A hot week, meaning the allotment is thriving and it was nice to work in the smart new environmentally conditioned Sidara building for the day and luckily the kitchen for the cookery class at the weekend was air conditioned. The focus of the week has been exploring new project / research areas which culminated in a day exploring data empowered societies at UCL. This meant a second consecutive week of friday visits to other peoples offices - maybe I should aim for this every week…

The Sidara building at 150 Holborn is a contemporary commercial office space and a great example of the benefits of a converged network (IT - Information Technology, OT - Operational Technology and the IOT - Internet of Things). Appropriate given the theme of the sandpit on “data empowered societies” and my focus on how we can use data to support our estates journey to net zero. Two workshops in one day meant it was a long one, but some good conversations started.

It also has a lovely rooftop garden space.

I also liked that all the plants had little info tags with QR codes.

A couple of new cooking experiences this week - home made pasta and then a cooking lesson from a local chef via Class Bento - a lovely platform to connect people to locals providing all kinds of workshops. They say:

The name ClassBento comes from the startup’s original teacher, a Japanese florist, Setsuko who ran Ikebana floristry classes from her small floristry studio. John and Iain were inspired by the philosophy of the Japanese - Ikigai - which translates to “finding joy in life through purpose” associated with life long expectancy in Japan.

We signed up to make Biang Biang noodles - was really good fun and loved the history lesson from Simon at Oriental Foods. The biang biang comes from the sound of the noodle dough hitting the work surface as you stretch them out. Turns out noodles can only be called that if they are more than a meter long. My favourite bit was the stretching, banging, and then the “separating like a zipper”.

Bought a book for the lab: Manufacturing Processes for Textile and Fashion Design Professionals by M. A. P. Thompson, which is a great resource for anyone interested in the technical side of fashion and textiles. It covers everything from yarn production to finishing processes, and is packed with illustrations and diagrams.

And listened to a book: An Ugly Truth - slightly depressing the narrative that people were very aware of what was going on but unable to enact a change.