tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72303878090040807362024-03-19T04:14:27.009+00:00Things I've Found In PocketsThis website was invented many years ago, when I kept coming across interesting things in pockets whilst doing laundry. Like small, terrified reptiles. Blogging about raising children in the rainforest of Trinidad and Tobago, moving them to the UK and watching them leave home one by one to have their own adventures has gradually been replaced by a return to grownup life as an anthropologist, writer and public international law consultant. Welcome! Nan SheppardNan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.comBlogger900125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-89545135050893845012023-01-05T16:08:00.005+00:002023-09-08T08:55:01.121+01:00Things I've Found in PocketsTesting... testing... This blog is 14 years old. Have I documented 14 years of things we found in pockets here? Pretty much, yes, give or take a year. Recently I popped over here to check some admin bits and noticed that there is still so much traffic to this site. Thousands of people come here every month. Nearly 60,000 visitors in the last year. This says a lot bout the busy-ness of the Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-60588312369382136842021-03-24T12:50:00.002+00:002021-03-25T13:17:20.515+00:00Funding for your Charity or Community Enterprise - What you'll need if you're applying for a grant I've come across many wonderful groups of people in the last year of weirdness and lockdowns, doing essential volunteer and charity work in their neighbourhoods. Many of them could use a bit of extra cash, but aren't sure how to go about applying. You can hire a bidwriter (rather expensive) or ask someone to do your bidwriting for free, but they will need some information from you first, and you Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-50251229112080577722020-07-20T21:36:00.002+01:002023-01-04T15:21:07.372+00:00Things I've Found in Summer Pockets
Today, I swam in the sea. It's definitely colder than the Caribbean here in the English Channel, but it was delicious to float and gaze up into the blue sky and feel grateful for many blessings.
We have many beachy things in our pockets - sand as usual, shells, two sweet heart-shaped stones, wrappers from ice cream cones. Money, because cards don't work at the ice cream kiosk on the beach.
Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-84166292972682365072020-04-30T16:06:00.001+01:002021-03-24T08:34:06.525+00:00Things I've Found in Lockdown PocketsIn these strange times, there are no tickets, coins, bills or interesting oddities in our pockets, which is unusual and this blog is suffering an identity crisis.
However, there are things afoot. It's been so interesting to see the outpouring of optimism and community strength everywhere. In a YouGov poll, most Britons don't want things to go back to the 'normal' we once knew. The Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-74555835437521479772020-03-30T15:43:00.002+01:002023-09-08T09:04:54.326+01:00Sudden Stop A couple of weeks ago, I was working at one university, teaching a group of second year students about globalisation every week, whilst holding down a job at another nearby university in the widening participation department, which helps young people from diverse backgrounds to see the path to higher education. Meanwhile, I was peripherally involved with creating international mass grave Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-47463372162495108142019-11-24T14:19:00.003+00:002020-02-29T14:38:28.681+00:00Tips for Mature Students
Getting my degree and my masters was one of the hardest, most rewarding things I've ever done. There are a few things I learned along the way which made my life easier.
To begin with, visit the university nearest to you. Is it close to support systems and existing flexible work? Can you get around without a car? Go to an open day, mooch around, talk to people. If it seems like a goodNan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-4463535321136605592019-10-29T17:38:00.001+00:002019-10-29T17:41:07.524+00:00Sustainable Resistance - Chocolate Makers in Trinidad and Tobago My BA dissertation was probably the most fun I've had, ever. And people now bring me chocolate from all over the world, because apparently I'm an expert on chocolate? Just to set the record straight, while I LOVE CHOCOLATE, I'm not an expert, alas. Do feel free to continue sending me chocolate, though.
Sustainable resistance and structural inequality, though, is my thing. For a downloadable PDF Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-57430534549247894522019-09-21T16:47:00.000+01:002019-09-21T16:47:18.051+01:00Sand and Other Things I've Found in Pockets
When I started this blog in 2007, it was full of things I found in my sons' pockets, pre-facebook escapades and book reviews. This blog followed us from the rainforests of Trinidad to to beaches of Bournemouth. Not much changed about us, but the things we found in pockets did, from interesting beetles and snakeskins to conkers and bus tickets. Now, those boys do their own laundry, but my Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-49719176329407304292019-09-02T17:35:00.009+01:002023-09-05T08:29:07.855+01:00The UN Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations vs the WHO Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes
Global Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility
The international ‘Human Rights’ concept has been part of the UN Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since 1945, and was built upon in subsequent covenants, with the concept of human rights focused initially on protecting individuals and groups from abuses by states in the aftermath of WWII. The idea that Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-59965087855902312612017-06-17T19:51:00.001+01:002019-05-29T15:33:02.385+01:00Archaeology: Come for the Dig, Stay for the Puns A few months ago, I emailed one of my lecturers and asked if I could please, since I had to do more classroom archaeology next year, despite my degree being sociology and anthropology, for complicated reasons, pretty please would they let me come on the Durotriges Big Dig, three days a week? After some discussion and my reminding them that I'm a star student, they said yes.
EAT SLEEP DIG Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-4253470930124805622017-02-20T20:07:00.000+00:002019-05-29T15:23:56.296+01:00Calais, Refugees and Thinking
Mrs. Sheppard, where I come from, there is a saying: 'The patient man will be patient until he dies.'
- Anon, pharmacist from Afghanistan living in the Jungle in 2015
When I went to the Calais 'Migrant Jungle' in 2015, it affected me enormously. I meant to really write something. But other things kept happening, internationally, politically, (gosh, a lot has happened in the world Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-40424341607073317672015-06-18T14:49:00.000+01:002017-01-26T14:38:57.951+00:00These Dangerous Women
28th April, 2015: A hundred years later, following
in the footsteps of those amazing women.
See Flickr for album
"On the 28th April 1915, 1300 women, who had been organising internationally to get the vote, met together at the Hague to try to find a way forward to peace. They advocated continuous mediation as an alternative to armed struggle. Envoys from the Congress visited 14 Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-84660643730688795432015-05-21T14:39:00.003+01:002023-01-05T15:51:59.033+00:00Relaxing Holiday BooklistFor sunshiny reads among the garden weeds:
The Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way, a beautiful edition by Ursula Le Guin. I highly recommend this, especially for reading in the garden while the bees buzz among your weeds, despite occasional drizzle.
I read The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan, with fascination. This book Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-46608630460299235792015-05-14T16:34:00.002+01:002023-01-04T15:22:10.091+00:00There were so many things that she wanted to do, that whenever she thought it was time to begin, she couldn't because of the state she was in... - Title Adapted from 'There Was an Old Sailor my Grandfather Knew', by A. A. Milne.
It's been a week like that, I'm afraid. Even the poor cat has been ignored. I have been hopping from one project to another, decluttering, studying, dancing, jogging, painting and repairing my home, and loving every bit of it, but the really important things that have deadlines are starting to loom out of Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-77886395933810930902014-09-19T15:27:00.001+01:002019-05-21T16:10:19.048+01:00On My Bookshelf
Yes, my bedroom wall is MANGO YELLOW.
And the orchids are all flowering madly.
At home with a cold with time to blog! I have quite enjoyed the peace and quiet this week. It would have been better to have a few days off and NOT have a cold, but hey. I have been catching up on my reading this week, and realised I haven't updated my book list here for EVER. So without further ado:
The Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-24832181688389924422014-08-02T17:56:00.000+01:002017-02-20T20:48:58.833+00:00Keep Working on Love - Lessons From Another DimensionToday I moved two teenage boys' beds and vacuumed under them. One boy helped, doing the heavy lifting. It was like entering another dimension and having wake-up calls of various sorts. If you find yourself travelling there, take a good vacuum cleaner and proceed with your eyes shut.
One of the various things I discovered in that alternate universe was "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", and I Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-30595952351798832802014-06-21T20:58:00.003+01:002022-12-28T15:36:20.929+00:00Celebrating Failure with Gold
"There is a crack in everything. That is how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen
In January 2014, one of my articles was published in Aquila about the Art of Failure. It was fun to research, and it got me thinking about how we can appreciate brokenness and re-think our failures.
My 2013 and 2014 were incredible years. There was so much brokenness and pain, hardship, loss and fracture Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-77078765717403042772014-04-30T22:05:00.000+01:002019-05-21T16:16:18.571+01:00Approximately 4 Advanced Procrastination Tactics for Writers So coming to the end of the Travesty that was Winter 2013-2014, not to be confused with the travesties that were all the previous winters since we moved to this damp and northerly place, I took a few months off of freelancing. My creativity was at its usual February Low, and I decided to give in to the overwhelming desire to lie on the sofa with a heap of books and eat chocolate. I told myself (Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-66895061514222400862014-04-26T13:15:00.001+01:002014-04-26T13:15:08.779+01:0016 Completely Materialistic First-World Things That Bring Me Great Contentment I realise that my last few posts have been mostly about "OMG Will Winter Never End??!" Which is fine, because that is really how I feel about winter and this is my blog so I can whine all I want.
But there are also things some of which I have lived without and survived just fine, that I appreciate so damn much that I think "Wow, this is awesome!" Some of you will have no idea what I am talkingNan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-66745861815688438012014-04-07T20:47:00.000+01:002014-04-07T20:47:19.812+01:00It's That Time of Year Again!!!
Me & Debs enjoying the Famous English FogPic taken by the famous Trash Alou!
Ahh, April. I hate you. Occasional warm-ish, sunny days make me rush outside and shout "Holy Crap, Look at these Tulips how Beautiful!!" And then down comes the rain again. You are fickle, irritating and make my feet cold and my laundry damp, April.
Despite April's best efforts, all is well here. I Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-87902877427897175422014-03-22T19:02:00.002+00:002014-03-24T14:03:12.931+00:00I'm Officially 'In My Forties', and So Far So GoodI turned 41 the other day. And so far, I can report that the forties are fabulous. I scrutinized myself and found that my grey hairs and wrinkles are more plentiful, so I spritzed that lightening stuff in my winter-mousy hair, which makes blonder beachy streaks when you apply blow-dryer heat and cunningly disguises the grey as 'platinum-ish'. My hair is summer-ready. At least, that's what I tell Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-4454320305744636652014-02-08T18:15:00.000+00:002014-02-08T18:15:08.830+00:00Hilarity and a Patch of Blue Sky
Late at the Tate Britain
Yesterday was action packed. I dosed up on cough drops and coffee and headed to London. There's a huge art exhibition at the Science Museum, 'Works on Paper', and The Tate Britain has some wonderful stuff happening on Friday nights: Art, music, creativity, inspiration AND booze! I went to hang out with my amazing cousin Charlotte, and we made a brilliant and Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-31240109378252690792014-01-31T09:59:00.001+00:002014-01-31T09:59:32.508+00:00 Six Sane Time Management Requirements for Freelancing Parents
I started writing this article very optimistically, some weeks ago. And then I got sidetracked because apparently I DON'T KNOW SQUAT ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT! Read at your own risk.
A Routine. If you don't know what time your work day begins, your time will slip away in between the dish washing and the school drops and the grocery trips. Pick your work hours, and commit to them. Many parents findNan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-56054194026839503502014-01-12T11:30:00.000+00:002014-01-12T11:30:03.043+00:00Where is That Minion I Ordered? Worker, Freelancer, Parent, Friend, Cleaner, Chef, Chauffer, Laundress, Volunteer...
It's Sunday morning. I can hear two teenagers having a rap war in the kitchen, who can be fastest? Sam was rapping recently and I said, "That sounds like Eminem - he was a poet." Sam was stunned, because guess what, it IS Eminem! When did Eminem come back? They are cooking up a storm, and I'm sipping my coffee Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7230387809004080736.post-45379056043270631742014-01-10T10:08:00.000+00:002014-01-10T10:13:16.298+00:00New Year, New Randomness
Teh Internet says that this is the
Chinese character for the Year of the
Horse. I bet it says "Unclog Hair
From Fiendish Plug". So don't go
tattooing this on your butt without
double checking, k?
It's a NEW YEAR! This new year came with an enormous new moon, did you see it? It's been pretty much pouring with rain all month in Dorset, but the sky cleared long enough for one glimpse of Nan Sheppardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02526627128978409559noreply@blogger.com6