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!
A collection of thoughts from various days from a father, husband, consultant and musician.
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
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!
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!
Monday, 25 July 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
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!
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.
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.
Friday, 22 July 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
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!
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!
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