People have asked me why I seem so generally upbeat and positive most of the time. Truth is, I’m not really. I think I’m like most people who struggle with thoughts of self-doubt but cover it up with a smile or a can do attitude. I’m someone who hasn’t figured out how to control mindset […]
My New Obsession with Orwell
Sometimes I think that school texts are wasted on the young. I remember that many years ago, I read 1984 and Animal Farm which were high school texts and their meaning was totally lost on me. I guess as a young teen, I had other things on my mind that were much closer to home […]
Summer Holidays
One of the things I’ve noticed more so this year than I have in any other year is the stark difference in how Europeans have holidays compared to us. I think it’s because I’ve been communicating with a lot more European friends and family recently through language learning apps as well as my Twitter network; […]
Community Service
I’ve been thinking a lot about community service as it’s something that I have missed recently in my life. After many years in the military (you may not be aware that I served as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy (in the category of Education Specialist) for 10 years followed by a further 11 […]
Life, Interrupted
I’m sitting here in a park bench looking out at the green, uneven and unkempt football ground. Grass has grown in patches not having been mowed or even had the trampling of young footballers enjoying a weekend game. It strikes me how much our lives have changed since the pandemic started and thrown into turmoil […]
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 […]
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 […]
My Top Ten Learning Tools for 2021
It’s that time of the year again when Jane Hart’s (@C4LPT) Top 10 Learning Tools survey is out. You can put your vote in on her Learning Tools website and voting doesn’t close until August this year. I’ve been submitting my learning tools every year and I love to see how they’ve evolved over the […]
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
This year, I’ve been slowly doing a slow declutter of our home and contents [no books, artworks, music or yarn has been thrown out so you can all breathe a sigh of relief] but also of all the digital detritus that was making me go slightly crazy. You see, I noticed my attention waning and […]