Social media is full of videos on tips for weight loss, feeling better, looking younger, I’ve never been interested in any of those; in fact, in the past I’ve pitied the firms that paid Facebook for me to be shown their ads based on an assumption that I fall within their target market demographic.
Since my birthday, however, I’m wondering whether I should start paying attention. The chocolate and cheese tour of Switzerland, afternoon tea with champagne, the many delicious dinners I’ve enjoyed in the past couple of weeks, celebration wine, cocktails, more chocolates… It’s added up.
And there’s more… Next week I’m booked onto a chocolate walking tour of London with my friend and fellow poet, Nina. And this week I’ll be cloud-bound on the ear-popping 72nd floor of the Shard for chocolatier Paul Young’s evening of deliciousness. Whilst on the 32nd floor last Monday, enjoying my baby squid stuffed with octopus bolognaise at the AquaShard, I did say on Facebook that I like this new age – the food is definitely better in this decade.
So my question then, is at what point should I start to take care of myself? In photos from Jackie’s party this weekend I look like a person my Wii Fit trainer would tell off. I’m half a stone heavier than at the start of the new school term. Not that that means anything. I bunked off school on PE days for a job in Woolwich market selling broken biscuits.
Up until now my Wii Fit trainer has been very lovely to me: polite, encouraging, gently motivating. He doesn’t tell me off for skipping the odd month (or year!) and he doesn’t seem offended if I switch him off before my 25 minutes are up. He wasn’t helpful when I had trouble figuring out how to remove someone from my Wii Fit Plaza though. I’d added a previous boyfriend whose avatar looked incredibly like him and it annoyed me to see him bobbing about and yawning each time I switched on. We never even played the Wii games together, as he took exception to the software telling him he was slightly overweight – yet there he was on my TV screen whenever I logged on to swivel my hoola-hooping hips.
Thank heavens for social media. YouTube helped me determine how to remove his character before I punched the TV or gave up on any hope of getting fitter. Incidentally, YouTube has been named as the world’s third mostly widely used search engine, so Marion is drawing up a strategy for us to include more videos. I do tell businesses this when delivering social media training but, in this case, I haven’t practiced what I preach. The new videos certainly won’t be of anyone hoola-hooping!!
When I was invited to the Paul Young event at the Top of the Shard I immediately thought of the other Paul Young. As snow was forecast for London on the day I wrote this, these lyrics seemed somewhat appropriate. “Tryin’ to keep your hands warm, when the hole in your shoe lets the snow come through and chills you to the bone. Now you’d better go home, where it’s warm.”
Social media doesn’t care whether you’re hot, suited and booted in an office, freezing on the street or nice and warm, working from home. You can get your message across wherever you are. If you’re not sure of the best way to do that, ask me here: @WeekendWitch.
Songwriters: Ronnie Stephen Wilkins, John David Hurley
Copyright: Tideland Music Publ. Corp., Tideland Music Corp.
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