The birthday girl

It's my baby's 11th birthday today. Not a baby any longer, she is rapidly approach my 5ft 6inches and has already overtaken some of our female friends in the last couple of months.

I cannot believe so much time has passed since her birth and each year seems to bring more and more great opportunities for her. This year she is off on an outward bound trip again, is on a school's trip to Spain, singing at the Royal Albert Hall and just been nominated for a science competition. Then in September it's off to Secondary school, a new era.

As you can tell I am very proud of her. Yes, she has her moments, don't they all but she is great company, loves to chat and we have some great girlie times when her dad is away.

So Ellie, have a great birthday. I look forward to pizza tonight and your party on Saturday and here she is at breakfast this morning

Customer service on the slide

Ever feel you've been had? I did this weekend.

My husband and I have been contemplating whether or not to retain our cleaner whose work seems to have deteriorated since she started.

In those days, the place sparkled and we were all very happy but in the last couple of months, things have got slack and the ironing she would do if she had extra time, has been non existent. She spends time on the phone (her mobile) and there is dust where it should no longer be.

My first reaction was disappointment and I said so when I talked about things needing to improve . Yes, they did for one week and then slowly went back off the boil.

I cancelled her last week and decided to clean the house myself this weekend. I can tell you that this is not my favourite pastime but everyone, even Ellie pulled their weight. Only problem, things were so grubby that it took all weekend.

When she first came to me I would recommend her to others but now....

In a service industry, your service has to remain high as often there are many others that can take your place. I think we might do the cleaning ourselves now having made this weekends investment but it is a lesson to us all.

Today I have been reflecting and thinking about how good my service is? I hope it's still excellent. I try to make it so and constantly review it, asking clients for feedback. I have measures in place. Did my cleaner? Not in my view and now she is going to lose the work.

Could this happen to you?

It's only January.

Where has the hibernation period gone?

I was out walking about 8.00a.m. this morning which was wonderful as it was light, makes a change from my weekday 7.00 a.m. although even that is not as dark as it was...

Anyhow as I strode out, saying 'morning ' to the numerous dog walkers, I was struck at just how many leave there were on the bushes. I think most of them were hawthorn but there they all were bright green and spring like.

The daffodils in my garden are up quite high to and the winter jasmine, meant to bloom in Jan/Feb, has blossomed in Dec for the last couple of years. The earth is giving birth to all manner of things that used to still be fast asleep at this point in the year.

So has nature started to reflect our fast paced lives, where there is no longer time to recharge batteries?

Since I started coaching and set up my own business, I have learned to pay more attention to the rhythms of nature. Instead of detoxing in Jan, I have learnt that, like nature, this is the time of the year to seek out good wholesome, comforting foods like soups and stews and steaming cups of hot chocolate and to curl up with a good book or a film. To sleep more and recharge.

I am still doing it but what is nature doing now? Yes, it's lovely to know that spring is coming but let's just slow the pace a little again and enjoy the comforting time.

Beautiful dawn

Dawn seemed to come earlier this morning and evolved into a pale blue sky and wonderful gold and pink tinged clouds that just seemed to illuminate.

Keeping to folklore, it might not have been the best forecast for the day - "pink sky in the morning" and all of that but it was a joy to see and I do wish I'd had my camera. I think I shall have to add that to the necessary pile when I go out from now on.

The giant and the dark clouds

On my walk yesterday morning, the sky looked really dark and heavy, you know the way it gets when it is a sort of midnight blue colour. These dark and ominous clouds rolled around looking threatening and very angry and made me think of a giant or a god, like those I learned about as a child in Greek mythology. I had in my mind these images of a bellowing figure venting his anger and I felt chilled.

However as the clouds rolled around more and dawn broke they thinned out and soon disappeared, allowing the morning light to penetrate and soon there was no sign of the angry giant at all.

It had all happened relatively quickly, over 30-40 minutes and I found myself thinking of the process of changing our moods and not letting an incident affect our mood for the whole day. Sometimes one thing can change your mood dramatically and often at the start of the day, set up a chain of events that makes us want to crawl back under the duvet. How much better to recognise that things do not have to be like that and to choose to swap the black mood for a much lighter one.

I am not always successful at this, sometimes, I want to wallow but in most cases I'd love to put on the calm cloak, so I'm going to make an effort to try. Are you?

An inspiration!

I received two emails in the past few days which said "I'm inspired to get up Wednesday morning at 7am and go for a walk! I'll let you know how I get on!" and "Thank you for the emails I'm almost inspired to get up early tomorrow and go for a walk."

It's very nice to be an inspiration and for me it comes easily when I am writing and talking about something that I love. It's also what makes getting up early in the dark on a cold winter morning possible too.

What and who inspires you and why? What do you inspire others about?

Is being an inspiration something that you aspire to be? Let me know.

Pretty good so far.

Sunday tends to be view time for me and looking back to Jan 1st, I am pleased with how things are going.

Although one major focus this year is on me as a business women, my overall focus is one me and my self care. If that is not right, then I am not going to be in the right place to be that effective and successful business women or the great mum, best friend, loving partner etc.

Since New Year's Day I have been walking regularly, setting my goals and building in relaxation and family time.

This weekend, the family time has been on paining my daughter's den - the spare room which she has acquired so she can entertain friends, do her yoga, play guitar etc. Never have I seen her so enthusiastic about paining and what a great job she has done. I shall post a photo when it is finished.

We have also had some film time, meal time and I am now out for a walk to enjoy some of this great sunshine. Looking forward to an equally positive review next week.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!!

I hope, that wherever you are in the world that you had a great New Year's Eve and were able to welcome in 2008 in health and happiness. I also hope that this New Year brings you more of that health and happiness as well as lots of other thing that you hope for. I hope it is one of your best year's ever.

Since the very end of November I have been working on my plans for 2008 and ensuring that it is my Best Year Yet. I have worked through Jinny Ditzler's great book and now am full of excitement, hope and expectation and after not having blogged since Dec 5th, I am putting that right straight away.

In fact it has been a day of getting started again. After not having gone for a planned walk since Boxing Day, I was out this morning with my friend and neighbour Jude. She is doing a sponsored walk along the Great Wall of China in March so we are picking up the pace and the distance so she is bang on target when she gets out there.

Today we walked for 2 hours and covered about 6.5 miles, not bad. I left her with the instructions to lie with her legs up against a wall for about 15 minutes to let the lactic acid drain away and then to have a hot bath. Hopefully then she'll not feel it too much tomorrow.

We're out again on Thursday evening and I am out there tomorrow morning, not at 7.00 I would think as it's the last luxurious morning without an alarm and I want to savour that!!

Enjoy the rest of your day and that great year to come.