I am a ….

Cat person. That’s not to say that I dislike Dogs, it’s just that I’ve never had one to care for. If things were different I would most likely be a Dog Person.

The latest kitty  additions to our house arrived a few years back. Mistreated by a previous owner they arrived as RSPCA inspector cases. Their age? 4. I think 4 is the standard age given to all cats whose year of birth is debatable.

Either way one of my cats Mini,  so called because when she arrived she was a tiny featherweight, is off her food and has lost a lot of weight (she turned out to be a food hoover) . Obviously this is causing some concern in the ToBimH household. A trip to the vet may be in order. Previous experience indicates that the appointment will be booked and Mini will start eating  the night before making me look as though I suffer from the kitty version of Munchausen’s Syndrome.

Her cohort in crime has also been off his food. I bought tins of other more expensive food in the hope of enticing his appetite,all to no avail. Moody mardy cats sulking around the garden wrecking havoc with my good owner/ bad owner conscience. Anyway Mr ToBimH went out and picked up a tin of cheap as chips food and Mr Mini wolfed it down quicker than you can blink. He is now happily purring away after scarfing down the whole tin. I really hope that Mini will follow suit……………..

 

Struggle bus…

I was really struggling with thinking of a topic for my next blog post. Five drafts in, and it was clear I was sitting on the struggle bus, somewhere upstairs , towards the back.

Then  I read a post about teaching, not teaching as a craft but teaching and the way students and teachers interact without necessarily knowing that the interaction has been part of the learning process until its been thought about later. This struck me as insightful and for the teacher perhaps a moment of quiet considered satisfaction…who am I to know, but whenever  I’ve found myself  a similar situation I’ve often been struck by a sense of deep contentedness; when knowledge is imparted and the flow is 2-way and your thoughts are kicked out of the park.

So, the struggle bus was moving forward and I’d moved seats to the top of the stairs.

Later I came across Barbara Bradley Hagerty and I hit the pavement running. Her web site and in particular the premise for her book ‘Life Reimagined: The science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife’ resonated with my earlier reading and also with the fact that I’m considering leaving my current job to learn something completely new, something she discusses in the book.

Cross-Fit…… I mentioned this to 19 as something I’d like to try. I got ‘the ‘mom’ look’ lol

House………. Paul Rudder – Herself  and Soul Clap – Moov to Tha Beat (great samples of I’m Every Woman with Do I Now – Dubtribe Soundsystem 2003 house )……. Get yourself past the first few bars of both tunes and give your soul a day out.

Yoga……. still lovin’ it, still inspired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Randomitis…

Professional Branding……… this is thrown about on sites which promote the ethos of work/money/success. I was never sure that it was a real thing. Then I read an excerpt from  Milton Glaser and found out that it was/is. I’m too lazy, or maybe true to myself to create a separate work branded personae, however I can see that by being a subject specialist you have, in effect, created your brand.

My organisation is moving away from specialists. In a recent meeting, a group of the great, already branded by specialism/ style/ name/rank declared ‘we don’t use the words specialist teams’ and ‘it’s something we’re moving away from’ and ‘everyone is a specialist’. Sadly this is a deluded mind set, everyone is not a specialist. The most common gripe is ‘we don’t really know what were doing’ and the training was *****’ so much for personal branding then.

The other ethos is that we (as an organisation) are striving to be  recognised as having the best customer service in the world (read here ‘our corner of the market’) sadly without specialists this. ain’t. gonna. happen. not ever, nada! In fact the opposite occurs. Somewhere the saying ‘Jack of all trades, Master of none’ to describe bad workmanship has been lost.

Writing………’go where the story/word take you ‘ is an excellent piece of advice/inspiration. I sometimes take a different route to work.. I walk past houses which pique my interest. I notice the birdsong, trees and flowers in this leafy, affluent corner of a busy city. Words fill my headspace,  in short, somewhat poetic bursts. I never get chance to write these down because they are in the moment. A running commentary in my brain.

Royal Wedding………. Aside from the glorious day, one thing which sticks in my mind is Harry channelling Hilary Clinton with the wave, point, smile and nod at someone  in the crowd. Doesn’t matter that there is no-one there you know. It  creates a friendly, intimate ambiance to a potentially stressful  event.

Bleugh……. This morning on the way to work, in the leafy corner of the city I spotted a deceased Hedgehog. Who’d have guessed they came so close into the city? Anyway as it was unmarked (must’ve been caught a glancing blow) I moved it from the middle of the road to the pavement as  I really couldn’t face walking back and seeing it squashed into the tarmac.

 

 

 

 

New car smell…..

My ride has lost it’s new car smell. Like many others I’m desperate to get it back.

New car smell is, I’m guessing here, plastic, glue, nylon carpet/seat fabric, and leather and not a spray like supermarkets use to make you buy stuff i.e fresh bread/coffee  smell.

I’m also guessing that it’s slightly toxic…..

So to find the best product I popped onto an ancient forum on Detailingworld. Boy oh boy do those guys sound like petrol heads with an addiction to glue LOL.

Scrolling through has been useful  (and also made me laugh). The consensus is….. a piece of leather under the car seat, use a micro fibre cloth with water to clean your dash etc., steam clean the interior (to release those gluey vapours) or ………buy a new car.

I think I’m going to try the micro fibre cloth option.

 

 

F.I.R.E or F.I…and other stuff.

periodically  I trawl through Financial Independence and Frugal blogs for hints and tips on destroying my debt and saving funds.

Most of these sites start out interesting and then slip into  pie-chart/graph/spread-sheet marathon. You don’t actually need these to erase your debt just ….. stop spending your money on things you don’t need……

So, today is glorious. Good job I re-scheduled this mornings training session forward 30 minutes to 8.30.

On the way we met a group of lads doing their DoE. Lost! No help given, but we asked them if they were going up or down the lane (down) Which has nasty bends and a secluded footpath (which is where they should have turned  on to, to be on track).

We left them studying their maps, wishing them good luck . They were from a school a  few miles from here. From a built up more industrialised area. They were charming, lovely lads and a credit to their parents/teachers /school….

Places I’m seeking inspiration…….

Austin kleon ….Blog/Website

Music ……… I’m trying to work out how to post videos directly from YouTube. At the moment I’m listening to kraak & Smaak (Jazzy, housey, souly music) and Peggy Gou (Korean female DJ/producer) .

Cycling …….. yesterday I went to a  bike shop by my yoga practise to sort out my tyre issues. Wow other stores could do well to take a leaf from this guys book. They have a café (which  I think is a great marketing tool) plus the guy really knows his bike  stuff. There’s an edgy hip feel to the place that pushes bikes into the skate/snow board world. I bought my stuff, and had a lovely tea. There’s a chain coffee shop round the corner (rhymes with Hosta) where I occasionally  go to hide but I’ll use the bike shop coffee shop in future.

Life Dreams…. I read on Trello that you can find your dream job by doing just that, dream. You list all of your career ambitions (even if they out side of your experience/Quals) on Trello cards, follow the in between steps and  then  you find identifiers and you can play around with those.  (see Trello Productivity blog articles)…. (not a sponsored post just something I thought was great advice)

 

‘be kind/love one another remember we are all we have’ attributed to Maxi Jazz (Faithless)