Hurry up and wait

As I start writing this post it has just turned a quarter to ten. I’m sitting in a departure area at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, waiting for my flight to Amsterdam where my team will be meeting next week. My flight was supposed to start boarding in a few minutes, except, there’s no plane to board. The incoming flight from Amsterdam hasn’t arrived yet, so my eleven-fifteen…

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I'm waiting to board a flight and just saw another passenger, who was standing reading in the queue (The Last Empire by Brandon Sanderson, in case you're curious) fold the corner of the page he was on so he can board. Don't know how I'm going to be calm during the flight knowing this kind of sacrilege is going on just a few rows away...

What's in a name?

That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. I never realised this during my several years of teaching Romeo and Juliet to high-schoolers, but this is just the type of thing an infatuated teenage girl would say. Because names do matter. In fantasy fiction knowing someone’s true name gives you power over them. In the Bible names were often a prophesy about someone’s…

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Hope

I hope the first day of 2024 treated you well. Mine was productive…I was awake at 5, so I got up and went for a run before spending the rest of the morning in the garden, mowing, weeding, and landscaping. It feels good to be at the end of the first day of a new year and be able to point at what I’ve already achieved. Many are less fortunate than me. From people who lost their homes and loved…

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New beginnings...

And so we’re at the end of yet another year! 2023 was a year of changes and new beginnings (in many cases returning to passions I’d long given up on, so re-beginnings?) The biggest of these was starting a new career. No, I haven’t left Automattic… If we can quickly rewind, I joined the company behind WordPress.com (and Tumblr, and Woo, and Simplenote, and Pocket Casts, and Day One, and these…

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Trowback Thursday: Gratitude

I’ve been very quiet, I know. I’ve been a bit busy. Not an excuse, merely a fact – if your daughter complains you’re never home, when you work from home… Today’s Thanksgiving in the US, and while we don’t observe the day locally, one can never have enough reminders to be thankful, and this year I have much to be thankful for. Does that pique your curiosity? Then watch this space. Meanwhile,…

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Princess Diaries 2 has a Stan Lee cameo.

Does that mean Princess Diaries 2 is part of the MCU?

Camping is fun! #convincingmyself https://www.instagram.com/p/CprelOLtA0W/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Fiddler crab https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpp469qN0Zl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

BUGS! https://www.instagram.com/p/CppjBCGNAta/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Early morning visitor to our campsite #zebra https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpok_m5oswr/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#fungus https://www.instagram.com/p/CpiR3d1Nerf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Someone's glad I'm home #bekkiebrak https://www.instagram.com/p/CokTf0Ttt7D/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Another random church I'd stumbled across in Vienna (at Pfarrkirche St. Othmar unter den Weißgerbern) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoheU5WNtPz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

So that's why planes can fly. They use pegasus-power rather than horsepower! 🤣 (at Paris Aéroport - Charles de Gaulle (CDG)) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cog1EGAtQDu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

That'll be my ride out of here (at Paris Aéroport - Charles de Gaulle (CDG)) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cofjm29L2DJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Apparently my terminal has a nap zone... with a cat (at Paris Aéroport - Charles de Gaulle (CDG)) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoffZ88LDbQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=