Quick trip to the UK with Dylan to investigate narrowboats and help a running coach friend set up a ‘garden shed’ YouTube/remote coaching studio, also to do some running of course… on the hottest UK Bank Holiday weekend on record.
Hire car from Heathrow to our first night’s stop at The Olde Coach House Inn in the picture-book village of Ashby St Ledgers, near Daventry - a nice country pub with decent food, and a wonderful summer beer garden.
Sun-dappled dawn run around the area next morning, then off to the Crick Boat Show, plenty of narrowboats on show and thousands of people (and their dogs, lots of dogs). We were there to get a feel for types of boat fit-outs and prices, with a view to maybe buying a small boat in the coming years as a UK touring option for summer travel. Decided a very small boat, such as the quirky aluminium Sea Otter range, would be closest to the ‘campervan on wheels’ vibe we’re after.
Managed to create an incident on arrival. They were parking the stream of cars up in a large field, and having taken our space I managed to drop our hire car key a few yards from where we parked. Once I realised and we started looking, cars were already parking over the route we’d taken from the vehicle, covering the search area. Most of them kindly reversed out again while we looked, but it was panic stations for a few minutes before Dylan spotted the keys in the grass behind the one car whose owner had left before we got the chance to ask them to let us search underneath it. Panic over!
Gorgeous weather, plenty of canal boats and people (and nearly as many dogs) and overall, lots of food for thought.
Boat research done, next overnight stay was in the Bunk Inn in the small village of Curridge in the North Wessex Downs - a friendly place with nice building and rooms, but hassled staff and decidedly average food - where I had time to squeeze in an early morning (and unexpectedly hilly) run. Then it was off to visit my running coach friend Shane, via the tolled Whitchurch Bridge across the Thames, costing all of 60p to cross but still apparently the most expensive toll bridge in Europe when calculated by the metre. We were visiting to help him improve his YouTube/remote coaching game by installing proper lighting, camera, audio and green screen video in his garden studio. Was fun to solve problems and get him confident with his new workflow, and it looked and sounded amazing when we were finished. That shed was hot in the heatwave, though.
We then all headed to the local playing field where Dylan had a crash coaching session with Shane, learning how to accelerate faster in his position as defender in his football team, getting tips on running smarter off the ball, and learning how to add speed without extra effort. It was truly hot though, and Dylan quickly felt sick with all the running, so we were pleased for the car aircon after.
Was a nice change to run in the sunshine but in verdant, quiet England rather than dusty, noisy, polluted Gibraltar.
Next a flying visit to my Dad’s to support him best we could at a difficult family time. We all caught the end of the football season, Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes achieving most assists in a season by any player in the Premiership era and Tottenham staying up at the expense of West Ham (sorry, Dad). Then a quick Chinese meal in the garden and our final night in the huge, airport-adjacent Crowne Plaza hotel at Winnersh (it’s all about the buffet breakfast).
Was great to spend time with Dylan and see my Dad, but the weekend also got me thinking hard about how educators should best be using YouTube in the age of AI. I found myself comparing the approaches of traditional YouTuber influencers like the runner Ben Parkes with more specialised/innovator types like my friend Shane, for whom the mainstream influencer route would be a distraction. No answers, but authenticity, real stories and having a proper plan/goal for a channel seem increasingly important, and also actually having something to say - otherwise content runs the risk of getting too ‘meta’. All food for thought…