Quick fire round

I’m not one for small talk. I find it difficult to think of what to say. Its probably something to do with my introversion. I find it frustrating when meetings start with lots of random conversations that have nothing to do with the meeting agenda. I understand the purpose. An ice breaker, or checking in on others wellbeing and so on. But then I get to the point of “can we get on with it now please”?

Just for funsies I was having a play with a random conversation starter generator to see if they were the sort of things you could talk about in a room full of strangers, or at the beginning of a meeting whilst everyone is getting settled. Try some out. Here are the first 10 questions the random conversation starter presented to me.

What is your biggest fear? Losing my child.

What is your dream job? Not sure really. Like making cakes but not sure if I’d want to do it for a living. Thought about opening a cafe once. I guess not needing to have a job might be a dream.

If you were asked to teach a class, what would you teach? Baking.

Do you prefer baths or showers? Bit personal that one. Showers.

If you could choose any era to live in what would it be? Toss up between Tudor, but only if I was at Court. Or early 1900s when so much exploration and new invention happening.

What is one thing that you would like to change about the world? I suppose I ought to go for something like ending poverty or hunger or climate crisis but a big thing that gets me riled is hypocrisy.

How would you know you were in love? If I couldn’t stop thinking about someone or wait to see them and my heart started beating faster.

What is the longest amount of time you’ve slept for? 2 days. I went home from work ill on a Monday and woke up on the Wednesday.

Do you recycle? Yes!!!!

Do you prefer cats or dogs? Neither but if pushed on the subject dogs. Cats are selfish and mean.

Hmmm. Some of them are hardly conversation starters as they have a one word response. I suppose the idea is to then ask follow up questions but for some conversation done. I’m not sure that some of them would be appropriate at the office either but hey, if the conversation stops, I’ll throw one in and see what happens. 🤣

What’s the weirdest question you’ve ever been asked when the conversation got stuck?

Lost and found

You know when you know you have something, and you know where you last saw/used it, but for the life of you can’t find it when you need it next? That was me and a set of colouring pens.

Now, we’re not talking anything deep and philosophical or anything like that. We’re talking a set of colouring pens that I wanted, because I wanted to use a different colour, other than blue or black biro, to mark something off so that it was more visible.

I’ve had a set of colouring pens for ages, and I kept them with the squared paper that I used to write out #bellringing methods when I was learning something new. Every bell was assigned its own colour and I would draw out each lead end so I could see when a different place bell started. I’ve kind of moved on from doing that so much these days and use other methods for learning new methods that seem to work.

The pens however, were last seen with the squared paper, on the pile of books and magazines that are in the cubby hole to the left of where I sit on the sofa. That’s where they’ve always been and had no need to be moved anywhere else.

I have a nice new set up in our study with a new desk, chair, my laptop set up and my Holhem gimble ready and poised, and a nice shiny new stationery holder. The stationery holder currently has my post it notes, my favourite couple of writing pens, a calculator, my business card holder safely ensconced. There’s any empty slot shouting out for something to fill it. The colouring pens would do marvellously, and then they would be at hand for me to mark off things on my events calendar. But where the heck are they?

Having decided to look for said colouring pens two minutes before a video conference meeting was due to start, and not finding them instantly, I sat wondering for a while as the attendees for the meeting arrived. Hmmmph!

Meeting over, I then had several actions as a result and some other things to immediately attend to, so the search for the illusive colouring pens dropped out of my mind for a while. Then I went to sit down in my spot on the sofa and suddenly remembered that I had a mission to accomplish. Find those ruddy colouring pens. They’ve got to be there somewhere.

Books and magazines start to get launched out of the way. They can’t be far. They shouldn’t be anywhere else. They shouldn’t be this far down the heap. After a full on three minutes of frustration, I flopped back in my sofa seat. Grrrr. Where are those blasted pens?

Oh, hang on. There’s a couple of books in the pile that have fallen over. I’ll just put them upright again. Oh, and hallelujah! There are the prodigal pens. Hiding in the blackness of under the small coffee table that nestles amongst all these books and magazines. Hoorah!

I happily skip (well, more like lumber) off back to the study, tip the pens out of their zipped, plastic casing and decide upon which colour to use as my marker. Then, rather satisfyingly, plop them all into the waiting vacant slot in my stationery holder. Having used the red pen to mark off my events calendar, I add that to the collection, then sit back to admire my handy work.

The simple pleasures!

Adrenaline Junky

Nothing like a crisis to get the adrenaline going. Its all going a bit Pete Tong at the moment with former colleagues dying due to Covid-19 and staff off with either positive results or self-isolating, meaning that the service is about to fall on its knees. However, a few strategically placed phone calls and lots of toing and froing has resulted in a bit of a plan that should help the situation a bit. Also some positive clinical engagement, which was fantastic.

I’m not usually one that responds very well to instant and urgent changes, and trying to solve immediate problems. I like to ruminate over things, check all the facts, formulate a plan, get everyone involved. Time was not on our side so this week, and today in particular, have been very much making things up on the hoof, last minute conversations and plans, no time to overly consult, only with those that are critical, put a series of actions together and BAM! I can head in to the weekend slightly more relaxed about the prospects of the week ahead.

I feel surprisingly buzzy about it all to be honest. The time has flown by, I’ve not been wondering what task to do next. I’ve jumped from one conversation to the next, to the next and to the next. I don’t think I could sustain that level of activity or focus for too long, and admire those that do and those that work in environments that require that fast paced thinking and problem solving.

When adrenaline kicks in it stimulates our “flight or fight” responses. When the body is flooded with adrenaline it helps focus and engages the brain, improving cognitive responses. A bit like a massive caffeine hit. Apparently, it can improve your eye sight as the pupils dilate, and improves respiration. Even after the triggering event there can be a residual feeling of high vigilance and excitement and can intensify those feelings. As well as a burst of energy and strength the immune system gets a little boost too. (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71144/8-reasons-little-adrenaline-can-be-very-good-thing)

So, having started the day with the sad news of another colleague dying and not feeling like I wanted to really do much, at the end of the working day, I’m now bursting with energy and enthusiasm. Just as well as I’m hosting a virtual #bellringing session tonight and had better be on my A game.

Being a bit random

When I’m interviewing people for senior posts I like to throw in a question that has nothing to do with anything, and also doesn’t have a definite answer.

A few months back my boss was telling me about writing some interview questions for a senior post within her team, so I suggested that she asked the question “how many jelly beans can you fit in a suitcase”?. The question has no answer because there are too many variables. How big is the suitcase? What type and size of jelly bean? What is the suitcase made of, soft or hard? Are the jelly beans in packets or loose? Can you squish them to get rid of the air spaces between them? And so on.

Essentially the question is to throw the interviewee off guard, to wake them up from the serious questions, and to get them to vocalise how they might approach a problem and how they might handle being thrown a curve ball.

I’m assisting with some interviews next week for a senior role in another service. The person I’m on the panel with was the successful candidate of the jelly bean interview. Again I’ve suggested a random question. Too many people have heard about the jelly bean one so we have a different one in mind. I’m confident none of the candidates read this blog, so I’m not going to be letting g the cat out of the bag. We’ve decided to ask the question “how many balls can you fit in this room?”. It has the same effect on the candidate, they won’t be expecting it, there are too many variables like size of ball, whether the furniture could be removed, could the balls be deflated, etc.

The trick then is to place the question somewhere in the middle of the interview. They won’t be expecting it, but afterwards they might be cautious that there’ll be another random question. It helps to identify their ability to think on their feet and to cope with the unexpected. It’ll be an interesting insight to their personality.

My new set up

Our back room has been a bit of a tip for quite some time. It used to be step daughter #1’s bedroom. We eventually moved the main PC down and created a one person workspace.

Over time both of us has needed workspace and have had to take it in turns on the main PC or one person on a laptop in the lounge. That’s OK for short meetings and quick pieces of work, but not conducive to longer periods of time when we’ve both wanted to get on with something.

With the Covid-19 situation suggesting that people should work from home if they could, there just wouldn’t be a sensible place for me to do that. I also want a place to put all my #bellringing workbooks etc. And I could be on an evening conference meeting and C could still use the main PC for whatever he wanted to get on with.

We finally agreed that I should have my own desk space so purchased desk and chair, and set about tidying up the junk.

This weekend has seen a couple of trips to the tip and a lot of sorting of boxes and files, but finally created enough space to get the desk installed. I now have my own workspace and comfy chair. I’m actually quite looking forward to doing some work from here.

I also get the window seat, so can watch the birds come and go and gaze out of the window. I mean, concentrate really hard.

Able Relationships

Day 2 of our Leadership course talked about 3 able relationships that leaders should consider.

1. NOTICABLE – how we should take notice and responsibility of ourselves, of others and of the task.

2. RESPONSIBLE – how we respond to problems can sometime make it worse. We have the power to choose our response: change it, change ourself, accept it or walk away.

3. DESIRABLE – how much do we want to change ourself to manage relationships and leadership behaviours.

The final exercise of the day was to take it in turns to talk about each member of our group in terms of what we had appreciated about them over the last 2 days and what we felt they could do to improve their leadership skills. That person had to sit quietly and listen and then had an opportunity to respond. Bearing in mind that before day 1 most of us had never met.

When it came to my turn to be analysed I sat in the hot seat with sweaty palms. The comments around what people had appreciated about me were things like my quick witedness, honesty, natural skills, good leadership qualities, focused, put everyone at ease, not pretending to be something I’m not and very able.

The suggestions about what I need to improve on were having a greater sense of self belief, understanding others a bit more and being aware of my own ability. One of the comments I had made about myself earlier in the day was that I don’t consider myself a people person, but everyone disagreed and felt that I had been open, friendly, curious, caring and inclusive and that I should try to stop seeing myself that way.

These 2 days were a really useful practical assessment and learning experience. All previous leadership courses I’ve been on, and indeed my Masters in Healthcare Leadership, have tended to be more theoretical but didn’t really give anything by way of practical suggestions. The giving and receiving of feedback for me, has been key to unlocking some changes I need to make in my own perception of myself so that I can be more like how others see me. As one of the group said I am my own worst saboteur.

This course continues next month with another couple of days. We weren’t given anything to work on between now and then, but I guess the idea is that we take this new found knowledge about ourselves, and work on those areas to improve.

Looking for recommendations

I’m generally a creature of habit with regard to televisual viewing. When I get home from work we watch reruns of Task Master followed by reruns of NCIS that we’ve seen several times, then reruns of Law & Order SVU. And then I’m usually asleep on the sofa.

I was given a Netflix account last Christmas and I’ve watched a few series and the odd film and generally only watch things on Netflix on a Sunday when I’m doing the ironing. The trouble is, it gives you recommendations based on your previous viewing without consideringthat you might not have actuallyenjoyed that, and you might want to trysomethingelse. I also hate spending time scrolling through options trying to find something to watch. Maybe I have a limited understanding of how it works. I’ve watched some things that a few people have recommended. I also hate it when I’ve finished watching a series and the new series hasn’t been loaded yet. I want to watch the whole thing from start to end.

What I want to watch really depends on what kind of mood I’m in but the preprogrammed recommendations don’t necessarily reflect that. I like comedy, supernatural, drama, history and occasionally anything random.

Does anyone have any other recommendations worth watching that doesn’t require ages scrolling through stuff I’m not sure of? Thank you in advance.

Cake magazine week 2

As you know I’ve decided that all these cake magazines I’ve been collecting over the years actually need to be used, so this was week 2. Of the morsels on offer to create in this weeks mag was sponge squares covered in water icing with piped lines and dots.

The recipe called for an 8inch square madeira cake, cut into squares then an apricot glaze, followed by some lovely pastel shades of water icing, then some uniformed, delicately piped lines and dots in a contrasting colour.

Having just jumped on the bandwagon and purchased a silicone mould that looks like individual cake slices, I decided that would be fun rather than making plain old boring squares. So far so good.

Once cooled, the recipe says to apply a glaze of apricot jam. Open the fridge. Raspberry it is then. Slap it on. Then, to make the coloured icing more vibrant, add a thin layer of white fondant. Hmmm, rummage, rummage. White chocolate modelling paste it is then.

The suggested water icing was delicate pastel shades of lime green, yellow, baby blue and orange. I had deep red and blue to hand! That’ll do.

The magazine went on to describe how to pipe the perfect straight line, and perfectly rounded dots. Sod it, I’ve got a pot of sprinkles that need using up. On ya go. Bosh, and done.

Not pretty. Not as advertised. But edible. As its only for me and Mr, it’ll go down just fine with a cuppa. ☕