Howdy everyone! My name is Adrian and this is my application post for Connect Live 2019. I am not very good at keeping things short/concise but for everyone’s sanity, I will try my best! Oh, and if you need a toilet break, now is probably the best time before you read any further!
So I am (still) a Level 8 Local Guide, originally from Malaysia but now based in Manchester (UK). I have been in Manchester for almost 15 years (19 years in the UK!) and I’ve actually spent more years in the UK than in Malaysia!! Yeah, if you’re doing the maths… stop… I’m old! I have been involved in the Local Guides program from the moment it was made available in Manchester (you can read more about the recap here) and I’ve just, basically, kept myself busy with it ever since.
There are many reasons to be involved in the program and many factors that make a good Local Guide. Everybody has their own stories and motivations. For me, it is very simple and it’s HAPPINESS! Essentially, I get to do the stuff that makes me happy and they are:
- Exploring and learning about the places around me, aimlessly wandering around and getting excited about finding local gems.
- Food, oh glorious food!! Sweet, savoury, local, foreign, exotic… you name it, I want to try it! And I also love the café culture of watching the world go by with nothing more than a cup of coffee, a slice of delicious cake and my favourite tunes gently caressing my ear canals.
- Capturing the world around me by letting my creative side go wild with photography! I’m an electronics engineer by trade (technical, structured, procedural) but I do love being creative and telling stories either through my photography or with words.
- Self-improvement: pushing myself constantly, improving my public speaking and networking skills, learning to be confident and comfortable with myself.
It may seem a bit self-centred but if you want to bring happiness to others, you should start with yourself first! And by sheer luck, all those things that I enjoy fit in nicely to the Local Guides program! Win!
Manchester, as it turns out, too, is a great place to be! It’s small enough that I can get to most places on foot and if need be, it is well connected by trains, trams, buses, taxis and planes! My favourite spot in Manchester is this neighbourhood called the Northern Quarter. It’s a bit rundown in some places, can be a bit grungy/grimy and even grim, but I just find it really fascinating because it’s also very hipster-ish and bohemian-esque with arty and creative individuals/entrepreneurs making use of the lower rents to open funky independent shops! It’s essentially a treasure trove for new cafés, bars, restaurants and shops that I just love to explore and photograph! In fact, the Manchester Local Guides have held a few meet-ups here too; coffee crawl, watching the Google hardware announcement, photo walk! I love the place so much, it is even featured in my application video!
Speaking of meet-ups, I also want to wax lyrical of the benefits of hosting them! Besides improving my organisational skills (including herding stray cats… erm… I mean people), forcing myself to speak to a group as well as on a one to one basis, I believe that the fun of being a Local Guide is hugely multiplied by the number of folks involved! There is so much joy bonding with others with similar interests/passions, where there is no embarrassment about spending minutes taking photos of a dish when it gets served or gleefully discussing the best place to get Japanese food! Incidentally, you should check out my list of top Japanese restaurants in Manchester. Stockport folks… can you beat that?! Friendly rivalry aside, the Manchester Local Guides community has been steadily growing and with the help from @TimBull , @deadmanjones and @PeteMHW , we have kept a solid run of super-duper meet-ups.
Besides the new friends that I’ve made locally, I’ve also been very fortunate to make new friends globally. I am constantly amazed and inspired by them doing so much good for the community. There are so many of them but I only have space to highlight a few; @EmekaUlor and his work on accessibility, @ErmesT with his Clean the World campaign, @KashifMisidia and @IlankovanT working closely with their local communities, @Julien44 doing great work with improving information accuracy for local businesses and @vvbellur for her tireless push to improve the status of women solo travellers. It is not all serious stuff though as we do have a bit of fun whenever we manage to get together! One of my fondest memories is this crazy photo battle between London and Singapore! Come June, I’ll be heading to Ghent for a European wide meet-up so I’m expecting loads of happy memories to be made! And, at the start of the year, I’ve had so much fun putting together this fabulous (if I should say so myself) Happy New Year video!
And just in case that video wasn’t scratching my creative itch enough, a few Local Guides and I decided to start a podcast! Looking back, it now makes so much sense that the podcast is called Go Loco because we now know just how crazy the whole journey has been. Certainly, none of us knew just how much work was needed nor the technical hurdles that we were going to face! I am certainly so proud of the team! And a quick shout-out to @JanVanHaver for his LetsGuide podcast because there can never be enough publicity!!
May is just around the corner and it certainly has been a manic first quarter! With all the side projects that I keep taking on, going out to enjoy a nice meal with my partner, grabbing some food pics, and taking notes for the review all seem super easy! You could argue that getting picked recently to be a Connect Moderator is my crowning glory, but that was soooo unexpected and wasn’t even on my radar. And to be honest, I’m no different from before. I am just plodding along, continuously pushing myself to go further!
I have been very fortunate to make it to the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Connect Live events, and yet I am still stressing out over whether my application is good enough for this year! Needless to say, I don’t take things for granted but I also dare not fixate on the Connect Live event as the end game (hush… no spoilers please, I have yet to watch it!!). I had a great time organising Hangouts sessions, food fight competitions, making recap posts and assisting in the unofficial attendees spreadsheet for last year’s batch, but if I don’t make it this year, it’s not the end of the world. As I said at the very start of the post: do things that make you happy, so that no matter what the outcome is, you’ll still be happy. You can clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth! Hah!
PS – I did say in a previous post that I might reveal what one of my Google Maps list idea is. It’s a bit left field but, to me, it’s still super helpful. I present to you… “Tush-tastic Toilets for Troubled Tummies”! Interestingly enough, it is inspired by real world events where I’m a very, very picky person (my tush only belongs on the best thrones) and let’s just say… I didn’t make it home in time!
Test that in Manchester cafes!
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