We were discussing giving E a lift to her end-of-school Ball, and debating who was going to drive. Remember that S is also now learning to drive …

S: I could drive you

E: But you haven’t even got beyond 2nd gear yet

S: You don’t need more than 2nd gear …

Clearly something to remind S of in future …

What the world really needs is another blog. With only 175,000 created every day, there is clearly a gap in the market.

Indeed. Still, a quick look at Mark Easton’s new blog, made me subscribe. Here’s how he describes what he’s trying to achieve:

Since 2004 I have been BBC News’ home editor, a title which has some strange consequences. I get sent samples of “premium quality laminate floor-coverings”. I have been asked to review hammer drills. And offer opinions on Italian furniture design.

But my interest and certainly my expertise is not in the world of interiors. In a way, it is quite the reverse. I try to look at Britain from outside, endeavouring to make sense of the dramatic and rapid change affecting the UK by standing well back.
…
What I want to do, (and what this blog is really about), is join some of the dots left by the dozens of stories we report each day. I want to understand our country, to see which direction we are heading in and what challenges lie ahead on our journey.

The one that caught my eye was his commentary on “So have we got our response to child sex abuse in proportion?” Unfortunately he ultimately ducks the question, but he does at least bring out the complexity of the debate.

“Unleash your inner slob”

Probably an unfair quote to lead with from this book by Stephen Cotterell, but an arresting one. This book was a surprise; I thought it was making the case for reducing busyness and generally downsizing life. Which it was, but only partly. More than that, Cotterell makes the case for real fulfilment coming through community, as emerging from God. And more specifically a God whose substance is Love - the Christian God.

Late on he mentions occasions where we land up “just killing time” - for example, hitting delays at stations or airports. Even if its just semantics, his suggestion to think of it differently, instead “redeeming time”. And “time wasting” should become “enjoying time”. One practical suggestion is to sit in a chair for a few minutes not thinking of anything, but being aware of your breathing. He suggests this as a way of allowing hidden thoughts out, as well as awareness of God to appear. A more orthodox Christian view would be to call this “meditation” and make it directly Christ- or Bible-centred. (To the point that the next book I’m going to read is on Lectio Divina - praying ‘into’ Bible passages.)

I didn’t find it amazing, but it’s a new mixing of ideas, and should have something to say to almost anyone.

We admired art in various galleries in Tenby, St.David’s and Narberth. I particularly liked Gary Llewellyn’s shorescape photographs, and the fused glass work of Steve Robinson and Liza Burk at the Narberth Gallery.

But the best was found at the Little Wedlock Gallery at the home of Anne & Malcolm Gregson. We landed up spending an hour there, including having coffee with them, and chatting about her paintings. We bough a few prints, which we hope to get framed. We much admired the Sea Fantasy original but we don’t have a 1m x 1.5m space to hang it. We felt quite a lot of her art was spiritual — perhaps why we like it? — for example seeing The Creation in the Sea Fantasy. It seems others agree as some has been used on various Christian book covers. Anne doesn’t seem to have that in mind as she created them, partly because the paintings have something of a life of their own as she creates them.

On the last full day, as our car had its rear springs replaced, we had a couple of happy hours over lunch in The Creative Cafe in Narberth. As we walked in, Martha’s face lit up in real joy … she saw a combined tea-pot-for-one-with-cup just waiting to be painted. The rest of us also painted various pieces of pottery. I can’t post any pictures of those here, as it might give away what certain readers might be receiving as presents, but here’s how Martha decorated the teapot …

To me, most fleeces look pretty similar. So I was surprised when browsing in a shop in St. David’s, finding some fleeces from Seasalt of Cornwall. At first they looked ordinary enough, until you saw the tag on it proclaiming “I’m made from plastic bottles!“. So nifty I thought I better encourage them and invest in one

In case anyone else would find this helpful, here are some of the places we ate at:

• The Evergreen Pub, The Green, Tenby - we had takeaway from them as there wasn’t space in the small indoor eating area. Typical pub fare, mostly not home cooked. 2.5 out of 5.
• The Stackpole Inn, Stackpole - expensive, but what do you expect for a pub that won Best Pub Food awards a few years ago? Wonderful fish options, though few pudding options. 4.5 out of 5.
• The Refectory, St. David’s Cathedral - more expensive and with a smaller range than expected, it served us well before a gig at the Cathedral. Good quality, and good sized portions. 4 out of 5.
• Cafe Vista, Bridge St., Tenby - really a coffee shop, so little choice in food. Also long waits to have any drinks or food prepared, but it doesn’t really matter when using their wifi
• The Carreg, Narberth - new, arty, cafe with lots of great photos on the walls. Very rich chocolate in the cakes, hot chocolates and mochas. Avoid if on a diet!

From Digital Nomads And The New Workforce:

[Inspired by reading The Economist - The New Oases - Nomadism changes buildings, cities and traffic.]

We have all become Digital Nomads. Able to work wherever we’re feeling most inspired (as long as there is wi-fi). I wonder how the masses will deal with this? Is it possible to just show up and grab any desk in an office building and log on (there are many companies that have this as part of their corporate culture already)? How will in-person, team collaboration dynamics be affected? What about the overall dynamics and vibe we get from going to our offices?

I saw this on holiday, having saved up about 500 blog posts to read. None of us are working in the normal sense, though Emma is closest revising for her A2s. So many times already we could have used WiFi, and it feels like being on a fast not having any internet access. To the point that we’re heading to a nearby hotspot later today, primarily so Emma can send/receive emails from her teachers about her revision. I’ll also use the opportunity to look up details to help me with some designs I have in mind, as well as following the links on some of the 50 or so blog posts that sufficiently caught my eye to check out properly.

If this is what we feel like on holiday, how much more so must it be for knowledge workers? If I was mobile much more, then I could see myself getting mobile broadband, even at the lowest possible rate.

(Via Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights Blog and Podcast - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image.)

I prefer emails over traditional letters (or txt msgs, or twitter or IM), and sometimes I feel in a minority for doing so. For example, my church leaders request people don’t send emails, preferring letters or face-to-face meetings.

Happily, I’m not alone in favouring emails: is a short blog post from the CEO of an American Publishing company that made me nod and laugh.

But I think we’re both implying emails that follow the standard etiquette. I’m offline right now so I can’t link to any well-written summaries of this. But my list would include:

• being aware that things can be taken the wrong way, as there’s no tone or body language — so, use emoticons or other ways to make sure people know you’re making a joke, teasing them or being ironic
• writing when calm, not angry or upset
• where there are many different points, use interleaving for your response, leaving a blank line before and after
• for threads about only a few points, respect the top- or bottom-posting before you
• writing in normal sentence case, not in ALL CAPITALS
• using a subject line that does summarise the email — and change it if you’re starting a significantly new idea
• using BCC to send something to me and to a large list of other people, to keep my address private

So, if you are writing to complain about something that upset you, then bashing out a revengeful note is definitely off-limits. It’s a sad commentary on the state of the Christians in our churches if they get enough of these to comment publicly that emails are a bad idea.

On a related note, I’ve just read about some email pages that can help email recipients quickly help emailers with poor etiquette:

• Thanks, No turns down unwanted email
• five sentences explains why his email messages are so short
• BCC please asks that bulk senders use the BCC field to hide your address

The unexpected highlight of the weekend probably came during our medium-length walk that started and finished at Minstead. (And it wasn’t the ancient little church there with its rather unusual double balcony arrangement - one for the little band of musicians, and one for the servants from the big houses around.) It was visiting Furzey. We’d looked around the art gallery next to the Tea Shoppe and we were all very tempted by the mounted photography of Mark Baeur - some examples linked below.

We had enough time left so we shelled out (quite a lot) for garden tickets, and I was hugely impressed. 30 acres or so of well maintained, but still fairly wild-feeling, spaces dominated by very colourful azaleas and rhododendrons and other flowering trees and hedges, interspersed with a variety of thatched things and tree houses. We’d all forgotten to take a camera, but here are samples from its own website …

And here’s a sample of the photos taken by eunique1234 on flickr at almost the same time last year. A fair bit of the work is undertaken by adults with learning difficulties who live near by at the Minstead Training Project. There’s also a Retreat House in the Gardens, and it would be a wonderful place to stay from May onwards, and I imagine into autumn with fall colours on some of the trees.

We spent most of the weekend with Tim and Ann in Romsey, talking, eating and generally relaxing. This morning we sat in their lovely new conservatory sipping coffee, enjoying the sun, and listening to the birds sing as we discussed Ignatian spiritual exercises. Sounds much harder than the run I did with Tim around some roads and fields near them, despite Tim’s pace being rather faster than my normal one. (Which incidentally means I’ve achieved my first running goal of 10 runs in 4 weeks - just!) Here’s the pic after we’d got back - still breathing deeply!

Unfortunately we narrowly missed getting a table at the Tapas bar in Winchester that was hosting some live Jazz as part of the Mayfest. But means I can recommend eating at Prezzo; we’ve now eaten at their Winchester and Salisbury branches, and both times their Risottos and other food was really good.