Of the Four Hour Work Week Part II

Last night's meeting was a massive hit. Everyone invited turned up -eventually. One guy had to be retrieved from the Red Panda Restaurant - the original meeting place. Everyone chucked in loads of great contributions.
It's amazing how many different views and interpretations you'll get when 12 people read the same book. One thing I have learnt is that if you go round the group asking for views in just 2 minutes then you time and monitor it for some people's interpretation of 2 minutes is quite different to others.
All we need now is a bit more structure and a few more members. The group is really diverse but it could be better. We need more women and a representative or two from the minority communities would be good too. Onwards.

Of the Four Hour Work Week

I have an interesting meeting this evening. 15 of the finest business heads I could find are meeting to discuss the book "The Four Hour Work Week" or perhaps more accurately are meeting to discuss developing a "muse" as described in the book.
It's a fine collection of people. There's a corporate trouble shooter, two small business consultants, a mother of three, a teckie, a finance consultant, a salesman and an Internet guru. I've a feeling this is either going to work wonderfully well or crash and burn. Let's hope it's the former.
My own muse is now up and running but it needs a lot more work. Watch this space as they say.

Of a Tale of Two Tour Guides

I've just spent a great weekend in London.
On Saturday I visited High Gate Cemetery and the grave amongst others of Karl Marx. The person taking the cash for the tour was the most grumpy/rude customer service person I've ever met and I've met a good few grumpy ones in my time. I've been to Russia four times don't forget. After she had barked at me she threw us onto a tour guide who was, well, ok but who wants a tour guide who is just ok? Doesn't everyone want a tourguide who conveys passion, humour and interest for their subject? Someone who can't wait to tell you all the stats, the rarely know facts and a whole lot in between.Well this lady didn't as she carted us around various graves with about as much energy as those who inhabit them.

Our second guide was different. Oh so very much different and so very much better too.John took us round the East End of London on "The Jack the Ripper Tour". He was amusing, irreverent, whitty, ghoulish when the occassion demanded, dressed for the part and threw everything he had at it. There must have been 50 in our group and everyone heard what he had to say and everyone wanted to too.

What amazed me was just how few people were around Whitechapel Saturday at 9p.m. Granted it was cold but we passed almost no-one except those in Jack The Ripper tours going in the other direction.And there were enough of them. I must have counted 5 in the hour or so I was out listening to our guide.There's obviously money in death be that cemeteries or how an unfortunate few end up there..

Of What Makes Me Grumpy

I see to be in a strange mood this week. It's something to do with my space and what invades it. I complained again at the swimming pool this morning about the announcements they make first thing. At 7.15a.m. a woman's voice comes at you over the tannoy saying "Attention, attention staff call all pool attendants proceed to poolside immediately". Once is ok but five more times and you feel like your ears have been mugged. They replied it has be like this for health & safety reasons but I'm not convinced.
I'm also down on companies that send me unwanted email. Before I just deleted it. Now I'm either reporting the email as spam by clicking a fancy button on my software (though where these reports go and what happens to them I don't quite know) or demanding to be unsubscribed.
It's interesting the lengths some companies go to to stop you unsubscribing despite the fact that by law they must allow you to do it. Some require you to confirm your email address. Others get you to fill in certain letters to prove they've sent their email to a human. One or two tell you that you have unsubscribed but it will take about 12 weeks for your request to take complete effect (yeah right...) and you may get emails meantime. One called Plaxo, allows you to unsubscribe from all categories you care to deselect but then inform you that you'll still be kept on their main mailing list for occasional emails. They have been informed that I'll report them to the Information Commissioner if they don't unsubscribe me immediately. Oh I am in a grumpy mood this week aren't I?

Of Cheery Thoughts for a Monday

I was back in the pool today after a break on account of man flu of a good 4 weeks. I managed 20 lengths only. It was pretty unimpressive. It was cold and I felt miserable. As I went up and down I couldn't help but think of the radio report I heard first thing this morning. It reminded me that you should be grateful for your lot. The first part of the report was from Greece. The reporter was interviewing the many newly homeless in Athens. Two standing in a queue for soup were former teachers made redundant just before Christmas. The second part of the report came from Syria. It started with the awful whistle of bombs dropping then exploding over Homms a heavily populated city in Northern Syria. Economic collapse and political disintegration problems not confined to just two countries either. One might think that by now after all this time we would have developed systems sophisticated enough to avoid such catastrophes but no I can't help but think they'll always feature in modern life for both are run by us - human beings and we are deeply, deeply flawed.

Of Protests in Russia

They're marching in Moscow today protesting against the unfairness of recent elections.Putin has clearly learnt one thing when President then Prime Minister of Russia that as Stalin once said it's not the number of votes that count but who's counting the number of votes.
I've never liked Putin that much and his poodle Medvedev I've liked even less. I'm always suspicious of little men for as Noel Coward once said "Their brains are far too close to their bottoms for comfort".

Of Wine Tasting

I've just applied to start a wine tasting course in Belfast next week. I guess I'll learn how to sniff wine, how to twirl it in the glass and how to talk grapes with anyone and everyone.
I'm wondering if you get provided with a bucket into which you have to expel everything you get to try. It seems an awful waste but then if you're driving home I suppose you've no choice. I could always take the train I suppose.
The only bottle of wine I am vaguely familiar with is "Blue Nun". We used to sell loads of this stuff in the pub I used to work at in Govan, Glasgow. Unkindly it became known as the "Winos' drink" being probably one of the cheapest ways for someone living on the streets to get drunk. And then something quite remarkable happened.
The makers of Blue Nun realised they had a perception problem. They began to do some blind tasting exercises with Blue Nun and other wines which when known many would have ranked as far superior in terms of quality and reputation. Blue Nun outscored its rivals every time.
If we're invited to bring a guest bottle of wine one evening perhaps I should bring a bottle of the old faithful Blue Nun. It fooled just about everyone... except the park winos it seems.