Inspiration hits you right between the eyes!

It is days like today that remind me as to why i do my job!
It is not every day i get to meet a para Olympic swimmer and hold her silver medal in my hands!
Whilst i wont go into detail as to who i met, it is enough to say that i was struck by the determination of this lady who battles with many challenges in order to get to where she wants to be.
10 weeks before she won silver she dislocated her shoulder and was told that she was not going to the games by the Olympic team managers. Undeterred she carried on with her training, swimming with only her arm to propel her (she is paraplegic) and she proved her fitness right up to the last minute and obtained a silver medal for her efforts.
What an inspiration!
It seems that us Brits moan an awful lot about what we don't have when really we have it, whilst there are people out there who are perceived to not have anywhere near the opportunities that we have but obtain and achieve so much more through sheer guts and self belief despite the most difficult physical or mental challenges.
I hope that i never forget the memory of holding that medal, particularly if i am feeling hard done by!

World’s smallest text-to-speech device - Business - Cambridge First

What a great day we had on the 17th October.

Read all about it below!!!

World’s smallest text-to-speech device - Business - Cambridge First

Inspiration!

What an amazing day.

I visited some potential customers today and I had a trip down memory lane which allowed me tom see another side of a customer from my previous profession and I then met an inspirational guy who despite the fact that he is living with a condition which is debilitating, lives independently and knows what he wants in life.
One sad point was that, this customer is disabled and doesn't go out as there is no one out there to go out with.

I feel privileged that he le me into his home and gave me a glimpse of his life.
I feel humbled, that despite any stresses I may be feeling at the moment, I am extremely lucky to have wife and kids that love me and supportive friends.

I hope that perhaps that customer could have the same one day.

Hi Blogger Readers! It's been a little while since I last wrote anything so I thought I would collate some thoughts. It's been a tough week this week but hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel! On Tuesday morning I decided that I would take 'Milo' our foster dog for a walk at stupid o'clock in the morning. It is always refreshing to go for a walk first thing on the morning, however half an hour in I heard a buzz near my head. This buzz then turned into a vibration in my hair just behind my ear and then, yep you've guessed it resulted in a sharp sting. So as you can imagine my hand went up to admonish the small vicious creature which resulted in a further buzz, vibration and sting just next to the last sting. Then as you can imagine I ran like hell to get away from what clearly must have been a swarm, screaming like a banshee only to be rewarded for my 200 metre sprint with a sting to the back of my ribs. I then bravely started to rip my clothes off in an attempted to get shot of the little bugger. Thankfully this shedding of clothes was abruptly halted when I found the violent wasp stinging my forearm at which point he had clearly had enough and fell off my arm exhausted! Meanwhile Milo, my loyal foster dog, was leaping like a gazelle through the stubble on the freshly harvested field on a promise with another golden retriever (or Labrador, I never know the difference). The day progressed with a further 'highlight' being the removal of one of my team from my company. This was the first time I have ever had to do this, it was not pleasant despite how amicable the process was with the person involved. I do sincerely wish him all the best for the future. To add to this I messed up making a bowl of Oats so simple this morning! I guess I failed that intelligence test! So what's been good about this week? I think that despite how busy work is, working at the limit of my comfort zone with endless meetings designed to prevent me from working at the limit of my comfort zone, I feel that I am on a healthy learning curve again, I feel that my staff's jobs will become more interesting and engaging and I appreciate every one of them. I came away from a positive meeting yesterday with the two working women in my life thankful for their support and abilities with great expectations of what we will be able to achieve together in the near future. How lucky I am to be supported by a great team! So lots of stress this week, mixed with poignant positives. Maybe this is progress?

Back from holiday!

Well I am back. I have just had a fantastic week in Argeliers, France with Diane and the kids and my cousin, Lisa.
The weather was fantastic ranging in the 30's to 40's and we had a nice mix of lounging by the pool, swimming in the sea and enjoying the sites.
For me the high point was visiting Carcassone Castle. This place is amazing and well worth visiting! It is going to be explored soon during a romantic weekend that I am going to book for myself and Diane!

It was great to spend some time with my cousin, it is good to see that we haven't lost our fun mischievous streaks after all these years!

We all had a great time, and now it is back to work tomorrow!

Holiday time!

Day one of my two week holiday. Today I have been concentrating on getting our building project finished. Ted Hurst, the electrician has been very busy. Drilling holes and sorting cables. It won't be long before I can finally get into my garden room and plug my amp in and start recording songs!

We all went out to dinner tonight to Go Sushi! That's a great restaurant and a very clever restaurant. This place places their delicious meals onto a conveyer belt that passes all the tables and you simply pick up what you fancy to eat! Each dish is colour coded according to price. So the result is that you collect dishes because that all looK nice and the bill tots up. You just feel compelled to eat and eat and eat!
A clever set up that took £70 from me for the pleasure!

What does tomorrow bring? Apparently I am going ape in Thetford! I will let you know howmi get on!

A long two weeks!

Got a new boss a few weeks ago. I feel like I have been working like a dog to meet deadlines which may or may not have been reasonable. What I can say is that I have learnt loads about myself and abilities and whilst I may not be able to meet the deadline for tomorrow, I do feel that I will have become better at what I do. I am gratefulmfor the support of my team who are fantastic.
It was a very long day today, and I am happy to have one more day and then a two week holiday!

Bye for now!

Beautiful sunshine

It has been a beautiful day today with the weather, the sun was shining but I was cooped up in my office working on my marketing plan.
It was great to get home, stroke the guest dog and water the newly seeded lawn which at the moment is so patchy it looks like a map of the world! I was going to crack a joke about the Shadows song that describes the lawn ( I will let you work that out).
I am looking forward to taking the dog for a walk, it seems to be mildly therapeutic.
I also came home to who i thought was James Bond's arch nemesis, but actually it was my youngest daughter who had received train track braces on her teeth. Bless her, she feels really weird with these on and so it will take a while before she is comfortable.
She never really makes a fuss, she is such a good girl!

Night everyone!

Milo the dog comes to stay!

Good evening all! This is going to be a short blog as I need to get up early in the morning. Why? Well this is because we have a new guest in the house called Milo, a golden retriever dog of threes years.
I wanted to write about him as I have had a crap day trying to get stuff done, I have got stressed and am feeling like I am wading through mud towards a fast approaching deadline.
So, the thought of having a dog stay is not the greatest, but when he arrived it almost felt therapeutic taking him for a walk and looking after him. Don't get me wrong, if I find him on my nearly seeded lawn then I will make a Korean dinner out of him, but for now he is very welcome.
So I have to go to bed early as I will be up early taking him for a walk.

Good night everyone!

Who writes the jokes?

I can't believe it, not a full day has gone by and already there are jokes about Amy Winehouse and her premature death.
I am in two minds about these jokes despite how twisted they are. For some reason they seem to catch me off guard and then I laugh. It was really pertinent when the space shuttle Challenger blew up and someone had worked out a joke fitting the letters of NASA in the 80's. Then I realise that despite the connection to these bits of news being via the Internet or the television and that it is so easy to look on in a detached manner, we are talking, joking about real people. Amy is someone's daughter and despite her mistakes and her demise, she is still flesh and blood, one of us, are we starting to dehumanise our feelings?

But what I want to know is who is the person or persons who come up with the jokes? When I was a kid there was no Internet and yet these jokes went round with the ferocity of a viral marketing campaign! It is now worse with the social network platforms.
Thankfully good things fly around too, and I hope for less sick jokes and perhaps more comments that seek to enhance life and not dehumanise it.

Imagine

It is amazing what a little bit of space can do to promote creativity! Recently we have had a garden room built so to act as an extra room for making noise on guitars or tap dancing or perhaps to escape and read when everyone in the house is being noisy.
Tonight, with the room just finished (apart front the electrics)I played my guitar with my daughter who was singing. It seems that last nights party with The Juliets has inspired her to perform more. We saw some buskers in town yesterday and she would like to do the same. Tonight we tried to put together some material including some Beatles songs.
There is more to come and I am excited that I can play a part in encouraging my daughter to explore her voice and to see where it takes her. A professional career in singing? I don't think so! She wants to be a nurse!

A sad day, but can we see hope?

Iam sitting at my desk this Sunday morning whilst my children sleep upstairs thinking about yesterday; Saturday 22nd July 2011.
Yesterday will be remembered for many reasons. For many, it will be the day that Amy Winehouse died, for others the day that a terrorist bombed Oslo and shot almost 100 people Norway, for me a strange sad day which ended with what may be the last get together for the time being of my band, The Juliets.
Why should I mention The Juliets alongside two other tragic events? Clearly the band is nowhere near as important as the events mentioned? No it isn't but last night the band reminded me that despite what had happened during the day, life goes on and there is always hope.
You see, for me, the activities of the band have always been what I describe as a 'joyful mess'. A bunch of musicians who get together, have fun, make ok music and hopefully put a smile on people's faces. We even play Amy Winehouse songs.
What made it wonderful for me was that my wife and daughter joined in for the first time.
This is where the life goes on bit happens. I am 39, and my daughter is 12. She was joining in with the backing singers and having a great time and I felt proud seeing her do what is her passion, singing and joining in with other people. I hope that she continues to sing and live her dream to do this as much as possible and hopefully encourage other younger ones to do the same.
This is where the hope part was witnessed. It was indeed a strange day, but A group of people could still get together in a spirit of peace and community and do great things which are positive and good. This happened in Oslo last night as a memorial was set up for those that died and whilst there gathering there was sad, I know that there will be embers of hope for the future which will fan into flames of life and by their essence will fly in the face of those that seek to cause harm to others and hopefully serve to encourage people like Amy, who lost hope, to move with the flow of what is a God given gift of life.

A crazy week.

Blog number two! Well it has been a very,very busy week.
On Monday my company appointed a new managing director, a new boss for me. We had the Lord lieutenant of Cambridgeshire visit to present the company with an award from the Queen. If you didn't know, the Lord Leiutenant, is the Queen's representative in any given county.
An intresting time that was good for the people of my company, a chance to celebrate their success and look forward to a healthy future. The future? Well this is the job of the new MD, tasked with building growth and moving the company onto the next step and I have no doubt that he will a achieve his aims and objectives. I find myself excited, daunted and hopeful of great things. I find my self esteem telling me things that really only seek to discourage me. I hope that I can keep that voice in check and achieve good things for the benefit of our customers, my colleagues and more importantly myself.
It all gets really busy on Monday, and so for now I look forward to a busy weekend playing taxi driver, guitarist and bar-b-q guzzler!

Thanks for reading my blog, I will let you know how I get on.

A great evening!

I am new to blogging.  I can twitter, facebook, email, chat but no blog!  So I have decided to start.  Chances are no-one will read this but it means I can get some private thoughts into text and we will see where we will go.
Well this evening is a superb end to a hectic day.  I am a director of a company that makes communication aids for people with little or no ability to speak (www.toby-churchill.com).  Today we receive the Queens Award for Export.  My boss, went to Buck House this evening to collect it from the Queen herself.  I got to stay at home.  I don't mind, it is enough to see that the company is doing well.
That said it was a busy day as I got invited to do an interview at the local BBC Radio Cambridgeshire with Andie Harper, that was fun.  I wanted to get the message out that there are lots of people who cannot speak who do not know that they could have a solution to allowing them to communicate.  This provides independence, inclusion and in general a better quality of life.  I hope that the interview helped to get this message out.
Then the rest of the day I have been twitting and facebooking messages in support of this message and using the Queen's Award as a vehicle for promoting my company.  Did it work?  Only time can tell.

I arrived home this evening, looking forward to an evening with my 12 year old daughter Jessica.  We decided to go canoeing along the Cam and have an ice cream afterwards.  This was a great stress reliever and we had a lot of fun.  Cambridge is beautiful in the summer.

So a good day and a great evening......now for the washing up!