Organised

Posted: Mon 21 April, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »

So, in a fairly busy morning I’ve:

  1. Sorted out the business account, and started the process for getting it all up and running
  2. Had one of the front wheels replaced on the car
  3. Finally posted off a couple of letters it’d taken me ages to write
  4. Posted off my 2007/8 Tax Return (Yes, Recorded Delivery)
  5. Confirmed an interview for Friday
    and
  6. Driven in to work

There’s a lot more stuff in the offing at the moment (and a site to finish off tonight/tomorrow) but at least progress is being made on a number of fronts.

Not a bad start to the week, really.

Business Banking

Posted: Mon 21 April, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business | Leave a comment »

So this morning I’m sorting out a bank account for the business. It’s taken some time to organise (and the worry is that the bank haven’t actually sent me the meeting confirmation, I’ve just realised) so I just hope that it all works out well in the end.

Following on from this, and getting everything set up at this point, I then need to sort out business insurance as well, but that’s the joys of business.

And at least I’ve also got my tax return done now for the 2007/8 Tax Year. So things are all shaping up as we go along. I’ll probably write more once the bank meeting is over and done with.

Caffeine Free

Posted: Sun 20 April, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Health | 3 Comments »

It’s been more than a month now since I stopped drinking Diet Coke, and I’m pleased that I’ve managed to do it.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I feel any better for it, but well, at least I’ve cut out the addiction.

This Time Next Year, Rodney

Posted: Sat 19 April, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 2 Comments »

A couple of weeks back, I was having a conversation with a friend about what we’d do if we were to ever become lucky, and win the National Lottery. (Or any other ‘big money’ concept – so long as it resulted in having a large amount of money) At the time, I said I would probably just keep on working (after a small holiday) and that’s still true – I’d want to be doing my own stuff, and have the ability to not worry if no money came in for a few months, so I could spend time getting things to work out properly.

But then I thought about it a bit, and something else occurred to me. If I had that much money, I’d be able to do the other thing I’ve always wanted to. I’d still want to do my own thing – the writing, the photography, and almost certainly the websites – but I’d also do something completely different.

I’d take the time out from working (other than the bits I want to do, of course) and go do a university course in zoology. And then I’d go to do unpaid (or bare-minimum paid) work at either a zoo or down at Monkey World in Dorset, which has been my long-term dream for at least the last fifteen years. Which is a scary amount of time for one ideal role.

It’s something that I could only really consider if I had the money behind me to manage the course – which involves not really working (in paid employment) for at least two to three years. And that’s only going to happen by me either working my ass off and building up the finances to that level, or by winning a significant amount somewhere along the line.

In the end I know that a Lottery win isn’t going to happen – it’s something that’s so open to chance, the probabilities are too high for anything to base plans on – but the working plans are still coming through, and who knows, something might work there. At the end of the day, it only needs one idea to go big, and I’m sorted.

So – what would be your dream? And how would you go about getting there?

Table Habits

Posted: Fri 18 April, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Charm School, News | 1 Comment »

One of the funniest things I’ve read in a while is here – about food-eating habits that people have.

While the article itself is fairly amusing on the subject, the comments underneath it are well worth reading in their own right.

Vulcan

Posted: Thu 17 April, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: News, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

I’m so pleased to see that the last remaining Vulcan bomber has finally flown again. It’s taken fourteen years to restore it to this state, and to me it’s just a marvellous thing.

Seeing Vulcan’s flying is something I remember from airshows and holidays before – we used to go on holiday where a lot of the test flights and training flights were done, over the Bristol Channel – and it’s always been wonderful, in a similar way to how seeing Concorde used to be a wonderful sight.

Even on the ground, Vulcans are an impressive thing – but in the sky, well, there’s just nothing to match the sight. Long may this one continue to fly at shows and the like.

Wild Life

Posted: Thu 17 April, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Thoughts | 1 Comment »

I confess, I’m a bit of a spod when it comes to nature programmes on TV – always have been, and likely always will be. But at the moment there seem to be two methods of doing nature programmes, and both drive me crackers.

First of all – and probably the less offensive of the two, although not by much – is the Simon “Supersmug” King method (for examples see “Big Cat Diary”, “[Season]Watch” and the like). Here all the animals have names, and are given human emotions and feelings by the narrators. It’s a method that Simon King has made his own, and it’s incredibly bloody annoying. In fact, if he’s on, I normally mute the sound on the TV.

The second school of thought, though, drives me crackers. I just can’t actually watch the programmes. They’re the ones by people like Steve Irwin, Nigel Marven and the like – and I just don’t even understand the motivation behind them. Sure, show people the animals – but what is the point of then chasing those animals, catching them, disturbing them, and looking like an utter tit? Fair enough, in the case of Steve Irwin at least Nature fought back and showed the tit who the real boss was – and that was a great day.

I just wonder what other people think of either of these ways of showing Nature programmes. Personally, I stick with the third way, the David Attenborough type documentaries that don’t anthropomorphosise, and don’t try to capture every animal or show how heroic the hosts are.

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