For the last couple of days, I’ve had a team of plumbers out digging trenches and laying PVC piping in our yard. The recent rain torrents and flooding into the house made us realise that something was up with our pipes. We keep our roof and guttering clean; we ensure our down pipes are obstacle-free […]
On Language
Yesterday my friend Fiona or @white_Owly on Twitter tweeted: When I was drafting my response, I had to rewrite it a few times because I was using words that were NQR (not quite right) at this point in time. The words I had originally used was “to be bombarded with changes”. The word bombard didn’t […]
Three Screens
Many years ago now, when I was in the military and based in Canberra, we were required to carry out Officer of the Day (although they called them Duty Officer because it was a rotation with all three services) out at Navy Office HQ. As Duty Officer, you had to stay there overnight and be […]
Mind Over Matter
Last night, we went to Ant Middleton’s Mind Over Matter Tour that was held in the Plenary at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. It seems like we have attended more events in the last month than we have over the last couple of years. It’s because Andrew had booked many different concerts, shows, and […]
More Than This
Today I have this song in my head on repeat. I have no idea why but I’m not complaining. 🤣 It reminds me of my younger years. It was always somehow playing on the radio in the background in my early 20s. When I hear it now, in my 50s, I turn it up, sing […]
16 Year Wedding Anniversary
Andrew (everyone knows him as ‘Tex’) and I celebrated our 16 years of marriage today and we celebrate each year by giving each other small amusing gifts according to the gift calendar and also trying out a new restaurant in a locale that is not our usual hangout. Tonight it was Mexican at La Cabra […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
What Did You Miss In March?
It’s been an interesting month where I continued with my French but also shared some work-related projects I’ve been doing related to virtual teambuilding activities, learning OBS and also lots of interesting books. Here’s what you may have missed. The Blogs Learning OBS (I had a lot of fun learning this tool and doing some […]
What Did Ya Miss in January?
I thought I’d collate all the blog posts for the month into the one post because it’s a great way to see what has been missed – but also as I view the collated posts, I can get some indication on what I’m working, improving, challenging for the month. Here are the blog posts I […]