Every month I make time to write a thank you to someone (at least one!) It’s an opportunity to sit for a few minutes and think about where I want to express gratitude. Sometimes it’s someone in my life now, and sometimes it’s someone who helped me in my past. Last night I read an … Read more
On Friday of last week it was 30 years since I first started working in the English NHS. Working for the National Health Service for that long has been an amazing journey. So many changes, so many reorganisations that I have lost count. I think I counted up to the 8th reorganisation and then decided … Read more
In the early 1980s I worked for a couple of years as a Community Artist. I was part of a team of artists from different disciplines. We worked with a diverse range of people from 8 to 80 years old, most of them with some sort of special need. Sometimes we worked on our own, … Read more
It would have been the summer of 1980. This is one of those moments I think we all have, when a piece of music becomes rooted in a specific time and place. The music was “Charm (Over Burundi Cloud) by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno. A whole side of an album made up of authentic … Read more
The quietness on this blog can be explained by the fact that I got married and went on a honeymoon with my wife June. We toured through the USA. Lots of memorable things from the holiday, but one of particular note was the time we spent in San Francisco. Whilst there I completed a pilgrimage that … Read more
I’m taking you back a bit here. More than a decade, I think. It was the opening of a Borders store near where I lived in the Wirral, North West England. Shortly after it opened I visited to see what all the fuss was about. The new store was in the middle of a large … Read more
I wrote recently about some of the ideas in “Accidental Genius” by Mark Levy. It’s a really inspiring book full of great practical ideas to get the creativity flowing. One of these ideas, which I was really struck by is the idea of a Writing Marathon. For a while now I have been using a … Read more
Over the last few days I have been reading the wonderful book by Chris Guillebeau called “The Happiness of Pursuit”. Yes, it’s a fantastic title for a book, and the contents live up to the title. Chris set out on a quest to visit all 193 countries in the world before his 35th birthday. Although … Read more
In recent months I have been trying out online learning approaches. I’m guessing most people are familiar with TED talks these days. These are a great way to listen to focused, polished talks by an incredibly diverse range of thinkers – giving the talk of their lives! Then there MOOCs (massive open online courses) which … Read more
Seth’s Blog: Gripped in a free frenzy (or focused on scarcity and value). This post begins with a link to a short piece on Seth Godin’s blog. I’ve been reading him for years now – online and the books he produces. In this post he is talking about the problem with free. Now, this is … Read more