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Wordsmith

Morning, all.

Welcome Kiramanic. I've had a look at your site and it looks fab - I've bookmarked it as I will keep returning to it for the updates. It is very relevant to what I do - so, thanks! Poorbutrich, go to Kiramanic's post, click on the username and on the drop-down menu click on Go to Kiramanic's homepage.

I was at short-fuse client's yesterday. Didn't see much of him (always a bonus) and these days he is even being nice to me. I think it is because he owes me money - and having him not bite my head off is almost worth being owed money. However, the niceness isn't likely to last and I really need that money - we did actually talk about it yesterday and he said that he would see what he could do since we have a bank holiday on Thursday (Paddy's Day in Ireland), which might bring in a bit of money. As I am travelling next week, I won't be going to his office until nearly two weeks' time, so now am worried that any extra dosh will have long gone by that time.

I have a rare day today when I don't have anything pressing to do. I have a long list of things that I could get on with, but when the pressure is off I tend to collapse a bit rather than getting on with clearing my desk. My accounts are well overdue, so this would be a good week to get on with them. You can sense the "but", so I won't say it.

My first task for the day is to try to get motivated to do something. Am teaching this evening and it would be nice to think I have achieved something before then.

Have a good day.

Wordsmith

Re the snacking ... My office is a room at the local shop. The local shop that sells chocolate, cake, biscuits and so on, and the local shop where the domestic goddesses bake and sell cakes and scones on Fridays. The word feasting comes to mind rather than snacking. Or maybe that should be pigging, or more precisely gluttoning (I don't think that's a word, but it is so apt for the likes of me that I think it should become one). And today one of the customers brought in some scones she had baked for us to try. I had to have two just to be sure to be sure.

Wordsmith

poorbutrich wrote: »

I must had had 23 cups of tea during the working day!

:eek: My gosh, you must have the bladder of an elephant!

Kiramanic

Hah, for me it tends to be fruit juice rather than tea because tea is just too much effort to make. 23 cups is a bit much though even by my standards

@Wordsmith - I am unspeakably jealous of your office location, even though working there would result in me suddenly becoming twice my current size...it'd be worth it! Our local shop is 10 whole minutes walk away so needless to say that's far too much effort to go to on a work day.

Cheers to the couple of people who found my site, it's really new so don't expect anything too amazing there yet but as soon as I get this screencasting malarkey figured out it should get a bit better

poorbutrich

Kiramanic wrote: »

Cheers to the couple of people who found my site, it's really new so don't expect anything too amazing there yet but as soon as I get this screencasting malarkey figured out it should get a bit better

Thanks for the PM; and thanks to Wordsmith for the directions. I was certain it wasn't there the first time I looked!

I've had a peek and look forward to sitting down (with a cup of tea or 23!) to reading it properly.

Looks like everyone is doing well. I've been making some progress with networking, despite my shyness, and have gained a handful of new clients! I'm hoping to double this number in April by sorting out shiny new business cards. MUST get this done!!

Kiramanic

poorbutrich wrote: »

I'm hoping to double this number in April by sorting out shiny new business cards. MUST get this done!!

Ooh that's on my list too, I relaunched my web development site a few weeks back and it's attracting a lot more clients but I want to send out a mailshot/useful leaflet to prospects along with a business card so really need to update them to go with the new site.

Sigh. So much to do, so little time. I'm hiring a VA though so hopefully that will help!

Other half just had a phone call from his loan company saying he actually owes them less than we thought(?) so happy day today! 5 months to go and our most crippling payment will be gone and I can buy a laptop for the business

Amatheya81

Kirmanic - Just had a look at your website and it looks really good

poorbutrich - I have a similare tea habbit... I had to move to decaf because I was bouncing off the walls.

Right, I have to stop procrastinating and go and do some work on my website and clean poor little Peanut who's a tad wiffy today!

Horace

Just catching up - got back from Leeds today.

I must remember to book assistance at the railway station more often because it saves me having to queue and then faff with stairs. I had assistance at New Street going to Leeds and when I got off the train at Leeds someone was waiting for me and he carried my bags and made sure that I was ok, he even told me that I would be safe walking in Leeds on my own because of all the CCTV and he even suggested a river walk to my hotel. I wasn't aware that I had booked help on the way back today but it seemed that it was done automatically, I went to the desk and was told I was expected but I was early (I took the river walk again) so I nipped into M&S for some train snacks and bought them some flowers to say thanks - I turned up at the allotted time and the guy who assisted me before was there again and he assisted me again, at New Street on my return I had even more assistance which was great.:D

I must admit that I booked into the Leeds Armouries Holiday Inn Express with trepidation because I had heard so many bad reports about this particular hotel chain but I was pleasantly surprised. I had previously been advised that I couldnt even get a hot meal - it turns out they do bar food so I had cumberland sausage with mash, peas and onion gravy which was cooked fresh:cool: I shall be staying there again.

The trade show was extremely successful for me - I have been invited to stay at Ottery Tower which is up north nr Durham (I think) on 6 May (for free) and I have also been invited to a dinner in Leeds next month and in a week or so I shall be going to Leeds for a meeting with someone I met at the show. We were all bemoaning the fact that the RSVP North Show in Manchester had been cancelled as had Events UK in Birmingham and that the only trade shows were now held in London and this small one in Leeds. This got me thinking so on Monday I shall be ringing Marketing Birmingham and the Clarendon Suites (this has an exhibition hall and free parking for 250 cars) to see what help I can have to launch my own one day trade show:eek: The Clarendon Suites would be ideal because they are 2 mins by car from 5 Ways station, 5 mins by car from New Street, close to hotels and on a bus route. The company who organised the Leeds show is going to give me some pointers - I could share some with her too, as the getting the pass was tedious. All the names were in alphabetical order and yet the person was too bone idle to look properly and said she couldnt find mine..funny, I picked up the pile and found my pass pretty much straightaway. There was a log jam for passes because one girl seemed to be doing everything whilst a chap just stood there looking gormless.

Had lunch too but I wasn't particularly keen - I was given the veggie option because the main course was fish but the veggie option contained mushrooms which I have an intolerance to - anyway the tart contained cheese and mushrooms and was covered in sundried tomatoes which were very sweet indeed, there were boiled new spuds, 2 torpedo carrots, a yellow torpedo (it was probably swede) and some beans, to be honest I couldnt eat it all. We had pea and mint soup to start which was rather yummy and the rather posh gent sitting next to me asked the waiter what it was thinking that he would say it was pea and mint but no the waiter said..wait for it..."it's soup!" bless. We had fun with our pudding too - we were given a tray of cupcakes, a bag of sweets and an icing bag of pink goo and we had to ice our own cakes. Had to smile as people were being polite and decided to use the spoons from the coffee cups to eat their cakes - muggins here used her fingers knowing that the coffee would come round which it did and my spoon was the only one that hadnt been used for eating.

Missed James Martin - he had to go to a funeral..which is a shame because I was looking forward to seeing him but did visit his new restaurant in the casino a few doors down.

Saw some hunks too - some New Zealanders were doing the haka which they teach as a team building exercise but it was enough to see these semi naked men doing it without audience participation:cool:

I ate in the hotel again last night - same old sausage and mash (my favourite) although this time I couldnt eat it all. I did think of getting a cab back to the station but it was a lovely sunny day so walked along the river again. The walk on Wednesday wasn't brilliant because it was foggy all day and I admit that I did feel a little unsafe walking alongside the river in case some loonie decided to attack me - fortunately there were no loonies about:D

Most angry too as the new walking jacket worn about 4 times has a faulty zip on the inside pocket so when you do the zip up the zip stays open:mad: the same goes for the lining fleece which I have been wearing as a fleece jacket - the zip on the left hand pocket is faulty so that when you zip up the zip stays open and it jams half way down when you try and unzip..so I have to make a trip to town tomorrow to take them back:mad:.

Horace

Not much to report really, took the jacket back and got my money back so went to a different hiking shop and bought a new jacket (it was too expensive for words but came with 2 years insurance - I don't need to pay for it until next month). Am wondering if the tax man will pay for it because I like to try out the teambuilding events before recommending them to my clients?

Had a pretty hellish day yesterday, in the evening I had a call from mum and to be honest my blood ran cold because I thought something had happened to dad. Mum explained that she had been trying to ring me but had written my number down wrong - it seems that she was rushed into hospital on Saturday by ambulance because she kept fainting and her blood pressure was dangerously low, the twits at the hospital put it down to stress and discharged her - she keeps having to have her heart monitored and has to wear a monitor on and off for 24hrs. She happened to bump into the ambulance crew who had dropped her off and they were amazed that she had been discharged so now she has instructions from them to phone them immediately should she have a problem again and not to faff with the oncall doctor service or NHS Direct. What is worrying is that should she have another turn and she is in the kitchen or up the garden..dad just wouldn't hear her because he is deaf.

Mum has assured me that she is ok and that I don't need to go round. I made a decision too that something has to give and I might give up the networking group leading because it means early starts that I can do without.

Have a busy week this week - skype is going to get a battering:rotfl:

Have a great day all.:D

Wordsmith

Hello. How are you all? I've veered off-track a bit, so am making a renewed attempt to get on the straight and narrow.

Hope your mum is OK Horace.

By the end of today I will have achieved:

a phone call to the VAT office on behalf of a client
completion of VAT forms once I get an answer to query
a phone call to my bank re not living in England (four years too late, but mail redirection is a wonderful thing)
a phone call to an osteopath to arrange an appointment
the start-of-week admin for the post office
service with a smile to people coming in to collect their benefits
preparation for tomorrow's meeting with training client
teaching tonight (if there is any ... I can't remember whether there is anyone coming)
a start on a web site for my sister

Have a good day everyone.