My Continuing Adventures In Time & Space

Where did the last 15 years go? It's a question which has been playing on my mind a great deal for the last few months and now I am at the end of an event I have been waiting a long time for.

Friday was my last day working as a local authority engineer and this weekend feels like I have walked away from a massive storm. I am currently in a calm place as I have left so much stress behind but I am anticipating with some trepidation Monday morning as I start my first day working as a consulting engineer. The post has been created for me and so I hope I can measure up to the incredible faith that has been put in my abilities.

My second local authority stint has been incredibly rewarding and for better or worse, it has been the making of me as an engineer. I am one of those irritating people who have been fortunate to wander along in their careers with little direction and yet finding something good to do. This time has been no exception because I was introduced to my new company by someone I knew on social media and then met during the day job - they are owed some pints!

I'm also about to start my 25th year as a civil engineer which (with any luck when it comes to a sensible retirement age) means I'm over half way through my career. That also feels very weird. But, the next challenge awaits and the big news is that I will be specialising in walking and cycling design which has given me the most satisfaction in recent years.

Sadly, the job I have left just got too frustrating in recent times as I spent less time engineering more time servicing an increasingly bureaucratic system which had no time for active travel or anything remotely radical which didn't service the car-sick status-quo. It was time to move on, it just took a while to admit it.

My last actual piece of work was a report looking at an area of 1km radius which took in six schools and proposed a 20mph speed limit and filtering across the area which went to ward councillors who are looking to visit Waltham Forest, so I might have sown a seed for the future.

Last Thursday was my last cycle commute to work and the route I took is a metaphor for how far we have to go in the UK with just a short section of decent cycling provision bookended by shared paths and having to mix with traffic. I filmed by commute and I will leave you with a video of something I loved and hated in equal amounts, because it was not exactly Amsterdam, but it was a reliable journey time.