Each week Bristol Business News gives a prominent member of the city’s business community the last word on its weekly e-bulletin.
This week Karen White, PR consultant and director at JBP Associates, answers our 10 questions.
What was the LAST: 
Film you watched? Sunset Song. The first part of the Scottish trilogy A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, about the modernisation that changed and, in some ways, tore apart the traditional farming communities of NE Scotland at the start of the 20th century. I was awarded the Lewis Grassic Gibbon bursary in 1982 to study at Aberdeen University – £500, which, at the time, seemed like a king’s ransom.
Book you read? Walking Home by Clare Balding. Based on her popular Radio 4 Ramblings series, it revisits some of her walks and the fascinating characters she meets along the way, interspersed with a walk she undertakes with her own family. It’s almost like a series of short stories and full of interesting facts and funny anecdotes. If you are a walker like me, this is a gem of a book.
Music you bought/downloaded? Don’t laugh. Nature’s Sounds of the Hebrides. The bird calls drive my cat mad. I spent a wonderful time touring the Outer Hebrides last year. It’s heaven on earth if you get the right weather.
Concert or play you went to? The Gesualdo Six in Westbury on Trym parish church. The village celebrates its 1,300th anniversary next year – older than Bristol itself – and this was an unaccompanied choral concert that sent shivers down my spine.
Sporting event you attended? Nothing live for a while – watching the Olympics on telly doesn’t count, right? But I am going to the Nordic Walking Festival in Purbeck next weekend. I’m a passionate Nordic walker and two friends and myself are attempting the marathon. If we don’t look like we’ll finish in 11 hours we get scooped off the course. We’re going for 9-10 with a fair wind. Wish me luck.
Holiday you went on? (Very basic) camping in the Canyons on the west coast of America followed by six days in Los Angeles to celebrate my best friend’s 50th. LA is one of my favourite cities and the Getty Museum is in my top 10.
Restaurant you ate in? Flour & Ash in Westbury on Trym. Bristol’s got such a great restaurant scene and we’re lucky to have some great places on our doorstep in the village. You don’t have to get into the centre to have great choice.
Thing that annoyed you? People who hog the middle lane of the motorway, people who don’t indicate and people who park inconsiderately. OK, I know, that’s three things.
Thing that made you laugh out loud? Reminiscing about the above holiday on home turf with the girl who became my Trek America tent buddy – I travel all the way to Arizona only to meet someone from Weston-super-Mare. Sharing three nights in the tiniest ever two-man tent with no running water two nights in a row is a sure fire way to get to know someone well and I am so lucky it was Triona!
Piece of good advice you were given? Be kind, personally and professionally. It’s an underrated virtue.
Karen White has worked in journalism and public relations for more than 25 years. She moved to Bristol from Scotland in 1987.
