Just pleasantly floundering around.....

I have two days of training to deliver this week. I love delivering training. You never know what the ‘crowd’ that you are going to deliver training to will be like. But I can conclude the following: • It’s quite different delivering to a ‘team’ that already know each other and have their own ‘culture’ ingrained from delivering to a group of people that have travelled to your training and don’t know each other. • If you work out a set of ‘ground’ rules before you deliver the training, it makes a much better ‘training space’ than if you don’t. Something a wise and very experienced trainer (on a ‘training the trainers’ course) once taught me was this: In any group you will get the following (it’s a bell curve again. i think you can get maslow and a bell curve to have relevance in just about any training): A for Advocates – people that are already using whatever the training is about and completely ‘buy into’ it. B for Bouncy Bubblies - I am not sure that was her term exactly but she mean...

As it was Mothers' Day I was in charge although Jed (6) said he was also a bit in charge. So with my new-found power, my request was that we collectively draw an alien-scape. It was mostly my and Jed's composition but Andy drew a fish in a wheelchair and an ant-dog which is pretty good for a 43 year old and Maddy threw a few pictures in the pot in between moaning about her homework (regular Sunday mantra).

Last night chap, friend and I went to a fantastic little music club called 'Club Uniquity' in Suffolk. There were lots of jokes about us being 'exotic' what with us journeying all the way from Norwich and when Andy said one of his songs was from south-east Africa there was some deliberation before they concluded that must be Southwold way. The stage wouldn't have looked out of place at Butlins - with the sparkly lights and smoke machine but the comfy sofa we staked out, the cabaret style seating and mix of artistes made it a corking night! (I was handing out top trump identity cards and when that goes down well - one of my criteria for 'great venue' has been ticked). Anyway. Andy got up to play his set. The compere said, 'tell us a bit about yourself Andy' to which he replied, 'I am the shyest guitarist in the world.' I could tell he wanted to get on and 'let his music speak for itself,' but there were more questions and backed into h...

Does anyone else have their driving instructor’s voice in their head when they drive? Good Old Rod from 17+. He’s not there all the time (that would be ridiculous, I need to let other people in the car) but just odd moments like: • When I go up a hill, I can sometimes hear him saying, ‘you need push that throttle – it’s a hill you know – you need more gas for hills.’ • There’s a bridge (in Cringleford) we often crossed on a learning route and every time I go over it I hear, ‘you can fit two cars at the same time, if they drive carefully across this bridge, but not a van and a car, and certainly not a lorry and a car.’ If my passenger is lucky – I actually say it our loud. Funny that a bridge can turn one into a manoeuvre bore. • ‘That wasn’t left.’ To which I would reply – how am I meant to know which left you mean? Chap has taken over this role. When I get the wrong left, I think of Rod. • ‘You only need a car and a half’s length gap to parallel park. People think going in front wheel...

A teacher of a class of seven and eight year olds posed a simple problem to her class. “There are four blackbirds sitting in a tree. You take a catapult and shoot one of them. How many are left?” “Three,” answered the first seven year old with certainty. “One subtracted from four leaves three.” “Zero,” answered the second pupils with equal certainty. “If you shoot one bird, the others will fly away. “Stop being so mean to blackbirds,” says Molly from the outer edges of the page. I read this story yesterday and it’s exactly the thing I would have loved as a kid. When I read it, I went straight into school maths problem mode and said, ‘three.’ But then enjoyed discovering the ‘trick.’ I asked chap and he said, “None.” Smart arse. I thought I was the queen of outside the box thinking! I soon revert to conditioned training when it comes maths – clearly. I think this little vignette is a powerful metaphor that illustrates heaps about perspective. Neither of these pupils were wrong once thei...

I thought I'd try a literal and straightforward post to see what happens - to see if I can avoid finding some hidden meaning and intuiting all over the place. Tonight I lined some curtains. It's the second pair in six months. The first pair I did for warmth before winter and this pair I did because I hate it when bright mornings wake me up at 5 a.m. I am not a neat person or have I had any 'formal' training in needlework but with sound spacial awareness, reasonable problem solving capabilities and an old Singer turn-the-handle machine that my mum taught me how to thread up years ago....I get there. Obviously there's lots of wondering if a needle in the mouth is wise, seven pairs of scissors on the go to ensure there's at least one pair within reach/findable, thread everywhere, little tangles now and then, a lot of talking things through with myself and the odd mild swear word. I get into the flow (I was 'lost' to a Little House on the Prairie type existe...

Just playing around here…..albeit seriously! Imagine you were in charge of a life. Well, I know you are in charge of one, but imagine you were in charge of a 'blank canvas' life, from the start and it was a life you cared about and you wanted it to be as good a life as you could muster up. What would you not want for that life? I suspect we might all have slightly different ideas about what we would not want for this life. Our perception of the 'danger' and 'risks' of various 'hazards' is bound to be different. I will make a few guesses though……….(it won’t be comprehensive!) FOR THIS LIFE WE MIGHT NOT WANT: • Failure to engage in or achieve learning at school? • No support network – friends or family? • No friendships? • Poor participation in anything? • Loneliness? • Boredom? • No self identity? • A poor physical self-image • Never reaching his/her potential? • No ability to care for anyone else but themselves? • Inability to manage emotions e.g. anger...