What is fate gonna do to us now? (The Exponents)

I was reading an interview recently on McKinsey Quarterly with a CEO (Moya Greene) who admitted that he no longer read novels -

I’ve usually got three or four books on the go. I’ve given up on novels. I can’t get through them no matter how good they are; there’s no way I’ll finish before there’s some kind of interruption. So I read poetry now: the collected works of Ted Hughes, Emily Dickinson. I’m working my way through Philip Larkin. You can take a Larkin poem and read it on the bus in 15 minutes. The good ones stay with you and will come back to you. That’s what I like about poetry: you get a little shot of mental protein without a lot of time.

I laughed out loud when I read this, but I decided to give it a shot nonetheless. Here's my little shot of mental protein for today:

Poetry Of Departures by Philip Larkin

Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand,
As epitaph:
He chucked up everything
And just cleared off,
And always the voice will sound
Certain you approve
This audacious, purifying,
Elemental move.

And they are right, I think.
We all hate home
And having to be there:
I detect my room,
It's specially-chosen junk,
The good books, the good bed,
And my life, in perfect order:
So to hear it said

He walked out on the whole crowd
Leaves me flushed and stirred,
Like Then she undid her dress
Or Take that you bastard;
Surely I can, if he did?
And that helps me to stay
Sober and industrious.
But I'd go today,

Yes, swagger the nut-strewn roads,
Crouch in the fo'c'sle
Stubbly with goodness, if
It weren't so artificial,
Such a deliberate step backwards
To create an object:
Books; china; a life
Reprehensibly perfect.

I love my baby with the red dress on (Ten Years After)

A continuation of my last posting's theme - a trip down memory lane with material from that presentation I had to give.


Deputy Principal years at Cambridge High School



A return to the 'Naki as Principal Stratford High School



School ball with Jacky (She Who Must Be Obeyed)

In Doha doing the ole soft shoe shuffle

With Qatari leaders

The wedding venue we used to present our PD