jeni starfish

Seven Steps to a New Career - Part Seven - Fine tuning your plan

Proof positive that people do read blogs is when you get irritated emails from people asking where Part Seven of that series has got to and what on earth do you think you are doing keeping me stuck in Part Six for the best part of 4 months?

I just plain forgot! Actually, there always was a Part Seven and it appeared in my weekly column in The Press at its proper and appointed time. So folk in York are all sorted on their dream career by now. Which doesn't make Angry from Tunbridge Wells (not his real name) any less angry, of course - in fact it rather compounds the error since I fancy there is a certain rivalry between the two towns. 

Ah well, you can't please 'em all. Here it is now, anyway, and to make amends, if anyone wants me to send them a full set neatly collated into one elegant document and signed by the author (c'est moi) I will gladly do so. Email me your postal address (to jeni@reachforstarfish.com) and type "Your Penance" in the subject line and I will dispatch a copy toute de suite to anywhere in the world or known universe so long as it has a postal or zip code.

(By the way can you tell that I am re-learning French? Did you spot the casual drop-ins? Did I spell them right, anyone?...)

On making 8000 new friends

Last weekend was a trip down to Nottingham Arena to hear the Dalai Lama speak on the subject of Bringing Meaning To Our Lives, in the company of 30 friends and approximately 8000 strangers. Of course, I should say "8000 friends I have not yet met". Now, I am a very social animal, but that would have been a powerful lot of old fashioned social networking for one weekend. I can see why Facebook has caught on - acquiring Friends seems so much easier that way.

This was hardly a networking opportunity, since I didn't even get to see all of the friends in my own party, such was the extent of the military operation that was the finding and securing of our seats in that huge auditorium. But I did feel very connected, as we listened together to three very different sessions from His Holiness which ranged from the simple, subtle and sublime core messages of happiness, through arcane Buddhist philosophy, to a rather more political perspective on how to lead an ethical life in this beautiful and flawed world we live in.

I could write for hours about the experience. But I won't. Much of it I haven't yet processed or made sense of. One thing I will share with you - my favourite Q&A of the whole weekend, which amply illustrates the sheer humanity and playfulness of this remarkable man...

 

Enterprise takes centre stage

Well, I had a ball at the Enterprise Show this weekend! For those of you not familiar with this event, it is a Yorkshire Forward/Business Link initiative to support people starting up new businesses. I was there in my capacity as a Role Model, having been technically in business for myself for 4 years. (When I say "technically" I mean that this is the time period that the calender tells me has elapsed since making my great leap off the corporate cliff. In my head it seems more like four days.)

I got to wear an impressive navy blue T-shirt emblazoned with the title Role Model across the back. Clearly Role Models must also be very tall, since the hem floated round about my knees. I maintained my dignity and my comfortable flat shoes and stood short and proud for those of us more vertically challenged...

The wings of joy

My adoring public out there must have been languishing in despair wondering when the wit and wisdom of jeni starfish will return. Another perspective...this posting will pop up in your inbox and you will think, ah, yes, didn't she just post a week ago? Dear Readers, it has been much more than a week but I forgive you completely if your life is so busy that it seems like a mere blink of the eye. And I prefer that version of the story to the former - languishing in despair is so yesterday!

Forgive me if I send out a post that may inspire a response from you all. It would just be nice to know that you haven't taken the huff with me for my period of in absentia. This one is fun. It's about the words that spellcheck and predictive text throw out as alternatives and how they might often be preferable to the one we originally intended. Read on...