The hare, the tortoise … and a baby elephant!

What can I say, I just hope that the moral of the hare and the tortoise turns out to be true for Mummo. Whilst some websites seem to be put together and launched really quickly, this particular website is taking its time! I was hoping it would be 9 months from conception to ‘birth’, but we’re overdue now. If we’re not careful, we’ll be looking at an elephant’s gestation period … and that’s a scary 22 months! And I don’t want to give birth to an elephant, especially not a white one!

So here I am on a Saturday evening, Mummo No Mates, sat in the office on my own with a list of jobs as long as my arm … and then an Asda shop to do on the way home! And guess what, one of the jobs on my list is to write an article about ‘how to have fun’. Not sure I’m properly qualified for that one! If anyone’s got any tips (other than “stop working”) please let me know.

Which reminds me, when I did the One Life show, I asked people for their own personal tips on how to be happier. You won’t be surprised to hear that sleep, alcohol and chocolate all featured quite prominently, along with ‘me time’ and ‘letting go of the guilt’. For obvious reasons, I didn’t get many men answering the question, but it’d be interesting to know what they (you?) might have said!

Anyway, better crack on now. Hope your Saturday night is more exciting than mine!

What a weekend!

Yep, it’s been amazing. I’ve spent just about the whole of it on my own, in the office, staring at a computer screen! And now, at three o’clock on Sunday afternoon, I’m suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Where is the rest of the world, not to mention my own children?! I’m missing them. I feel as if I’ve disappeared into some kind of strange, silent ‘twilight zone’ - can’t even work out how to get the radio on for company! It reminds me of when I was little. Occasionally we’d find ourselves the only car on a country road, or something like that, and I’d feel like we could be the very last people left on the planet. Perhaps that’s it … perhaps I’m the only person left?! Or just the only person mad enough to be working on a weekend!

Anyway, part of the reason why I’m in here now is because I was at the Prowess conference during the week. I have to say, it was great! And not just because I actually got two whole nights of undisturbed sleep, which was heaven in itself! The whole thing was very well organised, full of interesting people doing interesting work. There were some really inspirational speakers and I was fired up in particular by:

• Margaret Heffernan, author of ‘How she does it’, telling the story of Carol Latham and other women entrepreneurs who’ve done great things in their own way

• Nell Merlino talking about the ‘Make mine a million $ business’ campaign she’s started in the States

• Josephine Fairley, founder of Green & Blacks chocolate and now owner of Judges all-organic bakery and the Wellington Square Natural Health Centre in Hastings

There was also a great presentation on marketing to women, which made the point that it’s not enough to just ‘think pink’! Slightly worrying when my stand at the conference had pink mats, pink tulips, a liberal scattering of pink business cards and a bowl of pinky-red cherries! I’d like to believe that, behind all that, I’d instinctively and unconsciously understood the way to a woman’s heart, but who really knows? I did get some positive feedback though, and the cherries went down well! Let’s see what happens at One Life next weekend.

Things are hotting up …

A sunny Sunday afternoon …

… and here I am in the office! Oh, the joys of setting up your own business! Actually, I have to say, it’s quite nice to have the place to myself and be able to spread out with my papers and my thoughts. I am, of course, missing the in-laws who are kindly entertaining my children for me! And I haven’t dared set foot outside because I’d have to lock up and risk setting the alarm off again like I did last time. But apart from that, everything’s good, and I’ve been cracking through my ‘To do’ list at a fair old pace. Now, though … well now I’ve got to the ’sort out accounts’ bit, which is closely followed by the ‘do tax return’ bit, and so obviously it’s time for a cup of tea and a bit of blogging instead. Why, oh why, oh why do I do this every year?! For someone who made a career out of telling other people how to manage their mindset and achieve their goals, I am shockingly bad at following my own advice when it comes to anything admin! Procrastination is definitely the name of the game. It’s just that, where once I used to be able to stay up all night to get something done and thrive on the adrenaline of it all, these days it’s not quite so easy.

Okay, so, I’ll get on with it as soon as I’ve finished this. Went out for a 40th birthday ‘do’ last night (and yes, we actually went out together!) and had a really interesting conversation about friendship in cyberspace versus the real life variety. It’s strange how much more easily we seem to let our barriers down in the virtual world. Is that good, or not so good? I’m not sure. I still think that, at the end of the day, there’s no substitute for face-to-face. What do you think?

Had another interesting conversation about this blog, too. About how tricky it is to write about setting up a business without giving too much of the game away and to write about your state of mind without coming across as completely crazy! I do try to seem more-or-less normal, whether I achieve it or not is another thing!

Anyway, there’s no getting away from it, it’s time for that tax return. Aaaarrgghh! Need chocolate, quick!