One Woman's View – Blog

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  • We’ve Been Here Before

    I’ve just finished an incredible week at Boomi World London. The technology Boomi has launched over the past year is genuinely mind-blowing — and tonight, after the event wound down, I finally had time to let it all settle.

    Something came up repeatedly throughout the week that I want to reflect on: fear.

    People kept asking — colleagues, partners, customers — “How are we going to cope with all of this AI? Is it going to take our jobs? Change everything we know?” And honestly? Those feelings are valid. Change is unsettling.

    But then I thought about my mum.

    She’s 85. Last year she got one of those robot vacuum cleaners. A few months before that, she’d asked me: “How is AI really going to change my life at my age?” — a fair question.

    Then I remembered the vacuum. I told her: “That little machine knows where to go. He knows when he’s finished his job and goes home to charge. He even knows to change settings when he moves from the carpet in the living room to the tiles in the kitchen.”

    She lit up. “He’s really smart,” she said.

    “He’s smart because of AI,” I told her.

    Simple use case. But it landed — and I’ve used that story many times since.

    Then tonight another thread connected. One of the terms that came up at Boomi World was tokenomics— how we’re going to think about and spend AI tokens as a kind of new currency.

    And I thought: tokens. That’s not a new word.

    When I was a kid, tokens were what you used at the seaside arcades. Then they came back in the video arcades of my teenage years. Then home gaming consoles arrived — and the arcades faded. Then DVDs threatened to kill the cinema. Before that, VHS tapes threatened television. Then Netflix replaced the video rental shop.

    Every single time, people worried. Every single time, we adapted.

    We assimilated these technologies into our lives, our communities, our routines — and they became normal. Not because we stopped being human, but because we are remarkably good at finding our way through change.

    So to everyone feeling a little anxious about the pace of AI right now — I hear you. But I genuinely believe we’ll find our way with this too, just as we have with every technology shift before it.

    We always do.

  • One Woman’s View (A Life Lived Loudly)

    Hi Everyone, I am pleased to tell you that I have my first book being published now. It contains many of the adventures that you have come to know through this blog and many more. I will let you know when it is available. There will be physical books as well as an e-book for Kindle!

  • Chapter 2 of My Never Ending Trip to Las Vegas

    Disclaimer: (Anyone who knows me understands that I am all for community work placements as long as the core skills of the role are met. Today this was not the case.)

    On the first leg of my transcontinental journey today I started with a 45 minute delay. No problem there. I landed in Dallas and was met by my wheelchair attendant who firstly I thought was going to go into cardiac arrest while pushing me from the plane to the gate area. I briefly felt better when we arrived and there was no need for CPR. Secondly. the respite was short lived as I heard him whispering to himself. I ignored it thinking he was cursing his luck for getting an oversized passenger. I soon realised he was also answering himself. I know my situation was a bit complex with having to pick up my bag to have it re-checked for my London trip but he was clearly confused and when I asked him if he knew where we needed to go he responded with. “oh yea, sure”, in a bad impression of a Texas accent. It went rapidly sideways from here to the point of taking me outside of security and immediately back in where I had to go through the whole TSA routine for the second time in 15 minutes. Next thing I know we are once again outside of security to check my one bag , which has been doing the rounds with us. Finally we got my bag re-checked and guess where we had to go next? Yep, through security. This time the TSA guy just looked at me and laughed.

    The wheelchair attendant was now ramping up his “internal dialogue” with “did you hear that?” I was under no illusion that he was talking to me. After passing the airline lounge (that was our intended destination), we circled back. As we arrived at the lounge check in desk I was saying my grateful goodbyes to my attendant only to hear the lounge check in guy say “oh ma’am you have access to the Flagship Lounge, it is much nicer there.” I said I was more than happy to stay where I was and he insisted I would feel more comfortable at the other lounge. I mouthed to him that I would go if he called a different attendant to take me as I was convinced by this point that my guy had a machete and a Voo doo doll stashed somewhere waiting for me!

    An hour after arriving in Dallas I made it safe and sound to the Flagship Lounge with the able assistance of my second wheelchair attendant, whom I tipped generously! Okay, two more legs to go, let’s hope it is completely uneventful.

  • It is Only Trip Number Two and…

    It will be one that will live long in the memory, not only for me but hundreds of thousands of other travellers as well. Yes, I was due to fly home on Thursday but as we were waiting to board things took a dramatic turn. Suddenly our flight started showing “delayed” and the wait grew longer. People were milling about and asking each other what was going on. There was a couple sitting across from me and she began talking to her husband and showing him her phone. She looked at my travelling companion and said that the BBC was reporting a large fire very close to the airport and so began our adventure.

    That was Thursday and today is Saturday, after working all week at conference, I was running out of clothes, and patience because of all places this happened while I was about to leave one of my least favourite (as well as the most expensive city’s on the planet… Las Vegas). I am currently scheduled to get out of Sin City at sun up. I do realise many people were worse off than me, at least we had not actually taken off. Those planes already heading for Heathrow would be turned back or end up in a random city.

    Once they finally, officially, cancelled our flight we had to go to baggage claim to get the bags we had recently said goodbye to. You would think that luggage on a plane that never took off should be fairly straightforward to return.

    Of course it wasn’t. Three hours later we passed the witching hour and we were now scrambling to find a hotel. When seeing the prices coming up for rooms I had to double check that I had not accidentally been redirected to a real estate website. I wanted a room for a night I did not want to buy a hotel. So while the party people were enjoying themselves I just wanted this marathon day to end with a place to sleep.

    Tomorrow will surely be another fun filled time while I hopscotch across the US before heading back England and my family. Las Vegas to Dallas, Dallas to Houston, Houston to London. See you on the other side and I hope I have no stories to tell about this next sojourn.

  • That’s the First Trip in the Books

    A few minor hiccups but all in all it was a great trip. I had good feedback on my presentation and I think I got people excited about Boomi. That is my job and I love it! I also made my first magazine cover. Well along with four other people but my face was still there and inside a very good article. I will say it was good as it was written in German so I have to take my colleagues word for it. On the plane home now which is always a wonderful feeling no matter how good the trip was.

    Next trip is Las Vegas in 8 days time. Hopefully I will not come back with Covid or any other nastiness this time. Until then have a good one.

  • First Trip of 2025

    It is March 4th and apparently it is Carnival week as well as half term. What does it mean? It means that every family with children are on my train from Frankfurt. I knew it was Shrove Tuesday as I was hoping my day would be filled with pancakes and goodness. Instead I have a family with 11 children sitting in the three rows in front of me. The youngest is the only girl and she is about 2. She knows she is the boss and now everyone on this train knows it too. Heaven forbid one of the boys wants to sit in any seat because at that exact moment, Little Madame decides that is her seat, her book, her airspace.

    The other thing I was not expecting was for the trains to run late. My train was delayed by 30 minutes by the time it arrived. We pulled out of the station and 3 metres later we stopped for 20 minutes. Finally got going and 5 minutes later we stopped again. I asked the young lady next to me why we kept stopping because the announcements were in German only, she said “because it is Deutsche Bahn. Don’t worry we will get there eventually.” I have travelled to and through Germany many times but never by train. We are almost at my stop so I will keep you posted on any thrilling updates from this trip.

  • My First Trip of the Season Update

    I know I left you hanging with my last post as you still don’t know how the rest of that leg of my journey went. Well, it did not get any better. As the time approached to start looking for my gate information I received an email from the airline that “due to operational constraints” my flight to Dallas would be delayed by 2 hours. The technologist in me was impressed because the email and text landed before the airport departures board was updated. Great job BA on your real time technology solution. However the traveler in me was thinking this already long day ahead of me just got longer.

    Finally onboard and settled in the captain comes on over the PA system to explain to us in some detail why we had been delayed for nearly 3 hours. According to him the plane had arrived from South Africa earlier in the day and the staff were unable to open the waste system to empty it. Which lead to Engineers being called who guess what? You got it they couldn’t open it either. Which meant a part had to be requested and eventually fitted. We could not complain that we were not well informed, if not a bit nauseated.

    Landed in Dallas, and did the mad dash to reclaim our luggage, go through Customs and re-check our luggage for the 45 minute flight to San Antonio. On the last segment of this trip and counting down the minutes to that shower that was in my very near future. Nope…

    …a passenger decided that she was more important than anyone else on the plane. She attempted to “place her bag in the overhead locker”, that was already full so it only went in about 6 inches. She left the bag sticking out saying loudly “they will have to figure it out”. When the flight attendant started closing the lockers he gets to this one with an ugly pink suitcase sticking out. He asked “whose bag is this?” Several helpful passengers pointed the woman out. He then asked her to please come and get the bag so it could be checked. The poor man had no idea what chain of events he just kicked off .

    The woman flatly and rudely responded that she would not be getting her bag down and no one was going to check it. The flight attendant walked over and calmly explained that she could not leave it there and that it must be checked. After calling him a “jerk” and a few other unpleasant things she asked to speak to the senior crew member. Then 15 minutes later it was the ground staff supervisor and finally 40 minutes later, when we should have been starting our descent into San Antonio, it was the pilot!

    By this time everyone was asking for the airline to check the bag, and her suitcase!

  • First Trip of the Year and it Has Started

    I arrived at the airport on time, checked my bag and made my way to the lounge. I had to go to the service desk for something and there he was, a young’ish man with a clipboard. For those of too young to remember clipboards are in lieu of digital means of data entry. A clipboard requires one to hand write the data they are collecting. Names, flight numbers etc. This task was obviously difficult for the young man as he hovered 2 inches above the clipboard and painstakingly navigated the paper and wrote the information down by hand.

    Ironically this reminded me of the look on students facing when first encountering a keyboard on a computer. They would look around at the many keys and were quickly overwhelmed. This reverse situation would have made me laugh but I had now been standing and waiting so long for him to complete his handwritten task that my left leg was going numb!

    I can only hope that all computer systems are functioning normally for the remainder of the trip.

  • Business Travel Season Begins

    We are now well and truly into the new year and the time has come to hit the road once again. Keep an eye on my blog to catch the best and worst moments of business traveling. If you haven’t seen any of my blogs on travel go back and take a look. Everything from stopping traffic for the daily water buffalo migration through the city, to being in traffic next to a cab when the elderly gentleman decides to pop his dentures out, to finding out why Business Class travellers are more flatulent than Economy Travellers.

    As the new travel season kicks off I will, as always, record the highs and lows of life on the road. First up, an across the pond trip to Texas, then back to the UK before crossing the big water again bound for Las Vegas.

    Looking forward to all the upcoming adventures, watch this space!

  • I love my technology but…

    …my mother has always called me “gadget girl”, because I am constantly looking for the latest and greatest tech BUT sometimes it does let me down. I’m sure you have all experienced this numerous times and it makes you feel frustrated. When this happens to me I try to remember what it was like before mobile phones, tablets, and the Internet. This usually works however this time it did not.

    I live in the UK but was born in the US and I do follow baseball when my team makes it to the postseason. I have every sports package on the planet because I love most sports. Yesterday was game one of the baseball World Series and the first pitch was scheduled for well after midnight. Gadget Girl made sure the recording was set up (checked twice) because I hate it if I record the non-HD channel by mistake. I went to bed safe in the knowledge that the game would be recorded and ready for me to watch in the morning.

    I grew up a Yankees fan but after the move to Texas and the Rangers joining the league I slowly switched to the local team. This is the Ranger’s first trip to the World Series since 2011 so it is a big deal.

    I woke up thing morning armed myself with a cup of coffee and settled in front of the telly. The game was back and forth after the Ranger’s early lead. The Diamond Backs rallied and took the lead. Late in the game the Ranger’s tied the score and forced the game into extra innings. It is now crunch time, bottom of the 10th inning with the score still tied. It breaks to the 4,000th commercial of the game and STOPS! I am sitting there with my mouth open, staring at the frozen telly. No, I could not think about what it was like before you could record games or what life was like before self driving vacuum cleaners!

    I started this blog with the fact the I love technology BUT sometimes it can drive you absolutely nuts. We are in 2023, men have walked on the moon, there is an active space programme to take a crew to Mars, AI that is so good you don’t know it isn’t real. So why can’t TV providers figure out a way to put a buffer at the end of games!! I had to grab my iPad and look up the score, all the while not taking a single breath. Through squinted eyes I saw the final score and let out that breath. We won in the 11th inning. Which was great news but it would have been nice to see it.

    Here is a recommendation to broadcasters, why don’t you put some of the pre-match build up time to post match summary to avoid this happening? I know that there will always be games that go to multiple inning or extra time but surely in this day and age we should be able to solve this problem!