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Showing posts from 2016

Holiday vacation in Spain , stripping carpets and musing about my book and readers

Thanks for popping by this time around. I've just come back for a delightful ten days in Salou in Spain. The main reason why Salou is such an ideal destination apart from the sunny climate is that it's only about a two hour flight from London and then a twenty minute transfer from the airport to the hotel. Bonus! It is located in the Province of Tarragona which is on the Costa Daurada. I've been on lots of holiday but three hour flights and longer transfers can leave on worse for wear. So Salou is the only place I've been twice. I will consider going to other places but for now, by the time I book my vacation at work, I'm all cranky, stressed and too jittery about travelling. I would love to holiday in the UK but frankly it would be the same amount of time, and probably a bit more dearer - expensive. Saying this the pound to the euro was nasty - nearly one to one exchange rate!  It's the second time round, and near Barcelona. We didn't get up to much ...

Being Me on the Blog #001 - end of summer, Vacation time, The start of editing my novel, Interviews as an author

Hello Everyone, I've not being writing for many reasons. First because I'm busy with other commitments namely my job, and secondly I'm not sure what to write about. Whenever I get a topic I end up censoring myself and thinking nah boring.  Or maybe I should just be myself... Being myself is easy, though at times I think is it too boring. Anyway lets be myself today. Notting Hill Carnival - The end of Summer... The Carnival was awesome and I soca-danced myself crazy with some good beats. Here are some pictures of the carina. Finished First Read-Through of draft Novel Some good parts, and some work to be done. Overall I was very pleased on the outcome. Series of Interviews I've been interviewed authors which I'm super-excited about. Check it out if you are interested in what I have to say. This is by Rin-Rin and in case you forget Anna W Aden is also my writing name. http://rin-rins.net/anna-w-aden/ By Ivy Nelson -  https://ivynelsonbooks.wordpre...

Weekly Blog: Inspirational week - Writing as Anna W Aden and attending Camden Adult Community Learning Awards.

Hi and welcome to an update of my week. Lots happened and I've only highlighted on the main points. I've done my first author interview under the pen name of Anna W Aden, the I lunched with my former inspirations colleagues in the city, and after that I supported an award winner at the Camden Adult Community Learning Celebrations! First Interview as aspiring writer Anna W Aden I’ve given my first interview as a writer. You know my writing pen name is Anna W Aden. So I’ve been interviewed by a fellow writer  R-R. Varg ( Rin Rin)  and you can check it out here. http://rin-rins.net/anna-w-aden/ That is one of my life  aspirations  -  to be a published novelist. So I’m starting with doing a few interviews on blogs, maybe writing some stories. I’m feeling my way now. So it’s something I’m excited about so have a read to see in my writer’s mode.  Lunch at Planet Organic in Devonshire Square!  I met up with my former collegeues who are...

Weekly blog - Visionaries, Leadership & saying goodbye to colleagues. Booked tickets to see Beres Hammond

Over this past week, I've being doing a lot of reflection because I went for a leadership course. My professional body held one for managers and because at some point I aspire to be one, I thought I would go along to see what it was all about. It was excellent. We had two very good speakers and I left not only motivated but also equipped with tools that would help me. So my takeaways or understanding on a personal level was having a vision was very important. Well I'm the here and now person, especially over the last few years when circumstances were difficult and I was unable to think long term. It was more getting out of a situation. However, when I reflected on this course, I realised we have visions. We are all VISIONARIES. Maybe not on a Steve Jobs level but we all think long term. Why? Because we all ASPIRE. We have ASPIRATIONS.  From those aspirations come our visions. So I was happy in that thought. Yours may be different. But sometimes it's very overwhelmin...

Elvenar - playing the fantasy game.

I am now of the one of the millions of addicted gamers. True. I'm playing a game called Elvenar which is a fantasy city builder. A friend of mine introduced me to it and since then I've spent countless hours playing it. It's time like this, I'm happy I've got a day job as that gives me a rest. It is truly addictive however in  way it's a strategy game. So it starts off very easy and progressively gets difficult. I'm on level two and this is where strategy comes in. And boy does strategy play a part. I guess the aim is to build a big and powerful city where a owner or gamer can form alliances. I'm far from the level. So in the beginning a gamer chooses to be human or elf, then from there starts to build. In each species you start from a village or hamlet status with primitive and rough looking dwelling to becoming a sophisticated looking city. The key I've learn the hard way is to have as many houses as you can since that generates taxes...

Mid year Goal Review from Goals set in January 2016

Oh dear, yes, I thought I should do one. I'm sheepish about it because frankly a lot of things have dropped off the way side. So I set a few goals in January which I publicly blogged about. As normal with these things real life gets in the way and things happen. I had very grand plans....oh well let's see what happened. List of 2016 Goals Lose weight - at least two stones (28lbs or 12kg)  this year Become an associate in my profession Publish a short story Complete two course-related writing projects Good me time. This is the original post. http://dabwrites.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/hectic-work-shedule-internet-detox-due.html Lose weight Well, none. I'm still overweight, not going to the gym and not doing much about it. Worse still, I'm still paying for a weight weight's subscription though I stopped going months ago. So I need to cancel that and reconsider what it is I really want. I've lost enough so my feet don't hurt anymore when I stand or...

Catching up - Life as an Associate, Seeing Ghostface Killah and Busta Ryhmes in London Concert

Hello Everyone, It’s been a while since I last blogged and journaled. About two months. Life As An Associate I became a qualified professional after a very long time of study, giving up wasn’t option since that was my professional. Anyway I’m still at my workplace, pay grade still the same but I’m still learning and development so not treading water in terms of that. I’m also more confident and without the burden of study, more relaxed. So it’s been good.  I also had to do a continuous professional developments so I’ve attended a few interesting workshops -networking, leadership skills and productive ninja. I’ll make a note to post a few notes on them. So far, so good. It’s nice to be qualified. Interviewing Authors This is huge! I’m going to doing a series of interviews on my blog from established  and new authors - mostly romance. It’s going to start next month, and I’m super excited about it. Right now I just need to figure out the date it will be p...

Celebrating My Hard Work At The Shard London

Hello Online Friends, Readers and the Generally Curious, Hope it's being a good week for all. Things have been fairly busy but I'm working on a schedule so I can do posts regularly - well I'm thinking maybe once or fortnight or more....  I will be posting an update on my goals, not done very well on the weight loss aim due to many things. Anyway. Big news is that I got invited to Hutong at the Shard by my big cousin - a very successful and top UK vocal coach in the UK music industry - for a family meal and to celebrate successes. Yeah, you know I recently became an Associate and qualified accountant. It was smart dress code so I had to buy a new frock and pair of shoes for this occassion. So I went to Oxford Street and got an inexpensive dress from Marks and Spencers. It was reasonable since I was going to accessory with some designer jeweller - a jade and gold necklace I bought years ago. And by the time I had a full face of makeup I would look very nice. S...

I'm back with GOOD NEWS

My dear online friend, Welcome to my blog. How are you? I hope all is well with you and you are doing fine. What friend you may think? I guess that is what you are, as long as you are reading this blog, that makes you an acquaintance of sorts. And pardon the familiarity, no matter how fleeting the relationship is, in this modern online world, you are a friend of at least this blog. Lots have been happening. As normal a straight update about my goal. YAY! I am now officially an Associate. I think I am. Well it was touch and go for the last few weeks. I even had to go to my former's boss's home to get my final sign-off. She was exceeding kind and generous, since at the last minute I had a massive panic over getting a sign off (and verification). So a good 48 hours before I contacted her via Linkedlin - good old social media - and asked if she could sign me off. Less than 24 hours before the event, she replied me and confirmed she would. She read through my report and ...

Going on a short break to complete work on my main goal!

Thanks for dropping by and reading this.  For now I'm going to suspend working on my blog. This is because I'm working on a real life career situation where I'm applying for associate membership of a professional body - yes, my main goal for this quarter. This is taking up more time than I thought it would - and challenging! I even took a staycation (vacation holiday) from work for a week to progress on this. Yay! That was finally approved. I'm having an interview in the late Match and will know if I meet the criteria. Right now it's put grafting and writing a report, getting verifiers and a whole ton of paperwork ready. When this whole process is complete,  I'd be able to just blog about whatever. Again, thank you so much for reading my stuff, even when it's pretty painful due to my dyslexia. Getting is membership a big career move and huge deal. It is also something I've worked towards for a very very long time, and taken plenty of exams. It...

Week-07 2016 Luxuries, Aspirations and Learning to Dream Again

My Luxuries I was chatting with my hair dresser of what I considered my luxuries. Things I splash on out because I'm on a tight budget. This because with living one is assaulted with bills and taxes right, left and centre. And at time one needs to think this is purely for me. So my luxuries may look like basic necessities but I don't really need to have them. Doing my Hair at the Salon. My hair-dresser is very reasonably priced and an awarding winning stylist and owner.  So I tend to pay for director or senior stylist level. My hair isn't something I do myself so this is a treat for me. This is a picture of me on Friday after my hair was done.  It is a luxury because I have other options however my hair dresser is excellent and excels at what she does. My hair looks the business! My second luxury is my Virgin Active gym membership. I don't go regularly and at times people say it's a waste of money but it isn't because it is something for ME. It has...

Week 06 2016 - Goal, general week and catch up! Brewing posh coffee, shopping etc

Work was busy since we are in the process of setting budgets. Not much happening apart from our head has left so we had a nice send off for him. Coffee is an Art form. One of my colleagues - co-worker is a coffee connoisseur, and coffee is serious. He grinds his coffee in the office and only drinks real coffee. He uses an aero coffee maker, and intrigued I took some pictures. He let it brews and mentioned something about coffee having acids and sugars that need to be balanced for a full bodied taste.  However it depends on how people like it. I just thought coffee was out of a machine. This is some of the kit he had in our office kit. He buys coffee with flovours like Jammy Dodger, Fruit and Nut and  the above.  Lost my Gym Kit and Bag I haven’t being to the gym since I lost my gym kit on the train. I ran the ‘lost and found’ and loggied in a report. What I really miss is my toiletry bag which I’d used all over the world, from the USA, Australia...

Making Dreams into Reality - Achieving goals and other things

So last week I wrote about my goals and how I’ve staggered them to be achieved over the year. Yeah, that was the simple bit. Easy peasy. Now it’s check in time. So for this quarter it was really about working towards two main things on my roster. This is real not those made up super motivating blogs. 1) Gaining Associate Status As mentioned I need to submit a report based on my work experience on why I should be admitted as an associate to my professional body. I have lots of notes but I’m still nowhere near completion which is not good since this is a critical milestone to achieving all the other goals on my list. Without this, I won’t have the time to move on to other things. Problem I’m still having difficulty in getting a framework or maybe just the confidence to do the write up.  I’ve booked some time off work to get down to it but I’m still on the edge with this one. I guess I’ll just have to keep on going until I get there. I’ve even missed some external deadlines...