Funny things cats !

Edition 111 Monday 10th October 2011

Hi ,funny things cats, I never really notice or see Boris Jones unless it is meal time ! The rest of the time he is busy doing important feline stuff like sleeping and sleeping more! I have a resident mouse at home and Boris cant even get off his furry bottom and sort that out for me ! So when he went missing in action I didn’t really notice for the first few days. It was only after nearly a week I found myself getting concerned enough to mount a search party. Eventually after a full week he hobbled out of the bush with a dislocated hip(ouch) he tried to tell us Harrys mate Oscar was responsible. Poor old warrior, he was lucky to be alive,crazy thing but we burst into tears we were so relieved, didn’t realise how much he meant to us, funny things cats !

Its tough being a ‘Jones ‘ sometimes, ask any of the 6 players in the Welsh rugby team with the surname Jones….hard to keep up with that Jones mob ! Speaking of the ruggers, what a great weekend of quarterfinals !.....and then there were 4 with two amazing semi final match ups for next weekend……cant wait, GO THE MIGHTY ALL BLACKS !!!

Thanks for your feedback from last week re work/life balance, good to hear so many of you are making time for important stuff other than work………ME TOO!!!.

I hope you had a great weekend doing just that with family and friends, have a rewarding week.

Cheers Jonesey

Harry the ‘All Black’ hound is ready to rumble with his summer sleek skin fit adidas kit on (see  'before' and 'after'  photos below)

“First we will be best and  then we will be first.” Grant Tinker

I have a dream to one day be the World Champion of Public Speaking. I am under no illusion about the enormity of this dream and the challenge it represents.

I had lost focus on my dream until I was inspired recently after reading about Australian Jock Elliot who also had that dream and achieved his ultimate goal in August

Jock Elliott rose above 30,000 participants to win the world's largest speech contest

 In a speech underscoring the value of close connections with family and friends, Jock, a Toastmaster from Queensland won the final round of the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. He, along with eight other final contestants, reached the championship round after several eliminating rounds that began six months ago with 30,000 participants from 116 countries.

"We often don't look after the people who really matter in our lives the way we need to," he said. His speech resonated with a capacity crowd of nearly 2,000 listeners from around the world who attended the contest held in Las Vegas.. The core message of his winning speech was about maintaining relationships with, "the friends of my blood which is about family, friends of my time which is about the people I've grown up with and shared experiences with, and friends of my heart, who have shared my life emotionally."

A veteran competitor, he joined Toastmasters 36 years ago and competed in nearly 380 Toastmasters speech contests before reaching his lifelong goal of earning the title of World Champion of Public Speaking. In his acceptance speech, he said, "Thank you for more than a lifetime of challenge, opportunity and friendship." A six-time World Champion finalist,he said if he had won this award five or 20 years ago, "I might have been a richer speaker but not a better speaker."

Wow, what an example of someone who never lost sight of his goal, a huge inspiration for any of us who aspire to be the best we can be. A good example also of Winston Churchills quote from last week about ‘Never giving in. So, dust off and update those goal lists, still time in 2011 to achieve them !!!

“Your goal should be just out of reach but never out of sight.” Dennis Waitley



Harry J before




Harry J after