Think About it
Posted on March 31, 2006
One of the hardest things to get human beings to do is think and never is this more evident than when I’m working with a class of ‘gifted’ 12 year olds. These guys have been doing just fine on cruise control. Sure, occasionally they face an exam and for an hour or so are forced to plumb the depths of their knowledge but mostly that’s as far as it goes.
When I sit down and work with these kids on their stories I can actually feel the resistance they have to engaging that damp mass between the ears - and I know how they feel. It’s a very easy fall back position to just follow the well-trodden path of your own thinking processes, trail-blazing is hard work.
On that same theme, I read once that when we try to learn something new, you can imagine the brain as being like virgin bush that you’re having to hack a fresh path through. As you learn more and practice more, you keep heading down that path, widening it and making it clearer until the passage is easy.
I actually get enourmous satisfaction pitting my mind against a problem and just mentally gnawing on it until I find a resolution but mostly my thoughts just flit around like a butterfly, landing here and there, barely touching the surface.
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Jamie Oliver on a Plate
Posted on March 30, 2006
God love ‘im - Jamie’s finished his tour of Italy and finally decided that the British do have something going for them - at least they are open-minded about trying food while the Italians are ‘f&%king stubborn’.
Apart from the great people he met who were Italian in the best possible way - a big middle-aged woman trying to teach him to make pasta shells saying to him ‘God you’re gorgeous! Isn’t he good-looking? Beautiful eyes.’ Her friend chipped in with ‘He’s better looking than Leonardo Di Caprio!’ all of which got him very flustered.
Apart from the beautiful scenery and squalor of some of his digs.
Apart from the wonderful meals he cooked in the most difficult situations, I just reckon he’s the most natural person on television - full stop. He’s just himself no one else seems to be able to do that - they are there to please the crowd, get the ratings, please the producers etc.
On this series, as on the others, he got cross and he got beep beep beep pissed-off, he got pissed, he got disppointed, he got homesick and quite often he was obviously not having a good time. But it’s all part of the mix that makes it about a real as television can manage - it’s not all smoothed out to make it perfect or hyped up with artifical challenges. He’s a natural and I love ‘im.
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Hi-Ho! Hi Ho! It’s Off to Work We Go!
Posted on March 29, 2006
Despite having been self-employed for the last 20 years I have a strong opinion about workplace agreements and the whole direction of workplace legislation - it’s a huge bloody problem.
I can only think that because public servants create legislation that they don’t fully understand how business and, particularly, small business works.
I was a partner in a small corporate event management company with eight employees when the first Unfair Dismissal laws came in and it created an instant problem.
We had a staff member who had presented well at interview and gone downhill from that day on. We reluctantly began the arduous process of warning letters which related to her not being able to do her job, drunk and wrestling with an inflatable crocodile at a client function (I kid you not!) and coming to work still under the influence of recreational drugs.
She had a buddy in a big law firm and it all ended up in the Arbitration Court. The accusation levelled at us was that we initiated the dismissal process because we wanted to dismiss her - which is not permitted -hello?
We were told by the arbitrator that we had stuck with the process and we could win in court but we were better to pay her off and be done with it. No way! In the end it cost us several thousand dollars (and some headaches) to sort out but she got nothing. What a pointless exercise and we were one of thousands of similar cases at the time.
It comes back to my two favourite words: kindness and respect. Employers need to respect their employees and vice versa. Employers mostly don’t sack good workers - why would they? The law cast all employers as villains which is outrageous.
The self-employed understand that you are as good as your work - employees must understand that too. Job security is a figment of the imagination and by legislating to make it so you create complacent workers and industries populated by people who loath their work but love security.
We need more education (esp. small business owners) and understanding - not more legislation.
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Things to be Cheerful About
Posted on March 28, 2006
Last week was an absolute shocker - my son was sick, I was sick and every phone call was news of health crisis from various friends and family - all of them potentially serious. The worry alone was exhausting. I find it difficult to be happy in isolation - I need everyone around me to be happy too.
But on we go and today I suddenly feel cheerful for a number of reasons:
I’ve had my five minute flash of (possible) genius and resolved a few plot issues with the book.
I have five clear writing hours ahead of me - right now!
I went to the beach early this morning to see the dangerous surf phenomenon caused by the cyclone - it was wild, really exciting.
The Commonwealth Games have finally finished (too much sport really is enough)and my friend
Jamie Oliver will be allowed back on the telly this week.
I’ve stopped coughing.
That’s about it - doesn’t take too much, does it?
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Torture & Torment
Posted on March 27, 2006
I had a call from the mother of a friend to say how much she enjoyed my book - which was very nice. She asked me whether the process of writing it was enjoyable or hard and, of course the answer is both at the same time.
There are people who maintain they enjoy every minute - just like taking dictation - but I think for 99.9% of writers, it’s really really difficult. It’s easy to have ideas, hard to get them down - in the way you want.
And the mood can swing from one minute to the next, from thinking you’ve lost it completely and have some horrible form of literary constipation, to having it suddenly go well for five minutes and thinking you’re a friggin’ genius!
That’s what writing is, flashes of genius that emerge from a dark and brooding place. Makes going out for a procrastination coffee look that a very appetising alternative.
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