My Ofcom interview
As a member of the Communications Consumer Panel which is based in the communications regulator Ofcom, I’ve just been invited to complete some interview questions for a piece on the Ofcom intranet. I though that I would share it with you.
Where did you spend your last holiday and what was great/bad about it?
My wife and I spent three weeks travelling round China with a young Chinese couple and their three-year old son. We first met the wife in the couple ten years ago when we befriended her on the 11-hour flight from Beijing to London after our first visit to China.
The best part was seeing China through Chinese eyes and having endless discussions about the differences between British and Chinese culture. The worst part was the pollution in the cities which gave us all coughs and colds.
What’s your favourite meal?
My wife makes a delicious pasta dish with bacon and red peppers and I love rice pudding with a dollop of strawberry jam.
What was the last book you read? Struggle or pleasure?
“Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantell. I don’t normally read historical fiction, but this work won the Man Booker Prize in 2009 and I needed a long novel (this is 650 pages) for the trip to China.
It is a very readable and accomplished work, full of period detail, including gruesome reminders of how precarious life was in 16th century England. However and oddly, Mantell very rarely uses Cromwell’s name as the subject of a sentence but instead simply adopts the pronoun ‘he’ which is frequently quite confusing
When was the last time you went to the cinema and what did you see?
I’m a massive movie fan and go to the cinema regularly.
Something I enjoyed recently was “Green Zone” directed by Peter Greengrass and starring Matt Damon (the team that gave us the last two Jason Bourne films). It’s a really exciting work and, if the tension isn’t quite as excruciating at that other Iraq movie “The Hurt Locker”, at least “Green Zone” has a narrative and poses some questions, hard questions that many in the American and British establishments would probably were rather not aired.
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
On a round-the-world trip. I love travelling (although I feel guilty about my carbon footprint) and have visited over 50 countries, but I reckon that there’s about 150 to go.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
My web site. It’s been a work in progress for 11 years and now has around 150 sections. It becomes bigger every day if only because I blog every day.
What was your first job?
Accommodation Officer at what was then the Polytechnic of North London (now London Metropolitan University). It got me down from Manchester to London where four decades later I continue to seek ever-elusive fame and fortune.
What was the last music album you bought?
When I was on holiday in Iran recently, I bought some local music. I like to listen to music from around the world and am always open to recommendations.
A member of our group visiting Iran told me about a singer called Souad Massi of whom I’d never heard. She’s Algerian but now lives in France. So, once we reached home, I purchased some of her music:”The Best Of Souad Massi”. Different but delightful.
Cats or dogs?
No contest – cats. Our cat Honey actually adopted us 14 years ago when she was four. In human terms, that makes her even older than me – and much furrier.
What is your favourite word?
Ubiquitous. I first heard it in a discussion on micro chips in the late 1970s. It’s a great word to use in Ofcom meetings (“Broadband needs to be ubiquitous …”).
Who is your hero and why?
Leonardo da Vinci. The guy knew so much and thought so much and invented so much. A true Renaissance Man or polymath.
What is your pet hate?
Intolerance. We’re all different. Let’s live with it and celebrate it.
Tell us a joke
Bugs Bunny was shopping at the supermarket and a sales assistant said to him: “If you can tell me what 19,866 times 10,543 is, we’ll give you free carrots for life”.
Immediately, Bugs responded: “209,447,238”.
The sales assistant was astonished and asked: “How on earth did you do that?” Bugs replied: “If there’s one thing rabbits are good at, it’s multiplying”.
May 4th, 2010 at 9:58 am
I knew you had been living down south for a while but I wouldn’t have guessed it was as long as 40 decades (see first job answer). You’ve done well to keep your accent! Perhaps it just feels that long.
P
May 4th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Last time I heard ‘ubiquitous’ and ‘chip’ so close together was here: http://www.ubiquitouschip.co.uk/
The sweets look tasty, too, Roger!
May 4th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Corrected the 40 decades to four decades! What accent, Philip?!?
Good tip for my next visit to Glasgow, Calvin.