Middlefocus

For a while, we had been on the look-out for a small plaster bust of Charles Dickens to sit alongside our collection of his works.  A finishing touch. We spotted one on the online shop for the Charles Dickens Museum in London and duly made the purchase. It arrived quickly and was securely wrapped. We are very pleased. What was a surprise was to find inside the package a hand-written thank you. Not a printed invoice or payment slip, a simple:  "Thank you for purchasing your item from our online shop.  We appreciate your support. Kind regards, Charles Dickens Team." A nice little twist in these hard times .   A personal touch that's so missing these days.  Must send for some notelets. Now where's that fountain pen?

Just came across an interesting creative arts project that needs funding to ensure its success. No different, you might think, from any other project but what I liked was the funding model.  More in a moment. The project is called The Parisianer and the idea is that 100 artists/illustrators will share 100 pictures capturing the essence of Paris.  At the end of this year there will be an exhibition, a book and posters of the artwork. Funding To succeed the project needs financial backing and rather than chasing grants or money from other sources it uses the concept of CrowdFunding fuelled by social media.  People share details of the project on their social networks and if they are so minded contribute to specified subscription ranges. When the project is realised they are sent the items listed for the respective price bands. If insufficient funds are raised and the project does not go ahead any monies contributed are returned. Progress is recorded on the website to s...

Stored in their original cardboard posting box for 75 years, twelve books of the Live Successfully! educational course show that personal development literature was going strong in the 1930s. What was the advice given then? Is it still relevant? That will be the focus of a series of posts on this blog over the months ahead. Cardboard box with 1938 postmark over George VI stamp The course was published by  Odhams Press , an innovative business that eventually succumbed to financial pressures and ceased trading in 1969. The constituent books are still in circulation though, fetching £5 each at some online booksellers. Most are uncertain about the date of publication.  There is a copyright reference, G638, that may mean something specific to those in the publishing trade.  However, the postmark is clear evidence that they were around in the 1930s - a decade characterised by devastating economic decline, still referred to as the Great Depression .   ...

When travelling, it's a custom in our family to pick up a souvenir or two of the places we visit and usually these take the form of prints, drawings or ceramics. Nothing too expensive mind but we do aim to go for the highest quality at the best price. Stopping at the stall of a local artist on a recent trip we were surprised to see a notice stating, "Pay whatever you like". An interesting and unusual concept. Engaging him in conversation, he explained that he wasn't alone in taking this approach.  He pointed out that some musicians, restaurants and even hotels were offering similar "payment" arrangements. This seemed a long way from the story I once heard about an event where the price of the cold, soft drink rose in line with the temperature in the stadium.  It is also quite commonplace for the price of hotel rooms to rise in relation to the importance of events going on in their area.  The inevitable law of supply and demand. The artist...

  Hadn't realised just how much fun a packet of Starburst could be as an icebreaker with small groups. Each wrapper is printed with a dare/task that you must do if you pick that sweet. There's nothing too strenuous and it's good fun. Alternatively there are four colours in each packet, and depending upon which colour is picked so each group member can be asked to reveal something about themselves.... I recently co-facilitated a session with my colleague Beth... She allocated these tasks to each colour: What Starburst tasks/dares would you pick? Got some? C'mon share!   Posted with Blogsy

On a day trip to Carlingford, County Louth spotted this handwritten notice on the glass door of the  Oystercatcher restaurant.... Simple, fun, effective.....

There are lots of trees near our home and the morning air is filled with the sounds of birds that inhabit them. Many different varieties are regular visitors to our garden and bring with them their instinctive pecking order. Recently there have been some brightly coloured newcomers that we did not recognise and decided to look up in a reference book of birds. While the book might be a helpful reference for experienced bird watchers it's not so practical for us as the pictures are in black and white. More practical is a no longer updated reference point on a BBC website page It not only shows colour pictures but provides a sound recording of each bird. Listening to those recordings brought to mind a piece of advice i was once given on how to slow down a busy lifestyle and be in the moment. The advice was simple: When you hear a bird, look for it. Now that's easy for the large doves that think they own our property and for the magpies that cackle noisy warnings of approa...

We had some electricians at home recently.  They were fitting extra power points and  we talked about where the new sockets would be positioned.  That decided we also agreed that rather than remove some existing sockets we would leave them in place in case they were needed.  The electrician sparked something in my mind when he said, "Better looking at it than looking for it!" That got me to thinking about applying that notion to working life; to office equipment in general and desktop organisation in particular.  How much time do we spend looking for one item or another that if it was close to hand might actually make us more time-effective?  Where do we keep that stuff?  On the desktop? In a drawer?  And if it is shared office equipment, are we quick to return it to where we got it?  That brings to mind another piece of homespun wisdom, "A place for everything and everything in its place?" Question? What items of office equipment do...