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It is with a great pride and huge relief when works are completed and exceed not only the clients’ expectations but mine as well.

Eternal, a family run kitchen and furniture business based in Somerset has a simple ethos so different to other companies, it is like a breath of fresh air.

This picture was taken in the mid-late 90’s. More than 30 years later, I went back too see Oxford Castle and was pleasantly surprised.

What is this phenomenon where everyone is so industrious, so overworked, sleep deprived and unable to manage a reasonable proportion of downtime?

This was the title of a paper by Dan Cruikshank about the repair of historic buildings published in the 80’s. Today, our ability to adapt and survive is more about who we chose to work for and what motivates us to provide the services that we are instructed to deliver.

The dysfunctional planning system has a fair part to play in making work harder than ever to achieve resilience but I won’t go there again. Perhaps having an all female team also has something to do with maintaining resilience.

This week I received some positive feedback from my clients. How often do we receive good news? Not often enough. I have always been happy to get any type of feedback.

There is something odd happening amongst the architectural fraternity, all my contemporaries have either retired, moved away or both. Is this a reflection on the planning system? We all know that the current planning system is not fit for purpose, but we struggle on.

Apart from achieving validation of a planning application in Somerset, no mean feat, this week has been challenging for additional reasons.

What I call my management style, I take on work and am always surprised when it gets done in a timely fashion.