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

Stylee!!

Hi, remember your first pair of jeans?, I can, they were a pair of  ‘bell bottoms’ very fashionable at the time they were too!(showing my age). Then there was the ‘wranglers’ I just had to have to attend the form II social. I remember nagging Mum to distraction until she finally relented and the rest of the family went hungry for a week just so I got the wranglers (also the height of fashion). In my haste to step out in them I wore them to the dance without washing them first and spent the next two weeks trying to wash the blue dye out of my skin after the sweat from my legs made it run,haha.

Well, how times have changed over the years as Fletcher took posession of his first pair of ‘designer’ jeans last week. Sure they are hand me downs but G.A.P. no less and I am sure you will agree (see attached) he will be the total focus of all the chicks at new Mums coffee club next week!!!!

Other recent Jonesey stuff;

• The best way to eat date scones is straight out of the oven..it doesn’t get any better!
• Getting dressed in tha dark may be best for baby but not for daddy…no belt Tuesday!
• Started a new trend last week wearing an unironed shirt to work, think it will be big!
• We have a resident mouse and a dilema should he/she stay or go, watch this space!
• Mother nature flexed her muscles this weekend, a wild one out on the West Coast!

I hope you had a cool weekend in your favourite jeans somewhere sheltered having fun with friends and family. Have a fun week, cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons are on the mouse’s side after all how much damage can one mouse do?? I suspect their intentions may be dishonourable !!!!

“When you're that successful, things have a momentum, and at a certain point you can't really tell whether you have created the momentum or it's creating you.” Annie Lennox

Last week was amazing it started well and continued successfully at a frenetic pace. It seemed like everything I touched turned to gold or had a positive outcome. This came on the back of a number of weeks where a lot of effort appeared to be getting me nowhere…wow how quickly things can change!!

It is so cool when things start coming to fruition after putting in the hours and many hard yards toward making them happen.

It is so important to keep chipping away and not get despondent when it seems things might not be going your way, it is certainly worth it when you experience that magical word ‘yes’ !!

It is also important to ride the success wave once you are up on it and to use the momentum that this creates take you as far as you can go. I think the Annie Lennox quote above summarises that feeling perfectly.

So my ‘upbeat’ friends my challenge to you all is to hang in there because success is a case of doing just that.  Good luck  to you all no matter what your chosen field of endeavour…success surf is up, ride the wave !!!!

“Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.”  Pete Rose

Funny !!!

Hi,life can and should be a ‘funny’ thing. To that end the most important thing we all do is smile J

I have had open heart surgery,walked on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, stayed up all night in Vegas, marvelled at the Grand Canyon,played representative rugby,made millions of dollars worth of sales in my career and countless other stuff that has been a buzz but nothing can compare to seeing our new son smile for the first time ! It couldn’t have been scripted better with said smile arriving as we were both telling him how wonderful he was this morning….we looked at each other and both burst into tears !! Crikey man harden up !

The power of a simple smile can never be underestimated and is something we could all do a lot more of on a daily basis. Quite amazing how something so simple can change the course of yours and others day to day lives. I had a great example last week when I had to visit a retirement village and hospital to help them save the planet with our services!

When I signed in at reception I was told that several of the residents were excited because they had seen the Green Gorilla logo on my car and thought the circus was coming to entertain them!

I entered into the spirit of it giving my best gorilla imitation complete with sound and chest beating!

Lots of smiles and laughs and something that changed the course of what would have just been another day in the departure lounge for them otherwise. Moral of the story, have a M.A.D. attitude Make A Difference by simply smiling more often.

Something else that made me smile so much it hurt this weekend was the opportunity to take the Retro Suzuki 750 for a ‘freedom’ squirt down the road. Crikey,there is no better ‘release’ than the feeling of accelerating without restriction on the open highway with rider and bike leaning into the perfectly cambered corners as one!!! Oh yeah you the man Jonesey….lucky no cops bro!!!

I hope you are all in to the swing of making the most of the longer daylight saving days with friends and family. Have a great week, cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons have a special relationship with each other,sleep and eating!

“Start every day with a smile and get it over with.” WC Fields

Some people ride motorbikes, others go to the gym, some let their dogs take them for a walk, others let golf spoil a good walk, some even write poetry or books, and then there are some who travel and others who prefer to just vegetate and  relax.

I was reminded about this stuff recently by two powerful and entertaining speeches I had the good fortune to listen to(www.toastmasters.org.nz). They were about having a ‘release’ and a ‘bucket list’.

It made me think about what I do to cover both?, I am lucky as it is one and the same thing!!

For my sins I enter speech contests,I challenge myself to write witty entertaining, humourous presentations on everyday stuff because one of my bucket list items is to be the best I can be at doing just that !!!.

Why????? To make people laugh, smile and have a good time, plus I am a competitive old bugger !

Now as you know I have always loved the sound of my own voice and when you enter a competition you create yet another opportunity for you and others to do just that. I also know that like anything the more I do it the better I get and the more chance I then have of achieving my ultimate goal of being the best in NZ and ultimately representing NZ on the world stage!!!!!

There are also spin offs for career and family life as you become a better communicator and listener.

I had the good fortune to win a recent humourous speech contest and look forward to advancing to the next level and to making a lot more people smile and laugh along the way..especially me !!!!

“Don’t cry for a man who has left you,the next one may fall for your smile.” Mae West