Doo-ing a Doodle

One of mine

One of my earliest childhood memories is of being severely told off by my parents for scribbling with wax crayon on the hall wall. It was followed not long afterwards by another for doing the same on the back of my Mum’s suede jacket as she sat asleep in the car on the long journey to see my grandparents. I’m not sure if at that point they actually realised that I was going to be quite good at art in the future, but I did point it out to them whenever they told the story.

Large telephone directories got a lot of use in our house. Luckily we received two each year, meaning more space for me to doodle on while spending hours chatting to friends in the days before mobile phones. My Dad would be cross when he couldn’t find the important number he had written down because of the flourishes and swirls that had camouflaged it since.

In the years that followed, I was occasionally reprimanded during training sessions, meetings and other times when forced to sit still and listen. Covering the edges of the meeting notes, agenda or anything else that lent itself to doodling.  Looking back, I could have been forgiven for thinking that Doodling is nothing but trouble but it didn't stop me.

There are those among us that are fantastic listeners, who can sit for hours, undistracted and then take away pages of well written notes or information from a lecture or meeting, and recall it all weeks later.  Then there are people like me who can’t. 

Meeting doodles

Present me with pictures, video, slides and activities and I’ll give listening a good shot. Talk at me and I’m away to some distant place within fifteen minutes. My eyes glaze over and the fact that my oven is in desperate need of cleaning becomes far more interesting. I’m not an auditory learner at all. Give me a nice pen or pencil, a piece of paper and I am likely to sit and listen for the duration because I can distract myself from the state of my oven or shopping list by doodling.  

There has been a lot of research into this over the last few years, all indicating that listening and doodling are suited to each other and help us to engage ‘executive’ skills such as planning, multi-tasking and processing.  Making you more receptive to the information being given and also remembering it afterwards even though the doodles may have no relation to what you are being told. 

Doodling can also help release creativity. Artists having a creative block can come up with new ideas after ‘mindlessly’ doodling and reflecting on where they are or events they have experienced. It allows you to forget about a problem but at the same time may give you the answer of how to solve it. 

The recent popularity of adult colouring books have brought back the feeling of contentment we all had while children of sitting at the table with a big colouring book and collection of pencils.  Life has become so fast paced now that we have forgotten how to stop and take ourselves away for a few minutes to relax and unwind. We need to learn to do this for our health and sanity, but often comes way down on the list of 'Things to Do'. Unless of course you doodle while compiling the list itself.

Colouring in progress

Of course with fads and trends comes pressure of its own. I have seen people on social media flaunting their personal collection of dozens of colouring books and pen sets basically saying…”I’m richer, more dedicated, better than you”. This worries me because the whole point  of doodling is to be yourself, allow yourself to draw or colour in your own style so that you gain peace and clarification while doing so. It’s not about how many Mandala books you can complete each week or how aesthetically pleasing your doodling is. It’s the process of doing it that is important. One thoroughly enjoyable book and a handful of pens will have exactly the same effect.

I love this doodle

For a while now I have been torn between using pen and paper or the latest ‘app’ to draw and make notes.  I love proper notebooks, and nice pens, but I also like technology and having access to all my work on different devices.  I’m typing this on Evernote, so I can edit it on my laptop, iPad or phone and then post it to my blog with lovely images for worldwide publication when ready.  The alternative is to hand write it in a journal that will get out away somewhere eventually and probably never to be read again. 

The ease of writing and creating electronically makes life so much more efficient, but without the physical satisfaction of holding a pen in your hand. Oh I have a stylus, or three but they aren’t the same. I began to realise that there is room for both in my life. That I use the creative power of doodling and drawing to help me with ideas and plans for what I’m going to type. I feel the need to purchase an Evernote Moleskine Notebook so I can write and draw by hand and then upload electronically, especially now I am forced to use my creative and planning skills in my new venture.  That in itself is liberating. 

Evernote Moleskine Notebook 

For the Record

One of my first LP's

For some time now husband has been wittering on about getting his beloved Arcam Hi-Fi system out of storage in the garage. When we moved we didn't really have the space in the sitting room so opted for a Sonos system dotted around the house - which is fantastic I might add.  The first port of call had to be for new speakers, as the previous ones had got damaged in the last house move. So one day I came home to find the room scattered with speakers, cardboard boxes and husband chuntering under his breath at the shortage of cable.  Eventually they were connected to the rest of his gadgetry storing hundreds of songs and tested by playing Santana and Fairport Convention - loudly.

Happy as a pig, he spent the next couple of weeks playing all his favourites, absorbed in nostalgia and the quality of digital sound.

Then came the suggestion of a turntable. Oh and surprisingly there was a really good one on Gumtree and was local! It would be daft not to! So it was only a matter of time until we would be out buying records. Another coincidence that there was a record fair on in Newcastle the very next day. 

Fortunately the two boys were being entertained elsewhere and we had a rare day to ourselves. We braved the hordes of Scots and South African rugby fans invading Newcastle centre and paid our two pounds entry fee. 

Music has always been a big part of my life. Dad loved it, Mum hated it, but tolerated it as long as nothing was played while she was in the room.  It was Dad who agreed to me getting my own record player for my birthday.

Mine was something like this

I can still smell the vinyl and plastic aroma that you got when playing one of these, the clunk as the arm swung over and the next single dropped down seconds before the crackle and hiss started.

I remember getting record tokens for christmas and buying these. It was years later that I realised they weren't the original artists!

Put them away dear!

We moved on to more advanced technology a few years later and when Dad treated us to a new Hi-Fi system. 

all hi tech in our house

It was about the same time as Punk rock appeared and I really got into music.  I worked in Ames' record shop in Clitheroe, Lancashire on Saturdays and loved the combination of serving customers while listening to music. We sold tickets for events at King George's Hall in Blackburn and so got two free tickets and often backstage passes for doing so.  There were only two of us who like punk/Indie music and so whenever the likes of The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Damned etc played, I was there at the front of the queue and managed to get autographs on many occasions.

The Clash 

Of course I also got staff discount and had a lot of singles and albums ranging from Mud's 'The Cat Crept In' to The Sex Pistols' 'Anarchy in the UK'. Below is what's left of my chewed up by a puppy singles box from the 1970's and a sample of the singles you might find in there. 

My chewed up singles box and dodgey singles

When I left home to join the Navy in 1981, my Mum decided to have a clear out in my room and threw out my beloved green plastic mac which had autographs from the likes of The Undertones, Siouxsie, The Skids and Stiff Little Fingers. I also had a couple of Pils bottles and beer mats, autographed after meeting bands backstage.  The screaming fit I had at her when I realised what she had done fell on deaf ears.

Sunday night recording the hit parade

When these came out I had to record all my singles and albums onto cassettes - so I could play them on my philips Cassette player when out and about. See I was always up with geeks! Stupidly making a little arrow mark on the label as I did them so I knew not to record them twice. And we all had these on and off record/pause for an hour on Sunday evenings while listening to the Top 20 on the radio.

The new record player

So back to 2015 -  forty years or more since I was buying and playing vinyl records I was there flipping through boxes full of 12 inch vinyl, albums and singles. Smiling to myself as memories of gigs or nights with my friends flashed through my mind. The smell of plastic covers, carefully removing inner sleeves and flipping the disc carefully without touching the surface to check for scratches. 

There were lots of punk and Indie records, apparently they are quite popular these days. So while husband searched for his weird and wonderful Prog Rock albums I took a trip down nostalgia lane, wondering how much my autographed singles and albums would fetch should I want to sell them...not to mention the green plastic mac! 

A good couple of hours later we wandered out with half a dozen records. I bought myself this one. I wasn't really into The Mission until cassette/CD days but wanted to see what it was like on vinyl. I also bought Prince 'Purple Rain'. One of my favourites from the 80's.

We stopped off at HMV and to my surprise saw loads of 12" albums on display. Lots of old ones but some newer bands too. I expect the market will be mainly those of our age or older, but at anything from £10-£30 for the new presses, they aren't cheap. 

Would I swap vinyl for Google Play? Definitely not. We are still debating where to keep the records without cluttering up the place. Imagine finding space for the 176 singles I currently have in my 'Faves' playlist. I love digital music, but there is nothing quite like listening to a bit of hiss and scratch on a turntable.

There's another record fair in December...

Learning Stuff

A while ago I posted about my decision to quit my job and do something I've wanted to do for years on my post 'I'm a Caddisfly'. Since then I have completed 10 webinar seasons, and five assessments to achieve a distinction in Social Media Marketing and Online Reputation Management. Yes that means I know a bit about how to do this online stuff properly...

...however, it didn't actually tell me how to get more 'time' in which to keep on top of it all.

My goal is to deliver a programme in creative coaching using social media with an arts and crafts theme. I need to be able to use social media properly, not just dipping in here and there, but using data and making sure I post quality content regularly across all the key platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

As is the case, when you really 'want' to learn about something it's so easy. When you have a reason to learn about something you look forward to the lesson or webinar and complete all your homework at the earliest opportunity. It's not rocket science.

I don't mind admitting I was probably hard work as a school pupil.  I went to a Grammar School but would probably have done better at the comp.  I struggled to get past the halfway mark in most subjects, and only in Art and English did I have work regularly pinned on the 'swot' boards. Coincidentally,  the only two subjects I really enjoyed and were totally relevant to the career I wanted  as a graphic designer/illustrator - until an advert for the Royal Navy lured me away to 'see the world'.

Science, maths, history, domestic science and French were all purgatory. Geography and RE merely tolerated.  PE, a welcome distraction - especially since the hockey field was on the same level as the first floor classrooms which meant being able to watch the other girls playing whenever we were up there supposedly learning other stuff.

School was more about friends and discussing what to wear for the disco at the weekend, which lads at the Boys Grammar school were fit and who was going out with who. Lengthy chats about music concerts and records, or whose poster we had on the wall right beside the bed. It wasn't about how much we could learn to help us provide for our families or achieve job satisfaction in our chosen field.

However, many years later when my career turned an unexpected corner and I became a teacher. I suddenly wanted to learn about teaching theories, session planning and psychology.  I completed a total of 15 qualifications in the space of about 6 years including a grand finale BA in Education and Training.

All because it was relevant and I could see the value of studying that particular subject.

Of course most of my teachers would have died laughing at the prospect of me becoming a qualified teacher with a Degree. I was aways the 'could do better' pupil. 'Disappointed at her lack of effort' written regularly on my report. Not exactly a star pupil.

I'm still learning, but only what I need to learn and what interests me. This is a message I want to include in my course. That it's never too late to learn, take on new opportunities and do what gives you enjoyment and satisfaction.

You just have to have courage to start it and the belief to complete it. 

I'm hoping that this day isn't too far away.