My 1st blog ever

Greetings from Auckland. I’m GJ and this is my 1^st post

Let’s start with where I was last Thursday....

By good fortune I found myself in need of coffee, between appointments, near PC’s office in Dominion Rd

I needed to talk through issues arising from the “easy” option I’d chosen for Summer school – “Communication in the sciences”.

 It wasn’t going to be easy and I had to write a blog.

I’m a Technical Manager and Mum to an adorable teenager.  I’m as grown up as I’m ever going to be.  Without professional help (not counting baristas  and barmen) I was able to work through, correction,  EMBRACE, the concept of a group project and 20 hours of study a week just to get another paper for my BSc in Nutrition (Thank-you barman)

Seriously, it wasn’t just alcohol fueled bravado. I do like writing and learning. I learnt from the Stanford professors that you can’t have science without communication. As well as being important for lobbying and getting funding they talked about how important writing is in actually clarifying their thoughts. That got my interest.

It was the students on that site who talked about how writing has helped their personal growth and how enjoyable and rewarding they find it.  YES! I want enjoyment, rewards AND Personal growth. Can I pay on-line?

I will spend the summer holidays as usual: eating, drinking and talking. I will either cunningly turn the conversation to talk of water quality and farmers interests or just hang out with those dear friends and family that would talk about that stuff anyway (You think I’m kidding).

I can’t see me abandoning my goal to become a nutritional adviser in order to become a science researcher or writer. My interest in Polynesian dietary needs and food culture probably won’t change. That is where I want to make a contribution in a personal consulting role. In terms of developing skills relevant to my goals, I think the non writing aspects – the team interaction and the seminar – are more relevant. This course will also help me to evaluate the validity of the nutritional information that is available. It’s unbelievable what a lot of nonsense there is out there. Lemons changing blood PH?????

Anyway, back to Vinyl Café. As luck would have it PC is a blogger and I was keen to pick up some tips (put in lots of links – thanks PC, I will). After he repeated “You’re going to write a blog?” a few times (Think of an actor trying different meanings by emphasising different words) I started to realise, in a moment of self-actualization, that, Yes! I AM going to write a blog. I AM.