Last week was PyCon UK, which took place in Manchester for the first time. I've attended the conference every year it's run since 2014, and each year I've given a talk. This year I decided not to submit a talk, instead trying my hand at running a workshop on "Data modelling with Pydantic". Luckily,...
I have a habit of revamping my website every few years. Since starting on Blogger some ... 19 years ago I've moved between platforms and redesigned the layout several times over. This time I decided to go for a static site build, which means not requiring managing WordPress plugins and updates, or...
Nearly ten years ago I graduated with a degree in Mathematics & Computing, with a keen interest in pursuing a career involving maths and programming, but with little idea how. First and foremost I had decided to stay in Manchester after uni, rather than risk getting stuck at my parents' if I moved...
Manchester recently held the first ever Raspberry Pi conference – Raspberry Jamboree, held at Manchester Central. It's been a year since the launch of the Pi, and this event was to review what we did in the last year, and look forward to what we're going to do this year and in the future. The day...
This weekend I attended the fifth (my third) PHPNW annual conference. As a member of the local PHPNW user group and community, I volunteer as a helper which involves getting delegates registered, getting the speakers to the right place and making sure everything's running smoothly. Starting on the...
I've now hosted four Raspberry Jams in Manchester. I posted about the first and second, here's a summary of what went on at III & IV. Manchester Raspberry Jam III The August Manchester Raspberry Jam kicked off when Kat opened up the Madlab and I gave an opening talk about what had been going on...
I've now run two Raspberry Pi events in Manchester, affectionately known as the Raspberry Jam. The first in June, which was the first Raspberry Jam in the UK, and which featured on the Raspberry Pi Foundation's website where we gained recognition for getting people together to share ideas,...
Yesterday was XP Manchester's XL event – a Saturday coding session of pairing, katas and a team bot tournament hosted at the MadLab. I managed to persuade Kris, a friend I used to work with, to come along – it's his first experience of this sort of thing, so I'm really glad he got introduced to...
On Sunday morning I was at my computer, surfing the web and doing some programming. I kept an eye on Twitter, noticing that Dave Gorman was tweeting about the radio show he was broadcasting at the time (Absolute Radio). The theme of his show was people's odd routines & rituals; things they do all...
A short film produced by Paul Maunder of Northern Parkour, based on the music video for Michael Jackson's Thriller. We rehearsed the dance routine for a long time and threw together the script and filmed the other bits at some training sessions.
I've had a weekend full of training, which followed two days of programming with parkour training in the afternoons, and today is my rest day. Thursday I went out training as a break from Java; Friday I met up with my good friends Gordon & Scott for some afternoon parkour in the sun; Saturday I...
This is the new parkour documentary. It was produced by two good friends of mine; the legendary Paul Maunder and written by the Chairman of the British Parkour Coaching Association, Dave Sedgley. This is truly the greatest parkour documentary we have seen to date, in terms of its content (the words...
I'm now at the end of my third week of university. I've moved away from home and now live in halls of residence in Manchester, which is a completely new experience for me. I can cook and generally fend for myself but it's still very different from being at home. I'm having a wicked time out...
Saturday 3rd February - training and filming in Manchester with Hat Trick Productions for a Channel 4 programme called 'A Slice of Life', which is not a programme about parkour, rather it is made up of sections, parkour being one for them. I'm not sure when it'll be broadcast, I'll keep you...
Had an absolutely brilliant time in Manchester this weekend. Will, Dez and I saw Motion City Soundtrack at the Manchester Academy, and they totally rocked, supported by OK Go, who were pretty cool too (they even did a dance while we were waiting for MCS to come on!) After the gig finished, we...
Thursday in Sheffield It's Thursday night now, I'm about to go to bed ready for tomorrow's day in the Peak District. Today was a brilliant day of parkour; Will and I met up with Jin, Jason and two other traceurs from Cambridge, we trained from 1:00pm till about 8:00pm, it was fantastic. The four of...
