Edivacation

The title is a new word I invented:

n. a period of suspension of work, used specifically to partake in intellectual, moral or spiritual improvement.

I spent the last week in Agios Georgios, in the south-west of Corfu, on just such an edivacation. Basically, I just went away to read books, think and generally re-charge. Bill Gates does something similar, but he calls it a think week. Apart from a multitude of mosquito bites, it was great, and was exactly what I needed.

Here’s a selection of my reading topics (I’ll restart book reviews soon):

• Architecture
• Prosody
• Managing Creativity (now requires a subscription)
• Organising Without Organisations
• Urban Planning
• Sociobiology
• Unity of Knowledge

I also read the classic novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, and Nocturne, a play by Adam Rapp.

I thought a lot about the past, the future and all the bits in-between, and you’ll hopefully start seeing some of the results of that in the coming weeks, months and years. I also learned some things I hadn’t really anticipated:

• Coke and chocolate peanuts make the perfect late night snack for insomniacs;
• I’ve been in Scotland so long that my skin tone effectively just becomes slightly less white;
• 90% of tourists wear Crocs;
• Cats can simulate a cockerel crowing. They especially like to practice for hours and hours during the night, right outside my window;
• Greek daytime TV is even odder than here in the UK —I have no idea what that woman was supposed to be doing with that octopus, but I felt sorry for it even though especially because it was already dead.

Anyway, as I said – lots more to come soon.