Michael Gove's Five Things

I stumbled across this list of 5 Things I Have Learnt by UK's new Education Secretary Michael Gove. I can especially relate to the first and second.

1. You can't spend too much time with your children.

2. Always make time every day to read a book that has nothing to do with your work.

The third, can't say cos I haven't been to Scotland... but I did marry with Scottish blood, and no one else is more beautiful in my eyes...

3. No where in the world is more beautiful than Scotland.

The fourth and fifth are something that I have to remind myself to put into practice everyday.

4. Criticism is a good thing.

If you throw out signals that you find criticism hard to take, that you don't want to hear bad news, then you don't want to learn. Make it clear to people that you want to learn from a mistake. I make mistakes all the time, from my first job as reporter on the Press and Journal when I nearly bankrupted a chicken farm. It's always better to acknowledge your mistakes and learn from them.

5. Never judge by first impressions.

Tristen's just learn to roll

I am happy to report that Tristen's just learn to roll... from resting on his back to resting on his stomach. Okay, maybe not so happy for us, since now, he flips over, but can't flip back, so he crys because he really doesn't like to be resting on his stomach.

We also think that he's going to be a fast walker (not that we would want it that way... its really less work when the baby works faster) since he always wants to practice standing up... He can hold himself up against the rails of his cot. We also help him practice by letting him hold on to our hands so that he can learn how to balance.

Reading Programme

The good thing about going back to school is going back to reading. I have just realised how much I like browsing the shelves of libraries, picking out random books that just catch my fancy... and yes, it's sometimes easy to take for granted the resources that we have at our disposal across our university libraries.

Over the past month, I have read Michael Lewis Blind Side, as well as a history of the development of business schools. From Higher Aims to Hired Guns, HBS professor Rakesh Khurana. I am now reading Walter Kiechel's Lords of Strategy.

Also on my table are various books by Cardinal Avery Dulles. My favourite is his book on Newman, which gives an excellent one chapter biographical summary of his life. Also have two books on "The Catholicity of the Church" and "The Reshaping of Catholicism"