Stop/Start

Nothing to fear but fear itself

2009-05-24T14:57:02+01:00

Almost 6 months since I wrote here. Well, that happens in a busy business live - and then suddenly you experience another Stop/Start moment which needs to be written down.

Last evening was such a moment. Sitting in the living room around 9pm, watching Britain's Got Talent after a late dinner, both Ton and I almost jumped out of our skin when a loud crashing sound disrupted the evening.

Something had hit our living room window. And very, very hard. One moment I feared the glass would shatter into a thousand pieces, but fortunately that didn't happen. Had someone shot at the window, someone thrown a stone to it with great force? We went out site where the front door light - which works on a sensor - was already shining. Was someone out there, close by, ready to 'attack'?

We saw nothing in the little alley next to our house, nor in the passageway to the School entrance and parking. Nothing on the School sport field either. We did see a small group of young teenagers run as if the devil was chasing them on the path between the fence of the sport field and the playing area behind the High Street. And then I saw a lid of a can laying in our front garden, the lid blown off with some force it seemed.

A 'prank' gone a bit wrong? An teenager's experiment gone a bit wrong? You shudder to think how terrible wrong this could have gone. Trying - and succeeding - to explode a can of drinks where the lid turned into a missile, by accident 'only' hitting our window without causing damage or harm. What if the unexpected missile had hit one of the teenagers - you can imagine standing huddled around the experiment, or, if they had any sense at all, at a safer distant. But the pathway is over 200 meters away from our home! What's a safe distant?

I sincerely hope all of them are fine, and also hope they jumped out of their skin too when the can exploded, like we did. I also realised how such an event can put the fear of the unknown in someone. Our first reaction was indeed: someone's firing at us (bullet or stone), we're under some kind of attack! Even if you live in a nice, mostly quiet, village not known for violent encounters.

Then you kind of start to think of the pranks we used to do - and I'm sure you've done them too - when we were young and 'innocent' children/teenagers. Never realising how such a prank could effect someone you did not even know/notice became a 'victim' of your mischief.

How often did we ourself put unnecessary fear into the life of someone else, who didn't realise it wasn't meant malicious, just a mischief.

Nothing to fear but fear itself.

It's a generous time - stories shared

2008-12-10T15:19:34+00:00

It's that time of the year again: December.

Are you trying to decided who you will send a Christmas card this year, checking your list of last year? (I know of some who strike-out people on their list when a given card has not been return in kind - oh well).

Are you trying to decide who to gift a present (business wise or personal?) Once my boss was a bit disgruntled when he had to buy his own big agenda when the 'annual' Christmas present from one specific company didn't turn up ;-) Oh well.

It is the time to be generous. And generousity comes in many forms:

The Generosity of God - Fish and Loaves for all , by Christine Sine at Godspace

What being kind to others can do for your own wellbeing, by Jackie Cameron at Jackie Cameron
The Year I Believed There Really is a Santa, by J.Sewell Perkins at Success Coaches Institute [submitted as a guest post at the Middle Zone Musing]
The Karen Economy, by Karen Hanrahan at Best Wellness Consultant
My silver seminary - WILF 1, by Jon Swanson at Levite Chronicles
Something to Stand On - Generosity 2, by Jon Swanson at Levite Chronicles
a second look - generosity 3, by Jon Swanson at Levite Chronicles
How I Was Blown Away by a Stick of Gum, by Jean Browman at Cheerful Monk
What I’ve Learned From the Generosity of Others, by Monique Attinger at AllergyWise
The Meaning of a Family, by Giovanna Garcia at Imperfect Action
What I Learned From Social Media, by Victor Bello at blacktone vb
Ten-Dollar Blessing, by Jennifer Duke Lee at Getting Down With Jesus
Is It Far Better to Give Than Receive? by Karen Swim at Words for Hire
What I Learned From Uncle Earl’s Generosity, by Robyn McMaster at Brain Based Biz
Pass the Generosity, Please, by Tabetha Gedeon at Denim & Silk
The Generosity of Bloggers, by Brad Shorr at Word Sell, Inc.
Generosity brings life into the world, by Marcus Goodyear at Goodword Editing
The Gift of Time, by Ulla Hennig, at Ulla Hennig’s Weblog
What I Learned From the Generosity of Others, by Cheryl Smith at CultureSmith Consulting
What I Learned From the Generosity of Others, by Anita Bruzzese at 45 Things
What I Learned…, by Nancy Kourmoulis at Treasures of Darkness
Generosity: in 2 Syllables or Less, by Joanna Young at Confident Writing
What I learned from the generosity of others, by Pelf Nyok at Pelfism is Contagious
Generous Bloggers, Career Coaches and Writers: Thank You, by G. L. Hoffman at What Would Dad Say
What Hitchhiking Taught Me About Generosity, by Jean Browman at Transforming Stress Into Personal Power

What I Learned From the Generosity of Others, by Luke Gedeon at Luke Gedeon
Delivering What We Promise, by M. Keefer at MKeefer’s Weblog
What I Learned From the Generosity of Strangers, by Karen Swim at Words for Hire
The Generosity of Others - where would we be without them/it? by Karin H. at Start/Stop

What I Learned From a Generous Heart, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings (The monthly instigator of WILF: What I Learned From......)

Merry Christmas!

The Generousity of Others - where would we be without them/it?

2008-12-01T14:44:13+00:00

Robert Hruzek's December WILF (What I learned From..) group writing project is - very appropriately around USA's Thanksgiving Day: What I learned from the generousity of others.

When I read his pre-announcement last week my first thought (and comment) was: I wrote a whole book on the subject three years ago! Which would be a way, way too long post as my contribution for WILF. Robert kindly suggested I should give some excerpts, he would be happy to provide a 'promotion platform' for it - he's very generous, my turtle friend is.
I thought long and hard about which part of the 178 pages from my novel would describe best what the generosity of others can mean for a fledgling business.

(Mind you, I have always trouble keeping even short stories short - but I've done my best). I let you dive into my story almost at the beginning, where I meet this tremendously generous person - as it turns out later. And no, it's not the 'guru'.

Right, definitely another hour wasted. He fortunately has only another three minutes to impress us with his marketing knowledge, and then one of the Business Exhibition organisers opens the door to make an end to it, finally. Guru invites everyone to visit his stand at the exhibition where he has leaflets and brochures aplenty and will obviously try to sell some of his expensive consulting time.
Most of his ‘pupils’ gather round him for his business card, but I can’t be bothered. There is a throng of people blocking the escape route to coffee, fresh air and more interesting businesses at the Exhibition. When I finally struggle through and start making my way to one of the coffee bars a hand on my arm and a soft-spoken voice stops me in my track.
“Excuse me, Miss.”

It’s my fellow-rebel. I guess he’s around 55 going on 60, with greying hair where there’s still some left. He lets go of my arm and tries to hand me a business card, his I presume. Great, another consultant trying to part me from my hard-earned money. For the time being I ignore the card.
“I don’t think you were that impressed by his workshop.”
Right in one.
“No, can’t say I was.”
He slowly nods his head and looks at me to elaborate my statement. Oh well, why not, coffee will have to wait yet a bit longer.

“It seems nowadays there are no other marketing solutions than these so-called repeat sales. This is the third Business Exhibition this year I’ve been to and with each one you seem to have the same kind of workshops. I’m sure they are right, but just not for my type of business. Yet, they all promise to be THE suitable solution for ALL businesses. Which they are not.”
“And your type of business is? Definitely not car sales” he chuckles his soft chuckle again.
I can’t help but smile.
“No, not cars. Wooden flooring.” I retrieve one of my business cards from my jacket pocket and hand it over. “How many floors do you need in a year, eh?”
He studies my simple card.
“Very apt business name,” he comments with a smile, while offering his own card to me again.
How can I refuse now? Expecting to see yet another consulting bureau I’m surprised to see he is a chartered accountant. Like mine his card is simple: business name, address and contact numbers but the catch phrase catches my eye: ‘Adding more than just the numbers’.
Hmm, I wonder what?

My card has vanished in one of his pockets, while I’m still holding his. He taps my arm again.
“Back there, your remark was spot on, his method doesn’t apply to all business types. But there are many ways to increase business for a product like yours.”
Sure there are.
“Of course, I know that. But the only thing Mr Guru back there had right was that repeat business is the most easiest and cheapest to find. I’ve been to numerous other workshops, read numerous books about marketing strategies, but all ‘instant’ other ideas seem to cost the Earth and Moon together. Advertising only works well if you are able to repeat the same ad almost every week. Do you have any idea what a reasonable size ad in the simplest and smallest local paper costs these days? A small business like mine can hardly afford one a month.
Then I’m told I have to have a prominent presence on the Internet where search engines are the masters of the Cyber Universe. But you can tackle them I’m told at yet another workshop by implementing clever web marketing strategies, preferably done by the company who is giving out free workshops as if it’s the last thing they’ll do.”
Even I can hear the frustration creeping into my voice.

My fellow-rebel just waits patiently for me to continue. I sigh; I need coffee not another reminder of how my young business is struggling.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to sound so glum. I think I’m in the wrong kind of business, I should hold workshops myself: how to waste most of your valuable time listing to overpaid consultants at Business Exhibitions.”
“There are better organised workshops around.” He says. “Ones that can really make a difference to your business.”
Why didn’t I see that one coming I wonder? Next thing he will invite me to one of his own and I’m betting it’s not a free one either.
He surprises me again.

“You have my card. Give me call any time; I would love to hear more about your business. No obligations.”
No invitation to a workshop, no invitation to visit the stand of his company at the Exhibition, just no obligations.

And that's exactly what happened. True to his word: no obligations when I did call my 'fellow rebel' in real life. Unconditional, always very generously giving his advice to help us establish our business. In truth he believed earlier in our success than we ever did. And he's still 'at it' - setting me challenges, helping out, keeping me sane in hectic and troubled times. And never ever any obligations in his generousity.

Over at the Kiss2 dynamic website (aka blog) I'm giving the E-version of my debut novel away when you subscribe to the blog-alerts there. I thought I just copy the webform here if you like to read the whole story.

Feel free to take me up on this offer: no obligations! And my generous friend even wrote the foreword in it - just like that!

Freedom? Not me!

2008-11-06T11:34:05+00:00

Don't be alerted by the title, I love my freedom most of us in the 'modern' world experience. This is 'just' my contribution to Robert Hruzek's monthly group-writing project: "What I learned from.....Government"

When Robert announced this month's subject I told him I learned most about Government from a Science Fiction book - now that made him very curious of course. SF is not real, is it? (Although, if you wait long enough all SF inventions start to make their way into your life: communicators - read mobile phone -, hand-held computers etc - we're only still waiting to be "beamed up").

Many, many years ago I read this wonderful book by author Eric Frank Russel, published in 1962 (the year I was born): "The Great Explosion" - later also published (partly) as short story: "Then there were none".

To cut a long story short: inventor invents super-drive, humans spread out over the Galaxy and many centuries later Earth is trying to reconnect with all the groups that left her. So a brand new expedition, complete with soldiers, is launched to bring back the 'outcasts' back under the 'Government' of Earth. An Governmental Ambassador goes with the star ship and has the task to attach himself as the new Governor to one of the planets the various groups have made their own all those many years ago.

It is a very humorous book to read and on the third planet this star ship visits things get really interesting. At first sight it looks like the human inhabitants have stood still in time: farm land and small villages is all that can be seen from the ship before it lands. No big cities, no large and busy motor ways or planes in the sky.

The first inhabitant they meet is a farmer. When asked to lead the soldiers and the Ambassador's assistant to his leader he just shrugs his shoulders and suggest various names: like Mr something who likes to lead the annual dance. Anyway, you have to read the story yourself for all the other funny details.

It turns out this new society, thriving and happy society, is based purely on the reciprocation principle: no money changes hand, no government, no police, no greed, no criminality, no nothing of the sort. Just respect for each others talents and a seemingly ingrained principle of sharing. No rules, no regulations besides: if you do something for me, I do something for you. And oh dear the person who wants to take advantage of this principle: he soon runs out of friends, family, food, shelter etc - everyone knows and recognises a greedy 'taker' and word of mouth must be invented there on that planet.

Several soldier's group on R&R encounter different experiences: some groups can't even get hold of a single drink or something to eat - and call the population retards who don't understand the value of money or gold - others have the time of their life when helping out with a simple task and being 'rewarded' by food and company. One even deserts his ship (on his special push bike, hilarious) and starts a farm.

The credo of this peaceful and bountiful planet is: Freedom, not me!
It does sound as a contradiction, doesn't it? Everyone on that planet is free to do or not to do anything, at first sight the ultimate idea of Freedom. What would be the reaction of any Government to this 'free for all'? Total chaos, many would take advantage - wouldn't they? So, 'freedom' is restricted into rules and regulations: do this, don't do that. On this planet there is no government, and no chaos.

If you take a few minutes to ponder about it it is this ownership of sharing, of reciprocation that is the true freedom. Every single inhabitant of that planet decides for himself or herself what to share and at the same time fully realise they all depend on each other: Freedom, not me!

Mind-boggling, funny and phylisohpical credo. And in my honest opinion the best and most honest way to 'govern' any society.

Friends come from all walks of life

2008-09-09T12:41:07+01:00

Robert over at Middle Zone Musing launched another of his famous WILF's (What I learned From) yesterday: What I learned from My Friends.

Been thinking about that since I read the 'topic' for this month and listed a whole list of things I learned from them. Then I had a good look at the long list of friends: friends from days gone past, friends who 'stayed-behind' when we moved 8 years ago (is it still called emigrating when you move from one European country to another these days?), friends who live close-by, friends who live further afield, friends I never really met in 'real-life', friends who started out as business contacts.

And I noticed something 'peculiar': when we were young our friends were almost always of our own age - school-friends, neighbour kids, holiday 'contacts'. The older we get, the more 'random' the age is - it becomes an unimportant 'trait' of a friendship. Of course I still have friends who are as 'young' as I am - or at least I think we are of the same age, I'm terrible at guessing and rather not 'put my foot in' - but overall it is a mix of younger and older persons.

Before it mattered, now - by 'coming of age' - it doesn't seem to matter any which way you look at it. Friends become friends for different reasons now, not because you were both going through the same 'growing pains' and could only relate/find comfort in those who felt/wondered the same. Younger or older persons didn't know it as well as we did (for us growing up was brand new and thought no one else had thought these thoughts, felt those feeling before - only our friends). Now we know better ;-)

Friends now bring their own unique experiences with them, share their insights and wisdom with us - as we do with them. We relate differently now, are able to see beyond just our own feelings and thoughts.

Friends bring a richer life to us. Age is irrelevant; sharing, listening, learning, 'teaching' is.

Life is like a stop/start journey

2008-08-09T10:58:34+01:00

This week we were watching: Vanessa Mae - The Making of me on BBC1. Regrettably - due to the lovely weather we had, yes had - now we're back inside in the evening instead of 'holidaying every evening in our garden - we missed the two earlier programs on Nature or Nurture.

'Famous', talented persons were asked to go through various test to discover (for themselves and for science) what made them 'famous': nature - i.e. talent, or nurture - training, repetition etc. The program caught my eye because of the name Vanessa Mae - when she was a 'popular' classical violist ranking high in the pop-charts I was a big fan of her. I think I even have a cd of her, somewhere in the stack of our collection.

The program started with Vanessa marking on a large piece of paper where she thought 'the making of her' came from: how much nature, how much nurture. She marked 75% nature, 25% nurture.

That moment - without having seen the two other programs - I just knew in the end she would change that mark to more nurture. Why?
Because no matter how much talent you have, given to you by nature (genes etc) if you don't do anything with it (practice, train, repetition, keep going, bust your 'guts' etc) it will never 'make you'.

It is in fact - and since I discovered: Now Discover your strengths from the Gallup Org - depending on:
Nurturing nature's talent.

Vanessa discovered that too during her journey through the various test put in front of her, she discovered a whole lot more about her self than I think she ever held possible these test would do for her. "Aha moments" aplenty.

Yes, life is like a stop/start journey: you think - you discover - you ponder - your realise - you integrate your new realisation into your life and the journey continues. Stop/Start

And that is my metaphor for life for this months WILF groupwriting project over at Middle Zone Musings - I missed out last month, sorry Robert.

An exhibition of paintings with words

2008-07-22T13:17:11+01:00

Two weeks ago Liz Strauss asked us for 25 Words of Work/Life Wisdom
and then managed to turn all contributions into an Exhibition of paintings with words (Liz is a wizard in painting pictures with words!)

25 Words of Work / Life Wisdom

view presentation (tags: successful-blog strauss liz project)

Click the single right arrow to move to the next slide. To embed this on your blog or share it with others, just click the “embed” tag on the viewer.

Liz also lists all 'painters' (see below)

Karin H
Mark
Mark Goodyear
Lisa
stephenpreneur
Bhupesh Shah
Diana
DazzlinDonna
Karen Lynch
Courtney
RadiantWoman
Ed Karl
Robert Hruzek
Ami
JP Rangaswami
Mark
Aaron Stroud
Terry Starbucker
spaceagesage
Claire Raikes
Dennis Salazar
Brad Shorr
Mother Earth
Katie Konrath
Suzie Cheel
Christine Taylor
Tom Volkar
Todd Jordan
Stephen Smith
Peter Knight
Joe Hauckes
theFemGeek
Bobby Clark
Meryl333
Liz Williams
Lara Nieberding
David Taboada
Phil Baumann
Anant
John Cooper
Paul Downey
Paul Whitehouse
Lillie Ammann
Vicky H
Mark David Gerson
Eric Peterson
Jenny Mannion

Liz Strauss

Where are you from?!? Make up your mind

2008-06-17T12:06:36+01:00

My partner and I love watching football - so we're in for a treat with the Euro-2008 championships this year (none of the British countries made it through, our home country did, of course they did!)

Now, our team is doing great - of course they are! - but watching the games and especially listening to the announcements about our team's results and future matches we think gets everybody a bit confused about who's playing.

Imagine seeing an announcement on the TV-screen showing the next match: The Netherlands - Romania while the announcer says: it's Holland versus Romania tomorrow, if the Dutch team plays like the last tw otimes they are bound.... etc.

I won't go in the historical 'facts' about this, but it is strange, not? English speak English, Germans speak German, Fins Fins, Danish Danish but the people from The Netherlands speak Dutch and why has the country two names? It's almost enough to give us, the Nederlanders - sorry the Dutch - a split personality.
Not that that is a strange thing on its own, just listen to our National Anthem:

William of Nassau, I am of German blood
Loyal to my fatherland I will remain until I die
A Prince of Orange, I am free and fearless
The King of Spain I have always honoured.

Even the writer of the anthem couldn't make up his mind on what was the most important fact.

Anyway, enough ponderings on some very weird historical facts (mix-ups? cases of mistaken identity?), let's just say we're rather flexible as a nation: Dutch, Nederlands or Hollands - as long as our team plays well ;-)

My non-entry to MZM's 'What I've learned from Odd Jobs'

2008-04-13T14:29:02+01:00

Sorry Robert, you'll have to count me out this month - too much to do, too little time I'm afraid.

Plus I feel I've lost two whole days doing all those odd jobs that come with selecting, buying, receiving and installing a brand new pc! And then teaching it how you like it to behave.

My old pc ('only' 2.5 years old) couldn't really cope any more with all I'd asked from it - sometimes you could even hear it 'chomping' away to try to fulfill all the commands I made. Starting it up every morning became a tiresome task - I could do all the odd jobs belonging to open up of the showroom, doing the washing up, open and file the morning post before it was truly up and running and emails were coming in. So high time to retire it.

It arrived last Thursday, new tower and wide flat screen with some programs installed (and I've to relearn MSOffice all over again, been working with Office 2000 since, well 2000). That wide screen is something you really have to get used to! But nice too, I can now run two programs next to each other (that's something the dear 'Doctor' forgot to mention in his 'Does size matter' blog-post of last month) - increasing productivity! (I hope, but am also sure I'll find more odd jobs to cramp into the day this way.) Only, my own website has changed colours! What used to be dark creamy now looks greenish on this new screen - and small!

Anyway, the other odd jobs with my new pc:

making coffee for the chap who brought it in and was going to help me install most other hardware and software
making space on my overcrowded desk so two flat screens could sit side by side for the coming days
rummaging through odd boxes to find old cd-roms of my frequently used programs - and the licenses to go with it
untangling cables, plugs and wires - not just once
killing to Windows hideous start-up and turn-off music
printing instructions from the old pc to discover that the printer was no longer attached to it - so making pdf-files instead, copy-paste to the new pc - click print
making back-ups and restoring back-ups - to find that some files were corrupted - copy/paste whole files (good thing memory stick nowadays are given away as 'marketing' items - filing space a plenty)
getting frustrated why the mouse isn't working - not so handy having two mouses (mice?) in front of you and trying to use one for the pc it's not connected to
re-structuring the My computer and My Documents lay-out the way I wanted. No, I don't want it there - I want it right there. Not there I said - there. (Ended up with three sets of My Documents, three sets of Documents & Settings - now it's behaving a bit better)
Revisiting all the frequently used websites and feverishly trying to remember all log-in details and passwords
Emailing support services for programs that simply refuse to work the way they used to
Finding old emails - supposedly copied over but lost in the deeps of the new pc
changing the templates of this blog and the kiss2 blog because on the new wide screen both look, well, small!
testing the webcam on skype again, to discover the installation cd-rom is missing (found it after two days in a box with business cards!?!)
deciding when not to start up the old pc anymore and let the new pc do all the work (and so getting back my desk)

I'm getting there. Can't even do the washing up on my normal pace, the new pc is oh so eager to get to work.
So once again: very sorry I couldn't make it this time Robert - things have just got back to normal (well I hope, haven't had time to discover all the new features of the MSOffice 2007 software yet - that's got to be great fun so I'm told)
But see you next month on WILF

Typical conversations - in my head

2008-04-06T13:28:27+01:00

Human beings are peculiar - we think we are the only living creatures on earth that do just that: think.

I for one 'think a lot' - and frequently almost complain that I can't switch off my mind and thoughts. I hold whole conversations in there (I call this 'living in my head') - and sometimes it 'does me head in'!

But apparently it is a very healthy and even profitable habit!

This morning reading the Saturday Times my eye fell on the following sentence:

"People who talk in themselves are people with a more active life in their heads and more fantasy."

Thomas Brinthaupt (psychology professor at Middle Tennessee State University) found - after a study among students - that individuals who talk to themselves in daily situations tend to be impulsive, creative, problem-solving types.

(Tried to find the article on-line but failed - not interesting enough I presume)

Finally: it's official - 'living in my head' is normal ;-)

What I learned from the... law: insure to be sure

2008-03-04T13:30:58+00:00

Robert at Middle Zone Musings has launched his newest Group Writing Project - every month he does that to us! This month it's about The Law.
Now, me and my partner are fortunate not to have had many encounters with the Law, but there has been one episode in our life that still rattles us.

Some background first: middle of the year 1999 we were 'asked' to team-up with a Dutch company - freshly started with many plans -, to move to the UK and manage a retail shop in Kent. We should have checked their plans better! Anyway, in 2000 we sold up everything we had in The Netherlands, moved to Charing Kent and waited. Waited a while longer and lived of our savings until finally the word go was given to revamp the showroom our 'partners' had selected. Another 4 months later the wooden flooring shop could finally open and hurray - we received our first wages. To cut a very long, frustrating and dreadful story short (why not read my business novel for the whole story?): June 2003 we were made redundant, hadn't received wages for two months and our 'investment' - part of the arrangement with our 'partners' on a 70/30 base - gone with the wind.

Then the real fun started: the one remaining partner - the other one had to pack his bags a year earlier, like the manager of the second retail shop that was launched - thought it would be a good idea to tell everyone we were responsible, we had been the owners of the Ltd. A mounting pile of demand letters from various companies and clients in our letterbox was the result. And that at the time we were trying to go-it-alone as Wood You Like (working from home). The one option we had to stop this barrage of harassment for once and for all was to venture to The Employment Tribunal.

Now, being a foreigner in a strange land were rules and regulations are quite different than in your 'home' country is nerve wrecking, to say the least. How to go about this in the best way, no time for trial - pun intended ;-) - and error.
Fortunately with our home-content insurance came a Family Legal Insurance (costs per year for this optional insurance - a lousy £ 10.00). All it took to get the ball rolling was 1 phone call to our insurance agent. All of a sudden we had a solicitor who put in the claim for unfair dismissal, redundancy, unpaid wages and unpaid holidays etc for us. A solicitor who put a large volume of documents together to prove we only had ever been employees - and not so well treated employees to that. When the Tribunal date was set, all of a sudden we had a barrister too!

During the Tribunal our 'partner'/employer was accompanied by his accountant - one of those who's 'invoice meter' starts running the minute you think of calling him, let alone of him spending a whole day - silently, never had to say a word - in a court room. When the first nerves for the proceedings were gone we even managed to have fun - well, very quietly and mostly afterwards of course.

At the end of the day - yes, a whole day! - the chairman came back with the verdict: all our claims were honoured - our 'employer' had to pay the wages that were still due, holiday claims and redundancy reward. Of course we never saw one penny of that, no use picking feathers from a bare chicken - our 'partners' had set-up the company structure in such a way this would not costs them personal, but the most important verdict was: we were employees, unfairly dismissed! And that had been our aim all along - this enabled us to start with the cleanest slate of slates with our own juvenile company.

It has been a very wise lesson - lessons in fact:
A) never go into a partnership without knowing and being able to influence major and minor decision and
B) be sure you're insured for legal advice/help. Not only gives it 'peace of mind' but you'll never know when The Law comes knocking - or when you'll have to knock on The Law's gate.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T16:46:13+00:00

Musical Christmas greeting Have a good and merry time with all your loved , near and dear ones!

Taking a short break

2007-12-14T11:17:57+00:00

We're off to The Netherlands tomorrow to meet up with

History - a lunch meeting with one of the finest Directors I ever worked for during those 19 years at Nedalco

Present - diner with Ton's family on Saturday evening, diner with my family on Sunday afternoon/evening.

Future - discussing wood flooring products with our main supplier/manufacturer and taking more (and better) pictures of their quality wooden furniture for our own new 'division'.

Back on Wednesday late afternoon again.

In the meantime - with thanks to Peter Allen -

a Musical Christmas greeting from me to you

Floral Surprise - no 'boundaries'

2007-11-05T15:10:47+00:00

We all know the world-wide-web knows no boundaries: where ever we are, we can reach out and 'touch' the whole world. With posts, with comments, with friendly emails.

Or...... as happened today - with a floral surprise delivered to my little showroom (that now has the smell of Spring!).

The accompanying note revealed the reason behind this wonderful and much appreciated gift:

"With many thanks for being my 1,000th comment & daily energizer. Keep it Simple...

Steve Roesler"

Isn't that just World Wide Wonderful?

Thanks Steve!

A Birthday party, multiple again! 24.10.07

2007-10-22T14:35:27+01:00

Liz at Successful and Outstanding blog(gers) is throwing a party!

A Party, Wednesday, October 24th! You’re Invited!!

In honour of various blog birthdays (my own Kiss2 blog too) the celebrations will be plentiful. What will be happening:
It’s an all-day conversation with outstanding gifts for EVERYONE.

* Open Comments all day.
* Flash mob commenting.
* Photographic Party Favours.
* HUGE SURPRISES!!.
* Guest posts galore. (My contribution - The Currency: Talent)

A Party! You’re Invited! C’mon! Let’s Talk and Have Some Fun!

(There’s only one rule . . . be nice.)

The Kiss Biss Crew

2007-09-24T13:29:43+01:00

Those who've ~~had the pleasure to~~ read my business novel "The Kiss Business, the Keep It Simple Sweetheart Principle in Business" will know what's on page 5. (The real story starts on page 9.)

Page 5 is short, but for me very important. It reads as follows:
Dedicated to:
Ton, my ‘sparring’-partner, for willing to ‘go-it-together’
Mike, the real web-wizard.
Lesley, my confidante.
Pete for changing some of my ‘Double Dutch’ phrases into proper English ones.
Richard, friend and mentor. For giving me confidence, but mostly for keeping me sane during difficult times.

Yesterday, again glorious barbecue weather, my whole Kiss Biss Crew (as I fondly name them) were gathered together in the Garden of the School House

(Funnily enough, they are all bloggers too: The Company Doctor - bizRichard, Healthy Water for Healthy Skin, The Heavy Chef Project and The IT Girl -Ton 'shares' 5 blogs with me ;-))

We had good weather (we always seem to have the best weather when we plan a barbecue!), good food, and most importantly good fun with good company:

In the end it did get a bit chilly. How fortunate then to have a lot of cut-off wooden floorboards:

Aren't we blessed with such good friends?

Lukas, the skeleton man

2007-09-14T15:30:43+01:00

Last weekend and beginning this week we took a 'work' holiday to The Netherlands. Besides visiting both parents we travelled further up north to Ton's sister - installing a wooden floor for her, that's where brothers are for, not?
We finally had a chance to see my brother-in-law's workshop. Lukas is an artist - in his spare time, he's daily/nightly work is nurse. His workshop is definitely in need of some urgent repairs, the main reason for going to his 'atelier' was to empty several almost overflowing buckets - roof is leaking badly. But he doesn't complain, the atelier is part of a school building nominated for renovation and in the mean-time there's nowhere else that's as cheap and as social as there.

Walking around Lukas' atelier I decided to rename him in "The Skeleton Man".

This 'painting' is what greets you as soon as you enter. At first it almost gave me the creeps! But after another, closer, look it is a very intriguing art-work.

Other skeletons, mostly bird sculls, are draped around iron bars, plant stems, coat hangers etc.

Bike frames, skeletons by any other name:

A white head with gleamy eyes and teeth, something that when placed in the proper place would scare IMHO even the most heroic person.

And I guess these are the remains of a pc-geek ;-)

So after Lukas Schotanus becomes famous, remember where you saw him first: here!

'Denglish' Breakfast plus Garden Party BBQ

2007-08-07T16:07:09+01:00

We couldn't have asked for: better weather, better company, better food and drink, better conversations or better fun this weekend!

Our quadruple birthday celebrations started with family breakfast where a typical English breakfast (eggs, beans etc) was mixed with typical Dutch breakfast (coffee and cheese-sandwich):

All preparations complete, including the dance floor and 'band' (because what's a wooden flooring company without a proper wooden dance-floor?) the real birthday boy awaited the arrival of more guests:

Guests aplenty, originating from or living in all corners of the world: The Netherlands, Kent, Paris, South Africa, Indonesia - and all 'getting along' proven by friendly banter:

Languages aplenty too: various Dutch dialects, some French thrown in and some Fries, English, Double Dutch English and some even talked 'hands' - fluently:

My 'big' brother was definitely not the only one mastering that languages:

Yeah, we had the best of times! Definitely wonderful, funny, relaxing, pure enjoyment!

Weather forecast quadruple birthday celebrations

2007-08-04T14:18:52+01:00

This weekend we are bracing ourselves for a 'Dutch' invasion to The School House Garden in 'honour' of the quadruple birthday celebrations we have planned.

(Well, if you're finally in a position to throw a party you should do it BIG, not?)

Ton turns 50, I turn 45.5 (you can't have garden parties in January, can you now?), Wood You Like turns 4 and our Charing showroom 2. Reasons enough we thought.

And yesterday the weather forecast showed in the sky:

So we have very high hopes for a warm and sunny Sunday, just what we've asked for.

Our 'traditional' Home Town

2007-07-29T15:16:41+01:00

As mentioned yesterday in the post on our 'adopted' home-town I'm on contribution two for Robert's meme "My Home Town - a new meme": Bergen op Zoom, our traditional Home Town.

Bergen op Zoom, in the South-West part of The Netherlands (between Antwerp - Belgium - and Rotterdam) where I was born in 1962, is a rather old market-town (received city-rights in 1266), steeped in Traditions.

Many of our town's traditions stem for the Catholic Church, but then 'adjusted' to the Burgundian mentality Southern Netherlands is known for.

Like 'Vasten-avend' (Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash-Wednesday when Lent starts). A very Catholic tradition but with a typical Bergen op Zoomse 'twist' - if we can't dress-up, have lots of music and fun it ain't worth our time. Where do you find a town in the whole world that dresses-up its bell-tower "The Pepper-box"? (And has a voice for that matter, our greatest actor during the children's carnival party on the Monday afternoon - and which voice from high above gave Queen Beatrix the giggles during one of her visits in the 90's during Queens-day, where for the occasion The Pepperbox was even dressed-up in a diner jacket)

And we dress-up ourselves too, of course. Some 'costumes' are known to be handed down from Granddad (more like ransacking Granddad's wardrobe or attic) and many wear voiles curtains, a tradition blue farmers-blouse (boerenkiel) or a heavy leather raincoat. And the strangest head ware you can find, even lamp-shades and bird-cages are used.

And age doesn't matter when it comes to celebrating Vasten-avend, as young as 6 months up to 95 year olds join the three week festivities, with the Grand-Finale weekend starting Saturday before Ash-Wednesday and ending on Tuesday 11.45pm sharp (a marathon party to be honest, we all need three days off after that - resting our tiered feet, strained voice-muscles and sore heads)

As for the music, it's all 'home-made'. The last time we were part of it there where over 70 music groups, in our town's dialect also known as Dweilbandjes (verbatim translation: floor-cloth band) with as many copper instruments you can handle and one or two little drums and of course one very big drum. I used to play the trumpet in a teenage dweilband - the age where most musicians start and many continue to play in these bands even if they are retired (and invent names like: "Pa still knows how")

Talking about music, some of these Dweilbandjes progress to become Jazz-bands - old fashion Dixie to Brass bands and the odd modern funk. (That Bergen op Zoom has one of the best known Music 'academy's' shouldn't come as a surprise any more.) 32 years ago a new musical tradition started: The annual Jazz-weekend. (Where this year we managed to talk double Dutch.)

Really steeped in Catholic tradition is the annual 'Maria-ommegang': Tribute to Our Lady for keeping our town safe during war, floods and other disasters. Again, a time to dress-up, to 'act' (biblical scenes in this case) and for music. Whole families are known to take part and over the years are promoted to more difficult roles in the procession. Some start as little sheep's-herder - real sheep! - and end up many years later as Mozes or even portraying The Devil (favourite role of one of my cousins - he always looked really 'spooky').

That's in a nut-shell Bergen op Zoom, the town we left in 2000 for our adopted new Home Town in The Garden of England, Kent UK.
You know what's funny? When beginning May this year I had my 'dreaded' 10 minute presentation every BNI member has to go through every 7 - 8 months, I used the traditions of our home-town and the traditional industries in our home-town to explain our www: Why we do, what we do, the way we do it.
We've been raised that way: traditional.

(forgot to tag others, sorry Robert. In good tag-traditions I would like to hear/read about their home-towns from:
Both Mike and Fred at TheHeavyChef Project - South Africa, with a UK-Dutch influence
Pete Aldin at Great Circle - Australia
Ann V. Michael at Manage to Change - US of A

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