Thursday, 20 May 2010
May 21, 2010
Just got consistent web access today- landed in America May 17, made it safely, and after a few days stay in NYC with my great friend Matthew am now in Wichita with 2 other dear friends, getting ready for Focus training next week. Hope to have more time for writing tomorrow, been absolutely crazy these past few weeks! Anyway we'll be back in Michigan the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Hope to see friends in Ann Arbor Sunday morning! Miss you guys!
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
May 4, 2010
Latest news heard on BBC radio: The volcanic ash has come and gone, and looks like it may be returning again. There was an attempted bombing in Times Square, the suspected bomber was caught. There's an election here on Thursday- vote Lib Dems, Conservatives, or Labour. And that's the news for today. :)
My friend Lauren has been visiting on her way back to DC from Zambia- she's been here a few days, and it's been really awesome! I don't often have someone to go around having mini adventures with, and we've enjoyed hanging out and going round random places. I had BNI this morning so I'm not at my most alert- I could go into more detail about what we've been doing, and I realise that, but I'm definitely wiped out. :) Nelly kept waking me up in the middle of the night, and that on top of going to bed too late and waking up early has done me in.
I'm sorting out my US travel plans now- now that the volcano ash is mostly not keeping people from flying. :)
My friend Lauren has been visiting on her way back to DC from Zambia- she's been here a few days, and it's been really awesome! I don't often have someone to go around having mini adventures with, and we've enjoyed hanging out and going round random places. I had BNI this morning so I'm not at my most alert- I could go into more detail about what we've been doing, and I realise that, but I'm definitely wiped out. :) Nelly kept waking me up in the middle of the night, and that on top of going to bed too late and waking up early has done me in.
I'm sorting out my US travel plans now- now that the volcano ash is mostly not keeping people from flying. :)
Monday, 19 April 2010
Volcanoes!!! :)
This volcano eruption in Iceland is obviously big news here in the UK. It's strange that all commercial flights are grounded- the skies are silent, and places that are usually on the flight path to airports are also silent. It feels a bit like one of those comedy movies where suddenly everyone in Europe is in the wrong place and are all scrambling trying to get to where they're supposed to be. :) Ferries and private hire cars are raking in the money, and there's talk of the British Navy sailing over to Spain or France to pick people up! If you can manage to get to Spain or France that is- the trains are packed and walking takes a LONG time. :) It's a bit WWII like in concept, tho fortunately it's all due to peaceful reasons.
My friend S from the camera club is a pilot for Easyjet, and she's been grounded all week. We're getting good first hand information from her about what's going on, which is pretty cool. There are problems because the private airspace, which is lower, is still open- so some planes are going way too low and it's dangerous for gliders and small planes because big stuff is coming into their airspace. Not good at all.
We all thought the problem would be over in a day or 2, but we're going on 5 days, and altho G is meant to fly back on Saturday from Heathrow, there's no guarantee that a) the cloud will be gone by then or b) flying won't be a mess and his flight might get bumped. We'll keep you all posted on what's up. Of course if this persists, I won't be able to get back for O Week either, and now I have the problem that if I buy my ticket now I may not be able to use it! pr for all the people who are stranded everywhere.
My friend S from the camera club is a pilot for Easyjet, and she's been grounded all week. We're getting good first hand information from her about what's going on, which is pretty cool. There are problems because the private airspace, which is lower, is still open- so some planes are going way too low and it's dangerous for gliders and small planes because big stuff is coming into their airspace. Not good at all.
We all thought the problem would be over in a day or 2, but we're going on 5 days, and altho G is meant to fly back on Saturday from Heathrow, there's no guarantee that a) the cloud will be gone by then or b) flying won't be a mess and his flight might get bumped. We'll keep you all posted on what's up. Of course if this persists, I won't be able to get back for O Week either, and now I have the problem that if I buy my ticket now I may not be able to use it! pr for all the people who are stranded everywhere.
Thursday, 15 April 2010
April 15, 2010
Alas it looks like my iPhone hasn't been uploading the quick blog posts I've been writing so you'll all know I'm not dead. :) Between the Easter events at StAG and Anglesey Abbey and business picking up as it usually does in April, it's been very very busy here.
I have to jet off again- I'm running on jet fuel these days, hopefully I'll have enough to get through Friday 5pm. :)
I have to jet off again- I'm running on jet fuel these days, hopefully I'll have enough to get through Friday 5pm. :)
Saturday, 27 March 2010
March 27, 2010
Been an action packed day today- I have 2 friends coming to visit Tuesday night thru Friday, and I finally got the spare room sorted (wow it is very small though) and my office at about 95% done, which was fantastic. We've got friends visiting Tuesday, and since G isn't back till Monday (and Z is in Cornwall at a wedding this weekend) I had to do it all single handed...I had to dope myself up on espresso mocha coffee to increase the productivity though, seeing as I had to haul 2 mattresses out of the car and upstairs all on my own, and I moved a wardrobe, suitcases, crates, and who knows what else. I picked up the mattresses from Emmaus this morning, went into town to foto the StAG Women's Conference, hung out with the ch staff guys who were hiding upstairs (their offices are in the chch building which was taken over by the women's conference) and then did a bit of shopping, then back home to rearrange the upstairs. Whew. :) I even went through my closet, cleared it out, got rid of loads of stuff, and put all my clothes away. Like I said, it's been a productive day!
Did I ever mention that I love adventures? In chatting with my life coach about dealing with difficult people, we talked about what are sort of called supervalues- the things that are valuable to people that are at the root of people's choices. Because despite the catchy title "dealing with difficult people" the fact is that people are only difficult because we are all different from each other. :) One of the reasons we find it hard to get on with people is that their supervalues are different from ours. Let me give an example. :) I discovered that variety is a supervalue of mine. You're all probably thinking "no duh!" I love trying new things, learning new things, going new places, meeting new people, making new friends, shifting and changing my life and the adventure of it all. Life feels like a gigantic adventure to me, flying around, catching thermals, diving, with JC as my anchor to be sure I don't go launching myself into outer space. :)
I can get along with most people- probably 95% of people, no problem. 5% I may feel an instant dislike for, but for sort of 2% I can with persistence and positive working learn to really love and respect them. But that missing 3% is the tricky bit. It turns out that the people I find the absolutely most difficult to deal with tend to be people who deeply value certainty- which is of course the opposite of variety. :) Everyone values certainty to some degree, but these 3% value certainty the way I value variety, which puts us at polar opposites. I could just try to avoid these people, which I've tried in the past, but as a business person I can't always do that. Meeting with a life coach has been really good in that I've learned a lot about myself, about other people, and how to deal with people who are different from me. The funny thing is that those 3% of people must find me totally intolerable and be wanting to avoid me too! :) While they are trying to keep things certain, calm, and under control, I'm zooming along trying to drag them out of certainty into massive changes.
Actually I'm thankful that Gd created me this way- its fantastic for making new friends and telling them the good news about JC. Besides there's not much I can do about it anyway- at least I don't get into too much trouble. :) ha my mom was a genius and sent extra school work with me or arranged for extra work to do my whole school career (thanks mom!) to keep me interested and occupied, I feel sure I would have been hell on wheels if she hadn't, and that trained me to find more work for myself when I was feeling bored, which was pretty much all the time. :) So now when I feel bored, I generate some "extra" work for myself- could be gardening, photographing, learning a new language, skill, or taking a trip.
I have a few more things I need to do tonight- the time changes tonight for us, so it's sort of 10pm here now. Tomorrow I'm out at the Abbey helping prep for the Easter event, photographing tree planting, and going to an allotments meeting. Hope you all have a blessed weekend!
Did I ever mention that I love adventures? In chatting with my life coach about dealing with difficult people, we talked about what are sort of called supervalues- the things that are valuable to people that are at the root of people's choices. Because despite the catchy title "dealing with difficult people" the fact is that people are only difficult because we are all different from each other. :) One of the reasons we find it hard to get on with people is that their supervalues are different from ours. Let me give an example. :) I discovered that variety is a supervalue of mine. You're all probably thinking "no duh!" I love trying new things, learning new things, going new places, meeting new people, making new friends, shifting and changing my life and the adventure of it all. Life feels like a gigantic adventure to me, flying around, catching thermals, diving, with JC as my anchor to be sure I don't go launching myself into outer space. :)
I can get along with most people- probably 95% of people, no problem. 5% I may feel an instant dislike for, but for sort of 2% I can with persistence and positive working learn to really love and respect them. But that missing 3% is the tricky bit. It turns out that the people I find the absolutely most difficult to deal with tend to be people who deeply value certainty- which is of course the opposite of variety. :) Everyone values certainty to some degree, but these 3% value certainty the way I value variety, which puts us at polar opposites. I could just try to avoid these people, which I've tried in the past, but as a business person I can't always do that. Meeting with a life coach has been really good in that I've learned a lot about myself, about other people, and how to deal with people who are different from me. The funny thing is that those 3% of people must find me totally intolerable and be wanting to avoid me too! :) While they are trying to keep things certain, calm, and under control, I'm zooming along trying to drag them out of certainty into massive changes.
Actually I'm thankful that Gd created me this way- its fantastic for making new friends and telling them the good news about JC. Besides there's not much I can do about it anyway- at least I don't get into too much trouble. :) ha my mom was a genius and sent extra school work with me or arranged for extra work to do my whole school career (thanks mom!) to keep me interested and occupied, I feel sure I would have been hell on wheels if she hadn't, and that trained me to find more work for myself when I was feeling bored, which was pretty much all the time. :) So now when I feel bored, I generate some "extra" work for myself- could be gardening, photographing, learning a new language, skill, or taking a trip.
I have a few more things I need to do tonight- the time changes tonight for us, so it's sort of 10pm here now. Tomorrow I'm out at the Abbey helping prep for the Easter event, photographing tree planting, and going to an allotments meeting. Hope you all have a blessed weekend!
Sunday, 21 March 2010
March 21, 2010
I usually try to update this at least every Saturday, but yesterday was such a long day that it didn't happen! I was out photographing our group of friends from StAG (that's our ch here) and then processing those photos, then on to a little post Paintball social...I love to photograph events, and I'm always looking for new things to photograph. I hope it might lead to some business from the paintball company- we'll see.
These past 2 weeks I've been doing a lot of photographing with 2 friends from the camera club, Andy and Sarah. They are both older than me by about 10 years, married with children under 10, but both have jobs that allow them to go out and photo during the week. Sarah is a pilot for EasyJet, and I have no idea what her husband does. Andy is a Chemical Engineer for a big firm here, but he is off on disability due to some sort of cancer that he has. He's been on chemo for about 5 years it seems- but he's not allowed to do official work, and like most engineers has lots of energy and enthusiam, which he's put into photography. Sarah interestingly is into gliding, and sails a yacht- talk about posh friends! ;) It has been fantastic to go out shooting with other people- I've been out doing hawks and eagles at a raptor center, I've taken them out to do snowdrops at the abbey, and it's been great fun. All 3 of us have enjoyed it- we put our photos up onto Picasa and then comment back and forth on them. Neither of them follow JC, so pr that I'd have the chance to share with them.
The new website is coming along- I hope it'll be done by May. Groups will start coming out to the Abbey the 3rd week of April, and there's a huge Easter event on that I'm helping with Easter weekend. And friends are coming March 30th to visit from Morocco- can't wait to see them!
G is making his way back to Michigan tomorrow, after the conference in Pittsburgh and visiting a close friend in Boston. Z and I are having lots of girly time which is also very good fun. :) Tonight we had an iHUB (that's our bbl study for internationals) discussion about different rlgns and whether they a) all do lead to the same place and b) are just parts of a bigger picture. Those are both untrue, but it was useful to look at especially as some of our friends there aren't followers of JC and are curious about the truth. Pr for K, a friend from Hong Kong who is really curious about things. Also for D, a mom I'll be meeting with in the coming weeks to study the bbl.
That's my week in a nutshell- it's spring here, really enjoying the flowers and wildlife. Hope all is well in MI, and keep holding out as spring is nearly here! :)
These past 2 weeks I've been doing a lot of photographing with 2 friends from the camera club, Andy and Sarah. They are both older than me by about 10 years, married with children under 10, but both have jobs that allow them to go out and photo during the week. Sarah is a pilot for EasyJet, and I have no idea what her husband does. Andy is a Chemical Engineer for a big firm here, but he is off on disability due to some sort of cancer that he has. He's been on chemo for about 5 years it seems- but he's not allowed to do official work, and like most engineers has lots of energy and enthusiam, which he's put into photography. Sarah interestingly is into gliding, and sails a yacht- talk about posh friends! ;) It has been fantastic to go out shooting with other people- I've been out doing hawks and eagles at a raptor center, I've taken them out to do snowdrops at the abbey, and it's been great fun. All 3 of us have enjoyed it- we put our photos up onto Picasa and then comment back and forth on them. Neither of them follow JC, so pr that I'd have the chance to share with them.
The new website is coming along- I hope it'll be done by May. Groups will start coming out to the Abbey the 3rd week of April, and there's a huge Easter event on that I'm helping with Easter weekend. And friends are coming March 30th to visit from Morocco- can't wait to see them!
G is making his way back to Michigan tomorrow, after the conference in Pittsburgh and visiting a close friend in Boston. Z and I are having lots of girly time which is also very good fun. :) Tonight we had an iHUB (that's our bbl study for internationals) discussion about different rlgns and whether they a) all do lead to the same place and b) are just parts of a bigger picture. Those are both untrue, but it was useful to look at especially as some of our friends there aren't followers of JC and are curious about the truth. Pr for K, a friend from Hong Kong who is really curious about things. Also for D, a mom I'll be meeting with in the coming weeks to study the bbl.
That's my week in a nutshell- it's spring here, really enjoying the flowers and wildlife. Hope all is well in MI, and keep holding out as spring is nearly here! :)
Saturday, 13 March 2010
March 13, 2010
I've picked up whatever cold it was that G had at the beginning of the week, but feeling a bit better tonight anyway. I just drove down to meet with a couple whose wedding I'm photographing in May- very nice couple, sounds like we have the same idea about photography so it should be an easy shoot. Excellent. :) G's heading back Tuesday and I've asked him to bring back some power tools for me- I've had my eye on a DeWalt dc 989 for ages but I can't afford one here, so here's hoping I'll win the ebay auction because I'm desperate for a drill- the walls here are ridiculously hard, you need a construction drill to drill through them. They don't use gypsum board due to the damp, everything has to be a sort of concrete type stuff. Anyway looking forward to the new drill. :) G has a conference in Pittsburgh, this is the one he's a committee chair for, so he gets to run the sessions. Very cool indeed. Good thing he likes to travel (and I don't mind him being gone- especially as he brings me back drills and gadgets) because he has yet another conference called Xen Summit at the end of April in California. He's bringing in lots of money for his company so it's worth it for him to be zooming around everywhere. I'm so thankful to have a housemate, so I don't feel too lonely while he's away. Z is an absolute godsend, we're so blessed to have her living with us!
Not much else has been going on here-web site is a growing, wedding business is growing, which means I need to revamp my current website once the new one is done so I can target that market. I'm essentially going to run 2 fronts- KD Photography for weddings, and 361 Photography, which will be commercial stuff only. I'm not quite sure how to manage the transition, I think I'm going to need a PR agent to help me. I have an excellent PR agent friend who will give me a hand though, so it'll be good. Maybe I'll have a little launch party or something once the website is done. Would be very good fun. :)
I think it's early to bed for me tonight, this cough is no fun and I need to rest up. G's off to play games with some coworkers tonight- those guys really love games, and they would have had it here except I haven't been feeling well. And why spread it? Hope you're getting some spring back home! :)
Not much else has been going on here-web site is a growing, wedding business is growing, which means I need to revamp my current website once the new one is done so I can target that market. I'm essentially going to run 2 fronts- KD Photography for weddings, and 361 Photography, which will be commercial stuff only. I'm not quite sure how to manage the transition, I think I'm going to need a PR agent to help me. I have an excellent PR agent friend who will give me a hand though, so it'll be good. Maybe I'll have a little launch party or something once the website is done. Would be very good fun. :)
I think it's early to bed for me tonight, this cough is no fun and I need to rest up. G's off to play games with some coworkers tonight- those guys really love games, and they would have had it here except I haven't been feeling well. And why spread it? Hope you're getting some spring back home! :)
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