August is my busiest month of the year at work, although this year I only had to work one weekend, rather than two. That was very much welcome and thanks to some changes with UCAS and some better planning on the part of our systems team at work.
Anyway, we’ve had some free time to do things and so here’s this month’s round-up of things we did that didn’t warrant a blog post of their own.
A return visit to Harlow Carr
We went to the RHS Garden at Harlow Carr in June, although it was a relatively short visit which also accommodated my parents and a member of Christine’s American family who was visiting. Following July’s trip to the RHS Bridgewater Garden, we decided to go back to Harlow Carr to do the bits we didn’t get to do last time, but also to do the Brick Explorers trail. As with Bridgewater, there are plastic brick models of flora and fauna all around the garden and so we followed the trail and ticked them all off. Today is the last day that the trail is running, so unless you can get there pronto, that’s it for this year, I’m afraid.
How to avoid private equity vets
We don’t have any pets, but if you do and you live in the US, Canada or the UK, then Private Equity Vets may help you to choose a veterinary practice that isn’t owned by a faceless corporation backed by private equity. Which is harder than it sounds, bearing in mind that many local veterinary practices retain their names when bought by these companies, rather than being rolled into a national brand. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority is investigating the vet sector, having identified a lack of competition with 6 large corporate groups owning the majority of practices. Here’s a quick YouTube video explaining what’s happening. Found thanks to this Bluesky post.
Backing The Guild: Ren Faire’d
I was one of the 45,000+ backers who helped to fund a feature-length edition of The Guild, Felicia Day’s web series about six characters who play a massively-multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) together. The series started 19 (!) years ago, and so the film is to celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. Originally launched with a target of $1.5 million (the minimum amount needed to make a cut down version of the script), it went on to raise almost $6.8 million. That beat the Veronica Mars film‘s record of raising the most money for a crowdfunded film. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it goes into production soon, and that we’ll see the Knights of Good hitting a renaissance faire next year.
