September 3, 2026 • 20 mins
Hannah is one of those people who quietly makes you rethink what success actually looks like. I wanted you to meet her.
She spends her days helping companies solve incredibly complicated technology problems. Then she spends the rest of her time renovating a 400-year-old farmhouse on the coast of Wales, rewilding a meadow (which has badgers living underneath), and running a glamping business.
This isn’t a conversation about escaping work.
It’s a meandering chat about creating a life you adore, along side it.
In this episode, we unpack:
- The beauty and history of life on the Pembrokeshire coast.
- Why designing your life matters just as much as designing your career.
- How Hannah accidentally built a career in technology.
- Why deep work needs space, silence and good design.
- What restoring an old farmhouse taught her about legacy.
This episode is part of I Never Released These... The Lost Tapes, a special 12-part series featuring interviews I recorded between 2022 and 2024 that never made it into the world... until now.
Follow Hannah:
Website: https://hannahverrall.co.uk/
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-verrall/
Follow Merilyn:
Instagram: @merilyn
Website: merilyn.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Merilyn (00:00):
Hello, welcome back to this special series I'm calling
I Never Released The The LostTape.
12 conversations I recordedbetween 2022 and 2024, and I
never released completely mybad.
This one is a little differentfrom the first two.
Today's guest is a fascinatingtall poppy.
(00:22):
Hannah Verrall.
We actually met through one ofmy programs years ago, and
somewhere along the way webecame friends.
Hannah spends her days helpingcompanies solve incredibly
complicated technology problems.
Then she comes home to a400-year-old farmhouse on the
coast of Wales, where she'srestoring old barns, rewilding a
(00:45):
meadow, and running a glampingbusiness in the summer months.
This conversation is not atypical interview style podcast
and not about business.
It's turned out to be somethingmore interesting.
I always love our chats becauseyou have this very structural
(01:06):
architect IT brain and you'recreative as well.
And you stare out the windowand you talk about your farm and
glamping and walks on thebeach.
Paint us a picture of where youare in your beautiful part of
Wales.
Hannah (01:21):
I live in Pembrokeshire, which is right down in the
southwest of Wales.
It's about two miles to the seasouth of me, about two and a
half to the west, about five orsix miles to the east of me.
So there's a a giant river, the Cleddau River, which is the second largest natural deep water harbor in the world. So, it is massive, second only to Sydney.
Merilyn (01:48):
That is a fact I did not know.
So really I'm only connected to the mainland in a narrow band on the northeast.
Almost like an almost like an island.
Hannah (02:00):
Yeah, just a very narrow area.
If I want to go anywhere, Ihave to go through Pembroke.
I can't really leave thepeninsula unless I go through
Pembroke.
Um, so the beaches all aroundme, there are some absolutely
glorious beaches here.
I can think of about 10 withina 10-15 minute drive of where I
am.
And they're generally verysandy beaches.
(02:21):
So some of them have a littlebit of shingle after storms, but
mostly they are big or smallsandy, golden sandy beaches.
There's one that used to beused on the bounty adverts, you
know, that lady walking.
Merilyn (02:34):
Oh, really?
Pretending it's like theCaribbean.
Hannah (02:36):
She must have been freezing, but there's some
beautiful, beautiful beachesaround here.
And my family, I am sixth orseventh generation,
Pembrokeshire.
And you mentioned that I have aWelsh accent.
Most people in the UK would notthink I have a Welsh accent.
Merilyn (02:51):
I would say it's a neutral
accent. And tell us about your farm.
Uh it's a bit grand calling ita farm.
It is an old farmhouse, andit's probably 400 years old,
500, I'm not entirely sure.
Certainly parts of it could beas old as the Tudor period
because we have a very largeIngle nook fireplace.
(03:11):
So I've got this thisgrand-sounding, but actually
really ramshackle anddilapidated old Welsh farmhouse
on the coast with some barns,and it is grade two listed, but
some of my barns don't haveroofs.
Then I'm slowly renovating.
I'm also rewilding our meadow.
We've got a 10-acre meadow, andwe've planted about three, four
(03:34):
thousand trees in it so far.
We use it for the glamping, sowe mow parts of it some years,
and we don't mow other parts ofit.
It's got a big badger setunderneath it, and there are
foxes and a...
What set under it?
Hannah (03:46):
Badger.
Lots of badgers.
You see them out in thedaylight.
There are so many.
Merilyn (03:50):
I'm imagining wind in the willows.
Do you remember that?
Hannah (03:53):
Yeah.
Yeah, there are we've got thetiniest of streams.
It's more a trickle than astream.
I could water rat might livedown there.
And the village, I say avillage, it's three houses and a
church, is pretty much overrunwith rabbits, as you would
expect from living in a placecalled Warren.
So we we have all the wildlife,owls.
I'm hoping not bats.
(04:14):
I've got to have a bat surveyto get some renovations done.
It's quite a wildlife haven andit's I live on the edge of a
big tank training range.
It's the largest live firingpermanent one in the UK or
something like that.
Not sure.
But there's hundreds andhundreds of acres where nobody
farms.
So the wildlife on that, whichis my land borders that, um, is
(04:37):
amazing as well.
So we we get a spill over alittle bit from that.
Merilyn (04:41):
Brilliant.
So you're glamping.
I love the idea of glamping.
I I know having lived in Londonall those years, everyone wants
to go to the beach.
Is it like one of those Englishtowns that just gets so busy in
summer?
Some areas of Pembroke should do. Mypart is a lot more wild, but it
is a national park, so nobody'sallowed to do any building.
(05:03):
Where I am is quite, as I said,three houses and a church.
There's one more villageslightly to the north and to the
west of me, and then it's thesea.
It's it's really rural and outin the sticks.
So there aren't very manyplaces for people to stay.
And as you might have guessed,I am a passionate uh almost
(05:23):
tourist guide for Pembrokeshire.
I love Pembroke, and it's it'swhere I grew up.
Every other town has got acastle in it.
I love the coastline and it'sso varied.
Um, because of how we are inpeninsula, whatever the weather,
you choose a different beachdepending on the weather,
depending on on what's going on.
So it's it's really varied, butthere's nowhere for people to
(05:46):
stay.
And I have this field, and umwe fell into it.
It it was very much anaccident.
Um, but I noticed someone elsehad a a bell tent on a campsite
further into town.
I've looked at yurts in thepast and they were very
expensive, and I one day idly Ilooked at the price of bell
tents and realized that theywere much more affordable.
(06:09):
What is a bell tent?
Hannah (06:10):
Bell tent is a beautiful round tent.
Merilyn (06:16):
It's kind of semi-permanent.
Hannah (06:17):
No, we take them down because we're in the National
Park.
We can't have them up all year.
In fact, we pretty much onlyhave them up for a month every
summer, so it's prettyexclusive.
You have to get in there whilstyou can.
But yeah, they're they're sixmeter diameter, so they are
enormous.
Merilyn (06:34):
So people kind of book one of these bell tents.
Hannah (06:37):
Yeah.
Yeah, and they sleep up toeight people or on a private
pitch with um their own kitchencabin.
So they have their ownbathroom, shower, uh, kitchen,
all on a private pitch, alreadykitted out for them.
So it's it is proper glampingin that it's camping.
You are under canvas, therewill be insects, you know.
(06:58):
Can't get away from it.
Wood lice.
We have wood lice.
They're everywhere.
In fact, I won't bore you withthe the interesting, not so
interesting fact that wood liceis one of the words that
indicates where you're from.
So we call them penny sowshere.
We do, we do.
Um, so hundreds of those,mostly in the house because of
(07:19):
the wood.
But anywhere that's damp woodlice like they're not harmful or
anything.
They don't tend to come intothe tents, it's too warm.
But yeah, there's insects,there's grass.
It's windy because we're on thecoast.
But yeah, they're lovelypitches, you rock up,
everything's there for you.
Um do you serve meals or dothey cook for themselves?
(07:40):
No, they have a guest hob and acharcoal barbecue or fire pit,
depending on what they want, anda list of great local
restaurants as well.
Merilyn (07:49):
Yeah, can I ask the obvious question?
If you've only got two housesand a church, where are the
restaurants?
Hannah (07:56):
So one of my favorites is in a farm nearby.
Two miles.
It's a little bit far to walk,but it's not very far to drive.
And uh Michelle is an amazingcook.
Merilyn (08:09):
So it's in a farm, like a restaurant.
Hannah (08:11):
Yeah.
Merilyn (08:12):
Wow.
And so what sort of food dothey serve?
Hannah (08:14):
She serves all sorts of mainly slightly fusion cooking.
She does a lot of twists onBritish food and things like
that.
Merilyn (08:21):
There's nothing purely Pembroke food?
Hannah (08:25):
Her recipes aren't, but her food is.
So she she and her husbandraise all their own meat.
I don't think they grow verymany vegetables, but they they
buy vegetables from theWalled Garnder Angle, run by
another friend of mine, and fromother farmers around the area.
So there's a lot of local food.
We also have a lot of peoplepicking seaweed and making
(08:47):
things with seaweed.
Merilyn (08:49):
No.
Hannah (08:49):
We have a seaweed rum locally.
Merilyn (08:51):
Wow.
Do you ever eat it?
Hannah (08:53):
I've had a few absolutely amazing meals with
seaweed.
So there's a spaghetti seaweedthat you can have, and I was
once served that with pesto,which was absolutely delicious.
One of my most memorable meals.
Um, but typically the theSouth Wales are not my area, the
more further east, sort ofSwansea, and they typically pick
(09:17):
a type of seaweed called lavabread, and they eat it with
cockles and bacon, fry it up forbreakfast.
Wow.
Merilyn (09:23):
And is this like a really old recipe?
Hannah (09:26):
I think for the South Walians it is, but locally
we use it in in slightlydifferent ways because another
bit of history, sorry,Pembrokeshire Tourist Guide
coming up.
We've been English speaking for900 years.
So William the Conqueror tookover England, then he came and
took over Pembrokeshire and keptit.
Yes.
Merilyn (09:44):
I never knew that.
Hannah (09:45):
Slightly different culture to the rest of Wales.
Merilyn (09:48):
That makes sense about your accent then.
Hannah (09:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's much closer, the local accent.
Much closer to Devon andCornwall.
Merilyn (09:57):
Very much so.
Hannah (09:57):
Yeah, very far mer-ey.
You should hear some of myuncles.
Might be difficult tounderstand some of them, but
yeah.
Merilyn (10:03):
Were you born in your house?
Like is is this your familyhome?
Hannah (10:07):
This is one I bought, but my family are local, so
we've come all the way fromPembroke, a whole six miles
away.
It does it's a very rural area,so that does mean a little bit
of an outsider.
But there we are.
Yeah.
Merilyn (10:20):
How on earth did you get to do what you're doing and
didn't become a farmer orsomething?
Hannah (10:25):
How did I end up doing business analysis and
architecture?
By luck, by sheer luck andbeing right place, right time.
After uni, I went away andlived with my then boyfriend for
a little while.
We broke up and I came back towhere I was living near uni.
And at the time I had bills topay and no job.
(10:47):
So I went out temping whilst Idecided what I wanted to do.
And I ended up doing a temp jobfor a local, rather large,
networking company.
And both they and the thecompany who were doing some of
the work for them after thatshort initial project asked me
to come and work for them.
And I went and worked for thenetworking company.
(11:10):
I worked there for about threeyears, and they pushed me in
that direction.
I remember this was in the midto late nineties, rocking up on
my first day and them saying,Right, we'd like you to write
our intranet site for us.
So I I maybe had my first emaila year or 18 months before.
The early days.
(11:30):
And I was like, I don't knowhow to do that.
And they said, Here's the book,you'll sort it out, go away.
And yes, you did.
The rest is history.
Merilyn (11:38):
Now, speaking of officers, you work mainly at
home now, don't you?
Hannah (11:43):
These days I do, yes.
It used to be mainly on site.
We've you and I have had a fewcalls when I've been driving up
to offices in Birmingham orLondon.
Me rocking up there early sothat we could I could join you
on one of your courses and satin a a little room whilst
everyone else slowly came in andgot their coffee and woke up.
And I'm thinking, what do youwant about?
(12:05):
I've been up for seven hoursalready.
I mean, living where you live,it would have been a big drive
to get places.
Yes.
Yeah.
I haven't worked in Wales since1999, and it takes about two
hours to get across Wales andeven get to England.
(12:25):
So yeah, everywhere is a long way away.
Would you say that was a goodthing that happened out of the
pandemic?
The normalization of homeoffice?
Yes.
Yeah.
It's been something I've beentrying to get my clients to
understand that working in anoffice environment, especially
when you're trying to do deepthinking, is not always the best
(12:45):
thing.
It's great for interacting withpeople and keeping up those
relationships.
But when you need to do deepwork, I need to be away and
undistracted.
It's been fabulous for that.
The dog also appreciates itbecause he gets far more walks
than he did.
He loves it.
Merilyn (13:01):
Now, speaking of office, we were chatting about
this before, and I thought,we've got to share this.
When you think about a house ora home and you have an office,
it's often the smallest leftoverroom.
And when I moved to this place,I did the same.
I took the smallest room.
I thought that will be myoffice, and I hated it.
It was small, it was hot.
And I looked into the loungeroom and I thought, why don't I
(13:24):
take that space?
So it was actually veryexpansive around me.
I need that space.
You spend most of your day atwork.
Why are we spending all ourtime in these little crapped
rooms?
Ha (13:37):
I wholeheartedly agree. I've been having some plans drawn up
for one of the barns to beconverted so that I can move
into there.
And the original plans had myoffice space on a narrow shelf
in the corridor facing a wall.
Yeah.
One of the other designs, it itwas like that slightly bigger
shelf, but into a corner.
I just can't imagine spendingeight to twelve hours a day.
(14:01):
You and I both work hard,facing a wall.
Where I am at the moment.
It's a small window.
But I'm very misty today.
Normally I can see the sea outof there and I can look a couple
of miles uh distance and givemy eyes a break and things like
that, and not go quite as nuts.
Merilyn (14:21):
I think it's changing or it's changed in Australia,
especially.
But designers, builders,architects used to design
kitchens off it off the side,you know, these tiny little
things.
They didn't realize thatactually they're the hub of the
home.
Here they've very much openedthem up.
So a lot of kitchens are openup and have a living area
attached to that kitchen areanow.
(14:41):
But perhaps they're a bit slowin realizing that the home
offices are the same.
Hannah (14:46):
I'm gonna be controversial here.
I think it's a feminist issue.
Most architects tend to be men.
I know you trained inarchitecture originally.
Merilyn (14:54):
I was like one of two in my year that were women.
Hannah (14:57):
In fact, product designers as well.
If you think about uh toilets,they never have enough room for
the hygiene cabinets.
You feel like you're virtuallysitting on top of them.
Merilyn (15:09):
And at venues, you go to say the opera or you go to a
performance, and inintermission, what happens?
The men are in or out, and thewomen, you never get in there.
Why don't they realize thatthey need 50 stalls for women?
They need to be twice the size.
I mean, they don't get that, dothey?
Hannah (15:28):
No, no. And vacuum cleaners, no designer of a
vacuum cleaner can ever have hadlong hair because they are
impossible to remove the hairfrom.
Really, really difficult.
So yeah, I think I think designgenerally is a bit of a
feminist issue.
I'm I'm a quiet feminist, but Ihave still still quite
passionate about it and do yeah.
(15:49):
Yeah, so the the kitchens onthe side is because they're not
the people that are in thekitchen.
Merilyn (15:55):
Yeah, yeah. You are very much in a man's world.
We've worked together a lot onyour branding, and I love the
way you get the psyche of a man,but you've still put your
personality into your businessand your brand and the
aesthetics.
You work for men, but uh, whoinspires you?
Is it usually men or women orboth?
Or if you could sort of nameanyone out of history, dead or
(16:18):
alive, who who does inspire you?
Hannah (16:20):
So, yes, I work a lot with men, and um I suspect that
many of us who work in IT aresomewhere on the spectrum that
we're all in that sort ofslightly neurodivergent space of
how we think about things.
Otherwise, we wouldn't be goodat what we do.
But that's work, and I love it,and I'm good at it, mentally
challenges me and inspires me.
(16:41):
But really, it's my family, mygrandfather and my mum, who
would be the big inspirations.
Merilyn (16:47):
Your grandfather's still alive?
Hannah (16:49):
No, he died when I was 19, so it's been a long time
now.
Merilyn (16:53):
And what is what did you love most about him?
Hannah (16:56):
He was just a very warm, calming person who was always
there, always supportive,inspired both mum and me.
I'm from a single parentfamily, so he's my main male
role model as well.
He was a music teacher.
He went through the Army MusicCollege and came out top of his
ear and was a bandmaster forRoyal Welsh and things like
(17:18):
that.
So any brass instrument orwoodwind instrument, he had to
be able to teach.
He also taught piano at home aswell.
But you could give him anyinstrument and he could play it,
even ones he'd never playedbefore.
Did you learn music growing up?
No, not really.
He taught a lot at home, so mygrandmother was incredibly fed
(17:38):
up of hearing three blind miceover and over and over again for
20 years.
So no.
Mum and I didn't play, but Ihave inherited his piano and I I
tinkle a little bit.
And I also have his originalwooden flute, which is probably
from a fire.
Merilyn (17:55):
That is a great question.
Three things you would savefrom a fire from your house.
Your grandfather's flute.
Hannah (18:01):
My grandfather's flute.
Um, if I had enough strength,probably the most amazing
ebony-carved door that that mymum brought back from Cameroon
on one of her many, many tripsabove.
Merilyn (18:14):
There's a story there.
Hannah (18:17):
Yes, it's five foot tall, no, three foot wide,
intricately carved with these umuh brass inserts, mouldings on
the side, uh, and it isfantastic.
And a third one, probablyphotographs, ones that I haven't
scanned yet.
If it was a very slow fire, itwould be the books.
Merilyn (18:36):
I have to thoroughly enjoyed this chat because I
found out things that I justwent have gone there.
Yeah, I just find itfascinating to know more about
people, and I think one of thethings I always find fascinating
about you, Hannah, is I knowyou're sitting there and not far
away is the sea.
There's something about that,that and the the environment,
(18:59):
and for me that's a that's anaesthetic thing.
The taste, the salt, thefeeling, the wind.
I mean, you must have someterrific storms having been
surrounded by so much sea.
That's why I've got two barns without any roofs. Ithink it was 2007.
No, 2017, 15.
We had 107 mile an hour winds.
Wow.
Took one roof off, dropped itonto the next barn, and a big
(19:21):
piece landed in the farmyardabout 18 inches away from my
mum's car.
So still count my blessingsthat yes, we lost two roofs, but
we didn't also lose thecar. It's windy, yeah.
I hadn't realized till thischat how important that is for
me in that that layering of thetexture of someone's life that I
(19:43):
I so enjoyed.
Let's wrap up.
What do you want to beremembered for at the end of
your life?
What would you like to leave onthe planet?
Hannah (19:50):
I think personally I'd probably like to be remembered
for helping people and makinglife easier for them.
But the most likely andlong-lasting memory is probably
this building that I willslowly, lovingly bring back to
life and that you will come andsee one day, because hopefully
that will be around for anothergood few hundred years after my
(20:14):
time.
So yeah.
Memories in people's hearts.
Merilyn (20:18):
I love that. Thank you so much.
We didn't talk much business,but gosh, I actually love this
small lifestyle vibe.
Yeah, thank you, Hannah.
Hannah (20:28):
I've thoroughly enjoyed it too, and it's a great way to
start my day.
Merilyn (20:33):
Brilliant way to start your day.
Hello, welcome back to this special series I'm calling
I Never Released The The LostTape.
12 conversations I recordedbetween 2022 and 2024, and I
never released completely mybad.
This one is a little differentfrom the first two.
Today's guest is a fascinatingtall poppy.
(00:22):
Hannah Verrall.
We actually met through one ofmy programs years ago, and
somewhere along the way webecame friends.
Hannah spends her days helpingcompanies solve incredibly
complicated technology problems.
Then she comes home to a400-year-old farmhouse on the
coast of Wales, where she'srestoring old barns, rewilding a
(00:45):
meadow, and running a glampingbusiness in the summer months.
This conversation is not atypical interview style podcast
and not about business.
It's turned out to be somethingmore interesting.
I always love our chats becauseyou have this very structural
(01:06):
architect IT brain and you'recreative as well.
And you stare out the windowand you talk about your farm and
glamping and walks on thebeach.
Paint us a picture of where youare in your beautiful part of
Wales.
Hannah (01:21):
I live in Pembrokeshire, which is right down in the
southwest of Wales.
It's about two miles to the seasouth of me, about two and a
half to the west, about five orsix miles to the east of me.
So there's a a giant river, the Cleddau River, which is the second largest natural deep water harbor in the world. So, it is massive, second only to Sydney.
Merilyn (01:48):
That is a fact I did not know.
So really I'm only connected to the mainland in a narrow band on the northeast.
Almost like an almost like an island.
Hannah (02:00):
Yeah, just a very narrow area.
If I want to go anywhere, Ihave to go through Pembroke.
I can't really leave thepeninsula unless I go through
Pembroke.
Um, so the beaches all aroundme, there are some absolutely
glorious beaches here.
I can think of about 10 withina 10-15 minute drive of where I
am.
And they're generally verysandy beaches.
(02:21):
So some of them have a littlebit of shingle after storms, but
mostly they are big or smallsandy, golden sandy beaches.
There's one that used to beused on the bounty adverts, you
know, that lady walking.
Merilyn (02:34):
Oh, really?
Pretending it's like theCaribbean.
Hannah (02:36):
She must have been freezing, but there's some
beautiful, beautiful beachesaround here.
And my family, I am sixth orseventh generation,
Pembrokeshire.
And you mentioned that I have aWelsh accent.
Most people in the UK would notthink I have a Welsh accent.
Merilyn (02:51):
I would say it's a neutral
accent. And tell us about your farm.
Uh it's a bit grand calling ita farm.
It is an old farmhouse, andit's probably 400 years old,
500, I'm not entirely sure.
Certainly parts of it could beas old as the Tudor period
because we have a very largeIngle nook fireplace.
(03:11):
So I've got this thisgrand-sounding, but actually
really ramshackle anddilapidated old Welsh farmhouse
on the coast with some barns,and it is grade two listed, but
some of my barns don't haveroofs.
Then I'm slowly renovating.
I'm also rewilding our meadow.
We've got a 10-acre meadow, andwe've planted about three, four
(03:34):
thousand trees in it so far.
We use it for the glamping, sowe mow parts of it some years,
and we don't mow other parts ofit.
It's got a big badger setunderneath it, and there are
foxes and a...
What set under it?
Hannah (03:46):
Badger.
Lots of badgers.
You see them out in thedaylight.
There are so many.
Merilyn (03:50):
I'm imagining wind in the willows.
Do you remember that?
Hannah (03:53):
Yeah.
Yeah, there are we've got thetiniest of streams.
It's more a trickle than astream.
I could water rat might livedown there.
And the village, I say avillage, it's three houses and a
church, is pretty much overrunwith rabbits, as you would
expect from living in a placecalled Warren.
So we we have all the wildlife,owls.
I'm hoping not bats.
(04:14):
I've got to have a bat surveyto get some renovations done.
It's quite a wildlife haven andit's I live on the edge of a
big tank training range.
It's the largest live firingpermanent one in the UK or
something like that.
Not sure.
But there's hundreds andhundreds of acres where nobody
farms.
So the wildlife on that, whichis my land borders that, um, is
(04:37):
amazing as well.
So we we get a spill over alittle bit from that.
Merilyn (04:41):
Brilliant.
So you're glamping.
I love the idea of glamping.
I I know having lived in Londonall those years, everyone wants
to go to the beach.
Is it like one of those Englishtowns that just gets so busy in
summer?
Some areas of Pembroke should do. Mypart is a lot more wild, but it
is a national park, so nobody'sallowed to do any building.
(05:03):
Where I am is quite, as I said,three houses and a church.
There's one more villageslightly to the north and to the
west of me, and then it's thesea.
It's it's really rural and outin the sticks.
So there aren't very manyplaces for people to stay.
And as you might have guessed,I am a passionate uh almost
(05:23):
tourist guide for Pembrokeshire.
I love Pembroke, and it's it'swhere I grew up.
Every other town has got acastle in it.
I love the coastline and it'sso varied.
Um, because of how we are inpeninsula, whatever the weather,
you choose a different beachdepending on the weather,
depending on on what's going on.
So it's it's really varied, butthere's nowhere for people to
(05:46):
stay.
And I have this field, and umwe fell into it.
It it was very much anaccident.
Um, but I noticed someone elsehad a a bell tent on a campsite
further into town.
I've looked at yurts in thepast and they were very
expensive, and I one day idly Ilooked at the price of bell
tents and realized that theywere much more affordable.
(06:09):
What is a bell tent?
Hannah (06:10):
Bell tent is a beautiful round tent.
Merilyn (06:16):
It's kind of semi-permanent.
Hannah (06:17):
No, we take them down because we're in the National
Park.
We can't have them up all year.
In fact, we pretty much onlyhave them up for a month every
summer, so it's prettyexclusive.
You have to get in there whilstyou can.
But yeah, they're they're sixmeter diameter, so they are
enormous.
Merilyn (06:34):
So people kind of book one of these bell tents.
Hannah (06:37):
Yeah.
Yeah, and they sleep up toeight people or on a private
pitch with um their own kitchencabin.
So they have their ownbathroom, shower, uh, kitchen,
all on a private pitch, alreadykitted out for them.
So it's it is proper glampingin that it's camping.
You are under canvas, therewill be insects, you know.
(06:58):
Can't get away from it.
Wood lice.
We have wood lice.
They're everywhere.
In fact, I won't bore you withthe the interesting, not so
interesting fact that wood liceis one of the words that
indicates where you're from.
So we call them penny sowshere.
We do, we do.
Um, so hundreds of those,mostly in the house because of
(07:19):
the wood.
But anywhere that's damp woodlice like they're not harmful or
anything.
They don't tend to come intothe tents, it's too warm.
But yeah, there's insects,there's grass.
It's windy because we're on thecoast.
But yeah, they're lovelypitches, you rock up,
everything's there for you.
Um do you serve meals or dothey cook for themselves?
(07:40):
No, they have a guest hob and acharcoal barbecue or fire pit,
depending on what they want, anda list of great local
restaurants as well.
Merilyn (07:49):
Yeah, can I ask the obvious question?
If you've only got two housesand a church, where are the
restaurants?
Hannah (07:56):
So one of my favorites is in a farm nearby.
Two miles.
It's a little bit far to walk,but it's not very far to drive.
And uh Michelle is an amazingcook.
Merilyn (08:09):
So it's in a farm, like a restaurant.
Hannah (08:11):
Yeah.
Merilyn (08:12):
Wow.
And so what sort of food dothey serve?
Hannah (08:14):
She serves all sorts of mainly slightly fusion cooking.
She does a lot of twists onBritish food and things like
that.
Merilyn (08:21):
There's nothing purely Pembroke food?
Hannah (08:25):
Her recipes aren't, but her food is.
So she she and her husbandraise all their own meat.
I don't think they grow verymany vegetables, but they they
buy vegetables from theWalled Garnder Angle, run by
another friend of mine, and fromother farmers around the area.
So there's a lot of local food.
We also have a lot of peoplepicking seaweed and making
(08:47):
things with seaweed.
Merilyn (08:49):
No.
Hannah (08:49):
We have a seaweed rum locally.
Merilyn (08:51):
Wow.
Do you ever eat it?
Hannah (08:53):
I've had a few absolutely amazing meals with
seaweed.
So there's a spaghetti seaweedthat you can have, and I was
once served that with pesto,which was absolutely delicious.
One of my most memorable meals.
Um, but typically the theSouth Wales are not my area, the
more further east, sort ofSwansea, and they typically pick
(09:17):
a type of seaweed called lavabread, and they eat it with
cockles and bacon, fry it up forbreakfast.
Wow.
Merilyn (09:23):
And is this like a really old recipe?
Hannah (09:26):
I think for the South Walians it is, but locally
we use it in in slightlydifferent ways because another
bit of history, sorry,Pembrokeshire Tourist Guide
coming up.
We've been English speaking for900 years.
So William the Conqueror tookover England, then he came and
took over Pembrokeshire and keptit.
Yes.
Merilyn (09:44):
I never knew that.
Hannah (09:45):
Slightly different culture to the rest of Wales.
Merilyn (09:48):
That makes sense about your accent then.
Hannah (09:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's much closer, the local accent.
Much closer to Devon andCornwall.
Merilyn (09:57):
Very much so.
Hannah (09:57):
Yeah, very far mer-ey.
You should hear some of myuncles.
Might be difficult tounderstand some of them, but
yeah.
Merilyn (10:03):
Were you born in your house?
Like is is this your familyhome?
Hannah (10:07):
This is one I bought, but my family are local, so
we've come all the way fromPembroke, a whole six miles
away.
It does it's a very rural area,so that does mean a little bit
of an outsider.
But there we are.
Yeah.
Merilyn (10:20):
How on earth did you get to do what you're doing and
didn't become a farmer orsomething?
Hannah (10:25):
How did I end up doing business analysis and
architecture?
By luck, by sheer luck andbeing right place, right time.
After uni, I went away andlived with my then boyfriend for
a little while.
We broke up and I came back towhere I was living near uni.
And at the time I had bills topay and no job.
(10:47):
So I went out temping whilst Idecided what I wanted to do.
And I ended up doing a temp jobfor a local, rather large,
networking company.
And both they and the thecompany who were doing some of
the work for them after thatshort initial project asked me
to come and work for them.
And I went and worked for thenetworking company.
(11:10):
I worked there for about threeyears, and they pushed me in
that direction.
I remember this was in the midto late nineties, rocking up on
my first day and them saying,Right, we'd like you to write
our intranet site for us.
So I I maybe had my first emaila year or 18 months before.
The early days.
(11:30):
And I was like, I don't knowhow to do that.
And they said, Here's the book,you'll sort it out, go away.
And yes, you did.
The rest is history.
Merilyn (11:38):
Now, speaking of officers, you work mainly at
home now, don't you?
Hannah (11:43):
These days I do, yes.
It used to be mainly on site.
We've you and I have had a fewcalls when I've been driving up
to offices in Birmingham orLondon.
Me rocking up there early sothat we could I could join you
on one of your courses and satin a a little room whilst
everyone else slowly came in andgot their coffee and woke up.
And I'm thinking, what do youwant about?
(12:05):
I've been up for seven hoursalready.
I mean, living where you live,it would have been a big drive
to get places.
Yes.
Yeah.
I haven't worked in Wales since1999, and it takes about two
hours to get across Wales andeven get to England.
(12:25):
So yeah, everywhere is a long way away.
Would you say that was a goodthing that happened out of the
pandemic?
The normalization of homeoffice?
Yes.
Yeah.
It's been something I've beentrying to get my clients to
understand that working in anoffice environment, especially
when you're trying to do deepthinking, is not always the best
(12:45):
thing.
It's great for interacting withpeople and keeping up those
relationships.
But when you need to do deepwork, I need to be away and
undistracted.
It's been fabulous for that.
The dog also appreciates itbecause he gets far more walks
than he did.
He loves it.
Merilyn (13:01):
Now, speaking of office, we were chatting about
this before, and I thought,we've got to share this.
When you think about a house ora home and you have an office,
it's often the smallest leftoverroom.
And when I moved to this place,I did the same.
I took the smallest room.
I thought that will be myoffice, and I hated it.
It was small, it was hot.
And I looked into the loungeroom and I thought, why don't I
(13:24):
take that space?
So it was actually veryexpansive around me.
I need that space.
You spend most of your day atwork.
Why are we spending all ourtime in these little crapped
rooms?
Ha (13:37):
I wholeheartedly agree. I've been having some plans drawn up
for one of the barns to beconverted so that I can move
into there.
And the original plans had myoffice space on a narrow shelf
in the corridor facing a wall.
Yeah.
One of the other designs, it itwas like that slightly bigger
shelf, but into a corner.
I just can't imagine spendingeight to twelve hours a day.
(14:01):
You and I both work hard,facing a wall.
Where I am at the moment.
It's a small window.
But I'm very misty today.
Normally I can see the sea outof there and I can look a couple
of miles uh distance and givemy eyes a break and things like
that, and not go quite as nuts.
Merilyn (14:21):
I think it's changing or it's changed in Australia,
especially.
But designers, builders,architects used to design
kitchens off it off the side,you know, these tiny little
things.
They didn't realize thatactually they're the hub of the
home.
Here they've very much openedthem up.
So a lot of kitchens are openup and have a living area
attached to that kitchen areanow.
(14:41):
But perhaps they're a bit slowin realizing that the home
offices are the same.
Hannah (14:46):
I'm gonna be controversial here.
I think it's a feminist issue.
Most architects tend to be men.
I know you trained inarchitecture originally.
Merilyn (14:54):
I was like one of two in my year that were women.
Hannah (14:57):
In fact, product designers as well.
If you think about uh toilets,they never have enough room for
the hygiene cabinets.
You feel like you're virtuallysitting on top of them.
Merilyn (15:09):
And at venues, you go to say the opera or you go to a
performance, and inintermission, what happens?
The men are in or out, and thewomen, you never get in there.
Why don't they realize thatthey need 50 stalls for women?
They need to be twice the size.
I mean, they don't get that, dothey?
Hannah (15:28):
No, no. And vacuum cleaners, no designer of a
vacuum cleaner can ever have hadlong hair because they are
impossible to remove the hairfrom.
Really, really difficult.
So yeah, I think I think designgenerally is a bit of a
feminist issue.
I'm I'm a quiet feminist, but Ihave still still quite
passionate about it and do yeah.
(15:49):
Yeah, so the the kitchens onthe side is because they're not
the people that are in thekitchen.
Merilyn (15:55):
Yeah, yeah. You are very much in a man's world.
We've worked together a lot onyour branding, and I love the
way you get the psyche of a man,but you've still put your
personality into your businessand your brand and the
aesthetics.
You work for men, but uh, whoinspires you?
Is it usually men or women orboth?
Or if you could sort of nameanyone out of history, dead or
(16:18):
alive, who who does inspire you?
Hannah (16:20):
So, yes, I work a lot with men, and um I suspect that
many of us who work in IT aresomewhere on the spectrum that
we're all in that sort ofslightly neurodivergent space of
how we think about things.
Otherwise, we wouldn't be goodat what we do.
But that's work, and I love it,and I'm good at it, mentally
challenges me and inspires me.
(16:41):
But really, it's my family, mygrandfather and my mum, who
would be the big inspirations.
Merilyn (16:47):
Your grandfather's still alive?
Hannah (16:49):
No, he died when I was 19, so it's been a long time
now.
Merilyn (16:53):
And what is what did you love most about him?
Hannah (16:56):
He was just a very warm, calming person who was always
there, always supportive,inspired both mum and me.
I'm from a single parentfamily, so he's my main male
role model as well.
He was a music teacher.
He went through the Army MusicCollege and came out top of his
ear and was a bandmaster forRoyal Welsh and things like
(17:18):
that.
So any brass instrument orwoodwind instrument, he had to
be able to teach.
He also taught piano at home aswell.
But you could give him anyinstrument and he could play it,
even ones he'd never playedbefore.
Did you learn music growing up?
No, not really.
He taught a lot at home, so mygrandmother was incredibly fed
(17:38):
up of hearing three blind miceover and over and over again for
20 years.
So no.
Mum and I didn't play, but Ihave inherited his piano and I I
tinkle a little bit.
And I also have his originalwooden flute, which is probably
from a fire.
Merilyn (17:55):
That is a great question.
Three things you would savefrom a fire from your house.
Your grandfather's flute.
Hannah (18:01):
My grandfather's flute.
Um, if I had enough strength,probably the most amazing
ebony-carved door that that mymum brought back from Cameroon
on one of her many, many tripsabove.
Merilyn (18:14):
There's a story there.
Hannah (18:17):
Yes, it's five foot tall, no, three foot wide,
intricately carved with these umuh brass inserts, mouldings on
the side, uh, and it isfantastic.
And a third one, probablyphotographs, ones that I haven't
scanned yet.
If it was a very slow fire, itwould be the books.
Merilyn (18:36):
I have to thoroughly enjoyed this chat because I
found out things that I justwent have gone there.
Yeah, I just find itfascinating to know more about
people, and I think one of thethings I always find fascinating
about you, Hannah, is I knowyou're sitting there and not far
away is the sea.
There's something about that,that and the the environment,
(18:59):
and for me that's a that's anaesthetic thing.
The taste, the salt, thefeeling, the wind.
I mean, you must have someterrific storms having been
surrounded by so much sea.
That's why I've got two barns without any roofs. Ithink it was 2007.
No, 2017, 15.
We had 107 mile an hour winds.
Wow.
Took one roof off, dropped itonto the next barn, and a big
(19:21):
piece landed in the farmyardabout 18 inches away from my
mum's car.
So still count my blessingsthat yes, we lost two roofs, but
we didn't also lose thecar. It's windy, yeah.
I hadn't realized till thischat how important that is for
me in that that layering of thetexture of someone's life that I
(19:43):
I so enjoyed.
Let's wrap up.
What do you want to beremembered for at the end of
your life?
What would you like to leave onthe planet?
Hannah (19:50):
I think personally I'd probably like to be remembered
for helping people and makinglife easier for them.
But the most likely andlong-lasting memory is probably
this building that I willslowly, lovingly bring back to
life and that you will come andsee one day, because hopefully
that will be around for anothergood few hundred years after my
(20:14):
time.
So yeah.
Memories in people's hearts.
Merilyn (20:18):
I love that. Thank you so much.
We didn't talk much business,but gosh, I actually love this
small lifestyle vibe.
Yeah, thank you, Hannah.
Hannah (20:28):
I've thoroughly enjoyed it too, and it's a great way to
start my day.
Merilyn (20:33):
Brilliant way to start your day.
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