All Gooey !!

Hi,although attendees are a dying breed the Devonport Razza’s Christmas do is a must for all veterans and their mates who have survived another year! This years event was no exception with the keenly contested ‘housie’ session setting the scene for a rousing Christmas lunch with all the trimmings and customary refreshments flowing as the guests sat down to a sumptuous feast. My normal favourites,the succulent ham on the bone and the delicious rich, moist, tasty christmas pud garnished with warm gooey custard were there once again in enough abundance for seconds J

Apart from these gastronomic delights the other highlights for us included the appearance of Fletcher James Jones at his first official Razza engagement and an important one it was too as he was able to help his Grandmother Ngaire celebrate her ‘life membership’ award presented after dinner prior to the live band entertainment and all important drawing of the christmas raffles. Yes another cracking time was had by all and most were home tucked up in bed before afternoon tea…..God Bless Devo Razza!!

We took the opportunity to stroll along the Devonport waterfront with Fletcher and enjoy a cold Monteiths lager outside the grand old Masonic Tavern as we wiled away a beautiful sunny Auckland Day. Its days like these that make us truly grateful for what we have and where we live.

It was a timely reminder to us that you don’t have to go far or spend zillions to get out and enjoy the many places that are the jewels in the crown of our neighbourhoods throughout our country. Where ever you are this Christmas make a point of getting out and enjoying it with whoever you are with, life is for living not wondering. On behalf of Christine, Fletcher, Harry and the Hendersons I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe happy New Year. We have loved sharing our good,bad and ugly experiences with you this year and thank you all for your objective, honest and frank feedback. We look forward to linking up again with you from Monday 21^st January 2013 , have an awesome fun week and take care……….Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons reckon it would be ‘Scooby Doo’ if you all adopted a dog or two in the New Year. They have plenty of buds looking for homes….apply within woof woof!!!

“In each of these companies I do whatever needs to be done, whether it`s ideas, testing, marketing, catalog copy-writing, or dishes.” Amy Cameron Farmer

Every company I have worked in or ever been in the cafeteria of seems to have a problem getting people to wash their own dishes after a drink or eating something at work? (sound familiar?)

Does everyone do that at their homes as well?.....probably not in most cases so why when they get to work do thay have a major problem cleaning up after themselves??

Does everyone think if they dump and run that eventually all the clean dishes will run out and some unlucky soul will have to wash some if not all the dishes so they can use them !!! I am laughing as I write but it is so true…….now Ive started,what about those people who come along and use the last hot water in the jug or milk in the bottle to make their drink and then disappear so that the next person (seems its always me !!) comes along, has to fill the jug and either go without milk or go down the road to get some  aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!. I can see the majority of you reading this nodding your heads with smiles on your faces !!!! Inconsiderate lot arnt we !!! well at least that’s what I used to think until one day last week……….just when I was about to give up……..

We had some VIP guests and treated them to luscious date scones and bottomless cups of real coffee which impressed them greatly and left a pile of dishes a mile high afterwards!! I bit the bullet and got stuck into cleaning them to find that our Managing Director grabbed a tea towel and dried them!! I will never complain about doing dishes again and believe this simple act did more to inspire,motivate and lead than anything planned or premeditated. So pick up a dish cloth and join the revolution!!

 “Wishes won't wash dishes” The Boss

Boris the cat June-1996- Dec 2012

Hi, its been a sad old time as we have finally had to say goodbye to Boris the last of our four cats. He was a cool dude and had a good life. Unfortunately after being badly injured 15 months ago he had been confined to our ‘departure lounge’ where life was comfortable but never the same. Animals are a huge part of any family and we have felt the loss of Boris accutely in the last few days with more than a tear or two shed as we remembered what an affectionate character he was. There is no doubt he is in a better place now with his four brothers stretching out on a big sofa with endless cat treats in cat heaven where there are no dogs !! R.I.P. Bozza the cat :(

On a brighter note the festive season is upon us with the Pohutukawas resplendantly bursting into bright red flower signalling the start of the silly season. We got another real tree from the pick and chop man locally it was the perfect size for the car and the house. There is a beautiful pine smell throughout the house (and the car !!) .The decorations and the lights fascinate Fletcher and his Father night after night!  It’s a magical time of year especially for the kids and spending time with family. The secret is to try not to let the madness engulf you in the mall and on the roads, try to take some time out to ensure you do relax and enjoy what is a traditionally happy time.I know its not always easy depending on each of our own circumstances however if we all go in with honest and best intentions we might just surprise ourselves how much we do enjoy it……worth a crack !!

I hope you had a great weekend in the sun having fun recharging your batteries for the penultimate week before Christmas,time to bring the year successfully to a close and look forward to a new one !!

 Have a great week…………..Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons had a minute silence and a few beers to remember Boris !

“My fitness goals are different than most peoples. Most people want to lose enough weight so they look good in a bathing suit or they want to lower their cholesterol. I just want to lose enough so my stomach doesn't jiggle when I brush my teeth.” Kevin James

As you know we have talked about the importance of exercise to your on going well being and state of mind. No where does this matter more than in the work place.

Your confidence and your self esteem are boosted if you can fit into that stunning outfit or look good whatever you wear.

After doing over 1000 sit ups and associated central core exercises weekly (over 50,000 between summers!) you would hope that you could take your shirt off down the beach with a degree of confidence or wear a fitting shirt to work?!!….but no, still a bit more work to do yet Im afraid!!!

The problem my friends is my diet not my exercise, you see exercising daily is fine but Im afraid it doesn’t then give me license to eat whatever I want ! This is a lesson I struggle to learn. I cant help it if the cafes close to me make the best orange/date scones and ginger slice in the land !

After a weekend of following my own advice and relaxing with family and friends it is impossible to wear a fitting shirt to work on Monday !, so the not so fitting version gets rolled out (again). Progressively through the week the more I exercise the more fitting the shirt gets and the higher the confidence level! My success level in sales depends largely on what belt hole I am riding in on the day!!! There is no point in calling on customers or doing presentations with the ‘muffin’ tummy over belt effect going on. The less muffin the more power and confidence, the more muffin the less breath and ability (mobility) to handle any situation…..aint that the truth! :)

No matter how hard we exercise it will never do us any good if we don’t watch our diet. A timely message for us all as the tempatations of the festive season loom. Enjoy the moment but don’t lose sight of your exercise program and how you want that to make you feel…..invincible !!

“I am a better person when I have less on my plate.” Elizabeth Gilbert

Random acts !!

Edition 167  Monday 3rd December 2012

Hi,I never used to like getting a haircut as a kid, mainly because Dad fancied himself as a bit of  a barber. He even went to the expense of kitting himself out with some clippers! Knowing Dad they were picked up second hand and probably ex a South Island sheep station!! They certainly cut (or pulled) like they had been well used in a previous life. Needless to say my brother and I were not keen on getting herded into the kitchen on a Sunday night to be experimented on by Dad who seemed to get an inordinate amount of pleasure from the ritual. I am unsure if it was the fear in our eyes and the pitch of our voices or the finished styley result(not) that gave him the most pleasure!!

I am pleased to say those days are over and after plenty of therapy I have my hair cut with a modern set of clippers designed specifically for humans by Christine every Sunday! There is something about starting every week with a fresh haircut that gives me an extra spring in my step !!

A couple of random acts of kindness got me thinking this week about how much pleasure is generated by both the giving and receiving of such simple things. A guy pulling out of a city pay and display car park gave me his ticket that still had 40 minutes on it. We gave a friend a small gift recently on the spur of the moment and left it for her to discover as a surprise. Both were random simple acts of kindness that didn’t have to happen for any reason but both generated an amazing amount of pleasure and goodwill for givers and receivers.  Simple small random acts can and do often have more impact than stuff that is elaborate, expensive and planned to the last detail. The moral of this little story folks is Christmas couldnt be a better time for you to see for yourself how much impact a simple, thoughtful act of kindness can have….knock yourself out,have a great week.

 Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons steered clear of the lounge while the ruggers was on Sundee!

Love the smell of the Chrissy tree Dad hmmmmm pine forest !Scooby Dooby Doo!!

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity.More than cleverness,we need kindness and gentleness.”Charlie Chaplin Comedic Actor, Filmmaker,Writer.

Continuing with the theme of random acts of kindness,they are simple small things that can and do also benefit us hugely in business and private. Some examples I have observed lately are hearing complete strangers compliment each other on clothing they are wearing and hairstyles in a lift. Guys letting ladies get into and out of the the same lift first! Guys opening office and car doors for ladies, even just the simple act of saying please and thank you can have an impact in a world today where these words are used less and less.

I often make a habit of picking up rubbish I see on the beach or blowing around a work premises. This has a noticeable effect on people you are with at the time. I was walking up our driveway last week with our Managing Director and key shareholder and picked up a number of pieces of loose rubbish that were blowing around. Here is a guy who has just invested $millions in a new venture, how do you think he would have felt about that. He appreciated it and said so, small things make a BIG impact.

I reckon the exciting part about these random acts is you can do them anytime to anyone it is so totally up to you. The other cool thing is that they are infectious and one kind thing you do can cause others to do the same for someone else because your act motivated them so positively to do so.

Your mission should you decide to accept it is to perform a random act of kindness daily,carpe diem!

 “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” Diana Spencer,Princess Of Wales.

Big D

Edition 166  Monday 26^th November 2012

Hi, it had to happen and it did….someone finally fell in love with our beloved Retro Suzuki on Trademe and had to have it. I had done my best to delay the inevitable by pitching the price far too high but even that in the end wasn’t enough.Big Don from Wellywood is the proud new owner, he was so keen he flew up from the Capital and rode her back. Big D is a big unit alright, lets just say that the tyre pressure we had set for Christine and I riding together was perfectly set for Big D riding on his own. He arrived home safe and well two days after taking ownership after a perfect road trip on his new toy. It was sad to see her go but great to know Don will use her a lot more than us and love the ride!

We had some great trips and fun times and enjoyed remembering those fondly over a couple of quiet ones last week.Thankfully we did 25000 accident/incident free km,the only time she went down was when I was in too much of a hurry to get to a public toilet and didn’t put the stand down properly J.

Retro has been replaced in our family by Fletcher who will be equally as challenging, enjoyable and fun to go places and have adventures together with. There is nothing more important than family and friends and making sure that we all make the most of every minute we can to be together. Sometimes that is not as easy as it sounds and there may be issues or obstacles to overcome in order to achieve it, however , it will always be worth it. We attended a funeral of the Father of one of our friends this weekend, he was 57 !!!, life is too short to not seize every opportunity to celebrate family and friends…..I hope you took some time out this weekend to do just that.

Have a great week, Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons love the cruisy music in the car on the way to their dog walk!!

“Selling the ‘sizzle’ is about saying yes to everything.” Sales

One of our boys ,Matthew installs heat pumps for a living. We were lucky enough to get a ‘family’ deal on a system recently. I was apprenticed to assist the install and whilst a monkey would have been more assistance I was amazed at the workload involved in installing a basic heat pump.

I am sharing this with you because like the quote above says most sales people make the Operations/Installing/delivery departments or teams lives hell in most companies I know by promising the earth and saying yes to everything without applying a lot of thought,fact or logic.

Matthew confirmed this when we were working together by saying their installation team could be at least 25% more productive and profitable if the sales team understood and consulted more before selling their companies products and services.

I thought about this and it occurred to me that the same applied at Green Gorilla where the operations team used to have hair once before they pulled it all out having to deal with some of the situations our sales team commit us to on a daily basis.

Imagine being at least 25% more productive and profitable. Imagine Operations and sales working together instead of on different wave lengths or pages of the book!

We talked a few episodes ago about walking a mile in customers moccasins before you could really understand what they wanted or needed. The same applies inside a company, we need to understand completely what our Operation is capable of delivering before we commit them tpo delivering it!! Sounds basic and easy but there are not many companies I know (ours included) where there isn’t a lot of room for improvement in communicating this information…over to you !!!

 “Always under promise so we can over deliver.”  Operations

Real Groovy!!

         

Edition 165  Monday 19^th November 2012

Hi, ‘to be honest’ I have been working on my anger management issues.’To be frank’, it doesn’t seem to be working!’To be fair’ I obviously havent been trying hard enough! ‘At the end of the day’ I know this because there was another complaint received to our office about my driving last week! Yes I admit at times I find it hard to tolerate people who do 60-80km on a 100km open highway,nearly as annoying as people who start or end sentences with one of the highlighted cliches above!

So…there was only one thing for it….off to Real Groovy(you have to go there!) in town to buy some soothing music for the car! Four bargain priced CD’s later and I am in a better place while driving….we shall see!!

Ponder this;

• Do you know where the spare tyre, jack and tools are in your car?..checked them lately?
• Harry Jones is feeling Scooby Doo with his brand new # 1 shave for Summer.
• From the Fletcher Jones file…Mum is a cool entertainer but I am afraid Dad needs work!
• Prince Charles birthday 14/11, 9 months after Valentines Day !!, go Phil and Liz!!
• Selling stuff on Trademe……almost as good as buying more stuff !
• Rescued West Coast buoys to adorn Jim and Ngaire Joneses garden at Waiheke Island.
• Meet George the Gorilla (attached) made completely from recycled automotive parts!

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend with family and friends…..be sure to look out for me next week on a highway near you as I sing my way joyfully along as I go !!! Have a cool week, Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons are living the dream with Mum and Fletcher home all day to play with!, after all, lets face it who wants to go for a drive with the grumpy man !!! smile Pop!

“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.” Arnold Schwarzenegger

Work/life balance is something I have been focusing on more lately especially with our new son.

Getting home and spending quality time with him and Christine is an important part of the day.

Exercise plays a big part in making each day a balanced one.

I try to exercise for at least 30 minutes each day and on most days manage to stretch that out to an hour! I know what you are thinking and saying apart from ‘What a Hero’ you are probably saying, “where do you get the time?”

It isnt easy, if it was I wouldn’t be having to have this conversation with you !!

I havent got a lot of time so I have to plan my exercise carefully, I rise early at 5.30am and train for 30-45 minutes before getting ready and heading off to work. The early start with exercise sets the day up perfectly.

I have found a secret recipe to breaking a busy day in half and recharging the batteries I head to the public pool up the road from work at lunch time and swim a kilometre. All up including getting there, lunch and back to work or to my next meeting this takes 30-40 minutes !!

There was a time when I was first to work and opened the gate each day, worked all day, gulped lunch at the desk, had no real breaks and closed the gate as the last to leave at night, there was something seriously wrong with that picture. I am glad I realised that and did something about it!!

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

Henry David Thoreau

George the Gorilla

Feed the hungry Gorilla

         

Edition 164  Monday 12^th November 2012

Hi,thanks for the feedback from last week which basically followed a common thread summarised as follows; “Harden up, you have been a Toastmaster for over 20 years you should and do know better!”

Enough said…..clearly if you want something bad enough you will do what is necessary…..right !

Old habits die hard that’s for sure, I have a bad habit of looking at emails and text messages when the traffic is at a standstill or inching ahead at motorway onramps etc…until last week when distracted doing just that I drifted ever so slowly toward a barrier and as expertly as you please managed to side swipe it before correcting at the last minute !! Habit now broken as well as providing outstanding entertainment for those behind, ahead and beside me in the queue! Wake up man !!!

Other recent ‘Jones stuff’;

• Harry Jones and our vacuum cleaner cant wait for his summer # 1 shave next week !
• Mark Jones has arrived in the big apple post storm but pre snow…..very cool mate!, enjoy.
• Jim Jones has reluctantly decided to part with his beloved lifeboat ‘The Ark’, Noah bull mate!
• Corporal Jones of Dads Army said ‘Don’t Panic’ for the final time at 92! RIP Clive Dunn!
• Boris Jones the cat continues to live a charmed 3 legged life in the ‘departure lounge’ at 48 !
• Fletcher Jones cruised effortlessly through the 6.5kg and 65cm barriers at Plunket day !!

I hope you, your family, and friends are also continuing to do all sorts of new and exciting stuff in an effort to wring every last bit of fun and enjoyment out of your lives. Life is too short a trip to not be always trying to make the most of every experience, no one wants regrets in the departure lounge!

Have an awesome week ahead going for it ……..Cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons milked the Guy Fawkes thing for all it was worth gaining 3 sleeps on the bed with Mum and Dad,see the joy on the grumpy mans face,roll on New Year 

“Spend a lot of time talking to customers. You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers.” Ross Perot

We are in the fortunate position of experiencing some significant recent growth as our little start up business flexes some Green Gorilla muscle out there.

A recent investment in a new resource recovery facility combined with increased brand awareness has seen a steady incremental increase in customers and volume which is awesome and satisfying.

In some ways the easy part is over and now with some growing pains emerging we need to consolidate, maintain and put the necessary infrastructure in place to take our business to the next level and beyond.

One of our major points of difference to date has been our ability to provide quick, quality, personal service at a competitive price however the honeymoon period is over and our customers want and expect more!

As Ross Perot’s quote above rightly says we all need to listen carefully to our customers so they can be an integral part of our survival and future growth. I have always loved the following quote, for me it says it all about the importance of knowing your customer;

“To understand the person, you must first walk a mile in their moccasin.” Indian Proverb

Talking with and listening to our customers is something everyone in our organisations must play an active part in doing daily. Only when we do this(walking in their moccasins) will we be able to understand what they want and need and be able to empathise with them. This will allow us to recognize what they need from us and identify any areas where we are not meeting these needs!!

 “Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job”. The growing Green Gorilla!!

R.I.P. King of Wing

         

Edition 163  Monday 5^th November 2012

Hi, drum roll……..Ladies and Gentlemen, and the runner up to the runner up of the eventual runner up is “The Jones Boy” Hmmmm, coming 4th was disappointing but something even more annoying was knowing I could have done a lot better! Don’t you hate that feeling?,YES, so if you could do something about it, would you, YES, then why didnt you this time and the last and the time before!??

It was the Auckland final of the Humorous Speech Contest. To qualify I had won two previous contests, I had weeks between each contest to practise, practise,practise but instead all I managed to do was procrastinate,procrastinate,procrastinate!and the rest I am embarrassed to admit is ‘sad me’ history!

So….you are hearing it here first….”The King of Wing”(me) is hanging up his ‘crown and gown!’(perhaps an obvious talent and career as a Poet beckons?) But NO, I decided in that cold heartless, thankless 1^st,2^nd or 3rdless public speaking Mecca that is the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall that I will no longer insult my own or my fellow competitors intelligence by taking the stage anything less than totally prepared. Continuing to rely on my finely tuned ‘just wing it’ skills is too stressful for all concerned….enough said, mark my words, watch this space……..easy to say, well see!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, todays lesson, there is only one way to succeed;Practise, Practise,Practise!

We had a cool weekend catching up with family and friends whilst also managing a compulsory carrot caké muffin pit stop and plenty of R&R.

I hope you also got to do some favorite stuff whilst staying in touch with those closest to you.

Have a great week ahead, take care if you are celebrating Guy Fawkes and remember the animals!

Cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the Hendersons burnt an effigy of Guy Fawkes at the local fireworks protest!!! 

“The single biggest problem with Communication’ is the illusion that it has taken place”

George Bernard Shaw

I have attended a number of events recently where I have listened to people present on numerous topics for varying lengths of time.

Listening to others is always an interesting exercise for me because I have to discipline myself to do so in order to get the most from a presentation. This is not made easy when the presenters are clearly unprepared or even more clearly reluctant to be there. You can always tell these ones as they will read from their power points which will have too many slides with too much info on each one..you know the ones don’t you,sadly you can guarantee they will be at every event.

Like the self proclaimed ‘King of Wing’ mentioned above there are far too many of us who don’t prepare and practise enough before a presentation….Dont let this happen to you !!

Here are some tips when presenting;

• Practise, Practise, Practise…….no I mean it, you must devote the time or you will fail!
• For power points….max 12 slides, max 4 points per slide (include pictures =1000 words)
• Concentrate on 58% body language,32% tone of voice and 10% speech content because the more effective you are in these areas the better you will communicate and connect to and with your audience J.
• Don’t read from your power point.
• Practise, Practise, Practise………..I mean it !!!(speaking from a lot of experience)
• Hang up the ‘King of wing’ crown and gown for good…’She wont be right’……..GOOD LUCK

“ I like to listen,I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen” Ernest Hemmingway

gO.S.H

         

Edition 162  Monday 29th October 2012

Hi , wow it may have been a short week but it certainly wasn’t any less exciting or eventful for this Jones boy! I was reminded of the importance of behaving when driving a marked company car after having a melt down on the way to work one day last week. I got a phone call from the guy I abused to thank me and point out a few home truths about me performing like a trained seal !! We ended up apologising to each other and having a bit of a laugh about how silly we had both been! Crikey what a pork chop I felt, made me think why on earth I wasted all that energy on getting so upset??!!

Crikey theTasman Sea continued to give up treasures for the garden this week as I salvaged another buoy and the tail section of a surfboard from our local West Coast beach,how exciting. It’s a pity the rest of the shore crew are not as excited about the future deployment of the treasure. Unfortunately I think one of the buoys will definitely miss the cut but you must agree the end of the surfboard looks pretty cool sticking out of the ground ….dont you reckon?(see attached)……let me know if anyone needs a buoy for a coastal /marine theme thingy!(see attached,note the clay pipes for the wine rack).

In an unlucky domestic incident I was hit in the face with dog doo doo after running over some with the hand mower! Interviewed after the incident by OHS I had to say I just didn’t see it coming and was only momentarily blinded managing to recover quickly to go on an complete the job ! OHS investigators concluded that the blades of the mower had flicked the foreign body up into the air and onto my face! .OHS recommended it be added to the hazard list at 48 and that the perpetrators not be unfairly reprimanded as they were only doing what they had been trained to do…go outside!!grrrr

The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly indulging ourselves with the sheer decadence of what is the carrot cake muffin experience from Blossoms Café Riverhead. There are no words that even go close to explaining the pleasure of this wicked treat. I always inhale mine quickly so I can drool over Christines until she gives in and offers me a precious slice…..Crikey, life is too short to miss out !!!

I hope you also indulged and spoiled yourselves this weekend with friends and family,cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the Hendersons laughed until they cried at the grumpy mans mowing misfortune 

“Good safety is good business.” Johnathan Ling Fletcher Building

I had the recent good fortune to be involved as MC for a New Zealand Institute of Safety Management(NZISM) one day workshop .

It was an eye opener for me as an impressive line up of speakers shared their experiences and provided sage advice on a number of topics .

There was a healthy (excuse the pun) attendance of  Health and Safety Practitioners and it was impressive to see two woman carry off the top Practitioner awards presented on the day!

Did you realise that 100 people die in work related accidents in New Zealand every year and many more are injured some permanently in accidents at work? The cost to the country annually is $3.5 billion dollars!!! It is twice as safe to work in Australia and four times safer to work in the UK. Stop and think about that for a minute because it is scary !!! That is 100 people who kiss their families goodbye in the morning for the last time as they never return from their workplace!

It is also many more than that that lose limbs or are impaired in some way, again, because of poor workplace safety standards !.....makes you think…how safe is your workplace?, how safe and responsible are you at work? Is your company Management team leading by example or are they yet another of the many still in NZ who take the ‘She’ll be right’ attitude to workplace safety???

Crikey, you have to take your hat off to organisations like NZISM and its members who are committed to improving safety standards and reducing New Zealands horrific statistics. We all definitely have an important role to play when it comes to treating safety at work seriously!

“Working safely is like breathing – if you don’t, you die.” From the pretty obvious Dept!

Easy Tiger

         

Edition 161 Monday 22nd October 2012

Hi, on the way to swimming early Saturday mornings I always listen to the garage sale on 1ZB. It is exciting stuff with people calling in selling or wanting to buy each others junk live on the radio. A lovely old guy called John from Blockhouse Bay called up advertising a the garage sale that day of his entire house lot. When asked for his address he was reluctant to give it because he was concerned for the safety of his cat if too many people turned up at once. When asked the name of his cat he got emotional saying between his tears that the cats name was Tiger and he definitely was not for sale. The poor old guy got so choked up he couldn’t finish and just ended the call. There was a silence as the host and Im sure everyone listening (myself included) took a moment to recover! Amazing how stuff like that affects you and makes you think about how important it is to make the most of life NOW before we are faced with a similar dilema in our own lives. I spent the rest of the day hoping that whatever the reason for selling all his stuff that things work out ok for John and Tiger the cat !!!  

Ponder this;

·         Our pets are such an important part of our families,sometimes they are all the family we have.

·         Our resident mouse continues to live the life of Riley however time and patience is thin!!!

·         Mouth watering muffins replaced the scones for long weekend spring cleaners smoko!!!

·         Swim and bike for show, run for dough…..World Triathlon Champs in Auckland.

·         The annual Myna bird occupation of the letter box @ 48 confirms Spring has sprung!!

·         Wild weekend weather produced 2 more buoys on the beach for the garden feature collection.

I hope life is good and that you had a safe and happy J long weekend relaxing with friends and family. Have a BIG short week, cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the Hendersons say life is good @ 48 even with seasonal high occupancy of mice, myna’s and babies !! 

“Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.” ― Erma Bombeck

Words for Teenagers

Parents, present and future……….ponder this;

Always we hear the cry from teenagers “What can we do, where can we go?

My answer is this: Go home mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook,build a raft, get a job,visit the sick, study your lessons, and after you’ve finished, read a book.

Your Town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun.

The World does not owe you a living, you owe the world something.

You owe it your time,energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in poverty or sick and lonely again.

In other words grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dreamworld and develop a back bone, not a wish bone.

Start behaving like a responsible person.

You are important and you are needed.

Its too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday.

Someday is now and somebody is you.

 (Borrowed from the 1950’s……..timeless)

                                                                

Little children, headache; big children, heartache.  ~Italian Proverb