The key to solving your problem

Foundations are important. If they’re not stable, what you build doesn’t have good prospects. But I was in the clear, my shed stands on a big, solid concrete block. It’s not going anywhere. Or so I thought. Unfortunately, whoever constructed the foundation didn’t make sure it was level. To compensate…

Read more

Can you smell the roses?

What is the smell

The human body is designed to sweat. As well as being one of the mechanisms to excrete toxins from the body it’s important for regulating the body’s temperature. Huge under-arm sweat patches are not attractive in any outfit and, consequently, the deodorant and antiperspirant market is big business. In most…

Read more

You’re hired… perhaps

handshake

This week I did something I’ve not done for about 15 years. Last time I was very nervous, this time there was only the mildest of flutterings. In the latter part of 2001 I attended an interview for my first ever IT job. Having a degree in Civil Engineering I…

Read more

Anti-social media will enhance your life

As a university student, back in the 1990s, I knew just a small handful of students that carried a mobile phone. Today as I dropped my sons off at school, children under the age of 10 were handing their phones in to the office for safe-keeping. Times have changed. More…

Read more

An accidental mentor

A pub lunch

What do you do when the pressure is on and it starts to get uncomfortable? Inevitably life tosses awkward moments our way. Do you run, making a plan to skirt round the issue and return everything to its usual happy state? Sometimes we have to submit to the uncomfortable, enduring…

Read more

One important lesson from two of earth’s richest men

telescope and city

It was on Friday the 5th of July that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates met for the first time in 1991. Buffett had little interest in Gates, who was 25 years his junior, except for the fact they were neck-and-neck in the Forbes rich-list. And as for computers? Forget it.…

Read more

Mary, Mary, how does your garden grow?

Flower garden

I have a garden. I am not a gardener. Sure, I like to potter about the garden, to make it look good. But I don’t really know what I’m doing. If the plants can’t survive periods of neglect followed by severe pruning they’re obviously not hardy enough! Recently we took…

Read more

2 stereotypes you can’t trust

Blue for a boy, pink for a girl. It’s been that way since the dawn of time, hasn’t it? Actually, no. In the early 1900s blue was perceived as “delicate and dainty” thus suitable for a girl whereas pink was “more decided and stronger” so obviously very manly. Big boys…

Read more