Chilly Day Blues

I hope I find everyone well and in the northern hemisphere coping with the colder weather? Hardest frost of the year for us this morning and even now at 12 noon, there is still a lot of frost where the sun hasn't reached. The leaves above are in the road outside the house.

A shopping trip to Sainsburys this morning made me laugh (other supermarkets are available to laugh in). We use Clover 'butter' because it's quite versatile although I prefer real butter. A 1kg tub of Clover (which we normally buy) was marked at £3.70. Buy two 500g tubs for £3.00. I always thought buying bigger saves you money? Now there's no blaming Sainsburys here, it's all clearly marked but it's a good job we check the pricing labels first. 

The Christmas tree goes up this afternoon and I'm going to take a time lapse film of the event to astound and astonish you (gives you something to do - don't complain.)

The berries are in abundance this year. Don't forget this is because of a good spring rather than a bad winter predicted but the birds don't care, the blackbirds are eating them like they are going out of fashion.

How's your preparation for Christmas going? Do you celebrate it at all? I've mostly done now (my wife doesn't celebrate Christmas) I just have a few cards to write. Most of the few prezzies I buy are sourced on-line and delivered to the door. The rest I get from the supermarket when I'm doing some shopping. The tree is the only 'decoration' we put up - the good thing is there's less to take down. My mistake this year was not to do some prepared hyacinths because coming down in the morning to the most delicious smell known to man (well this man anyway) is a lovely experience. 

On Sunday (11th), I'm taking the Angel goods stall to an 'alternative Christmas gift fair' at the Memorial Hall in Beverley in East Yorkshire. We were pre-warned that the hall does get cold even inside so I'll be wrapping up!

Enjoy your weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Let's do the Business...

I've migrated to Warwickshire (south east of Coventry) for the second residential week of a three week course and this module is about strategic business, linked to the course theme of 'Strategic Leadership.' It's not as grand as it sounds, it's a foundation course. Other brighter, younger things do the full course.

It's at times like this that I realise my inadequacies and age (I'm the oldest on the course) whilst in amongst some incredibly bright cookies from around the UK, most with degrees of one sort or another and most of whom have done some of the techniques already. Ah well, the trick I guess is to get out of my comfort zone, grit my teeth and try to get as much out of it as possible, because believe it or not, it's a very interesting (if not incredibly difficult) subject particularly at this time of tremendous change in the public service.

Today's subjects were: organisational change which included models for change, organisational emotional intelligence and a few exercises to burn the lessons in. Before tea, I am now doing some reflection and analysis which involves completing a 'learning log' with what the most significant learning of the day was and how I can apply the new knowledge to the workplace.

Although it was forecast to be cold last night, imagine my surprise when I walked out of my room this morning to be confronted with a widespread and hard frost which has lingered until well after lunch; and, having disappeared, returned by the time we walked out of our delegate room at 4.30 pm tonight. The picture above was taken at 9 am.

I love the frost, but the shower in the room this morning was only lukewarm which I HATE! which did not prepare me well for the chill. However, most importantly, housekeeping have put new batteries in the television remote control!

I hope you have a great week.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.