“You can find out a lot about yourself up a chimney.” Did you know that the actor Bill Nighy comes from a long line of chimney sweeps?

Sometimes we can learn a lot about ourselves in unusual situations.

Before I went to university I worked for a few weeks in a warehouse. It was dark, there were hardly any windows and it felt a little like being trapped.

Everyone has a wobble, a crisis of confidence. This is a story about what one of my role models did when that happened to her.

Colleen was one of my teaching tutors at Uni.

She was creative, had a glint in her eye in the best kind of way and made good teaching look really easy.

Attention: the following may positively improve the quality of your relationships.

A story about mushrooms, one of the best no nonsense cooks, and taking your time.

“If the day I came out of your tummy is called my birthday, what is the day called when I went into your tummy?” I reckon there was quite a pause, then.

You can imagine that was a special mother and son conversation...

Kids are curious. It’s how they learn. And they ask lots of questions.

Life can be full of big questions. Like, is this soup or is it a facemask?

It’s getting a bit darker as November draws near and I was craving something comforting and in the mood to do a bit of cooking.

Did I want to find a recipe and line up my ingredients on the kitchen worktops or did I want to be a bit cavalier and chuck in a bit of this and a bit of that, tasting as I went along.

Curious how peer coaching can help out your people? Here are 2 great peer coaching examples that create space, reflection time and build trust between people and across the organisation.

The first is called Talking Partners. Each morning two workmates get together to do 3 things:

Why do we love to play games? And is it all a bit of fun? Or are there serious things we can learn?

Research shows that when we’re playing a game we’re the best versions of ourselves.

Don’t dismiss or underestimate roleplaying in learning new communication skills.

There’s real power in ‘being’ someone else - even for 5 minutes.

The steel covers from man holes got stolen making the walk home a bit dicey, “anti-trouble emulsion” was sold in chemists and mutton was on every menu. My first few days in the city had been educational but I was ready for something different.

I had an appointment to meet someone new. At an interview. The conversation was flowing, we were laughing together and it looked like a good match. Then Jayne paused. “Wow. You really don’t know what you’re doing, do you?"

I smiled and nodded “I really don’t. That’s why I placed the advert.”