One of the things Andrew and I do are spend our evenings listening to music. We have a massive vinyl and CD collection and we continue to buy CDs rather than subscribe to platforms like Spotify. Sure, we listen to playlists on there but for our own listening pleasure at home, we prefer to choose […]
Friday Friday
I had a lovely day today despite the weather being grey and miserable. I headed down to Station Pier to spend the day with a friend walking and catching up with news. Despite my photos below looking nice and sunny, the water and skies all blended into one sludge of grey. There was no wind […]
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 […]
Angry
There are days where I’m filled with rage. Today was one of them. Of course, I know the reason is that it’s all hormonal at this time of my life. Another part of me is so bloody tired having to justify everything all the time. I can’t take the bullshit anymore. I mentioned to a […]
First Carbon, Now Silicon
I majored in Organic Chemistry (with Honours) and I’ve only just realised that the element just below Carbon is Silicon….and that’s how the world is going. One shift down in the Periodic Table of Elements, yet one big massive move for mankind. I stumbled upon this mesmerising video today inspired by Yuval Noah Harari. What […]
Enjoying Puzzles
Recently when I was at the supermarket doing the shopping with my husband (a rare occurrence as I hate supermarkets and it’s the only time we get angry with each other because he’s anal about how food is stacked correctly in the trolley), I decided to buy a new puzzle book. Now we have heaps […]
Top Tools for Learning 2022
It’s that time of the year again to submit for Jane Hart’s Top Tools for Learning. I’ve been doing this every year since 2012 she created this annual program which has now become a record of how the tools for my personal learning have changed over the years. This year has been a complete flip […]
Going Out on a Limb
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that in my 25+ years of working, I’ve finally reached the conclusion that building a learning culture in organisations where there’s a free flow of knowledge, experiences and opportunities for relationship building and co-creation is impossible. Organisational systems, traditional thinking and most of all, egos […]
We Live In Hope
Yes please. Please Facebook, please be like TikTok. This great post by Cal Newport, link above hopefully spells out the demise of Facebook where TikTok becomes the poison pill that “cripples” Facebook. We live in hope. “This all points to a possible future in which social-media giants like Facebook may soon be past their long […]
We Need the Social at Work
Last night, my colleagues at Rapid Circle and I took part in a fun online Trivia Night. It’s now been four weeks since our Adopt & Embrace team were acquired by this new company and given that many of us were in lockdown in Melbourne, we were unable to meet each other in person. However, […]
Be Like Eyam
A few days ago we marked the 200th day in lockdown in Melbourne. That’s 200 days over six periods of separate lockdowns not consecutive days. If it was the latter, I would have gone mad already. As it is, I look forward to the days when lockdown ends because it sends me in a frenzy […]
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 […]
Ideas for How People Care for Themselves
Last week, in a particular down point, I asked the question on how do people manage to stay sane at these times when all we’re hearing on the news is constantly negative? After 200 days of lockdown (over six periods of lockdown), I think many Melbournites like myself have been affected mentally over the uncertainty. […]
Writing French Stories
I am writing short stories using a French picture dictionary for inspiration. For exercise, I flip open the dictionary and look at the pictures and definitions (there’s no English) so then I concoct a story in French using those words. It’s a way to contextualise the vocabulary I’m learning and in my mind’s eye, I […]
Fuck, I’m tired
I know I’m complaining a lot of late. I can’t seem to help myself. I’m just sad. Angry. Frustrated. Happy. Tired. Resigned. Impatient. Blah. Meh. Argh. I know that in light of where Australia is at with its vaccination and hotel quarantine program, added to how every state seems to be doing something different, lockdowns […]
Lockdown 6.0 Part 2
So here we are in lockdown 6.0 Part 2. I say part 2 because it was originally meant to be for one week and it’s been extended to two weeks. This time around, I can’t tell how others are feeling but I have a feeling of resignation on a lot of things. As each lockdown […]
Giving Feedback
Last week, we had Team Week at our company and it’s a chance for us to get together (either physically if there’s no COVID or online, if there is! ?) to discuss different aspects of our work and plan for the quarter ahead. I look forward to these because it’s an opportunity to see the […]
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 […]
Learning Power Automate
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of personal learning during lockdown in the following topics: Professional: Power Automate (as a starting point to understand flows and automations BEFORE I learn and build any Power Apps) Active Campaign (campaign marketing software that uses a lot of automations and in some way glad to learn Power Automate […]
Re-Assessment During Covid
This time of isolation and lockdown has been an eye opener where I have re-assessed a lot of things in my life. To be fair however, I think this re-assessment has been happening for quite a while for me, at least the last few years. The pandemic has simply confirmed my actions. Where in the […]