Many years ago, a girlfriend gave me an old French picture dictionary and I’ve wondered how I could use it as all the definitions of the words are in French too. She had bought it thinking that it would help her learn the language but as she was a complete beginner, the definitions weren’t much […]
Learning a Language Through Coursera
About a few weeks ago, I found the Etudier en France course on Coursera that is at a B1-B2 level. I hadn’t completed a Coursera course for many years and when I saw this, I thought it was time to get back into it again. If you do a search on MOOCs (massive open online […]
What Did You Miss in June?
A busy month of learning in June. Here’s what I wrote about: Separation & Flow – the importance of setting boundaries between work and play Levelling Up Your Skills through Mini Challenges Lockdown Lament A BS Mantra: Fake It Until You Make It When Subscriber Numbers Get Scary Books vs. Cigarettes Ways to Follow This […]
Updating my YouTube Channel
For the last week or so, I’ve been trying to put some semblance of order on my YouTube channel and in frustration, I’ve realised it’s a MASSIVE job. There are over 400 videos on the site and as it’s a channel that is used as a record of work and learning, a portfolio if you […]
More French Resources Then Some
It’s fair to say that I have spent HOURS on learning this language over the last 18 months but I figure that I can’t stop now. It’s a skill that I need to work on consistently and continually. Use it or lose it. Utilisez ou perdez. As such, this last ten weeks, I deliberately didn’t […]
Building a Digital Profile
Some time ago, I was asked to present at an upcoming conference on the topic of Building a Digital Profile. I accepted as it was not only an interesting topic, also I valued the person who asked it of me, and it was also a paid opportunity. Since accepting the work, I have been doing […]
I’ve Got Grey Hair
Today I went to the hair dresser and was in the chair for about 3 hours. Now, I don’t like going to the hair salon but as I like to change my hair cut and colour as frequently as I change my underwear, the hair dresser now seems to be a place I frequent. Over […]
The Immersive Language Experience At Home
I’ve been writing about my language learning journey with French (click on the Search box above and type in ‘French’ to see the list of blog posts) over the last 18 or so months and one of the things that I’ve been deliberating is whether “language immersion” works and whether we need to be IN […]
Knitting Owls
Recently, I found a great design by KDD to knit on a jumper and they were….Owls! In fact, the jumper design is of the same name. I bought the pattern and with highlighter in hand, scrutinised the pattern to see if it was something that I could knit. I would say that I’m an intermediate […]
The Bed of Procrustes
The irony is not lost on me that much of what we go through in our life happens to be a Procrustean bed. They are born, then put into a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes they go to what is called “work” in a box, where […]
Snippets of Conversations
This morning I went for a long walk from Brighton to Elwood, headed into the Elwood Village and had a lovely breakfast of porridge at The Turtle Cafe. I didn’t listen to anything during my walk, just with my thoughts and decided that on the way back, I’ll listen to what people were saying as […]
Ways to Follow This Blog
As I’m trying to reduce my use of social media (mainly desperately trying to post more stuff that are valuable – rather than whingeing), one of the things I’ve noticed is that I have much more time to do the things I love such as writing, creating, knitting and learning. It’s put me in a […]
Books v. Cigarettes
I’m a huge fan of George Orwell. Guess you could say he’s my literary crush. I love all his books and I can’t help but feel that he was an empath writing about the human condition and the inequalities in society as well as making some predictions of the future which have somehow all become […]
When Subscriber Numbers Get Scary
One of the things I’m doing of late is getting ready slowly to remove myself completely from social media (namely Twitter and LinkedIn). At this stage, I’m unsure how it’s going to happen but what I do know is that I think I’ve pretty much reached my limit when it comes to learning how to […]
Fake It Until You Make It: A BS Mantra
If there was ever a bullshit mantra going around, this would be it. I know that many people would say that this is what gives them the confidence to do things in their life they may not have the confidence to do. So, they pretend to be someone else or to set aside those feelings […]
Lockdown Lament
I have to hand it to people working in jobs where they have to show up day in, day out for the good of the community such as medical and emergency staff. They must have a resilience and internal fortitude about them and these are admirable qualities to have and I wish I had 1/10th […]
Levelling Up Your Skills Through Mini Challenges
One of the things I do to level up my skills when I feel that I’m getting: Comfortable Complacent Stagnant Is to create little mini challenges for myself. They don’t have to be HUGE enough to have me give up half way through them but not too easy that they’re not exciting or enticing enough […]
Separation & Flow
Relax, it’s not what you’re thinking. Although, it’s disheartening to hear of so many separations happening in my life. I guess it’s my age and to be expected when my friends, families and peers have reached a point in lives where their children have grown and left home and they face new realities about the […]
What Did You Miss in May?
Blog Posts Alone in My Car (on Digital Minimalism) Time to Get Serious About the Next Phase (of My Life) Loving the Crafty Side of My Network (on preferring to read about the lifelong learning pursuits of my personal network rather than anything to do with their actual work because it’s what they do outside […]
Saying No
One of the things I’ve started to reflect upon and change over time is to stop saying “yes” to some things requested of me especially when they are not beginning to align anymore to my needs. In the past, I was always happy to agree to do work and much of it unpaid which really, […]