Friday cheer and hello mum and dad

Is Friday ! Yeah! 5 days of the week finished with, the kids are in bed and roll on the weekend. This Friday has been different however my parents have popped over from Chicago for a week. We have a fun packed week ahead, the plans are : Saturday afternoon we are going to The First Emperor at the British Museum , Sunday I'm planning on using our EastEnd markets walk and show my parents the best of London markets . On Wednesday we are planning on going to the Royal Academy to see From Russia . That doesn't include taking Maya and Ben to the dentist on Thursday and ofcourse work, exhausting but just so nice to see mum and dad.

London talk show

On my many nursery runs I've started to listen to Robert Elms show on BBC London Radio. He's really interesting, you can find out some mad things about London. For example, I found out where the smallest ever police box was. Do you know where? Someone phoned in and told us avid listeners that on the south east corner of Trafalgar Square there used to be a police box which is now used for storage equipment. I find these little facts interesting - the fact that I have walked past there so many times and not known that it was used as a police box!
The other day people were phoning in to tell people about hidden tunnels under London. A cabbie (London Cab driver) called in to tell us listeners that there is apparently a secret tunnel running from Buckingham Palace to Windsor!! We'll never know if that's true but its interesting nevertheless ..

moving

I write this as I am surrounded by big brown boxes. Removal men are traipsing up and down my flat and all my worldly possessions are being carried into a huge van.

We've been here 7 years, had our formative marriage years here and had two little babies here - strange to think it now moves on, to someone else.

We're moving to a lovely house just around the corner. A little house for me, my family and my worldly possessions, if they get there after being in a van all night long ....

childcare

last week I dropped my son off with my new child minder Sharon. It was wierd I didn't feel as bad as I had when dropping off Maya for the first time and she was almost a year old. He's only 4 months! I'm so happy and relieved to be back at work , am I strange? am I a bad mum?

A new baby and Green Street

I'm restarting to write this. I have been very busy recently as little Ben was born in August. He's great , cute and giggly and just gorgeous. I've been really enjoying having a new born the second time around.
I started work again last week and discovered the most amazing place in London. We're creating an audio walk for Newham council and we walked around this very interesting, diverse area last week. One area we walked was Green Street, "The Bond Street" of East London. I'd never been here before but its well worth a visit. Its full of Asian superstores, fashion and shoe shops as well as a plethora of speicalist restaurants catering for the local community. There's also some fantastic architecture and at the end of the walk we took you get to look around West Ham's football Ground "Boleyn Stadium" which is very impressive itself. Its called the Boleyn grounds because there used to be a supposed castle here which was either owned by Anne Boleyn's family or she stayed there. We also went to a fascinating book shop next to the West Ham grounds which was full of books on the East End of London, football and also had a great childrens section.

In memory ...

My friend Sharon died last week of a horrid illness. She left behind her husband Fergal and cute son Rory. I wanted to remember her here. She was full of life , bubbly and happy. So tragic to have her life taken away so young and for her to miss out on so much left from life.

mums with a grudge

Thinking of setting up a new blog, it'll be a web 2 blog which talks about all the different moans I hear from my mum friends. Lately my contemporaries are having very real and frightening money, financial problems mainly because a) we live in London and its very expensive b) their husbands seem to have lost their jobs . Last night I called two close friends and all they did was moan about London, England and trying to raise a family here. It seems almost impossible to raise the kids and find a job that will pay enough to cover childcare, so what are we all meant to do ? I think its a travesty that my well educated, bright, ambitious friends are in such a pickle financially so I wonder I'm sure we're not the only ones finding it hard to make ends meet, raise and family and try, try to enjoy our life a the same time. Surely new Labour was meant to raise the standards in England for all of us? Not sure they have managed this with mums ...? Let me know what you think.
I know we're all meant to be positive at all times but I do think that maybe a blog that allows us all to rant and moan may be quite cathartic .

Keep on winning!

Went to hear 4 women entrepreneurs yesterday at the British library. Was fantastic, they really inspired me to keep positive and keep at it. Martha Lane Fox wasn't there, she was ill but there were some amazing women there. I loved the way that Kanya King was so down to earth and yet apparently has an MBE and started the black music awards MOBO from her bedroom - that's impressive! I think that these sort of women should be broadcast to all teenagers in this county so that people feel inspired to create something of themselves. Kanya commented on how her sister told her to always wear her hair up in meetings as people would take her more seriouslsly, Kanya ignored her sister and look where she has got to! Funnily enough I have been told many times by others, elders ,even hairdressers to wear my hair up for interviews - "it will make you look older , more professional!" Well from now on I'm going to be me , straggly hair and young face and people can like me or lump me!

Even better, I won my second prize of the week! I won a British library memory stick for my computer! I never win anything , but now I'm winning twice in one week. I also won 2 books at my daughters mother and baby toddler group, a mum was selling books, she asked for our details and I entered mine and won!
Am buying a lottery ticket over the weekend and keep my fingers crossed for another more lucrative win!

Articles

Just wanted to mention a recent article about me and the business. Its in a fantastic website called marmaladya.com - perfect for London women. I suggest you sign up for their weekly newsletter.

The article is found here

Saving the earth

As well as everything else, I am very interested in saving our planet from climate chaos. Yesterday evening a friend told me about an Indian Chief Sealth who made this amazing statement in 1854. I think it gives us all something to think about and is very pertinent in our current time of environmental crisis.

Kenwood walk and the movies

Went for a power walk around Kenwood this morning. It was beautiful! I must try to do this more often, when the weather is right, just get out of the car, the house and walk. Inspiring ...! I saw a film crew there, Kenwood has been used for lots of films, most famously Notting Hill . This made me think about other great film locations in London and, or other cities of the world. We feature film locations in our walks around cities, I'm thinking we should make more of this as many people would be interested. My best film location at the moment is Leadenhall market which was used for Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone as Diagon alley.

Snow on trees and building good websites

We are relaunching the site soon. we want to ensure the site is the best it can be with regards to search engines and also people transferring to buying when they are on the site. There is lots and lots to do for search engine optimisation, its amazing ! people don't talk about it but they have thought about it! Trust me, every web page with a site map - well, that's there for the search engines ... Its amazing really, a site needs fantastic copy, be usable, get conversions for sales and also you have to think about the search engines, what they need ,what these robots need! Its enough to make one think again about having a web site, because whats the use without the viewers and ultimately the buyers?! Maybe I shouldn't say all this stuff on my blog but I've always been a straight forward , truthful soul so why stop now?
So my top tips if you are creating a website - warning I am about to get slightly technical ish but I think you need to understand a little bit to make your web site the best it can be for search enginges anyway :-
a) think about its goal
b) work out an SEO (search engine optimisation ) policy to get to this goal
c) design the content, links , graphics around the SEO
d) make sure you have a CMS (content management system) so you can update your website whenever you want, not your web agency.
e) Enjoy it!
f) Look at this blog looks really easy to understand and informative. Love the snowy trees also!
g) there are loads of other places to look for creating a website, it all goes back to my point in a you really need to think about what your goal is and then go through relevant steps!

networking and being a mum

I need to get out more , away from my house during work hours as I need to see people , get other stimulation. But, its not that easy, there are loads of networking events in London but they are mainly in the morning or evening , as all mums reading this will know, I can't make these times as I drop off and pick up the mini m.

So, I am going to start my own networking group, for mums who have a business and live in my area!

Have already found 2 mums who will go and have their own businesses now need a couple more and we have our first group. Should be exciting. Will fill you in on details here.
So today I was all set to go out and an estate agent came round to show someone round. Well, he opened up a window in our lounge and now it won't shut! So, I am stuck here , until he comes around to sort it out! Unbelievable these estate agents!

Use a coach

I have been using a business coach called Amanda. Find her at www.coachingmums.com. She really focuses me and has some fantastic ideas. Basically if you need help in starting a business or focusing on what you want in life, Amanda is your woman. She has helped me so much recently I feel that I need to help her out a bit , so thought I'd advertise her name to the world , well, the world who read my blog anyway.
On a serious note using a business coach is good because it -
a) motivates you
b) focuses you
c) gives you another approach
d) your coach has nothing to do with your business so can give an objective view

My podcast

View this Podcast at www.clickcaster.com

Check out my podcast! Thanks go to clickcaster who provided a really easy to use system to upload the podcast and also the free music software of audacity . I'm rediscovering my techie roots with all this stuff, its quite exciting! I almost forgot the most important thanks - to my friend Mark White who gave me all the links to these places in the first place.

PR

Am reinventing my marketing strategy. We are getting lots of hits to the site, so marketing is working but the turn around for sales could be better. So, we are introducing lots of new approaches, new strategies including PR, or Public Relations. After this blog am about to make lots of calls and I hate cold calling, see earlier blog, but because its me helping them to sell papers I don't feel so bad about the calls. So, if anyone has any tips for me re PR strategies please add a comment, in fact if anyone wants to say anything please add a comment - it would be nice to have some :-)

new horizons

Its a grey day today, lightly spitting with rain. This is a typical english autumn/winter day . Reading previous posts of mine you can see that I am rather obsessed with the great British weather - it brightens my mood, or dampens it . Well, that is all in the past, I'm really trying to get on with it, not let the weather effect my moods and keep at it. After all, I live here, the reality is the weather is changeable so move on and up.
After all that philosophical stuff, back to the here and now. Just got a text message from Karen, the sister who is in South America, she is on the Patagonian coast in a beautiful seaside resort. Just receiving her message made me smile, I miss her and just to get a little text from her cheers me up, forget the rain at least my sister is happy.
So, my post today . I wanted to comment on a programme I watched last night on channel 4 - wife swap Its all about a successful business women and her family v a stay at home mum and her family. The successful woman is portrayed as a selfish bxxxx who is only interested in money. OK, her life was very dominated on her business but I really think too much was made of it, and its not necessarily only stay at home mums who give their children better care. It was obvious to me that if this woman would have stayed at home all the time her kids would have suffered as she would have been miserable. We need fair representation of successful business women and their families, I refuse to believe that we can't do both, have a business and still have a family life. I know myself and many mums I meet are really striving for this and I really believe it shouldn't be this difficult and one sided. Comments are welcome.

Cold Calling - I'd rather have the Flu

Accounts are now done! After my terrible day of procrastination I just put my head down and did them! So, now I just have to contact the accountant , pay a ridiculous amount of money and its finished.
Onto the next task, cold calling.... Now I really don't enjoy this, this cold calling thing - I feel stupid talking to someone who doesn't know me or care about me. Lots of people I know don't have a problem with calling up a business and asking for Mr or Mrs Blue or Red but I do! I wish I didn't but I do. Its strange because they don't even know me, they can't see me but I get all tensed up and really don't want to call the number ....
Right, off to make one of those horrible calls... Please let me know if you know of anywhere where I can get help with this, and I'm talking for free am not interested in paying for this knowledge as I know I can do it, I can, really I can.

To do accounts or not ?!

I've got to do the yearly accounts this week. So, end of day one this is what I have achieved;

• Taken sister to airport.
• Bought a cake and tea as I was upset at the reality that my sister is going away for 6 months.
• Read parenting books for an hour as I sipped my tea.
• Went to the gym and came straight home as the swimming pool was too crowded and I didn't have my gym shoes with me.
• Put two loads of washing on and cleared up the fridge.
• Changed the template on my blog to add a link to my friend’s blog.

Good procrastination don't you think? Tomorrow is another day...

customer service

Is customer service going too far? A friend just called me with a little story. She was having problems with her printer and asked for help from the help center. As a reply she received a rambling email which basically said "buy a new cartridge" . She, in her lovely English polite way, replied saying "thank you." She then received an email going on and on about how much they value her service and attitude etc etc. - shame I don't have the email to include but it was really long. She then got asked to take a customer service survey! So, her politeness has meant she has been asked to take a survey which when filling in she must add a comment such as "How much time do you waste writing long-winded emails to me when you could be taking other calls?!"