#Friday 4.0: Panic buying shows our obsessive greed

Each week I will (try and) share a small segment of something useful I learnt. While this is for my own amusement I hope it resonates with my lovely readers.

Panic buying shows our obsessive greed

You may have seen the numerous video’s that have circulated the web about people punching each other over toilet rolls. I am sure there are many more about a many a product lines up and down shopping malls and shops.
Two days ago I popped into my local supermarket around midday to pick up a few items for the evening meal. Toilet roll shelves empty, pasta shelves empty and long queues of people with trolley’s filled to the brim. I’m not one to judge what people buy or eat but a lot of what they had was not going to nourish the body but only add serious calories. Sadly, it was evidence of our obsession with hording lots of food, our over indulgence with stock piling before anyone else gets their hands on it. Maybe if we thought about keeping our diet simple and healthy to an extent we would not be so panicked about going hungry. And maybe, just maybe we would be better at sharing with the person standing next to us. Have we become that full of greed that we’ve forgotten about other people? Even spare a thought for those maybe not be as able and how they are going to cope? Me, me and myself!! Alas Sir Thomas More whatever happened to your Utopia!

Stay Safe! Stay Healthy!

Dusting off New Year’s Resolutions

How in advance of the chimes of Big Ben (if you’re in the UK) ringing through the start of another year, that the ink on your New Year’s Resolutions list was bone dry?

Historically we did it like this

Do the good people of planet Earth still use the phrase New Year’s Resolutions (NYRs)?  Apologies, I don’t mean to sound rude when I say this.  It’s just because in these very recent times we are good at re-visiting our trends at any point during the year.  Lets take the most common item on the NYRs list, joining a gym. Historically you may not have thought about this one in any particular detail, but it comes to the frontal lobe at the start of Christmas until New Years Eve.

Iterative evaluation

The alternative scenario is you’ve still managed to indulge during the festive period and who doesn’t.  One should always feel happy with themselves and not be coaxed into doing something for the sake of it. But a few months into the New Year someone you know is partaking in a sporting event for charity and Eureka, you decide to get involved and get fit! You evaluate and join the gym, or start walking more, running or even cycling. More importantly you’ve done it at the moment you felt ready which means you are more likely to stick with it.  According to the Fitness Industry Association gym memberships go up by 12% in January, with many quitting just 24 weeks later.  In fact many would quit earlier if they weren’t locked into 6 month contracts!

Let me dust off the NYRs cobwebs first

I was searching through my site the other day to see the last time I posted anything on this subject, as I don’t have any paper based evidence.  Patiently I watched the archive posts unfold themselves onto my screen and I chuckled.  Ahead of 2020, let me share what I noted as my NYRs all those years back:

Note: my profession involves a lifetime of applying a RAG (Red/Amber/Green) statuses to everyday management.  If it’s green, I’ve done it!  If it’s amber, it’s at risk of slippage. If it’s red, then it’s sadly slipped! 

On a dark December night in 2010…..

• Develop my business idea – Through a common interest (sport) a friend and myself decided to set up a sports foundation to help young Indian children.  Now you may be reading this and thinking, bit of a narrow take on things, what about everyone else. While we never turned anyone away, this particular ethnic group needed a push. Our foundation ran for a couple of years and helped kids in specialist sports such as cricket, go-karting, judo, squash and badminton.  We organised and delivered golf days to raise funds for equipment and private lessons where parents were unable to help.  With whatever we had left over we donated to charities such as Great Ormond Street Hospital or Ellenor Hospice. I am sure we will rejuvenate the foundation again at some point.   
•  Convert my audio cassettes – I had 300 back in 2010 and you’ll be pleased to know I managed to convert, wait for it, 75% of the lot to MP3.  The remaining 15% I managed to acquire from the web. 
•  Convert my VHS video tapes – Apart from the nostalgia and need to preserve memories, the cost was a driving factor to do it myself.  At the last time of enquiring an external company would be charging me a tidy sum of £50 per 3hrs of footage. As I picked myself off the floor and blurted a few expletives, common sense prevailed. Now I have myself a borrowed VHS recorder, a SCART lead and all of my VHS tapes.  All I need now is a conversion kit and I am ready to go! 

What new joys do I have on my list for 2020!

•  Complete my FINAL book draft and publish – this one is top of my agenda! I started writing my first novel in December 2015.  Click here to read a brief background.  Realistically, by September I am hoping it’s sitting on bookshelves somewhere and also available for purchase online. A new website to support the book and also other new book ideas to be created by end of February, you heard it here first! 
•  Launch a short YouTube mini series for our comedy venture The Chucklesinghs – 4 years ago a friend and myself got into stand-up comedy by mistake.  It started with an open mic session on stage at a charity event, and just this November we hosted and performed our 12th show.  It’s time for a mix up and we want to plan and release a short series on the other side of the Chucklesinghs. See it as a working sabbatical. 

So that’s it!  I am confident these are attainable but two things are bound to happen; (1) re-evaluation (2) emergence of new items on the list.

If you’re reading this, then a very Happy New Year, wishing you a 2020 full of great health and year of new adventures.

India – Industrial Monster in a hurry

Note: This is not an exhaustive read, my views are independent and based on 5 days and 6 nights in the Motherland

“So when’s the last time you went to India?”

“What!”

“The country has much changed my friend; you are in for a shock”.

Why Hugging is so important

If I stood here and stated that today, we are not as affectionate as our parents and their generation were; would I be wrong?  Would I be talking out-of-place?

This post was sparked from a debating programme I watched last night with one of the debating points being hugging.  Apparently I was not aware that there is a National Hugging Day, check out the link.  It’s great that we have these kind of events, but in a sense it is also exceptionally sad.  Why?  Well look at it this way:

Why do we have National events such as National Letter Writing Day and No Smoking Day?  It is to encourage us to do something on that particular day.  So isn’t it sad that we need a day that encourages us to hug each other?

Interestingly enough, there is also some science around how long the common hug lasts, which this publication claims is 3 seconds.

For me, hugging is very important and I never shy away from a tight cuddle, an affectionate cuddle.  Each and every day I make sure I get my hugs in, before I leave for work and when I come home.  I can tell you it makes the world of good with family and friends.

I recently read a Freshly Pressed post on WordPress which I can’t recall, that spoke of the authors reluctance to hug family and friends, the affection there was rather cold.  But I guess it’s each to their own.

So tell me, when’s the last time you gave someone a true affectionate hug?

*image courtesy of  http://aboutmyrecovery.com

SoUL – Style of Ultimate Living

Last night I was watching a young lady present her thoughts around human nature and our actions in life to a large televised audience. 

What caught my attention was her reference to the SOUL and her connection to what she called “Style of Ultimate Living”.  It was an interesting concept on our actions and that how we conduct our life can actually have a bearing on our soul and inner self.  Okay, I am sure there’s a host of material out there debating this notion, but have we ever stopped to consider what we class as our ultimate style of living?

I took a moment out to think how close I am to the style of ultimate living I aspire to?   Answer…not that close.  However, am I better person for not reaching that ultimate living?  Am I more humble?  Answer, probably.

So consider this, what is your SoUL?  Where are you now?  Can you plug the gap in this lifetime and would that give you inner peace?