#weeknotes — bumper birthday edition

What I did, learnt, read and saw this fortnight

I didn’t get a chance to publish anything last week because I was on annual leave. So this week notes is a busy, bumper edition on what I got up to in the past 2 weeks — lucky you!

• I spent a day in Birmingham working on a really exciting project about how we support advisers to give the best and most up-to-date advice possible. Here’s a pic from the day:

• I’ve been looking through 32 years’ worth of Adviser magazines. It’s so interesting to thumb through articles on millennium bug and the like, which feel very of their time. But throughout Citizens Advice’s 80-year history, certain problems have always loomed large — benefits, debt and housing are just a few examples.
• I had an intro meeting with our new family law expert.
• I started listening to 2 great podcasts. The first was recommended to me by a colleague and is called Awake at Night. It describes itself as a series of “close-up conversations with remarkable humanitarian workers who offer unique insights into how their work has affected them personally and influenced their outlook on humanity”. I’m also enjoying What the Pho.
• I’ve been getting to grips with recruitment processes and systems at work, — I’ve never been a recruiting manager before so it’s been a learning curve. I’m looking forward to promoting the role when it goes live next week.
• I had a lovely, sunny day in Kew Gardens!

• I listened to a couple of different parliamentary sessions, including an EU Justice Sub-Committee session on rights after Brexit.
• I helped plan our team social.
• I attempted to give blood in the West End Donor Centre, but was turned away because of low iron ):
• I went to the Rainbow Epsom Spa with my sister and my mum. While there I started reading Invisible Women (here’s a pic of the book feat me and my mum enjoying a foot spa).

• I enjoyed an extended team meeting that we had yesterday which covered important topics such as unconscious bias. I also learnt how to use Trello more effectively, including how to add checklists to cards.
• I finished To Kill a Mockingbird.
• I did some work on how we share legal updates more strategically, so the wider organisation benefits from the expertise in the team.
• I saw Les Mis with my mum. She booked tickets to see it again the following day.

Have a lovely weekend!