I live, at the moment, between two places ‘Dementia Island’ and ‘Manufacturing Island’. I don’t know if any of you have seen the film ‘Inside Out’? If you haven’t you should. In this film we explore a child’s emotions and sometimes those of her parents. In the child’s ‘Headquarters’ the emotions are there helping the […]

I came over all ‘Old Peculier’ last week. Yes, that is how you spell ‘Peculier’ and I was in Harrogate at the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Before I go on and apropos to nothing other than widening your vocabulary, a peculier is an ecclesiastical district, parish, chapel or church outside the jurisdiction of

“Never Stop Learning because Life Never stops Teaching” ANON   I am sure I can and will return to this subject many times.‘Teaching and Learning’ is almost an academic subject area. It is talked about in schools when I think what they really mean is pedagogy without much consideration for the learning bit. Teaching is

“Never Stop Learning because Life Never stops Teaching” ANON Having come up with this title, I am not sure if I want to witter on about learning and teaching or the power of quotations. As a result, I will split this over two missives and I am going to start with quotations. A quotation is

Room lit with artificial light, in a basement with no distractions? OR a desk in front of a window looking out over the sea? Where do you like to be to write or learn or both? I am fairly allergic to the former, if I am honest and yet I worked in a room for

I’m on holiday! Yeahhh but hang on….. so why am I writing this stuff today? There are a few reasons I suppose but it has encouraged me think about, “What is a holiday?” It is a fairly new thing for the working classes from which I hail (yes I am part agricultural labourer and part

We are all being bombarded with encouragement to meditate or to ‘practice mindfulness’ as it probably the best thing you can do to help with maintaining good mental health. We are told it is easy and above all very cheap. Oh and anyone can do it the celebrities tell us almost every hour on some

All the people in the know tell you that breathing is really important. I so want to say “No sh**t Sherlock” but I resist because I would a. appear uncool and b. I would be being churlish. The breathing they are talking about is the stuff we do to remain alive, although it does relate