Category Archives: Life Experiences

Read some of our experiences that either made us smile,laugh, cry or simply cringe !

Life Experiences, Values

Busy! Busy !! Busy !!!

One of the questions we often get asked is, “how are things going in the land of White Now?”  (or words to that effect), and our response is usually along the lines of:

  • Flat Out
  • Flat Chat
  • Busy, Busy, Busy!
  • Don’t Know if We’re Arthur or Martha
  • Etc, Etc, Etc

What I’ve noticed though is that each and every time the above is clarified with something like:

  • But I’m not complaining, or
  • Which is FANTASTIC, or
  • I’d rather be flat out as at least we know we can pay ourselves this week, or
  • We never take our good fortune for granted

It got me to thinking just how “lucky” we are!  And when I say “lucky” it is not because of a fluke or being in the right place at the right time.  It comes down to a lot of BLOODY HARD WORK!!!  But the bottom line is that we all genuinely enjoy it and on a personal level, I am not sure what I would do with myself if I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs!

The past fortnight has seen a significant part of the team away on annual leave and whilst some in our office might suggest that the people in question do very little ‘real’ work, the fact of the matter is that they (well, at least one of them) do/does contribute to the overall productivity of the team!!! 🙂  ……office humour!

What never ceases to amaze, please, excite and drive me personally is the continual influx of business and the fantastic range of services that we get asked if we can provide or assist with.  Not a week goes by without the phone ringing or an email pinging that asks us to step outside our core business/services and look at opportunity from a different angle.

I was wondering why this might be the case.  And I think the answer is our………………INTEGRITY.  I firmly believe that the business is founded on such strong principles and that each of the team live up to those values on a daily basis so that our customers form a trusted bond with us which means that they are comfortable asking us for things that might not be on our ‘list’ of what we do.

So, in summary I would like to say that I believe we are so incredibly fortunate to wake up each day and be surrounded by opportunity, questions, ideas, laughter, integrity, honesty, support, open communication, etc, etc and that I pinch myself regularly and do a stop…….check…… every couple of days to make sure I recognise the reality of that fortune and never, ever take it for granted.

To everyone that supports “us” in the myriad of ways that we are so fortunate……….THANK YOU!!!  You are our reason for continual improvement and integral to our overall success.

Life Experiences, Recruiting Tips, Uncategorized, Values

To Close or NOT to Close – THAT is the Question !

I have had the pleasure of writing job ads as part of my roles for over 20 years now.  Ads for CEO’s of large businesses; ads for Process Workers within Manufacturing companies; ads for bar attendants in overseas hotel properties; ads for administration people in Clubs – you name the positions, I (and my fab team) have written a job ad for it.  Like any skill that you aquire, you spend time tweaking and developing it.  You strive for ways to continually improve on it.  You ask others how they think it can be done better.  You search deep inside for smarter ways and more articulate ways to appeal to the right people.  You make sure that the ads are written with both the business AND the applicants in mind. You keep front of mind that to discriminate in any way is neither appropriate nor in the best interest of any of the stakeholders.  In summary, it is a skill that develops over time – it is a true skill.

Don't Apply - You're Too Late
Don't Apply - You're Too Late

In saying all this, in my 20+ years of writing job ads, I have never felt ‘comfortable’ with putting a closing date on an ad.  I am much more comfortable putting an opening date on the ad or in some way letting the applicant know when the job was listed if possible.

I have had many discusssions with people, including the White Now team about the pros and cons of putting a closing date on an ad. Basically the ‘pros’ that people seem to head towards the employer or recruiter wanting to organise their lists of applicants without the problems that arise when new applicants come in late, and to schedule interviews without any hassle.  

For those who know me, I am the queen of scheduling, organisation and making lists that people always take the mickey out of me for.  For an example, I have a shopping list printed out on A4 paper 52 times (one for each week of the year).  This shopping list is divided into three sections; Supermarket/Fruit and Veg and Butcher. The supermarket list is divided into aisles and if I need an item that week, I actually know what aisle it is in and write it in that section of the list.  This list matches our weekly menu planner that I write on Saturday morning so I don’t buy extra items and don’t have left overs.  Now THAT is an example of how my brain works. Sad but true !

With that in mind you would think that I am in favour of having closing dates on ads to be SUPER organised – well, my behaviour is exactly the opposite.  White Now always recommend AGAINST closing dates on ads  (but of course if our clients want us to put a date down for their own reasons we always respect their decision).

Why am I not in favour of closing dates I hear you ask ? In my opinion, there is no point in ‘closing off applications’ until the very end of the process. By naming a closing date you are basically saying NO to a number of people who actually WANT to work for your organisation.  If I had people WANTING to work for our organisation when I put an ad up, I would happily accept their application at ANY time !

Think about the people that you MAY lose by simply saying – bad luck, you missed MY cut off date.  Remember that it is YOUR cut off date.  You perhaps did not take into account that the ideal person could be on leave, dealing with the death of a friend or relative, caring for a sick child or … who knows what ?  This person, that has not yet had a chance to see your ad MAY just be THE best candidate, MAY just be THE perfect match and MAY just have THE GOODS to take your business further than you could EVER imagine. Surely you would want to interview them or at least include them in a short list !

So, in my opinion, to put a closing date just so that resumes can be sorted and interviews scheduled makes no sense when you may be excluding the best resource for your business ie: the best person.

At White Now, when we are recruiting for a role, the role is open basically until a person is offered the position – in other words, when there is a ‘bum in the seat’.   We know that that is the best service that we can offer our clients – doing ALL that we can to ensure that the best people are able to apply for a job EVEN if they did not see the ad when it first went live.

This opinion is that of mine and White Now only.  Who knows what is right and what is wrong with this topic ? Everyone has their own personal reasons as to why the choose to advertise or not advertise a closing date.  What I DO know though, is that closing off an ad just because the advertiser/recruiter wants to schedule their time to suit THEIR needs, just seems crazy. But who am I to say that – I am the one who has shopping lists divided into sections in order of the aisles in my local supermarket !

Have a fantabulous day  and remember what Ralph Waldo Emerson once said; “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions.  All life is an experiment.”

Life Experiences

We Never Stop Laughing

2 Comments

It wasn’t so long ago that when I received a call or text at 10pm I sighed heavily and resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be a work call that I would have to “manage”! 

So, you may be surprised to hear me say that last Friday night just before 10pm when I received a text from a work colleague (for the purpose of this blog, let’s refer to her as Jinny Whyte so as to ‘protect the innocent’), I actually didn’t sigh, but smiled.  You see Jinny had been prepping for her son’s 4th birthday and things had not gone quite according to plan!  There had been a whole load of hype around the Ben 10 cake that she was going to produce for her little boy, but time had worked against her, hence why she was baking at 10 at night. 

The text that came through simply read “Thought you might like to see the cake for tomorrow”, to which was attached the following picture:  (immediately below)

My response was simple – “Awesome job!!!  What r u on about???  U r a legend!!!”.  I was so suprised at how good it looked that I decided to show my wife as she is an avid baker and had offered to lend assistance to Jinny if it was required (we are all part of the White Now team – husbands, wives and kids included).  My wife was suitably impressed…………………and then she said, “Hey, hang on!  Isn’t Jinny’s son turning 4 and NOT 6?”.  “Good point!  You’re right”, I replied.  And so I sent a follow up text which said, “Nice job JW.  You truly are a ‘talented’ woman!”. 

“Just wait until you see the REAL THING“, was what I got back!

On the Saturday, my wife, two boys and I drove over to Jinny’s for the party.  A great day was had and the fanfare leading up to the revealing of the cake was building the tension………….you could cut the air with a knife (poetic license). 

The covers were pulled off and we were all met with: (see pic on bottom right)

We all fell apart with laughter!  Even with all of the stress of the previous evening (the details of which I have avoided intentionally).  Jinny had managed to see the funny side of things and had pulled us all in on the joke.

This is just ONE of a MILLION AND ONE stories that could have been shared!  This is genuinely just another day in the life of a White Now team member!  There is never a dull moment and we never stop laughing.  WORK or PLAY, we all get along so well and have such a similar sense of humour that we can’t help but include each other for a laugh.

We quite literally NEVER stop laughing!  No matter what the situation.  No matter how stressful things become.  We are always there to offer a hand and whilst doing so, make a “funny”!  What stems from this is a team that is engaged, passionate and involved.  Don’t get me wrong – we don’t live in each other’s pockets, but we do genuinely care about each other and about having fun and this is what makes White Now such a great place to work and such a successful organisation.

Business Brands, Life Experiences, Values

Tigers are on the prowl – The TRUE champions !

Tigers!
Farewell Balmain Tigers

After 52 years in Rozelle, Balmain Tigers is now officially closed for redevelopment.  The Club has in the mean time, opened two smaller sites at Flemington Markets and Five Dock.  With this closure came the redundancy of 30 or so staff.  It is a tough decision when a Club has to inform its often, long term and loyal staff of their future redundancy.  Some of the staff that had been made redundant had been with Tigers for over 20 years.  Sunday 28th March 2010 was a sad day – the closing of Tigers, mixed with the feeling of a positive future with a new and exciting redevelopment already started. 

White Now were honoured to have been called in to assist with the Outplacement Program for a number of redundant staff.  With this Program was the offer of interview training, resume and career direction training, skills audits and ongoing mentoring.  Our wonderful Toby delivered a fantastic session to a group of soon-to-be redundant staff on preparing a powerful resume and winning at interview.  Through this experience, the White Now team saw a bunch of dedicated, positive and enthusiastic people who looked at their redundancy as a chance to do great things, look at their lives as a whole and actually CREATE their own futures.  There were people who wanted to change direction totally, some wanted to find exactly the same role in another club, others wanted to search overseas for a role and some wanted to follow their dream of working part time.  What WAS refreshing though was that everyone was positive.  It is a credit to each and every person at Tigers for adopting the right attitude and being positive.  Thanks to you all for simply being great !

It was an absolute pleasure for White Now to be involved in the Outplacement and Redeployment of the Tigers team and we wish those CHAMPIONS all the best with the next stage of their lives.  – Think like a champion and you will become a champion !

Life Experiences

The Road to Recovery

1 Comment

I received a phone call over 2 weeks from a mate that I have known for over 20 years, in fact he was the first person that I made friends with at my footy club when we moved over to Australia!  He called me to confirm that I would be attending his 4oth birthday on the weekend of 27th March and we agreed that we would spend the day with one eye on the tv watching the Formula 1 highlights and the other chatting to various people!  We laughed about it and that was that.

Then, Wednesday last week he rang me back.  There was the usual banter and a brief chat about the first round of the F1.  This was then followed up with “Hey mate, you know how my party was locked in for the 27th?”.  “Yes”.  “Well, we are going to have to postpone it for a later date”.  “Oh!  Ok.  Is everything alright?”.

What followed was him informing me that he had been feeling a bit crook in the last week and so he had been to the Doc’s on the Monday and after a couple of tests that day, then a HEAP of tests on the Tuesday, they had decided to rush him in for an emergency procedure to remove a cancerous tumour from his right kidney.  They would need to break a couple of ribs to do so, make an incision about 30cm+ long and he would be under for 4 hours or so!

He was (as always) pretty philosophical about the whole thing and said that it was great that they had found it and that the surgery was the cure and that in 95% of cases, that is the end of it!

So, last week he went in to hospital and had the operation and I spoke with his wife on the Thursday and then with him on the Sunday.  He said that he was in massive pain, but that the op had gone really well and that they were talking about releasing him “soon”.  The VERY NEXT day, I got a text from him to say that he was in the car on his way home!  I was shocked, but told him that I would be over to visit the next day (yesterday)!

I was even more shocked when I saw the state of him yesterday when I got to his place!  He could hardly move he was in so much pain and the poor bloke looked a lot older than his (almost) 40 years!  I said to him, “What the hell are you doing back at home in this state?” (the terminology has been cleaned up for the purposes of the blog)!!!  His response was along the lines of the hospital needed the bed and they offered to give him some strong medication to handle the pain and as he was ‘young and fit’ (young – defintely.  fit – not so sure!!!) he should recover well .

Now, I am obviously NOT a Doctor, but there is no way my  mate should have been let out of the hospital.  I won’t go in to the gory details, but let me just say that he had not even cleared his system since the operation so they should have at least have kept him until that milestone had been successfully achieved!  It should also be noted that he was released against the protestations of both his wife and sister AND that he was paying TOP DOLLAR in a private hostpital with a VERY good name!!!

I am gob-smacked that anyone would be released after such major surgery!  And to let someone go home where there was not going to be any care for the first two days that he was back there is beyond me and quite frankly bordering on culpable in my limited opinion!!!

However, from all of this there have been some real positives:

  • Primarily that my friend is better and should be fine from here!
  • It has woken him up to his unhealthy lifestyle
  • And has woken myself and a couple of our other close friends up to theirs (unhealthy lifestyles).  We have all agreed to getting a bit fitter and being healthier and to making some wiser decisions when it comes to our lifestyles (work vs play vs late nights vs parties vs etc, etc)!

Life is so precious, particularly when we all have kids involved!  We should therefore hold on tight to it and take the time to look at what is important us and make the decisions required to ensure that we are around and about to enjoy each and every moment that we have to spend with those that we love and cherish as ultimately we are all mortal, which for (relatively) young Australian blokes to admit is a MAJOR milestone!!!  🙂

Life Experiences, Uncategorized

Two ways to find an extra hour a week to bank for later !

Like all good business owners, I’ve been working on our businesses, planning, strategising and generally creating great things for the future. The problem that I kept finding is that there is simply not enough hours in the day ! I think that I have been saying that there is not enough time since I was first able to read a clock ! I then read an inspirational quote that got me thinking;

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Well that quote just slapped me in the face and shook me up. I knew that I really needed more hours, but of course, 24 is 24 and you can’t just add time to a day, but hey, you can save time, bank it and use it for more useful reasons can’t you ? I went on a journey to try and simplify things in my life that really didn’t add any value to the essence of who I am and certainly were not assisting in achieving any meaningful goals. Everyone has heard about ideas such as only checking your emails once a day – but let’s face it, we run an online business and our White Now customers expect great response times so that strategy is just plain crazy for us. The brain started ticking. I know that the business is pretty efficient so I need to find some time in my personal life. Like all working mums, we spend far too much time on things like ironing, folding washing and the like. So how could I save time here ?

I called on my friend Mr You Tube, you know him, the guy that sucks you into his website and makes you watch ridiculous videos of kids on pushbikes running into walls and video clips of bands that had lead singers that you had a crush on when you were 16. I was this time going to abuse Mr You Tube for my own benefit. I searched on ‘Folding Clothes’ and all of a sudden my prayers were answered. Check out these two videos and you can see how I have gained an hour a week to bank and spend on improving our businesses ! I bet that you will use these technique too and buy yourself an extra hour a week !

ENJOY !

How to fold a T Shirt in 2 Seconds

Peeling Eggs with Speed (OK, I don’t really use this one but it’s pretty funny !)

Life Experiences, Uncategorized, Values

What Goes Around Comes Around – It’s a Generational Thing !

 

Emilys Card
Emily's Card to Jordan

Way back I blogged about meeting Emily, the volunteer who came to the Children’s Sleep Disorder Clinic at Hospital 5 nights a week after work, to help settle the children – one of which was my 3 year old son hooked up to dozens of wires.  Emily’s main job was as a preschool teacher.  She wanted to give some of her skills back to those in need and chose the hospital to do so.  (If you want to recap the story, then click here to read about AMAZING Emily). 

You may recall that my son and I made a special card and sent it to Emily and we slipped in a small store voucher to thank her.  In my view, there is not much that is more rewarding than thanking others for something that they have done.  We knew that we would never see or hear from Emily ever again.  

WELL……. TODAY something wonderful happened to my son Jordan.  We brought the mail in and there was a card for him.  It was a card with a puppy dog holding a flower in his mouth.  It just so happens that Jordan L O V E S puppy dogs and has an innate connection with the beauty of flowers and the meaning of giving to others.  Jordan never fails to pick a flower for me EVERY day after day care. He always brings it home and greets me as I walk in with the hand picked flower and an “I love you Mummy”.  Every single day this happens and every single day I smile.  If I ever doubt the wonder of a child, I can simply reflect on these moments and be humbled at his grace and love. 

Jordan opened the envelope  (well he actually ripped it open with hands  shaking with excitement) and I then read it to him.  It was from Emily.  Jordan remembered Emily as clear as daylight ……. and he only met her for no more than 15 minutes, months before and in an anxious situation (yes, she touches lives !).  The card read “Dear Jordan …… I’m not sure if you remember me but it’s Emily from ……..  Sorry it’s taken so long to write to you, but I was getting ready for my overseas trip.  I am in Holland now.  I absolutely LOVED your card. It was so thoughtful and …. I even have it with me in Europe to keep me safe….. “.

Jordan turned to me and said “I miss Emily”. 

Emily touched our lives and we thanked her.  Little did we know that we touched her life as well. All we did was thank someone for being great.  Do you think that every time that Emily looks at that card she will remember that she is a great person ? ABSOLUTELY.  Do you think that she will keep that card somewhere forever ? FOR SURE.  The lesson to learn is to thank people for doing great things.  Thank people that aren’t used to being thanked.  Notice people that aren’t used to being noticed. The more people that believe they are great, the greater they become.  The best thing that YOU can do is pass this lesson onto the next generation !

Safe travels Emily !

Business Brands, Life Experiences, Uncategorized

AMAZING Marketing for Cougar matchmaking service!

Cougar
Grrrrrrr

 I was driving to see a client in Mosman in Sydney a couple of days ago and was struck by some seriously GREAT MARKETING.  I passed a prominent Pub on the way and some posters jumped out in front of me.  They were so effective that I remembered the script on each, which is amazing in itself as I was literally at the set of lights outside  the pub for no more than a couple of minutes. 

Here are two of the messages on the large, poster collateral on the balcony of the pub;

  • “Age knows no barriers.”
  • “Who said scratch marks are out of the question?” 

Immediately this grabbed my attention as the instinctual thought was “what has this got to do with a pub ?”. Another glance along a few metres gave me the answer.  The next 2 posters  said;

  • “Adopt a Cougar”
  • “Cougar Kingdom”. 

 For those that do not know what the message means or indeed what a Cougar is, I will endeavour to explain………..

The dictionary says that a Cougar is “a large tawny cat;….. now greatly reduced in number and endangered in some areas”.   But, I don’t think that this pub had THAT meaning in mind.  A cougar is actually a woman over the age of 40 (generally) who exclusively pursues young men.   The woman could be already in a relationship or single. The young man could be the age of the woman’s sons. 

With this in mind, the thoughts that went through my mind played havoc with my morals whilst igniting my passion for smart marketing.  The questions I asked were; Is this right ?; Is this pushing the boundaries ?; Is this taking advantage of a gap in the market ?; Is this morally right or wrong ?; Will it be successful?;  How many will they get attending on their first night ?;  How do they get both Cougars and younger men to be plentiful enough ?; Is this smart of simply taking advantage of a trend ?; Will this be a success?; ….. and more…….. 

I’m sure that these questions run through the minds of many people that pass this pub.  The point of this is, can YOU bring to mind a marketing strategy that has provoked such thoughts or taken your mind away from what you were doing.  Or in your business, can you find a marketing campaign that gets people thinking like this ?  The fact of the matter is that if you fitted into the profile of a Cougar or a younger man and you were interested in such an event, then you WOULD DEFINITELY find out more about it, wouldn’t you ?  Now THAT Is GREAT marketing.  Congratulations to the Pub and their marketing team for such an amazing campaign ! 

There is however a downside to this story, which could make the campaign fall flat on its face.  For the purpose of telling you guys about this (as I am happily married and definitely not Cougar material!! – and there are no other White Now team members in this category – as far as I know !), I went to the pub’s website to see what the event was really about and all I found was one banner saying “Cougar Kingdom Coming Soon”.  There was no link to any further information and all the great marketing that was on display at the pub was not to be seen on the website.  They did not follow through and think about where their future customers may go to find out more. 

 Does YOUR company market well in one area and fall down in another ? Have you got all areas of your market segments covered ? Remember this story when you review your marketing campaigns.  The lesson is priceless.

Life Experiences, The 'Read & Recover' Initiative - Helping sick kids!, Uncategorized, Values

Plan all you want, but flexibility is what is needed !

Read & Recover

When we started our Read & Recover Initiative in partnership with Brad Sugars, we knew that it was going to be a big job, full of fun and a fair bit of hard work and hey, we’re ALWAYS up for a challenge and ALWAYS up for hard work !  To us, it was going to take some great organisational skills and a passion to make kids smile. If you think about the process in its simplest form, all we have to do is buy 1600 books and send them to 100 hospitals.  All of us at White Now consider ourselves as organizational machines (and we usually are except when one of our kids has been up all night then we are more like organisational disasters) !!

We started with a plan and a time line. Isn’t it true though that it’s not until you plan a process that you actually work out that the simple logistics that you had once thought of, have turned into a 68 page procedure manual that takes 2 weeks to develop and another 2 weeks to digest ? Our aim though is to get these books out there and we will do what it takes to make that happen.

We are rapidly crossing the tasks of the list with each cross triggering a smile on our faces knowing that we are one step closer to getting those books out.  There have been so many people who have offered their assistance to pack or deliver the books or simply be involved somehow, and they are patiently waiting until it is ‘packing day’.  We had many photographers offering their services to do photo shoots for us with Brad and also taking images of the delivery of the books to the hospitals. We ended up securing Michael O’Farrell from www.ofarrell.com.au, who is already an absolute pleasure to deal with.  This contact came through Facebook and we thank his daughter for putting his name forward.

We are right in the middle of calling the hospitals and this is where the interesting challenges have manifested.  The plan was to call each hospital, find the appropriate person to chat to about the initiative, grab their details, gain their permission to donate the books, send them a formal letter, get the delivery volunteers to call them when it is time to deliver, have the hospital contact receive the books at a mutually suitable time and there endeth the process.  Don’t forget that we are organizational machines here at White Now and if there is a process to follow, we will do it.  What we didn’t plan for was all the variables that we would find once this ring around started – these include;

  1. The person we need to talk to is on leave
  2. The person we need to talk to is unable to return our call
  3. The Reception staff want to handle this themselves and won’t pass the call on
  4. The hospital is unable to take books for hygiene/OH&S reasons
  5. The hospital is unable take books, they can only take monetary donations
  6. The message gets lost
  7. The hospital wants to give the books to kids to take home
  8. The hospital wants to see the actual books prior to accepting them
  9. The hospital will only take them if they are posted

With all of these variable thrown at us, we soon realized that we had to be flexible to meet the needs of either the individual taking the call, the hospital or the donation protocol.  So guess what ? That is what we did.  We put our ‘flexible, accommodating’ hats on and tried to meet all of their needs.  Once we did this, we could achieve White Now and Brad Sugars’ goal of getting 1600 books to 100 hospitals.  What was so great about talking to the hospitals was that even if they could not accept the books, they usually offered suggestions about other hospitals that could.  Everyone seems to care which is simply amazing.

We have learnt a valuable lesson with this process and that is that you can plan and set up procedures to YOUR requirements, but the other stakeholders may not always be able to follow your procedures. You have to quickly adjust your strategy to suit everyone…… and that is just what we are doing;  Some books are staying in their factory wrapping, some books that were to be delivered are now being posted, some hospitals that were to receive books now are not receiving the books with other hospitals being added to the list, our formal letters change depending on the individual requirements of each hospital and soon there will be 1600 more books in Australian hospitals.

It is certainly true that if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail, but when you are planning anything, build into the plan the flexibility to meet the needs of others as you cannot always predict others behaviours.

Life Experiences

Good Peoples (intentional typo) !

Isn’t it funny how “Good Peoples” attract “Good Peoples” ???

What a treat !

I can quite honestly say that I work in a truly great organisation and am surrounded by a whole load of genuinely “Good Peoples” both professionally and personally.  And sometimes things happen that reaffirm this, such as yesterday (a work day):

My fantastic MD arranged through one of her contacts for me to be taken for a drive in a BMW M3……………………..something that I have always wanted to do.  (I openly admit to be a Revhead, but promise to do my best not to make this a car story as such !).

I was instructed to be at a certain location at a certain time and as my Dad (a fellow Car Tragic) was visiting from SA, he was also invited along for the ride.  Upon our arrival we were greeted by the owner of the aforementioned M3 who saw my Dad was using a walking stick and so very kindly told us to wait there whilst he collected the car and brought it out the front.  As this gorgeous charcoal-silver M3 pulled up to the collection point, Dad and I prepared to load ourselves in to the passenger seats, but the owner had another offer – one that quite frankly blew me away.  He wandered over to me and handed me the keys to his VERY powerful and VERY expensive ‘pride and joy’ and told me that I would be driving.

Mouth agape and in a mouse-like voice I tried to decline but he insisted and so I climbed in to the driver’s seat and got myself comfortable.

I won’t bore you with the details of the drive as I know cars are not everyone’s cup of tea, but I will just comment that it was everything and more than I had imagined.  I came back quite literally shaking with excitement, nervousness and awe.  The car’s owner had happily let me have a pretty serious “go” and was quite obviously chuffed at my enthusiasm and enjoyment.

Upon returning to where we had set off from, we all went out for lunch where we shared a fantastic meal and some amazing company.  Dad and I spent nearly three hours with a person that we had never met before and he had managed to clear his very, very busy schedule to make time for us !  Dad had a ball !!!  He has been retired for a few years now and so rarely has the opportunity to mix in “business” circles which afford a level of intellectual conversation.  I had the opportunity to spend some quality time almost one on one with a highly intelligent and very successful businessman and in doing so discovered a person of great integrity and passion – a person that enjoyed the opportunity to give with absolutely no expectation of anything in return.  A truly “Good People” !

Yesterday was indeed a VERY special day !  I not only got to drive one of the cars of my dreams, but I had the opportunity to witness my Dad be genuinely happy (not that this is uncommon, but it is something that you never grow tired of) and I also got to broaden my network of “Good Peoples”.

To everyone involved (you know who you are)………………….THANK YOU !  THANK YOU !!  THANK YOU !!!  I wake up on a daily basis and thank my lucky stars for all of the wonderful things around me and yesterday was yet another moment to be thankful for !

You guys ROCK !