Following Drake's Wireless performance, he did a number of shows across the UK, of which I managed to get a few tickets for. Unfortunately the show was on a Monday, a day where I would be working, and I had to make it from London to Manchester. With some clever logistics and working from a train, my cousin, my friend, his girlfriend, and I made our way up to Manchester. We got there with plenty of time to spare, allowing us to check in, hit the gym, relax, and then get ready for the concert.

For me, this was the second Drake concert I had ever attended, the first ime being during his Boy Meets World tour in 2016. In those years his catalogue has grown massively and his fan base has only grown (despite what social media would tell you). For the rest of the group, it was their first time seeing Drake perform live.

My only criticism almost isn't even a criticism. His catalogue is so extensive that everyone's favourite songs are different, and it would take forever to do them. Instead, he does parts of his most popular songs, leaving out the less popular songs.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was close to midnight, my friend had to wake up at 5 to catch a flight from London, and I had work in the morning.

The following morning my cousin and I managed to grab some steak and eggs at a local brunch spot we found on Google and headed directly for the station to catch our train back home. I worked on the way home and continued working once I got home to make up for lost time.

Let me be frank, Leeds was never on my list of places to visit (not that I have a must-see list), but when I was given the chance to visit as part of work sponsored training, I would have been a fool not to take it, professional development and the chance to see somewhere new.

As such the majority of my day was spent with colleagues, which was valuable in its own right. In the world of consulting you are part of two teams, one team is where you sit in the business, the other is the team you're delivering work with. For me, the former is the Identity & Access (IAM) team, everyone is aligned or specialised in IAM. The latter is usually multivariate, a client will only need 1-2 people in each of the things they require, this could be IAM, change management, tax specialists, and so on. The exception is large scale IAM transformation where I might have a number of my team with me on the client engagement.

I took the train up to Leeds from London on a Monday afternoon, giving me a chance to settle into my hotel, find the office, and be ready to start on Tuesday. The alternative (which many of my colleagues opted for) was to wake up at 4/5am, make it there for 9am and then engage with a whole day of training.

There's little to say specifically about the training, it was extremely valuable, just not something I think is interesting to discuss. But I do have a lot more to say about the experiences.

I spent time with a variety of people, some who are on my engagement, some who I know of but never spoken with, and some completely new faces who were there not because they specialise in IAM but because their role will require the knowledge the training provides, I was definitely able to build some connections and find people who I can catch up with over lunch given the fact that their client is literally across the road from ours, and we're expected to be on-site to an extent.

The Leeds office itself was small, only 3 floors. You could probably fit everyone from that office into one floor of the Canary Wharf office which is my 'home' office. That said the smaller offices have their charm, you get to know the receptionist, the security guards, the kitchen staff a lot more easily when you're only one of a few hundreds rather than one of a few thousands from all over the globe. You are also more likely to make friends outside of your team through idle chit-chat, this is both a 'northern' thing in the UK, and the result of belonging to a smaller group. In my case, I was able to find some connections with the Leeds office goers through the virtue of me going to the prayer room where I met a couple others (a virtue of Islam that I love and will talk about in the future).

Aside from all the work related bits, Leeds has a very nice shopping area, much nicer than I anticipated. Dare I say nicer than many places in London. On the other hand, the homelessness there cannot be ignored, if it is bad in London, Leeds has it much worse,

As implied in the opening I'm writing a majority of this post while flying to Vietnam. So, I didn't really know what future me was going to write. But what current me will tell you now is that I'm excited, and it's a weird situation that led me here. My friend and his mother (both Vietnamese) were going to visit Vietnam earlier this year in February/March, I shouldn't have been able to join them as I was observing Ramadan. For some reason they delayed their trip to September, which meant I was able to join (I did have to forego another work training in Lisbon). In addition, another friend and his wife had asked if they could also join. My friend and his mum agreed to have us join. The plan is to spend some time with their family in their home city of Hai Phong but also make time to explore Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City by ourselves.

Anything for this section on Vietnam has been written by future me.

Our first few days in Vietnam were spent in Hanoi, after a gruelling wait in immigration we were greeted by the humidity and a plethora of men fighting to secure their taxi fare. The environment here is overtly hustle focused when compared to London, people are trying to make a living any way they can, and although it can be annoying, I cannot fault them for trying. Especially when it comes to those who look like tourists (i.e., me), there is a middle ground where we feel like we're getting a good price, and they're making more than they normally would. This isn't to say we didn't haggle the taxi fares, haggling is customary, and we couldn't not partake. In the end we paid £17 for a minivan for 5 of us with our suitcases to our accommodation 45-minutes away (down from about £20).

An extremely appreciated aspect of our trip was the inclusion of my friend's mum, a Vietnamese native. She would strike up a conversation with anyone to get food recommendations, directions, or just to have a chat. When we went out to eat, she would discuss with the store owners about the options they had which would be suitable for me.

Our 2 days in Hanoi were visiting the local sites, train street, temples, museums, and mausoleums. I particularly enjoyed eating at the local food spots, run by locals, sitting on plastic stools, and hunched over plastic tables while slurping away at the noodles. Getting around town on my solo missions was made easy with Grab, I was able to get driven around on the back of a motorbike, swerving in and out of traffic. For most people, the way the traffic works is probably extremely off-putting. For myself, having frequently visited Pakistan I had a good idea of what to expect as the hubbub mimicked the roads of Karachi.

From Hanoi we travelled to Hai Phong, the Birmingham of Vietnam (or so I've heard), it isn't a tourist city, but it was where my friend's family are based. We were welcomed with gifts of fruits, cakes, and a place to stay for our time there. Our first activity was to visit the mall, built by a Japanese company known as AEON who build malls (just how Westfield do). We spent a few hours there, eating, shopping, and playing pachinko at the arcade. It was a well needed respite from the very active days we had just had. Unfortunately this is where part 1 of the Vietnam story ends. It's very difficult to enjoy my time here while writing a retrospective of what I'm doing without losing my immersion. That said, future-future me will conclude part 2 in my Q4 update (which seems ages away).

This quarter was full of birthdays, weddings, and celebrations. Specifically, I attended 2 weddings, both of close friends. I wrote in-depth about my experiences, and that of those around me. Read it here.

This section would have been longer. I tried to find the words but I simply could not.

I was asked to photograph for Saath’s first event. Which also happened to be London's biggest Ludo night.

For anyone unfamiliar with Saath, it is a community led charitable fund which supports projects in South Asia, specifically India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. They were founded following the US's decision to pull USAID from those regions, leaving many projects underfunded following historically sustained funds.

Why Ludo? Combining Saath's focus on South Asian, combined with the fact it was South Asian Heritage Month, it made sense to have a night on one of the world's most popular board games. Especially as Ludo has a rich history in South Asia as Rida, one of the guest speakers spoke about.

It was a great event full of laughs, strangers leaving as friends, and a few arguments regarding the proper way to play Ludo (Spoiler Alert: There's no proper way to play Ludo).

As the designated photographer for an event you are often entitled to certain liberties that others aren't. Like standing on chairs, pausing people's games for a well framed shot, and making connections on the virtue of being a photographer.

I am excited to see how Saath evolves going forwards. I've always been an advocate for leveraging my privilege to support others, and this project is no different.

Saath’s Website: Saath.fund

Saath's Instagram: @saath.fund

Some shots from the evening:

At the above event, I met many individuals, some were avid content creators with large followings, and some were smaller creators just getting started. Content creation ended up being the topic of conversation.

I had previously dabbled in making content, a podcast, TikToks (on the podcast, and generally), and the occasional post on the then Twitter. My writing is also a type of content creation, unfortunately it is a medium which doesn't naturally get as many eyes as the visual forms. However, a lot of what I write can easily be turned into short video essays for TikTok.

There's definitely a few topics I'd like to explore with content creation: my writing, travel (solo and group), my work (in cybersecurity and consulting), and my interests (crypto, photography).

Unfortunately I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but my mind has been running back and forth with ideas. I just need to execute.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! I couldn’t tell you how much it means to have you take an interest in, and read my work.

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