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North View

21 Aug 2018

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(Risk) Aversion Therapy

You swapped supplier negotiations, cash-flow headaches and being squeezed by larger organisations for a salary, pension, and the chance to help people directly. Not a bad trade.”

From baby seats to broken minds - what a grandfather’s view reveals about the ever-changing world When, some 18 months ago, I became a grandfather, nothing immediately changed that much. Other than the thrill of new life and the relief that all the parties involved...

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All The Young Dudes Carry The Muse

this current 4-month gap (that is happily now over) has not been the first time I’ve had a break from casting words into the ether, and the only reason I’ve maintained a respectable total is that there have been several periods in which I’ve written one or more blogs per week.

WFH, xG and introducing xEMx ©

despite having doubts about these metrics, I’m unashamedly jumping on the bandwagon and taking this opportunity to introduce my own workplace metric, Expected Emotional Exchange© or xEMx ©

Public Service & The Downward Domino Effect

I prove the point by listing my current ailments, such as backache, creaking knees, and fears of a feeble memory.

Children of the Evolution

it was an opportunity to do Christmas shopping, take in some frightful West End musicals, and commit acts of heavy-duty socialising that would be filed under the predictable heading; ‘what happens in London, stays in London.

White Coat Syndrome (turn to God)

Before I read this official version I thought this syndrome was purely psychological. You know the scene, where the doctor lowers their half-moon reading specs further down their nose, looks you in the eye and gives the verdict. Heart-in-mouth, butterflies in the stomach and all that.

Turn To The Write

I work for a government department in what we can broadly call recruitment and one of my key tasks is to help people find paid employment. When I first meet a client I try in the first instance, to ascertain what they’d like to do and then what they can do. Last...

Fresh Faced Imbeciles Laughing at Me

I guffawed so loudly that he paused, looked towards me and acknowledged my laugh with ‘You see”! I was so proud to have been noticed and included in his banter.

The Cape of High Sensitivity

job is helping people find new careers and supporting them prepare for a new work role. It’s about managing change and shifting self-perception e.g. today I was persuading a former highly-paid investment banker that their present situation means they need to start again, perhaps as a bookkeeper or an administrator.

The World Cup Who Fell To Earth (is Joe Lycett a bully?)

If he was entirely fair in picking on David Beckham. His reasoning is that Beckham has benefited financially and image-wise as a gay icon, he even wore a dress once, and according to Lycett, ought to have condemned both FIFA and Qatar.

Not My World Cup

global darlings Brazil, conceded seven goals to the eventual victors Germany. Everything else has been wisely forgotten

Chaos Theory

‘A disparate mass of self-seeking failures from other industries who are more interested in shafting each other than anything else. They are no better than spivs that exploit war’.

For My Words Only

I am frequently scolded by family and work colleagues for not responding to messages. Although I know I should treat work chats more seriously, some are requests by managers,

2022 Facta non-Verba (Action not Words)

He was driven to build the perfect woman because the ones put on Earth by the gods were not good enough for him.

Turning a new leaf

Ninety metres along the path led I spotted a Silver Birch whose white petals were quivering in their own micro-breeze.

The final (part 1)

I have always supported Italy in this kind of play-off but yet am not really sure why

Forty Years a Twelfth Spy

Pre-Birth Forty years ago this month, I began working in what is still my current job. Thirteen years into this job, I strained at the leash and trained to become a teacher. I did not, however, change my occupation. Similar diversions enticed me in 2001, 2005, 2007,...

Prince Harry and me; closer than you think.

The Prince, however, has, as far as my research has shown, given himself a really good chance of delivering on his promise.

One Hundred

My attention span and train-of-thought have definitely reduced during the pandemic, I believe the major reason for this is that I have had fewer one to one conversations with people outside my bubble

Get a Grip

the shock that hits first. Even as I was in mid-air and about to land, I knew I had stepped on ice and was upset that it was lurking within the mud and not on the path that was fast coming up to greet my shoulder

Blue in the Perfect Tense

Klein’s blue is a synthetic version of Ultramarine which since the Renaissance has been considered the ultimate version of the colour. It is said to have almost ethereal properties

The 80:20 rule of sanity

, the markings on the 2021 road map remain faintly drawn and the stop-offs and points of interest fail to jump out with conviction. The motivation for moving forwards is stunted which allows stomach stress to rocket up the spine and smack into the back of the mind.

Glass Skull is Born to Boogie

Mortality haunts human life. It swirls around and imbues us all. We instinctively know the visual language of the grim reaper’s skeletal frame in that dark hooded cape and Jolly Roger’s grinning pirate flag telling onlookers; ‘this is what we’ll do with you’.

The surface is one thing. But down under is another.

This same vile attitude was expressed by Europeans while physically staking land claims across North America while erasing any moral issues by convincing themselves that the native tribes were itinerant wanderers without desire or need to settle.

We are stardust, we are golden

We edge or way out of lockdown, begin our hitherto normal activities and our de facto abuse of the planet starts again. The return to normality is epitomised by ugly sounds and visions of freight clattering its hot smoky routes across the world and people yearn to press carbonic footprints in their pursuit of leisure.

COMMENT : NO COMMENT

In the wake of the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis, another friend posted their thoughts. As this person has many Facebook groupies I usually desist from commenting because, probably out of jealousy of their popularity, I prefer being on the fringe rather than among their gaggle of toadies.

Teaching IS doing.

I still believe that the press often embellishes and whips up public fervour just to sell their wares and some commercial TV companies unashamedly do this to protect their advertising income.

Failing Freedom of Outer Space= Losing the Plot on Planet Earth.

I’m strapped in this very confined metaphor, struggling to make it work and outside it is just this corner-less plate of zeros. Except, as I said, the stick-on stars but, and I don’t say this lightly, they’re nobody’s friend. Certainly neither yours nor mine.

I’m in love with my car but prefer wearing lycra.

social distancing in parklands is a good model for how we ought to manage ourselves when driving our cars

I want to be alone (by two metres)

We were trading body and eye language ; ‘I’ll go left, so you too go left’, and it worked except for one person

Expression of Freedom

they want to steal my ideas and publish them under another name. I’d been here before and although the alarm bells weren’t peeling in total panic, they did tinkle like a pillow muffled alarm clock.

Rivoli (Part 2): The Castle, a surprise gift and the end of 2001 Space Odyssey.

The self-induced pressure lifted as soon as the hotel receptionist told me that Rivoli’s Castle was just beyond where I had already walked last night. All I had to do was return to the town centre and walk up the old cobbled street. The August morning sun was...

Thomas has Cooked his goose

they could ‘finish Cooks off’ whenever they wanted. Some three years later and after another massive bail out, the same person told me they no longer needed to wield the sword of Damocles because Cooks were still on the same suicidal path and the new money was not going towards changing their business,

Rivoli Part 1: Cobbles, balconies and Aperol Spritz.

This property was fine. The receptionist knew my name before I told him who I was. This impressed me because it showed he had invested time in looking at the arrivals list.

Seasons of Summary

It’s a case of heads down over the laptop, writing out index cards, slurp a warm drink, procrastinate a little, sip a little more, realign the pencils and hunch again back over the laptop.

YOU MAKE AN OLD MAN VERY HAPPY

This is code for saying that I kicked opponents and demonstrated toughness and gamesmanship. My colleagues liked it and to be honest, I enjoyed their plaudits.

Me, me, me.

I went backstage after the performance I was shocked at how small my friend’s dressing corner was in comparison to the established star’s room. We went to the actors’ bar

Duck Billed Platitudes

ver the last year I have faced several challenges in business but have come through them. My colleagues and I have achieved this by being dogged, persistent, flexible and above all, client centred. We have also reminded ourselves that rules are there to be adhered to only as far as the letter is concerned and that their spirit is not so important

Evaluation across the Nation (thin end of a fat wedge)

I am an exam marker. A question I am currently marking asks students to describe how a department store’s customer service standards should be set to ensure that they are maintained. The learners are meant to answer that the standards have to be measureable so that...

Run to and run from but don’t run there.

I was in a conversation with a friend who told me that he has taken to thinking about blue skies. This is not a re-hash of noughties’ blue sky thinking or any other management school hyperbole but is something literal

I can remember standing by the wall

The sheer old age of the massive painted wall struck me much more than the work itself.

Shift of a glance (Eagle’s view)

The night time, heralded by the quick sinking of the sun behind the western ranges brings a sharp coolness that dovetails into cold at which point the moths break out and flap towards the lights when the stillness of the evening gets too complacent.
Looking to the south one can see the continuing summer of Italy

The loneliness of the long distance training deliverer (and other stories)

I was not engaging with them and this was my fault. I can usually break through barriers but sometimes the frustration gets a grip and once my mood drops it’s hard to ‘keep the dressing room’.

{im}perfect is as good as it gets

I was picked up in a seedy bar by a dominatrix called Madame Stoicism. In no time at all she signed me up and ever since then I’ve been an almost committed

Reflect inside and laugh aloud

the treasure finder’s feeling of triumph of discovery. Somewhat like the detectorist that pulls up a Roman coin, much of the pleasure lies in the secrecy of the find. There’s the feeling of picking up a personal message from the past. Like looking up at a blinking star and knowing that its explosion came and went many thousands of years ago and, as the viewer, I’m experiencing a message from a private history.

Peace of Mindfulness Part 1

The good news is that because I kind of knew this would occur my regret is dampened and my anxiety is with the aid of a few legal chemicals, maintained at a low level.

Snakes & Ladders in the medical sense

She told me ‘we’re a surgery, medical tests is what we do’. This was not delivered in a rude or sarcastic way but I felt like all the doctor was doing was sending me for tests rather than coming up with a fix.

“Take my good side”

Many of us have written diaries. It’s not a new thing and if the plethora of available January-December diary/notebooks is anything to go by, is something that still has a market. Entries in your daily diary are very different from what you might put on a Facebook timeline because they are not private.

Six Nil: Under control and not so bad.

Women were a deep mystery to me as I grew up. I either avoided them or over-killed (myself) with them.

Walk This Way. Life lessons from Walking Football

Arriving at Barnet’s Hive to play Walking Football (WF), I felt that same trepidation and excitement as when I first played. I hadn’t kicked a ball in eight years and I later learned that others hadn’t done so in decades. As I looked around at this sample of...

From Hare to Tortoise Eternity

Three months ago I made my debut as a walking footballer. Gis and I (we are both 58, he needs reminding, I never do), arrived at The Hive at 6.55 pm on a typically cold February evening and along with a ‘real football’ coach and four or so other people we warmed up...

Lessons from Leicester

This week the biggest English football competition was won by Leicester City. This was highly unexpected…

The changing shape of the promised land.

I wasn’t going to write about football again. I was going to move on, widen my audience and write about Health & Safety. But then the last week happened and I’m obliged to peep again over the lip of the soccer worms' tin and give those squirmers another airing....

Back in the Saddle again

Having taken a half season plus break from the world of blog I find myself lurching back to my old berth on the nag. And what’s brought me back? Racism. I had always planned to return, but with a new range of subjects I have been working on that are still in...

A pre-echo. The sun sets, the game rises

Tonight it all begins. But before carnival joy morphs into the nervous need to win let's look at some salient thoughts from a couple of years ago. http://www.football-italia.net/20264/english-job I am, like many of our regular readers on this website, an Italian who...

Football; The sport of Apollo. It’s a messenger that speeds up when the journey’s end is near

As The Football World Cup is damned on the front pages for financial corruption and sexual exploitation and lauded on the back pages in anticipation of the forthcoming on-the-pitch carnival, it can still offer valid parallels for life and work. As a coach who extols...

A man’s game or the people’s sport? At last football has a female manager and we can all progress.

When I began this most recent incarnation of my FOOTBALL=LIFE, LIFE= FOOTBALL blog last autumn, I told my publisher that my plan was to include all kinds of soccer news. I wasn’t going to just focus on the top leagues and international teams, I wanted to demonstrate...

Beginnings of Ends, Ends of Beginnings, Tortoises, Hares and all that…

It’s not just a matter of timing, it’s about knowing where to start the timing from too. Some years ago I had the privilege of meeting the athlete Roger Black. He had given a talk about his career and after the talk, I grabbed him and asked a few questions about...

Keep Your Friends Close. Your Enemies Closer Still

When I tell people I both write and give talks on football from a non-football point of view they ask me to explain what I mean... I explain that as a simple, basic pastime, it has so many parallels, so much emotional depth and such a wide ‘contact list’ that it...

The Foundations of Football Identity lie Deeper than Those Of The Stadia

The current name change argument at Hull City is more than just a name. But why such a big deal? Fewer than four years ago Assem Allam a Hull resident and Higher Education educated business tycoon bought the controlling stake in Hull City football club. Since...

The Field of Gove Dreams – an un-level playing surface.

Michael Gove MP minister for Education, has just finished another big day. He appears to have been speaking since yesterday (Sunday morning February 2nd) and a bit like David Bowie’s re-launch a year ago, he seems to have this incredible self-awareness and knowledge...

To be a gay footballer or not, that really is not the issue in question.

However, in the context of football equals life, life equals football, it throws up some important issues about society. The context of this item has little directly to do with Thomas Hitzlsperger , but I use his story to make the point that football (like...

The positive powers of football vs. the darker side within

Football can help disadvantaged young people in the UK (and beyond) but it can also prove to be a let-down to those it tantalises. Today’s timely press release from The Prince’s Trust spread the word about how so many young people are feeling depressed, without...

The Language of Football| Blog 2012

This is a partially edited compendium of the blogs I wrote during the 2012 Euro Championship. Euro 2012 Coming Soon Continuing the theme of blogging during big international football competitions, Euro 2012 is days away. The build-up (sounds like scum around a bath...

The Language of Football| Blog 2010

This is a partially edited compendium of the blogs I wrote during the 2010 World Cup. No smoke without fire, no sting without bee Momentum begins to gather as football coaches name their final FIFA World Cup Squads. I, however, am not here to discuss that just yet...

The Glass Ceiling Stadium

As regular readers will know, one of my agendas in this blog is to use football as a channel for discussing seemingly unrelated but nonetheless important subjects. I’ve been minded for some time to discuss and give air to women’s football (and indeed I’ll do this...

You’re up but You’re Down

Depression. It's everywhere. Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian daily sports paper recently carried an article (and it's adequately translated into English here) discussing how 58 per cent of top level footballers suffer from depression. Considering people can be...

Creating a club culture for the England Team

Now England has qualified for Brazil 2014, common wisdom suggests we need to build a greater sense of cohesion. Should we bring people’s differences out into the open or conversely do we focus on the things we have in common? These last few weeks have seen some...

“Allow me to beat myself up -it’ll save you the trouble”. 8th October 2013

It seems that the ongoing arguments about whether Spurs fans can/should call themselves the ‘Y ‘word will continue unresolved for the time being. My intention here is to keep as objective as possible and add some new thoughts. For a well written and brief outline, I...

Old Romantic coaching 2nd October 2013

In September 1976 I left Britain for the start of my gap year. The plan was to spend a few months working in an hotel in Zurich, do some globe trotting and return to the UK the following autumn to begin a degree in economics and business. The experience was somewhat...

Window Shut, Bullying Over 2nd Sep 2013

It seems that the football transfer window, which shut twenty three hours ago is just an excuse for the bullies to flex their muscle. It’s a time when terms like ’Selling Club’ are applied to perceived weaklings and ‘Buying Club’ applied to the bullies ‘I like your...

False Starts?

The 2013-2014 Season in the English Premiership is all but nine days old and the other Euro leagues somewhat younger. The oddest thing is that very few of the participants actually know who their teams even are. This is all because the so-called ‘transfer window’ is...

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