Weeknote 148

GDS meetup, Top‑tier pizza, Box Hill hike

• Wrapping up my last full working week of the year with a round of documentation and yet another reminder to colleagues that I’ll be away for four weeks. Somehow it still seems to surprise people no matter how many times you say it.
• We had our end‑of‑year GDS gathering for designers across all directorates. Plenty of upbeat talk about future visions; now to see whether the optimistic talk turns into any action. Near the end there was a quiz; luckily I was in a group that knew most of the answers, while I felt hopelessly out of touch with films past and present.
• Caught up with my friend Rishee over excellent Neapolitan‑style pizza at 50 Kalò. We even spotted Gerry and Paul from Bite Twice Food Reviews having beers before collecting what looked like a small mountain of takeaway pizzas.
• Saturday I took a short but very steep hike up Box Hill, grabbed a quick coffee at the National Trust café, then headed back to Dorking station for the once‑an‑hour train to Wimbledon. I’d normally cycle, but the mist, damp and grimy roads weren’t exactly inviting. I haven’t been out on the bike since October, but my indoor Wahoo setup, plus free access to the MyWhoosh app, is keeping me in fitness over winter.