Stylish Spaces

One of the sights that has always managed to take my breath away on tours of grand old buildings on holidays is the detailed workmanship on the ceilings - be it painted, guilded, trompe l'oeiled, stuccoed, Venetian plastered, wood carved or plain old rustic beamed. Craning my neck up to look at the amazing, beautiful ceilings is like looking at the stars on a cloudless night, each gaze falls on something new, something I haven't noticed before - and I have always felt that it is such a shame we have moved away from that in design. Ceiling is never the emphasis now, decorating our homes we hardly give a passing thought to ceilings expect to check the height if hanging a chandelier. But there is so much more to ceilings, our elders knew better, and nature knows better too- it's  canvass has ever changing ceiling with clouds flitting across, the sun shining through, bathing the clouds in all hues and shades of amber, the stars twinkling at night and the moon, changing from a ...

Working in a secondary school, I can't help but come across a lot of young people who most days lack the will to do anything - more so in particular if it has anything to do with learning - and just to be clear I work in a school that has been inspected and judged to be "above average" in all aspects of teaching and learning - which often gets me pondering if this is how young people are in a very good school, where teachers go all out to present information in an interesting and meaningful context, what about all those who attend the not so good schools, where learning opportunities are not so varied? The problem I find with younger generation is not that they are lacking any brain cells, oh no, in many ways, like use of technology, the younger generation is much more smarter (or coming up with new and ingenious excuses of not doing their work and missing deadlines!) - the problem lies in younger generation having no sense of personal responsibility. They are self-appe...