Tag Archive for business

Full Moon in Sagittarius – Total Lunar Eclipse – 16th June 2011

15/06/2011 Joh astrology, Business, learn, love, work

This full moon eclipse is in my sun sign. I have always loved it. The rest of my chart is pretty earthy and watery, so this fire sign gives me the passion and courage to do a lot of things I wouldn’t without it. When I first began learning about astrology, I identified totally with Sagittarius and it didn’t bother me a bit! I loved most of the attributes. Read Mystic Medusa’s take on Haute Sagittarius – Low Sagittarius. I can identify with the good and the bad.

I keep reading that eclipses are nothing to fear, it’s just a time of opening and closing doors. One of the astrologers I ‘like’ on facebook Astrosparkles has written a great note about this eclipse : Getting to the truth (or heart) of the matter. It covers all the essentials you will need to decipher how this eclipse could play out for you.

Tonight Darin is at his ‘Men’s Cooking Class’ he has been teaching at the Neighbourhood House. This week has been quite intense business wise. We have some pressure and decisions we need to make about our lease and we are looking at ways to expand and as always with a business there are many different ways to go and choosing one and committing to it requires head miles. I am enjoying this time alone to think. It’s been an interesting week and all kinds of information has come to me in interesting ways. I certainly know I am alive right now:).

I was a CRT today. I can’t call it teaching because it is a shell of what a teacher does. It’s actually relaxing (sorry to any teachers reading this). I guess it is like that because my heart is not invested in it. I am in and out. I don’t get too involved. My skill level at teaching has more than advanced the ability to manage a class of students, dish out work from their regular teacher, and support that work to be completed in the class. The ease sometimes makes me wonder what the hell I am doing slugging it out in a small business. I guess I am a sucker for a learning curve. That’s not to say I couldn’t learn more as a teacher, but I felt frustrated in that system. I liked the people and the school I worked for. I just don’t believe in that education system anymore. There are a lot of Sagittarian themes right there in that paragraph!

Anyway I will leave you with a quote from another blog I’ve started reading from the post ‘More About The Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse’

“Yes” is the Sagittarian motto. Sagittarius is possibility, options, hope, faith, trust, luck and chocolate (I lied about the last one….chocolate is actually ruled by Venus). Still, you get the idea. Sagittarius is a sign that brims with happiness.

Eclipses have an intimidating reputation but they are really just open doors. And tomorrow the door should open onto something really nice.

and whether or not it is sensible, that is exactly how I feel tonight.

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The Dip by Seth Godin

14/06/2011 Joh blogging, Business, reading

One of the books I read on the weekend was ‘The Dip by Seth Godin. I loved it’s brevity. It’s a small book that makes some good points. I reflected about whether our business is in a Dip, a Cul de Sac or heading for a Cliff. I am pretty sure it’s a dip, but whether or not we can last it out, is what I am currently trying to determine. It asks some really good questions and gives a very different perspective to quitting. Seth Godin is one of my favourite writers and I read every post on his blog. They are to the point and thought provoking. He doesn’t fluff about and try to fill white space, so nor will I!

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Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

24/02/2011 Joh Business, food, learn

I hope!

Today I went to buy the newspaper for our customers at the shop around the corner that sells quick food. I noticed they have a special starting next week. It’s almost a photocopy of our menu at drastically reduced prices for ‘senior citizens’. What is that about? I have been contemplating advertising schemes with all the food businesses in our locality highlighting our different offerings and working together, but if they are going into a price war targeting a market and copying what we do, I’m guessing they won’t want to play.

One of our food reps came in and mentioned to us that this particular business has been complaining to others about our business. It hurt my feelings for a bit. I thought we could be friends. Then I realised that is kind of a mark of success. I didn’t expect that we would impact on their business, after all we have taken over a food business that previously traded well. I guess since many business people have mentioned that February is a really quiet month, and we have felt concerned some days about not hitting the targets we have for our business, we have become a bit of a scapegoat.

On a brighter note, we had lots of visitors from my old school today. Rhiley (a past student that is now school captain) gave us a mention at assembly, which was quite lovely of him. This young man is one to watch. I would hire him if I thought he was for sale, but he has a much brighter future ahead of him and I am pleased for him. It was great to see all my past students and catch up on the hype about costumes for the swimming carnival and all the news about school.

We also received some inadvertent publicity from a lady who came in saying her husband heard about us on ABC radio that we’d won the Gippsland Signature Dish Competition. We had customers in the shop and it gave us an opportunity to tell our story about our rushed entry and we all had a good laugh. Our submission to the competition didn’t make the finalists list. She said the radio mentioned a place with Dog in the name in Traralgon. I think she may have it confused with Kate Neilson from ‘The Butchers Shop Hotel’ in Bunyip!

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Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

04/02/2011 Joh Business, reading

I’ve had this book from the school library on and off all through 2009 and have spent a great deal of time reading it through 2010. It’s a very thick book and it has provoked a lot of thinking for me. I enjoyed the book a lot. There are lots of lengthy rants in it that are kind of unrealistic to think that people would talk like that, but I liked a lot of them so I just enjoyed them. One of my favourites was:

“Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud – that an attempt to gain a value by deceiving the mind of others is an act of raising your victims to a position higher than reality, where you become a pawn of their blindness, a slave of their non-thinking and their evasions, while their intelligence, their rationality, their perceptiveness become the enemies you have to dread and flee – that you do not care to live as a dependent, least of all a dependent on the stupidity of others, or as a fool whose source of values is the fools he succeeds in fooling – that honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others.” p1019

It’s very black and white and I find myself falling quite short in many areas of the values put forward. I questioned myself a lot whilst reading it. I found it quite supportive to me when I choosing what to do with myself last year. I liked the characters. There is plenty to shift your paradigms in this book.  I highly recommend it, particularly if you are attracted to the business world.

Here are a couple of interesting articles that you might like to read to learn more :

Forget Groundhog Day – Why businessmen should say Happy Birthday to Ayn Rand by Alex Epstein

What Do Katy Perry, Jack Kerouac And Ayn Rand All Have In Common? by Emily Jasper

I have to take this copy back to the school library next week. I hope some student reads it one day. It’s very thick and I am the first person to check it out. I want my own copy because one day, I will read it again.

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And Now I’m 45!

03/12/2010 Joh Business, family, food, friends, gratitude, love, work

I turned 45 yesterday! I had a great day.

We opened the doors to ‘The Butchers Dog’ yesterday. It is by no means ‘perfect’. When I say that, I don’t mean it’s not great. I have had a ball there already. My taste buds are having a party for a start. It is an absolute delight to work with Darin. I have not had so many laughs and so much fun for such a long time. How good is that? It reminds me of the fun I had when Wilma and I made ‘ Unique Furnishings ‘ and ‘ Total Vision ‘. Good times!

My beautiful, supportive family , my daughter and my sister have covered the fort for me, so to speak. My mum has handled the home front for me, transforming my laundry from an overflowing mess to ironed shirts in the wardrobe. They have ran the show for me whilst I have had my head spinning and obligations dragging me in all directions. I am still at school, although to be fair to the people I work with I only have one foot in that door. I feel like I am being held up by so many supportive people right now and I feel truly blessed. My friends dropping in to eat, to smile with me at our creation have meant the world to me. The people I work with who have picked up the slack I have created with my frequent absences with a smile and no hint of resentment, have truly amazed me and I hope I can find ways to repay them for their generosity. At this time of the year it is legendary! All the fabulous phonecalls and messages, texting, facebooking and visits have made me feel more loved and supported than I could possibly imagine.

I read a beautiful article recommended to me by Holly, one of my wonderful students: Single Dad Laughing:The Disease called Perfection. It reminded me of something very inspiring I watched a little while ago:

I found these expressions resonate with me and my experience recently has demonstrated this to me. We haven’t got our place (The Butchers Dog) exactly how we want it, as I’ve said, we are making it up as we go along. There are many things that just haven’t arrived on time; our coffee machine, ingredients we hoped to use, the decor we had planned, people we were expecting to be there. We have just gone for it anyway. It’s not perfect or complete and to be honest, I don’t know that there is such a place. We have learnt a lot in these couple of fun filled days and I am so excited about applying what I’ve learnt as well as having things arrive and realising our dreams.

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The Butchers Dog

25/11/2010 Joh Business, food, learn, love

Tomorrow we take over the takeaway food business we have bought and transform it into ‘The Butchers Dog’. We hope to feed our community takeaway food that is made by happy humans, healthy and yummy of course. I’m still at school until the 10th December, but my sister Kate, who is still looking for work is going to help out until I finish at school.

It’s a long story full of twists and turns. Months of talking, followed by plans and dreams and looking and searching for the right place, equipment and so forth. Darin and I have worked together well on this adventure and I feel very blessed to have someone to play with again. It’s not everyday you find another person who you can dream with and take action on it and make it real.

We began with some hopes and ideas about how we wanted to live and have played with many different ideas. We’ve been very flexible about a lot of things, but have always gone back to the simplicity and purpose we began with. It’s tempting to compromise at times and you can easily get carried away and off in another direction, but I’m more than pleased with our results.

It’s been scary at times. We’ve laughed often when the world has questioned us about things and we’ve made it up as we go along. I’ve learnt plenty already and I’m just at the start.

I know there should be an apostrophe there by the way. It’s my way of breaking the English teacher spell:-)….

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New Moon in Scorpio – Saturday 6th November 2010

06/11/2010 Joh astrology, blogging, Business

Another moon another post. The new moon is a time for setting goals. I am heading in the direction of my goals at a steady pace right now. It is transforming everything in my life, so apt for this moon. This week has been busy with balancing the old commitments of finishing the year at school and ticking the boxes for the new start. We take over the premises at the end of this month. I know I keep promising to write about it and I will. Right now it’s doing time though.

The new moon is in the sign of Scorpio. I have read two posts about this new moon:
Aquarius Papers: What’s happing in November 2010 impacts 2011Moonkissd:The Taboo in Transformation

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New Moon in Libra – Friday 9th October 2010

08/10/2010 Joh astrology, Business

The new moon was this morning. I wasn’t awake for it. It was before 7.00am! I had my new moon goals ready to go. I have been thinking very much about my future and my intentions lately, so it was on my mind.

The New Moon in Libra post from Jessica (Moonkissd) has provided me with a reflection for today. She is becoming my favourite for the moons lately.

I am very excited today. Darin and I have secured the place for our new business and I can’t sit still with the promise of it all so this is all I can write right now.

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Quiet Day

30/09/2010 Joh Business, holidays

Yesterday was full of negotiations. It was busy and exciting. I was in and out of the house, on the phone and in meetings about what appeared to be hopeful talks about getting a place for Darin and I to start our business in. So far though no real progress has been made. I’ve reached the limit of my generosity in compensating people for struggling businesses that want us to purchase potential they haven’t realised. We’re not even interested in what they are doing. Their facilities are not ideal. More needs to be done. We have no intention in continuing their failed concepts, we are simply wanting a location without having to wrangle with a difficult to get along with council. Grrrr

Maybe it’s karma. I believe I sold a business once based on a lack of retail space. It was back in the 80′s when I had Asha and fell in love with her and wanted to stay home and not be in business anymore. I felt very blessed at that time and perhaps this is the balancing of the scales. We weren’t stupid and greedy though and we did have runs on the board to negotiate with. We sold the business to a former employee in the end who could clearly see what we’d built and continued with our idea. I think she was probably in business for 20 years.

Today by comparison was quiet. I’ve read, listened to audio books, done a bare minimum of housework and had a big sleep. I felt a bit indulgent about that, yet met a fellow teacher in the supermarket that announced he had an afternoon nap today quite proudly. It changed my perspective. I have managed to continue my half hour of exercise, even in the low energy of today. I am quietly determined to continue with it even when I get back to the last term of school. Damn that’s getting closer!

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Full Moon in Aries – Thursday 23rd September 2010

22/09/2010 Joh astrology, blogging, family, health, holidays

Tomorrow night is the full moon in Aries. Lynda Hill’s Sabian Symbols post speaks of starting again with knowledge of where you’ve been. These holidays I’ve been investigating lots of possibilities for our new venture for next year. It seems each time I get my heart set on a place I think would be perfect, the flaws appear. The good thing is that as I let it go, a better option comes up. I’m starting to become more sensible about the process. I am excited, but in a grounded and trusting way. Darin is good for me in that he is calm about things when I am inclined to be carried away.

She also speaks of finding your voice. I’ve been reading over my past posts and I am still unhappy with my voice on this blog. I so often compose passionate posts about things I really care about, yet lack the courage to publish them. I still consider all the people I know who tell me they read my blog and get inhibited by revealing parts of myself unknown to them. I realise that is just sensible to some degree, but I want to stretch myself a little more in future. I will have been blogging for 5 years in a week. That seems an awful long time to continue without being serious:-). My life has changed massively in that time. It’s interesting for me to read anyway!

Tom went back to Hamilton Island on Monday. I am getting better at saying goodbye and only a few tears squeezed out this time on the trip home. Asha came down yesterday with a sore back and my wonderful chiropractor squeezed her in, even though she hasn’t been there for 4 years. She even fitted me in as well. I trust my chiropractor more than I would a doctor to be honest. I think it is in part because she considers diet and exercise in the equation. She has a great bedside manner. Anyway Asha feels much better today thank goodness.

My tulips are blooming. They have multiplied. Still waiting for a sunny day though.

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