The Easter bank holidays in the UK at the start of the month plus a few days off work gave the first half of April a bit of a stop-start feel.

It was really nice to have some time to do some different stuff away from work after a pretty intense March at work and with things at hone.

We had a nice weekend away with my parents and brother’s family over Easter itself in the East Midlands. Then Jo and I managed a lovely five day motorhome jaunt to the Cotswolds and Wiltshire – it was so nice to get away and go exploring new places with the sun (mostly) shining.

I also managed to finally catch up with Tim Deeson and Sarah Harris for dinner in London at the start of the month. It was one of those typically free ranging conversations that managed to span clients, AI, former colleagues and some stories about mutual acquaintances that I won’t be capturing for posterity here!

And then last Thursday we were up super early to collect our youngest son from Gatwick at 5.55am. He’s returned from his three month trip to Asia and is now back with us for the summer until he heads off to uni in September. It was great to hear about his adventures and to have him home safely.

We also caught up with friends locally last weekend and enjoyed sundowners on the riverside decking in their garden in Chartham. It’s such a chilled place to enjoy a drink together.

The reconnection theme continued through my work too a bit, catching up with former London and Los Angeles clients during the month. I’m hoping that one of these conversations might evolve into a longer term ongoing collaboration, but just catching up and hearing how people have been getting on was good.

There’s something positive about a month where I lifted off the accelerator pedal a bit and had time to reflect on some of the work I delivered in March. It’s interesting to pick up a detailed audit report I wrote in March once again and review it with a client a month on from the end of the project. The findings and recommendations felt even more pertinent given what’s been unfolding in the business in the intervening period.

I also started work with two new coaching clients this month. As a coach I love the mental challenge of these early stages of a coaching relationship and seeing the progress new coachees can make in the first few months of working together.

Music this month…

Been diving into some proper old school 90s house mixes this month, including this MC’ed classic Sasha mix from back in the day.

Podcasts this month…

I listened to the Acquired episode on Formula One on a couple of long runs this month. It was interesting to hear about the early business machinations of Formula One. It was also fascinating to get an American perspective on a sport that’s been a feature of UK life for decades before Netflix took Formula One to the states.

Reading this month…

I’m reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I don’t read a lot of fiction but this book is superb and has really grabbed my attention from the first few pages.

Cycling this month…

113.6 miles. Trying to increase the mileage a bit before May’s Little Lumpy sportive, but struggling for time.

Running this month

63.8 miles. Been easier to find the time to run this month, which is good as I have a 50K run next month too.