Out and About Archive – Archive

At Fairstone Group we have monthly Board Meetings. This makes sense given the speed with which we are growing and the number of opportunities and challenges within our markets. In addition, I attend and chair the Risk Committee meetings. Happily, the culture of our business means that all the meetings come with succinct packs rather than the, impossible to read documents, that I associate with institutions. (Arial 10!)

Most of our meetings have taken place at The Fairstone Head Office near Newcastle. And I have to say that lockdown has saved me considerable travel time. The trips to Newcastle would start with 4.30am alarm and finish at my front door about 15 hours later. My travel time now is zero. Having said that, I still like face to face meetings because body language is important. And I look forward to sitting around a table with my colleagues

Vitality Life appointed me as a “Good Life Guru” some years ago. Who would believe it! Anyway, as a result, I feel obliged to run their London 10K race every year. Actually, it’s a wonderful and unique experience to run through the City of London and see all the familiar offices and monuments with the roads closed to traffic. I have really enjoyed it. But, of course, this year it wasn’t possible. So they organised a virtual race. And I loved it!

We runners could choose our own route, complete the run in the last week of October and provide evidence via an app. We were also provided with a vest number for those who wanted to wear it. I didn’t!

The experience was great. I achieved a time better than I achieved in my previous events as there was no need to weave around to overtake people. More important, it avoided the travel to the start in The Mall and all the usual waiting around. And we still received the medal and the T-shirt!

I’m privileged to be on the Management Board of the Investment Network. It’s an excellent organisation which delivers wonderful events with great speakers on topical issues and a roomful of senior people from across the retail investment sector. It also adds in plenty of time for members to discuss, debate, share ideas, and absorb fresh perspectives and plenty of wine!

The Management Board meets once a quarter to plan the events and the MD Clive Waller managed to arrange this meeting at The Woslsey in Piccadilly within the current pandemic rules. We had a private room with two separate tables of six with no mixing. One was hosted by Clive, the other by Heather Hopkins of NextWealth. The Board members that were able to attend included: Jackie Boylan from Fidelity. Geoffrey Towers from Pershing, Eric Welsby from Bravura, Chris Read from Dunstan Thomas, James Rainbow from Schroder, Kevin Okell from Altus, and David Moffat from DST.

There were some very lively conversations to say the least!

For the past five years I have been the (unpaid) chair of two companies: Chiswick Quay Freeholds Ltd and Chiswick Quay Residents Ltd. The role of these companies is to manage the Chiswick Quay estate where we have lived for more than thirty years. The estate is on the river Thames in West London, next to where the Oxford and Cambridge boat race finishes.  It comprises 68 houses and a marina with about forty boats and a full-time harbourmaster.

I never intended to chair these companies and I won’t bore you with the circumstances that combined to give me no option but to step up. Anyway, at the last AGM, I told the residents (who, like me, are shareholders) that I would be stepping down in 12 months and today is the day! Happily, another resident has been willing and able to take over.

All in all, it has been a rewarding experience. But it’s a fine balance!

Lockdown and lovely weather enabled me to get outside and run and/or walk almost every morning in June. It has been a wonderful month and my fitness has improved considerably. The fact that I haven’t been to a restaurant since February 21st may also be a factor!

My Garmin tells me that I have achieved new records in terms of “steps” in June:

• Most steps in any month ever: 373.620 steps
• Most steps in any week ever:    109,150 steps

Every cloud has a silver lining!