Roasting...

An early morning start but a great breakfast at Roast in Borough Market. This is a brilliant spot in south London, nestling around Southwark Cathedral and selling the absolutely best in food and wines, and much else besides! And it is a social enterprise so the profits are going back into the local community in Lambeth and Southwark.

I was meeting with Carlos Miranda, who runs a very exciting fundraising consultancy, IG Advisors as well as a social media company that provides strategic advice to the sector on how to maximise your social media profile. I told him, ruefully, I'd quite like to manage mine!

It was a struggle to get past the stalls groaning with organic produce and artisan cheeses to get to work, I can tell you. But a really rewarding meeting with Fiona Ritchie from Turning Point and colleagues from the “Ideas Collective" to discuss our “Winterbourne challenge". A  good, challenging  and helpful session. Rushing from that to a meeting with our corporate partners Endsleigh and Zurich to talk about how we can best offer advice to members on risk in an increasingly litigious climate; not all charities are alive to their exposure as they increase the level of service delivery. We did this over lunch which made the discussion agreeable as well as rewarding. And some exciting ideas on leadership development in our third sector...

I don't know about you but this weather has got me out of the habit of wearing a suit. It’s strange how us English (not that I am) will wear a dark suit in sweltering weather. I avoid roasting but turning up to my meeting with our insurance colleagues who were well suited and booted made me feel somewhat under dressed. But as I get older I get more blasé about this sort of thing. Travelling on the London tube in this heat and in a suit is just too disgusting...