Hello There, Stranger!

I know, I know, it’s been far too long since I last posted on Less Ordinary.  Life seems to have a habit of becoming extremely hectic and I struggle to make time for my much neglected blog.

I really wanted to share some of the things I’ve been getting up to though, as it’s all quite exciting!  Hmmm… now where to start?  Think this may require some bulletin points!

• I’ve been asked to convene a course on Digital Media at the University of Stirling.  It’s an interdisciplinary course run with Film & Media Studies and Maths & Computer Science, and I’ll be giving 3 lectures, leading a few tutorials and helping out with some computer labs.  Will probably write more about this on the other blog giving details of my lecture topics etc.

• I’m involved in a joint project with the lovely Lea Woodward & Sharon Hurley-Hall which just launched a couple of weeks ago called Location Independent Parents.  It’s a blog aimed at helping families live a location independent lifestyle, and I’m writing the articles on home education.  The response to it has been phenomenal – really exciting.  My latest post there was on home-education and whether you’re qualified to teach your children – please do check it out!

• I’ve started to give archetype readings which follows up a lot of the spiritual work that I’ve been doing recently.  I’m intensely fascinated by the Greek gods and goddesses and my work is informed by their narratives and myths.  I’m probably just as surprised as anyone about this development, but I’m absolutely loving doing this work, and the readings really seem to resonate with people.  If you’re interested, you can read more about them on my business site.

• Oh yes, my business site!  Another new development!  For many years now, my husband and I have had a business partnership called PASS, through which we conducted our tutoring service.  When I started the social media side of the business our name no longer suited our services.  So, we’re now Pomegranate Services!  Pomegranates are the fruit of knowledge, and as we provide a variety of knowledge-based services from education to consultancy, we thought it worked as a good metaphor for our business

OK, saved 2 of the biggest pieces of news for last!

• Firstly, I am going to be co-hosting a series of 4 women’s spirituality workshops in France throughout 2010.  I’m doing this in conjunction with Jackie Walker, Vena Ramphal and Gill Taylor and it’s going to be completely revelatory!  I’ll be doing another post on this soon, as there’s just too much to say about it here.  If you’re interested in finding out more though, please drop me an email at amypalko at madasafish dot com to make sure you’re added to our mailing list!

• Secondly, I am launching a joint project with my dad, Bob Leckridge, who blogs over at Heroes Not Zombies.  This is going to be really quite major, and I really hope you’ll join me on the new site once it’s launched.  We’re going to have monthly themes, and dad has already put together a truly stunning calender to accompany the project.  Please do buy yourself a copy, and join in with all the great things we’re planning throughout the year!  Both dad and I have worked on this already for a number of months and we’ll be blogging both on Less Ordinary & Heroes Not Zombies about some of the core concepts of the new project.  Can’t wait to share them with you, cos I know you’re just going to love them!

Apart from that, you can find me in a few different places on the internet, as I’ve been interviewed about Full Moon DreamBoards for Jamie Ridler’s blog, written a post for The Calm Space and started a Posterous blog, which is kind of like a scrapbook blog.

Phew – Didn’t realise there were so many great things going on till I wrote them all down!  But how exciting, hey?  You know after I finished my phd I really felt lost for a long time; I felt as though there was nothing to fill the void that the completion of the thesis had left.  What this year has taught me is that there are so many opportunities out there – you just have to make sure you’re open to accepting them when they come your way!

OK – I promise not to leave it so long till next time.  I’ll be blogging soon to fill you all in on the women’s weekends, the archetype readings and on the big new project with Dad.  Until then, why not tell us all what opportunities have come your way?  What are you setting up for 2010?