Happiness is catching

 According to Prof Richard Wiseman (University of Hertfordshire) ‘Happiness is catching’. By making a few small changes to your behaviour you can not only improve your own state of mind but help others to be happier too. I’m going to try and follow his advice;

• Starting the day by thinking about the things that made you happy from the previous day
• Remembering to smile whilst carrying out everyday tasks such as making a cup of tea
• Carrying out small acts of kindness, such as paying someone a compliment or holding the door open for someone
• Expressing gratitude for the lucky aspects of your life, for example being in good health

See ‘Worklife Support’ blog for more information or follow Worklife support on Twitter

Positive Thinking

 I’ve been practising positive thinking this week and have already felt lots of benefits at work. It sounds very glib but once you start thinking positively you can get more work done, once you get more of the tasks on your ‘To Do’ list ticked off you feel better and the postive cycle continues. Working here in Biological Sciences isn’t a bed of roses at the moment (See BBC News Job cuts at University of Leeds 3rd June 2009) and it is easy to slip into a cycle of cynism and negative thinking. We all know that negative thinking can make you ill and add to that the continual threat of a swine flu pandemic its really important to maintain a positive outlook.

One thing to be positive about is that of the three ‘highlights’ on the University web site home page at the moment two of them are about research done in Biological Sciences.

On a personal note I lost 2lbs at Slimming World last week and if I can do the same this week I’ll be 1 stone lighter than I was 10 weeks ago.

From a family perspective all four of my teenage children are now ‘in a relationship’ on Facebook. Having been in the same relationship for 27 years I hadn’t appreciated how important the ‘relationship status’ was and, of course, had no idea that you could send and receive ‘relationship requests’

On top of all that the sun is shining today and we haven’t necessarily lost the Ashes.

University of Warwick Open day

We had a lovely day at Warwick University yesterday. I had been to the campus before for an Association of University Administrators Annual Conference (2005) and will be going again next year. The girls loved the campus and squealed with delight when they realised their chemistry 'goody bags' included a laminated periodic table. All four girls; Rose, Alice and two friends were booked on the Chemistry talks. Hannah and Sarah also went to Biology and Alice (and I) went to Engineering.

The best part of the day for me was to see so many parents out and about, enjoying a day with their teenagers. It a much more positive image of both parents and teenagers than one ever gets from news, media etc. Its also useful to for me to find out how other university degree programmes are put together.

The girls didn't seem to get as much out of the talks as they did at Hull. I think they wanted more information about what the degree programmes included rather than what careers you might go onto afterwards. They feel they are at the stage where they are trying to choose between different degrees and they need more information about what they will study if they go to a particular University. Despite that, they both came home very impressed with Warwick and wanting to know which other Universities have campuses. I've added Loughborough and Sussex to our list of places to visit which is getting longer and longer.....

Marilyn French: the author whose novel did change lives

How sad to read in the Guardian today that Marilyn French had died [obituary]. I looked out my battered copy of the 'The Women's Room'. It was easy to find between a copy of a novel by Micheal Frayn which I don't remember ever reading, and my collection of Stephen Fry novels and autobiographies. Like Kate Mosse (Guardian G2 tribute article), I first read 'The Women's Room' as an undergraduate and some of its messages have stayed with me and to a certain extent shaped my life. Mira, the central character of the novel, chooses to pursue her own academic career rather than accept the inevitable compromises of following her academic boyfriend. The ending is a very poignant picture of a solitary female academic watching a noisy family on the beach, the family of her erstwhile boyfriend. I made the opposite decision; my husband's academic career continues to prosper, I've followed him across three continents and we have a very noisy family of teenagers. I don't have any regrets 25 years after I made that first decision to follow my heart rather than my academic calling.

Conference blogging

 I had good intentions of blogging whilst at the Association of University Administrators (AUA) Annual Conference in Exeter but instead now have great admiration for anyone who manages it. I feel as if I have put a whole years staff development into one day (and given a paper of my own). All I’ve had time to do is update my twitter. I’m only finding time to blog now while I listen to the Archers (on-line) and wait for my hair to dry. It is the Gala Dinner this evening – a valuable networking session 

In case you think I’m making a bit much of the hectic schedule here it is
9.00-10.15 Writing and reviewing for publication.
10.30-11.15 Launch of the AUA CPD Framework
11.15-12.30 Pressures to succeed in a changing HE landscape
13.45-15.15 Leadership and management development for middle managers
15.30-16.00 The development of professional careers in UK Higher Education
16.00-17.30 Developing the student experience

Two more sessions tomorrow and then 6 hours in a minibus to get home. Have a happy Easter.

Relatives who fought and died in World War One

Lucy is going on a Selby High School trip to the Battlefields of WWI in May and so I spent yesterday afternoon trying to track down the burial places of her great, great uncles. My father showed me how to look up the burial sites of soldiers on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site and we also tracked down the military service records of my grandfather and Chris' grandfather on the National Archive web site

Chris' grandmother, Beatrice Gresham (nee Long) had two older brothers who died in 1916. Henry Archibald Long was 31 when he was killed in action on the Somme. His body was never found and he has no grave but his name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial. He died on 15th August 1916 and his younger brother, Guy Steer Long was killed in action 13 days later on 28th August. He is buried in Villers-Bretonneux Military Ceremony near Amiens (See picture Source: CWGC web site).

Both Chris and I had a grandfather who served in WW1. Chris' grandfather, Arthur Gresham Modlock was a Captain in the Royal Field Artillery and was awarded the Military Cross for his heroic service in the defence of the Messines Ridge in 1917. We even managed to find his citation in the London Gazette in May 1918.

My grandfather, George Bowcock was a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was awarded a number of campaign medals. George Bowcock was a butcher by trade which is presumably why he found himself in the Medical Corps.
Source: www.cwgc.org

University of Hull Open Day

It doesn't seem very long ago that I was pushing a pushchair around Bracknell but time has marched on and we have started looking at Universities because Alice and Rose will be filling out their UCAS applications in the Autumn.

I started my research a few weeks ago and found that www.opendays.com does all the hard work and provides easily searchable information on University Open Days. The University of Hull seemed to be about the first and since it is one of the closest to home we decided to book a place and take the girls and some of their friends. We went to talks on Chemistry and Engineering. Hull is ranked 11th for Chemistry in the Guardian league tables and 8th for Engineering (general) and is ranked 5th overall. We were all very impressed with the campus and the departments but it was our first Open Day.