Essays on books, food, and life.
Today I thought I’d share this blog post from Stephanie Evergreen. She has a business (and a great blog) where she teaches people how to display information in meaningful ways.
This particular post is about short reports. We develop a lot of these at my workplace and we try to make them as interesting as possible, but I’m not sure that they always hit the mark.
Check out Stephanie’s advice and see what you think.
A colleague recently sent me yet another article about how PowerPoint is inherently evil and should be banned. I’m familiar with these articles. They usually point out that the templates are rubbish and encourage people to develop endless and meaningless lists of dot points which are not helpful to anyone, especially when you are not there to provide an explanation.
I always feel a bit silly defending PowerPoint, but I really do believe that PowerPoint is an awesome tool. It has its limitations, but it also has a lot of good points.
I love the cartoon above which I have reproduced from a wonderful site called Fresh Spectrum. You should check it out.
I’m writing this by lamplight. Yes literally. I have taken a photo to prove it!
We have been without power for five days and I know that won’t seem very long to those of you who live in challenging climates where power failures are a regular event, but for us it’s an unusually long period to be off the grid.
We had a big storm five nights ago and over 2,000 homes were left without power in our local area. The fact that a giant tree in our front yard fell over and took out the neighbours power lines just added to the drama. Our two cars were miraculously saved from destruction, but they were trapped behind a very large tree trunk that was laid across our driveway. Fortunately a kind neighbour lent us their car and I have been able to travel to work without too much drama.
I have really loved going to work this week – there is so much electricity there! Not just hot showers, but microwaves, fridges and power points to charge your devices. We got a message to say that our partners could come to work and use the showers, but that they needed to be accompanied ‘at all times’ by an employee. That made me laugh. I’m not sure that the other people using the men’s amenities would really appreciate me lurking about in the men’s room watching my husband have a shower, let alone accompanying him into the shower.
I am trying really hard not to write a post about how difficult it has been to live without power, as I’m acutely aware that many people in the world don’t have the same amenities that we take for granted. I don’t want to whine about a situation that is after all, temporary and fixable. At some time in the next few days a nice team of workers will come and fix the power pole that has been flattened down at the corner of our street. They’ll reconnect the wires and our life will return to normal. This is not the case for refugees in so many parts of the world and for people who struggle daily with a lack of food and other basic amenities. I think we are really lucky. We still have a working toilet and the local shops are open and doing a roaring trade in hot coffee and BBQ chickens.
So instead I’m taking the time to think about all the good parts of my life. For example, our lovely neighbours who have been kind enough not to complain about our big tree making a complete mess of their front yard, cutting off their power and partly demolishing the dividing fence. The arborist who came today commented that he had been to many houses where falling trees had destroyed the relationships of previously friendly neighbours. I’m hoping that this won’t happen to us as we have the best neighbours in the world and I would hate to have a situation that is strained and difficult. I’ve been in that situation before and it’s truly horrible.
I’m lucky enough to have some internet access on my phone so I’ve been able to keep in contact with the outside world but it’s strangely quiet in the neighbourhood. We have one battery-operated radio that we found in a cupboard (thank goodness for olden days equipment), and quite a lot of camping gear that has been hauled out and put to good use. I’ve also discovered that it’s easy to read on the iPad when there’s not much light around. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but I am a tiny bit addicted to downloading sample chapters of new books from iTunes. Last night I was so bored that I read all of the sample chapters that I’ve downloaded,but never actually read, over the last few months. So now I have new list of books that I simply must read, and quite a few that I thought might be good but are actually rubbish.
All in all, it’s been an interesting an educative experience. People have been kind and generous and we have survived quite well but I am quite looking forward to catching up on some telly and having a hot shower at home, by myself.
Thought you might be interested in seeing what finally ended up on our front verandah! It’s an odd mixture of items. The bench is new, but the tables are a ‘side of the road’ effort.
We have done a bit more painting since then and I’ve become more confident about deciding what I like and don’t like. I think that maybe when you start to renovate (or in our case, freshen up) you probably should start in a small and inconspicuous place, rather like when you iron a new garment for the first time and you’re not sure if it can actually be ironed. We started at the front of the house and my husband left the colour choices up to me because he said that no matter what colour I chose, I wouldn’t like it when it was done. He was right!
In my case, I wanted nice dove grey paintwork and it ended up being quite purple. It’s not what I intended at all, but I’m getting used to it. I didn’t check what was going into the tint (largely red) and if I had it would have been obvious that it was going to come out purple or blue. But hey, you live and learn.
One of the things I found out in the course of this little experiment is that it’s a largely a matter of trial and error before you get the result you really want. It doesn’t just magically come together without any effort and there will always be some mistakes along the way. I know this sounds really obvious, but I had expected that if I thought about it long enough, I would make perfect choices.
In retrospect I should have realised that when I’m designing a presentation or a brochure I make thousands of changes and tweaks before I’m happy with the result, so choosing colours for the house is no different, it’s just a bigger canvas.
I’m thinking of re-painting my study now. It’s a smaller space and I think it’s going to be fun.
Thought you might like to see how the porch turned out! After a lot of looking we have arrived at an eclectic mix of existing furniture (green chair) a new bench seat and some pre-loved items that we picked up from the side of the road. It works for me.
We’ve just had our front verandah re-painted and as a result I’ve been obsessing over purchasing some new outdoor furniture. I’m beginning to realise that:
a) I don’t really like outdoor furniture very much, and
b) the pieces I do like are very expensive (which is very unfortunate).
In my travels around the internet I found a couple of beautifully designed chairs which appeal to me for reasons that I can’t easily articulate. There’s something about them that is very attractive. I think it might be the fluid lines.
I particularly like this funky chair (known as the 45) which was designed by Finn Juhl, a Danish architect and interior and industrial designer.
Finn Juhl was a pioneer in Danish design. In 1945 he designed this fantastic armchair which was one of the first to break with tradition by freeing the seat and back from the frame. The result was an elegant chair that came to characterise Finn Juhl and make him world famous as an unrivalled designer. See more of his designs here.
Another one that caught my eye is this ladderback chair, designed by another famous Dane, Hans Wegner.
According to Wikipedia, Wegner (April 2, 1914 – January 26, 2007), was a world renowned Danish furniture designer. His style is is often described as Organic Functionality and in his lifetime he designed over 500 chairs, 100 of which were put into mass production and have become recognisable icons. I’d quite like one (or two) on my verandah or maybe in my study if I ever finish tidying it up!
What do you think would look nice on our verandah? Any suggestions?
I’m always a bit ho-hum at this time of the year. Part of me is brimming with hope and expectations for the new year ahead, and part of me is filled with a sort of ennui which I assume is caused partly by the heat and humidity.
It’s summer here in Australia and we are having a hot one. Luckily for me, I live in a cool and shady house with ceiling fans in nearly every room, except for my study (unfortunately).
One of the things I have done over the holidays is cleared out my filing cabinet, so I’m feeling a little bit pleased with myself in that respect. Heaven only knows why I thought it necessary to keep every electricity bill and rate notice for the last ten years! Anyway, they have gone now so it’s too late to worry that I might need them for something.
My filing cabinet is looking very tidy, but the rest of my office needs some attention. Oh well…
I’ve also updated my blog theme, so you might like to check it out and let me know what you think? The eggs don’t represent anything in particular. I just like them!
I hope that the new year finds you excited about where your life might take you.
Like many women of my age, my hair is rapidly becoming greyer by the day. I was looking at some old photos recently and noticed that over the past eight years both my husband and I have gone from having brown hair (or black in his case), to having significant amounts of grey.
Unlike most of the women of my age, I have resisted colouring my hair for a few different reasons.
Having to ‘touch up my roots’ every few weeks is tedious. Once you go beyond having a little bit of grey at your temples, you really need to keep on top of the grey roots down the entire length of your part. One of my friends calls this ‘controlling the skunk’. Personally, I’ve got better things to do.
Another reason I haven’t dyed my hair is because I think it encourages other women to embrace who they are and not be afraid of showing their true selves to the world. I don’t think of myself as some kind of feminist role model, but I do often have women say they wish they were brave enough to just be who they are, grey hair and all.
The unfortunate part of going grey is that the lack of hair colour really drains you and can make you look rather drab.
If you’ve been dying your hair for a long time, it’s quite hard let your it revert to its natural colour, be that brown, grey, or a salt and pepper mixture of the two. It takes at least six months to grow out the colour, during which you can look pretty dreadful.
I am only too well aware that my grey hair makes me look quite a lot older than my colleagues of the same age, but a friend once told me that in Thailand grey hair is regarded as a symbol of wisdom and the more grey you are, the more you are revered. I don’t need to be revered, but it was a pleasant reminder that being older (and maybe wiser) is not necessarily a bad thing.
If you are thinking about letting your hair go grey, it’s worthwhile thinking about other ways you can add colour to your life. A touch of lipstick, a colourful scarf and some bright earrings can add a bit of zing and be very effective.
Many people think that simplicity and complexity are natural opposites, but nothing could be further from the truth. You can express very complex ideas in ways that most people can understand if you make your explanations clear enough. You don’t need to dumb down your ideas to make them understandable, you just need to present your ideas in a logical order that people can follow and use examples that people understand and are familiar with.
When ideas are poorly organised, they look jumbled and confusing. Things can seem a lot more complicated than they really are. Think of a drawer full of stationery all mixed in together. It’s hard to know what’s in there, let alone find the pen you really need. It’s the same with ideas. When they are organised in a sensible way, people feel calmer and are able to absorb ideas more easily.
Getting your ideas sorted into a sequence that makes sense is perhaps the hardest part of writing a document or developing a presentation, but it’s the most crucial step. I suggest drafting a high level plan before you start writing, so that you can get your ideas in order first. This will make the writing easier as you will already have your headings and you wont need to sit there thinking about what to write next.
Try it next time you embark on a new project and let me know how it goes.
There have been a lot of articles in the paper lately about how to simplify your life. These range from helpful suggestions for de-cluttering your home, to articles about being less connected to our digital devices. All of these resonate with me because I have reached that age where my elderly parents and in-laws are needing to move to smaller accommodation more suited to their needs.
This means that they need to divest themselves of all the memorabilia that they have collected through their lives and many of these items (some lovely, some less lovely) are making their way into our home. It’s quite a challenge because my husband and I are also going through a phase where we would also like to get rid of a lot of the things we no longer need, but they are being replaced by things that our parents no longer want or need. It feels like there is an endless stream of stuff that no-one really wants or needs that is insinuating itself into our lives. The problem is that it’s not just stuff of course. Every item has a story or a childhood memory attached to it, so whilst its easy for me to say ‘we don’t need that in our home’, it’s less easy for the person to whom the memory is meaningful.
I have read a few articles about how to deal with the problem of too much stuff, and the solution I like best is to take a photo of the item as a keepsake, and then divest yourself of the actual item. Another suggestion is to keep one representative item from a whole batch. For example, keep one teaspoon from a whole collection. Keep one linen tea-towel from a pile of a dozen. This can feel a bit less like you are being ruthless and uncaring.
I am only too aware that it is not the stuff that’s the problem. It’s the emotions that are attached to things that trip us up. We are human and need to recognise that our attachment to things is natural but we also need to recognise that there is only so much stuff that we need to remind us of who we are and where we have come from.
Margaret Moon 