Middlefocus

At a training session today, I was surprised and very pleased to get a chair with a writing frame for left-handed people of which I am one.  It was just as surprising to find that of the five people selected at random for my group, three of us were left-handed and there were plenty of lefty chairs to go round. Thanks to the organisers for their kind consideration - nothing was left to chance.

The National Gallery of Art in Dublin is a place I like to visit regularly. Even when it is undergoing refurbishment its curators find ways to engage visitors. I'll be adding some thoughts on this below shortly. Meantime this quote, alongside the statue of George Bernard Shaw, caught my attention and has remained in mind.  Thought I'd share.  Link to the gallery here .

This month's audiobook: So you have been publicly shamed Jon Ronson Picador, 2015 ISBN: 9780330492287 Audiobook version by: Audible Inc. This is an audiobook that I will listen to again or get a hard copy version. That's because I found it so interesting and intend to make notes next time. Written and voiced by journalist Jon Ronson I found it "unpausible" - which I am assuming to be the auditory equivalent of an "unputdownable" book.   It is a relatively short listen as audiobooks go, around 7 hours, and I very much liked its delivery style. The message of 'shamed' is definitely one for the times we live in.  I had no sooner finished listening than I noticed that the airwaves were full of calls for the resignation of the chief executive of a major national company, coupled with shouts for boycotting the company's products.  Name and shame seems to be the "stock" phrase these days.... and the prevalence of social medi...

It was a treat last weekend to meet up with some friends to dine in a really classy restaurant in Belfast. It's the kind of place you go to for that special occasion because you just know that the food will be superb and you are going to be treated very well. It's the epitome of great service and attention to detail: table tops, crockery and silverware all gleaming. The restaurant popped into mind today while reading a newspaper article setting out five tips for would-be writers.  Here's why.... The article's #1 tip was that "If you want to shine, you have to polish". As a blogger, I'm one of those  'would-be writers' so it's advice that I'll be taking to heart and acting on in future. Then it struck me that there was plenty of polishing going on in that restaurant and its shine shows. That sparkled my thinking about things that we might do in our personal and professional lives to polish up our act and shine more brightly. Tim...

Back in my old language teaching days, one of the guiding beliefs was that communication had not occured unless the message sent had been received and understood.  So often it can be taken for granted that just because something has been said that desired action automatically follows. It's a fallacy. Your message may get heard but may not have been really listened to much less acted upon. I'm interested in the process of how messages are transmitted and how best to avoid interference on our signals so that the point we want to get across is not distorted.  There will be more of that in future but for this post I would like to focus on highlighting the subject matter of the communication. One of my former bosses, who had to manage several staff across literally dozens of disciplines, taught me a technique which he insisted I use and which many years later I still find effective.  When I would approach him for advice on dealing with a particular aspect of my ...