How do you plan the perfect road trip?
I am not a fan of road trips at all,so by definition there cannot be a perfect road trip. The driving on our increasingly crowded roads gets worse and more aggressive by the year and the whole process is something to be endured not enjoyed. We are in a very nice holiday park just outside Chichester at the moment and that is our base for day trips. This to me is a much more enjoyable approach to a holiday than a road trip.
We have been into Chichester twice, and yesterday we went to Fishbourne Roman Palace, Bosham which has a church that is featured in the Bayeux Tapestry and West Wittering where we spent an hour or so in the very brisk winds of a British late spring. After that it was back to our static caravan at the holiday park where I made dinner. That’s the perfect holiday day for me, sightseeing and then returning to a place where you can sit back and relax in, rather than going to a new place and unpacking the clothes you packed up that morning. By staying in one place we have been able to buy food for the week, thereby significantly reducing our costs. It is a far more relaxed holiday lifestyle and gives us the opportunity and freedom to explore an area.
If road trips are your thing, good luck to you but I am staying put because they are simply the triumph of hope over experience!
What’s a moment that made you realize you were stronger than you thought?
I don’t think I can pick one moment because most times the moments when you show strength are only obvious in retrospect. Over my life I have faced a number of challenges and I have either overcome them or learnt from them. That’s what life is all about. You never stop learning, often through setbacks and bad experiences, and you never face the same experience twice because if the situation repeats itself you are a different person and you sometimes approach the solution from a completely different angle. To look back and say that a particular event was the time you realised anything is just imposing a narrative after the event. The narrative may bear some relation to real life as it was but not to the extent that you think. Memory is a very fluid process and we choose what we remember, how we remember it and what lessons we decide to take from it, if any. Rather than looking for a specific incident or moment I am content to accept that I have grown, shown courage in some areas, though definitely not in others, and done the best I can. Anything else is just revisionism for the sake of it.
What’s a simple pleasure in life that brings you joy?
I have almost aways been the first person to get up in my house, at least since I finished uni. The first half hour or more of being on my own is the time I ease myself into the day. I often read or put together these posts. On holiday, as I am now, the early starts give me a lot of time just to relax into myself and my surroundings.
This morning I got up just before 6.30 and came out to the lounge and kitchen area of the static caravan we are staying in. I made myself a cup of tea and settled down to read my new book, bought especially for the holiday, by Eve Plumb called Happiness Included Jan Brady and Beyond. I used to be a huge Brady Bunch fan as a kid and Jan was my favourite character. It’s a lovely trip down memory lane and the perfect book to start the day with. I have just made myself a second cup of tea and I will return to the book after I have posted this. When Janet is awake I will make her a coffee and, after some yoga, do her some breakfast. I can’t have breakfast until I have been awake for at least a couple of hours as my stomach tends to feel very heavy if I do.
Some mornings are of course much more intense but that makes the quiet mornings much more appreciated. As Eve Plumb says Happiness Included!
If you could erase one movie from your memory and watch it again for the first time, which one would it be?
When I first saw this prompt I thought of the obvious answer of a film with a twist that shocked me when I first watched it. Films like The Wicker Man and The Others came to mind immediately. Both are amazing films on rewatch but obviously their impact is somewhat reduced by knowing the ending. However it’s fascinating to rewatch films like that to see the little clues you missed and to see how the writer and director built up the story to end like it did. Next I thought off films I have watched many times that would be very nice to revisit fresh. Love Actually is the film I have watched more than any other and it’s become a family Christmas tradition. I decided that the tradition is what makes an impact on the way I watch it and the affection in which I hold it. Without that shared family history it’s just another film. With that shared family history it’s part of the tapestry of my life that is incredibly special.
In the end I decided on the Richard Williams cartoon version of A Christmas Carol which I first watched as a 7 year old. It captivated me from the first frame as a film, a story and a piece of art and I would love to see it once again through the eyes of my 7 year old self.
How do you stay motivated when learning something new?
A couple of days ago I reflected on the importance of reason and variety in keeping a physical training regime going. The same is true for academic learning. I taught for 35 years and I saw thousands of students at all levels. The successful ones had one thing in common, a reason for putting the effort in day after day. When I talk about success I don’t mean in terms of marks. Some of my students, particularly in the latter years achieved the mark they needed, but as students they were failures. They had no intrinsic reason for studying and they were happy to do the absolute minimum to pass whilst deliberately disrupting the class for everyone else. Some students didn’t get the marks they needed but they improved throughout the year with constant effort. In terms of getting through to our university partner they were unsuccessful but in terms of learning they laid very firm foundations.
The variety was provided by me as best I could, using lessons we developed as a teaching team. In terms of quality and focus, the lessons were as good as they could be within our restrictions of time and support. Some of my colleagues were brilliant at incorporating gamification and I tried to use this unfamiliar and, to me, unnatural approach (!) with some success, although I don’t doubt that in John and Clara’s lessons the games and technology worked far more effectively and seamlessly.
As a teacher I can only provide the framework for students and hope they have the application to put in the work. As a student or an independent learner I have to have a reason to study and now that reason is that it is something I am interested in as a subject. That is why I like learning about social history, media and cultural history and music. That’s what keeps me learning, exploring and educating myself. I hope that when anything appears on the blog my enthusiasm and research shows that my days as a student are not over.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 