Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category

I met up with my lovely friend Aneeta last night and she told me about the most brilliant website called the School of Everything.  This is such a fabulous idea that I just had to blog about it.  It is so on-trend for how people are working and living these days — I just hope the guys who set this up all become richer than the folks at Google.  It is such a simple and fabulous idea…

The premise is that if you want to learn something — or teach something — you sign up on this website which will match learners to teachers so they can attend classes, arrange lessons in a time and place that is convenient to both of them.  I love it.

Why do I love it so much?  My job as a qualitative researcher means that I’ve frequently had to skip taking classes or drop out of classes because my job is so unpredictable.  It is literally impossible for me to take an Anthropology class every Monday night for 6 weeks because undoubtedly a few of those Mondays I will have to work.  This idea is so great for me.  I can continue my education and hopefully find a bit of flexibility that is essential for my job.

Living and freelancing in East London, I see loads of other people who are just like me — no longer working normal 9 to 5 jobs in an office.  This kind of service will be ideal for us and can only inspire and make us better at our jobs.

Gotta go find myself a driving instructor so I can get to all these classes!

I was recently in Mauritius with Richard who is currently doing some work for the Ministry of Tourism and Board of Investment on the re-branding of their country (more on that in future posts).  We were watching some groups and I took along my knitting.  Very indulgent and mildly unprofessional, but it wasn’t my project, so I’m allowed.  The Franco-Mauritian simultaneous translator was absolutely amazed that “someone so young” (bless her) was into knitting.

It got me thinking about knitting in London and other major urban areas and the trend towards all things authentic.  This is nothing new or earth-shattering — people have been seeking out authenticity in many categories and areas for the past several years.  However, it seems that this trend is gaining momentum with the recession.  I heard on radio 4 the other day that “we should all start saving money by growing our own food and knitting our own jumpers.”  Ha!  The newsreader has clearly not checked out the price of wool at John Lewis lately!

I’ve been knitting for the past 5 years.  Above is one of my most recent creations — I’m very proud of it.  I’d heard of knitting groups who met in the bars and clubs of Manhattan and loved the idea of it so got a colleague to teach me the simple stitches.  I found it completely relaxing on the many long-haul flights I have to do for my job.  I even joined a knitting group back when I was still only capable of making scarves.  It was such a great way to relieve stress on a Monday night and also not a bad way to meet people — group knitting gives people license to come up and chat to you without feeling self-conscious.

I would never have become the kind of knitter I am today without the help of this lady in the picture above.  This is Aneeta Patel and she is a FABULOUS knitting teacher based in Stepney, East London.  She’s so good she’s even got her own book and was recently profiled in the Sunday Telegraph (telegraph-2nd-nov-08).  I am so proud of her and wish her all the success in the world (but not too much because I still want the excuse to go sit in her living room and chat under the guise of private lessons!)