52 weeks in public health research, part 35

Posted by Martin White

Editor's note: Yes, it is possible that we skipped 4 weeks of this project. But I'm making the rules and I say that's okay. 

I am attending a national research leaders course funded by NIHR and hosted by Ashridge Business School in Hertfordshire periodically during this year and some of next. The course itself is very good (the role play on 'difficult conversations' was particularly educational), as is getting to know the class and faculty (some extraordinary people at the top of their game), and the food (!). But the venue and its setting, dating from the 14th century in parts, in the custodianship of the National Trust, is quite special. It feels like a real privilege to spend a few days once a quarter in these surroundings.

During the World Cup it seemed like everyone jumped on the marketing opportunity bandwagon. I'm not sure whether Krispy Kreme was indulging in this opportunity (the picture was taken during the tournament), or whether this marketing at a service station off the A9 in Scotland was aimed at travelling football fans or teams. Whatever, they clearly know how to sell more than one doughnut at once. These babies weigh in at an average of 363 calories (kcal) each (equivalent to 418 kcal/100g), so the exhortation to 'share' these with your team mates might not be such a bad idea.

This Playground Code is probably familiar to many of you as parents, and perhaps as children. I saw it when attending a ceilidh in a school hall to celebrate a very special birthday. I thought we could substitute 'work' for 'play' and, with a little further adaptation, make the world a better place. Just saying...

I seem to be travelling to London a lot more than I used to. I thought I had it all down to a fine art - leaving home 20 mins before my 07.11 train departs from Morpeth Station. I had not reckoned on some of our local farmers herding their sheep into the yard at this time of the morning. Fortunately, I made the train, which was a couple of minutes late.

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.