Your creatively challenging Heyday Friday newsletter
There's creativity in all manner of ingenious, inventive, innovative and thought-provoking ways in this week's newsletter. Oh and some clever ice cube tray hacks.
I’m ashamed to say I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve visited the truly fabulous Design Museum since the days when it used to be the Commonwealth Institute (remember that?) and we went there on school visits (out of kindness, feel free not to work how long ago THAT must have been).
Well I’m happy to report that having been there only relatively recently to see THIS excellent display highlighting clever designs that will help us all age more joyously, I was back again this week for another, even more (in size alone) memorable and thought provoking exhibition.
Making Sense is Chinese artist, filmmaker, architect, activist, collector and inveterate disruptor, Ai Weiwei’s reflection on our attitudes to objects - what we keep and what we discard and what that reveals about our changing values through time.
The extraordinary scale of the installations and pieces on display (and yes, that’s an awful lot of Lego) in the huge open gallery are reason enough to make this an impressively impactful experience, but when you understand the story and message behind each one (and yes, that includes the Lego), it becomes increasingly sobering and moving as you’ll discover when you read this week’s blog.
Which, of course, you can do by CLICKING HERE.
It was difficult to choose from the many memorable quotes from Ai Weiwei to use for this week’s
WORDS OF WISDOM
but this one had particular resonance for reasons you’ll understand when you read on
I don’t know if these
SMART SAVE TIPS OF THE WEEK
count as creative, but I think they are! They’re all clever ways to make use of your humble ice cube trays and avoid food waste at the same time.
Preserve left over wine
Rather than having the not-quite-finished dredges of wine left hanging around in their bottles (surely that happens sometimes? No?), pour the remains into ice cube trays, freeze then transfer into labeled plastic bags (that bit applies to all these suggestions) ready to use in any recipes that require wine.
Extend the life of herbs
Dice herbs and cover with some kind of liquid - broth, melted butter, water or oil - then freeze. Then use in soups, sauces, or stir-fries, or simply melted on top of a grilled steak or piece of fish.
Not letting extra ingredients go to waste
You know when a recipe needs 350 yogurt and you can only buy a pot that’s 400g. Spoon the leftover 50g into your ice cube and use it up in another recipe another time.
This last one isn’t a food-saving tip but it will add a little something extra to your glass or bottle of water
Freeze citrus juice and zest, fresh berries, mint leaves, or even edible flowers in water to give your ice cubes a bit of a boost.
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN…..READING….
Something a bit different in this slot this week.
Do you find yourself struggling with the amount of news there is to keep up with, and what the current ‘water cooler’ conversations are all about? I’ve always been a big fan of The Week, a brilliantly compiled weekly magazine which pulls together all the key stories of the past seven days - in news, culture, sport, celebrity and more - from the UK and around the world.
Now The Week founder, Jon Connell, has created a daily version called The Knowledge. In an email that he guarantees will take no more than five minutes to read he brings together what he describes as ‘the things that matter, along with a few things that don’t, from all the best news sources’ delivered to your inbox each day.
I signed up on the recommendation of a friend, and honestly, I couldn’t do the same more enthusiastically to you. Taking no more than the promised 5 minutes to read, the selection of stories arms me with all I need to know about key events, current talking points, something completely new, and a helping of humour, all of which never fails to kick-start my day in the best possible way.
You can sign up for The Knowledge HERE
….AND WATCHING
This recommendation couldn’t be for something less current. And yet, although the TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson arguing that schools and the education system are killing creativity and why that matters is 16 years old, it’s as profoundly relevant and important today as it was when he first gave it (which of course, it could be argued is frustratingly disappointing).
Sir Ken was Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick, an author and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education and arts bodies, and one of the most entertainingly engaging speakers you’ll ever have the pleasure of listening to. (He died in 2020 aged just 70)
His captivating and compelling argument for not just the necessity and role of creativity but the active nurturing of it by schools and educators, is one I challenge you not to furiously agree with. And equally furiously wish that those in power in the education system felt the same, and did something about it.
Oh, and you won’t want to miss the bit about Shakespeare or the t-shirt slogan. Just saying….
You’ll find Sir Ken’s talk, which has been viewed 75 million times by the way, HERE
There is, as you’ll have gathered, plenty of humour interwoven into the serious messaging of Sir Ken’s talk, so I’ll repeat my recommendation to listen to it and instead of a Friday Funny, share this second helping of
WORDS OF WISDOM
from the man himself. They’re ones I can’t help thinking Ai Weiwei would agree with wholeheartedly (I don’t just throw this stuff together, you know)
I’m off to creatively fill some ice cube trays and almost certainly be wrong about all manner of things before we’re together again next week!