Not Just a Granny

fun times on the river

August 21, 2010 by notjustagranny

last weekend was my daughter’s 30th birthday and together with some friends we gathered in Richmond to celebrate. One of the things she wanted to do for her birthday, was to hire a boat and go rowing on the Thames.

our very not so big boat

The plan was to row from Richmond to The White Swan in Twickenham, moor the boat, have lunch and then row back to Richmond.

I thought the idea was great and encouraged the idea with enthusiasm. Ha! and then we got there!! Different story. Everyone else was really excited and I was…..trepiditious! I was quaking at the knees! 🙂 LOL! and totally ridiculous….I have no fear of water, love boating, am a strong swimmer and have done this numerous times in the past. The closer we got to launch the more I quaked at the knees. I insisted on life-jackets all round (which made us look totally ridiculous), and questioned the sensibility of this venture.

Last in….I rocked the boat to much hilarity from the others and not so much from me. Then we settled in and to my horror we left the pier……h.e.l.p!!! Actually it was brilliant, we laughed uproariously as we went round in circles at the rowers attempts to leave the jetty.

Cemanthe having hysterics

Eventually we got underway and amidst much laughter and a stream of instructions from the back-seat non-rowers we made our way to the far bank (per the instructions of the boat man), and away we went.

I can highly recommend this as a great way to spend an hour or so. Sitting prettily in the stern, we (me and Demjules), gave a continuous stream of instructions….too far, turn left; no….. more to the right, mind theres a boat approaching…whoops mind the paddleboat, and so we made our way along the river to Twickenham.

arriving at The White Swan

Arriving safely we moored the boat, stepped gingerly through the slippery mud (I did not want to add a spill in the mud to my repertoire) and settled in at our table on the patio.

good food.....fine friends

Lunch was great, the company even better, the weather played fair and the food was yummy. Then it was time for birthday wishes and voila …..30 cupcakes appeared!

social media and cupcakes

We are beginning to look like cupcakes.

Sweetie Pies cupcakes

Then it was time to return the boat and off we went….row, row row your boat, gently down the stream…. merrily, merrily life is but a dream!

Posted in family and relationships, Fun Stuff, It's my life | Tagged birthdays, Richmond, rowing, Twickenham | 2 Comments »

a hung Parliament

August 21, 2010 by notjustagranny

mmmmm! I just logged onto the internet to do some work (and got reading the news :)….urgh, I always get distracted). Anyways, the news headlines of course are about the voting in Australia and how it looks as though they are heading for a hung-parliament. I read through the article coz it struck me as quite weird that in another Democratic country, similar to ours ‘the people have spoken’. It’s quite bizarre (to me anyway) that we have these situations of late. I wonder what the real reason is; it seems to me it means that the voting public are no longer just taking the words and promises of their governments and voting accordingly but are perhaps being just a little more discerning about what the politicians are saying. For so long we have been spoon-fed ‘promises’ that seldom follow through and now it would appear that we are holding the candidates to task ( so to speak) and giving them the task of actually making good on their campaign rhetoric. No longer a case of voting for a certain party coz you have in the past, but rather as they said in the article, looking at what we really want (or not) in the country and then voting for the party that ‘promises’ to do the most about that situation…

Of course what happens after the ‘party’ is what really counts, but governments are not getting away with just using pretty words and speeches anymore…..we the public are becoming more forceful about what is and what is not acceptable and our memories are becoming a tad longer. Perhaps it’s coz of the internet where information is now more freely available and the mistakes of our governments are more publicized than in the past. Or perhaps it’s that like our nationalities, our governments are becoming more generic and the lines more blurred. Perhaps our governments are becoming more middle of the road, unlike in the past where they had policies that were worlds apart and you could more easily identify what their policies actually meant. Who knows? Anyway, I just found it interesting!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Happy 30th Birthday darling….

August 17, 2010 by notjustagranny

My wonderful, delightful daughter recently; albeit not without some angst and kicking and screaming, 🙂 reached a milestone birthday…..30!

Happy 30th birthday darling

Although it was officially her birthday, it was also a celebration for me….a celebration of 30 years of being a Mom, and what an amazing 30 years it has been. We have loved, laughed, cried and shared some amazing times and some difficult times. For me it has always been a priviledge that she is my daughter. From the days back when I was told I would never have children to the day I discovered I was finally expecting this treasure…I never gave up on the dream of one day being a Mom to a daughter.

She has fulfilled every dream I ever had, is an amazing woman and even though she reached this milestone birthday with trepidition, I have no doubt that she will achieve all she sets out to do in the future. In the lead up to the day I looked back on my life and remembered what it was like to be 30! I felt so grown up and suddenly felt that people would take me seriously. I had the perception that life would be easier now that I was officially an adult….that I would be in control and know what to do. And mostly I did. My thirties were some of the most amazing years of my life and some of the most devastating, and yet when I look back all I recall are the best times, the times my daughter and I shared on our journey.

So thank you sweetheart for some of the most amazing years of my life, for the love you give so freely, for being such a wonderful, warm, funny, generous and kindhearted woman.

Happy birthday darling....

Always keep that sparkle in your eyes, your wonderful sense of humour and that delightful laugh. From the second I first saw you, I have loved you dearly, a treasure beyond compare and you have enriched my life immeasurably. These last 30 years and the 6 months preceeding your birth (once I knew you were on your way), have been the best of my life.

I wish you everything of the very best for your future.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Grateful for being Western

August 11, 2010 by notjustagranny

I am watching a programme on TV at the moment about ‘Bride stealing’ in Chechnya. It seems that this has become a regular occurance in the country and is now becoming part of the law and working it’s way into tradition.

What happens is that a boy sees a girl he fancies, he then arranges with a family member to help him steal her. The girl has absolutely no say in this matter, is often taken against her will (there are girls who are ok with this), then forced into marrying the boy. Sometimes if she is ‘lucky’ the boy is a distant family member and life would not be too bad for her, she may even be lucky enough to ‘get on’ with her Mother-in-law.

Once she is ‘married’ she becomes his ‘property’ and he is pretty much able to treat her as he wishes. Sometimes the boy’s family will ask the girls family in the presence of an Elder of the Islamic authority. He, the Elder, is the person who conducts the ‘wedding’ and he dictates how she should be dressed and pretty much everything else about the proceedings.

The women of the country shrug their shoulders and say “that is the way things are, it’s not too bad.” Even her parents do not have any say about the matter and just wish her well. There was a whole lot more to the programme and that would take too long to explain.

So, here’s the thing….I will always be grateful that I was born into a culture and country where women do have a say in their lives, where we can say ‘No!’ if something is not to our liking and where we have the freedom to make choices.

Posted in Historical, news from around the world | Tagged Chechnya, democracy, freedom, freedom os speech, freedom to make a choice, gratitude | 10 Comments »

Do you Tweet? twitter for the over 50’s

August 5, 2010 by notjustagranny

As mentioned before in one of my posts, my sister sends me loads of funny emails and some of them are so funny I have to share with yourselves! I received this one today and had a good giggle…….hope you enjoy it too. I have no idea who the author is, but if you happen to read it (and you know who you are) …..your words have been shared 🙂

This is for the over 50 generation.

I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it’s red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, “Re-calc-ul-ating”. You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady; at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden “Paper or Plastic?” every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, “Paper or Plastic?” I just say, “Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.” Then it’s their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot.”

pass this on to someone of the more senior generation if you think they will appreciate it 🙂

Posted in Fun Stuff | Tagged fun stuff, tweeting, tweeting for the over 50's, Twitter | 2 Comments »

The magical bank of TIME!

August 4, 2010 by notjustagranny

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!!!

Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest:

Each morning your bank would deposit (your currency) 86,400.00 in your private account for your use.

However, this prize had rules, just as any game has certain rules.

The first set of rules would be:
1. Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.

2. You may not simply transfer money into some other account.

3. You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another (your currency) 86,400.00 for that day.

The second set of rules:

1. The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, “It’s over, the game is over!”

2. It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do?

You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right?

Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right?

Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?

You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?

ACTUALLY, THIS GAME IS REALITY!!

Each of us is in possession of such a “magical” bank. We just can’t seem to see it.

THE MAGICAL BANK IS TIME!

Each awakening morning we receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life,

and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven’t lived up that day is forever lost.

Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time…….

WITHOUT WARNING.

WELL, what will you do with your 86,400 seconds?

Aren’t they worth so much more than the same amount in any currency?

Think about that, and always think of this:

Utilise every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

Posted in family and relationships, lifestyle, messages, wealth and finance | Tagged 86400 seconds, time | 2 Comments »

Accumulating Wealth of a lifetime

August 3, 2010 by notjustagranny

Gosh, I’m rich!
Silver in the Hair
Gold in the Teeth
Stones in the Kidneys
Sugar in the Blood
Lead in the Ass

Iron in the Arteries……
And an inexhaustible supply of Natural Gas.

I never thought I’d accumulate such wealth!!!

a lifetime's accumulation of wealth!

from the desk of Sue (my sister, who has accumulated far more wealth than me!!! 🙂 )

Posted in family and relationships, Fun Stuff | Tagged accumulating wealth, sisters | 3 Comments »

email from my sister – Greek Philosophy

August 3, 2010 by notjustagranny

I often get emails from my sister (actually that should read I get a ‘Thought for Today’ email from her Mon-Fri and they often have little gems of something to think about). This particular thought made me chuckle and therefor is good enough to share with you.

Here it is; enjoy:

Greek Philosophy — As pertinent today as 399 BC !!
Keep this in mind the next time you are about to repeat a rumour or spread gossip.

In ancient Greece (469 – 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom
One day an acquaintance ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about Diogenes?”

“Wait a moment,” Socrates replied, “Before you tell me I’d like you to pass a little test.
It’s called the Triple Filter Test”
‘Triple filter?” asked the acquaintance.
“That’s right,” Socrates continued,
“Before you talk to me about Diogenes let’s take a moment to filter what you’re going to say.
The first filter is Truth – Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “Actually I just heard about it.”
“All right,” said Socrates, “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not.
Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about Diogenes something good?”
“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued,
“You want to tell me something about Diogenes that may be bad, even though you’re not certain it’s true?”

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued, “You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter, the filter of Usefulness.
Is what you want to tell me about Diogenes going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really.”

“Well,” concluded Socrates,
“If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me, or anyone, at all?”

The man was bewildered and ashamed.
This is an example of why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.

It also explains why Socrates never found out that Diogenes was shagging his wife.

end of your Greek philosophy lesson for today! 🙂

Posted in family and relationships, Fun Stuff | Tagged Diogenes, gossip, Greek philosophy, Socrates | 3 Comments »

Road-Trip Travel Tips

July 19, 2010 by notjustagranny

Road-Trip Travel Tips.

Posted in news from around the world, Travel | 2 Comments »

Why you should Blog before you Twitter

July 12, 2010 by notjustagranny

14. Everyone on Twitter is looking for the next big thing or most interesting piece of content to link to. Wouldn’t you rather be the big thing than merely another person pointing at it? – via @jeffbullas

I have enjoyed and toyed with Twitter since I first signed up in December 2008, not expecting the journey to be so much fun and so transformational.

For the first few months I sent the occasional tweet, connected with a few friends and watched the stream pass by, at the time I often said “I don’t know what to say”.

Then suddenly I started to really get into the swing of things, connecting with people from around the world, enjoying ‘chat’s, being as inventive as I could with my 140 character ‘tweets’. I learned about #ff aka #followfriday, #traveltuesday and about #trending topics.

I spent hours following links and reading about places and finding out things I never knew existed. In fact I have since become quite addicted….I could seriously live on twitter; all day! I often tell my daughter I was born to twitter! 🙂 and along the way I have ‘met’ some wonderful people, and consider them great online friends.

In March 2009 I started this blog inspired by the content, search engine optimisation, social media inspiration and evangelism provided by Hubspot. I already had a blog which I started in November 2008, where I wrote about my travels and things that inspired me, although since starting this blog I have been very slack about keeping it up to date.

I then waded in a bit deeper and started to use tools and apps like TweetDeck and Bit.ly, Social Oomph, Hootsuite and Ping.fm to integrate with Twitter. I started to follow the ‘experts’, reading as much as possible on what they call Social Media.

I have since become quite the ‘geek’ as my daughter puts it and have my favourites to follow eg @jeffbullas @chrisbrogan @mashable @marismith (facebook expert) and @sethgodin (squidoo & tribes) amongst others. I have learned so much that my brain bursts with info; info that pops out from time to time and amazes me that I know that stuff 🙂

One of my favourite tweeters/bloggers to follow is @jeffbullas and I have gained invaluable knowledge from reading his posts, some of which are incredibly funny. His blog posts are informative, useful and educational. I read voraciously. He also advocates the blog before twitter aspect of social media, so of course…I listened to the teacher….

…and have subsequently become quite the blogger. I now have 5 blogs, some more active than others, and 6 twitter accounts. I also run 3 facebook accounts! How bizarre! Consider this: 10 years ago it was all I could do to send an email, and now just over 18 months later……..

I guess I have learned my lessons well; today to my absolute delight, I was asked by an online community in Richmond if they could feature my latest blog on Twickenham!! Thanks to all my teachers.

Posted in Inspiration, It's my life, Personal Development, Uncategorized | Tagged #ff, #followfriday, @chrisbrogan, @jeffbullas, @marismith, @mashable, @sethgodin, bit.ly, blogging, facebook vs blogging, hootsuite, http://jeffbullas.com/2009/10/22/20-reasons-why-you-should-blog-before-you-twitter/, hubspot, jeff bullas, social media, socialoomph, squidoo, the power of social media, tweetdeck, Twitter, wordpress | 4 Comments »