The Flogsta Scream

Yes. I know. The Flogsta Scream sounds like they are showing horror movies in an IKEA furniture warehouse.

But it’s not that. It’s a curious thing that they do at Upsalla University in Sweden.

Each night, at the stroke of 10pm, students in the Flogsta halls of residence either stand on the roof or stick their heads out of the window and scream as loud and for as long as their lungs will allow them.

Surely tuition fees in Sweden can’t be that high? No. It’s down to a tradition that began in the 1970’s and has stuck ever since. A group of students, following a long hard winter, became anxious and depressed as it was followed by long hard examinations. With the price of alcohol in Sweden roughly twice the price of high-octane rocket fuel, they looked for a simple, inexpensive way to relieve their frustrations.

The Flogsta scream was born, and continues to this day. A simple, yet great tradition.

Which brings me to the importance of traditions. These are small, often inconsequential things, which give a sense of continuity, belonging and a sense of community. Being part of something that is bigger than ourselves, requires only that small things be continued and acknowledged by a group as being valuable. We should take more care of our small traditions.

One of our great British traditions that has been around since the 1970’s is the trip to IKEA. You buy some shelves and dive straight in failing to read the instructions. Three hours later you end up in a total mess, with something resembling a giant gardening rake, rather than a set of swish Scandinavian bookshelves. Humiliatingly, you have to retrieve the instructions from the bin and start again. It’s then that you see that they have given this pile of MDF a sophisticated Scandinavian name.

‘Flogsta’.

There’s only one thing for it. Time for the Flogsta Sccrrreeeaaammm…..

 

The Social Animal – A Story of How Success Happens

 

I’ve been reading The Social Animal.

 All on my own.

I’m not sure if that’s cheating or just downright rude, but I’ve found it a remarkable experience. The book despite being a New York Times Bestseller faced an uphill battle in the UK, when Prime Minister David Cameron advised all members of his Cabinet to read it. This immediately ensured that at least half the population would not.

It’s clear from recent Government policies that at least half the Cabinet did not either– or if they did they just didn’t get it. The Social Animal is an adventure into the unconscious mind, how it influences our behaviour and the impact it can have upon success – happiness, relationships, career.

It’s a story told through the lives of two fictitious characters that pauses every so often to consider findings from neuroscience, sociology and psychology. It sounds a bit heavy but it isn’t at all. It’s one of those rare books with the ability to make you laugh out loud one moment and fight back the tears the next, as your life is projected before you in ways you hadn’t seen it before.

It’s powerful stuff.

Are you paying attention Michael Gove?

 

Gentleman footballer – the antidote to soccer’s bad boys

I had the great good fortune to help Brad Friedel to write his autobiography. It was great to hear that Tottenham Hotspurs have signed him up on a two year contract which will see him still playing Premier League football at the age of 42.

We need people like Brad Friedel. In a game that is dominated by headlines about bad boys and prima-donnas, Brad is a true gentleman on the field and off it. His actions speak louder than all of the words written about others whose brains seem to be in their feet.

Every profession has its unsung heroes. People who get on with things and who try to help others without crying out for attention all of the time.

Let’s hear it for Friedel the quiet American, and people like him whatever their profession.

 

Is your stationery behaving itself?

I go to a fishmongers opposite this shop. Whilst ruminating on the merits of Manx kippers and Morecambe Bay potted shrimps I looked at across the road and discovered that stationery now requires a solution. I’d never thought of it as being a problem before. Now I know this I feel that I’m burdened with whole new set of problems that i didn’t know I had. What’s going to happen? An unused highlighter pen threatens an industrial tribunal on the grounds of colour prejudice?  Perhaps my compliments slips are going to insult people? Or my notepaper imagines its an international superspy “The names Bond…..Basildon Bond”.

Thank heavens for Stationery Solutions (It’s in Wilmslow in case you have any burning problems with your stationery). Perhaps that’s the solution. Burn it (uncooperative stationery that is, not the shop).

Coincidently I’ve just had an email from ‘Ironing Solutions’. Now that’s a problem.

 

James Ward. He likes boring things.

I had lunch last week at The Scandinavian Kitchen in London http://www.scandikitchen.co.uk/ with a man I came across on Twitter. His name is James Ward and he has become fascinated by ‘boring’ things. His interests and activities include The Stationery Club where people meet to discuss their stationery; a project he calls The London Twirl in which he photographs and documents Cadbury’s Twirl’s making a note of how the shopkeeper has displayed them whilst compiling a league table of prices (apparently you would be amazed at the price variations); and Bonving – if you want to know what that is you had better look him up.

In 2010 James was looking forward to a conference called Interesting 2010. When it was cancelled he Tweeted that there should be a Boring 2010. So many people responded that he has made it an annual event and discovered that if you take a bit of time and trouble to focus, then seemingly mundane things can be extraordinarily fascinating, funny, entertaining and unexpected.

Speakers at Boring included a man who has kept a ‘sneeze diary’ all of his life, noting down the time, place, power rating of the sneeze, and what he was doing when he sneezed; a car park spotter; and a milk connoisseur. James, despite being a DVD Distribution Manager, is an avid reader of The Grocer magazine and is taking a keen interest in a new range of burgers which can be cooked in a toaster.

Looks like boring is the new interesting.

 

Explore, dream, discover…..

He may have been most famous for his fictitious characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, yet  Mark Twain enjoyed a curious career path. At various times in his life, he was apprentice printer; typesetter; riverboat pilot; failed gold miner; journalist; author; public speaker; investor; and eventual bankrupt. He was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and royalty.

Anyone stuck for a great quotation knows that Twain’s bank of humour and great insight is likely to get you out of a jam. This one caught our attention…..

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the harbour. Explore. Dream. Discover”.

We like it. It sums up the philosophy of The School of Curiosity. We are creating a place for everyone who thinks that they could do so much more with their lives. We don’t set out to tell you what you should do and how you should do it – that’s for you to uncover. We are just people who have no intention of living with disappointment twenty years from now.

You?