Posts by: Robert Ford

Let the magic unfold

Let the magic unfold

For the last couple of months, I’ve been a big fan of the long-form content platform, Medium. In this age of the ever-shrinking attention span, I find it refreshing that there is both a place and clearly pent-up demand for well-crafted and thoughtful content. Every morning, I wake up to an email from Medium, sharing a hand-curated selection of recent posts, and I try to read at least 2 or 3 of them every day.  What I like is that they introduce me to topics, perspectives and writing styles that I wouldn’t normally seek out. Just as Fox News and CNN…

Ian Calvert – Goodbye to an old friend

Ian Calvert – Goodbye to an old friend

Two weeks ago today, literally hours after Riza had been swapping messages with our good friend Ian Calvert, we learned of his tragic death in a car accident. Among that confusing mix of emotions that comes with the sudden passing of someone you’ve known and loved for a long time, I sat down to write the following tribute.

The Count

The Count

One of my earliest memories was when I was a page boy at my cousin Wendy’s wedding. I was 4 years old, and I clearly remember getting excited as the preparation for the wedding came together. I remember my ‘uniform’ of blue velvet trousers, white shirt, bow tie and black patent leather shoes with silver buckles.

Digging in the dirt

Digging in the dirt

It’s official. I’ve become more than a little obsessed with my family tree. I first tried to dig into my family’s past in the mid-1970’s, when I spent the summer holidays staying with my brothers in London.

I’m Desperate, Dan!

I’m Desperate, Dan!

For anyone who grew up in the UK in the 1960’s, weekly comics like ‘Beano’ and ‘Topper’ were a big part of your life. You’d wait all week for them, and then when they dropped through the letterbox on Saturday mornings, you’d read them all too quickly. My favorites were always the large format summer editions.

Crunchy frog surprise anyone?

… I might be wrong, but I think that there’s a chance that could have just been my tasty treat before bedtime. If it wasn’t a crunchy frog (and knowing that it wasn’t anything that had ever had anything remotely like wings to flap), I probably don’t want to ask too many questions or make too many guesses as to what it was, just in case I don’t like the answer. How it started was that I taught class tonight from 7pm until 9pm. I was busy putting the finishing touches to my charts befoe that, and so I didn’t…

It only hurts when I laugh

After a long and hectic week here on the Sias campus, yesterday (Sunday) really was a day of rest. I decided not to set an alarm, and so just woke naturally around 8:15 or so. I’ve been reading ‘The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared’ for the last week or so, and so I decided to stay in bed until I finished it. I had agreed to meet with the World Academy Media team at 10am, and so I picked up breakfast on the run, and headed over to the Administration team. There were too many of us…

Perfect Day – Part 2

I feel that I owe everyone an apology for taking so long to add this second part of my post. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to sit down and document my adventures. It’s just that I’ve been so incredibly busy. I’m teaching a 2 hour leadership class every evening, and as I didn’t get the curriculum outline until a few days after I arrived in China, I’m creating and delivering seminars almost in real time. At least no-one can say that my material isn’t fresh! One of the things that I’m really enjoying is that my students are just…

Perfect Day – Part 1

It seems that I’ve finally worked through the last of the flu-like symptoms (aches, chills, sore throat, cough, etc.) and although I had another bad night’s sleep, I woke up feeling much better and ready to face the world. I’d arranged to meet with Selia for breakfast at 7am, but when I got to our pre-arranged meeting spot, she wasn’t there. I checked my phone, and found a text from her saying that she’d not been feeling too well, and requesting to take a rain check on breakfast. Usually if I’m venturing off campus for breakfast, I tend to have…

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