The gift of cake and the 6 people in your corner

I’m going visiting today. A former colleague who I haven’t worked with directly for about 10 years now and who retired to Cambridgeshire a couple of years ago.

I have a lot to thank her for over my career. She has rescued me from tedious roles on a couple of occasions by promoting what I can do to other senior leaders in the Trust. She got me back involved in the PFI project when it started getting interesting again, after I’d taken a sideways tour into Reseach & Development for a few years. Whilst on the project I’d started of as the Admin for all the Project Managers and by the end I was one of the Project Managers having been supported by her all the way through.

When the project ended I was head hunted for a role in Estates & Facilities, something which I would never have applied for just by looking at the job description. All through that time we kept in touch, meeting for coffee and as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I continued to be her personal IT support.

When I needed to move on from that after 6 years, for my sanity, she was the one who had a chat with another senior manager and suggested I might be a good candidate to fill the managers role in their team. And that’s where I am today.

I used to have a picture on my office wall of the six people you should have in your corner: the instigator, the cheerleader, the doubters, the taskmaster, the connector and the example. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2012/07/17/the-6-people-you-need-in-your-corner/

I used to think about who I would put in each of those positions and then it occurred to me that they didn’t have to be different people. The same person could take on several of these roles. Then I figured that actually one person could be all of them.

I’m really looking forward to seeing her and if by way of a simple thank you for all she has done, a raspberry ripple cake will make her smile, then I’m a very lucky person.

Hump day

Hump day, or Wednesday as its more commonly referred to, signals the middle of the working week for most. We’ve managed to survive the first two days and after we’re over the hump of Wednesday its downhill all the way to the weekend.

I do a condensed week meaning I fit full time hours into four days. The downside is doing a longer day for four days but I was pulling those hours anyway, just not getting paid for them. It does however mean I have Fridays off and I use that time to catch up on all the #bellringing paperwork I need to get done. When I started this work pattern in January 2020, I vowed that I would do one thing I had to get done and one thing that I wanted to do. Sometimes these are actually the same thing.

I’m on annual leave this week so I’ve been able to catch up with quite a number of things. This hump day though, I was rather impressed with myself.

I’ve been invited to give a talk about public relations and how to make the best of it to the St Martin’s Guild of Bellringers at the end of September. I’m not a fan of last minute.com for preparing for things like that so I had promised myself that I would do it this week whilst I was off work and had the opportunity.

Due to the current situation the talk is being streamed so I don’t get to meet the attendees in person, or get a vibe from the room as to how its going. If I was doing it to a room of people I would be making them do something creative rather than just death by PowerPoint. However I am having to do it over a video conference where there will be little chance of dynamic feedback, so death by PowerPoint it is.

I had a quick look at the length of time some of the previous talks the Guild had done and figured I’d need something about the 30-40 minutes mark, plus time for questions. I sat down at the PC at about 10am surrounded by my source materials and an open blank presentation. I was in the zone. I ploughed through the ideas in my head and committed them to the slides. I took a short break for lunch but went straight back to it. I finished it at around 5.15pm.

The sense of satisfaction I felt at the end of that was quite immense. I still have to deliver the presentation but I can relax a bit now knowing that the ground work has been done.

It being hump day, which in our house also means it’s #winewednesday, I did rather enjoy a couple of glasses of crisp chilled white.

Happy hump day or #winewednesday 🍷

This green and pleasant land

As I have this week off work and I didn’t want it to be all consumed by chores and report writing etc, we decided to take a trip out yesterday.

Fortunately the weather was cooperative and we prebooked our car park slot, packed up a picnic lunch then headed out to Hatfield Forest, only about 20 miles from home. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hatfield-forest

Now owned by The National Trust, the forest used to be one of the foremost hunting parks of kings in medieval England. It boasts some 3,500 species of wildlife, ancient trees over 1,000 years old. It is maintained using a mixture of grazing, coppicing and pollarding.

We did manage to spot some deer 🦌 from a distance, there was plenty of evidence of cattle having grazed there. We saw the odd squirrel, butterflies, waterfowl and woodland birds.

We walked around for nearly five miles, barely talking to each other (not because we’d had a fall out) just taking in the surroundings and enjoying largely the peace and quiet. The only time the sound of children invaded was when we got near the lake where there were several small groups of small people running about. The only other invading sound was the occasional airplane ✈ taking off or landing at the nearby Stansted Airport.

I tried to image what it would have been like in medieval times, totally unadulterated and before Capability Brown started fiddling in 1757. Thankfully he didn’t alter too much. There are two or three little dwellings dotted about in the firest, totally cut off from everything. Presumably they are lived in by the forest manager. We imagined what it would be like to live there in the days when the Sovereign may want to stop for hunting and what it would be like to live there now, in a time where everyone and everything is so connected.

We are extremely fortunate to have such pleasant places to experience so nearby and it gives us the opportunity to get away from the grind, breathe the fresh air and just be.

Virtual Tower Outings

As we are currently not able to visit other towers to ring their bells many of us are using RingingRoom, a virtual space to ring and meet friends. I host a regular group on a Thursday night comprising of invited friends and family. On the August Bank Holiday my own real tower usually goes on a tower outing to visit other places to ring. We have a great day out ringing and a pub lunch. Obviously this year that wasn’t going to happen. On Thursday evening at the post practice chat we talked about missing out on this, so on the spur of the moment I suggested we hold a virtual outing. Here’s how it went.

Ringing Room Tower Outing
Bank Holiday Monday 31st August 2020
The usual Thursday night Patmore Towers Ringing Room group decided in lieu of an actual tower outing, which would have happened today, we’d hold a virtual one instead.
Three towers were on the itinerary, allotted time at each was half an hour with a ten minute break between each to allow for virtually travelling to the next tower and replenishment of refreshments.
Nine ringers came along with the first tower of the evening at Patmore Towers, a middle weight 8. The ringing was run by the assistant tower captain, Colin, who called for a course of Little Bob Major, Stedman Triples and Kent Treble Bob Major. Some hesitations which may or may not have been attributed to technical lags proved entertaining, especially when Hazel somehow managed to scroll down her screen so could only see the bottom bells!
En route to the next tower the Steeds found an ice cream shop and were too busy eating Magnums to join in the first touch, whilst Martin had difficulties finding the entrance to the tower.
The second tower was a flighty little 6 at Bennett’s Bunker, with Jenny in charge. Wanting to continue practicing her Cambridge Minor, Jenny acquitted herself well, but some of the rest of us thought we were ringing Ipswich! So that’s what she called for next, although that staggered through and didn’t quite manage to get through the course. A course of Stedman Doubles then a nice touch of Grandsire Doubles to finish.
By now the volume of liquid consumed by some members of the band required a convenience stop on the way to the next tower, whilst Andy snuck in an unauthorised pudding.
Our third tower was Steed le Steeple, a rough going eight. The Plain Bob Major didn’t want to go, some technical difficulties were blamed, I’m not so sure! Next a Bob Course of Grandsire Triples, and a plain course of Stedman Triples that almost came to a grinding halt in the very last change. Some more Little Bob Major and then some more Plain Bob Major to finish.
A quick stop off at the nearby Bring Your Own Beer pub for apres ringing chat was very welcome at the end of the day. I’d like to thank the towers (and RingingRoom) for letting us ring and the ringing masters for organising the ringing.

Great fun can be had virtually if you but try.

No need to alarm

Its a Bank Holiday today so for many it means a day off from work. A chance to spend time with family and do those DIY jobs you still haven’t completed, have a tidy up, go out for the day or simply chill out.

Fortunately I’m in a role that affords me the day off. We have no plans for the day as such, apart from a vurtual #bellringing tower tour this evening, so no need to rush about.

So why on earth was the alarm ⏰ set this morning?

Our alarm clock has two alarms set. One for 6am and one for 7am. You can have one or other or both set to go off. Admittedly it was the 7am that went off, so technically we had had a bit of a lie in. But there was no real need for it to go off at all. How nice would it have been to have woken up naturally, feeling more relaxed and refreshed.

Apparently you can train yourself to wake up naturally by using your body’s natural circadian rhythm by figuring out how much sleep 💤 you actually need and going to bed at the right time, following a relaxing bed time routine. https://www.sleep.org/how-to-wake-up-without-an-alarm-clock/

I usually don’t have a problem with going to sleep and probably have more sleep than I need. If I’m bored I’ll sleep, if I’m stressed or worried I’ll sleep and I’ll nod off if I’m sat still too long.

Fir those who get to take a Bank Holiday, I hope you find it relaxing and rejuvenating.

The healing power of chocolate

Sometimes I can go for weeks without feeling like I need chocolate, other times I crave it every day for a fortnight.

According to https://experiencelife.com/article/the-healing-powers-of-dark-chocolate/ “cocoa, has triple the antioxidants of green tea, helps reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, and improves insulin sensitivity.” So why isn’t it available on prescription?

For many reason yesterday was a lazy day for me. I had to record an interview in the morning but then had nothing planned for the rest of the day. We didn’t need to go into town for anything, we didn’t need to be anywhere. I took full advantage of this by doing nothing. I sat down to read, trying desperately to finish Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light which has been going on far too long. At last my e-reader registered 100%. To be honest considering how large the book is, I felt the ending was a bit rushed.

Anyway, this allowed me to start my next book Alison Weir’s latest offering in the Six Tudor Queens set, Katheryn Howard, the Tainted Queen. Already on the first sit down I’d romped through 12 chapters.

Early afternoon I started to get pangs of guilt. Was I wasting the day? There were so many things that I could and should be doing. Haven’t finished sorting through photos, need to write a presentation, need to edit a survey before release, need to arrange another virtual #bellringing session. Just couldn’t bring myself to get started on any of it.

I know, I’ll make myself feel busy by #baking something. Nothing too complicated, I don’t want to spend ages in the kitchen. A bit of a rummage through the cupboards and I’d landed on deciding to make chocolate brownies. A little while later and the kitchen starts to smell of chocolate as the brownies are baking. When I went back into the kitchen to check on them I just stood there for a moment taking deep lung fulls of chocolatey smell letting it permeate every sense. Just that annoying length of time to wait for them to cool down sufficiently sp you don’t burn your mouth.

Bizarrely I didn’t think about wasting the day any more. I went back to reading my new book with a sense of comfort and calmness. I thoroughly enjoyed my lazy day thanks to the smell of chocolate 🍫 😋

The meaning of dreaming

Dreams are weird. I don’t dream very often but when I do they are just so disjointed.

For me a dream never has a beginning or end, there just seems to be a middle bit of the story. And no one has a head but I do know who they are mostly.

The dream I had in the early hours of this morning was situated in a very white room with a very white shiny table. On my left was Mary and on her left was Alison. These are real people that I work with in the Central Council of Church Bellringers (www.cccbr.org.uk) We were at a National Trust property volunteering. I was new to it but Mary and Alison had been there a while. Opposite was the man in charge who wasn’t anyone I knew, as well as having no head he had no name. He was asking each of us, starting with me, why we wanted to volunteer and what we got out of it. It almost seemed like a job interview.

The trouble is I have no idea how any of us answered this question because I woke up. What’s that all about?

In our daily life we have hopes and dreams about our future, of what we want from life, and we have the power to manifest them into reality if we try. When we’re asleep our dreams are more abstract and are perhaps a jumble of reality and desire.

According to http://www.thedreamzone.com/ “Dreaming is a thinking process. In fact, it is a continuation of your thoughts from the day. That chatter in your head that goes on all day long continues as you drift off to sleep, and, once you enter REM sleep, when dreaming takes place, those thoughts continue in symbols and metaphors instead of in words.”

Well, I have no idea what my dream meant and what “chatter” it was trying to sift through. Perhaps someone could explain 🤔

What does all this mean?

I listen to a number of different podcasts when I go out for my lunchtime walk. Some are for fun like Older and Wider, Table Manners and others for educational value such as Somethin Rhymes with Purple. I have just started listening to one called The High Low, a weekly conversation between writers Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes, that covers highbrow and lowbrow culture.

It’s mildly entertaining and informative. The thing that’s annoying me though is these words that they keep using all the time which just sound odd and I don’t really understand. I literally had to Google one of them.

They frequently use the phrase “that’s woke” or “she/he is woke”. I do understand the meaning i.e. that someone or something is an awareness of some social injustice. It just sounds weird.

The one I had to look up was zeitgeist. Apparently its the defining mood or spirit of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/zeitgeist

They use those phrases several times an episode. To be honest its a bit annoying.

The use of language and words or jargon does demonstrate ones education and background but it can also make others uncomfortable or intimidated if they don’t understand.

I sit in many a meeting where acronyms are used all the time. Sometimes I sit quietly and eventually figure it out but other times I have had to ask what they mean. Sometimes the reply can be patronising as if to say “duh, its obvious”. Its only obvious if its familiar.

#bellringing has an awful lot of jargon and weird names for things like “lead end” or “treble bobbing”. For a beginner its like a foreign language trying to navigate some of the terms. As #bellringing teachers we really must ensure that we explain things in a way that the learner can understand, and that might mean different ways to different people. As teachers we must become multilingual.

Baking also has some strange phrases such as to “blind bake” is not to wear a mask so you can’t see what you’re doing, but to pre bake something like a pie crust before putting the filling in it.

In all I do, say and communicate in whatever way, I prefer to use the KISS acronym Keep It Simple, Stupid. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Not a good start to the day…. twice!

Oh dear. Yesterday morning I got to work, parked the car in my usual spot then walked the five minutes to the office. When I got to the office it suddenly occurred to me that I’d been able to unlock my office door without too much juggling of all the things that I carry in: handbag, laptop bag, lunch bag, coffee mug.

Oh my gosh, coffee mug, where is it? I usually put it on the roof of the car whilst I lock it and put the keys in my handbag. Did I put it on the roof and walk off? Did I put it on the roof at all? I know I brought it with me because I remember pushing the plunger down when I got to the roundabout. Oh dear lord.

So I trek back to the car glaring at everyone I pass in case they are carrying anything that looks like my coffee mug if I’d left it on the roof of the car. Get to the car, no visible coffee mug. Look through the window to see it still sitting snuggly in the mug holder. Thank goodness.

Fast forward to this morning. Usual routine is the alarm goes off just before 6am, I listen to the news and weather, then when they play the first song after that I get up.

Except this morning. I turn over and attempt to go back to sleep 💤. Then something registers and I’m wide awake thinking I’ve overslept and am going to be late for work.

I check the clock and clearly the song playing is still the first one after the news but I’m all of a dither now. Rushing through the shower, trying to get my lunch stuff ready and its bin day so I’ve got to put all the bins and recycling out. Then I’ll drink my first coffee.

Half way to work realise I haven’t taken my tablet so I’ll be wanting to rip my skin off later. I have urticaria and dermagraphism meaning I get itchy skin and take antihistamines every day to try to control it. Great, that’s going to annoy me know.

But I do have my coffee this morning. 🙂

I have several meetings at work today that I need to be on the ball for. Then this evening I will be running a virtual #bellringing session with friends and family.

I do hope for everyone’s sake that I get a grip soon. 🤪

Networking Ninjas

No, not IT networks, or rail networks but group networks.

I’m part of the #MSEBuddyNetwork at work. A group of staff across the Trust who are working to listen, understand, support and care for our colleagues through looking out for each other.

This week’s session was led by Ciara Moore who, amongst other things, runs a network for female leaders over 50 https://instagram.com/fl50_female_leaders_at_50?igshid=10nfkiy9fuqrz. Her enthusiasm and passion for the value of networks really shone through and left us all with a sense of purpose and a call to action.

Networks form in all walks of life, work, social groups, clubs and on line. Both with #bellringing and baking there are groups and online networks who offer support, guidance, advice and knowledge. How we interact with those networls determines our own level of offer that support back to others. It can be a very reciprocal and fulfilling arrangement.

With lockdown restrictions still meaning that we can’t go #bellringing in quite the same way its been important to make use of social media and other tools to stay in touch, to practice our theory and be curious. I for one am hugely grateful for the development of RingingRoom https://ringingroom.com/, the online virtual #bellringing platform that has meant I can continue my theory as well as connect with others, this time from all across the world if necessary. A group of like minded people who all want to support each other.

In the cake world where I would have booked into a class or two to learn a new skill, teachers have been offering online tutorials and attendees can then use the chat facility to ask questions. Other bakers have been generous with sharing their skill and knowledge through social media.

How can we get the best out of networking? Ciara gave some excellent advice:

● Meet people
● Create valuable contacts
● Share best practice
● Be curious
● Share
● Celebrate self and others
● Ask for support
● Offer something that people in your networks might benefit from
● Set goals i.e. connect with x new people each week
● Take the first step
● Connect people to other people
● Enjoy
● Give some time each day to specifically work on networking activities

My challenge to myself now is to work on my networking skills and see where it leads. I look forward to connecting with you 😁