Awards for Everyone

Having spent the last year living in a little world of my own, frantically surfing most days away on the internet, I have now finally woken up again and realized there is more to life than the Internet. I read a little ad that said ‘Stop Spam, Read a Book’ and that more or less typifies how I feel now.

I am currently spending my days looking after patients,  reading books, swimming and having a nice time with my friends. I had forgotten about books, being too busy reading everything on the internet instead, and now I am suddenly  acutely aware of the almost sensual pleasure of handling a book, smelling the paper, and sitting under the parasol reading.

My friends are very pleased I now have a social life again and so is my dog. He has had some very long walks recently and is getting more attached to me once more. I guess I have no-one else to blame but me for my previous obsessive behaviour on the internet, but I will definitely guard against that happening again. So Stop Spam, Read a Book is my motto from now on.

Popularity: 8%

I have written previously about the laborious process of incorporating our business. Today we again had a meeting with our lawyer and our accountant, to try and get things moving. Nothing moves very fast here, except the traffic, so it may be a while yet before I have something definite to write.

In the meantime I have been swatting up on the difference between term life insurance, whole life insurance and critical ilnness/injury insurance. It seems we may need all of them for one reason or another and then we will also need Public Liability Insurance on top of all that.

I guess I was being kind of naive when I thought a couple of visits to the lawyer and the accountant would sort everything, the wheels of authority grind slowly but surely and eventually we will get the business we really wanted.

Until that day we will just carry on as we are now and hoping we stay alive and healthy.

Popularity: 8%

I surf on a team with several people. One of them is going to be a grandmother again this August, and this time she will be having her first granddaughter. She spends a lot of time looking after her grandchildren, so that both parents can return to work, and she says that the experience of looking after grandchildren is much nicer than when she had her own children, because she feels more relaxed about them as she has more experience and she can also hand them back at the end of the day, so no sleepless nights!

We spent a lovely session surfing thinking about baby shower ideas, names for the baby, baby clothes and general baby talk. Funny how talk of babies makes everyone on the team interested, even the chaps wanted to chip in.

Her daughter in law is not having a particularly good time whilst pregnant, with lots of minor health problems, and no-one can wait now until August for the baby to be born. A good thing we do not remember all the problems once our children are born, or all families would end up with only one child.

Popularity: 9%

We’re all trying to be more environmentally aware these days, and a great way to do that is to buy pre-owned products that are still in great shape. For businesses, that means buying used trade show displays instead of new ones. While new displays can still be eco-friendly, buying a used trade show booth means that no additional resources had to be used to create another display.

The only thing better than being eco-friendly is saving money, and with a used trade show display, you can do both. Pre-owned displays cost much less than comparable new displays, and the savings you’ll get from buying used can be put towards accessories like banner stands, literature racks, and flooring – all things that will draw more people to your display. Save your company some money and do the environment a favor by buying a used trade show display from Trade Show Joe. It’s a decision you won’t soon regret.

Popularity: 9%

I always thought it was funny in the past when gas prices would go higher. Most people would stop going out to eat or wouldn’t go to the movies why gas prices were up. It seemed like everyone would cut out other things in their life, but driving less was not one of them. Now prices are around $4 a gallon in most places and people have no choice now, they have to stay at home more. I know I have not made trips recently because of the high gas prices that just keep going up. I believe gas prices are going to keep going higher and they will probably level off at the $4.40 a gallon mark for this summer. Prices will drop again in the fall, but look for next summer to see the prices go back up again. I believe the way things stand right now; we should be look at $5.75 a gallon for the summer of 2009. So why 4 dollars might seem like a lot this year, let’s just be thankful that it is still under 5 dollars a gallon. A new president isn’t going to affect the oil prices and this is mainly due to the fact that the world-wide supply of oil is running out. Gas prices will never be under 2 dollars a gallon again!

Popularity: 10%

Looking at shipping label I wondered why they have to be so boring. Looking at Flickr I found quite a few customized shipping labels that were very creative. Here is one of my favorites.

and here is another one.

Popularity: 9%

I wrote a few days ago but our nearly new kitchen which is taking shape nicely. The tiles are in, the walls are painted and last night when I came home from my evening patient round, there was a surprise for me which had been ‘cooked up’ by the family together with Jackie.  There is now an LCD mount in the kitchen above the breakfast bar! A brand new small LCD television sits snugly there, and as I ate my breakfast this morning I just had to watch it, even though normally I do not watch telly before going to work.

It has freed up more space on the worktop in the kitchen, and you can never have enough space for all the utensils we seem to collect. Great idea Jackie, it looks great and I feel I now just want to sit in the kitchen to watch t.v. – time to get an LCD for the sitting room as well now, otherwise you will find me in the kitchen!

Popularity: 10%

Although as a health care professional I have to admit that I have problems with people often reaching for a bottle of pills rather than adapting their lifestyle to deal with health issues, the fact is that most of us at times would rather take a pill than drink more water, exercise more and eat sensibly. One of the reasons we reach for the pills is that it allows us to carry on with our previous lifestyle whilst at the same time reaching a goal we have set ourselves.

Nowhere is this issue more clearly visible than in the issue of weight control. Most people who are overweight eat too much (and often at the wrong time of day) and do too little physical work/exercise. That is a known fact. Very few people who are overweight have medical conditions that make them so.  Yet we would rather take supplements such as ephedra, amphetamines or medication that stops fat being absorbed in the intestines, than eat a diet lower in fat and walk to work.

The same issue applies to the vitamins we take (rather than eat a balanced diet of organic fruit and vegetables and less meat) and the fact that we reach for the painkillers every time we have a headache, rather than maybe drinking more water (dehydration is a major cause of headaches) or trying to find out what is causing the pain.

I do exactly the same myself, and console myself with the idea that at least I am relatively well-informed about the actions of various drugs and their side-effects.

Popularity: 9%

New faucets, are the fastest and simplest way to start that home improvement project you have been putting off.

Popularity: 9%

Getting an online business degree can open up a whole world of new job opportunities that you may not have thought possible. Have a passion for environmentalism? Then consider getting your Bachelor of Science in Business/Green and Sustainable Enterprise Management. This degree will teach you more about the green movement and instruct you on how to help corporations apply sustainability practices to their businesses.

If you consider yourself a worldly person, perhaps a business degree in Global Management is more your style. You could travel the world as a liaison between companies that need to work together but are continents apart. Or, if you know a foreign language, you could make monthly visits to factories overseas to make sure things are running smoothly.

Perhaps you are passionate about businesses and how they run, but prefer to do research on companies instead of working at them. Then a Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership is for you. You’ll be conducting groundbreaking research in your field and may even end up as a professor or a high-paid consultant for a Fortune 500 company.

Whatever your passion, there is an online business degree for you!

Popularity: 10%