Yesterday was my Book Club day. I started a book club this year with my golf club and before the event, I headed to the Cheltenham Library. I wanted to find out more about their Book Club Stacks. They provide a stack of 10 books for local book clubs to use. I signed up so […]
What are My Next Steps?
I’ve been considering what to do with this Activate Learning blog. Should I close it down? Should I rename and redesign it? Should I start a new one as Life Lessons from Books? However, the more I think about it, the more I realise that “activate learning” is a useful generic “catch-all” phrase that could […]
At the Crossroads of a Decision
Knitting Projects
This month due to a lot happening where I had to drop everything and care for parents or the cat, I decided to start a few knitting projects of varying brain capacity. I needed some brainless knits that I could take with me when waiting at medical appointments or vet visits just to get my […]
Creative Writing Practice
I have been having a lot of fun writing creatively every day. Most of it is done in a journal called the Writer’s Workbook which I’ve nearly completed. It encourages you to let the mind wander and write whatever comes to mind. That comes easily for me especially if I have a pen in my […]
Feels Like Covid Lockdown Days Again
I’m not going to lie, the weather lately has been crap. Endless rain, dark grey skies, dampness everywhere and freezing cold. We are stuck indoors although I venture out every morning for a few hours to head over to my parents house to do their cooking and shopping. Today, I vacuumed and mopped their floors; […]
Afternoons Singing & Strumming
Is there anything better than spending lazy afternoons at home strumming the ukulele and singing to yourself? Today it was this song…. I’ve been more creative than I’ve ever been. More writing, more music, more art, more intellectual discussions with friends, more good books, more conversations, more laughter, more poetry, more knitting, more learning, more […]
New Crochet Skills
I’ve been getting into crochet with some vigour as I’m enjoying learning new stitches and projects. I decided to experiment with this project which is top down. I made it up as I went along and figured if I can crochet a granny square, then I can do this. So I joined a chain into […]
Activate Learning in the Post-Work Years
So it seems that I’m not the only one in my circle of family and friends who decided to retire early. It must be a “thing” now. Chatting with them, the main reason for retiring early are mainly related to changes in their job circumstance. Others I spoke to who are still working, have all […]
Kids Giving Up on School
The news has been sharing stories of an increase in children deciding not to go to school. In Australia, it seems that our state in Victoria has seen an increase in numbers. Some people are putting it down to the fact that we had more days in confinement during lockdown (263 days) compared to other […]
Creative Frustration
In this post I write about creative frustration.
Finally Finished Glenan
I’ve been knitting a cabled hoodie vest by KD Design for a while. I’ve written about it here. There’s a few firsts for this project. It’s the first time that: For some reason, despite loving the feel of this yarn from the Bendigo Wool Mills, the pattern I found slow and cumbersome because I’m not […]
Turn Your TV into Art
Here’s a great YouTube channel that makes your television screen into a work of art onto your wall. Each artwork is displayed for 10 minutes giving an impression of a displayed artwork.
My Brother Jack Award – My Submission
The finalists for our local council My Brother Jack Award for Fiction have been announced – and I wasn’t on the list which in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting to be. It was the first time since high school that I wrote a piece of fiction and let me say how BLOODY hard it was. […]
Short Story….Submitted
Well today I finally submitted my short story (2363 words) for our local council’s My Brother Jack Creative Writing Award. It’s taken a long time to come up with the story and the character. However, I found the setting quite easily. I imagined what my street would have been like in 1942 and back then, […]
Fiction Writing
One of the things I’ve been doing in my spare time is writing fiction for the local council My Brother Jack awards. As an annual award to encourage writers in the local community, this competition has been running for many years and it’s always been at the back of my mind to submit an entry […]
Need to Run Training But Be Elsewhere At Same Time?
I’ve been running some Yammer 101 training sessions for our company at different times of the day and night to cater for our overseas colleagues. These are ‘open’ sessions for anyone to join so it’s always a surprise to see who joins me to have a bit of a chat and also get to know […]
Learning to Crochet
This week I’ve been learning a new skill (thanks to YouTube) and I fell in love with it. My friend Renee who lives in Spain and is a fluent French speaker (we chat in French every week), recommended Yolanda Figueroa’s YouTube channel where she runs crochet tutorials of tops that she’s created. The garments are […]
Lume Exhibition
Yesterday I went to the Lume exhibition at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. I booked tickets a couple of nights ago and in all honesty, was a bit half hearted about it. The reason was that I’m an art lover. I love to go to art galleries and see the paintings. I love learning about the […]
Finished Avena
I’ve been knitting a seamless top down jumper with a repeated leaf motif around the shoulders of a design by Jen Steingass called Avena. Here’s what it looks like. It’s the second jumper of hers I knitted (see me wearing it below) which introduced me to colour work as I was building my knitting skills […]