Typecast

Way back in July I was slowly getting hooked on yet another series of Celebrity Big Brother. It was *adopts a Marcus Bentley accent*  'Day 2 in the Big Brother House' and the housemates were still finding their feet and each other.  Frankie Grande was told to celebrate his huge ego so he rapped about the ten things he loved about himself [ watch here ] It inspired me. It really got me thinking about the way in which I've changed over the years and how I've become more confident and sure of who I am. There are many reasons for me having blossomed late in life and now is not the time nor the place to go into the whys and the wherefores, but my 40th birthday was the turning point. So I thought I'd describe five things I love about me (let's not go far as ten... my head might get a bit big) and how I use these for business and life in general. ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ Leader I am part of a community running group which aims to coach people through the 'cou...

Once upon a time, I worked for an insurance brokers and managed to get a fabulous staff discount on my  car insurance  – very handy when you are a seventeen year old who has just passed their test. Over the next few years always remember my father encouraging me to stay with my existing insurance provider so that I could earn rewards along the lines of long-term policy discounts, no claims discounts and more. Fast forward a few more years and our middle child passed his driving test and needed to purchase young driver's insurance. To keep the cost down (we started at a premium of just over £2000 per year... yes really!!) he agreed to a mileage cap and to be part of a telematics programme which is essentially like having a 'black box' attached to the car that monitors your driving style and good driving is rewarded. Has this brought us full circle, encouraging new drivers to stick with their existing insurance company for more than one year?  And, as long as...

2016 is fast becoming the year where I try and use as many diaries systems as possible... or so it seems - however I didn't think that I'd be returning to a Filofax but it definitely feels like the right move for the time being. I'm starting to believe that there is literally no notebook or diary out there that can fully accommodate my needs.  The two that come close are the Marks Colours Diary (I used one of these in 2015) and the Hobonichi Techo (I started with this at the beginning of this year) but for various reasons, I've switched in and out of them. I need a way to have a diary and a bullet journal working in conjunction with each other. Most of the time, a traditional diary layout doesn't provide the space for bullet journalling without it being too large or too bulky and, from the other end of the scale, the bullet journal system doesn't really have the flexibility for true forward planning without a lot of counting of pages, drawing grids a...

Who doesn't love a brand new, unused notebook? The pristine cover, the unblemished pages, the journey that your handwriting is going to take along the paper with plans or memories. But it appears that I have a bit of a problem when it comes to notebooks. I start them with all good intentions; projects, bullet journals, diaries, scribble pads - however I never get round to finishing them  unless  they are specifically for work or an ongoing project.  So I  have notebook fear... I don't want to start a new notebook just so that I can get bored of it a few pages in.  Therefore, I'm starting to get a bit of a stash of them and they are threatening to take over my office.  Recently, when I delved back into the world of Filofax after acquiring a Malden, I was sorting through my paper stash and became rather embarrassed by the amount of unused notebooks that I had collected.  Don't get me wrong... I love receiving them to review, however I wan...

As you've probably seen from various articles on this blog, I love a good bit of tech and really like trying out new gadgets.  Over the past couple of months I've been lucky enough to try a few new additions to the market so I've put them through their paces and I'm reporting in! Battery life on phones or tablets doesn't last long, does it? This makes me a huge fan of portable power banks and I've been comparing two of my favourites. The  EC Technology 5200mAh Power Bank  is made of durable rubber (my eldest son immediately took ownership of this) and, because of it's small size, makes it the most portable of the two power banks.  It also has a built in torch which makes it great for camping! The  Lumsing Glory Series P1 Plus 15000mAh Power Bank  is slightly larger and heavier but provides the option of recharging up to three devices at once. The best thing about these portable battery chargers are that they will give your phone or mobile d...

I can't remember exactly how I first discovered the Fossil Sydney Satchel but it was definitely featured on a YouTube video at the beginning of the year.  Since then, I've been lusting over it at every available opportunity because it showcased itself as my 'bag for life', if you will. It's a proper leather handbag and, from what I'd seen on the numerous videos I'd watched, was like a bottomless pit.  But £140 is a lot to pay for any single item and not one that I thought I could afford any time soon.  However, the lovely Tanya and her husband both had some similar advice which sealed the deal for me. They asked me if it would be a bag that I would use every day (the answer was 'yes') and to break down the price per day over a year (just over 38p per day). So I put it at the top of my wishlist.  Some opportunities came along at the right time and when I checked the website the price had been reduced (although the colour I originally wanted w...

Alrighty then... only two days late this month. There's been a great number of eyebrow raising discoveries in August so here they are all for you too because I'm good like that. My son didn't believe he was actually called Jake. For a full 17 years he has thought that he was called 'Jacob' and we were using a shortened form of that name when talking to him. He demanded to see his birth certificate to determine the truth. I've been pronoucing the brand name "Maped Helix" incorrectly since primary school. Because of a phone call I had to make for work purposes, I found out, from the source, that it is pronounced 'Map-Ed He-Licks' and not 'mapped hell icks'.  After a short survey with my Facebook friends, it transpires that I'm not the only one who thought the same. You can use emoji even when on a desktop or laptop computer.  Ok... so this isn't actually ground-breaking but it helps to add emotion to a tweet that c...