I had such fun on Wednesday at a ‘create, learn and play’ day with Doug Mather. Sometimes in business we just need to push all the rubbish aside and take a fresh perspective on what’s important. It’s true of life, too. So this was five of us completely clearing our minds of all the crap and refocusing in an environment filled with inspiration, collaboration, hard work and fun.
As part of it, we spent a good deal of time in a meditative trance, which culminated in me telling these five strangers personal details about my life which, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t be mentioned anywhere near a business associate! But anyway, I think they’d already gathered quite a bit of private information about me, not least because the night I met Doug at a Spitalfields networking event I fell off the decking and everyone saw my knickers. And I hadn’t been there ten minutes before I greedily scoffed almost a whole chocolate brioche cake while the others sat there too polite to say anything – so they’d pretty much made their first impressions of me…
I met fabulous people that day. Mark Lee is an accountancy trainer and mentor who entertained us with his magic tricks well into the evening, in the super trendy Bar 90 overlooking the River Lee. Jamie Denham is an animator who is definitely the best thing since sliced bread. Amongst his huge array of credits, he created the Coca Cola Never-ending Dance of Happiness which has kept me busy over the bank holiday!! Lewis Tullett is a professional hypnotherapist – the kind that makes a difference to people’s lives, not a hypnotist who has people doing chicken dances on tables in nice restaurants. And finally Tom Szirtes, who creates digital stories, builds mobile apps and websites and does all sorts of high tech cool stuff that you can see on his website. We’ve all connected on social media, so I hope we stay in touch…
And speaking of social media, thank you to all my Facebook friends, followers and tweeters who shared last week’s status about Luke’s missing cat. It had one of the highest levels of engagement and your help in bringing Lola home was hugely appreciated. Luke had spent a week traipsing the streets, posting flyers and calling out to her, but with no luck. Maybe coincidence (?) but 24 hours after a massive Facebook boost Lola reappeared – skinny, dehydrated and starving, but so happy to be back with her family.
Now a special quick plug for my amazing singer songwriter nephew Jack Wallen, whose brilliant studio EP ‘although’ is available on iTunes. Jack’s well known in his Cornish home county, but his fame is fast spreading – he’s played in a masterclass at Abbey Road and performed live at a James Morrison gig – how cool is that??!! He was also recently featured on BBC radio’s Fresh on the Net, with Tom Robinson, who says of my very own flesh and blood, “He already has the three qualities many aspiring artists never achieve in a lifetime: Character, charisma, and utter conviction.” (Ok, so he’s not actually my flesh and blood, but a nephew’s a nephew, right?! Plus I think I deserve a little artistic license on this one!!)
Mr Robinson’s obviously a very astute man, and always was. In 1977 he said this: ‘Well there ain’t no route you could choose to lose the two of us; ain’t nobody know when you’re acting right or wrong. No-one knows if a roadway’s leading nowhere… Gonna keep on driving home on the road I’m on.’ If you feel your road’s going nowhere, I’ll happily point you in the right direction. Or you can follow me there: @WeekendWitch.
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