Siesta

Opening hours today: 8.30am - 1.30pm and 5pm - 9pm.

On a fabulous sunny day like today I decided that trying a Siesta was a good idea - I wonder if these mediterranean folks have something...so I started work early and then at 1.30pm I lit a very rudementary barbeque of charcol in tin foil, balanced it precariously on a stone wall, and cooked organic free range chicken breast marinated in a lemon, olive oil, garlic, fresh marjoram, rosemary and thyme marinade (which I prepared earlier in my very heavy duty granite pestle and mortar! My favourite kitchen tool:)) I prepared a lemon juice and olive oil dressing for it and the salad and Vanessa boiled some fantastic jersey royals, lightly coated with olive oil and fresh mint. An Italian Pinot Grigio made for a near heavenly experience:)

So now off for a leisurley walk to to the post office taking in the views of the valley and Blagdon lake, and I think a quick nap before focused work time :)

More on siesta's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siesta

How are we playing?

We had emptied my car to make room for hundreds of plants and, in doing so, accidentally removed the Jim Rohn CD's I was listening to and so my university on wheels lost its teacher. Time for reflection instead. However, as we were driving to an Open Gardens event where Vanessa was selling her fabulous plants last Sunday, I heard something profound on Radio 4 (the station it happened to be on - I rarely listen to radio in the car). People were discussing the England performance against Algeria last week.

A sports psychologist wondered if the England team were "playing as if they were afraid to lose".

I suppose if we play as if we're afraid to lose, then are we being too tentative? Too defensive? Afraid to try? Afraid to 'fail'?

For me, this is an interesting plumb line to lay against our activity - can we be more courageous? Should we? Will we?

Do what you have to do as quickly as you can so you can do what you want to do for as long as you can.

Phrase of the century!

On giving a reason why he has no mobile phone or blackberry/smartphone device, I heard him say: "I don't want to spend my day tethered to a wireless feed drip of irrelevant minutia".

Whether we all get rid of our devices or not, and I am not saying what's right or wrong here, he has a point. It seems to me to be a good idea to be disconnected sometimes - and there goes my phone!