How can I walk with this ball and chain? How can I land in this hurricane? Or is this part of man's evolution to be torn between truth and illusion? (The Band)

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

School stuff has been front and centre of Wozza's World these last two weeks (yes - it's Wozza's World - you just live in it).

"Why is that exactly?", I hear you ask politely.

Well the Education Review Office (ERO) has come a-calling to my two campuses during these last two weeks.

Being inspected can be a testing time for staff (students don't really give a monkeys).

During a visit, part of me wants to show off the great places where I work, highlight the excellent staff I have the privilege to work alongside, celebrate everything that makes our campuses great ones, but part of me is also a tad hesitant in case they don't quite get us, or else a tad worried they'll think we're big 'eads.

The use of different reviewers has meant that the ERO checklist of compliance issues wasn't directly used at Gisborne, but certainly has been at Hastings.

In both cases I have wondered whether I haven't said enough or else have said too much.

I'm great at second guessing myself as I pootle homeward in the Purdmobile; I shouldn't have said 'x', or, I wish I had said 'y'. I hear myself rewording things in a much better way - I know I'm not alone in experiencing this semi-tortured state.

The reviewers are probably not giving anything I've said a second thought. But then again, maybe they are.

Ah well. What are you gonna do? It's done and dusted. It's in the books.

As I said to someone today: don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff.

Love and peace - Wozza

P.S. To answer Robbie Robertson's final question in the heading (from Forbidden Fruit on The Band's great Northern Lights-Southern Cross album)...yes.

Carry on till tomorrow there's no reason to look back (Badfinger)

Recent 2020 passport photo

Wie geht's?

Recently, very recently - last Sunday during our weekly family zoom in fact, Keegan wondered whether I was on a nostalgia trip. I believe he said (I'm paraphrasing obviously) something along the lines of - I don't care about 2007, I wanna know what you are doing now.

First up - no I'm not on a nostalgia trip per se. More that I don't have much going on really aside from the work/sleep/work/sleep treadmill, with a fleeting side interest in football, music, American politics, books. I'm pretty boring. Shock horror probe!

Plus I had fun taking a photo folder at random for the recent posts and seeing what it had to share.

But anyway - for Keegan and anyone else who cares - here's what I'm currently doing:

Losing weight (a week ago during a visit to the doc about my painful knees and she says to me, she says - have they hurt more since you put on weight? She says. Erm, as I squirmed - maaaybe, says I. I rushed home and weighed myself - 84.7kg. The heaviest I've ever been. So I determined to lose the excess 4.7kg. The plan: no to cakes, biscuits, snacks between and after meals, fizzy drinks and yes to fruit, water, three simple meals a day. The result? The loss of 2.5kg in a week. Nice. 2.2 to go before I celebrate with a donut from the Little Frimley Kitchen). Ha ha!

Reading (Mojo's October issue, My Life in Red and White - Arsène Wenger's autobiography, and James Sallis' Drive) - two of the three are up-to-date, of the moment texts - I'm counting Wenger's as such because it was just released.

Listening to music (high rotation awards go to The Beths latest album released this year, and Bruce Springsteen's latest)

Watching - we've just finished watching season 1 of The Queen's Gambit and we continue to enjoy Modern Family - both on Netflix.

Working wise - ERO are due a visit so that stokes up the paperwork.

Travelling - two trips to my Gisborne campus in the next two weeks - one is my regular visit (where I'm typing this right now!! at the Portside Motel), the other is for ERO. A week after that they visit my Hastings campus.

Miscellaneous - Walking, mowing lawns, some gardening, some Jade and Asher visits...that all makes up my now.

And you're up-to-date!

Love and peace - Abu Keegan

Positive vibrations yeah (Bob Marley)

I wrote a post recently about my experiences regarding the past ERO visits I'd been involved in.

I am well aware that the blogosphere has been holding its collective breath for my report of my most recent bout of ERO.

Except...I have to exercise a large dollop of discretion and self censorship for this post.

All I can say is that it was... underwhelming.

They seemed to have little capacity to review a technologically innovative school so the less said the better.

And that's all I'm saying - as my mother said - if you can't say anything nice - don't say anything at all.

So - Next topic: We have a visit to school next week by our Minister of Education.

I've written about Hekia Parata in the past on my Baggy Trousers blog and so...I'm going to exercise another large dollop of self restraint on this one too.

Instead - another next topic: I wrote a post recently about new forms of advertising in the digital age. Here's an excerpt:

The best advertising isn't advertising so says Chapter three in Velocity (the brilliant book by Ahmed/ Olander).

The goal is to create connections with customers and earn their loyalty by serving them; 

This means a shift from selling a product to selling a service.

At a recent school assembly we were shown an advert made by women's personal care brand Always.

http://www.always.com/en-us/home.aspx

You'll be stunned to know that the video itself wasn't about personal care products for women at all!

Instead it takes on the outdated idea of 'running like a girl, throwing like a girl' and promotes the worthy concept of women's self esteem. A self esteem that has been battered by the 'throw like a girl' pejorative term (or so says the advert).

I haven't heard the term for years but there you go.

As we were watching the advert I was getting the growing feeling that I was being manipulated. I couldn't help wondering what this video was selling. What was Always? 

Unlike the ANZ advert that I featured recently - this one was more insidious. The brand name Always featured only at the end and only in a minor way.

See what you think.. http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/07/01/viral-video-of-week-an-ad-that-challenges-what-it-means-to-throw-like-a-girl/

This article mentioned a Dove advert that also effectively targets women's perceptions of themselves:



Clearly these are great examples of the shift from selling a product to selling a service. Who wouldn't want women to feel better about themselves?

I'm sure the Always advert's makers would be delighted to know that their advert was being shown to a school assembly.

My question - when does selling a service stop and selling a product start?

Love and peace - Wozza