Life and pondering the merits of a NO REFUND CULTURE
Archive for April, 2010
Crumptales: Cutting through with a powerful message?
Apr 24th
Is it just me or do other people get excited when a parcel comes through the post?
I regularly have parcels of online purchased goodies arrive at our work home in Bayham Street, Camden, and like a small child on their birthday I get almost as excited about other people’s cardboard wrapped surprises as ones addressed to me.
So imagine my delight a few weeks ago when a package arrived with my name on it, the anticipation was heightened because the only thing I was expecting to arrive was a cool lap top sleeve from Tropical Howie. Now this was going to be a bigger parcel and would be identifiable with Australian post marks. This magic parcel was from the UK, it was small, it was book-sized and was in that wrap around cardboard that books can be sent in.
I ripped open the parcel with gusto to discover that, joy of joys, it was indeed a book – wow someone had sent me a free paperback with a red and blue cover. However on reading the title ‘Everything you ever wanted to know about direct mail: complete and unabridged’, I felt suddenly crestfallen. This topic (which I have studied!) doesn’t really float my boat but hey it was a free book and for a micro-second I resigned myself to the fact that I would HAVE to read it, I mean someone had been kind enough to send it to me after all.
So feeling rather daunted by this tome of foreboding, I gulp and opened the look to see how small the font was (ergo how long it was going to take to read), but to my surprise the pages where cut out in the centre to create a hollow so I could directly read the inside back cover. It read: ‘We’ve cut out the hardwork for you – visit www.mmc.co.uk today’. ‘Phew’, was my gut reaction, triple heaps of joy: ‘I don’t have to read this boring book after all’.
Having gone through this five second rollercoaster of emotions I turned my attention to the accompanying letter that was inviting me to an all-day seminar on direct marketing. In an instant I made a firm decision that I wouldn’t be going to the seminar – my adrenal gland just couldn’t cope. Thankfully no-one emailed or called to follow-up on the mailing.
More sensible analysis continues on my business blog.
Loved stuff: Snap happy
Apr 18th
It is my birthday in two days (37 years wise) and my friends and family all clubbed together to get me a digital SLR. We just got back from the photography shop. I’ve unwrapped it and started to work through the manual – much fun and really looking forward to developing a new hobby.
I want to go on a short photography course – I thinking about 10 weeks of a once weekly evening class (with maybe a few hours of homework), just to taken through and understand the basics. I’ve Googled and found some options but there are so many to choose from: any recommendations on a London based course would be brilliant.
So a MASSIVE thank you to Mum and Dad, Charlotte, Brendon and Ruebs, Hena, Claire, Dave and Allwyn, Nadia, Rhian and Will, Christine, Ally and Izzie, Elaine, Chris, May, Charlie and Sonny, Ian, Natasha, Jessica, Grace, Alice and Olly.
You’ve all made me snap happy.
Modern living: Love of on and off line words back in a heavy puff of smoke
Apr 13th
After more than three months of not blogging (which did include four weeks of holiday) I am back tending my weblog.
So why the absence?
Well I had to make a conscious decision over the Christmas holiday to take enforced leave from social media engagement (especially about getting my pants in too tight a virtual bunch about the state of a restaurant’s loo). It was all getting a bit too all-consuming (I was spending up to four hours a day on it) and what with home and work it all got overwhelming. So I decided to take a break.
As I forced my brain to avoid laptop-based words I rediscovered reading fiction – you know, the old type, in books (including the Stieg Larsson ‘Millennium Trilogy’ which is very addictive). So by fitting in book reading my lack of free time was even further exacerbated by access to less waking hours in my day…
Since the start of the year I’ve become sleepier than I have ever been before. I just cannot wake up in the morning and this isn’t vintage Crump behaviour… for at least the last decade I have been someone who wakes up before the alarm clock, between 5 and 6 am, seven days a week. Now I can sleep until midday and am really struggling to get out of bed every morning. So why the change?
My friends it’s all down to (lack of) nicotine. Yes, I am delighted to report is that I have managed to stop smoking (since the second week in January). After 18 years of smoking I’ve stopped and it really is brilliant. I feel so much better (despite having gained 5 kgs – the appetite is back!). I used to (embarrassingly) smoke between three to five fags (plus a couple of glasses of diet coke) for breakfast. So the fact is that my body isn’t craving nicotine (oh and awaiting a jolt of caffeine) and forcing it to wake up to get its fix.
So lack of nicotine stimulation means that I get up to three more hours sleep a night (a morning!) creating a big squeeze on my time to surf, blog, keep on top of my google reader and generally engage.
But guess what, I’ve missed my tapping away on my laptop, my google reader, and my tweetdeck. I need to formalise a plan for managing it all but its back on my ‘to do’ list.
So the things I’ve learnt in the last three months:
- Being smoke free is genuinely liberating
- A few extra kgs (with a plan for removal with a bout of cycling) is not all that bad
- Getting more sleep is ace (and I hate the alarm clock with a passion)
- Reading words which aren’t backlit (on paper) is fab
- You need to plan to do stuff that you enjoy (i.e. wittering away right here)
:+) x
Some recent post comments