Five minutes with Will
If you're thinking of travelling to Southeast Asia, Will is your man. He tells us his favourite spot in Vietnam, where to get the best veggie pho noodle soup and the best curry in Cambodia. He's happiest in July, on a Friday afternoon, with a nice cup of tea in his hand, maybe even on his boat 'Boaty McBoatface', if he had a boat of course.
If you could try out a job for the day what would you try? My initial thought is an astronaut 👨🚀 but I know I would have to go through years of training. But under the assumption that they could teleport me up, I would go for that.
When you’re having a bad day, what do you do to make yourself feel better? I like to go for a walk, chill out and think things through in my head. I usually go and make myself a cup of tea and give myself five minutes, everything is easier with a cup of tea in your hand ☕️.
What’s your favourite smell? I don't have a particular favourite smell but I do a lot of cooking, I love it when a dish is coming together at the end and it smells amazing! It's usually some kind of curry which I cook a lot, my favourite is Khmer curry which I discovered when I went travelling in Cambodia, but with tofu of course (Will is a devoted vegan 🍗 🙅♂️ ).
What is your favourite month of the year and why? July is good, you've got the British Grand Prix 🏎 it's sunny, I like walking and cycling so it's nice to do that in the sunshine when the weather's good. I went to the Grand Prix this year and spent three days in Silverstone, which was amazing. Going to the actual event is so different to watching it on the TV, it's so fast and the atmosphere is amazing. Everyone supporting the same driver as you and the excitement is crazy, everyone's cheering and it helped that Lewis Hamilton led every single lap.
What would you name your boat if you had one? I don’t know 🤔 ... Boaty Mcboatface. I've never thought about owning a boat.
Where was your favourite place when you were travelling? Probably Hội An in Vietnam, it's a really cool old city the architecture is very different to the rest of Vietnam and very close to the beach which is also very nice 🏖 It has lots of delicious food, I always had this vegetarian pho noodle soup which was good. It's famous for its tailors so I had a few shirts made there too.
What’s your favourite thing about working at Ocasta? The freedom to work on what you want and be a part of things that are of interest to you, you’re not tied down to a specific role. I think it keeps the job engaging and means you're always learning.
What are your top three favourite films 🎬 Baby Driver would have to be one of them, I'm really into music and the way it syncs the soundtrack with the cinematography is incredible, it's very cool to watch as it matches with every single beat 🎼 Terminator 2: Judgment Day is just a film I've always loved since I was a kid. My final favourite would have to be The Lord of the Rings trilogy, if I can count that as one. It was a massive part of my childhood, I read all of the books because my dad was really into them. When the films came out I was about 10, and that was at the time when CGI had just got good enough to look impressive, so I thought they were incredible to watch 👀.
What is your favourite day of the week? Friday because you leave work feeling good and you've got the whole weekend ahead of you. With flexi-time we get to leave early on a Friday so it feels like a weekend, you can do things in the afternoon and still go out in the evening. I like meeting friends and going for drinks, usually at The Temple Bar🍻.
What is one of the best thing you’ve ever done? It's a toss up between going travelling when I went to Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia or when I went to America for three weeks in 2014. After I graduated, I went to New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco 🌉 I really liked San Francisco, it's like Brighton but you’re in America, it's a very good vibe. It's strange walking around a city you know so well from films and seeing it yourself, until that time I'd never been out of Europe.
Would you rather never drink tea again, or eat meat forever? I would have to give up tea and hate my life and I would moan about it every day. I drink about four or five cups a day, so it would be tough, work would be a lot more difficult too.
What do you like most about living in Brighton? I guess it’s the people and the place itself, the atmosphere here is different to almost anywhere else. There are very few cities where I have been and wanted to live, and as soon as I started working here I knew it was where I wanted to live.
