Thursday, October 16, 2014

Anyone for (Commercial) Tennis ...?

Evening All,

Keeping all the balls in the air is not easy for anybody, especially us small business folk, at whom the balls often come at at the speed of  one of those automated tennis ball machines I've seen on the telly. 

Hit ! Lob ! Swing ! Miss! Repeat ! Hit ! Lob! Hit !, Hit ! Hit!

I think at last I'm beginning to feel comfortable in this rhythm of my life, it seems like it's all I've ever known.

It's been a funny few weeks. A valued staff member has left to become a taxi driver, we've lost an account that was busy but low margin & another few projects which we were working on have come to an end. With the extra time we've been working on our corporate business, which, whilst it doesn't have the consistency of the daily wholesale deliveries to shops, has double the margin, which means half the work.

Let's face it ...it's a no brainer as to which direction to take.

The other great thing about the corporate market is how the cheques/transfers  roll in. I now spend lots of time in the bank making lodgements, where I now consider the bank tellers my new best friends.With each lodgement that I make we exchange idle banter about our lives. We get to know each others stories & in that moment of exchange we care briefly about each other.

You see, the banks staff & myself have all been on the same journey for the past few years, we've all been fearful, stressed, worried about the future, but at last things feel better, lighter.

So as I end this weeks installment of my life let's raise a glass to the front line staff in banks who had no part in the decisions that were made by their directors that caused the recession, yet who probably got more than their fair share of contempt for a very long time.

Here's to moving up & moving on !

Cheers,

Shirley

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

I've got a sick note...What will I do with it !

Evening All,

I'm sick.

It doesn't happen very often but after eight days of barking like the sick hound that I am I booked myself in with the doctor for an appointment.She said I was quite bad, but antibiotics wouldn't do
any good.As I spluttered through my appointment, she suggested 15 minutes on a nebuliser might do the trick, so they hooked me up & I did what I was told...big deep breaths, whilst devouring Victoria & David Beckhams glorious life courtesy of Hello magazine. At the end of the session with no improvement the doc suggested steroids to try & move things along..

Steroids..I don't think so, not yet anyway.

She has prescribed an inhaler & a codeine cough bottle, and a few days rest. Oh yes, I am now in possession of my first ever sick note, but what can I do with it. give it to myself or Mr Delicious ?(who incidentally is quite peeved as he too is a bit sick, just not as much as me )

That's the thing about self employment, getting sick is just not an option.
So being the trooper that I am I've been dragging my aching body out of my warm bed, on these wintery mornings, night after night of broken sleep. I've dug deep inside myself, lifted each box of The Delicious Food Co salads & sandwiches, despite the pain it causes in my chest & replenished the shelves of my treasured clients, all the while muffling my asthmatic coughs.and I' have to say I've played a blinder, not a single client has noticed how sick I am ..the sacrifice I am making just being there.

That is until today. When I got to the wonderful Accents Tea & Coffee lounge Daniel  produced a tea with fennel, ginger & honey when I delivered his sandwiches saying "take this ..you've had that cough all week "

To quote the great Spike Milligan

"I told you I was sick "

Shirley x