This Week with Taylor & Gordon

New 3D printer accessories arrived

Printing infill patterns

Tidying Up Loose Ends – last 20% of a project takes 80% of the time

New systems in place to track and complete projects

Checklists to make sure everything is done

New workflow with new projects

Brand Image update

Changed from Magical Entertainment to Gordon’s Party Piece to Gordon’s Magic

Changing to new flyers is a slow process when you have 10k printed

Updating flyers, stickers, banners, videos etc. is difficult in a short period...

A very expensive week

New roller banners – replacing with good quality ones

New bunny hutch to replace one that is nearly falling to bits

New MacBook Pro M4 – rewarding himself for working hard

Raycast – https://www.raycast.com/ – your shortcut to everything

A really useful application for finding things and information quickly

Adding your own modules that pull information from anywhere

Installing apps on a fresh install of MacOS instead of migrating

Run both computers for a couple of weeks to make sure you have...

WordCamp Europe 2025

Showing off WP Extended

Putting faces to names from forums

Mini celebrity in a small niche

Talking to vendors

Site Mait – WordPress AI Voice Agent – https://sitemait.com/

WP Umbrella – manage multiple websites themes, plugins and so much more – https://wp-umbrella.com/

Integration with Patch Stack – https://patchstack.com/

Drunk nerdy people

The Admin Bar – https://theadminbar.com/

Building up the group of friends – thank you to all those we met

Next year is on June 4-6th Jun...

Our episode recorded in Basel, Switzerland (no mic so sound is not as good)

WordCamp EU 2025 – largest of the WordCamps in the world

Networking and meeting up with friends

WP Entended – https://wpextended.io/

Functionality that should be in core – No conflicts between modules

Free and Pro versions available

Conventions are really tiring, but you do so much in that time

Visited The Dreiländereck monument, standing at the exact point where Switzerland, France and Germany meet

Worked out the public transpor...

Bank Holiday Weekend setting up Home Assistant Automations

Lights on and off in office

Playing Apple TV will dim the lights and turn them back up on pause

Wordcamp Europe 2025 – Basel, Switzerland – https://europe.wordcamp.org/2025/

Talks, workshops, networking, looking around Basal and the Alps

Might pre-record an episode next week at Wordcamp

Looking forward to talks and seeing how people use WordPress

Talking to developers of plugins and themes

Lots of drama in the WordPress world in the last year

Let...

Home Assistant – Home Automation

Discussion on Home Assistant and its relevance for Taylor’s flat

Purchasing and setting up the Home Assistant Yellow

Details about the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5

Experience with the component issue and customer service from Pi Hut – http://thepihut.com

Cost analysis of setting up the Home Assistant system

Hardware and software setup for Home Assistant

Comparison between Home Assistant Yellow and Green

Exploring Home Assistant’s local privacy-first voice assistance

Integration of Home Assistant with existing smart ho...

Trix – Children’s Entertainer Convention

Meeting and networking with other professionals

I was in Stoke on Trent from Sunday through to Wednesday

Seeing people you only see once a year – stopping and chatting

Lectures, Talks and Shops

Chatting is what I find the most useful and interesting – Brainstorming

4 hour drive each way plus late nights and early mornings means very little sleep

Uploaded a new FACE the Podcast episode for people to listen to on their way to the convention

Wordcamp Europe – https://europe.wor...

Gordon performed in a VE Day performance at The Magic Circle this week

Wordsearch Game Creation

Generate a wordsearch that is customised with certain words like a birthday childs name

AI Code Creation using an app called Cursor – http://cursor.com

WordPress Local, creates a local install of WordPress so you can built quickly without needing the internet – https://localwp.com

Edit code locally and the refresh the page to instantly see the changes

The AI will accept prompts to build software

You don’t need t...

Frustrating Things…

Very annoying especially when you have no control

Waiting for a new battery pack for devices like my phone

Found it cheaper elsewhere after the order so cancelled the order and re-ordered

Lost in the post TWICE

Royal Mail appears to have been the culprit by losing or not tracking the packages correctly

I ended up having to do about 6 hours worth of calls, emails and investigation to find out what has happened

Plan for things that might go wrong, outside of your co...

5 year anniversary for This Week With

News: The chatbot on the website will now show you which episode content is in.

Expense Tracking – looking to move out and getting finances sorted

Subscriptions that get forgotten

Figuring out existing subscriptions and new subscriptions / monthly expenses that are coming soon

Annual payments, like TV License, add them up, divide by 12 and save monthly in a separate account, the money will be waiting for you when you need to pay the lump sum

Finding the best way to collate the fi...

Special Guests: Marc P Summers & Leo Summers Travel with family Tracking flights with Jet Lovers app Training Leo to find his way around an airport Maths – using numbers for anything you want Fibonacci as a middle name No limit to Maths Problem solving is the fun part The Hedgehog Principal – https://worldofwork.io/2019/07/the-hedgehog-concept/ Anything ... Read more

EPISODE 200 Special Guests – Marc P Summers and Caroline Ainslie Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for a second time at the age of 64 in January 2026 Looking for more people to join Caroline’s team Using your skills to achieve success 20th anniversary of Bubbly Maths Oldest person to climb Kilimanjaro was 89 Success mentality – ... Read more

Special Episode leading up to our 200th episode next week We have guests, Marc P Summers, Automated Marketing Agency and Caroline Ainslie, Bubbly Maths AI in Business – The Portrait Agency – looking for high value customers using AI to check an estimate of their home address house value Then checks with AI to see ... Read more

Embracing the Unusual Magic Show and Magic Workshop Surprise Birthday Party – he was blindfolded Working with another entertainer Also a party in a marquee in a scouting field 1.5 hours straight with no break Used my EcoFlow power for sound and electrics – Use link for 10% off – https://www.ecoflow.com/uk/referral-rewards?inviteCode=ALLJXEKDBP If you think you ... Read more

Next Steps when hitting a brick wall Stepping away to think about things Or breaking down the problem into smaller chunks Projects taking longer than they should because you have to think and decide on the way forward Making notes about processes that you don’t do very often Keeping in contact with customers Difficult when ... Read more

UI Design – Building a booking system Adding in travel time as a buffer Making it easy for customers to see what is available Making it into a plugin to make it easy to maintain Having the power to say No… Not capacity at the moment, so I have to say no Kyle Van Deusen ... Read more

Trouble waking up with an alarm… Habit of turning the alarm off with your voice without realising Alarmy App – challenges to solve before the alarm will turn off Scan a barcode, take 20 steps, submit a photo, memorise the pattern of dots etc. Another alert a few minutes later – making sure you are ... Read more

Deepseek has been causing waves – https://www.deepseek.com/ Self Assessment Tax Submission Digital Tax – talked about for many years, not implemented yet Pro’s and Con’s to the new system Making sure you get your accounts in early You need time to save for the payment, so submitting it early is in your best interest Submitting ... Read more

Splitting up projects into manageable tasks – quite time consuming to do Action Hub – a web app designed to do this automatically Paste specs and notes and return in JSON format the various tasks which are then added to Motion via the API Ability to set time and bulk edit as required before exporting ... Read more

Busy week with Pantomime. Robin Hood – https://www.sdclub.org.uk Filming the pantomime Two cameras – fixed wide shot and a close up Technical issues on the first night of recording Two groups of children on alternate nights so the footage was very important Master and then second video with other groups performances Setting it up and ... Read more

New Season – Season 6 started last week New colour – Yellow, for this season. All graphics for the podcasts, vidcasts and website have been updated with the new colour Manage Your Focus – creating tasks that need to be done Getting work, writing a project list, create the tasks and then do them Context ... Read more

Happy New Year New Season, New Colour Formula 1 Exhibition and Guys and Dolls Oura Ring – https://ouraring.com/ Track heart rate, Activity, Sleep and more Tracking while watch is charging API available for personal website content 75 Day Challenge update New Years Resolutions !! Finish personal projects that have been started More reading this year ... Read more

Our seasonal video to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas Visit the website: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk Drayson Design Website – https://www.draysondesign.com The Creative Tinker Website – https://www.thecreativetinker.com Facebook: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/facebook Youtube: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/youtube * Full transcript will be available on the website. We may receive a referral fee from any of our links which help towards the costs involved ... Read more

This Week With – Season 5, going on Season 6 Reflection on last 5 years Why we started This Week With Keeping a record of what has happened Transcription and languages If you get anything from our episodes, let us know New Highlight Colour – leave a comment with your suggestions Thank you to Taylor ... Read more

Subscriptions Meal Prep to eat healthier Sent to you once a week on a Sunday Using subscriptions to save you time or do a job you don’t enjoy Car cleaned once a month Audit subscriptions every now and then – check you still need or want them December is quieter this year than it was ... Read more

Winter has definately arrived Christmas Cards – branded for The Creative Tinker – sending them to clients Keep the company in the minds of the clients Quite expensive to do – but a nice thing to do Cost of postage is huge at the moment Sending them through a service to make it easier to ... Read more

Back again after a week off Final Cut Pro update v11 Accounting – a necessary evil HMRC bringing everyone in line to the tax year Digital tax due soon – submitting tax every three months? It is really difficult and not clear – I had two, two hour calls to HMRC to find out where ... Read more

FACE The Podcast – for Family and Children’s Entertainers Round Table works really well Asked the question “What is the best thing about conventions” Chatting with like minded people was the biggest answer Talking to other business owners, who are not your competition is very beneficial Bounce ideas off them, get inspiration, how to deal ... Read more

Big week for Apple Announcements Three in total – first was iMac with M4 chip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaB7nCdId0Y Next was Mac mini M4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtFm9n3NVzE Then last there was the new MacBook Pro with M4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0cmfY7qdmY New minimum memory of 16GB on all these new machine iOS 18.1 and Mac OS 15.1 (along with other ... Read more

75 Day Challenge Slightly modified to suit Taylor If you miss an activity or a day then you start over Physical and Mental Discipline Not about getting fit, but more about making yourself better We will come back to this and see how Taylor did Setting yourself a challenge will always improve you Use things ... Read more

Busy week as always – drama teaching, migrating sites to xcloud.host, clearing emails UPS using difficult to get to shops as a hub if you are not in Trying something new… Mango Tango – something new Food for the dog – cutting the food into quarters from factory Getting feedback on whether your customers like ... Read more

Making Notes to remember what was spoken about Write out action points Legal reasons Make sure they make sense when going back in a few months time Making notes when you think of them Expanding on the notes while you remember the details Using Apple Watch Voice Memo for this Record call and transcribe with ... Read more

iPhone 16 Pro arrived safely Protecting Your Investment Buying a bag for Ecoflow River 2 Pro to prevent damage Looking after equipment to prolong their usefulness 2 year old iPhone was pretty much spotless Padded camera bags Not lending cables to people Putting things in pouches when travelling Good quality bags – they are not ... Read more

Gordon went on holiday WordPress drama AI Moving forward Appsumo – https://www.appsumo.com Pismo – https://pismo.ai/ Similar but different to Apple Intelligence which is built into the Apple product OS’s Pismo – Desktop app to select text in any application and perform AI functions with it For example, translate, improve writing, fix spelling and grammar issues, ... Read more

iPhone 16 and Apple Intelligence information, new watches and AirPods Exploring Your Industry Showing starter sites to other professional We all live in our own bubble, not knowing much about what’s outside of it Other people using different tools and plugins that we don’t know about This is what makes the industry exciting and interesting ... Read more

Audacity update – https://www.audacityteam.org/ Word of Mouth advertising Best form of advertising for Gordon People like to recommend you if you do a good job 40th birthday party – led to a children’s summer school show 3 days later, booked on the morning of the show Website Design recommendations People trust their friends Recommendation between ... Read more

Comparing Products Missing a feature that Taylor wanted in his email client Ranking Mail apps with pro’s and con’s Action, Waiting and Read Folders, to get down to inbox zero Using Actionscripts Mailbutler as an add-on Canary or Spark are the alternatives Snooze emails to hide them Apple iPhone event is September 9th Mac OS ... Read more

Business Focus – finding out what you enjoy doing Taking off Graphic Design as a service which Taylor didn’t enjoy doing Adding services means you could possibly become a business that doesn’t specialise Downside is if your niche goes away or has a problem you can have no business Look at different scenarios to make ... Read more

AI Updates ChatGPT and Midjourney were the kings Claude, Gemini and Flex and up and coming and over-taking ChatGPT Chatbase.co chatbot on the website Moved over to Claude Check it out by clicking on the chatbot on the bottom right of the website Search will find content, but won’t summarise like AI will Getting ideas ... Read more

Out of sync issue with last weeks episode Powerpack – portable battery My lead acid battery not working correctly Previously bought from Halfords, who no longer stock these devices Replacing the battery was an option, but they are also no longer made Working out the requirements – take your devices and see what wattage they ... Read more