Back in May my friend Fiona told me about a course she had done called 'Landmark Forum'. She described how it had improved her relationship with her partner, children and family. I was curious, how could a 3 day course change her life in such a profound way? Fiona had traveled to London to do her course but knew that there was going to be a course running in August. I went along to an introductory evening and found the methodology interesting. One basic principle is that we think that we are living into the future, after we plan for holidays, career, home etc. However the Landmark view is that we are actually constrained by the past to such an extent that we don't actually see it. The exercise I did in the Intro session made this very clear. I was curious enough to take the plunge and do the course. After all, what did I have to lose except 3 days of my life and £295?
Fast forward to August 2006,I've done the Landmark Forum and WOW!! Landmark promises that you will be transformed after you do the course - and they certainly deliver. I left after the 3rd day feeling euphoric and with the certain knowledge that it was entirely within my power to have and create an amazing life. It's not just positive thinking or great speeches, you are taught skills and a methodology that you can use everyday to make the idea of an amazing life a reality.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Friday, June 09, 2006
Bath shop closure
After 2 years we finally decided that the Bath shop just wasn’t viable. Once I looked at the figures it wasn’t actually a hard decision to make. If anything it was a relief to make the decision because now we can move on and get Bristol and London on track and make them work harder. It’s a funny thing running an almost social enterprise business (but not). We have ‘grand illusions’ about promoting fair trade and organic non food products, and thereby making a real difference, yet the bottom line ‘profit’ is, at the end of the day, what we have to listen to, or rather is what the bank manger makes us listen to.
We will close the door to customers on the 30th of June and hope to have everything out of there as soon as possible afterwards as we will have to pay rates until the unit is empty. Bath council have a lot to answer for – we will only get 3 months rates free then will have to pay 50% of the rates until we assign the lease. Lets all pray that we assign the lease quickly. Fortunately there are not many empty units on the street at the moment so that is in our favour. Also the shop is well decorated so that will help.
It’s funny that originally we anticipated Bath being a better store than Bristol. In theory Bath is an ideal place for a shop like BORN; Green council policies, affluent people, highest percentage of paid off mortgages in the UK, ABC1 profile of customer, but they just weren’t coming through our doors. The regular customers we had were great, there just weren’t enough of them.
After a year the Stoke Newington shop is doing almost as well as Bristol. With some more networking and promotion I’m sure it will overtake it soon!
We will close the door to customers on the 30th of June and hope to have everything out of there as soon as possible afterwards as we will have to pay rates until the unit is empty. Bath council have a lot to answer for – we will only get 3 months rates free then will have to pay 50% of the rates until we assign the lease. Lets all pray that we assign the lease quickly. Fortunately there are not many empty units on the street at the moment so that is in our favour. Also the shop is well decorated so that will help.
It’s funny that originally we anticipated Bath being a better store than Bristol. In theory Bath is an ideal place for a shop like BORN; Green council policies, affluent people, highest percentage of paid off mortgages in the UK, ABC1 profile of customer, but they just weren’t coming through our doors. The regular customers we had were great, there just weren’t enough of them.
After a year the Stoke Newington shop is doing almost as well as Bristol. With some more networking and promotion I’m sure it will overtake it soon!
Bed sharing with your baby
Could write loads on this, but here are some of the main reasons why I do it.
I remember as a child lying chest to chest on my dad and being lulled to sleep by the rhythm of his breathing. I think I must have been about 4 years old. My parents never turned any of us away from their bed, although I think being the youngest I was in there the most! When dad went to Goa for 2 or 3 weeks as he did every other year, I would always sleep with mum and would listen to her heart beat as I fell asleep with her. I was a lot older then, probably almost a teenager, but it never seemed strange to me at all, because for Asian families sleeping with your flesh and blood isn’t strange. It was only when I was expecting Maya that I encountered people who thought it was odd. I said to them, and take no offence please (my husband is English) “you English people think it’s ok to sleep with your cat or dog after it has been running around in God knows what but you think it’s strange to sleep with your baby!!!” I want my children to know in their soul the unconditional love that I would have felt as a baby because in this messed up world where people are spending a lot of time getting their heads sorting out to deal with childhood issues I feel it’s an investment I’m more than willing to make.
I absolutely believe that in its first years of life it is imperative that a baby is physically grounded by a parent otherwise they will search for that grounding for a long time afterwards.
I remember as a child lying chest to chest on my dad and being lulled to sleep by the rhythm of his breathing. I think I must have been about 4 years old. My parents never turned any of us away from their bed, although I think being the youngest I was in there the most! When dad went to Goa for 2 or 3 weeks as he did every other year, I would always sleep with mum and would listen to her heart beat as I fell asleep with her. I was a lot older then, probably almost a teenager, but it never seemed strange to me at all, because for Asian families sleeping with your flesh and blood isn’t strange. It was only when I was expecting Maya that I encountered people who thought it was odd. I said to them, and take no offence please (my husband is English) “you English people think it’s ok to sleep with your cat or dog after it has been running around in God knows what but you think it’s strange to sleep with your baby!!!” I want my children to know in their soul the unconditional love that I would have felt as a baby because in this messed up world where people are spending a lot of time getting their heads sorting out to deal with childhood issues I feel it’s an investment I’m more than willing to make.
I absolutely believe that in its first years of life it is imperative that a baby is physically grounded by a parent otherwise they will search for that grounding for a long time afterwards.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
What inspires me
We all know why it is important to support fair trade manufacturing, stories of slave labour, people being made to work long hours for hardly any pay, I don’t need to tell you what fair trade means. For me it is something that I really appreciated the significance of when my dad told me about his upbringing in Goa, India.
Dad was born in Kenya in 1932, his mother died of Cholera when he was a toddler, after which his father moved the family to Goa, he remarried but died when dad was a young child. From the age of 5 years old, with no one to look after him dad was forced to work looking after cattle from dawn to dusk with no pay and only very basic food and shelter. I only learnt about my dad’s childhood a few years ago when we went to Goa and I realised how little I knew about him so asked him what it was like growing up in India. When I was younger he used to tell us that him and his friends used to go to hear Gandhi talk, he later told me that the reason they would go was not to hear him speak but because they would get fed because Gandhi knew that until people had their basic needs met they would always be oppressed. Dad taught himself to read and write and when he was 19 moved back to Kenya where he lived until coming to the UK in 1971 as a refuge of the Amin government. My dad was fortunate because a kindly aunt helped him out as did other neighbours in Goa. What saddens me is that there are still millions of children who are still living horrid existences, my dad is now 73 years old, in all that time why has so little changed? I hope that in supporting fair trade we are helping to make a difference to those people who other wise would be exploited and ignored.
Dad was born in Kenya in 1932, his mother died of Cholera when he was a toddler, after which his father moved the family to Goa, he remarried but died when dad was a young child. From the age of 5 years old, with no one to look after him dad was forced to work looking after cattle from dawn to dusk with no pay and only very basic food and shelter. I only learnt about my dad’s childhood a few years ago when we went to Goa and I realised how little I knew about him so asked him what it was like growing up in India. When I was younger he used to tell us that him and his friends used to go to hear Gandhi talk, he later told me that the reason they would go was not to hear him speak but because they would get fed because Gandhi knew that until people had their basic needs met they would always be oppressed. Dad taught himself to read and write and when he was 19 moved back to Kenya where he lived until coming to the UK in 1971 as a refuge of the Amin government. My dad was fortunate because a kindly aunt helped him out as did other neighbours in Goa. What saddens me is that there are still millions of children who are still living horrid existences, my dad is now 73 years old, in all that time why has so little changed? I hope that in supporting fair trade we are helping to make a difference to those people who other wise would be exploited and ignored.
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