Category Archives: Uncategorized

An IOU Christmas

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Well, that’s Christmas done. An awesome day with family and such benign weather after last year’s heat and fires had such a disruptive impact.

Our family Christmas table a year late!

When I said that Christmas is done, I meant the day is over not so the present giving in our case. My favourite person’s main present is in transit. It seems to order it six weeks before Christmas just wasn’t earlier enough. It should arrive next week.

As for me, my children have told me they hope my presents will arrive soon! Again ordered weeks ago, the pandemic has struck.

My youngest daughter thinking on her feet hastily altered cards for a couple of small gifts so I received something from my other daughter and a bottle of Rhubarb Gin from my son and his wife meant I didn’t feel I’d missed out at all. As for my favourite person, she didn’t miss out receiving a new bag hastily arranged with the help of one of her favourite stores.

The lack of gifts made absolutely no difference to a wonderful day Christmas.

We were so lucky that we were able to celebrate with all of our family when so many people in Australia and elsewhere were denied the opportunity.

Thirteen minutes to the Moon

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There are two events that I count as the most significant historical events in my life. One is the bringing down of the Berlin Wall and the other is Man walking on the Moon. If I had to rank them, there is no doubt that Man walking on the Moon in July 1969 is the one I would rank highest.

In 1969, I was in Year 6 and like so many school age children I was captivated by the voyage of Apollo 11, in fact the whole space program.

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Puff the magic dragon

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As I was working on the last section of my Research Methodology chapter which at the time of writing stands at an absurd and definitely to be edited 63 pages before appendices, a childhood favourite came up on the Spotify playlist – Puff the Magic Dragon.

My parents loved Peter, Paul and Mary and as kids, their music was regularly playing on the family radiogram. There aren’t a lot of music artists that I have in common with my now late parents but Peter, Paul and Mary was one of them.

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The Drive for the line – completing my PhD thesis

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Back from an amazing 6 weeks in Israel and Europe, its now time to knuckle down and complete my PhD thesis.

While I was away I used siesta time and early in the day to work on a Book Chapter for a book on family business. The first draft is due for submission in the next week or so.

I have a final version of an article for submission and inevitable rejection.

After a meeting with my Supervisors, I have a timetable for submission of my thesis. So now its time to drive for the finish line.

Over the next few months, my blog will chart my progress to a mid-May final draft for my Supervisors for review and then to its submission for examination in the first week of July 2020.

To remind myself of life away from my PhD each post will have a photo from our recent trip!

The Natural History Museum, London

Warning Warning Warning

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Following an email this morning that my website had been the subject of some form of attack I thought it might be worth reposting this post from 2014. I am pleased to report that with a further upgrade to my security package the threat is now resolved.

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A couple of nights ago I received an email from Sitelock telling me of a critical vulnerability at my website.

I only had a vague idea of what that meant although I was sure it wasn’t good!

After a chat with Sitelock who are webcow, my webpage host’s security provider it was clear that it wasn’t good, in fact it was very bad. Apparently, I had inadvertently linked to something nasty and if I didn’t fix it my blog would be blacklisted by search engines.

After more than a year of posting and a month spent on seriously building www.browney237.com web presence, this sounded disastrous. What did I need to do? Who could help? I was in a mild (actually not so mild) panic.

As someone not the slightest bit tech savvy, I knew it wasn’t going to be the one who was going to be able to fix this problem. The good news is that in the words of every boat owner a “cheque will fix it”, although in my case it’s a Visa Card! The security provider was able to remove the malicious links and then for a further modest fee I was able to buy annual protection so that this never happens again. What a relief!

It’s a valuable, albeit scary lesson.

I’m protected, are you?