Image via WikipediaIt was lovely seeing Marilyn Tippett after nearly forty years when we visited her at The Mill, Lloyney, near Knighton, Powys. I guess we have both changed, as you would expect, but the family features were remembered. It was good to swap a few yarns of times long ago.
Marilyn and Alan offer Bed & Breakfast at The Mill. Lloyney is near three major long distance walks; Offa’s Dyke, The Jack Mytton Way and Glyndwr’s Way. The surrounding hills offer more walks and lots of wildlife. Marilyn is a great enthusiast and promoter of social entrepreneurship.
We did not have time to discuss her business plan and will save that for next time.And the food was delicious! I hope that the beds are as good.
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Image via Wikipedia Recovering from the gallbladder operation and the emotional impact of “The wedding”, I stayed for a few days by the banks of The Kennet & Avon Canal. The footpath is flat and good for recuperation. I set off for the Croft Beam Engine and was told to look out for a very tall chimney. After five miles or so and after many chats with the happy holiday makers on their narrow boats, I glimpsed in the distance an apology for a chimney; well, at least if you come from the North of the UK where the mill towns had proper chimneys. The Crofton Beam Engine was built to pump water to the highest point of the canal in this section, some 40′ above Crofton. A spring was damned and the water pumped up the hill using steam engines designed in Manchester with pumping expertise from Cornwall. Further along the canal is the Caen Hill Flight of locks near Devizes. I hope to reach them on my next visit. So many nice people in their narrow boats but it is hard work opening and closing the lock gates.
But not much chance to discuss Equity Fingerprint for business plans until I met an academic from Reading searching for a Geocache; waterproof bottles hidden all over the countryside and in other countries. We are all different and my new friend was thrilled to discover and check off another Geocache. And he was also interested in Equity Fingerprint for his business plan!
I also talked to Mrs Ali Burch (tel 01672 870328) of the up market Crofton Lodge B&B – very special place to stay so she said.
Image via Wikipedia30 years ago and at least nine months, I was working in the Cambridge office of 3i. Stepoe and Edwards approached us for funding of the first IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) clinic, Bourne Hall. After much debate about the morality and risks, 3i advanced a loan, no equity, to allow them to continue their work. I think that the person in charge of the deal was Paul Gilmartin but I have lost touch with him. So Cambridge was the place where the first IVF child was conceived – another “change the world” idea.
IVF is now a global “business“and a small Cornish company, Research Instruments, is a global supplier of the micromanipulation equipment used in IVF. Managing Director, Bill Brown, led a management buyout of the business in 2000 when the founders wanted to retire. Staff numbers have increased from 10 to 36 with more to start soon. It would be interesting to have the Equity Fingerprint, the business plan resource, of the company.
But back in Cambridge we have Cambridge Temperature Concepts (disclosure: I am an investor) developing their product Duofertility. This product will be the step before IVF to see if “timing” can help the 1 in 7 couples having difficult with having a child. Let us hope for the families and the investors that Douofertility also reaches a global market.
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Image via WikipediaAndy Baddeley has the same surname and also lived in Cambridge for four years getting a starred first in Engineering from Gonville and Caius College.
He comes from the Wirrall not far from Stafford, the ancestral home of all Baddeleys.
Now he is off to the Olympics to compete in the 1,500m – another excuse to watch the coverage.
They talk about building teams in the business world but nothing is quite so ruthless as building teams in the sporting world. Cambridge Rugby Union Football Club let go around half the first team squad at the end of last season and have been recruiting hard for the new season.
Karl Rudzki has signed from Northampton Saints and has joined the club‘s PR consultants, Quite Great of Shelford, Cambridge, UK. It must be tough getting the body into shape for the season and the squad is already training three times each week. Of course, you do not need a budge in sport you have a league table from which there is no hiding.
It will take great leadership to keep this squad working together – a skill some entrepreneurial teams in Cambridge need to learn!
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeIt is the end of the first year without my Father. You all know how I feel so no need to add – just time to think and reflect. And the best place to be is in the Lake District so I am on my way.
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeIn the last few days I have experienced three different types of silence: walking on my own in the hills; a thirty six hour silent retreat and visiting an old lady in a nursing home.
Walking on the hills can be a solitary affair but you are always busy watching your step, thinking of your route and there is always the sound of the wind. On the top of the hill you have the reward of the view and the feeling of achievement. However no picture can “bottle” the experience and help you share it with your friends. Walking with John Morrell of WalkingWays was different -someone to talk to, someone to guide you on the way but so difficult to stay silent when you are walking with such a knowledgeable person.
St Francis House at Hemingford Grey offers retreats to groups of people from various churches. I went with 14 people from St Bene’t’s Church in Cambridge, UK for a thirty six hour silent retreat. We arrived on Friday afternoon and stayed until after lunch on the Sunday. The time is organised and the retreat was led by the Rev’d Dr James Gardom of Pembroke College, Cambridge. It is a very special experience sitting either in the house or in the wonderful garden with people you know and being silent. A very special type of silence and different from sitting in silence in a church with other people.
The third type of silence is the type that falls on us as we age; moved from our homes with most of our friends and family no longer alive into a home for old people. Sitting in a room alone, just sitting. Here I go to break the silence of a very special person but all she really wants is to be back with her friends. Perhaps the first two silences will help me when my time comes to experience the third – I can only hope so.
So reach out and visit someone on their own and break their silence if only for a short time. I suppose the Internet helps as people can communicate. I know someone who is ill and the Internet has given them a new role in their community so technology and the products of the Cambridge Cluster can and do help.
Or play Bingo!
Image via WikipediaAdam Twist bills himself as “astute businessman and product innovator” on the Velocix site – sounds as if he should be on The Apprentice. In the 90s, he started Zeus Technology from his University of Cambridge college room and built it to over 200 people before missing out on the top of the dot com market whilst hanging in, I guess, for the big time.
His latest ideas use P2P technology in the same way as Skype to get large video files humming round the net. 3i is an investor so hopefully Continue Reading »
Image via WikipediaIt was lovely seeing Marilyn Tippett after nearly forty years when we visited her at The Mill, Lloyney, near Knighton, Powys. I guess we have both changed, as you would expect, but the family features were remembered. It was good to swap a few yarns of times long ago.
