This evening I was expecting to get a call to say that the new children’s home I and my fellow trustees were setting up in Kenya had had its final inspection and that the home manager Jec could get the last bit of paper we needed to open; a hygiene certificate of sort. I haven’t heard yet and I am wondering if there has been another hiccup. This was to be the last hoop we had to jump through and an infuriating one at that; after all what do they care about the welfare of the hundreds of street kids? Nought, yet they were not happy with us only using the 2 indoor toilets for now. No, we had to go and rebuild the outdoor ones too and the rest of it. All this, no doubt, because we always refuse to pay bribes. I repeat, always. Continue reading
Month: August 2015
Born in the wrong decade
I was most definitely born in the wrong decade. About 3 too early in fact. When I left college in 1976, I had just discovered “word processors”. Wonderful stuff I thought, but far from what I can achieve today using pretty much the same looking keyboard. So why too late since I am pretty clued on when it comes to IT? Well I think I would have like to learn CSS, HTML coding and all that gibberish stuff that you need to build a decent looking website and make a living out of it. It’s fascinating and very rewarding when something you have been nitpicking on for hours just suddenly fits right. Continue reading
Decisions, decisions
16/08/2015 – Time to get my written prose onto the “bloggy-sphere” now that, Eureka! I thought of a name this morning. “You never learn Mum” is what my youngest daughter said to me last week when I confessed that I had started a new charity…. again! (long story and if you stick with me, you’ll get to find out). My philosophy is that no two situations are ever entirely the same, so whilst one might use some of what they’ve learnt along the way, the mistakes they made or the situations they found themselves in are unlikely to repeat themselves in an identical manner. So, of course I have learnt. Learnt enough to know that it’s the right thing to do, now. Besides I like my free time to be challenging, useful and I admit, a bit of a roller coaster. At this stage of my life, I haven’t got time to waste and as Mother Teresa once said “What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.”
The Be Ruthless Company
14/08/2015 – A week has passed since I behaved against the grain and left my job, yet I haven’t found a minute to write anything for this blog to be, let alone giving it a name and getting it on somewhere in the “bloggy-sphere”. So better put something down now and pretend I am writing a blog.
How did I ever manage to find the time to work? Reality is I am fighting to get paid from the “Be Ruthless” Company; vaguely looking for paid work (bravado won’t pay the bills); in the middle of setting up a new charity and decluttering my study, ‘cause I can’t find anything. With every single one of those goals unfinished, next week is going to be a déjà vu routine.
So what of this “Be Ruthless” Company, to use their “Be…something style” that I felt compelled to walk out of? It’s supposed to have taken on the staff of the Company that employed me until mid-July but had to go into administration; all 5 of us. Only I am the only one that hasn’t quite made it onto their payroll, without as much as a reason, although I did start working (or sitting mostly) in their offices on 27th July. I didn’t just sit because I am lazy, I sat because I was not given the tools I needed to work, mainly access to their Goggle Cloud where it all seems to happen. Continue reading
What now?
09/08/2015 – Strike when the iron is hot they say. Well it couldn’t have been hotter than last Friday when I walked out of my job (more like a phantom job actually) at the uncomfortable age of 59 (& a half). That was not the action of a second wind of careless youth but more that of a too old to suffer fools any more. So what now? Perhaps it’s time to think outside the box ‘cause right now I feel quite liberated. But how do I combine my finance experience & boundless commitment with my love of interior design and my passion for helping kids in Africa? Too weird a mix to work? Who knows. But what I do know is that it would make the last productive years of my life a hell of a ride. I might start with a blog “She got to 60 and thought “I haven’t been me” perhaps?
you never learn mum 