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Well-crafted writing inspires me. Just lately I’ve been aware that I have little awareness or knowledge of recently released music. Yes, I know Lorde has written Royals and I really love the bit I hear repeated in various references to her. I can hear that piece in my head when I stop to think about it and because she is from here I feel tremendous admiration for what she has achieved. I also catch other music in passing and what I hear I enjoy. But this is quite different to the way it was when I was younger, when I knew every word and sang them in moments of respite from study or work.

We are dealing with an interesting issue at the moment. Yes, I know . . . so what’s new? A start up and a business at any phase of its development has ‘interesting’ issues. It goes with the territory. But I thought this one was of interest to brand managers and business development people. I’d be interested to hear  anyone’s thoughts about it, actually.

I began to feel quite diffident about networking events, after having attended a great many over the years only to find I was going home with business cards I never referred to. This was not because the people I met weren’t good or their qualifications impressive. I just found I had no need of their particular skills.

So I had decided that I was better off targeting my meeting business contacts by attending seminars in relevant areas.

However, I have recently reviewed my position on this, after attending a networking event based on the concept of speed dating.

This last week was full of opportunities to learn about new things. My constant refrain is to never allow myself to become boring. Finding ways to learn something new or to take me away from the familiar is a challenge I am always willing to take up. This is purely for selfish reasons. I like myself better when I am learning. I feel like an interesting person to be around. I also remind myself that one of the important ways to do this is to put myself alongside interesting people and to listen to what they have to say; listen, in other words, to the stories they have to tell.

Writers are mirrors on society. This is especially so for creative writers. While they create fictional characters, environments and events the way those three elements interact are drawn from experiences and observations of the ‘real’ world.

My taiji teacher once said to me that how a person practices taiji reveals his or her nature. I have thought about that often, and often wondered what my daily efforts say about me.

As a consequence of that statement, I watch sports differently. One of my favourites is tennis, especially the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne. At the moment, I am limited to watching it on television but I hope to watch it live one day.