Mum reacted with the following to my post, "About wanting to climb into a box". Not unlike the Great-Grandparents I mentioned, when I was a baby we lived for a while in a home (if you can call it that) that Mum and Dad built for us out of car packing cases in a boat yard. They were chasing a dream to build a yacht and sail around the world; pretty poor but industrious. While the boat yard is not far from where I live today, the family’s circumstances have changed a lot since then, largely due to family values passed down through generations. On that basis, it seemed appropriate to share To View More >>

There is a saying "Get in Line, Stay in Line", basically it means if your start something keep at it until the end. Some people however give up just before the finish line. Below I share what we can learn from Kids when it comes to persistence in negotiation, once you start don't stop. Does No really mean no? Some children left to their own free will, can out last an adult in a verbal argument or negotiation. Kids are built with the extraordinary ability to stay focused on the goal and be so much more persistent than we can be bothered being. This hyper negotiation can happen angrily during a tantrum To View More >>

Well we retired our second (backup) appliance last night. Old even for a fire truck at around 30 years, but amazingly on only 60,000 km. As a fire station in a semi urban, semi rural area she has operated on station for the last 8 years as rural fire fighting appliance. I heard someone recently describe her as a "man's truck", a stubborn beast that had to be "driven". Despite no power steering, no engine braking, and the belching of black smoke, she was really great fun to drive. I think it's funny that at times like these I realise how sentimental I am. On one hand she's just a hunk of old metal To View More >>

Well after less than a month with iPower I have moved web hosts due to their unreliability. I am sure this isn't the way they are permanently but over the last week my site was down on a number of occasions for hours, and I have lost my confidence. I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused ... grrr. One of the interesting observations is that they weren't prepared to go into detail of what the technical issue was, just each time that "it was a router and it's now fixed". I guess companies do this due to being scared of looking bad, but left with no convincing information I was forced to move To View More >>

I love Malcolm Gladwell, he is such a clever thinker and actually very entertaining for what really could be boring intellectual ideas. Please enjoy watching the following video to find out "What we can learn from spaghetti sauce" By the way, if you enjoy this video go read his books "The Tipping Point" and "Blink". If you can't be bothered reading use iTunes to download audible versions of these books to your iPod and go take the dog for a walk :-) To View More >>