Week 700

Exciting times! We’re starting a new contract tomorrow. It’ll see us through until the end of July and then both parties can work out whether it makes sense to continue. The three of us are going to be involved for the first two weeks and then Chris is going to move on to a couple of other projects that we’d previously agreed.

Finding project work has felt a bit different this year. We’ve had a few experiences of people being very enthusiastic about working with us up until the point we’re almost ready to sign contracts and then it all goes quiet, or we learn that we’re not all required or that the project length is much shorter than anticipated. I have no evidence to suggest this is different to previous years but it feels as though it might be.

I’ve continued to do bits and pieces for Circular Revolution. Mostly researching no and low code software they might use to replace some of their manual processes.

Our switch from HSBC to Starling is almost complete. We’ve been with HSBC since the earliest days of GFR, and although we’ve never really been happy with them, we’ve never felt strongly enough about it to change. I was finally motivated to do something about it when I had to visit a branch to collect a new security dongle and then spend time on the phone activating it. We decided to switch to Starling, based partly on their green credentials, and have been really impressed so far. The whole experience makes HSBC feel very antiquated.