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5 weeks of fun, laughter, love, mess, hair, rabbit droppings and BARKING!!!

5 weeks of fun, laughter, love, mess, hair, rabbit droppings and BARKING!!!

I knew I was in for a treat when my parents asked me to look after their dog for 5 weeks whilst they went and had fun in Australia!!!

Jessie, a gorgeous Border Collie who has the loudest bark ever!!

We had a fantastic routine where I would get up every morning about 7am, take Jessie for a run through the fields and along the banks of the river in Ely which got me all geared up for a great day in the office.   

I have to say I have never cleaned my house so many times in my life, with all the hair, the muddy paws, but all in all, it was worth it.

Apart from .......The day when Bernadette Doyle, from Client Magnets, was interviewing me about TotalBusinessCart and Marketing Online!!

Just as we were getting into the flow of our interview, the dog decided to bark at somebody outside. She barked and barked and barked and would not stop.  Now, Jessie does not have a quiet gentle bark, she has the loudest bark I have ever heard!!  She was downstairs, I was upstairs and it still sounded like she was actually right next to me barking down the phone!

If you have ever been in this situation, you will realise it is quite difficult to concentrate whilst you 3000 decibells of barking coming up through your floor boards.  I couldn't put the phone on mute because I was doing most of the talking.

Well, I found it pretty impossible and had to pause the interview, run downstairs, give her a serious stare in the eye and a good talking to before I would carry on with the interview.

Can you believe it..... she knew that she had done something wrong, gave me these really sulky eyes and got into her bed.

So I ran back upstairs, apologised for the disturbance and got back into the flow of our interview with not a peak from Jessie for the next hour. Phew!!

Another fun day with Jessie was when.....

Philly the Queen of Truffle Making!!

The other weekend, I ventured down to Bournemouth for the Hen Weekend of one of my dearest University friends.  They had a weekend of fun lined up for all 16 of us, including a drag queen show and chocolate making. 

I was a little concerned that we were going chocolate making, after making every effort to cut the unhealthy foods out of my diet.  I would have much rather gone go karting or to a spa, but the Hen was after some chocolate!! :-)

So in true style off we all ventured on the train down to Sunny Bournemouth where we stayed in a nice hotel close to the long expansive beach. 

On day two.... we were off for the chocolate making...

Roll Up, Roll Up, Manifest Some Money!

Wow, what an evening we had at the Yes Group, our stand was rocking!!  As it was a special night with Bob Proctor speaking about the “Law of Attraction” we decided to do something different this time.  We decided to:

“Manifest Money”

We prepared over 500 envelopes and in some of the envelopes we inserted a £10 note.  We invited people to our stand by giving them the opportunity to “Manifest Money”.  We had a wonderful time.  Party poppers were going off, people were cheering, jumping around for joy, dancing to the music, we were buzzing!

We had a wonderful time……..

Roll up, roll up, come and manifest your money!

Now this is what marketing is all about, doing something different creating a buzz around your product / service…… and this worked a treat!!

Have a think about what you can do different at the next event that you are at, or on your website.  Stand out from the crowd and get noticed!!!

Singing Jingle Bells in Piccadilly Circus!

Philly says:
Can you believe what I was talked into???

Yes that's right!!  At a mere 10.30 in the morning on December 22nd, I sang, with Paul's kids, Jingle Bells in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. 

I sang "JINGLE BELLS" in the middle of Piccadilly Circus!!

Paul conveniently hid behind his camera stating that he would take some pictures of us whilst we were merrily singing Jingle Bells with two gorgeous looking men dressed up in 118 outfits!!

You can see a rendition of our wonderful performance below……

http://paulfuggle.typepad.com/paulfuggle/2007/01/jingle_bells_ji.html

You would be glad to know that it was for charity and we each received a wonderful 118 T-Shirt as a reward for being so brave!  Personally I think I should have received the Crown Jewels for that amount of bravery!!!

TotalBusinessCart Christmas Party

A great time was had by all at the TotalBusinessCart Christmas Party at Henrys Bar in Covent Garden....

The wine was flowing, the food was gorgeous and the company was even better!!

Thanks to everyone for joining us, here are some piccies of our night!  

Plan to Play

Paul says:

When I speak to business owners the thing I am most interested in is why did they go into business in the first place?  What was it that made you decide that you no longer wanted to have a job?

For me, one of the main drivers was that I didn’t want to work for someone else.  I wanted to be my own boss.  But delving a bit deeper, the reason I didn’t want to work for someone else is because I wanted to choose how I spent my time.

So why is it that so many of us choose to spend more time working than playing and end up resenting it?  Why do so many people spend time working themselves to the bone, then glance up when the holidays arrive and say: “I can’t take a holiday, I’m too busy”.

For some people (myself included), work can be fun.  It’s all about how you look at it. 

But no matter how much you love working in or on your business if your fairy godmother appeared to you one day and said:

“Next week you can have your dream holiday, all expenses paid for, with as many friends and family as you want to take……but you have to go next week because after that the dream holiday won’t exist anymore….there will never be another opportunity to live your dream”…

Finland, Finland, Finland

Paul says:

Christmas is that time of year when snow falls, sleigh bells jingle and Father Christmas delivers presents to all the good boys and girls. New Year is a chance to review the old and look forward to the new.

And then there is that odd bit in between. You know, those random three days between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve that really should be public holidays but aren’t.  Tradition dictates that the self employed among us use this time to catch up with all the stuff we prioritised badly during the year….but this year it was time to ditch tradition and do things differently and go on a quest….the quest for The Holy Grail…

So, armed only with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and a band of trusty knights / drinking partners, I mounted my trusty steed (two halves of coconuts) faced the killer rabbit, battled with the black Knight and set forth to Camelot.   

Bouncing, Bums, Business and Bunnies.

Paul says:

If bouncing on a mini-trampoline at 6am every day and having a tube stuck up your backside once a week doesn’t sound like fun, then you won’t be surprised to hear that I didn’t think it did either….but then I tried it.

As I wrote last month, I found out quite a lot about colonic irrigation (and detoxing in general) when I went to the Fresh Festival.  But in the run up to Christmas I just knew it was not the right time for me to even think about a detox.

However, after several years of abusing my body with alcohol, junk food and a general lack of exercise I decided it was about time the physical element of my being caught up with the mental, emotional and spiritual bits.

So on my return from Scotland I began a serious detox (for me anyway).  Now this probably doesn’t sound like much fun either….but bear with me.

Here’s the program I’ve been following since 5th January:

"La Serenissima"

Annie Kaszina TotalBusinessCart.com Customer says:

They don’t call Venice “La Serenissima” for nothing.  It’s beautiful come rain, snow, fog or sun.  It’s also a place that makes you feel serene.  The people are courteous, the place itself is peaceful, safe.  You can walk through it at any hour of the day or night and be at your ease.

It’s not the place for a wild night life!!

When my daughter and I went there over the festive season we enjoyed great sights, great food, great company – naturally – a great amount of walking and fun, albeit restrained fun.

Some of the highlights of our trip were:

• The gondoliers.  A gondola ride costs about 2 euros a minute and is worth every cent.  One cold, sunny winter’s day we turned down a ride with one gondolier because we didn’t like the upholstery of his gondola.  Well, it turns out that our visual acuity isn’t quite what we thought it was. 
  
  We found out later L that this guy won the regatta 4 years running – which makes him a god among Venetians. You see, we stumbled across a book filled with photos of gondoliers.  He’d taken the gondolier’s trademark jacket off – and his own personal upholstery is something to write home about. 

(Left: Nina, Annie's daughter, giving it her best to see if she could be the Goddess of Gondolas!)

• The party of singing nuns, resplendent in their white habits who spent one grey day patrolling the city streets, carolling.  I told my daughter I was going to run away to join their nunnery.  Seemingly, I was quite convincing as she restrained me physically every time our path crossed theirs.

Click the link below to read more about Annie's trip to Venice....

A hammer, some nails and a paint brush....

Philly says......

A hammer, some nails and a paint brush have been my friends this Christmas holiday!

I moved into my lovely new home over Christmas and had great fun doing the DIY to get it all finished before the New Year.  Unfortunately, the painter did some miscalculations on how long the painting would take him and therefore it was not finished by the time I moved in.  In fact the whole house needed another coat of paint, plus all of the woodwork needed doing as well!

My wonderful Mum and Dad came to the rescue........ the three of us were getting covered head to toe in paint for at least 4 days!   

Mum and I frequently had hysterics whilst trying to put together the flat packed furniture and getting the right pieces in the right slots.  Dad was just the World's Best running arond mending all those things that you just don't notice when you first look around the house!!

I have to say a HUGE THANK YOU goes to my parents for helping me out and they are even coming back for their third round next weekend!  You are truly wonderful!!  :-)