anthony galvin

Abthorpe, Norhamptonshire, Jan 2025

New Years Day walk

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Madison Avenue, New York, Jan 2025

Walking to the TodayTix New York office on a cold January morning.

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, Jan 2025

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, Jan 2025

Over the winter months, everything gets muddier and muddier. The fields, the car, the house, the dog. Thick claggy Northamptonshire mud.

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Morzine, France, April 2025

Emma, Aperol, Sunshine.

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Morzine, France, April 2025

Nothing better than a family trip to Morzine, especially when the snow is good and the sun is out.

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Paris, France, April 2025

Stopped off in Paris on the way home from the mountains. If you read the political and economic press in the UK you would think that France was a failed state. But Paris in the sunshine suggests that if these are the end of days for the 5th republic, they are doing it with style.

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Everdon Stubbs, Northamptonshire, April 2025

We came back from the mountains, and suddenly it was Spring.

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, April 2025

Eddie.

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, May 2025

Coco.

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Taunton, Somerset, May 2025

I've always wanted to watch a game at Taunton, and this one didn't disappoint.

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Yankee Stadium, New York, May 2026

The first time I've ever been to the Yankees and seen the home side win.

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Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, June 2025

We often walk along the canal, and this year this family of swans provided a joyful constant - until they got a bit bigger and started to 'boss' the towpath!

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, June 2025

Before we moved into our house in Maidford we talk a walk throuh a wheat field on the edge of the village to try and get our bearings - so this time of year always makes me feel nostalgic.

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Old Rectory, Maidford, Northamptonshire, June 2025

Who knows how long the village fete has been taking held in our little corner of the world. The high point of the village year, it feels timeless and joyful.

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Central Park, New York, July 2025

A pizza in the park on sunny summers evening in New York. Nothing better.

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Yankee Stadium, New York, July 2025

Back at The Yankees on a red hot day watching the home team get well truly taken apart.

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Montauk, Long Island, July 2025

Family road-trip up the coast. We spent a few days in Montauk taking in the windy beaches, great food and relaxed vibe.

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Boston, Massachusetts, July 2025

We finished our road-trip in Boston. This was taken on our way over to Harvard.

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The Oval, July 2025

A day of test cricket. Overcast, and floodlights on. A bowling day.

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Blakesley, Northamptonshire, August 2025

There's nothing quite like the Blakesley Show.

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Roadmender, Northampton, August 2025

A chance to see Evan Dando, back on form and playing the small and (im)perfectly formed Roadmender. A true artist.

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Blundell Park, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, August 2025

An evening I will never forget, though so surreal it could have been a dream. I wish my dad could have been there with me - we spent so much time watching Town lose to relatively small teams, he would have loved seeing the Mariners beat the biggest club in the world.

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, November 2025

An early morning walk over the fields with Coco.

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Vitos, New York, December 2025

Back in NYC for one last time in 2025 - and a chance to grab a classic New York slice at Vito's Slices and Ices on 9th Avenue.

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Fascinating story of May Savidge who moved her 15th-Century house brick-by-brick and beam-by-beam from Ware in Hertfordshire to Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. Something very Calums Road about this.

In most companies today more and more information is available in near real time. But as retired submarine captain David Marquet famously said, people on the front line have all the information and no authority, whereas the people with all the authority have none of the information. Leaders are often a long way from the day-to-day operational reality, especially those who work in product and technology.

So sometimes it pays to put yourself on the shop floor – or in my case at the theatre door.

As part of our Powered by TodayTix platform we’ve been working on a new ticket-scanning app that helps Powered by TodayTix events manage access and scan tickets. As a team we have a rigorous approach to quality, but there’s no substitute for testing with real customers at a real event. Which is why a few weeks ago I was welcoming the audience at a TodayTix Live event in Hackney.

It was a great experience to work with Tom and the front of house team at Gospels by Candlelight. There were a few minor learnings, not that you’d know at the time; for the audience the latest version of our scanning app worked seamlessly.

It’s a small piece of the puzzle, but this app will be used to scan and welcome people to multiple shows and events in 2026, providing the front of house team with real-time information about attendees and their booking. Luckily for those future customers the person using the scanner will probably be more experienced and a little less focused on the performance of the technology involved!

Shout out to Vic for the photos (and a lot of the development work on the scanning app).

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As a teenager I did a bit of running, school cross country and the odd local road race. But running wasn’t really a stand alone activity. It was part of other sports that I enjoyed. As an adult I’d run a 10k and 5k in the early 2000s. Without any real training or routine.

Fast forward to 2025. Post pandemic. Mostly remote working. Rural living and a winter sat by the fire or working at the kitchen table. 20 years on from my last organised running event it dawned on me that I had become sedentary. Dog walks aside I hardly moved from my desk some days.

In the past this would have meant a burst of cycling activity, but for a variety of reasons at the start of the year I’ve ended up between bikes.

So I’ve started running. Not far. Not fast. Not on Strava, though I’m logging my runs with my watch. Grabbing 40 mins in the middle of the day to get out and slowly plod along the local roads.

Initially just a few kilometres but building some more endurance. With the odd Park run thrown in as a check point of improvement. I’m late to the joys of Park Run - the community sprint and camarardare has become a welcome addition to my Saturday routine.

And then this weekend, a 10k through the streets of Oxford with over 5000 other runners, joggers and plodders. The sun was out, and so were the supporters. The time was slow. But that’s not really the point. At the start of the year I could hardly imagine running for a bus and on Sunday I ran for just over an hour without stopping. Onwards…

Many e-commerce business experience (or suffer) seasonality. The Q4 sales retail hustle, and the ensuing workload, is the best know example. There is no escaping the rush to the holidays. But is seasonality a valid reason to use in your standup, monthly sales meeting or QBR?

Seasonality isn’t a user need. There’s no "Job To Be Done" for a product feature where the answer is seasonality. The real user need is something quite different, seasonality is the outcome of so many people having similar or related needs and behaviours.

Prompted by Rory Sutherland, I recently discovered Obvious Adams by Robert Updegraff, the allegorical business story, written in 1916. One of the main lessons from this is that to be good at marketing, and especially now product marketing, you have to carefully observe user behaviour and speak to your customers (and then do the obvious thing well).

The cult of seasonality as an answer is an easy way to bypass the difficult, but essential work of understanding your customers.

I made a static site generator named after former England cricketer Matthew Hoggard.

Everdon Stubbs, Northamptonshire, Jan 2024

Our go to place for a quiet walk. Even when it's 'busy' there's plenty of space for clearing your mind.

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, Jan 2024

The dog never seems to mind the cold. A chilly start to the day along walking along the Maidford Brook.

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Shooting from the line, Barclay Centre, Brooklyn, March 2024

Local entertainment on one of three trips to New York in 2024. Basketball seems the most stage managed of sports - constant music, multiple musical interludes, cheer leaders and most of the exctiement packed into the last few minutes. Except on this occaision the Brooklyn Nets were seriously off the pace.

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Avoriaz, France, April 2024

Spring in the Alps. Great snow and plenty of sun. Another fantastic family ski trip.

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Early Paris-Roubaix breakaway at Saint-Quentin, France, April 2024

Paris-Roubaix is all about the cobbles, but we caught the early part of the race whilst the riders were still fresh. Even in these early stages there were plenty of people out on the streets in Saint-Quentin.

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Spring bluebells, Mantles Heath, Northamptonshire, April 2024

Every year when the bluebells are out we try and work out if they are as abundant as previous years.

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Eddie in the garden, Maidford, Northamptonshire, May 2024

It's surpsingl tricky to get a good picture of the cat. Managed to grab this one on a sunny morning in the garden.

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, June 2024

It's not often we get glammed up for a night out and get a good picture of both us together, but the Stewkley Charity Ball is worth making an exception for.

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Tunnel on the Monsal Trail, Derbyshire, June 2024

In her youth, Emma's paternal grandmother, Violet, rode all over the Peak District on the back of tandem. As a family we took a trip along the Monsal Trail to celebrate her life.

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Dad, Rochdale, July 2024

The last photo I took of my Dad. Taken at home whilst sitting up with him in his final days.

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Plage Imi Ouaddar, Morocco, August 2024

Family on the beach. Sun, sea, great food and hopistaility. The south west Moroccan coast is quite the spot for a holiday.

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Taghazout, Morocco, August 2024

Looking west.

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Coco, Maidford, August 2024

It's a dogs life.

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Yankee Stadium, New York, September 2024

Of all the american sports, baseball is probably the one that I could really get into. Having been to quite a few ball games in NY over the years this was actually the first time I'd seen the 'home team' win. Which does wonders for the atmosphere.

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The Oval, London, September 2024

Probably the only sporting event I consistently attend. The weather and over rates seem worse than when I first started going to The Oval, but test match cricket there is always compelling.

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Maidford, Northamptonshire, September 2024

It’s not everyday a double Olympic champion cycles through your village.

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London, October 2024

Nearly 15 years since we moved out of the city.

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Mantles Heath, Nortahmptonshire, October 2024

Failing to take a picture of the aurora.

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Maidford, Nortahmptonshire, November 2024

Early stroll.

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Abthorpe, Nortahmptonshire, December 2024

Emma and Hazel picking their way through a puddle on the walk up to Bucknell Wood near Abthope. The autumn and winter of 2024 were full of torrential rain and floods and this picture sums up what getting around the country felt like at the end of the year.

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Historic England have released a collection of aerial photos from 1938. This one of Deptford is fascinating - I spent about 15 years in and around Deptford, from the late 1990s until we moved out of London. So much of what is captured in this photos has gone or changed beyond all recognition.

But not everything.

The churches stand out, gleaming. The railway. The river. The royal naval college in the distance. Emma's old flat next to the snooker club. I can even make out a couple of pubs on Creek Road that we used to drink in as students.