Hi everyone. What is it about September which creates that “Start of a New School Year” feeling, even though as in my case, I left school almost 50 years ago? Well, I don’t really know either but what I do know is that it’s the time of year when I like to review what I’ve achieved career and work-wise over the last 12 months. So it’s when I fill in my annual profit/loss sheet (very variable), see how much time I’ve spent on training and development (too much) or marketing and networking (not nearly enough), as well as writing an End of Year Report even though no one but me ever reads it. This September though, I’ve decided to use the month to make a bigger work-related change and have reorganised my “portfolio career”. The term “portfolio career” is really just a grand name for having more than one job but it’s a useful way of defining what I do which over the last twelve years has been a combination of “creative” jobs including writer, designer, crafter, artist and even a musical en
Hi everyone. It was T.S. Eliot who nominated April as the cruellest month but for me, it’s any month where the temperature regularly goes above 22 degrees. I realise that in many parts of the world that happens pretty much all year round but here in the UK, we’re usually only talking about June, July and August although I do remember us having a heatwave in October once. Personally I hate being hot although I’m now of the age where that can happen even when the temperature outside is below freezing. And of course, the summer temperatures we have are nothing compared with the horrendous heights on the thermometer and their deadly effects that occur in other places. But even in relatively “Cool Britannia”, we can still have trouble working, exercising, eating, concentrating and keeping our temper in the summer months. (Or is that just me?) T rying to sleep , in our air-conditionedless houses w ith little or no insulation that can feel almost as hot at night as they do in the day,