Tag Archives: Personal

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Can An Artist Teach Us Business Lessons?

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I have been visiting Toronto, Canada, this week placing my son in a pre-boarding academy at his new school.  I had 10 days between dropping him off and picking him up so decided to stay here, set up business meetings to try to generate future work and strategy ideas that eventually may help pay for the world-class education he will be receiving. I took a quick look at the cultural events that were available during my stay.  When I saw that Ai Weiwei’s traveling exhibit, “According to What?” was on at the Art Gallery of Ontario I knew I had to set aside time to visit.  What a moving experience!  Read on.

Ai Weiwei

If you don’t know, Ai Weiwei is one of China’s leading contemporary artists.  However, that short – almost pithy – definition really does the man, and his body of work, a severe injustice.  He is, on a macro level, the consummate social voice of his country.  On a micro level, he is an artist, an architect, a blogger, a photographer, a documentary videographer, to name but a few areas of interest he turns his prodigious talent towards.  He is, as he summed up in his book of blog posts, a voice of honour against abusive authority and ‘shameless people with one foot in the system and the other out the door‘.  “May 14, 2006, As Soon as You’re Not Careful … an Encounter with Idiocy on a Sunny Day.”

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Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

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It’s that time of the year, summer time.  The kids have gained freedom from the interminable routine of school and oppressive tests.  Parents are left suddenly adrift without their routine.  The year has its comforting cycle for those of us with kids in the middle to high school years.  The shorter public holiday breaks are mere pauses of the cycle.  The slightly longer breaks at Easter and Christmas fall into time slots that generally have a rhythm and traditional routine of their own.  But summer is different.  It’s a really long break.  How can you use the changed routine of these ‘lazy hazy crazy days of summer’ to your advantage.  Read on.

Boat Kids Summer

It was the great Nat King Cole who in 1963 scored a hit with the song that gives its name to this blog post title.  I love it for the mood that it captures.  Even reading the main chorus and first stanza you can’t help but have a smile on your face as you think of your summer antics.

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, those days of soda and pretzels and beer.  Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer.

Just fill your basket full of sandwiches and weenies, then lock the house up, now you’re set.  And on the beach you’ll see the girls in their bikinis, as cute as ever but they never get em wet.

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A Real Tweet

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This afternoon … in fact, still ongoing as I write this post … my wife and I are hosting an end of school term party for our son, Ryan, and some of his friends.  He is off to boarding school in September so before everyone went global for the summer we thought we would have a last hurrah for him and the gang.  Have you ever had 20 kids aged 13-15 at your home for six hours?  Yeah, well, its noisy.  What did I do?  I took a 15 minute walk over to the pond to listen to a totally different ‘noise’.  Listen on.

Nature's Touch

At the end of the road in our subdivision is a small natural pond.  Around 5:30pm it seems that every bird comes out to celebrate the day, to pose, hear each other and to proudly be heard.  Its real life tweeting in a way.  I took my trusty Roland R-05 recorder with me and tried to grab some samples to give you an idea of the sound.  Now, it was a bit windy, I have never done this before, and the mic is not directional.  All these excuses taken into account, I would be honoured If you would take 1.5 minutes out of your day to turn up the volume, click the link below (Birdsong), close your eyes and pretend you are by a small pond in Grand Cayman.

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Unexpected Time

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This post is a complete departure from most others in that it is not my usual writing.  Instead, it is a pause.  A reflection on a moment.

Unexpected Time

Unexpected Time

Last week my wife, Christina, and I were invited to a reception for the newly formed Cayman YMCA.  Christina is a director of this outstanding organisation.  Among her many qualities, my wife is known for her organizational skills and for always being on time for events.  It was no surprise when we got there a few moments after 6pm that we were the first in attendance.  We often are.   Of course the caterers were still setting up, but that is not all that unusual.  However, around 10 minutes into our chat with the hostess I started to realise we were the first there not because we were early, but because we were really early.  On casually asking, we learned to our embarrassment that the event started at 7pm.  We were an hour early.  What to do?  The photo above is the answer.  It was taken during that unexpected time together.  We excused ourselves and stepped out to the terrace to take in the view.  Together we had 45 minutes to sit, talk and enjoy the most beautiful of sunsets.

Unexpected time was the perfect time for us that evening.  Sometimes we need that, don’t we?  Moments to unplug on one level and reconnect on another.  Have you had unexpected time lately, and did you use it wisely?

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Its Time To Be Tested

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My kids are always a source of inspiration for me in my life and, more specific to this blog, my writing. I have pages in my journal with blog post ideas. However, the best posts always seem to come out of the answers to my question, “Hey kids, what should I write about this week?” This week, as always, the question they suggested surprised me. However, what really got me thinking were their answers. Read on.

Tired schoolboy

“Write about our tests, dad,” was their immediate answer. On my end I’m thinking, really? What could be so interesting about a test? I hated them frankly. I was what you would call, a poor test taker. In hindsight I think that was a guidance counsellor euphemism for ‘David is a lazy procrastinator who waited too late to cram for his exams’. But, enough about me. I had been thrown an idea by the kids. To expand on it I did what I have learned to do when presented with a thought that at first seems unworthy. I asked a few questions.

“So,” I asked. “What is it about tests that you want me to know about?” I got two wonderful gems in reply.