One of my 60 for 60 (see about) was speaking at a digital conference. Now how I ended up doing such a gig was all a bit odd. I thought I had expressed an interest in attending said conference but found myself talking to the organisers on presenting at it. They concluded that I had something interesting to say so I was on. 

It seemed a fairly good, if not amusing, idea at the time but as the date approached I started to question my sanity. What do I know about the digital world apart from this blog. But I prepared my PowerPoint presentation and consoled myself that if I bombed I would never see the audience again.

I was second up. When the first speaker finished delegates started to leave the room to go to another session. I started to think that I may only be speaking to handful of people. But ten minutes later the room was packed with the Chair commenting on how popular I was. Not me but the organisation I represented. The Royal College of Midwives doesn’t usually present at such conferences.  

I was up. And it all went very well. I have presented at dozens of conferences in my career. Most have gone reasonably well but there have been occasions where the reaction of the audience would suggest that this was 30 minutes of their life that they would never get back. But this audience laughed when they were suppose to, nodded appropriately and asked questions at the end. And amazingly a queue of people wanted to speak to me when I stepped away from the podium. They were interested in what we were doing and wanted to know more. I was buzzing. Probably one of my career highlights.

This weekend I travelled to Newbury in Berkshire to meet up with a couple of my mountain climbing friends. We had planned to onward travel to Brecon to climb a mountain but the weather forecast was not good. Rain and more rain. So we decided to stay local and walk a Berkshire Circular. An opportunity to test out our map reading skills. 

We set out in the morning. Two of us dealing with prosecco headaches. But the sun was out. Not a raindrop to be seen. Four hours and eight miles later our legs were suitably fatigued and the circular completed. Our orienteering skills still require some polishing. We got round but for the last section we are not sure how. 

A lovely pub lunch and it was back to London. An uplifting micro break.

We are now planning to do the Three Welsh Peaks next year. Snowdon, Cadair Idris and Pen-y-Fan in 24 hours meaning that some of the climbing will be in the dark. Something different.