Thoughts
Desiderata
The words in this beautiful text always make me feel hopeful. Just right for a pause to Walk the Tortoise!
Do you inadvertently turn your statements into questions? Here’s why to stop (and how).
Raising your pitch at the end of a statement makes that statement sound like a question. Whether you’re communicating in person, online, or over the phone, this speech pattern can make you sound less confident, less credible, and uncertain about your content. This article talks about why we do it, and how to stop.
Full-length versions of Euripides’ & Seneca’s Trojan Women
If, like me, you're working with Eurpides' and Seneca's Troades or Trojan Women texts, you might find it helpful to see how modern theatre groups interpret these works. Obviously I was, which is why I spent several days scouring the internet and watching all the plays...
A beautiful watch
About 10 years ago, my father gave me a beautiful watch that had once belonged to my grandmother. I wore it on and off, and shortly after my father died, I went out and in the course of the evening, it slipped off my wrist and I couldn't find it. I knew that the strap...
Being a company owner in the UK: the end of the affair
I grew up with a British-born father, who, even though he moved over to South Africa at the tender age of 3 years old, was quite the lover of the mother country. In some respects, he was more British than that Brits, having been brought up as an immigrant in a new...
The Man in New Orleans
In 2001, I travelled around the US in 30 days and I had an interesting encounter in New Orleans with a homeless gentleman that made me rethink kindness. Enjoy!
Are we just going in circles? Maybe not.
I came across an incredibly inspiring quote today from Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”. If you’ve ever felt despair, convinced that the human race is trapped in an unbreakable circle, then this is for you.
In Defence of Open-Mindedness
Last week, we stayed in a lovely B&B in a medieval town called Dürnstein in Lower Austria. The people were wonderful, the food delicious, the wine even better but the weather… Meh. It could have been better, especially considering that my winter and cold-weather...
Literacy first, please
I’m a big supporter of literacy projects, whatever the language, and whilst oral storytelling imparts a number of literacy skills, the ability to actually read is fundamental, and often something that readers take for granted. With literacy in mind, I thought I’d...
Is Zero Waste Living Really Zero Waste?
I read a lot of books and articles that talk about Zero Waste living, and at some point I realised that I “thought” that I knew what “zero waste living” meant but that I’d never spent time looking into the “movement” and identifying what this is. The definition...