Some weeks are harder than others, and earlier this month in one such week on one particularly such day, I had just had enough so I closed my laptop, stomped down the stairs and took Phoebe-dog for a walk to her favourite park.
Fresh air always helps restore perspective, somehow, and ambling through the grassy slopes and leafiness of DeWaal park, I came across a hopscotch game drawn onto one of the long walkways that criss-cross the grass.
A couple of weeks ago I became a lecturer. Just a part-time one, for one post-grad course at UCT’s Film & Media School, but a lecturer, nonetheless! It’s been one of those things that always hovered on the edge of my “to do” list for life, and being an academic is one of my alternate universe tracts having split off when I left a Masters scholarship behind at Rhodes, and took myself off to the terrors of Business School and Joburg. So all things considered, this is a much more exciting and special event than it may seem at first reading.
The view from the top at Mount Washington by Jonathan Jacobsen
In January 2015 I learnt to ski. Or rather, I learnt to stay upright long enough in order to stop when necessary to avoid a crisis (internal or external) and turn when necessary to keep from plunging off the edge of the run. And apparently that is called skiing. It took 4,5 days, 3 instructors in 3 different resorts, and some serious deep digging to keep going – especially after the first two hour class which had too many people and too little patience for my slow learning curve. At that point I was fully ready to say “it’s been fab, have your ski’s and stupid boots and you’ll find me in the pub”. But partly because the very tall baby brother (and obsessive snowboarder) and the barefoot husband (and ski devotee) were so keen for me to learn that I didn’t want to let them down, and partly because my ego wouldn’t let me give up, I gritted my teeth and stuck with it.
A 17th century cathedral is not the kind of place you normally expect to learn things about branding, but as in many spheres, what we think is really modern and cutting edge is often just a re-hash of something that was de rigeuer ages ago already.
I’ve been thinking about the value of words of late, largely because I do so love words in all their various forms, but also because this month marks the first time ever (despite having gained a degree in Journalism several – ahem – years ago now) that I will be formally paid for an article by Fast Company SA, no less, for their grand Dec/Jan issue on the most innovative companies globally and in SA.