October 15th
Well my 2 weeks off has been and gone and I have returned to my morning routine of fighting for the shower, fighting to eat my breakfast whilst fighting with my 1 year old to get ready, all to get into the car and fight my way through the traffic to the office.
Only today’s car journey was slightly different, it was accompanied by the voice of Michel Thomas, the linguist who in his lifetime has learnt over ten languages and has taught many of Hollywood’s A-list stars to speak a variety of different languages.
This is because on my 2-week break I set a goal that I will learn Spanish. My husband, Dan has successfully worked his way through the Michel Thomas audio language course in Spanish to the advance stages, and not to be outdone I will follow in these great footsteps.
Being a keen football fan, to help make his learning more fun, Dan would translate the sports pages of Spanish newspapers. Great idea I thought. What could I translate to keep my interest and make it more fun?
I know! Just off to the newsagents to buy ¡Hola! the Spanish version of Hello! As well as learning Spanish I’m also going to be up to speed with all the gossip and be able to discuss the latest must-have celeb sandals with the locals on my next trip to Spain. Hasta la vez próxima mis amigos.
Monday, 15 October 2007
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
I'm worried I'm sounding like my parents!
Maybe it happens to all of us as we "mature" but the best entertainment on the radio I've heard for eons has been the Radio 1 Birthday celebrations! The best part for me has been the Golden Hour on Chris Moyles - me, crawling along the motorway with other drivers thinking I must be doing some kind of remote audition for x-factor!! The issue though is when discussing the covers of classics such as town called malice with my other half, I caught myself letting out a nostalgic breath and stating "well, its not a patch on the original, I used to listen to that tune when I woz a young........, no shoes......, 18 miles to the nearest shop....,etc". Now, certainly the first part of my good ol'days speech was accurate, however there is no excuse for spouting absolute tosh - it's like cars "not been what they used to" - good, it's called progress - heaters, MP3s, cruise control, reliability...... ok, come to think of it the 2 things aren't connected - McFly doing town called malice and technological advances in travel, my only conclusion to this story is that, on reflection, I'm now ranting like my grandparents!!
Monday, 1 October 2007
Starbucks and The World Café
After a quiet weekend of writing and watching the world cup rugby, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the power of the spoken word when one is attempting to find new meaning amongst a collection of apparently disparate thoughts.
I'd got to a point with my writing where instinctively I knew there was a common thread appearing but just couldn't put into words what it was. I did the usual things like walk away from the computer and make a brew. I even did something completely different (put some plaster in a hole in my wall) but still my thinking didn't reveal the insight I knew was waiting to emerge.
By chance, a friend sent a text to say they would be in Starbucks in half an hour and did I fancy a coffee and a catchup. I don't need asking twice and I was in the car in minutes.
After commenting on how shabby the local Starbucks was beginning to look, the conversation turned to the piece I was writing. Within 5 minutes of articulating the content and my thinking to that point, wouldn't you know it, the insight I was looking for came right out of my mouth in clear and concise form. Brilliant! I love it when that happens. Just articulating my thoughts through the spoken word was enough to move my thinking to a new place.
This reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a fellow L&D professional who is looking to utilise the concept of The World Café in her organisation. I revisited the book last night and found the following few words that seem to sum up this type of experience. One of the book's authors quotes her 84 year old mum who shared this insight:
"You see, conversation is action. You can think things and you can feel things but it doesn't become 'real' until you express it. Then it begins to germinate."
The World Café by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs - definitely worth a read. Starbucks, Macclesfield - could do with a good clean.
I'd got to a point with my writing where instinctively I knew there was a common thread appearing but just couldn't put into words what it was. I did the usual things like walk away from the computer and make a brew. I even did something completely different (put some plaster in a hole in my wall) but still my thinking didn't reveal the insight I knew was waiting to emerge.
By chance, a friend sent a text to say they would be in Starbucks in half an hour and did I fancy a coffee and a catchup. I don't need asking twice and I was in the car in minutes.
After commenting on how shabby the local Starbucks was beginning to look, the conversation turned to the piece I was writing. Within 5 minutes of articulating the content and my thinking to that point, wouldn't you know it, the insight I was looking for came right out of my mouth in clear and concise form. Brilliant! I love it when that happens. Just articulating my thoughts through the spoken word was enough to move my thinking to a new place.
This reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a fellow L&D professional who is looking to utilise the concept of The World Café in her organisation. I revisited the book last night and found the following few words that seem to sum up this type of experience. One of the book's authors quotes her 84 year old mum who shared this insight:
"You see, conversation is action. You can think things and you can feel things but it doesn't become 'real' until you express it. Then it begins to germinate."
The World Café by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs - definitely worth a read. Starbucks, Macclesfield - could do with a good clean.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
