I'm all for learning something new. I love learning about new topics, I watch the news to see whats happening and I love to tinker with things, to find out how they work. I would love to learn a new language but I just don't seem to have the cognitive ability. But I can re-wire the house and build a wall, thanks to an electrical engineering apprenticeship at Fords and my Grandad.
I had a trip to Wales planned so imagine my excitement when my friend emailed me to say that we have tickets to The Hay Festival! Hay Festival is a festival of Literature and the Arts. It welcomes all ages and learning abilities and is a a wonderful place to be and learn new things. My friend, as a surprise, had booked us in to see a number of talks including;
Nina Stibbe & Gary Kemp
In 1982 Nina Stibbe, a 20-year-old from Leicester, moved to London to work as a nanny for a very particular family. It was a perfect match: Nina had no idea how to cook, look after children, or who the weirdos who called round were. And the family, busy discussing such arcane subjects as how to swear in German or the merits (or otherwise) of turkey mince, were delighted by her lack of skills. Love, Nina is the collection of letters she wrote home gloriously describing her ‘domestic’ life, the unpredictable house-guests and the cat everyone loved to hate. Nina talks to the Spandau Ballet star and actor Gary Kemp, author of I Know This Much.
Steve Jones
The author of The Serpent’s Promise, Almost Like A Whale, The Language of the Genes and In the Blood conducts an evolutionist’s exploration.
Emma Bridgewater
An interview with the iconic designer and manufacturer whose cheerfully distinctive kitchen pottery – manufactured and traditionally hand-decorated in the Staffordshire Potteries, just as it would have been 200 years ago – has found its way onto the dresser shelves and kitchen tables of homes all over Britain and beyond.
Sir John Gurdon - Nobel Prize Winner
Cloning Stem Cells: A modern medicine revolution
The Nobel Prize-winning developmental biologist was among the first to challenge the idea that a cell’s fate was irreversibly determined. His demonstration that the nuclei of differentiated cells could be ‘reprogrammed’ has ultimately led to successful cloning of mammals, and has provided the basis for much of modern stem cell research.
Paul Dolan
Most of us would like to be happier. Dolan defines this as experiencing more pleasure and/or purpose for longer. He describes how being happier means allocating attention more efficiently; towards those things that bring us pleasure and purpose and away from those that generate pain and pointlessness. Easier said than done, of course, and certainly easier said than thought about. But behavioural science tells us that most of what we do is not so much thought about; rather, it simply comes about. So by clever use of priming, defaults, commitments and social norms, you can become a whole lot happier without actually having to think very hard about it. You will be happier by design.
Steven Moffat talks to Alan Yentob
The screenwriter discusses his work. He is the co-creator with Mark Gatiss of Sherlock and the lead writer on Doctor Who. He’s been Executive Producer in the David Tennant and Matt Smith eras and wrote the fiftieth birthday episode The Day of the Doctor.
I left the festival with an aching body and a mind full of new information, questions and ideas. If you are available from now until Sunday I suggest attending the event. If you cant, I suggest putting it in your diary for next year.
I challenge you to learn something new this week.
Until next time,
Keep smiling
Dee
Miss Make It Happen
www.MissMakeItHappen.co.uk
*descriptions of the talks are from the hayfesival.com website.
