Entries from May 2006 ↓

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Thursday’s a Thriller

Found a message slip from Royal Mail on the doormat last night when I got home. They were delivering a package that needs a signature. The package contains my invitation to attend a picnic at Highclere Castle.

This is a picnic with a difference because the background music is going to be supplied by:

The Band Du Lac featuring Gary Brooker, Mike Rutherford, Andy Fairweather Low & Paul Carrack.

With special guests Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Georgie Fame, Nick Mason joined by Brian Ferry.

So tonight I see Eric in Birmingham and then again at the picnic in two weeks time.

But to see Mike Rutherford (last time I saw him was in JHB when he played polo there) and Paul Carrack (together they are 50% 0f Mike & The Mechanics) with Brian Ferry and Nick Mason (drummer for Pink Floyd) at one gig is phenomenal.

THURSDAY THRILLS !

Reprised: 10 phrases Jeff De Cagna & I loathe

1. Think outside the box - For crying out loud, forget about the box. Just think.

2. The future is now - Are you sure? I had it down for later in my Blackberry.

3. Come prepared to work on a five-year plan - No further explanation required.

4. We are in a time of change - Wow, we’d better alert the media!

5. It’s about people - If you have to say it, then it isn’t.

6. It’s about community - Talk about turning an important idea into a buzzword

7. It’s the members’ association - If that’s true, then we’re in real trouble.

8. We need to develop a policy - Oh no, now we’re DEFINITELY in trouble!

9. We have no money - I bet if you look more closely, you’ll find some.

10. We can’t do that - If this is your default position, you can’t lead.

On your knees, I’m a creative deviant!

Because why?

“You have to be deviant if you’re going to do anything new.”
David Lee, producer of TV show Frasier

So today (jislaaik, so early already even) I did something new! I wore my new pair of striped socks! Yes folks, I found a fresh supply of striped socks in Henley there by Ashworths, net om die hoek!

My striped socks phase began one day in Bicester Village when……..

Last year I happened to walk into Paul Smith’s shop as the attendant was opening a newly arrived consignment of stock. Through the heavy-duty clear plastic bag, I saw striped socks. Oh wow! I want. Gimme, gimme!

So I bought a lot of pairs there and then and have not looked back! I have built up a large collection of striped socks which I wear with a suit to the office each day. My socks intrigue people and happens to also catch the right peoples’ (CFO or COO and CEO) attention.

This is a great way to open a conversation and create an opening for me to launch into my proposal for increased funding or headcount or whatever I deem necessary!

Thanks Paul Smith and your striped socks which now provide me with opportunities I never really had before.

So I am a creative deviant and I am proud!!

The fog has lifted. There is no ambiguity. It is as clear as Swarovski crystal.

It is appalling and unforgiveable.

I refer of course to business’s complete reliance or need for predictability and suppression of innovation. And the guys running these mindnumbingly boring, staid but result-bringing shareholder focussed corporations and SMEs are seriously well experienced and amply qualified ‘business’ people?

What do you reckon? Should the workers revolt and replace their idiots who go by the name of directors or should they be retained but have their two braincells forcibly exposed to the potential new revenue streams that are there for the grabbing if they would only let staff free to innovate?

I say, let the board haemorrhage on corporate blandness until the market lets them know their product suite is old, boring, in need of a revamp and leave stock on the shelves. But will they ever learn that innovation is as essential as oxygen is to our survival on the planet?

Yes I think they will but still the cry to innovate will not be well received by them.

Are you doing Great Work? Or merely Good Work?
by Michael Bungay Stanier

Great Work, Good Work and Bad Work Defined
You may not know the name of Milton Glaser, but you probably know at least one of his works of art - the “I (heart) NY” logo. In his book, Art is Work, Glaser provides these provocative definitions of work:

Work that goes beyond its functional intention and moves us in deep and mysterious ways we call great work.
Work that is conceived and executed with elegance and rigour we call good work.
Work that meets its intended need honestly and without pretence we call simply work.
Everything else, the sad and shoddy stuff of daily life, can come under the heading of bad work.”
I combine Glaser’s second and third distinctions to have just three categories: Great Work, Good Work and Bad Work. (And by “Work”, I’m talking all of “the stuff you do”. It’s not only about what you do in the office, but what you do 24/7. Work includes looking after your children, watching TV, preparing meals, exercise, being with friends, being by yourself, and so on).

How do you know what’s what? Here’s my litmus test:

Great Work
Great Work brings with it both exhilaration and terror. You’re delighted when someone asks you what you do, and they have trouble getting you to stop talking about it. When you are doing Great Work, you tap into reserves of courage and chutzpah to get done what needs to be done. You often have no idea how to do what needs to be done - and are only a little fazed by that, because you are certain that this is truly what needs to be done.

Great Work is a place where impact and effect trumps over efficiency and process. It is often a place of waste, because creativity needs waste to thrive. It is a place of inspiration, where suddenly all your past makes sense (”A-ha! That’s why I did that, learned that, experienced that”). Great Work is a place that honors your skills, your passion and your experience

Great Work is also a difficult place to be. The temptation to “downgrade” to the comfort of Good Work is constant. Your “inner critic” is rampant, whispering “Who are you to try this? Who do you think you are to be this ambitious? Don’t you know you’re doomed to failure?” Great Work can also be elusive, because it can degrade in a moment to be simply Good Work. To do Great Work, you must be ever vigilant.

Good Work
With Good Work, there is no shame attached. You’re doing work that uses your skills, it gets stuff done, it may well pay you a wage. Good Work is comfortable, because you know what you’re doing. It is probably something of a routine or a habit. So it’s not that you’re having a bad time. It’s just that when you’re asked by strangers what you do, sometimes it feels like you’re trying to convince yourself more than them that this is great. Good Work is often about “being efficient”, without ever asking the difficult question “is this the right work to be efficient with?” (Peter Drucker says this: “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things”). In a year’s time, you won’t remember the Good Work you were doing a year ago.

Bad Work
And as for Bad Work, the test is simple. It’s when you have that sudden flash of realization and you ask yourself: Why exactly am I wasting my life with this?

Take Action for Great Work
Here’s a quick exercise. Draw a biggish circle on a piece of paper. Now, divide it into three segments that represent the proportion of each of these types of work in your life today.

How much Great Work are you doing?More than 80%? Less than 20%?

In my experience, many of us are doing a fair amount of Good Work - but very little Great Work. The goal is to remove Bad Work from our lives, and continually increase the amount of Great Work.

What would you have to say “no” to, to double the amount of Great Work in your life?

What would you have to say “yes” to, to halve the amount of Bad Work in your life?

Resources for Great Work
Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes
Michael Bungay Stanier, Get Unstuck & Get Going… on the stuff that matters
Richard Carson, Taming your Gremlin

Article reproduced here in full by kind permission of Michael Bungay Stanier

Wednesday’s a Wonder!

Wednesday morning is here! The sun is shining, it’s warm and I’m amped up and looking forward to another great work day!

Also, it’s another day closer to the weekend and tomorrow night I see Eric Clapton in Birmingham.

Woooohoooo! Rock on!

Potjiekos, Henley Regatta & Slanghoek

So, on the Saturday of the regatta we arrive at Henley dressed up in crimplene safari suits (shorts with knee length socks and a comb slid down the right sock), with our potjies. Dressing in safari suits is in direct contrast to the ever so smart Hoorah Henry’s in their striped pink blazers, white trousers, white shirt n tie and boater hats. It will revolt them to see us but hey china, you screwed us during the Boer Wars so here we are on payback time to teach you some haute cuisine Transvaal style!! (heehee!)

The bottles of Slanghoek are chilling in canvas cooler bags (filled with water that chills as it evaporates - normally hanging on our kombi or bakkie’s front bumper) and the Windhoek lagers are on ice in the picnic box.

We arrive, we meet up, we suip then we go down to a field adjoining the river and potjiekos time begins. This is the best recipe:

OXTAIL POTJIE - probably the tastiest potjie recipe

INGREDIENTS
500g Oxtails cut 2 inches thick pieces
10 slices Bacon cut in 1 inch pieces
½ cup Flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 litre beef stock
1 can tomato paste
1 Bay leaf
6 black peppercorns
1 bouquet garni
6 large leeks, chopped coarsely
2 large onions, chopped coarsely
6 large carrots, chopped coarsely
20 button mushrooms
1 cup red wine
½ cup sherry
½ cup cream
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons crushed garlic

METHOD

1. Dry oxtails with paper towel.
2. Put seasoned flour in a Ziplock bag, then add the Oxtail and shake to coat with flour.
3. Heat butter and olive oil and sauté bacon pieces.
4. Remove bacon and brown Oxtail in resulting fat, remove and drain.
5. Finely dice 4 of the carrots. Coarsely chop the onions and the leeks.
6. Add the finely diced carrots, leeks, onions and sauté until softened
7. Add Oxtail, bacon, bouquet garni, bay leaf, peppercorns, garlic, tomato sauce, red wine, sherry.
8. Bring slowly to a boil and cook slowly for 3 - 4 hours.
9. 1 hour before serving cut the remaining carrots into 1 inch pieces, add them and mushrooms and continue cooking slowly.
10. Just prior to serving, add cream and stir in.
11. If you want to thicken the sauce mix some cornstarch with the cream before adding.
12. Fill glass with Slanghoek Chenin Blanc and geniet!

Slanghoek - ‘n uppercut eersteklas wyn!

I suggest we organise a Poetjie & Slanghoek Wine event at the Henley Regatta this summer.

It will bring much pleasure to the Hoorah Henry’s in their boaters, striped blazers and whites and to us ex-pats as well. If the weather is good, it’ll be a bliksem day for all!

Where will you be this summer without a bottle or three of chilled Slanghoek to make the poetjie that bit extra special?

KAROO POETJIE KOS
In a black iron pot (three leg ‘Missionary Pot’)
Fry onions, Bacon, sausage, lamb and braise all round
When lamb is well browned add peppers and tomatoes
cover and simmer over a low flame till all is cooked
3/4 an hour before serving add rice
season with salt and sweet paprika
Check moisture level as rice is cooking (add a little water if necessary)
Serve with slices of garlic bread and chilled Slanghoek

This I know too well

URBAN TRASH cartoon by Jeremy Nell

Visit Slanghoek

Slanghoek Cellar lies in the picturesque Slanghoek Valley, 880m above sea level, surrounded by the majestic Slanghoek Mountains from which the cellar derives its name. The cellar is a mere 4km from the Goudini Spa holiday resort, 20km from Worcester and 90km from Cape Town.

Tuesday Fizziment

Oh yeah, Tuesday morning fizziment ‘n freshness! I love Tuesday mornings more than Monday mornings.

Because why?

It’s another day full of great work to do and it fizziments with exciting things that developed on Monday. And when you apply the Eight Irrestible Principles of Fun, you will see that Tuesdays can only be Great Work days

PS: Fizziment is my saying to imply something fizzes with excitement. Join FIZZes to exciteMENT drop in an ‘i’ between them and you have a day full of FIZZIMENT!

After a hard day’s graft doing great work, I have to admit that when I pack away the laptop and files, I begin the “I cannot wait” to get home feeling. Yes, once I commit to the homewardbound journey, I am so keen to get there that nothing can stop me.

So why do I always get stuck behind some doos who obviously is in no hurry to get home? And why is he or she is a middle laner who gets over and undertaken?

Why do these people not care that the rest of the world wants to get home as quickly as possible.

Slanghoek? Dis die regte hoek!

So we need to find out where we can buy Slanghoek in UK. Where, who and how much?

Where will you be this summer without a bottle ot three of chilled Slanghoek to make the poetjie that bit extra special?

If you know where to buy it please let me know!

The Crown Jewel of Attitudes to Life

Here is what I consider to be the Crown Jewel of all attitudes to life:

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
Elbert Hubbard

What type of person are you? The half empty glass type or the glass is half full sort of person

Well if I apply the positive attitude, my Monday is still half full. It is 13:09pm. Time has flown by and there is still so much good work to be done.

This picture illustrates how I feel:

FRESH!