So here we are, in at the deep end like always. I had my first class today. It's called Visual Poetry, and it is all about dwelling in our imaginations and responding to different stimuli, especially poetry, words, phrases. Our teacher is a working artist who collaborates in transatlantic projects and explores the contrast implicit in her English-Maltese roots. We had ten class members today, although several may yet turn up. It was quite challenging. We were working with a whole new technique, layering up drawings by using different ways of tracing. I will share when I've finished my piece, next week.

Tomorrow morning is drawing. I am worried about it, but working on staying chilled.

Saturday we have the first Foundation day. We will have to present our projects. But beyond that I don't know what to expect. Big stuff in baby steps.

Look at all this fabric yumminess. Waiting to be stitched up into crafting aprons inspired by this amazing, generous, lovely girl.

I believe in living well. That is a tricky statement, because there are two very different interpretations to 'living well'. Those of you who know me at all, whether online or in person, will know which spin to put on it. We're not talking about living the high life here, people. We're talking about living with depth and purpose and joy and meaning and presence.

A man who can put it so much better than I can, Randy Pausch, is a gifted speaker with a particular understanding that living well is an urgent matter. It is so often at the bottom of our to-do lists and actually, it is the most important thing. I found the link to his home page on Pat's blog.

Go listen to him, you will be entertained for an hour, but you will come away thinking a little bit differently than when you started blog browsing today. Start with The Last Lecture, about halfway down the page. He has left an enormous legacy not only in the hearts of his friends and family, in the minds of his students, in the world of technology, but also in sharing his values so powerfully with the millions of people he has touched through this lecture.