Felice Navida

Many years ago my friend Katie and I worked in a trashy department store - me selling cigarettes (!!!), Katie working on the music counter (how did that happen?). Every year for the weeks leading up to Christmas, we were lucky enough to listen to Jose Feliciano's version of Felice Navida played constantly. You think if she worked on the record counter she would have staged an intervention and maybe put on something different.

Anyhow in the interests of christmas, friends and feel good stuff, check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWa_W_jTqLs

http://www.actsofkindness.org/

And as our friend Britney would say, Merry Christmas y'all.

See you in 2008

The Bubblegum Story.

It's not often I have a reason to go to the city, especially on a day thats not a school holiday, nor a weekend.  And it's very seldom I'm on my own when I do it.  But a business meeting in the city meant not only did I need to find my way in, but I'd need to take off my thongs, short and singlet (my summer uniform) and find something resembling work'ish clothes.

Logistics. A weight I'm burdened with.  How was I going to get in to the heart of the city for my meeting? Would I drive?  But having been stung with a car park bill of $45 one day, I shot that one down.  What about the drive/ferry/walk/ferry/drive option? Too hard, too many risk factors, and I was wearing the wrong shoes.  What about simply catching the bus? The Husband does it each day and it seems the easiest option. So the 10.08am bus is was.

All good, on the bus I earnestly looked over my work (ie tried to look very busy and extremely important to the other bus passengers), and promised myself I could read my Who magazine in my handbag, that I was itching to open, on my way home.

10.51am I arrived with a comfortable amount of time to kill before my 11.30am meeting. I thought I'd have a wander around the shops and eventually wandered into one of my favorites which was having a sale. I loaded up with stuff and headed into the changing room.

I started to get undressed but as I took off my top I discovered that my hair was kind of caught up in it, I pulled my hair and discovered a big clump of bubblegum, stuck in my hair. With a feeling of impending gloom, I looked at my black shirt. It had a big glob of bubblegum smeared across it, with several of my hairs now also caught. Someone had put some bubblegum on the back of the bus seat and I had leant in it, for my 45 minute trip into town. Briefly I felt a little embarrassed about what I must have looked like wandering along in the heart of the city. But time was too short to dwell on this. Time now 11.10am I put my head out and said to the fabulous staff that yes please, I did need a little help.

And like troops, they rallied.  They suddenly had a "special project" - me.  And a timeframe - "now".
I tried on a pile of outfits and eventually walked out at 11.25am with a new black button down shirt dress (and another party dress that I had to buy as well - I was on a bit of a roll). I made it to my meeting with 1 minute to spare. I calmly sat down crossed my legs and noticed that not only did the dress flap indecently open but my light coloured underwear could be easily seen through it.

So I now have a new dress. And a little less hair. And next time I will drive my car.

The Brand

I am almost there.
After a false start by Art, followed up with a bit of nudging by me in the direction I was keen to go down, I ended up with a couple of decent logo options. I made a final tentative call and then sent it around the "network" - a group of my very smart friends and family. Everyone was awesome and came back superquick with thoughtful, encouraging feedback.
So it's done - got me some cool colours and a nice logo.

That was the fun part.

Now I'm working on the home page with Project Woman. I feel that we're almost there for a first wee glimpse at what the website is going to look like. There's still a zillion holes behind the facade, but it's nice to take a moment and enjoy what it's going to be.

Better get my clever lawyer people to have a look too. Don't want anyone to get cross with me.

Storms

One of my passions is the weather, I love inclement weather, I love watching the skies and I get excited when I know there is bad weather coming. And I absolutely love/am terrified by a good storm.

So in Sydney we are at the start of "storm season". I'm starting to learn the signs - the heavy humidity, extreme heat, a grey tinge in the sky in a particular direction. We've had a storm a day for the last week, and they haven't been too scary, just a lot of noise and rain. But Friday was different, I had a bad feeling, the sky was different, the weather patterns hadn't been the same during the day (am I a weather geek or what?), and it felt like a "bad" storm. And it was. So bad in fact that a man was killed at my local video shop when an awning fell on him. I heard the sirens, just around the corner. Half and hour later it was sunny, but some poor man had just been killed. Just around the corner. Reality check for me - storms can kill, storms aren't just a bit of fun, keep safe and keep inside.

So my neighbour and I decided to have a street christmas party - we live in a lovely wee cul-de-sac that backs on to a public park with a wooden platform, perfect for a party table, drinks and nibblies. Perfect setting for our 4.30pm kickoff. Another hot day, lots of swimming, a bit of getting ready. 4.10pm the first rumbles of thunder and by 4.30pm we were mid storm and it was a big'un. Party hastily shifted inside our small, extremely heavy humid house. 4.45pm, sun out and hot again, but everything soaking so we just stayed on at home.

It's late, The Husband is stuck in Sydney airport with his late flight to Melbourne delayed by hours, and I can hear rumbles of thunder again. Night time storms aren't fun. Time to turn up the TV and eat some leftover party stuff.

Copy

This may be a regular theme in posts to come. I'm now writing the copy for the website.

Even though I have a great team building the website, the reality is that I'm the only person who can provide all the content and write all the copy. At the moment. That's ok though because I kind of like it. But it's also very hard work getting inspirational and getting in the "zone", and it's also very time consuming. Project Woman and Dan (now my kind of mentor) have both said - go to other websites and get ideas for copy from these pages - I've tried this approach and not only did it make more work (rewriting it into my words) but it kind of didn't feel right. Kind of like I was copying.

And besides one of my very bestest friends is a patent attorney/trademark guru, amongst many other talents which I love her for. AND she has a Very Important Lawyer Husband who is particularly smart in the world of intellectual property stuff. And they simply would not let me do this. So I'm not even going to start. I'm slogging it out doing the hard yards, but I can live with myself. And like I say, it's kind of fun.

Slow but fun.

Go to the Top

Charities. There are approximately 30,000 in New Zealand and we now have a very smart way of registering them through the Charities Commission so they are all legit and ...registered. Other than that they are simply listed as Donnees with the IRD, and unfortunately to date, there is no "blending" of the two lists. I think it's called de-duping.

Anyhow, I need a list of these charities. Finding them I'd always imagined as a push/pull affair - I'll find some and I'll hope the bulk of them will come to me. I know I'm bordering on overusing this favorite Kevin Costner (the great orator) quote - but I'm hoping that "if you build it people will come" ie once the word gets out they'll come flooding in. But in the mean time, I'm on a quest to find a good starting point of registered charities in NZ. Of course when asking the questions from who I thought were all the right people, I've heard plenty of "blah blah ...privacy rights...blah, blah" Hmmm not as easy as I hoped it was going to be.

Then I stumbled across another me, someone who was extremely important working in a very official business, who was trying to find the same info as me. I heard his horror stories, we sympathised together. His advice - "go to the top"..."um top?"..."go to the Minister and let him (sorry maybe her?) know your issue...make a statement". I felt like asking why hadn't he done this, but instead being in a situation when I was clearly out of my depth, I become a yes woman. In fact we both chuckled about how funny it would be if a part-time business start-up person/part time mum living in Sydney could crack this nut for everyone. I think I heard hope in his laugh. There was none in mine.

Back to the drawing board.

Which Shoes?

It's that crazy time of year when The Husband gets asked to thousands of corporatey things and to my horror, turns down most of them which include me (maybe it's the shorts thing again?). Anyhow tonight ones managed to slip through - dinner and a play, in the heart of Sydney, 6pm kickoff, week night. I live on the other side of the bridge and have a babysitter coming at 4.40pm to give me enough time to get there! Is it really worth it or would I rather be sitting at home alone watching crap TV with a frozen meal - again. Well actually that's tomorrow night.

I've got a shoe dilemma.

Do I wear the extremely tight ponyskin ridiculously high and uber uncomfortable pumps or my well worn but super comfy old work shoes. I'm wearing trousers so I think I'll be safe with the comfy option, but the fact is we're sitting at dinner and in the theatre so this could give another much needed opportunity for these goddamn shoes to stretch so I don't feel so stink that if I'd actually tried both shoes on when I brought them, I would have realised they are a size too small. And brought the bigger size.

And yes I still get stressed driving over that bridge. But then you've probably guessed that by now.

Don't Wear Your Shorts

I have two uniforms - trackies in winter, shorts in summer. I have good trackies, and ones that shouldn't be seen out of the house. I have beach shorts, long shorts, going out for lunch shorts, mucking around shorts and even shorts for wearing with strappy sandals and a glam top. I rarely wear a skirt, and apart from a beachy beach dress, don't really have any dresses.

The Husband has just met with The Philanthropist for a bit of a work chat. This is the woman I accidently ignored online when the computer died last week. She is inpirational, successful and innovative in the world of philanthropy in Australia. The Husband was very, very complimentary of her - he was very admiring of her business. He also said she was very classy and styley - kind of like a Cate Blanchett type. He said I would enjoy meeting her but maybe "don't wear your shorts to your meeting". He said this with a smile and very quickly moved on, but I was aghast - don't wear my shorts? As you can well imagine, I'm on the slippery slope to my next crisis and have been to the shops twice, yes twice, including a wet Saturday afternoon to the mall (complete madness) - in the quest for a skirt. Bottom skimming denim micro skirts or baby doll dresses don't invoke a Cate Blanchett image for me. Like I said, the next is crisis looming!