Anna Aden Writes

I'm doing my yesterday entry now. Was too tired. Anyway I think I said how AGG (Accounting Guru Genius) showed me how to plan. Well I got into my time management and goal setting big time and found out I was overwhelmed with things! Yes! I'd put on too many things that could not be achevied in the time I wanted. Fair enough saying if you can concieve it, you can acheieve it but one needs to be realistic about these things. I found out after putting in my work hours, travel time, eating, chores, wind down (don't do much of that), I only had a window of a few hours a day. I hadn't even accounted for family time, nor social activities. Then I realised a course I was doing was about to finish. This is something I'd never found the time to do. So obviously I've escalated that to high piority - see my talk now, talking about piortiies, and I hope to finish it soon. So that was my day yesterday doing things on my plan in a realistic way. Oh boy, slightly overwhelm...

There was a massive Disney Christmas tree at St Pancras Station.  I thought I'd start with that picture. Implemented Accounting Guru Genius (AGG)  method this morning. I mentioned yesterdays she showed me her way of planning. Well it's kinda like project management critical path and working back but in AGG's way.  Well the results where what I sort of knew but it's official. I do too much. I've got so much on that I have make very slow progress with anything then end up procrastinating. So I really need to learn and get this planning and time management method under my belt. The only reason is that it's kinda the only thing I actually got. When AGG first did it, I was amazed. It was so impressive. I kinda forgot about it but it's coming up to the end of the year, and I've made great progress with some goals and projects but others are still hanging. Anyway after putting in all my hours I realised I only had a certain amount of free time. Not a...

Rang to sing Momma A G happy birthday! Got to work early and did some of my goal work. Also Accounting Guru Boss showed me an easy way of planning. She is a genius. It's that simple so I'm going to practice her method of planning.  I must say I've learn plenty. Working with her is like one long professional master class with private tuition.  Glamorous colleague also gave me tips on completing a goal related task. All tasks are like elephants tackle the largest on in the morning. Red Jumper colleague took the day off for Black Friday. Apparently he's waking up at early to go on the internet looking for deals after which he'll go to the shopping centre. Told him I was going to wait until boxing day to get a new purse. Then after all the excitement he was like 'What am I going to do on Cyber Monday." Glamorous and I went looking for some where for our team christmas lunch. She wasn't having us eat in a pub. She has high standards. She was okay abo...

I like writing. I guess that is the main reason. I've always wanted to be a writer and having finished my first book, I need to take a break from it. I guess I also write because I want people to read. So that is the main reason for blogging to. I have a number of blogs. One to do with writing on Word Press, this is just something I'm doing by the way. However blogging at times makes me feel my life is boring. Since I mostly talk about transport, what I eat at lunch and coming back home. Mundane. Not exciting at all. Boring. I read other people's blog and think awesome. Amazing. That is so cool. All I really like to do is draw, yes those bold stylishly ugly drawings are mine. You can probably tell. I have a few on instagram. I also like to sing which I rarely do nowadays. I also used to cook and do crafts. I work. Yes, that takes up most of my time, and studying for a professional qualification. I still have one more stage to complete - which was the personal goal I was ta...

It rained. So grey and miserable this morning. And there was traffic. Got the train and yet the normal gripe of idoits not moving down the carriage. Don't get me started. Finally got a seat, read the paper. Got worse when I went to work. Why? I spoke to one of my colleagues in the kitchen before her morning coffee. Thick black coffee - no sugar. Mistake. Big mistake, so I retreated back to my office. Lunch was find but I ate too much. I think this fasting on lower calories days have shrunk my stomach. I had the full meat with roast potatoes and chocolate sponge cake for pudding. The cake was nice. The meal was nice. But I think I over stretched myself. My coffee-drinking colleague who is a foundation of wisdom always advised me to do one thing at a time. As you know I have many projects on the go. So today longer after she'd had her morning coffee, she reminded me about it again. Start and finish. So I've decided work on completing a personal goal and put a hold on other...

I've never kept a diary or journal. Not a complete one. The last complete one was when I was about 15 years old and was only because everyone else was keeping on. You know the whole 'teenage secret dairy' with lots of hearts with hidden crushes and stuff. So this is kinda something new. Anywho. Went to work and it was so so. Deadlines coming up. Then I'm on the 2nd of 2 day of 5.2 diet. I'm sure I eat way more than what is allowed. Anyway I had some pititful fruit salad for breakfast. Got that from Sainsburys. Then some bean salad which I had with jacket potato. Got into the whole 'exercise vs diet' debate. My colleague also gave good advice about shopping online. She's addicted to special offers so says shopping on-line cuts it out. I know that when I used to go to weight watchers, yeah, I did, the leader suggested that helped too. I dislike exercise  and I know this is fad but so is exercising. I start with an expensive gym membership - which by ...

Work up today thinking about design. So I got out one of my old design books and decided to start with lines. I used to love lines. Everything is made up of a line. So I did a line outline of a picture. Then I made it to a cartoon. See below. He is wearing boxers. Activated my facebook account again.  So it's there activated. Will be using it for some writing stuff later on. Not fussed at the moment. I just need to join all these groups and make 'facebook friends'. Oh dear.  Went the supermarket and found the American shelf. I noticed beef gelatine was put in some breakfast cereals. Really? Why? The only animal products I eat with cereal is milk. Dairy. but gelatine? Come on, people. Plus it had a number of food additives I hadn't seen in years! Oats or Oatmeal is the way to go. Finally go to see what a twinkie looked like. I always assumed it was a chocolate bar of some kind. It's cake. Well it was super expensive at £7 nearly £12 but it was ...

Today was tiring. Well I'm trying to complete my application for membership and it's turning out to be a little bit more frustrating then taking the actual exams. The reason being is that the format has to be original. So far I've listed down one job, I've three more to do. Then I went for a massage but that had little effect on my irritable self so I'm still tense and irritable. Decided to do my own covers. My first attempt has been pretty bad but I hope to get better.  The reason they are thumbnails is because I uploaded them on my NaNoWriMo page. Long story is that my prehistoric copy of photoshop sits on an very old machine. However its super expensive to get a copy and to be fair apart from fancy filters and brushes and shapes I have all  need on my prehistoric copy. I think with the newer versions the learning curve is lower and it's easier to use. Where as the old school PS - one had to  know how to use the pen tool, some filters etc. As you can se...

Work was okay. Left the hairdressers and had  night out with a meet-up group in Putney. It was different where you had to mingle and talk to everyone. Like speed friend-making. Lots of interesting people and the great thing about it was if conversation seemed tedious or hard you knew in a few minutes you'd be lead to another table. I'd definitely go again. Also learned about ice hockey so might start watching that too. -----------------------------------------------------------  Check out Bigga Day's books on Smashwords.com https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bigga Apple iBooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bigga-day/id595585425?mt=11 Barnes and Nobles http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/bigga-day Kobo http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Search?query=Bigga%20Day&fcsearchfield=Author

Today was hard. A family member had someone close to them pass away. Tough. Tragic. The person was also young and it was very unexpected. Tough and hard on those left behind. He’s now in peace, having done his best for all concerned.  Work was normal. Did the first day of the . Which is the first of two. Started off with a bowl of apple and satsumas. For lunch had jacket potato with tuna (added some mayo and hot sauce.) Passed some fancy cars so took pictures. Got a headache from sugar withdrawals. Bad one. Very bad headache. But I must keep going. After which when to visit my bereave family member. Gave in to eating grapes. Having Edamame beans (posh and fancy name for boiled soya beans) for supper. I'M STARVING!!! Planned to meet a fellow writer on Saturday. That should be fun.   Not sure I achieved the 500 calories of 5:2 diet but it’s a start. I probably did double that - but no cake or pudding. Totally resisted that to...

Went to work and gorged on cake. A baby hippo day, I need to make sure I don’t become Mama Hippo. Actually I’m considering doing the 5:2 diet. You know when you kinda only eat 500 calories two days then the rest will be Baby Hippo days. So two Starving Donkey days and five Hippo days. I’m fine with it. It may be a challenge. I’ve got a book out called 5:2 Lifestyle. Will it work? Don’t know. Anyway will try.  Left work on time to attend a lecture by respected medieval super-scholar Professor  Elizabeth Robertson on Chaucer and Wordsworth’s Vivid Daisies. It sounded interesting when I got the email and I like a bit of poetry sometimes so I went along.  It was the Birkbeck William Matthews Public Lecture. They do a series of talk. Even Ali Smith the booker prize winner did one. I think that is every year - I mean getting a booker prize winner to have a chat. Then I went for the drinks reception. Nice see pictures below. Also got a few other posh soun...

I went for a breakfast talk today in the city. It had to get to Tower Bridge so took a picture of the Tower. That is of the Shard in the distance. Nice sandwiches and pastries on display. Very yummy. I took a picture of the place. I've been too busy to do this. Too busy to go the gym. Too busy to live a life. But I think the problem and solution lies with me. I think before one does a task, one needs to ask what is expected of one? I don't ask that question, dive in, do over and beyond when adequate will do. I think it is about matching expectations. I need to examine that closely because it's easy to blame other things - like time, work, commitments but am I doing too much? I need to think what are the expectations in this task? I say this because sometimes I feel some tasks are good but futile. Perhaps do not add value. Well that is where I am at the moment. I'm also doing NaNoWriMo tweets for the fun of it. Got to go now and think about my go...

Outside Milton Keyes Station I went to Milton Keyes today for a conference which was great and well worth attending. It's to do with my profession. The great thing about meeting other professionals in your field is that you find out you aren't alone in some experiences. Also there was advice, and good words to take home. So it was very positive and uplifting. We had two fellows of the professional body give an presentation and answer questions. As well the active associates for organising it. It was well worth attending. In fact lots of people like myself travelled from all over to attend this event. Virgin Carriage This is a picture inside the Virgin Train. It was okay I guess. Still a bit cramped. What I noticed is that first class was a lot smaller than the old intercity seats. I sat behind some TV production staff who were name dropping and saying how they had to attend certain shows and laugh on cue. To be fair I've been to two filmi...

This morning I found another sign for Pret. Do we really need another Pret in my area? They are becoming like McDonalds. Then again I think at some point McDonalds had shares in them but then sold them to a private equity firm. Not sure. Anyway it's a very aggressive expansion underway. Took pictures of the hoardings. After which I took a walk down Bankside to get to my morning meeting. It was cold and rather crowded. I sort of took the wrong route to where I was going. At my meeting, I had the good fortune of meeting with two savvy professionals in a super brand. It was great because one of gave me some sage technical  advice. It was like a light switched on, so I was about to see things from a different perspective. So I took a lot more and also a way to understand more depth what I was doing. It was fairly simple and basic but it changed my perspective of how I thought about things. Now of some goal setting. I have lot of plans and things to do so I ne...

So had a pre-work meetings, yeah a fancy way of saying a meeting before work. It went well. I think I need to start dressing up. Looking more corporate but that would mean losing a few pounds - well more than a few about 40 pounds to be exact. I woke up this morning and looked for something to wear. Nothing fitted. I looked like a baby hippo in most of my clothes. I'm allowed to say that. So I settled on something comfortable, slapped on makeup and then wore my heels for effect. Yes I do think heels can uplift an outfit. Shallow? Maybe. Work was super-aggravating today for many many work-related aggravating reasons. Anyway, head honcho No 2 gave me a  mocha kitkat and it tasted nicer than I thought it would. Yummy! Might buy it some time if I every wanted something a little different. Lost my travelcard so paid via bankcard only to find my oyster card in my purse. Good. Only becauseI thought I lost it.  Popped into Waitrose and saw these nice cakes so took a ...

Listening to music today while doing my work. Spreadsheets. Who loves spreadsheets? My day was one long spreadsheet of columns, rows and clicks. Yeah, that deep. My choice of spreadsheet was excel. I prefer that. At times I've tried google doc spreadsheet but I'm truly an Excel spreadsheet person. That is my Nothing today. Work up early. Did work. Lots and lots and lots of spreadsheets. Lots! Had last night curry for lunch. It was yummy. Back to work with spreadsheets and more spreadsheets. At some point I opened a Word document just for variety. Then I made a table in it which defeated the point since basically spreadsheets are made of tables. One huge enormous table. So back to spreadsheets. Quite a boring day, unless you are into to spreadsheets. I'm not, but work is work and what must be done must be done. Yeah, no nothing about food, or travel or anything like that. Just Spreadsheets. -----------------------------------------------------------  Check out Big...

Woke up slightly later this morning but still pondered about. Now reading some book on business which was talking about leadership. This book has to do with me trying figure out my self-publishing path. Apparently I needed a vision, an idea and belief. Right. Okay that seems simple to me. But what is a vision? Isn't it just seeing something. Not sure. Idea? Hmmm. Belief? In what. Anyway left the house and it's autumn. This is a picture of the leaves the gardeners were clearing in the local park.  They racked leaves into piles. Work was super busy. Well sort of. Lots to do! I had jerk chicken for lunch which was nice. Good. Then visited family and the family's neighbour had bought down some food. Okay back up. I rang family from home to find that SuperCook neighbour had bought down some food. So I made a point of visiting. This is a picture of some food I took home. It was that good, I had to take some home. YUM! DELICIOUS DELICIOUS SUPER DELICIOUS. My fa...

I work up super-early looking at my novel and trying to write the end. Then I dragged myself out of bed, showered and found a library book which had been missing. However the worse thing was I forgot to renew my library books so I got fined. I still want to know why the council can't send alerts for renewal. I bet fines are a income source in their accounts. Went to visit the new Waitrose in Kings Cross. It's very flash. Posh but doesn't have much in it. What I mean is that you can't do  real shop for food. It's kinda like a flagship window display. I'd say my local one has more variety in terms of shopping for families. However it had a brilliant bakery, the cook school is located there and a juice bar. I'm not sure the target market however my local Waitrose shall not be losing me to it. Next thing was I was pondering about the advice given in the self-publishing conference and the best way to go marketing one's self. I think I need to focus on t...

Went for the 2015 Bloomburys Self Publishing conference and met the fabulous Tracy Bloom  and Joanne Penn  with a host of other talented self publishing writers. They all gave great advice about self-publishing. They were the only two on the panel I spoke to. Tracy was super friendly and didn't mind me gushing about her book. It's a fabulous read called No One Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday. This is a five star read! Apparently the sequel is out so I'm off to get a copy. Joanne was lovely and didn't mind me stopping her as she dashed to the stage to ask a question. Basically about paying for blog tours or getting a company to do them. She basically said the best one where the ones a writer set up themselves or had a connection with the blogs. She is so passionate about giving out information, so her website below is worth a look. I know I've used it now and again but it great to see her in person. The self-publishing  highlights for me where where Marketing is ...

Today, the nearest free seat was with someone who was much fatter than me. Okay you all know I'm in the obese zone. However my feet hurt and despite her taking up a quarter of my seat, I plonked my bottom on the seat. This mean due to my size I had my foot out in the aisle. In the seat beyond me, there was a skinny man and I debated if I should stand up and sit next to him. I would be much comfortable. Size does matter. However it was rude. But Comfort comes before Rudeness so I moved only for the woman to leave the bus on the next stop. So there were two free seats - however got to me before I moved. Still I was comfortable sitting next to skinny man. Lunch wasn't a good affair. I decided to skip it and have a bean salad. I'm not happy. Okay I did have pudding. Passed a shop where they were filming and took a shot. Here it is. I've added some sepia effect. Came home late. I'm going for a self-publishing conference on Saturday. It should be fun. Or not. ...

It was pouring with rain this morning so I had to be careful on the pavement. With all the leaves on the ground it can become slippery. Got in to work. I think on time or before not sure. Did work. Colleague suggested I went on holiday for two weeks soon. I am tired that granted. I do feel drained at times but there is so much going on. I need to plan better. Well not plan, prepare first then plan. She reckons a full break away from everything. So I can slow down. That is what I need. I'm constantly on the go. Work, work and more work. I need some sun and a change of scenery otherwise it's just duggery. Not sure when but need to think about it. Even if just a weekend break as a trophy break. I need to think about it or look. I don't mind going to the Costa Dara. This is are some pictures from when I went to Benidorm about four years ago. This the hotels and resorts on the beach. From a lookout point on the beach. The view from my hotel room. It was okayis...