
I was the kid who in class put up his hand to volunteer for some bonus duty or to ask for some responsible position or some special treat and was almost never chosen.
Frankly since that time (with a few notable exceptions) most opportunities have continued not to 'pick me'. Sometimes I feel a bit like Donkey from Shrek jumping up and down at the back of the crowd craving selection.
Computer Weekly approached its blogging panel a few weeks ago with an offer to participate in an ITV program assessing comparative stress between the hospitality industry, teaching, A&E doctoring and IT. It seems that these are regarded as high stress professions. The flying fickle finger of fate flew and, unusually for me, I was chosen.

The overall process has been fascinating, firstly a couple of weeks ago I had a TV crew following me doing my day job (thanks to
Elastictime and
Expotel). The next day had me improving my cooking skills under the tutelage of Chef Stephen Kitchen (yes it is his real name) and celebrity Chef (plus rosettes, stars and a broad French accent) Jean Christophe Novelli at
Novelli's cullinary school.
The highlight was the subsquent Saturday where the three of us (IT Guy, Teacher and Doctor) were essentially dumped in the
Baglioni Hotel kitchen and then had to participate in that night's service as part of the Chef's brigade. All of this was filmed!
Firstly thanks to all involved, Lisa, Katie, Zoe, the rest of the crew, Julia and Sabra, Angela, Stephen and Jean Christophe and all at the Baglioni.
I would like to point out that Jean Christophe is as delightful off camera as he is on. Watching him work I could only guess at the amount of stuff going on inside his head - he is a man with a vast amount of ideas struggling to get out.
I hope I represented our industry well, if not I apologise now! - you will be able to see how much of a stressed pratt I made of myself this Friday (23rd May) during '
The Real Hell's Kitchens: Tonight' on ITV1 at 8pm.
IT (mostly) does not have the time constraints of a professional kitchen and the thought of adding Risk Management, Change Control and Ingredients Management to that sort of environment - will lets just say you would get shouted at!

For my part it led as ever to some great self-analysis, a realisation of just how much I enjoy working as part of a team and a further commitment to do more cooking.
As for my stress, Professor Angela Clow of the University of Westminster will be making her judgement based on my physiology however I reckon all IT professionals would be stressed if confronted by an irate Chef at 10pm when orders are coming thick and fast and you cannot find a spoon!
However a Chef faced by a CEO asking why his CRM system is not delivering promised business improvements, or having to deal with a body brought in bleeding and in pieces to an A&E reception or lastly trying to quell a room full of arsey 15 years olds might find themselves suffering stress of our kind.
I will blog about my experience a bit more after the broadcast (when I can see how big a wally I made of myself) and and lastly, thanks Joel and of course - 'Yes Chef'
ps
This is 'Mk2' as I had to pull the initial post to keep the luvvies happy.