.
4. Make a public statement to make it real – 28th July Facebook status: ‘Mike Harrison is 102kg, 16 stone in old money, or would be 225 pounds if he was American.  Right, enough’s enough fat boy, man up, and get in shape….’
5. Don’t diet, change eating habit for the foreseeable future – This is the biggie, and involves wanting to be continually trim more than wanting to continually eat a pile of doughnuts.

It starts

Well let’s get this straight, I like food so there’s gotta be plenty of it, and it’s gotta taste good. Starving myself or having cr*p tasting diet food is going to get me nowhere.

1. Eat breakfast first thing every day, Monday to Sunday no exceptions. I settled on a big bowl of bran flakes with plenty of dried fruit, or a nice hot bowl of porridge.
2. Lunch, one sandwich with one or two pieces of fruit.
3. For dinner there’s no point seeing, smelling or cooking what the rest of the family are having and resenting not having it too. So, one or two decent serving spoons of whatever that is, with a big bowl of salad.  Not a naff salad, a proper salad. (I’d write a list of ingredients, but this guy is much better at doing that).
4. No desert.  ”No desert? Awww….”  Well alright, sometimes, but don’t go crazy.
5. Water all day, tea and coffee when fancied.

The first few evenings were a bit of a nightmare, I just wanted to eat rubbish after dinner, but a big glass of squash sorts that out.

Then it starts getting easier, I guess your stomach must shrink a bit and you start feeling loaded with salad.

Every Friday evening I treat myself and the family to a box of doughnuts or something similar, but when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Exercise

Ugh, surely not.

Here’s where the engineering bit comes in:

• A consequence of the conservation of energy law is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
• The large calorie approximates the energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree C.

From this I concluded that I could either:

1. Do a few press ups & sits ups every evening to transfer the calorific energy into kinetic energy.
2. Sit in a freezing cold bath and eat ice cream.

I went with the press ups.

I started off small and built up the reps over time. I figured there’s no need to try and break any records, a target of a dozen or so press ups an evening has got to be plenty right?

Now all I needed to do was keep this routine up.

In all honesty, going on a business trip to China and getting the sh*ts for a few weeks helps you loose quite a few pounds. However, its not the best experience in the world and the flight and accommodation costs can be quite expensive.

January comes round, and I’m thinking to myself; “What can I do to make 2011 my year of preparation for becoming an overnight success in 2012?”

“You were going to become a millionaire at 20, on your 30th Birthday you allowed yourself another 5 years.”

“It’s really time you stepped up a gear and made something happen.”

“That’s the trouble with you, you come up with these bright idea’s, do all the ground work and then move onto something else. You just cant see anything through.”

“You’ve got quite a few different ideas now, you really need some way of organising your thoughts.”

“I know….”

‘Daddy’

“I’ll start a blog.”

‘Daaaaaddy’

“Huh?”

‘Amelia get out now Daddy, it’s cold.’

“OK Chock, let’s both get dried off and head home for some lunch.”