Words that mean so much.

The birthday is now over for another year but somehow the celebrations are still been strung out. Two late pressies arrived yesterday, one in the post and one delivered by hand and we are now eagerly awaiting the pack about Monica our sponsored dog.

The party was on Saturday and so high was the excitement level that Ellie was downstairs at 3.30a.m. unable to sleep and thinking that it had to be morning. She returned to bed with little trouble but I was left tossing and turning unable to get back into the groove.

The party went off smoothly with wonderful plates and plaques being painted at the local pottery cafe and then back to ours for pizza and cake - must go and pick up the plates etc today and deliver safely into eager hands.

On Saturday evening her best friend stayed over and on Sunday morning over a special birthday breakfast of muffins and mango she opened her other presents. The most surprising one was the possibility that Grandma could have sent a duvet - luckily that was only what the box said as it was a lovely purple suede bean cube.

On Sunday evening the three of us went to Pizza Express, Ellie's favourite restaurant for tea and as we walked home this vivacious 9 year old turned to her mum and dad and said 'I'd just like to thank you for all you have done to give me such a great birthday and for all my lovely pressies and I would like to tell you that I love you both so much’. Well what more can you say?

The pleasure of giving

It is such a joy to give presents and to see the recipient's face when they discover what the gift is. It is my daughter's 9th birthday at the weekend and she has been counting down the days since Christmas.

I had planned on a certain gift that was going to form part of her birthday and it was something she had wanted for ages. As it involved the internet, I was going to go through the process on her actual birthday and when she had mentioned this particular 'thing' over the past number of weeks I had managed to distract her. Not so this evening when she asked once again about sponsoring a dog through the Dog's Trust - www.dogstrust.org She even suggested that we could do it as part of her birthday. Somehow the timing just seemed right so for the past 40 minutes we have been on the internet researching and then choosing her dog. Some of the dogs can be visited so that became something we wanted if possible and it was. As a result I have a very excited little girl, a very grateful little girl and one who now sponsores the lovely Monica who lives in Shoreham-on-sea. Happily not too far away so we can plan a trip to the seaside and visit Monica as well.

Ellie is so happy, her little face aglow and eagerly awaiting the welcome pack full of photos, information and lots of other goodies.

How well do you know your local area?

In a large city it is not always easy to get to know the entire place intimately. You probably know the areas you go to regularly quite well whether in your own back yard or centrally but what about the sections of the main thoroughfare or off your own habitual routes.

When people are evaluating their lives, a tip they are often given is to do something different even if it's changing your route to the bus stop or train station.

As an avid walker I feel that I know my own back yard quite well but in conversation with a friend yesterday, it became clear that an area only a few miles away was not known by me in any detail at all. I shall add that to my list of places to walk as I have discovered that walking is the best and most enjoyable way to familiarise yourself with places. I should not be at all surprised by this as when I travel my preferred way of exploring is on foot. Doing that, you get so much more of a feel for a place and see more of the culture and people. The same is true in your own town, village or city.

Yesterday on a walk that had no specified destination, I discovered newly developed areas, shops, landmarks as well as pubs, coffee shops and restaurants. It was a true walk of discovery and was so much fun too.

We also saw the barge taking the whale that had swum up the Thames back out to the sea. It was a rather poignant moment. Why not take a walk yourself and have some fun?

Mature staff

Why oh why can more employers see the benefits of employing older staff?

Even if they do not wish to address the issue at present, they are going to have to as the working population dictates the need to employ those who may well form the majority in years to come.

I had a conversation with a lovely lady yesterday evening who due to the termination of a short term contract needs to find a new job. She is in her late fifties (not at all 'old') and has such a wealth of experience. We talked at length about her skills and experience, the things she enjoyed, the kind of work she wishes to do and what she feels she brings to a job. I know she would be an asset to any employer.

She is a real people person, interested, enthusiastic, reliable, has great values and has initiative. She is looking for a long term permanent job, she does not want to flit or build a career and she wants to give.

Thank goodness for organisations like Forties People whose strap line is 'provider of mature office personnel'. I know where I will be suggesting my client goes after I have worked with her on her CV. Come on agencies and employers, look to the benefits a more mature person will bring to you and your organisation.

Helpless at the end of a phone

When using our office number you can get through to mediacoach (the media training and crisis management side of our business) or waringwell which deals with career development. Due to my business partner's expertise he gives of his time freely regarding dealing with the media to a charity helping the victims of stalking.

Yesterday I took a call from a lady who has been stalked for many years and she needed some immediate help as she had just discovered that her cover had just been blown yet again as the result of someone not being diligent about what information was posted where. She and her children have had to move and assume new identies on numerous occasions and at last they thought they were safe.

Unfortunately, our number is not an appropriate one to give out to anyone other than the press in this situation but somehow she had got it and expected some sort of help. She was amazingly calm and we talked for 10 minutes or so. I explained the situation and apologised for not being able to do anything but I did what I could. I listened and was supportive but I felt so helpless. The services for the victims of stalking are scarce and those that do exist do not have the recourses they need to provide 24 hour cover. This lovely woman who was in this situation through no fault of her own got her emotional support from the lady on the helpline and was now wonders where the money was going to come from to help her and her children move abroad and start again.

The whole episode left me with such a range of emotions among them great sadness and anger. I am wondering what I can do to help which is realistic. I know I will find something but if any of you readers have any suggestions, please let me know.

2006

Today is my first official day back at work for 2006 and it is so exciting. There are loads of projects set up in late 2005 that need work to bring them to fruition and my head is buzzing with ideas and thoughts. Today is therefore an organising day and my intention is to list down all the projects as well as a separate list of other thinbgs to do and then to timetable them all into the diary. Said like that it all sounds relatively simple so what can possible go wrong? Does this sound familiar to you?

The intention is there, the willpower is there, the motivation is there but I know that procrastination and gremlins are never far away. Forearmed is forewarned though so i figure I am in a good position to move on. I know my obstacles - after all I have plenty of experience of falling at some of these fences before - but this year i am even stronger and I will get there. Some of my projects involve others which is always good as there is someone else to be accountable to and someone to push and keep the momentum going.

Keep reading and you will find out more.

That New Year feeling

As New Year approaches, I start to get restless and find myself wanting to plan and put into practice lots of things. There's the list of places to travel to, things to do, places to visit, restaurants to sample and new activities etc. Just before the New Year dawned, we as a family, were discussing what we all wanted to do. One of the areas for discussion was trying out new things and as it had been suggested that we go ten pin bowling on the 2nd Jan, Ellie and I were destined to get that opportunity very soon. Neither of us had tried before and both of us were a tad nervous - fear of the unknown, I suppose and in my case the fear of making a fool of myself.

Ellie's opportunity moved ever closer when our friends and neighbours asked to take her bowling on New Year's Eve. I knew that she would hesitate in her decision so I immediately said yes and off she went to get her shoes and coat. Her little face looked rather concerned as she set off but I need not have worried as 4 hours later she returned triumphant. She had scored two strikes, had a ball and couldn’t wait till today.

Now it was my turn to be nervous - Alan had bowled years ago and all our friends had done so before so would I make a real fool of myself. The whole place was not as intimidating as I had thought, after all who was going to be thinking about or watching me when they were there with friends and family. My first go saw me get a strike but then of course in the next go I thought about it all too much and stepped on the line scoring nothing. Beginner's luck? No, you make your own luck so I thought about the basics of Timothy Galway's great book 'The Inner Game of Tennis' and the simplicity he uses and applied it. I did not get any more strikes but I played a good game, thoroughly enjoyed it and will be back in the not too distant future for some more. Ellie, in the meantime, has decided this is one of her favourite sports now and wants to go again tomorrow. For both of us there's a new activity tried and tested in the book already. Wonder what will be next?

Well we made it safely to N.I. without excess baggage charges or any other problems. For 24 hours or so I was concerned that getting the all important pressies there would mean few, if any clothes, for Alan and I. Thankfully, due to my packing expertise, we managed a change of clothing or two so no embarrassment and a happy daughter. Now that the pressure is off, we can relax and be in total holiday mode, what a lovely thought. Six whole days of being looked after, relaxing and probably over indulging. I am intending to keep the daily walking up though which at least burns off some of the calories and makes me feel virtuous into the bargain.

How are your plans going? Going away early meant planning in advance and I am fairly pleased with it all. We even managed to spend our last evening in the company of our neighbours, which was really lovely. In the winter we tend not to see so much of the neighbours so the get togethers need to be initiated rather than stumbled upon. I knew I had come along way though when instead of busting a gut to prepare a meal on our last night in London, I was able to propose an Indian carryout without feeling at all guilty. They will join us for dinner on the 31st when they will get some home cooked food and we will all have much more time to socialise. My biggest tip to you this Christmas is to go easy on yourself, don’t try to do too much and enjoy what is really important.

Return to this blog!

I have been spending so much time recently developing my walker's coach blog http://walkerscoach.blogspot.com/ and my new walking initiative that this blog has become somewhat neglected. Well no longer.

I am sitting at my desk planning the day as I scroll my email. The response I was waiting for has arrived so I can schedule in an initial chat with a potential client. As you can imagine time is now getting very tight and I am juggling spaces in the diary trying to respond to the needs of as many clients as I can. As well as this there are the family commitments especially busy at this time of year when you have a school age child.

Yesterday saw me manically wrapping pressies at the school for the children's 'Christmas Wrap'. This is when they can choose a small present for mum, dad, older brothers and sisters, grandparents etc and have them wrapped nicely by members of the PTA. The children love this as it enables them to give a pressie that their parents do not know about. For my daughter it has been so liberating to pay for this with her own money and although I was allowed to wrap the pressie she choose for daddy, someone else was chosen to wrap mine so it will remain a secret.

Today is dress rehearsal for Ellie's concert so I have been listening to her lines all week and getting the costume together. Luckily it was easy as she is a narrator but when, at 8.30 p.m., she uttered the words 'I need to take my costume in tomorrow morning' I initially panicked. Why do they always leave it until bedtime before enlightening you of these needs?

Sometime today I have to return some things to one shop, find a basketball stand and ball, do the last of the shopping and find time between 4.00 and 5.30 to buy the Christmas tree. Thankfully come 6.00p.m. Ellis is off for a sleepover so Alan and I can have a night out. I can hear that glass of wine beckoning.

What prompted me to start writing again this morning though was the appearance of a robin just outside my window. It is the first one I have seen this year and he just perched on the railing and looked in then moved to a better vantage point on top of the washing line pole. Watching him sitting there reminded me of a book Ellie still has called 'Little Robin Red vest'. It tells the story of the robin who knit himself lots of vests to see him through all the cold days up to Christmas. However, day by day he ends up giving these away to other birds and animals whose need is greater than his and then when Christmas comes he is cold and has no vest left. Santa, finding him, takes him home and tells Mrs. Santa about the kindness of the little bird. Touched by this Mrs. Santa knits him a red vest which is how he developed his name. It reminds me of Ellie and me snuggling up to read it and of course the moral of the story. It is the kindness and thoughtfulness which often gets forgotten in the commercial whirl and this is the reality that the robin returned me to this morning. We all need reminded from time to time.

My reward for getting out of bed.

I just knew it was going to be colder this morning as soon as I woke up, and the thought of burying under the covers was, for a few minutes, much more preferable than getting on the walking gear. However reason prevailed with a little help from my positive mental attitude which said that I was losing some excess weight by all this walking, I was feeling better, I had more energy, it was a great way to start the day and once I got out there I would feel great.

Ten minutes later I was out the door, warm up exercises completed but it was chilly. I wished for a scarf round my neck as I started off and I concentrated in getting into rhythm. At the end of the street though all was worth it - there was the most fantastic sky awash with reds and oranges and at various stages throughout the walk I could glimpse this and feel really privileged to be seeing it. The best view of all was as I turned to come home and I had to stop and take it all in, the grandeur and the glory of this beautiful feat of nature - thanks. I would have missed it all if I had snuggled back under the sheets.

Still here but exhausted

I was asked this afternoon if I had enjoyed a good weekend and before I knew it I had responded 'great thanks', but then I stopped and reflected. It had been an automatic response but did I mean it. On reflection, yes, I did but not because it had been wildly exciting or very different weekend. It was good because at last we had finished the nitromorsing and had put the the emulsion paint on the hall, stairs and landing. Even though the woodwork is still to be done, this weekend was a great achievement. I ached as a result, and fell into bed last night after closing the paint pot at 11.00p.m. but I was happy, I could score that off the 'to do' list.

I was also exhausted because I had gone walking with a friend on Saturday morning along the canal from Mile End up to Islington - 10 miles round trip I think and the weather was so lovely. I was so pleased I had gone ahead with that, it would have been so easy to put that off so I could get more painting done and years ago I probably would. I am learning. Time for bed now.

Determination and Survival

I can be pretty determined about certain things and I also think of myself as a bit of a survivor. I would also describe myself as a strong person but all those words and phrases take on a different meaning in the context of the film 'Touching the Void' which I watched last night on TV. Although I had bought the book for Alan last Christmas, I only had a brief idea of what the story was but last night I watched it unfold and I was continually on the edge of my seat.

Joe Simpson, assumed dead, after a horrific climbing accident managed to make it back to camp against all the odds, the biggest odd being his very badly broken leg! After emerging from a huge crevasse, he is elated at what he has achieved and the fact that he has come out of a place where he thought he would die but that elation soon turns to despair when he realises just how far he has still to go and the huge barriers that are ahead of him. The task ahead was awesome and how often are the tasks that we face awesome. The big picture, so useful and inspiring in some cases, is what often works against us because of its enormity. The great coaching in this film was the fact that he realised that he was only going to achieve anything by breaking the entire task into smaller pieces and dealing with it bit by bit. So he set himself challenges of getting from where he was to a certain point in 20 minutes. In this way he managed to succeed. Wow! - I was pretty speechless at the end and I found myself pondering the synchronicity in places and at times. My advice is to get the video or DVD and watch it yourself, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Where did last week go?

Last Monday I was excited and hyper when I created my blog. It felt like a real achievement and the first thought on Tuesday morning was another post so what happened? I'm dammed if I know!! Somehow the week happened and did so in such a way that no other posting developed. This week I am determined that things are going to be different - you may not get a post every day but there are definitely going to be more.

Reading a colleague's blog I have just discovered she has moved house again. Does this mean another change of phone number Marion? If so, can you let me know what it is and answer your email - I thought you had left the country. She does sound happy in her new house though so I look forward to hearing a bit more about it when we get back in touch.

I have been catching up this weekend with an old friend. Although having planned to go walking in our beloved Lake District, we left it too late to book and she came to London instead.' A bit different walking terrain', I can hear you say and you'd be correct but it was still fun. When you are walking in an area of Essex caught between the M25 to the south and the M11 to the west, one could be forgiven for thinking it might be noisy and rather polluted. Well, it was gorgous, helped by the fabulous weather we have and are still experiencing. On Friday we set out to do a 9 mile walk which, without any effort developed to one just short of 12 miles. It took us through country lanes whose hedgerows were heavy with hips, haws, elderberries, blackberries, sloes and no doubt some poisonous ones too. We pigged out on big fat juicy blackberries and wondered why no-one had picked them. We also walked along the side of large open fields, pretty villages and visited St Andrew's church in Greensted which is apparently the oldest wooden church in the world - the oak trunks that form the walls of the Nave have been dated back to 845AD so there you are. Worth a visit and so wonderful that this lovely little church is open to the public and remains in pristine condition - I was very impressed.

On the following day our plans were scuppered initially by engineering work on the Central Line which meant getting to Debden and back from Theydon Bois would be a nightmare journey. Forever resilient though, we headed instead for the part of Epping Forest that comes very close to the house and took a well loved walk through the forest to Butler's Retreat where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch sitting outside and watching riders, mountain bikers other walkers and others who arrived by car to enjoy lunch or coffee.

As we walked we talked - well we hadn't seen each other for months so there was lots to talk about and it was ideal conditions to catch up. Not so, our last walk in April when the weather was so cold and windy that we trudged in single file trying to keep our head out of the stinging hail. Most of the catching up on that occasion was done in the pub.

In 1999, I talked Janet into doing a sponsored walk along parts of the Great Wall of China which was fantastic, such a brilliant experience. Yesterday I was trying again - not a sponsored walk this time, although it could be, this time I want her to accompany me along the along the Inca Trail in Peru. This has long been a dream of mine and I cannot think of anyone I would rather go with. I have talked about it so often that Alan, my husband, keeps saying 'go and do it'. Result - I am going to, probably in May 2007 which may seem a long way away but if I want Janet to come too I have to honour her commitments and in the meantime, I can fit in shorter walks along the North Norfolk Coast Path, the Colderidge Way and many many other places I would love to explore. Is walking a love of yours? If so, where is your favourite walk and where is the ultimate place for you to go and walk? Is it the Inca Trail?

At last

After asking the 'will I, won't I?' question for ages as to whether I should have a blog, I have decided the time is right for one. I have to say the catalyst has been my wonderful coach Judith Morgan whose suggestion that a blog would let me discuss, write about, share and get feedback on all the areas I am currently interested in and working on, made so much sense that why did I not work that one out for myself?

Now I am feeeling really excited so thanks Judith, I am going to email you now and let you know that I have done it.

So what can you expect from this blog? Lots of information, an insight into what I am working on and interested in, and probably lots of requests for your thoughts on a wide range of ideas and issues. In turn, I hope you will get inspired, be entertained and want to log in regularly to find out what is going on.

Well as it's 10.25 pm and I have more than a full day ahead of me, I shall say good night but leave you with a great recommendation. If you enjoy travelling and have not been there yet, add Seville to your list for a weekend break. It's a fabulous place with loads to see and do, great weather and it is full of brilliant tapas bars. For guidance and to help in the planning, have a look at http://www.exploreseville.com/ written by Jeff Spielvogel who is my hero. His site and information became our bible so check the site out.