This is a “Now” page: a look at what’s going on in my life right now.
Life
I live in Croydon now.
I’ve bought my first flat here. I like the flat; it’s a two-bedroom maisonette in a nice block. After 18 months, I’ve mostly finished decorating it just as I want it – a liberating opportunity after more than a decade in rented accommodation. Well, I say “finished”; decorating is never really finished, is it?
The neighbours are sociable and friendly. We’re going through the wars a bit with our building freeholders and managing agents, and that’s helping to build up a sense of community and camaraderie among us.
I don’t love the area. It’s fine, but I miss Finsbury Park. There’s nowhere to buy a good coffee or to go for a pleasant walk like there was there.
My new locale has enabled me to pick up a new hobby though: I boulder now. It’s exercise plus puzzles. I don’t like exercise, but I do like puzzles. I’m not very good at it and it scares the life out of me, but it’s a lot of fun!
Work
I’m still in the UK Civil Service – ten and a half years, now – working in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. My role is as ‘Head of Digital Identity Governance and Delivery’; I’m leading the charge to bring a new “governing body” for the digital identity market to life. It’s very, very complex. It’s challenging. It’s enjoyable. If we collectively pull it off, it’ll be the kind of “boring magic” I came to the Civil Service to work on.
I’ve recently stopped being the Chair of the cross-government, Civil Service LGBT+ Network. I don’t exactly miss it but it did give me a greater sense of purpose at work. I wasn’t just delivering public services in that role; I was also making public service delivery better. I had to stop doing it though; the day job was getting too big to do the ‘gay’ job justice.
I’m still keeping my hand in though. I’m running the Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme again; now for its third cohort. This programme has already matched more than 1,150 mentees and 750 mentors. As I write, another 200 participants have signed up to the third cohort in fewer than 2 working days.