Linda Parkinson-Hardman's Blog, page 15

How to make 2+2=5

The theme for this month’s blog posts has been WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) and I thought I’d end the month sharing what I’m seeing about the world around me, and us. I’ve recently started reading articles on Medium and the ones that seem to spring out at me are those that feed my inner conspiracy theorist. But I’ve also realised that the part of me that likes to see drama and secrecy is coming out of the closet and into the light.

I had thought that maybe I would start with the announ...

In conversation with Elizabeth Milovidov

In this week’s conversation I’m chatting with Elizabeth Milovidov, a member of the Working Group of experts on Digital Citizenship Education and an independent expert on Digital Parenting and Children and Internet for the Children’s Rights Division of Council of Europe. 

She is also the author of many books and workbooks for parents, children and families, all are designed to be tools that allow parents to start the conversation with their children. It became clear very early on that Elizabeth ...

Finding the everyday miracles in life

Last week I was writing about what it takes for a miracle to happen and one of my commentators, the lovely Patsy Collins who joined me on the podcast not that long ago, pointed out that there are all sorts of miracles that happen, including some everyday miracles we never know about, because they happen behind the scenes.

And it got me thinking about the all the little miracles that have happened in my life over the years. And, once I got thinking, I got into musing about what life would be like...

The darker side of chocolate – Friday fiction

“Would you like some of my chocolate grandma?” I looked at Ben and smiled.

The last time I’d had a bar of chocolate must have been before the war started, before the rationing came and there was no time, or money for things like sweets.

I remember my mother staring at me in horror when Mr Greaves came to the door to tell her what I’d done.

“I really don’t know you Lucy”, she’d said.

And I, shame-faced, had fiddled with one end of my hair, eyes filling with tears.

She’d handed over the money and ...

In conversation with Caroline Brewer

This week, I’m in conversation with my close friend and first-time author Caroline Brewer. We first met back in 2009 when we both attended business network and later Toastmasters International meeting. Caroline’s book is called More Than You Think and it came out, first in Kindle format and later in paperback during lockdown and I was incredibly honoured when she asked me to write the foreword.

Caroline explained that the seed was sown for book back in 1987 at a moment of significant change at t...

What makes a miracle?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about miracles recently and it all started with a question posed in one of those videos you see online that are there one day and impossible to find the next. The question asked the viewer to consider what it would take for a miracle to show up in their life. Note, it didn’t ask them to think about what miracles were or how the miracle would appear, rather it wanted you to consider what to do to allow something massive to change.

So I did what I thought everyone...

In conversation with Ken Banks

This week, I’m in conversation with award winning social entrepreneur who founded kiwanja.net, an NGO focused on applying mobile technology for social and environmental change in the developing world, especially in Africa. Ken is currently Head of Social Purpose at Yoti, the app that helps everyone authenticate themselves, staff, suppliers or volunteers in a secure, private and scalable way.

I originally met Ken when we both presented at a coprotate social responsibility conference for one of th...

7 day drink more water challenge

I know I don’t drink enough water during the day, particularly when I’m working. I set out with the best of intentions to do so, but even with the glass at my side I forget it’s there because I’m so absorbed in what I’m doing. And sometimes, it can be 2 or 3 hours before I suddenly realise I’m thirsty.

Water is essential for our health and well-being. It affects everything about our bodies because they are made up of significant amounts of water. It’s one of the reasons people can go without foo...

In conversation with Lin Treadgold

This week, I’m in conversation with Lin Treadgold who joined me in 2013 with her first book, Goodbye Henrietta Street. Lin is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association. She’s now working on her third and fourth novels,

Lin and I talked about the joys, trials and tribulations of working with publishers vs self publishing. And although her experience of self publishing with Silverwood Books has been good she still wants to find an agent and author, especially with the third book which is base...

Things I know to be true – What you see is what you get

There’s a term in the IT world and it’s WYSIWYG, it’s been used since the 1990’s and refers to the design of online systems and it means that what developers see when they’re designing something is the same as what the user will see on the finished screen. And it’s a perfect analogy for my second ‘truth’.

We are all different. Yes, I know that’s stating the obvious, but I’m not just referring to how we look, where we live, what we do in our lives or how we think. I’m also referring to what we se...