Through the looking glass...

I do apologise to you dear reader. Now I'm not going to spend the first paragraph once again profusely apologising for my tardiness for writing blog posts, you and I are both aware of the facts:

1. It's been 2 weeks and 2 days since my last blog post
2. In an earlier blog post I promised you that a delay would never happen again

Well all I would like to say on both of these points is that I, hmmm...apologise!

And for those of you cunning enough to notice, I have once again broken my word by inadvertently spending the first paragraph...apologising! Ooops!

Right, now we're all friends again (I realise I am taking your forgiveness as, well, a given but anyone who has not forgiven me at this point please rest assured that I will do my utmost to prove myself to you from now on!) I shall continue...

My tardiness hasn't been through lack of commitment for this blog or through choice, those of you who have read earlier posts will know that this blog is a way for me to keep some sanity (if you can call it that) within a life that has well and truly fallen down the office 9-5 crevasse, hoping one day to be rescued or I may have to cut my own arm off! Needless to say it is a mixture of this thing I call a "job" and trying to teach a well known phone company (naming no names, lets just say their "Phones" are no longer "4" me, even if they may be for "U"!) how to send the right item to the right address that has taken up the majority of my time and slowly ebbed the life out of me over the past 2 weeks!

But it's not all doom and gloom...

Despite moaning about it, rightly or wrongly I regularly find myself day dreaming at work and have managed to use the "office life" to my advantage and gain inspiration for future ideas. For example, less than 3 weeks ago I attended a 45 minute meeting at 9am on a Monday and even though my body was present, my mind was somewhere between my bed and "Creativity Street". Not only was I able to pay attention to the person hosting the meeting but this attention led my brain to pick up on office intricacies that I would not have experienced being anywhere else at that at 9am on a Monday and by the time I walked out of that meeting room at 9:45am I had constructed and noted down the title and ideas for 11 chapters of my next book!...a mightily productive morning you might agree...even if that wasn't what I was being paid to be there for...rest assured though I also managed to make all the notes I required and nodded and smiled in all the right places!

I have no doubt that a number of you reading this now can admit to switching off at work or at the very least day dreaming a little??!
A Director that I have worked for is famed for doodling during meetings and still being able to pay attention...so if it's good enough for a Director then it's good enough for me!
I've been told many times that people who need to keep their brain occupied are able to multitask in these types of situations and will often choose to keep their hands busy doodling, sketching, connecting lines or thinking through ideas whilst being perfectly able to maintain focus on whoever is talking, understand all of the options available and still make any required decisions without signing up to being relocated in outer Mongolia...however nice a place it may be!

With this in mind I would like to invite you to take a look at one of (what I would call) my finest works. A drawing from my own work notepad that was constructed during another meeting some time back. I'm not sure exactly where my mind was at the time but if I recall I had earlier that day had a conversation about a classic TV programme from my childhood, "The Borrowers" and another conversation about Sir Isaac Newton and his famous dropping apple...

So, the picture you see above must be the outcome of my subconscious in overdrive...for not only did I "draw" a guy sitting under a tree, but by adding an overarching magnifying glass I have inadvertently turned one of the greatest scientists of all time into a "Borrower", living unseen within the pages of my notepad!

Now I'm not trying to suggest that this is the working of a modern day Picasso but I think you'll agree you can appreciate it for what it is...An Office Doodle, or an "Ooodle" as I like to call them.
For those of you who already "Ooodle" then keep going...you are doing a tremendous job. Feel free to send me any to include on future blog posts. For those of you yet to experience "Ooodling" (if you happen to draw a canoe during one of these "Ooodling" sessions then technically thats "CanOoodling"...sorry, I had to get that out there!) I encourage you to attend meetings, pay attention and get inspired! I definitely think "Ooodling" not only helps but can be an art form in it's own right!

I hope you have enjoyed this brief insight into how my mind works (as well as my Biro skills) and join me next time I take you through the looking glass of my "working" life!

Words can make a difference!

19th Century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote,

"Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words".

Some say that it is the actions that you take in life that define who you are or are the things that people will remember you for. The people that say that are choosing to ignore the other side to that...words.

Words are a very powerful tool. One we all have but one that not everybody chooses to use or appreciate. Words can inspire a generation or start a revolution. Words can change perceptions and mean so much to so many. Something as simple as words can have just as big an impact as actions.

As those of you who have read my previous posts will know, I started this blog to help get the words out of my head and on to paper...whether they make sense or not, hopefully they can be enjoyed or inspire but the main thing for me was to try to retain the thoughts from my head whilst making room for all the new ones!

Now I'm certainly not gearing towards likening my words within this blog to anything near as dramatic as political uprisings or generation defining speeches (you're safe in the knowledge that you probably won't find anything as profound as "I have a dream..." in here)...but I like to build the scene, sorry, it's just something I do!

For me, the most important thing that words can do is help to bring a story to life.
And that is what I tried to do this week. However even I didn't fully appreciate the effect that words can have on a story until now.
All started so well when my sister asked me to help her recount the evening that she got engaged to her boyfriend, so that it could be submitted for an online competition.
Naturally as the helpful brother I agreed and on Saturday afternoon we set to work on ensuring nothing was missed from her engagement story. My sister was reliving every moment and I was there with the laptop trying to piece it together in to the words that would be concise enough for the competition but still retain the sentiment and emotion required.
I think you'll agree, even if I do say so myself and knowing that every word is true, that the final outcome achieves both of those things...

"My Fiancé Rob and I recently got engaged in June this year. We had been together 9 years near enough to the day. We both met when we were 20 and officially got together at his 21st birthday party in June 2003.

 

This year Rob turned 30, and decided to celebrate in style.

 

Rob had always joked about one day being titled as a Baron, and had also always wanted to attend a Masquerade ball, so we decided to make it happen. The Barons' Ball was to be held. Little did we know the planning and effort that this would involve but all this would certainly prove to be worth it.

We set the scene with authentic 18th century inspired invitations, encouraging guests to get involved with the theme as much as possible. The plan worked! Everyone wore masks and so many fully embraced the theme arriving in full Venetian Masquerade dress. It looked truly amazing!

Rob and I hired gorgeous costumes to compliment each other, he looked so handsome and I felt like a princess in my Marie Antoinette inspired attire.

We had hired a marquee, which was decorated in accordance with the invitations and guests were greeted by a string quartet, allowing everyone to immerse themselves in the theme from the moment they arrived.

 

Once everyone had eaten and were still seated, Rob began his speech to thank everyone for the effort they had gone to and for making his 30th birthday party one to remember.

I had joined him on the stage when Rob declared that there was one final surprise for the evening.

Everyone else in the room had clicked by now about what was about to take place but I was still caught up in the excitement of the party and concentrating on trying to make sure he had thanked everybody. I had no idea what was about to happen!

 

Suddenly amongst the cheers and screams of our friends and family, one of our best friends arrived on stage, dressed in full Musketeer attire, delivering a box to the Baron, who then preceded to drop to one knee.

It was only then that I realised what was happening! I could not contain my emotions, luckily my excited tears were contained beneath my mask as he asked me the words I had always dreamt of and presented me with a diamond engagement ring.

Naturally my answer was yes but nobody could here me through all of the excitement in the room. He had every woman in tears, and every man hating him for setting the bar so high!

We were overwhelmed on stage by all of our friends and family congratulating us both and in this moment The Barons' Birthday Ball merged in to our engagement party and with everyone there to celebrate with us it couldn't have felt more special.

It was truly a fairytale proposal!

We are due to get married in Spring / Summer 2014, once the perfect venue is found."

Later on that evening I received a phone call from my sister in fits of giggles saying that she has submitted the story.
Now, what I failed to divulge to you was that during the recounting of the evenings events, and whilst my sister was truly, and understandably, lost once again in the moment and reliving every part of it, I was sat with nothing more at my disposal than my mind and a keyboard...a very dangerous combination when in the hands of a mischievous younger brother!
So whilst I was writing down the important elements that my sister was emphasising and trying to blend them in to the perfect words, I was also mocking her enthusiasm with my own slightly exaggerated version of the story just for my own amusement...
Most of that mock-story was one liners of wit that were amusing at the time but were soon deleted once I was rumbled. However, there was one sentence that I was particularly proud of so stored with a number of "Enter" key presses between that and the main wording, safely at the bottom of the page, or at least I thought it was...
For that phone call I received from my sister was to tell me that in her rush to enter the competition before the closing date and before she had to go out she had just highlighted the document I sent across and pasted it. This meant that the beautiful story that you read previously now had the following, slightly sarcastic, ending that only a younger brother could provide...

"A unicorn leaping through the valleys would not have made this any more of a fairytale than I could ever describe! Tinkerbell's fairy dust had truly been sprinkled upon us".

Luckily the fits of giggles told me that all was forgiven but needless to say I am and will always be the younger brother, put on this Earth with one purpose in life...to wind up my older sister!

Sometimes words can inspire. Sometimes words can hurt. Sometimes words can have a greater impact than you may ever know...and sometimes, just sometimes...words can inadvertently ruin your sisters' chances of winning a competition!

For those of you still with me and intrigued by the competition, the wording was resolved and the submission has made the voting stages so please feel free to help bring this story to life and vote here (as you can probably tell, they are the ones in full Venetian dress)...knowing full well of the damage that words could have had on the outcome of this story and that words really can make a difference!