Nancy has taken up poetry this week and is keen to have her own published space on the internet.
We'll have to see what we can do
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
One month already gone!
Well nearly anyway.
Here I am on Tuesday 30th January 2007 with nearly a whole month of 2007 under my belt and still too many things to do and no plan as yet!!
Just so you can all check up on me here are some of my goals for 2007.
1 Get my insurance claim well and truly sorted and with any luck completed
2 Lose 4, 3 ok 2 stone in weight.
3 Get a Music Bus website up and running and all singing and dancing. Any offers of help with this would be gratefully received
4 Start a new business
5 Plant a vegetable garden
6 Build a treehouse / playhouse for the kids in the orchard
I’m sure that’s not too much to do in the next 11 months. Let me know what plans you have.
In the meantime goodbye and goodnight
ALLCALMA
Friday, April 21, 2006
VFM
I’ve given up on working out how long it is since I last updated my blog. The world has been a busy place and days have flown by. Easter holidays take up an extraordinary amount of time. The kids were off for 2 ½ weeks and had a pretty good time it seems.
For the first time in about 2 years I managed to have all my daughters in one place at the same time which was marvellous and a great way to kick off the holiday period. My future son in law came too and they all went off to London for the day.
It has struck me over the last couple of weeks just how many incentives and deals and opportunities there are for all kinds of things if you know where to look. On that day they took the train on a family railcard that saved a small fortune. They went to see the changing of the guard which is a great free show every day in summer right in the centre of London. They travelled by tube still using the family railcard to the Tower of London where they were able to take advantage of two for one tickets that I’d downloaded from the internet.
Next stop was a walk along the Southbank which affords some of the most amazing views of the capital followed by a visit to the Tate Modern (free entry of course).
The day was only let down by a visit to a chain restaurant where they had a less than great meal at an average of over £10 a head. If we had used some foresight they could have also had a deal on the food front.
This was just one day out in London. People moan about the price of modern living but there is still plenty of value to be had if you know where to look.
That’s it for now. No further pearls of wisdom but certainly a greater resolve to seek out value for money in future wherever I can find it!
Bye bye
For the first time in about 2 years I managed to have all my daughters in one place at the same time which was marvellous and a great way to kick off the holiday period. My future son in law came too and they all went off to London for the day.
It has struck me over the last couple of weeks just how many incentives and deals and opportunities there are for all kinds of things if you know where to look. On that day they took the train on a family railcard that saved a small fortune. They went to see the changing of the guard which is a great free show every day in summer right in the centre of London. They travelled by tube still using the family railcard to the Tower of London where they were able to take advantage of two for one tickets that I’d downloaded from the internet.
Next stop was a walk along the Southbank which affords some of the most amazing views of the capital followed by a visit to the Tate Modern (free entry of course).
The day was only let down by a visit to a chain restaurant where they had a less than great meal at an average of over £10 a head. If we had used some foresight they could have also had a deal on the food front.
This was just one day out in London. People moan about the price of modern living but there is still plenty of value to be had if you know where to look.
That’s it for now. No further pearls of wisdom but certainly a greater resolve to seek out value for money in future wherever I can find it!
Bye bye
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Bah Humbug
Once upon a time a birthday party consisted of having friends back for tea after school. It was a special kind of high tea with cake, sandwiches, sausage rolls, cheese and pineapple sticks and cocktail sausages. There were crisps, twiglets, jelly and ice cream and a birthday cake. Everyone played games, gave you a card and a present and were then sent packing with a piece of cake if they hadn’t had any into the early hours of the evening?
Oh how times have changed! Without meaning to sound like a miserable old git who had it better when he were a lad I struggle to get to grips with current ideas regarding Birthday Parties.
My 12 year old daughter’s recent birthday took on the scale of a three day event! First there was the ice skating trip, followed by a sleepover for 6 pre teen girls. Next day was the family lunch etc and the day of her birthday itself another trip out this time with a carefully chosen friend for a meal in Brighton. For the first time the party didn’t involve the giving of party bags. Previous years have seen agonising decisions over their contents.
There is now a whole industry dedicated to the provision of tat in a bag at the end of a party which I can only imagine to be the 21st century child’s version of party favours. I see little point in an exercise designed to show nothing more than largesse and another opportunity to suffer the “keep up with the Joneses” angst that we face on an everyday basis.
Party bags are just another example of a badge we need to wear to let the world know how special we are when we would all be far better off and far better thought of actually being nice to others rather than trying to buy their “party” favour.
So next time we’re offered a party bag will we turn it down? Will we heck! And by the way it’s the cat’s birthday coming up next. Do you think there’s a feline version of the Hawkins Bazaar catalogue?
Oh how times have changed! Without meaning to sound like a miserable old git who had it better when he were a lad I struggle to get to grips with current ideas regarding Birthday Parties.
My 12 year old daughter’s recent birthday took on the scale of a three day event! First there was the ice skating trip, followed by a sleepover for 6 pre teen girls. Next day was the family lunch etc and the day of her birthday itself another trip out this time with a carefully chosen friend for a meal in Brighton. For the first time the party didn’t involve the giving of party bags. Previous years have seen agonising decisions over their contents.
There is now a whole industry dedicated to the provision of tat in a bag at the end of a party which I can only imagine to be the 21st century child’s version of party favours. I see little point in an exercise designed to show nothing more than largesse and another opportunity to suffer the “keep up with the Joneses” angst that we face on an everyday basis.
Party bags are just another example of a badge we need to wear to let the world know how special we are when we would all be far better off and far better thought of actually being nice to others rather than trying to buy their “party” favour.
So next time we’re offered a party bag will we turn it down? Will we heck! And by the way it’s the cat’s birthday coming up next. Do you think there’s a feline version of the Hawkins Bazaar catalogue?
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Back on Track!
I can’t believe it’s actually been a month since I last updated my blog! What a month though. I have no excuses other than being incredibly busy and incredibly ill. But now I hope (fingers crossed) that I’m back to normal. But what have I been doing these past four weeks?
Well, I wrote another article for the Crawley Family Grapevine about Women in Business. I started at a networking event on a Thursday evening in Lindfield. I found it through ecademy.com an online networking setup I’d thoroughly recommend. I’ve booked in for an operation on the 4th April. I’ve been to the National Gallery. I’ve been ill for a fortnight’s worth of coughing and spluttering and suffered the rest of my family being ill with me! I moved back to my own bed after 6 weeks of single life recuperating from a knee operation.
Put like that it doesn’t add up to much but as anyone reading this will know, life has a habit of running away with you.
At least I now feel like I’m a little more on the case. I’ve also been doing a lot of reading. Everything from John Le Carre to Self Help to Recipe books. It’s funny how illness and holidays are about the only time that most of us get to read. It’s made me aware of the need to read more and to spend less time crashing out in front of the TV. Not that there’s been a great deal going on other than a new series of The Apprentice (with major boo hiss factor) and an amazing series called the Armstrongs, which on the face of it ought to be subtitled “Everything you ever wanted to know about how not to run a business” but is in fact a shining example of business in the modern TV age. This extraordinary couple now have a website selling “Armstrong” branded merchandise and have received record numbers of inquiries for their self fit double glazing. It certainly lives up to the title that BBC2 have given it of “The Amazing Armstrongs” As I sit here I’m also reminded that the papers this morning featured a report about Davina Macalls new TV chat show which is flopping in the ratings and suffering behind Location Location, a TV makeover show. Aint life strange!
Well that’s it for now. Keep coming back. I do hope to make some more regular updates from here on in.
Love to you all
Happy Wednesday
Mike
Well, I wrote another article for the Crawley Family Grapevine about Women in Business. I started at a networking event on a Thursday evening in Lindfield. I found it through ecademy.com an online networking setup I’d thoroughly recommend. I’ve booked in for an operation on the 4th April. I’ve been to the National Gallery. I’ve been ill for a fortnight’s worth of coughing and spluttering and suffered the rest of my family being ill with me! I moved back to my own bed after 6 weeks of single life recuperating from a knee operation.
Put like that it doesn’t add up to much but as anyone reading this will know, life has a habit of running away with you.
At least I now feel like I’m a little more on the case. I’ve also been doing a lot of reading. Everything from John Le Carre to Self Help to Recipe books. It’s funny how illness and holidays are about the only time that most of us get to read. It’s made me aware of the need to read more and to spend less time crashing out in front of the TV. Not that there’s been a great deal going on other than a new series of The Apprentice (with major boo hiss factor) and an amazing series called the Armstrongs, which on the face of it ought to be subtitled “Everything you ever wanted to know about how not to run a business” but is in fact a shining example of business in the modern TV age. This extraordinary couple now have a website selling “Armstrong” branded merchandise and have received record numbers of inquiries for their self fit double glazing. It certainly lives up to the title that BBC2 have given it of “The Amazing Armstrongs” As I sit here I’m also reminded that the papers this morning featured a report about Davina Macalls new TV chat show which is flopping in the ratings and suffering behind Location Location, a TV makeover show. Aint life strange!
Well that’s it for now. Keep coming back. I do hope to make some more regular updates from here on in.
Love to you all
Happy Wednesday
Mike
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Paper, Paper! Read all about it!
Years ago people believed that in the future there would be such a thing as the paperless office. Hah! The truth is that we now use even more paper than ever before and this point really came home to me today.
I spent almost the entire morning printing out every piece of email and copies of every letter etc that I’d written over the course of the last 2 ½ years in preparation for a meeting tomorrow with my solicitor. Helen then spent another three hours filing it in chronological order so that we would be able to sit in a meeting and pull out pieces of paper to photocopy if necessary.
This is the first time we’ve actually got together face to face with the solicitor and of course everything has to be on paper because when it comes to taking the insurer that we’re wrapped up with to court, electronically stored records are inadmissible. How crazy is that?
In this day and age everything has to be on paper and not just once but duplicated to let the other side have copies too! I have used an entire ream of paper, 500 sheets, replicating information that I already have in my PC and that I could easily copy electronically with just a few clicks of a mouse.
I read an interesting article the other day about the development of artificial paper that feels like the real thing predominantly for newspapers that you can then plug in and download. That way you can read it like a real newspaper rather than the version I now receive every day via the internet on screen.
This speaks volumes for me about the lack of trust that we have in technology. Whilst we all crave after the latest thing, whatever it is, we still feel uncomfortable about rocking the boat too much. I suppose we haven’t really come that far from the days when inventors were trying to come up with mechanized horses!
That’s it for tonight. I’m off to read a paperback novel, none of that e-book nonsense for me!
Night Night
Mikey
I spent almost the entire morning printing out every piece of email and copies of every letter etc that I’d written over the course of the last 2 ½ years in preparation for a meeting tomorrow with my solicitor. Helen then spent another three hours filing it in chronological order so that we would be able to sit in a meeting and pull out pieces of paper to photocopy if necessary.
This is the first time we’ve actually got together face to face with the solicitor and of course everything has to be on paper because when it comes to taking the insurer that we’re wrapped up with to court, electronically stored records are inadmissible. How crazy is that?
In this day and age everything has to be on paper and not just once but duplicated to let the other side have copies too! I have used an entire ream of paper, 500 sheets, replicating information that I already have in my PC and that I could easily copy electronically with just a few clicks of a mouse.
I read an interesting article the other day about the development of artificial paper that feels like the real thing predominantly for newspapers that you can then plug in and download. That way you can read it like a real newspaper rather than the version I now receive every day via the internet on screen.
This speaks volumes for me about the lack of trust that we have in technology. Whilst we all crave after the latest thing, whatever it is, we still feel uncomfortable about rocking the boat too much. I suppose we haven’t really come that far from the days when inventors were trying to come up with mechanized horses!
That’s it for tonight. I’m off to read a paperback novel, none of that e-book nonsense for me!
Night Night
Mikey
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Alternative Healing
I had a friend come over today for a Reiki session. Essentially it’s “a laying on of hands” type healing process that originated in Japan. It has similar principles to acupuncture in so much as it rely’s on realigning the invisible force that flows through your body. By doing so it helps the body heal itself, reduces stress etc.
Well I had the session. It was very relaxing and certainly makes you feel very different after. Whether it’s the realignment of the forces or just the lying straight and still and focusing on your body, I’m not sure but there’s no doubt I did feel different after.
There is a sensation whilst it’s going on akin to self hypnosis / deep relaxation with all those colours and swirling shapes in your brain. Coupled with this is the (unconscious) desire to move your head a little like the feeling that you have during osteopathy but without the crunching!
So there’s another alternative healing tried. Whether I choose to have another go remains to be seen but it was certainly a pleasant experience.
That’s it for now. I’m off to realign my chakra soon with a few pints of Harvey’s and a curry.
Love and peace man.
Mike
Well I had the session. It was very relaxing and certainly makes you feel very different after. Whether it’s the realignment of the forces or just the lying straight and still and focusing on your body, I’m not sure but there’s no doubt I did feel different after.
There is a sensation whilst it’s going on akin to self hypnosis / deep relaxation with all those colours and swirling shapes in your brain. Coupled with this is the (unconscious) desire to move your head a little like the feeling that you have during osteopathy but without the crunching!
So there’s another alternative healing tried. Whether I choose to have another go remains to be seen but it was certainly a pleasant experience.
That’s it for now. I’m off to realign my chakra soon with a few pints of Harvey’s and a curry.
Love and peace man.
Mike
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