What do I love most this week?

I’m sure that the answer should be Himself.  But actually, right at this moment Ocado is closer to my heart!

They are delivering the ingredients for our ‘romantic’ Valentine’s meal very early tomorrow morning before work, despite my only having ordered them this morning.  Truely, for the girl without wheels, they are a saviour!  (Now I just need to work out where to get a card from….)

Not that the meal is a secret, nor will it be very spectacular as it will mostly be cheating, but I just didn’t want to create an unecessary stress around it by trying to fit in a supermarket trip.

• Kir Royal
• Duck Pate with Chutney on Toasted Brioche
• Steak au Poivre with Chunky Chips
• Apple & Almond Tart with Suaternes Custard

Olive assures me that through various underhand shortcuts I should be able to achieve it all within an hour.  I hoping that I can do that and still arrive on the other side looking like a fragrant and serene beauty and not like a harassed, sweaty, snappy and vaguely panicky mess.

So, fortunately, I’m at a conference in Coventry tomorrow which is due to finish at 15:30 thus leaving me plenty of time to turn myself and the house into an oasis of calm.

On the matter of Steak & a Blow Job Day I make no comment.

Filed under: Campaigning, Cleaning, Conferences, Cooking, Food, Himself, Shopping

Steep Learning Curve

Writing about What it Feels Like to be Deaf

I will never learn.

I even did my ear candles on Sunday.  And they improved things.

And then I made it all worse again.

I’m hoping that a second bout of candles may clear the blockage – it’s making me disorientated and edgy.

Here, stolen from Wikipedia,  is the more appropriate Forgetting Curve:

where R is memory retention, S is the relative strength of memory, and t is time.  (more)

It also seems related to your risk aversion – i.e. if you’ve made yourself deaf fairly recently then you are cautious with your ears, if it’s a while since you last made yourself deaf then you take a more devil may care approach to aural hygiene.

…like jabbing yourself in the ear in an attempt to clear wax build up.

Stupid.

Filed under: Cleaning, The Drawer

Busy Morning

I
realised this morning, as I was trying not to get toilet bleach on the
skirt of my suit, that this is a classic example of me not being the
most organised person in the world.

Or maybe an example of the life of a modern woman.

I was in the bathroom putting on my make-up and trying to decide which suit to wear to CASE Conference
this afternoon (and mentally running through my presentation at the
same time) when I realised that we have visitors this evening and I
needed to do a quick clean of the bathroom.

I spent the
next few minutes rushing around doing surface tidying (i.e. shoving
everything into the nearest cupboard/drawer) with the cat following me
from room to room mewling at me.

Working mothers must be angels or geniuses or both! How do they do it?

Howard Krais, from ICB Consulting, has invited me to be one of ‘the experts’ at this session:

Internal Communications – speed networking session: a chance to measure what you are doing with the ‘experts’

How
good is your employee communications strategy? Do you want to improve
your publications? Are you getting the most from your internal
communications? Come to this fresh and exciting way of networking and
meet with colleagues and internal communications professionals alike to
see how you can improve your communications.

I’ve decided to take this as my starting point for discussion:

Creating Networking Opportunities: How Meeting Colleagues Can Benefit Your Staff

It fits in with this summer’s point of focus – the Warwick Network
– and it also complements the topics chosen by the other ‘experts’:

• Avoid the intranet graveyard
• Getting the most from your internal publications
• Have you got the right communications mix?
• Raising the profile of your team

And
it’s the kind of thing that is a quick win step that doesn’t absolutely
need senior management buy-in (which is often a problem for internal
communicators). Although obviously you’ll get better results with the
senior management team onside and involved, leading by example.

Filed under: Cleaning, Internal Communications, New Home