Today I went around to my parents as is my usual weekly routine to catch with their news over a cup of coffee or a wander in their garden. My father asked me about the University of the Third Age and how it was set up. I knew that it was an international not-for-profit organisation […]
Books For The Week Ahead
This morning, it was supermarket shopping time. We headed into a nearby suburb (for something different), had a lovely breakfast and coffee at a cafe before doing the grocery shopping. Afterwards a walk to the library where I picked up these books. Mainly Dutch authors as recommendations from my colleagues who are based in Amsterdam. […]
River Cruising in Melbourne
Today is a public holiday in Melbourne, a once off holiday as the National Day of Mourning for the Queen’s passing. We have been having awful weather lately with lots of rain so when the sun came out today, it felt like all of Melbourne was out with us too. Tomorrow is another public holiday […]
Unselfing
Today I saw an excellent post on the site Unselfing.Social and it’s such a great idea… As an experiment, for one continuous month, make the focus of one in every three things you share on social media — wherever you normally share, however regularly or irregularly you do, however many people you reach — something […]
What Shall I Do?
My last day of work is 11 October. What shall I do afterwards? No idea. Part of me is comfortable with not knowing, not planning, not scheduling, not caring. I’m looking forward to just giving space – I don’t have to fill it with anything except for that which truly makes me happy. But do […]
Microsoft Asked Me To Present on How To Use Storylines (and Stories) for Business
This morning I presented to Microsoft’s Yammer Customer Community on How to Use Storylines (and Stories) for Business. Viva Engage is the new employee engagement platform (well, it’s the newly branded Yammer which is sitting in Microsoft Teams as the Viva Engage app). Currently Storylines (aka ‘blog’) is live in Yammer and the Stories feature […]
I’ve Resigned
It’s official. I’ve resigned. Someone asked me how I feel and in all honesty, I’m glad I did it. It wouldn’t have felt right to continue working when the mojo had long since disappeared. Not fair on me, not fair on others. So I depart. I have no other plans except to get my headspace […]
Shall I Quote Virginia Woolf in a Work Presentation?
Yesterday I was thinking about a scene in a recent book I read by Virginia Woolf. The novel is To The Light House written in 1927 and considered to be one of her best novels at the height of her exceptional writing. It’s about a family and their guests at a holiday house on the […]
Longer Reading Bouts
I’m quite happy with my reading of late. One of my pleasures is that I’m an early riser and will spend at least a couple of uninterrupted hours every morning reading. During my reading sessions, I don’t have my phone near me. In the evenings too, I’d rather read a book than watch a movie […]
Coincidences
This last month, I’ve been observing some oddities in my life. Things that happen without explanation and alert me to something to take note. I think I’ve been more attune to my surroundings. I feel something is “not quite right” (and hasn’t been when it comes to my work) and in that situation, I tend […]
A Morning Walk at Highett
I’m sitting here at a cafe just finished my cup of coffee and a delicious breakfast of corn fritters. I decided to go for a long walk in Highett. It’s a suburb near us but never took the time to walk along the strip shops. Some years back, strip shops were closing down having their […]
All Quiet on the Western Front
I’m standing here on the platform at Flinders Street. What do I see? À young lady reading Remarque’s book – an ACTUAL physical book I go up to her and say…. “So lovely to see a young person reading a great book!” She smiles and says “thank you”. Little things like this restore my faith […]
The Perimenopause Kapow
If there ever was a gif that exemplifies how many women feel during their perimenopausal years, this would be it. 👇 I’ve already blown some things up in my life to get prepared for complete transformation – saying goodbye to old thinking, old habits, toxic people and situations – but I’m not done, yet.
Social Media Is Not Going to Save You
I stumbled upon this excellent post from the Indieweb wiki page, going down rabbit warrens as I do. It was written back in April 2021 called Social Media Isn’t Going to Save You From Social Media. In particular, scroll (!) your eye down to the section titled, “Convenience for the People; Power for the Corporations” […]
Bringing a bit of Crete Home
This afternoon I went outside where the tradesmen yesterday dug out some dirt in preparation for concreting being poured on Saturday. The dirt in our area is fairly sandy and nutrient. With the rain, there’s a lot of leaves and worms in it so rather than buy it for my pots, I decided to scoop […]
Do You Need To Be Prompted All The Time?
One of the things I’m scratching my head over is, at times, people have been asking me for “prompts” at work. Prompts to help them write posts to share what they’re working on. Prompts to to help them respond to posts they’ve been mentioned in our enterprise social network. Prompts to help them remind them […]
Our Attention Has Been Stolen
I published a new book review this morning on a book I recently finished reading. It’s Johann Hari’s new book called Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention. In the book he provides the different causes over the years as to why we feel our attention and focus has been hijacked and offers a not-so-startling […]
The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2022
Jane Hart has published her annual survey for the Top 100 Learning Tools for 2022 and it’s interesting. Here’s the detailed analysis. I like looking through these lists because it gives a good snapshot of what people are using out there and what’s trending or falling by the wayside. What struck me is that Twitter […]
To The Lighthouse
I’m reading Virginia Woolf’s novel To The Lighthouse written in 1927. If you had the cast of Downton Abbey around a dining table but not talking to each other, instead thinking about each other, “a stream of consciousness”, the thoughts flowing from one person to the next, you get an idea of how this book […]
There’s No One Over 35
This evening while watching The Project, the panel was talking about the stage show Mary Poppins to a guest who was in the show. “Who’s she?” I asked Andrew. He looked up from his phone then started talking about Mrs Poppins and how she was an awful character in the book. “Don’t tell me she’s […]