Lydia Parle Encore

I'm surviving quite well - I think!

So we're well into the summer holidays. I am surviving by a whisker! It's all down to getting organised and meeting up with friends who have kids too, so that they can all run riot together, ideally in the great outdoors, and you can have an adult linear conversation with other like minded chums, without the inevitable interruptions from those little people. The weather's been okay, which has helped a great deal, and the children haven't minded mooching around at home on the odd day. Cbeebies helps immeasurably too, when they just need to stop and chill. I have managed to bake some cookies, which my resident cook, Simeon, thoroughly enjoyed, and they are going down a treat, which reminds me, I'm off to go and have one!! ...

Two days into the school summer holidays!

Okay so the question is "How do most mothers who aren't employed outside the home & who don't receive a salary for their work cope with the full on six week school summer holiday stint?"

I'm two days in and I have resorted to coming into the study to log on and down load onto typepad so as not to scream my head off at the children. Why do they argue so much and have so much agression and pent up anger inside them? No matter what combination I choose; Naomi & Elliot, Naomi & Simeon, Naomi & Hope, Elliot & Simeon, Elliot & Hope, Simeon & Hope, there will be conflict of varying degrees during the day.

I feel like I'm in a war zone and I'm trying to be a peace envoy (not that I have any actual experience and it's probably nothing like that really so scrub that analogy). I have had to take my own time out, to chill out and re-group my brain.

I suppose that I had better re-enter the fray! It is no small wonder that mothers need to get together, for support, a shoulder to cry on, for decent normal conversation, for the children to have others to play with and learn to co-operate with, for companionship, for friendship and understanding. So later I am hoping to head to the park and get together for a picnic with some other school mums. Please Lord keep the rain away long enough, because otherwise I know that I'll cry.

Summer Holidays Motherhood Conflict Friendship Children

"Bouncy castles rock!!"... "Well they bounce actually!"

It arrived on the dot from Air Raising Fun, I have never heard the kids scream so much when someone came to the door!!! Whoaaaahhh!! Within twenty minutes it was up and ready to bounce on in the back garden.

The kids were SO excited it's actually quite difficult to put it into the english language... The castle was called the Fun House, and it lived up to it's name!

May I say that for a boys Birthday Party, if you have a big enough back garden and you actually WANT to host the party at your home rather than at a local kiddy friendly venue, then a bouncy castle, loads of food, plenty of soft drinks (and the odd bottle of wine for the mums and dads that stay) and maybe the odd football to kick around is a complete winner!! Just do it, the £75 was well spent on the castle, and the kids carried on bouncing even though the heavens opened, thanks to the rain cover, and the fact that they didn't mind getting soaked anyway.

The castle was picked up later that evening, soaked from the rain, but well bounced on... All the children fell asleep like a light switch being turned off, and a great day was had by all. So it only remains for me to say Happy Birthday to Simeon who was 4 and Elliot for your 5 & 1/2 (Christmas is never a good time to arrange a child's birthday party...) HAPPY BIRTHDAY my fab boys! Mummy x

Air Raising Fun Bouncy Castles Birthday Party

Baking Cakes...

Mummy "when are we going to make the cake?" said Simeon (who's having a 4th Birthday today). Yep!! That's my aim this morning amidst the monsoon rain showers, piles of laundry and trying to get a two day old kitten to latch on and drink from a slightly "blond" new mother cat (she says, being a blond herself now, "hides the white you know", and I know I need to update my portrait!!). I'm gonna be baking as all "full time" mum's should, she says tongue in cheek. I'll let you know how successful it is...

Motherhood Cakes Birthdays

Posting every 4 months that's ridiculous!@*&%£#!!

Having just looked at how often I have been posting, the time between postings is somewhat ridiculous, "that's three a year!&#@?!"

Come on girl you can do better than that! Well here I am again on a very emotional day of the year, giving you posting number two of the day.

What are my readers going to think? Is she taking a banned substance? No, definitely not, the children are all in the kitchen (or so I'm led to believe by the lack of noise) finishing off spag bog for dinner - even as I type Naomi has come in and said "I don't know where Elliot is!"

I can hear padding feet upstairs (Elliot) and Simeon's voice gently saying "let's go to the playroom". So I had better curtail my ramblings, Naomi is now heard in the background saying "leave the cat ALONE!!" The remaining kitten is being given far to much attention by Simeon, who is 4 tomorrow by the by, and I should go and rescue suckling kitten and smitten mother cat pronto... byee!

Children Kittens Motherhood

Sadness for the children & me...

One of our two family cats, "Spaghetti" had kittens yesterday, only a pair, and one died before we could do anything. Naturally there we many tears, mostly from me and Naomi.

Holding a perfectly formed little kitten, which hadn't had even a moment to breathe was very sad. It is a sobering reminder that all of us are mortal, and that as much as we package death away in this present culture & society it doesn't actually stop death occurring.

It wasn't the way that I had hoped it would pan out. When I was little, at the age of six my cat "Marmite" (bizarrely another food name) had kittens on my lap, her waters broke as I was plotted up watching Playschool or something, and before we could get her off my lap and into her basket, one little kitten had popped out. Her kittens survived and were duly sent off to "good homes", which was the only sadness involved.

So I had hoped that our little clan of children would see the delight of a clutch of kittens all feeding and nuzzling at the same time. It was not to be. The lessons that they are learning however are huge. Elliot, as I was still sobbing & holding this little dead kitten, came out with "I wish there wasn't any death, or growing old, and I wish that we all lived forever". Well that was a great start to a discussion that we then ended up having about God, heaven, Jesus, death and eternal life...

Kittens Death Life

Bath Blogging

I think this may become a regular posting. So here I am! Bubbles & water all around, ridiculous extractor fan whurring in the background spoiling the ambience, even more ridiculously it's fitted in a pain of glass that could have been an opening window... Duhuh! Great piece of design there! Must get off my architectural high horse! "Anyway, she says trying to ignore the whurring, "Why such a long silence since November 2006 you may ask?"

Well...

Gynaecological op - Post operative infection - Christmas - Increased workload / expanding business - Oh... Yes 2 signets, 2 ducklings now 7, 5, 3 & 1 - The school run by bike with cool bike trailer - More workload - Cross country skiing for a week with cool bike trailer turning into ski trailer aka Shakleton & North West Passage Expedition - Business metamorphosis / expansion... - Dutiful hubby away for nearly a month combined total (not that I'm counting the weeks, days, hours, minutes & seconds, and I am due a few days at Champneys for that!!) - & a general feeling of "what am I doing here?"

So...

Indigo Red office... stage exit left Lydia!!

Yes it was a bit of a shock to us too, but we feel really good about this decision. Most people do this the other way around, but I'm not most people. So I am becoming a mother at home full time, after having launched a business with my husband and brought it to this point during the last five years (whilst having had four little ones and all that entails along the way) Hooray!

I think there comes a point where work / life balance is so far out of kilter that a major shift needs to take place. May 2007 is that point in time where a crow bar will do it's work and shift all things to a better position.

Indigo Red is thriving as a Retained Executive Search operation and we have very recently added Leadership Training to the portfolio. We want to train and equip companies to seize their finest resource (their staff) and recognise the adjustments that need to be made for their staff to function at optimum capacity.

I have been a guinea pig within Indigo Red for just this, and we feel that a "sabatical" whilst our children are so young is necessary for the benefit of our children & home life, and consequently my future within Indigo Red. Now don't all rush off to your bosses and ask for a sabatical... You must remember I'm married to one of the Directors & I'm the other one! Decision making's either very easy or excruciatingly painful...

I've just pulled the plug, in the bath that is, so more to follow in proceeding posts I am sure...

Indigo Red ROi Leadership Training Champneys Chariot Cougar 2 Work Life Balance Business Sabatical

Virtually a $1M? No, a real $1M!!

Any thoughts on how to make a $1M in a virtual world?" Well, a clever lady by the name of Ailin Graef sure got her skates on and got organised! She has become the first Second Life $ millionaire, amassing $300M Linden, the equivalent of a little over $1M... yes, real dollars!

Surprise, surprise it's all in 'property'. Constructed by a team of Chinese programmers, her properties have sold like hot cakes, and she's a virtual property tycoon!

Being trained as an Architect this narks me somewhat, thoughts running through my head like "why didn't I know about SL sooner?", "why didn't I see this market and do this myself?", then I start thinking, "there's still plenty of land and an ever growing population, how about it, everyone will eventually want a place of their own?!"

Are there going to be virtual 'Richard Rogers' creations, or Norman Foster 'Gherkins' in SL?

I tell you who should be in SL if she isn't already and that's Zaha Hadid, she has been designing computer generated complexities for decades, and won many an accolade for them. If anyone spots a Hadid creation in SL do let me know, please!

Anyone, therefore, denying that there's a market out there to be had in SL needs to re-examine there presumptions, don't judge the new so easily and toss it aside as a 'gamers fad'.

In this instance, you could be throwing out an aweful lot of $Linden with the bath water!

As a footnote, well done to the Lewis PR team for getting the story in yesterdays Metro, they cover Global PR for SL, and are obviously enjoying doing a good job for their client! Do you get real money for that or virtual?

Ailin Graef Second Life Richard Rogers Norman Foster Zaha Hadid Lewis PR Metro

YouTube vs The Old Tube

The demise of the television? BBC online yesterday's front page headlines included; Web Video - Eroding TV viewing

Ricky Gervais makes some good comments and the article mentions the first award ceremony for web-only video "The Vloggies" held in San Fransisco this November. The winners were...

Also check out 'The first stars of Web TV' and 'What to watch on the web' which talks about video-sharing sites, TV shows, web-only comedy, video blogs, and news... 'How we will watch TV in 10 years?' is also worth a glance.

Obviously the stately TV is not going to be phased out next year, let's face it look how long it's taken for the box to 'go' digital, but it does have a valid and ever strengthening rival. It's just another part of the ever shifting media landscape, that unless embraced, will overtake you, and leave you behind, and who wants to be left behind? Not me!!

BBC YouTube Ricky Gervais Vloggies Alive in Baghdad Media Blogging

Loss of Control, Fear & Transparency... 'What are the Student Generation Talking About?'

I am having some interesting chats of late, via email, with a student at Westminster Uni, a contact through Richard Burton, ex-Editor of the Telegraph.

The conversation has revolved around PR pro's usage of the internet to their advantage. Whether they need to adapt their role to be more about information and, dare I say it, raw transparency rather than about traditional spin? So I have my own thoughts...

There is a distinct loss of control of PR (check out some of the PR Links on my site and you'll find plenty of conversation on the topic) through social media, self publication etc; YouTube, MySpace, Blogging, Second Life etc. Stories run 'out of control' through viral transmission...

How is that affecting the traditional role of PR?

I am sure that there are plenty of agencies & In-House PR teams that are set in traditional ways of operating, not to mention the individual PR pro's in a similar position.

There is a driving force of fear, fear of potential dillution of traditional PR practice, and what that means for the individual PR's role within the media mix, and what this ultimately means for job security. Something that Indigo Red (of whom I am a Director) as a company is keenly aware of.

I feel that, for PR as a profession to ride the wave and really address these changes in communication, PR has to be more fluid, within the context of the internet, self publication & social media. Inflexibility will not help, transparency is a key.

On matters of transparency;

Check out Borkowski PR - they did a YouTube video of their office move, very cool, I personally really liked both it, and how they'd used YouTube as a medium of communication. However there rages some controversy over how they got their viewer rankings so high, 20,000 odd viewings to date. Hats off to them for using YouTube but was their transparency a little clouded?

Second Life is coming to the forefront as a place to do business; Reuters, Dell, and other large corporates are investing real dollars, not just virtual money in this marketplace. I am sure you've heard of Text100, check this out for addressing the need to operate where the markets / conversations are, it's their Second Life presence. They were aiming to win a slice of SL action, and produced this as a pitch for covering SL's Global PR.

Enjoy and be challenged, to action!

Richard Burton YouTube MySpace Second Life Transparency PR Public Relations Borkowski PR Text 100 Reuters Dell