Occasional musings from a Left-coast Canadian ExPat in Oxford.
I’m sitting at home on a random Tuesday at 3pm. Which isn’t really remarkable, until you think about the fact that not very long ago, I would have been sitting in an office (or on a train, or in a seminar, etc.) on most Tuesdays at this time. But here I sit, nonetheless, after having … Continue reading Who can tell?
Almost. Almost 2017. I always cringe at the idea of writing a holiday letter, and yet, I love reading all the ones I receive. So on the chance there are some of you out there who feel similarly about the writing vs. reading about other people’s lives, I present… Team Watkii: The Year in Review … Continue reading So this is the New Year
When we moved into this house, we knew needed a new dishwasher. The existing one was being “weird” (totally the technical term) and considering its advanced age, the sensible tack was replacement. And this is where we learn that Canadians and the English are separated by a common language when it comes to the world … Continue reading A tale of three dishwashers
I have had so many thoughts about this assinine “Meternity” idea-slash-book (go ahead, google it. I’ll wait.) that came out ages and ages ago. I finally have a few minutes (FINALLY) to commit those thoughts to pixels. Maternity (or parental) leave is not for mothers (or parents). It’s for babies. It is not an employment … Continue reading MeTernity
Hello! If you don’t follow me on the facebooks (/jen.watkiss) or twitter (@jen_watkiss) you may not know that Team Watkii expands to a foursome in August. I know, we’re pretty stoked. But this means we need to make room in for a whole extra person in our current existence. And we have amassed a lot … Continue reading KonMari-ing the Crap outta this place
www.bulletjournal.com – I’ve now been taking work notes with this system for an entire year. Unprecidented! I don’t incorporate any personal notes in this book (I use phone reminders & lists for that), but it’s made it amazingly easy to keep track of the various meetings, events, projects, task lists, etc. that I’m juggling at … Continue reading Three Fab Things: Roundup
I just got around to reading Anil’s recent post on 15 lessons from 15 years of blogging. Poignant, since I’ve been thinking about what to do with this site. I’ve been blogging for over 10(!) years, with a few defunct blogger and livejournal accounts before that. The blogosphere has changed a lot since then, but my … Continue reading The personal blog is an important, under-respected art form.
Thanks to all the comment suggestions on my previous post, I tried disabling all the plugins to see if that was the issue. Nope. Then, with the help of Neil and Gill, we spent some time going down the rabbit hole of a weird SQL error having to do with language compatibility (UTF-8 vs. Latin-1). … Continue reading Aaaaand we’re back!
I appear to have broken the back end of my blog. Perhaps the latest wordpress update is to blame? In any case, I’m writing this from my phone, where the wordpress app still seems to be ok (assuming I can actually publish this). Any wordpress wizards want to point me in the direction of what … Continue reading Blog: interrupted
It has not been the happiest New Year so far. Christmas was amazing, and it was so good to see family and celebrate. Unfortunately, after that, things started going downhill pretty rapidly. It really started back in October, when my Oma found a lump in her breast. I think you know where this is going. … Continue reading Awake / Asleep
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? Hah. Haaaaaha. Ha. At least it got me writing a little more frequently, yes? Yes. ———————————————————————————– There was a fantastic article posted on Business Insider the other day about the experience of a US … Continue reading North American Expats in England
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– Oh dear. Not even 10 days in, and I’ve failed to post every day. And my excuse for missing yesterday isn’t even that great: we were at the pub. We went out for … Continue reading A clash of cultures: Kid-friendly vs. Kid-centric
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– Since going back to work full-time in April, I’ve also been a full-time bicycle commuter. And Oxford is fantastic for cycling. In fact, because of the way the roads and cycle paths connect … Continue reading Thing I like: Merrell Boots
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– Continue reading Remember, Remember
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– I saw a post the other day about a bad airline experience, and how it tied into a bad email experience. The point the author was making: don’t send promotional emails to someone … Continue reading How much does brand affinity matter?
