Imagine you suddenly get the opportunity to visit the homes of five people you’ve long admired from afar. You’ve talked about them to your friends, you’ve seen them in photographs, perhaps you’ve even read all about them in books or the media. And now you get to visit. It doesn’t really matter who those people … Continue reading The Grapes of Sloth

We caught the twelve o’clock train from Paris, arriving at Vernon just before one. Our friends Anne and Clive were there to meet us. They live in Normandy now, part time at least, switching between a farm house where they have a potager and keep bees, and a flat in Essex. We last saw them … Continue reading A Perfect Day

In my last blog, I reported that was in Copenhagen with a group of senior educators from Kosovo. We were on a study visit to Denmark and Sweden, looking at how the school systems there plan and implement induction programs for new teachers, and then provide ongoing professional development to teachers throughout their careers. It … Continue reading Northern Ventures

It’s been a chaotic couple of months since my last letter (from Charlottetown), and my apologies for that. Those of you who know and have met my mum will be sad to hear that she passed away on 9 January, followed a couple of weeks later (in an unrelated incident) by my brother Patrick. So, … Continue reading Sticker Shock

As we enter the New Year we are facing a ‘cyclone bomb’, which apparently is the new name for a big winter storm. We are told to expect rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, and upwards of 20 cms. of snow, all pushed around by 60 to 80 km/hour winds (gusting to 120 at times). Earlier … Continue reading Letter from Charlottetown

I have just left Stratford-upon-Avon, where I was attending the annual conference of BELMAS, the British Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration Society. BELMAS is the British equivalent of CASEA, our Canadian association, and serves to being together university academics who study and theorize about educational administration, management and leadership with those who actually practice it … Continue reading Letter from Stratford-upon-Avon

I’ve spent the past week at Ryerson University, attending the 86th annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. This is Canada’s largest gathering of people with an interest in the Arts side of life – nearly 10,000 academics, graduate students, public intellectuals (both recognized and self-proclaimed), and so forth. The Congress is so big … Continue reading Letter from Toronto

I’m in Nairobi, waiting for a plane to London and from there, home. A big old 747 just nosed up to the gate, it’s the first time I’ve flown in one of those in years. Unfortunately I’m pretty confident my ticket won’t get me a seat on the top tier! I remember going up those … Continue reading The Grand Tour

I’m back in my Istanbul office, which is still the best airline lounge in the world. Especially since they finished the whole downstairs floor! They say that getting there is half the fun. Well, it’s certainly been an adventure. There were ‘gusty surface winds’ from the north at Charlottetown, which meant we took off sideways. … Continue reading Gusty Surface Winds