I recently had the great pleasure of being selected to join a group of 44 ‘enlightened entrepreneurs’ from around the world, brought together by the marvellous Sarah Prout (author of ‘The Power of Influence’ and publisher of the ‘Adventures in Manifesting’ series). In the interests of being open and authentic in our businesses, we were challenged to write a blog outlining 20 things most people wouldn’t know about us. So here is my offering, and an opportunity for you to get to know a bit more about one of the people behind Brilliant Living HQ.
- I was born in London in late April and my mother said I arrived with the blossom and the spring. I love this time of year with its changeable weather and the promise of summer to come.
- When I was ten I broke my leg while standing still on roller skates – how is that even possible? Well apparently no-one thought it was, including the doctor who said it was badly sprained, so it was three days before it was x-rayed, reset and put in a cast.
- Three weeks later we moved to Suffolk. You make quite an entrance into your new school on crutches, in full leg plaster cast and the only child sitting on a chair in assembly. But I loved Suffolk from the day we arrived and even though I’ve lived in other nice places, I was pleased to return to live there.
- I am the middle child with an older brother and younger sister and was known as the quiet one in the family as a child (probably surprising to anyone who knows me). It’s all relative though and visitors to family occasions have been know to comment that if you wait for a break in the conversation and don’t speak up loud, you’ll never get heard.
- My first job while still at school was in a hotel as a silver service waitress and whatever else needed doing. You learn a lot about the public as a young girl working in the hotel trade, and I would highly recommend the experience. I have loved hotels ever since.
- I once spent half a summer on a roundabout at the start of the M1 counting cars. Totally tedious but my friend and I had a laugh and it gave us the money to travel round Israel the rest of the summer, an amazing experience.
- Following three years at university I did a teaching qualification and then went to run pubs for three years! This provided a fantastic education in dealing with customers, staff, suppliers, stock control, fights, sales, working seven days a week, football hooligans, thieves, cleaning toilets, making meals (when you’re not a cook), keeping going when you’re exhausted and having fun.
- I saw my son in a dream before I knew I was pregnant. This was particularly surprising, as I didn’t plan on having children. Yet I knew the gorgeous boy with brown eyes (neither I nor partner had brown eyes) walking through the field towards me in my dream was my son. A few weeks later I found out I was pregnant with what turned out to be (you’ve guessed it) a boy with beautiful brown eyes.
- In the early days of mountain biking I was co-owner of the Mountain Bike Club Of Great Britain. We organized a national series of races around the country and in 1990 took a British team (along with 6 month old baby) to the first ever World Mountain Bike Championships in Durango, Colorado, USA.
- I have 3 degrees in the two subjects you’re not supposed to discuss in polite company – religion and politics – and I like discussing both. (If you’re interested in the detail they are a BA in Biblical Studies, BSc in Politics & Gender Studies and MA in Political Theory.)
- The first love of my life was our family pet, a mongrel dog that resembled a corgi. I still remember the day he died even though I was only six, and the devastation I felt. Since then I’ve had a toy poodle, German shepherd, standard poodle, and now have another mixed breed dog, only now they’re called designer dogs and cost a fortune, a labradoodle called Dude.
- Much of my career has been in education where I specialised in roles with ridiculous long titles or acronyms including:
- Research Fellow at CREATE – the Centre for Research into Educational Applications of Telematics (teaching on the internet to you and I);
- YPLD, EoE, LSC – Young Peoples’ Learning Director for the East of England at the Learning and Skills Council;
- LSD, NAS, SFA – Learner Services Director for the National Apprenticeship Service at the Skills Funding Agency.
- Although I jest in no.12, I love the life changing power of learning, whether through formal education or people learning
about themselves. This is why I’m excited to now work in the fascinating field of personal development. What could be better than helping people to understand something about themselves, their motivations, how their brains work, and how they can use it to their advantage in making changes in their lives and improving them in some way. - I was going to say that my favourite colour is green or rather the greens of spring (which could therefore include any green), but then I thought of how I like the orange of a sunset, or the blue of a clear sky, oh and what about red and who doesn’t like pink and by the way my favourite colour for flowers is white. So I think that I’ll jut say I like a lot of colours.
- I met Julian in 1995 when our mutual singing teacher suggested we sing a duet together at a concert. We sang a romantic Edwardian ballad called ‘No rose in all the world until you came’, which worked magic for us as we got together soon afterwards and haven’t looked back. Julian proposed (doing the full on one knee thing) on our tenth anniversary together and we married the following year in 2006.
- I love singing and musicals and wearing sparkly sequins. I get an adrenalin buzz from performing and find it great for ‘being in the moment’. A couple of roles I’ve enjoyed doing are Mrs Blitztein in Lionel Bart’s ‘Blitz’ and Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls playing to Julian’s Sky Masterson, where I got to smash a bottle over someone’s head and slap Julian’s face every performance! I was once the solo singer in a band concert with the late Patrick Moore (presenter of the longest running TV show in the world, The Sky at Night) playing the xylophone. I’ve also been part of a small singing group called Musicology for the past 17 years.
- I like being part of a local community. I’ve spent twelve years as a school governor and eight as an elected town councillor in the town where I live. I think this is something I got from my father whose life demonstrated a balance of working hard, enjoying himself and contributing to the community (receiving an MBE from the Queen for his services to the community along the way).
- I am totally addicted to tea and drink far too much to be good for me, even though I like it weak and milky. I have a specific tea routine – Twinings earl grey all day and Clipper organic fair-trade tea after dinner and for the rest of the evening. I’m trying to acquire a taste for green tea in the afternoon as its supposed to be better for you, but am having to work hard at it because it just doesn’t taste as good.
- I haven’t eaten meat or fish for thirty years. My favourite food is fruit crumble (gooseberry, rhubarb, apple & blackberry – any type really) with cream and custard. Not the healthiest of foods but it does have fruit so can’t be all bad – can it? I don’t mind eating the same thing day in day out (but I don’t eat crumble every day).
- I’ve also just finished writing a book on how to make changes to get what you want in your life. I find writing anything a satisfying, frustrating, enjoyable, exasperating, rewarding and challenging undertaking depending on how it’s going at the time you ask me. I would like to be a bit quicker at writing and I’m trying to quell my perfectionist (or is that pedantic) tendencies and adopt the [80:20] principle and stop the editing and get on with publishing.
And on that note I am finishing this blog!
We’re all the product of our experiences, decisions, likes, actions and desires. And now you know more about me – why not let me know something about you.
What’s next?
- Buy my book – Changeability: Manage your Mind – Change your Life. It’s out now.