Archives: Life

Twice in a week

Despite being shattered from a busy week and a late night with the family last night, K and I were both ridiculously happy to spend lunchtime with our little gang of friends again – it kind of felt like old times, meeting up and hanging out together as a group twice in the space of just over a week.

It’s lovely to know that however long it is until we do it next (which hopefully won’t be as long as the gap up to these two weeks), we’ll still pick up exactly where we left off.

And Steve’s baby will probably still stare at me oddly and occasionally smile.

Thanks for having a birthday, Dave.

Au revoirs

Tonight we had a final family meal before waving my bro and his wife and daughter off for their work-related emigration to Europe. It’s sad to see them go, but I’m excited at the exciting new challenges that face them, not to mention how much our niece will benefit from growing up in a different culture and country for the first few years of her life.

I’d love the chance to do something similar, but I know I’m probably a bit too much of a wimp for that. Still, having a nice gathering centred around great food (as all Lewington family gatherings always are!) was a great way to say goodbye and wish them well. Bro and Dad are now traipsing across Europe to get their car over there and then flying back later in the week to pick up the rest of the gang and take them out there. In summer, K and I get to drive out and deliver the new car they have on order, so I’m already grinning ear-to-ear just thinking about it. Summer holiday planned already!

Old friends are the best friends

It’s odd things that unite or reconvene a posse as you get older. Back in the day (in fact, pretty much a decade ago now, which makes me feel really old) there was a time when K and I lived downstairs from our best friends Steve and Dazz and were frequently visited by Dave and PS; we basically lived out a real-life version of FRIENDS but with tea on the sofa in one of our lounges (often in PJs) rather than coffee in Central Perk.

Obviously, we moved on, upwards and apart – geographically rather than emotionally – and began to see less of each other. 

Today was Steve’s daughter’s first birthday party. She’s one, I mean, not that they’ve been so mean and tight-fisted that she’s never had a birthday before. And it was the first time in as long as I can remember that we had that gang back in the room together. 

When you don’t see friends for a spell, there really is no better feeling than picking up as if no time had passed at all and slipping into the same easy rapport you always had.

I can count on my fingers the people with whom I have this sort of relationship and this gang take up one whole hand. We’ve been through thick and very, very thin together and we’ll always be there for each other however far apart we may be.

Old friends really are the best friends.

Right reactions

For many reasons I can’t go into much detail about today’s smile moments (yes, more than one), but I can say that I walked from work to the station home with a smile on my face the whole way tonight.

There are many moments in a working life when you hope for the right reaction: approval of plans, success of a project, addressing a problem and dealing with it well. Today has seen multiple versions of these things.
I woke up this morning and was deeply distracted during my normal meditation. Luckily I’m deep enough into my practice now for this not to annoy me, frustrate me or make me angry, but it did unsettle me since it’s the first time in the last few weeks that the practice hasn’t gone brilliantly.
Where I may, in the past, have let this throw my whole day of, I managed to shake that feeling pretty quickly and set my mind to the tasks that lay ahead.
And the day panned out pretty perfectly, with all of my meetings filled with the right reaction from the people involved.
It’s a wonderful way to end a working week. Lots of smiles promised this weekend, too. What are your plans?

Creative win

A nice work-related smile today as we presented some initial creative concepts for a big piece of work that is rapidly descending on us.

Any creative will know presentation of concepts to a senior leadership team is always slightly nerve-wracking as you face that awkward “what do I do with this if they don’t like it?!” thought process.

Luckily they not only liked it, some of them even mentioned that when they first heard the concept they really didn’t get it and thought it would be a dead end, but seeing the execution and possibilities they got almost excited.

Score one for the creatives today!

Sunset

It certainly hasn’t been an easy day today, with many different irons in the fire all needing to be tended to and kept red hot, but the sky on the train back into London was its own shade of pastel red with a dusting of cloud cover.

I love a good sunset. Somehow no matter what kind of day you’ve had or how you’re feeling a bright, colourful sunset does wonders to ease the mind, calm the body and make you appreciate the natural wonders our world serves us up with every day.

How was your sunset tonight?

My new work space

It never lasts long, but following a fit of cleaning, clearing and moving-stuff-around frenzy at the weekend I managed to create myself a fresh, light and new space to work in my study at home.

Flexible working is a wonderful thing, but I do need my own space to shut myself away from everything else and get productive. Every now and then I need to refresh it to clear my desk and my head.

Rather pleased with the result.



Coffee with a mentor

The first day of the new focus and a quick and easy Smile win, meeting up for coffee with the wonderful Lucy Gower, who is a huge part of the reason I’m now at the Trust and doing something I love.
It’s always good to catch up with Lucy not only because she’s full of wisdom, she also serves as a sounding board for me. It was great to sit and download to her today and to get her thoughts.
She also always manages to leave me feeling filled with confidence and positivity, which is never a bad thing.
A good session, a good smile and a whole pile of gratitude for the day.
How was your day?

Back to my roots

For the last two years on January 1st I’ve sworn to myself I’m going to revitalise this blog and do things differently. I haven’t. I’ve spent the last two Januarys and Februarys slowly failing to keep up with a constant schedule, largely because I can never work out what this blog is supposed to be.

So from tomorrow I’m going back to my roots and this will be about one thing and one thing only: that little thing that makes me smile every day, whatever it may be.

Way back in the beginning, that’s all this blog was supposed to be. Some of it was going to be able daily battles (and that’s what ended up in the book), but it was also here to remind me to keep smiling, no matter what.

Whatever happens over the coming months and years, wherever my health takes me and whatever else life throws at me, this blog will be here not only to document the process, but also to remind me when the going gets to its very toughest, that the world is really a very funny place and you have to keep on smiling, because the other options are too dark to think of.

That’s what I’ll be doing from now on. And don’t worry, you’re excused if you no longer want to listen.

Keep smiling!