Things i learnt yesterday...

This blog post concept stolen/inspired by Being Brazen. Full credit given... thoughts my own though.

• It may be a good idea to iron my trousers more
• It is more painful for my joints/back sitting in my office chair all day then it is traveling down to kent and back (which was a mission)
• I may have more pride then is good for me sometimes
• Blue food dye used for M&M's may be the future cure for spinal injuries. And it may turn your skin blue just like the cute little rats they are testing it on. Click here for more info on that.

So cute!! Poor ratty...but he does look kinda happy - but that could be a whole PR thing.

iMac

It seems that I may just be getting myself a beautiful machine like the one above!! Yes I've been unable to resist the geek inside me.

To be honest it did kinda just fall in my lap - not like I went looking for it or anything.

C's ex boss who is a fellow mac lover has been trying to sell this beauty to C for a few months now. I've been hearing little comments about it along the way. But it hasnt really been discussed until....

The ex boss sent C a video he had shot and edited trying to convince him to get it. It then got sent to me (as most things do since we email ALOT during the day) And it was just hysterical. But it also just planted the seed in my head going "ohhhh I'd love that"

Then there was the price.... DEF not a deal you should pass up.

So after a few passing comment C got how much I want it ...and so it is a done deal now.

Before I didnt think there was a huge need for it. As I do have my gorgeous Macbook Pro. But now I just keep thinking of more and more reasons that I need it. It is just so exciting.

I can have a machine that will handle both OS X and windows and I'll be able to run CAD on it. Plus it has a nice big 20" screen so that help with CAD. So this means I could maybe start some negotiations at work to have the option to work from home some days. And it is powerful enough to handle Photoshop so I can actually sit down and learn it. So it will be a work and media PC and my gorgeous laptop can be dedicated personal stuff. And it can try keep the hard drive from filling up.

TOO EXCITING!!... and I may be getting it tomorrow after saying yes yesterday. YAY

Poo sandwich

So we have a 2 hour meeting coming up at work for which we have been set homework. The homework is to come up with a feedback sandwich for each person in the design team.



What is a feedback sandwich you ask?

A ‘feedback sandwich’ is an honest and open way of delivering feedback to individuals; on areas / things that you believe they may do well, things that they may find tricky in your opinion and things they could do differently and/or better.

There are no rights or wrongs, however your feedback sandwich should contain;

Context for the feedback – a situation, an instance or a scenario
1. It should highlight a minimum of three specific context-related things the person does well.
2. It should highlight one specific, factually and contextual appropriate thing that the individual could improve on.
3. This should be depersonalized and you should be ready to give other examples in the same context.
4 .It should finish with an overall observation, in context, confirming what the person does well.

I am seriously struggling with this. I've been trying to come up with these for 5 days now. i know that i've not written anything down so i'm not tried extremely hard. But everything that is floating around my head about people is very subjective and emotional and I dont seem to be able to think of exact situations. I've always been like this though. And this is all stressing me out cause I really dont want to hear what people have to say about me either. Most of them do not understand what I'm going through at the moment and honestly I dont think that they care. But i suppose this is what the meeting is all about.

ARG

Portland

Here are some photos of the weekend away in portland. I loved getting away and spending time by the sea! Was loving running around with my camera and discovering new functions. These are just a few of the 243 photos I took :)

*Kisses at sunset*

*sunset at Blacknor*

*Loving the sea*

*C decending the most picturesque climb i've see so far*

*Fallen Slabs*

*jurrasic fossil!!*

*playing with the colour settings*

*crag in black and white* *C and Me*

*me on the only climb I did...got stuck and came down. Only 1 other chick got to the finish so I dont feel too pathetic. I'm the higher one on the crag...about to do a very pathetic mantle which landed me in a position that looked like I was praying to the rock - lol*

Coke freeeeeeeeeeee

So yesterday was the official end to the 1 month I set myself to go without carbonated caffeine filled drinks...mostly coca cola! I was starting to feel like I was getting addicted to the stuff and really didnt want to go a day with out it. Plus C shared a weblink with me about a link between coca cola and joint/muscle pain. It turns out that that is def not the problem in my case but he got me paranoid. Also I have a thing where I like to test my will power out every now and then.

So one month along and what is the result?

Not much difference actually. The only thing is that i'm not being ruled by cravings for it. Otherwise I feel pretty much the same. Well not for the first week though. But that was a bad health week and when I have those coca cola def give me a bit of pep and more energy to deal with it. So the first week was hell. Involved me being exhausted and hitting real energy lows in the day.

I also have to point out that I didnt drink much coke. Only about a can a day during the week and not every weekend. So i cant see how it would have much of a difference either way. I'm still having gut issues but that has always been ongoing and isnt made worse by the coke.

My end verdict....

I dont really want to cut it out of my life completely. I do know that I should be sticking to drink more water and less sugar etc. So that is my goal now. Drink more water and save the coca cola for that "special" occasions like at the end of a gruelling climbing day. or with a meal at a resturant or at the bar when i dont want to drink alcohol. Am going to stay away from drinking it in the week during lunch and at the office. (that may only be hard when my boss trys to bribe me with chocolate and coke)

Am off to the isle of Portland for the weekend tmr to try do some climbing!! cant wait. But you never know what the British weather is going to throw at me or what my boby is going to say about this. But i'm still so excited!