What an incredible end of season we have had. Man City getting two goals late in the game to snatch the Premiership title out of Man Utd 's hands and last night Chelsea robbing Bayern Munich of the Champions League title in a penalty shoot out. This was football and the reason why we love it.
Spurs have missed out on a Champions League place thanks to Chelsea but I can't begrudge them their win. They are an English team after all.
Sunday 20 May 2012
Friday 11 May 2012
The Art Of Presenting
I had to attend a stupid and, at least on my part, unnecessary training course last week about Microsoft Powerpoint. This came about because my boss was impressed by a couple of young staff who did a powerpoint presentation at a recent staff briefing session complete with graphs, charts and one slide where the text came in from the side.He was very impressed.
He wanted to know why we weren't all doing the same when we did our presentations to staff
The fact that the young things also stumbled and mumbled their way through the whole thing obviously passed him by. The real art of presenting is building a rapport with your audience not dazzling them with fancy tricks and mind numbing stats.
Anyway there we all were sat in front of PC being given lessons on how to create a Powerpoint presentation by a girl almost young enough to be my grandaughter let alone my daughter..
Anyone who has applied for a job in the last ten years and has had to do presentation as part of the process can use Powerpoint. If you turned up at an interview brandishing your slides and asking for the Overhead Projector it is very likely the normally young admin assistant/pa who greets you would not have a clue what you were talking about.So I already know how to create a presentation and can even set up the projector etc. I'm not an expert but I can get by.
However,judging by the rest of my area management team's reaction to attending this session I am the only one of them who has applied for a job in the last ten years. Despite sitting through many hours of tedious powerpoint presentations in their working lives, none of them had ever created a presentation themselves.
My presentation was a quirky non work related topic, music. Doing it got me thinking about music and me and how I listen to music and what music I listen to. More of that later
Friday 4 May 2012
Time Passes
It is sometimes surprising when you stop what you are doing, take stock and realise that time is flying by.
It’s now May and we are over a quarter of the year through.It seems only yesterday I was starting my new role over in another part of the city.But, in fact, it's three months ago. The feeling is a bit like life in general. Here I am 51 years old and two grown up kids. I have been living in Newcastle 21 years now. That’s a lifetime.
My wife starts her new job with a national Charity next week. I am pleased for her. She has got the job she deserves and could use this as a springboard to get an even better job.
I am pleased as well for the whole family as the last two years have been unsettling with my wife working on successive temporary contracts. Although we have done OK it doesn’t feel like it. The basic human need for security wasn’t there and we didn’t really feel able to plan ahead. Now we can at least start to plan and do the things we have been putting off. Like decorating, a new shower cubicle and possibly a decent roofer to overhaul my roof.
I have been scrambling around the loft two or three times over the last week following the torrential downpours we have had. I have spent several hours using emergency roofing repairs materials ( paint, spray and gaffa tape) to try and stop the leak. Last night was my final attempt. Previous attempts have been partially successful but I think I have sorted it now. We will see the next time it tips down.
My son seems to being enjoying Berlin as we haven’t heard from him for a week or so.My daughter is furiously applying for jobs as she has realised she only has £500 to see her through to September.
My bit of excitement has been to buy my ticket for The Wedding Present tour in the autumn.They are playing a Saturday night at the O2 in Newcastle. So it will be an early start and a 10pm finish. The fact that I am quite pleased about that means I am really getting old.
It’s now May and we are over a quarter of the year through.It seems only yesterday I was starting my new role over in another part of the city.But, in fact, it's three months ago. The feeling is a bit like life in general. Here I am 51 years old and two grown up kids. I have been living in Newcastle 21 years now. That’s a lifetime.
My wife starts her new job with a national Charity next week. I am pleased for her. She has got the job she deserves and could use this as a springboard to get an even better job.
I am pleased as well for the whole family as the last two years have been unsettling with my wife working on successive temporary contracts. Although we have done OK it doesn’t feel like it. The basic human need for security wasn’t there and we didn’t really feel able to plan ahead. Now we can at least start to plan and do the things we have been putting off. Like decorating, a new shower cubicle and possibly a decent roofer to overhaul my roof.
I have been scrambling around the loft two or three times over the last week following the torrential downpours we have had. I have spent several hours using emergency roofing repairs materials ( paint, spray and gaffa tape) to try and stop the leak. Last night was my final attempt. Previous attempts have been partially successful but I think I have sorted it now. We will see the next time it tips down.
My son seems to being enjoying Berlin as we haven’t heard from him for a week or so.My daughter is furiously applying for jobs as she has realised she only has £500 to see her through to September.
My bit of excitement has been to buy my ticket for The Wedding Present tour in the autumn.They are playing a Saturday night at the O2 in Newcastle. So it will be an early start and a 10pm finish. The fact that I am quite pleased about that means I am really getting old.
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