Tag: manchester

Before lockdown at Manchester Climbing Centre

23 April 2020

Before lockdown, The Climbing Clan met every Wednesday at Manchester Climbing Centre. Whether you had experience climbing, or had someone to climb with or not, we took you under our wing. Quite a number of people have had their first climbing experience, and learnt to belay with us. At 8pm, everyone gathers in the cafe, […]

#TimOnLoan: borrow me for a week for FREE (worth £3000)

15 March 2017

Are you drowning in emails? Trying to get some things done whilst juggling a bunch of other things? Perhaps I can help? I want to lend out my skills to organisations in Manchester for free: Is this you? You know decision makers need your product or service but it sometimes feels like they speak ‘different language’ […]

What no-one will tell you about rocking employment fairs! (specifically the Manchester Digital talent fest)

3 February 2017

All you need to know: Get a ticket Turn up. Talk to as many tech companies as possible to try understand what they do and how they operate All you need to know to rock it: Do: Ask people lots of questions – especially about the area you're most interested in. People LOVE anyone who's interested […]

Nearterm 2017 plans!

27 December 2016

My plans for the next month or so, are fairly focused: Setup the #DigiClimbMCR meetup Research how people climb, and use fitness apps, by spending almost as much time at MCC as possible. Launch #TimOnLoan and loan myself for ~2+ weeks to small/exciting companies in Manchester I'm looking forward to sharing how I get on […]

My favourite parts of Upfront Mini 2015

7 October 2015

Yesterday I was lucky to attend Upfront Mini – a smallish (150 person!) one day conference about Front End Web development – the parts that appear in your browser! I particularly liked this part of the introduction: #Upfrontmini: "we have a code of conduct – some conferences don't take it seriously – we do" — […]

What we learnt from building a jobboard

2 October 2015

A few months ago we built a jobboard — pieline.net. It was mostly a programming challenge — we wanted to learn more about databases and Node.js, and we thought that this would be useful and straightforward. There used to be the Geekup Jobboard, run by Andrew Disley, free and for everyone (except recruiters). It was split up by functional […]

When I first thought about this, I worried I might lose friends, then I realised it was the right thing.

31 May 2015

"Imagine that money wasn't something you had to worry about – what would you do?" Once you figure out the answer, you're meant to head down the most efficient path there. Working 'to get rich' when you're seeking to 'have a happy family life' may not be the most efficient route for you. It's […]

YCombinator? I'll do it

21 July 2014

One day last November, I was sitting in the student cafeteria, at Stanford University in California with Josh catching up with Paul, an old friend of mine who was studying there. We'd had just ordered a coffee from Starbucks, naively answering telling the barista, "yes, we would like cream", so now we were eyeing up […]

I protested BBC iPlayer in 2007, and I don't regret it.

5 March 2014

During the summer holidays of 2007, I was a teenage sailing instructor who was volunteering locally, to teach younger teens how to sail (better) for a week. On Tuesday, I skived off teaching, jumped on a train to Manchester and changed my life forever. But that's not the beginning… A few months earlier I was […]

The Ardwick Quarter at Dusk

26 July 2013

Summer is pretty. Recently, we've been having some great sunsets and I snapped this view down Plymouth Grove, silhouetting the old Plymouth Grove pub against the sky.

You could say I took an arrow to the knee…

10 February 2013

We don't like to talk about much, but there's a time to look at "crazy" challenges with a face of sensibility. Last year, I did a 26 mile [sponsored] walk around Manchester, and so this year, I signed up to do the 55 mile version. I'm undoubtedly fitter than I was a year ago, and […]

Could we see a cyclist-friendly Taxi firm in Manchester?

8 February 2013

I'm a cyclist. But that doesn't mean I cycle everywhere, all the time, I take the train, I take buses, I take trams and quite frequently I take taxis. Taxis and cyclists don't always get on, this doesn't have to be: I take taxis a lot more often than if I owned a car. The […]