Many of you will have donated towards my recent trip to Tanzania. No, I'm not about to trouble you for my next mission ( I fancy cycling in China) but to advise one an' all about my friend Pauline Crawford.
Pauline heads up Corporate Heart and is attempting to climb a mountain in Morocco on behalf of the Prince's Trust. You can read about Pauline's trip and donate here.
A constant backdrop to the Trek last week were amazing views of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
This photo was taken by my "tent-mate" Gavin B.
At Kilimanjaro International Airport on Saturday, we met a number of people who had just climbed to the top of that famous mountain. Many of them were doing so on behalf of the Countryside Alliance.
On the short trip back to Nairobi on our Precision Air ATR-72, I spoke to one the the "Kili" gang. A charming young woman from SW London. She explained that 25 out of the 28 starters reached the summit. Impressive!
You see, whenever you reach a goal or climb a mountain, whether it be metaphorical or physical, there's always another one on the next horizon to climb. Or putting it another way - life's challenges never stop.
What's your next challenge?
This has recently been posted on "Gaping Void's Blog"
I like the bit about website. It's so true, all those professional firms out there making "a difference".
The "Nobody Cares" Manifesto For Accountants* It's important to remember debits are on the left and credits on the right - nobody cares. Probably because the system was invented in 1494 and hasn't changed since.
* We work hard to earn letters behind our names - nobody cares. Importance isn't derived from academic achievement but what you do for others.
* ROI is an important concept - nobody cares. ROI calculations are something you do when you really don't want to help your client but to demonstrate to him/her how important you are. For which read 2.
* It's important to keep good records - nobody cares. Clients aren't in business to be administrators. If you can't figure out how to help clients then expect to be outsourced. Probably the day after tomorrow.
* A tidy office implies a tidy mind - nobody cares. A tidy mind is often compartmentalised to the point of tunnel vision. You don't see tidy at the edge of innovation. Which is where you should be when your clients come up with great ideas.
* Professionals should always wear top quality suits - nobody cares. How you look may be important if your name's Anina but it sure as heck doesn't matter when you're traipsing around a pig farm. You do that occasionally don't you?
* Your professional status among the community demonstrates integrity - nobody believes you. Professional status is over-rated. Those schmuks from KPMG in court on fraud charges sorted that one out once and for all.
* Adding value is the most important thing you have to do - nobody believes you. Clients can read a 1,000 websites and see that same vacuuous statement. Stuff your website with client stories, preferably written by clients and not some PR outfit.
These were outlined by a charming young lady from Adelaide called Beerli. Her Blog is known as The Talk of the Town.
The charming young lady on the left is supermodel, Kaja Wunder, who's the co-founder of The Button Club.
1. The length of the post is irrelevant. It’s the content and it’s a bit hard to judge sometimes what will take off. Readers often like different and quirky, but they also like to get stuck into some meatier subjects.
2. Pictures help. Readers react to pictures and it’s often the ones which stir a memory, capture the imagination or make them laugh which get the reactions.
3. One day you will go to your blog and you will feel sick. You will not want to blog. It’s like aversion therapy. Some people delete their blogs or blogs are left hanging in space. Know this will happen, that it feels awful but that it will pass.
4. Blog holidays are good. After a week’s break you come back just popping!
5. Get a stat counter which lets you see who visits. It is so exciting to know that someone has come in from Thailand or Greece. It really cheers you up to know there are people in far flung corners who come to read your blog.
6. Get an RSS feed going. It does improve the traffic.
7. Join places like Blog Lines, Blog Explosion and Blogshares. It gets your blog known, it makes you feel like a somebody and it helps you to create the connections which you wish to make.
8. Some of the best bloggers I have come to value suddenly just stop blogging. It can be very upsetting and you wonder what has happened. Expect to feel attached and be ready for the separation anxiety.
9. Don’t be frightened to ask for help if you don’t know how to do something or what something means. The blogosphere is full of kind , helpful people who do not make you feel stupid.
10. Link away! Ask to link your blog, let others link to you. That network can be crucial at times.
Just returned from a breakfast briefing. The guest speaker was Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP.
He highlighted some corporate issues in his 25- minute talk. These ranged from international trade to Corporate Social Responsibility and the democratizing effect of the Internet.
One of the most thought-provoking comments he made was how, in his view, Britain was now back to 1984. Not in the Orwellian sense but the numbers of those employed in public service. He explained that at present a staggering 56% of Scottish people are employed by the Government.
Also from yesterday's London Evening Standard.......this time news about another stupid decision. You see the English never see the "big picture". Hardly surprising, we've people in positions of authority, who in my opinion, are small-minded, minimalist, short-termist and lacking in vision. This is certainly the case when it comes to town planning matters. Aesthetics never come into it.
Museum St, SW7
The three museums in South Kensington-The Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria & Albert - are a remarkable cluster of cultural and educational institutions. Nearby there are other buildings of considerable importance, from the Serpentine Galery in Hyde Park to the Royal Albert Hall. Yet this area is divided by busy roads-Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road-which makes it difficult to see the buildings as part of a coherent whole. It can also make it a bleaky experience for visitors.
An imaginative solution has been propsed by Kensington & Chelsea Council, Westminster Council and the Mayor. This would involve redesigning Exhibition Road and the area around to make itmlore welcoming for pedestrians. The road would lose its narrow pavements and would be redesigned with bold markings, which, it is hoped, would cause cars to travel more slowly. There would be provision for good crossings for pedestrians at major junctions and centralised bus stops and space for taxis.
Unfortunately, this scheme has been turned down for inclusion for the shortlist for the Big Lottery fund on the grounds that it concentrates too heavily on road enhancements. This misses the point, which is that the redesign is not intended to benefit motorists, but to make the whole area more accessible and to help integrate important cultural institutions into a single space. The cost, at £25 million, is reasonable. Now an appeal is to be made for £5million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, with the rest made up by the Government. This eminently sensible scheme deserves support.
Of course, whether or not it gets it remains to be seen. I agree with the columns main thrust. For those of you who have visited the Spanish city of Valencia, you may have been impressed by the location of various museums and an aquatic centre, very easily accessed, in the centre of that remarkable city.
On Desert Island Discs this morning, music impressario Raymond Gubbay recounted his first ever job interview. It was with the great Victor Hochhauser
There were just three questions, said Gubbay
"What school did you go to?"
"Are you Jewish?"
"Can you start Monday?"
Brilliant. None of the Health & Safety/ID check/UK citizenship/inside leg measurement/form filling rubbish today's job seekers now endure.
There's so much bureaucracy today isn't there. Do you blame the Government, or should ordinary citizens take some responsibility for allowing the "paperwork culture" to overload us all?
What's your opinion?
Just got back from the Odeon at Muswell Hill.
I haven't laughed so much at the cinema for ages. This is an absolute "don't miss". On a par with Life if Brian.
Sacha Baron-Cohen plays Borat, a Kazakh TV Presenter, who travels across the USA to discover the wonders of that great country.
I wonder if Eastcliffe Richard has been along to the Alhambra, Ramsgate to view Sacha Baron-Cohen if full flow, or is he too busy with the lovely Ms. "very" Oapen?
Has the Thanet Blog Brigade been informed of this unholy alliance?
Brilliant post by the Devil.
I suppose one day, the people that come to live here will abide by our rules.
Along with Aston Villa, Man Yoo and others is now in foreign hands.
Is this:
a) Detrimental to the English national side.
b) A good thing, and lastly,
c) What effect will it have on the nurturing of home bred talent?
Moreover, what does our man Dale think of the situation?
Will it mean the end of West Ham? Could they merge with Leyton Orient or the oldest club in London?
This evening at a networking event in Central London, I met a fascinating woman. Her name is Pam Wiliams and she's an oustanding illustrator.
Details of her work can be viewed at her website
The event was packed with the usual mixture of corporate representatives and businessmen and businesswomen from all sectors.
Iran Bans Da Vinci Code
Bestsellers and literary classics on Iran's Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Iran's extremist cultural ministry has announced a crackdown on publishing, banning a list of classic works as well as modern foreign and Iranian novels in an attempt to end what it describes as a "poisoned dish to the young generation."
Along with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Tracy Chevalier's best-seller Girl With a Pearl Earring and books of lyrics by bands like The Beatles, Queen and The Rolling Stones will be prohibited. Contemporary Iranian writers, some of whom are feted outside Iran, will no longer be published in their home country, while pre-revolutionary novels will also be banned.
The Guardian quotes the culture minister Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi - a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
"We have complaints against those who see books as only a market and are acting as assistants for evil... Sometimes the humiliation of Iranian youth is implied or suggested in the books. Sometimes the media transmits the concept that we Muslims and easterners lack proper means and, therefore, we should stretch our hands towards others."
Culture ministry spokesmen complain that under the rule of Ahmadinejad's reforming predecessor Mohammed Khatami, the Islamist regime relaxed its grip too much, creating "a climate encouraging immoral behaviour, sex before marriage, mockery of religious traditions and secularism."
Mihir Bose, writing in the Daily Telegraph, did this piece about Amercan businessman, Jack Lemley, ODA Chairman.
"Lemley quits through ill health" By Mihir Bose
Sources close to the organisers of the 2012 London Olympic Games have told the Daily Telegraph that the reason for the resignation of Jack Lemley, chairman of the Olympic Development Authority — the body responsible for venues and infrastructure — was due to ill health and problems created by having to commute between America and Britain.
Lemley, who was responsible for the Channel Tunnel project, had been appointed last year and at his press conference promised that he would set up home in London. Although he rented a flat there he still travelled back to the United States where he has extensive business interests.
Lemley has also recently had some heart trouble and the strain of constantly jetting back and forth across the Atlantic took its toll.
I'm told matters came to a head quite quickly about 10 days ago when it was decided that it would be best if he resigned.
One source told me: "It is now widely recognised that Jack Lemley was not the right choice and we will have to make sure that the next chairman of the ODA is the right one."
It is not unusual for cities that stage Olympic Games to change the top personnel. The London 2012 bid for the Games also saw a major change of personnel when, a year after the bid was launched — and with London ranked a poor third to Paris and Madrid — Barbara Cassani, the bid leader, resigned and was replaced by Seb Coe, who took London to victory.
One source said: "The difference is Barbara's resignation was well flagged inside London 2012 whereas Lemley's has come up very suddenly and caught many people by surprise."
Late last night, television news suggested that Lemley had resigned and returned to Idaho for quite different reasons. One was to do with the compulsory purchase of land and property in East London. Apparently Jack couldn't cope ( and I'm paraphrasing here) with the internecine wars going on between local politicians.
This is so typical of our country isn't it. Petty-minded individuals trying to put their "inconsequential two-bobsworth in". But of course there will be consequences. Inevitable delays to the construction of the 2012 site, budget goes through the roof, blah, blah, blah - and who'll pick up the tab - you've guessed it.
A quite brilliant day today. I've already dropped a note here about todays marching over Hampstead Heath.
Tomorrow(correct, I'm having a day off) shall be spent circumnavigating various parts of the Darenth valley in North Kent. Later on, I'm being presented with some sponsorship money by some kind souls from England's garden. That'll put me past the 2K mark.
The day will be spent with Lord & Lady Pay. One of them shares my passion for da 'Gate
No, not another book by Peter Mayle, but another stay by me (and friend) at the home and gite (pronounced jeeeettt, not git) of my dear cousin, Michael Altman. He has built up a magnificent reputation with a variety of travel organisations with his particular style of accommodating an eclectic mix of mainly British tourists. On this occasion however, we were also joined by Canadian and French visitors.
On arrival, one is presented with two barking dogs, a welcome drink and in my case an excellent 4- course meal. These are normally served every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the non self-catering guests at around 8pm. Luckily, my upgrade to a decent rental car, ensured that my dash from Nice airport (which started shortly after 7pm) to junction 36 on the A8 was covered in good time. The final meandering along the D54, near to Draguignan, only took a few minutes.
Throughout the year, Michael also accepts parties of guests who want to learn Provencal cooking and others who enjoy a corporate-style golfing break. Nearby are jewels of any southern French trip. The gorgeous villages of Bargemon, Callas and Tourtour. For the slightly more motoring adventurous of you, there are magnificent views at the Gorges de Verdon......and for the totally mad you can do something called Bungee jumping. What you do is give a total stranger about 75 quid. He then straps your legs together to a thick cord, then tells you to stand on the edge of the bridge and jump-off.
My lovely companion and I, preferred to lounge on a private beach called "Wyc" ( prounounced Vick) near Les Issambres, a delightful little place between Frejus and Ste. Maxime. And speaking of SM, this is where we took a boat, known in France as a Verte Vedette, to St. Tropez. The trip takes only about 15 minutes but is well-worth the £15.00 return trip for two people. Despite the soaking we took on both legs (or sea-legs) of the journey, this was the highlight of my long week-end away from dull BBC radio news presenters, diversity training; Polish immigrants, corporate spokemen from the bloody water companies justifying their huge profits blah, blah, blah,and so on...........
give yourself a break, just book up at Michael's
Not what you're thinking...........right!!
A sign alongside various mountain streams in the Pyrenees does not say "Controllled fishing, do it and we'll kill you!"
Rather, it actually says in Catalan, well loosely translated anyway............."Fish here, but please throw them back"
More on my break in France and the Spanish Pyrenees later...........
