These notes are a tool I use for reflecting, remembering (because I can't), networking and public accountability. Read more here.
A perfunctory post cos there’s Bank Holiday biz to attend to. But to keep my weeknote streak…
Work, work, work
It’s been intense and intensive dealing with the cyber attack on the BFI Shop website. We’re on day 12 now, not counting weekends.
I’ll clue you in. A colleague discovered on 1 April (sadly not an April Fool) that bad actors (sadly not crap cast members) had injected a fake payment page in front of our real one, and may also have got into the site’s database. So there’s been a lot for us to investigate, coordinate and communicate. (I’m not breaking cover btw, this much is in the public FAQ).
It’s a site our retail team manages through a small company who built it in 2014. So it’s outside my jurisdiction but (a) still sort-of my accountability given my job title and (b) that’s hardly much comfort to customers is it? Conway’s law strikes again.
So there’s room for some personal reflection on my own (and my direction of my team’s) attentiveness to stuff outside our ownership and control, plus we’re uncovering organisational fault lines all over the shop (pun intended, but to be clear they run wider than the shop) that will spawn multiple priority projects.
I’m doing my utmost to protect psychological safety for folks to learn together from this in as supportive and trusting a way as possible, and not lose our individual peace of mind over spilt milk. But, naturally, nerves are frayed and sleep has been suffering, mine included.
Along the way I met a cyber forensics pro called Minaxi – what a cool name! If you’re having a baby girl soon, stick that on the list. Speaking of women in cyber (💪) Jia started on day 4 of all this and got stuck right in, adding heaps of value and quickly fitting into our culture.
It’s been adrenalising, interesting and exhausting. I’ve worked on nothing else, 8am to 8pm (one 11pm) and barely moved. Next week should become healthier as we start recovery plans. As I said in my last note (after day 3 – bless!) the cross-org teamwork has remained wonderful. I think our incident handling has been pretty great, ngl.
It’s not all work, work, work
OK so this post is turning out longer and better-written than anticipated but I can’t be arsed to go back and rewrite the first paragraph now. Which is actually perfunctory of me isn’t it, so that’s still true then, let’s carry on.
It both lessened and worsened my stress that I had 3 days’ holiday pre-booked (days 8-10 in incident time).
I drove with Joy and the boys to Cambridge for a night, so Dylan could suss the uni and vibe, and we also went to the Centre for Computing History which was fantastic. I bought a geeky chopping board I’m pleased with from the museum shop (featured above with obligatory middle class smashed avo).
Then Gloucester for a night to visit Littledean Jail, a Grade II listed prison we’d seen in a 70s horror (shot there on location) called House of Whipcord. It’s now a “dark tourism” museum with lots of warnings about staying away if you’re easily offended, and so curiosity got the better of us.
Turns out it’s a really fucking offensive tour through a toxic white male obsessive collector’s mind, so these are the only photos I dare share. It’s kind of extraordinary but I’m neither condoning it nor recommending you go. (Remember, I can unsee).
After that, 2 nights in Tiverton seeing my folks and sister. (I don’t talk about her much do I? We get on and it was lovely to see her).Things to do near Tiverton:
Easter weekend at home has been idyllic:
- Cooked some banging blueberry muffins and a lovely leg of lamb
- Got started on a new 1000 piece jigsaw (🤘)
- Dismantled old and (mantled?!) new furniture to finally finish Joel’s new room
- Booked a bulky waste collection to remove his old bed and mattress
- Added to my bulky waist with too many hot x buns and chocolate eggs
Linky time
- Steve’s colophon
- The energy at the edges
- The 4 prioritisation jobs
- Why we coined the term ‘Dynamic Operating Model’
- Turning the Treasury: Rethinking the UK’s digital spend
- Embracing seasonality – we’re not built for 100% all year
- AI 2027
- BFI Film on Film 2025. Includes Prince’s wonderfully terrible Under the Cherry Moon!
Cultural pursuits
📺 Stath Lets Flats. I called this mid last time but it’s got under my skin and I’m obsessed.
📺 A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou. Hit and miss sketch musical on Netflix. But what hits! Best man stag skit is a masterclass in character comedy.
📺 Started Last One Laughing on Prime, it’s better than expected and we laughed lots.
🎧 Adam Buxton’s interviews with Tash Demetriou and Kiell Smith-Bynoe on our long drives, and an excellent playlist Dylan put together for the trip.
🎧 Clipping – Dead Channel Sky. Jean-Michel Blais – aubades. QZB – Something About You/Haste. ESKA – Human (3rd excellent track off this upcoming album).
🎬 True Grit (1969) in NFT1 with intro from Karina as part of her The Old Man is Still Alive pod series.
🎬 Holiday family film club, ranked: Green Room, Triangle, It Follows, Alpha Papa, Tropic Thunder, The Grifters.
The bit at the end
At this point that whole “perfunctory post” thing feels like a psyop to trick you into reading a normal-length post.
But hey it worked! Thanks for reading.
