Posts Tagged Sunday Column

Sunday Column (54)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 07/03/2010

This week was nothing but SICK. I went to work on Monday, went to a (honestly) small birthday party on Monday night and was home and in bed by 11 pm. From Tuesday I was off work for two days with a stomach bug. Thursday and Friday I forced myself to work, as my boss has been in the UK. It was worth it but I needed this weekend to recover and trying to get back to normal.

I have been sick for three weeks, and it really annoys me. I know there is little I can do but I really get sick of it! And, it is not one illness. Starting with a virus, then a cold, now a stomach bug.

Colin: he is continue to strive. I love his cute little actions and interactions. It is so hard to describe. He is so curious about anything and everything. He cuddles you one minute, then cries because he cannot play with your Blackberry cover, and then he grabs Jen’s glasses. If I put on her glasses, then he almost doesn’t recognize me. His age is fantastic. You can play around with him and teach him so many things.

The picture above is such a typical one of him. I believe it is hard to describe, but anyone who has children knows what they are like. I think that I still have to find the right work-Colin balance, as most days my days go way beyond 6 pm, so that I don’t really see Colin at all during the week. Whilst I am trying to make an effort to come home earlier two days a week, this might look less likely in the future. We shall see.

That is about all I can speak about this week, unless you want me to go on about sickness and work. No, not a pleasant week, but next week can only get better :-)

Have a great week and stay healthy. Look after yourself.
Volker

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Sunday Column (53)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 28/02/2010

Another week being ill. It was a struggle this week as my cold (man-flu) seemed to get worse rather than better. Of course I survived but had some very tough days. Also seemed to have another stomach bug over the weekend, nothing serious but just not feeling right. Will that EVER stop :-(

I stop moaning now, but cannot help it, can I? I haven’t been to they gym at all but was surprised to only have 100 kg on the scales. Maybe not eating all these greasy meat really made me loose some weight? Hopefully I can be back to the gym sometime next week.

Work wise this week flew past. Although a few meetings got postponed, we made huge progress and I am very pleased with it. Fingers crossed, I really enjoy it.

There is not much else to report from the week. I didn’t do much else outside work. However, Volvo Doves Croydon, our car dealer where we bought the car, pissed me off by not offering me the warranty they said they would. I escalated things and now got a 12 months warranty as promised. Still to hear about my promised 12 months RAC membership :-) I decided to wait until Monday lunchtime for them to call me back. However, I will have a nice blog post ready by then, and of course will make sure their parent company and Volvo will get a copy. I don’t like to be lied to. And, I expect better customer standard than that from an authorized dealer. Maybe my expectations are just too high.

Maybe some words about my wee man: Colin. He has been loosing weight, or really, he has been growing a lot. He is robbing around on the floor, still backwards. He is so much fun to play with, to look at or just to watch. He manages to move from one end of the room to another without any trouble but still needs to figure out how to crawl forward. He got stuck under the table today. The only drawbacks at the moment is him trying to wiggle himself out of getting dressed, changed and washed. He can be a real pain – but a lovely one of course. We really adore our wee man!

Then it was Jen’s birthday this weekend. We managed to get a friend to babysit so that we went to our most favourite Thai place in Beckenham. Jen also went for a head massage and pedicure and got a surprise present. I am getting better at this whole birthday things, I think anyway :-) We had a really good weekend, and enjoyed time together, although she didn’t feel too good either.

Off to another week. It is raining a lot and with the earthquakes and all you sometimes wonder about global warming. Or we don’t really, do we?

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Sunday Column (52)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 21/02/2010

Now, this is the year’s anniversary of my Sunday Column. Times have changed in my blog and currently I only manage this weekly post to keep you up to date with what I am doing, nor not doing.

Like this week, I was ill. Saturday night’s food poisoning turned out to be a virus infection I didn’t get rid of until Thursday. So no gym! And, once it was gone, I got a cold or man-flu. So I am glad the week went quickly.

The days I went to work were fully packed with good and exciting meetings, SES London where our CEO spoke about mexad’s view on search and display media, and a full day home office packed with many calls. I think I almost managed to catch up on most things on Friday – so I finished the week on a high.

There wasn’t much private life this week. We got (or I got) more accessories for the car, like a car boot liner, floor mats, paint, leather cleaner, a cloth and an air freshener. Not overly exciting but I am. I have to say that for the first time ever, I really like the car we are driving.

Saturday I had a fantastic massage. The first in over 2 months as I had been too busy the last few weekends. So that was good, just to lay down, relax and not worry about anything. I think it helped my cold too.

A year of Sunday Columns makes you reflect a bit. 2009 was a very bumpy year and whilst I had lots of time to write on my blog, I now have less time and another focus on life in general. Colin wasn’t here last year either.

He is now over 8 months and explores new things every day. I hope to have some time to write yet another review of being a dad. It is fantastic to see him grow, minute by minute almost! He is so curious, interested and likes the engagement with his parents, a whole lot of fun being around him.

The weekend passed quickly with a new business opportunity, a nice French wine from the Lirac region, a trip to Faversham, an average fuel consumption of approximately 16 l/100 km (18 mpg) for the last tank, a wife that loved parking the car and we also visited an old neighbour. Guess that is enough for a weekend.

We now have some clearing up to do, some food to eat, more wine to drink and…you know, the usual :-)

Have a good week.

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Sunday Column (50)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on 07/02/2010

Ok folks, first things first. The big question this week was whether, and if so, which car to get. And the winner is:

I feel like I am getting all family. Married, house, child, now a VOLVO :-) Neither my dad nor me, and he is the biggest Volvo fan in the world, would have ever thought I ever drove one. But here we go, family does change you….for the better of course.

What else happened this week (as if the above wasn’t enough)?

Monday I went back to the gym. I continued to do that every day, but Wednesday I was too knackered from the day before, and Friday my knee hurt too much. I overdid it on the cycling machine ;-( I know, laugh at me, but any circular movement to my knee seems to hurt the ligaments. I need to check with my physio massage therapist next week.

Tuesday and Wednesday just passed by. I didn’t do much this week after work, just had good meetings, one of which lasted 10 minutes, and I believe that we are making progress. Slower than expected but quicker than anticipated – if that makes any sense.

Thursday I started the day with a fab meeting and ended the day with drinks and networking. However, although (and I promise) I only had 3 pints, two ales and one stout, I felt like I had about 10 lager the next day. You know that I cannot drink lager to some intolerance, and I thought it might be down to whether the beer was over or under fermented. Stout, Ale and dark beers should be ok, but maybe the one beer I had, a very dark one, was a “Schwarzbier” and not a Stout. Never mind, I don’t in particular like beer anyway.

Friday we finished the day with some nice finger food (and it still smells of home made garlic mayonnaise) where we shared a nice bottle of Californian Zinfandel I bought in Harrods a few years back. Money well spend on this one ;-) I don’t believe how much of a connoisseur I have become on one hand, then still going on about intolerance to beer on the other. Guess life is for sharing ;-)

Last but not least I bought an audio book of the book I read a few years back: “Eckhart Tolle, The power of now” – I will write an exclusive post on that but thought I mention that this book is both fascinating and helpful. Sometime I do worry what we are all worrying about….

Enough said, have a great week ahead, mine looks fairly busy!

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Sunday Column (41)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 06/12/2009

This week was rather interesting, not to say quite busy.

As you might know by now I have left my job after only 6 months. In summary: it just didn’t work out. However, onwards and upwards. I have been in touch with a few companies over the last few weeks and continue to do so. So far we have not had to cancel Christmas, and I really enjoy the time with my boy!

On Tuesday afternoon I went to see an osteopath for my back and she cracked it well. I felt better afterwards but my muscles that are mainly used to lift heavy things, e.g. Colin, are still very weak and hurt. It also doesn’t help to sit on a too low desk I suppose. However, I go back next week to get more mobility into my back. And, they recommended me to do some exercise….I know :-( Although, a neighbour got me to go to the gym on Saturday, and I did do some exercise, went off to the Sauna and steam room too :-)

Wednesday was busy. I had an unexpected meeting with a good friend in the morning which resulted in possibly another job opportunity. Afterwards I met a friend for a late breakfast, another friend over lunch, having a frutti di mare pizza. Trying to abstain from meat until Friday for my weekly kebab ;-) In the afternoon I found time to catch up with a good friend before heading to a Tweet-Up.

I met two guys I met on Twitter, hence Tweet-Up, who are very much into Social Media. We met in the Albannach and tested a few whiskys that night, later being joined by another good friend. So overall that day has been very sociable, online and offline. Unfortunately one meeting had to be canceled which I hope to reschedule for next week.

I spent most of Thursday to catch up on emails and sorting out some potential part time work to tie me over to January. In theory I could start working in telemarketing for a friend in Germany as of today, but I don’t really have an office space yet. So that decision has to be made depending on a few things next week.

It is great to have a reliable network and friends who can offer and do offer you jobs. Because they know, how reliable, hard working and honest I am. So it is good to have friends and to help each other out sometimes.

What else happened this week. Whilst speaking to so many people, the nice things that I heard was a mortgage approval for friends who were seeking to buy for a while. Congratulations again, we will be neighbours soon! Then, another friend’s wife is feeling much better and might be home for Christmas, which I hope for him and his family. Fingers crossed and good luck.

We got a couple of early Christmas cards too and I realise again how strong our network of friends is. Particularly around Christmas and in these hard times. But, it is all good and we enjoy the company with our friends, and as hard as the times might seem, there are still people out there that are much worse off that us. We should not forget about them!

On Sunday we had an excellent breakfast with our friends and Colin’s god-father. “Il Coskino” and his wife were over for a cooked breakfast where I had some bacon, and a sausage. But that should be all for the meat for a while. Back to veggies and fish.

Have a fantastic week, not long to Christmas now!

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Sunday Column (40)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, cb consulting, coaching, personal on 29/11/2009

Yes, this week was quieter than expected. However, this has been my happiest week for a long time. Really since February if you exclude my two weeks paternity leave this summer.

Monday kicked off with lots of meetings. Caught up with good friends and interesting partners which hopefully leads to more business soon. The same really happened on Wednesday, another busy day. Also had to go to the dentist which resulted in us buying a new toothbrush, an electric one: Oral B Professional Care 3000. Not only do we get the “dentist feeling”, which I am not sure about whether that is a good or bad thing, but we also get a polishing function. Wednesday ended with a networking event on Search Marketing organised by the great guys from NMA. Thanks again for a great night.

Thursday I finished my Tai Chi form. Finally :-) I only started Tai Chi in Beckenham this February. But, given the size of Bromley, we are not really many in our class. The Greenwich Tai Chi group allegedly is much bigger. Anyway, we finished the Hine Tai Chi long form in less than a year. Now it will take probably another 10 years to perfect it……

Friday I set up a PPC (pay per click) campaign for cb consulting. As you know, besides my main job, I am offering coaching and consulting services, mainly focusing on inbound marketing for start ups in London. But also, I am focusing on youth and career coaching. A friend asked me for some help, so I thought I try out some Google Adwords campaigns myself before spending money for someone else :-)

I often get asked how I have so much time. But, often all my posts are written during the weekend, and I try to do them outside the “Colin time”. This way they just get published during the week and don’t take up much time.

The weekend was great too. I booked 2 days holidays Monday and Tuesday, so we went away over the weekend. We visited friends in Raleigh in Essex, and also went to Leigh on Sea, a small fishing village. It was a beautiful but windy and cold day. We really enjoyed our first night away with Colin who managed not too badly.


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So I am looking forward to two days off….. :-)

All the best,
Volker
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Sunday Column (39)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, job, personal on 22/11/2009

Hello,

This week must have been the best in years. It is almost like I found my life and found a way how to achieve it. Really, I spend a lot of time with the family and noticed how important that is for me. Just on Saturday I got myself, I mean I got Colin, a hippo for the bath:

On Wednesday I met with good friends from my old work and realised how much I enjoyed the job. Working with the people you like and working as a great team towards a common goal. It was so good to catch up over a few glasses of wine, pizza and great chat. Thanks people.

And, I heard this story about life, work and work life balance – still not sure what to make of it:

A farmer once got some land and thought it was on the sunny side and has a fruitful and great soil. So he was full of enthusiasm to have the responsibility to dig up the land and grow his crops.
He knew that it would take until the next year for him to harvest the fruits, and that it would be a long way to get there. But he wanted to make sure that the soil was perfect, the seeds were perfect and that things would grow in it came out perfect too. So he worked together with some friends who helped him choosing the seeds, and helped him choosing the water, and helped him choosing the right time to put things in place. Some lend him machinery and some helped him to understand how he got the best crops in the world.
Times weren’t easy, times were hard. He had to chase people to get the water for the field before the few shoots dried up. He had to chase people to get some of the machinery in time to get the seeds in the ground. Whilst sometimes it happened in time, sometimes it didn’t. At the same time he started looking around.
farmworkOn the left was a field his predecessor had worked on and he noticed that it was drying up and didn’t really produce any profit from the crops. It seemed as if they had tried to put more and more effort into the field, just to see that they couldn’t harvest enough to make a profit. However, on his right was a big field. That belonged to a farmer who had done what he was planning to do. But look, he had all the equipment, a few full time helpers and has started a few years earlier than him. He had been harvesting for long, made more profit and ultimately could afford more machinery. Really, a field how it should be.
The farmer got really sad. He knew what he was doing was right, but he thought that he was a few years too late. It seemed that no matter how much effort he put into his field, and however much help he might get, his field would never meet the expectations he had for himself, nor would it be able to compete with the older, flourishing fields. It just wouldn’t work out.

The morale of this story is simple. Sometimes you get into situations in life where you never harvest what you sow. Even in the best playing field with the best players in any game, you never get the best result if they don’t all play towards the same goal. And the same was true for the person who told me this story. He eventually gave up his field and moved on to a new pat, with new friends.

Enough of a story telling for today. Have a great week.

Love and Happiness to you all,
Volker

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Sunday Column (38)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 15/11/2009

What a week. “What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen“, Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Starting with that quote, I am sitting here and reflecting on a big bang start to a week. Although I felt very knackered with my man-flu last weekend after I was in the garden and all, I went out after work on Monday and did some excellent networking. I actually was sitting there with my bottle of cough syrup and thought, tomorrow things will be much better. However, on Tuesday I ended up feeling more tired. I almost didn’t go in on Tuesday but I had important meetings. Tuesday night my wife went to see a movie, so I stayed in and thought whether I should go to work at all on Wednesday.

Since I met our head of strategy for breakfast, I decided to go in, and like it is with colds, the earlier you get up, the better you feel. However, that feeling was over from Wednesday lunchtime and the aches got worse with the result that I had to cancel a client’s invite on Wednesday night, went home early from work and were off sick on Thursday and Friday. Now, you know me, I cannot sit still and do nothing. Being off work is bad enough. Although I know that my boss trusts me, I still think someone might think I take the mickey. Which I would not! But, Thursday in all fairness, I slept most of the day. Just around night time I got a bit more awake. And I was glad not to have gone to work. I believe I managed to sleep most of it off but Friday I still slept all afternoon.

SchweinebratenSaturday, now I find that interesting, I felt better when I got up in the morning, went to get my massage but then noticed that my head rushes had gone whilst my cold, e.g. runny nose and cough, got worse again. The boy and I had a long snooze in the afternoon watching the Domino championship. In the evening I made some nice roast pork with crackling.

Enough of a moan about my man flu now :-)

Over the last week I thought a lot about my blog post of the six basic human needs and what my values and my goals in life are. Whilst I only published this post on Thursday, I wrote it last weekend. And, I noticed that whatever situation I am in to make a decision, these six needs are really helpful.

What else happened. Saturday was a horrendous storm and the window in Colin’s rooms started leaking again. So we need to examine it and maybe replace this window after all. Out of all windows in the house, this seems to be the only one that never got replaced. It got colder too, so we want to make sure Colin is warm enough. Our radiator in the bathroom, so we were told by the guy who laid down the new floor, would be leaking soon. However, we spoke to a professional and he said we shouldn’t worry. The usual worries when you own a house, you just have to make sure you are keeping it in shape and things are in order. With house prices slowly rising again, we don’t want to devalue the property by not maintaining it.

Also, I thought a lot about coaching and, as aforementioned, about goals in life. I believe to get closer to what I want to achieve and how. The latter is a good question and I hope to have some time next week to put more thoughts on coaching down.

From how I am feeling today I am confident to go back to work next week and be able to get through the week. I never had so many colds and whilst I would love to blame the boy, and this time he got the cold first, I believe it is also my weak immune system and the paranoia around swine flu.

Have a great week. I don’t have any more wine reviews lined up but hopefully will post some more on personal development shortly.

Buddha bless,
Volker

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Sunday Column (37)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 08/11/2009

This week I spent a lot of time with the family, and it becomes more and more important for me. Particularly since I started digesting more about Anthony Robbins’ six basic human needs. I write a post about this later on this week – it is very simple yet powerful stuff.

I think with the changes of jobs and life, e.g. the birth of Colin this year, I have a lot of things to digest and it is ongoing. It doesn’t help that I have the man-flu again and seem to have less energy overall. But, I am confident of getting there, some things just take time.

Maybe it is time for another review of being a dad? Things have changed so much. Colin is much more responsive, much more lively, eats food now and he gives so much more back. I hate it when I go to work and he is crying, looking at me. But that is life for you, unfortunately there isn’t this big lottery win so you can spend all of your day with your son. Life is odd in this way. But without work we cannot afford life and family. So it has to be done. But, it is still something I am getting used to. However, every other dad in this world has mastered it, so will I! Besides I love what I am doing, I love working and enjoy it. However, if I can afford it time wise, I work very hard whilst being at work, don’t do lunches and be very productive, but then leave on time to spend more time with the boy. This might change soon though as there are a few things coming up on the horizon that look like I might get busier.

So what did I get up to this week? Not much to be honest. I went to a summit on Tuesday about Local-Social. This was a very interesting summit and you can see the post in the blog with some thoughts.

On Wednesday I had my second last coaching session and I have the feeling that I make progress. Things get clearer and I understand my needs and objectives much better. Not 100% sure yet where that leads to but growth seems to be a mayor factor which satisfies me. That ties in with me ordering more books from Amazon about digital advertising, strategic thinking and inbound marketing.

happinessWith both the boy and me being ill – just a common cold – the weekend is rather slow going. We met a friend on Sunday and that was nice. I practised Tai Chi as we are getting closer to the end of the form. Fingers crossed for next week. Also, I went to clean up the garden for the winter and spend about 1.5 hours in the garden on Saturday. With the cold and all I felt really ill and knackered afterwards. Didn’t stop moaning all day :-) Then I tried the cocktail from yesterday’s blog post and I can tell you: it tastes awful!

Overall I am very happy with my life at the moment. Lots going on but that is always the case, so no rest for the wicked. But, being happy and content, and having a wonderful family, is nothing you should ignore.

Have a great week. All love and happiness to you.
Volker

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Sunday Column (36)

Posted by Volker in Sunday Column, personal on 01/11/2009

This week ends with Halloween, also known as “day of the dead” in Mexico. Hence we had two pumpkins this year.

pumpkin The first pumpkin was a rather normal one. A bit shaped like a pear but generally ok. So let’s have a look back at the week.

Work seems rather busy but nothing that sticks out as being a big project. I expect things to kick off any day and getting really busy. So fingers crossed for that. Monday after work I went to meet someone to network and find out more about the industry from a different perspective.

I love digital marketing but there are still some areas I need to learn more about. Whilst I continue to pick brains at work, I also try to meet people outside work to do the same.

Tuesday just passed whilst Wednesday was the highlight of the week. A whole day from Microsoft Advertising, imagine09, which allowed me to see the latest developments of bing, digital marketing, touch screen technology and the Microsoft phone. Wow! That is all I can say. I am sure there are plenty of detailed reviews about, so go and check them out. All I can say that Bill Buxton said that anything we see as an innovation has been around for about 10 to 20 years. That means that we already hold the innovation of tomorrow in our hands, it just might take another 5-10 years to realise it. And things are moving faster by the day. We finished the day with a few drinks and good chats!

Colin as Pumpkin Thursday I went to the Tai Chi as normal after work and realised that we almost finished the long form, that is our form from the Hine Institute of Tai Chi. We started in February and I am hopeful to finish the “mechanics of the form” in the next two weeks. If that is the case, we can polish them off, which means another 12 years :-) It would just be such a great achievement.

On Friday, as mentioned, was a Halloween party, and we had our own pumpkin. Jenny, my wife, organised a get together with the babies from her baby and Yoga group. I got to meet them over at a house warming party on Saturday. Good to meet new people in Beckenham, particularly blokes that have babies and go through the same experience I do. Very good to compare notes.

We didn’t get much gardening done this weekend, but I made progress on the coaching side of things. I have another session next week. Later this week I will also publish a video from Anthony Robbins who I think is great!

Sunday was spent being lazy. We went swimming with the boy and he seemed to enjoy it. Overall it was a relaxing day.

Buddha or God bless weekends and time with the boy. What a fantastic week.

All the best from Beckenham,
Volker

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