Last week for me was one of those bonkers weeks that if one was of a nervous or stressful disposition could have quite easily tipped me over the edge.

It all started on Wednesday with a trip to head office to discuss with my MD a particularly large and challenging ‘account plan’ for one of my large clients. I then headed off to the accommodation for our upcoming 2 day corporate ‘team’ event and as usual, the bar beckoned. Thursday was spent ‘playing’ a business simulation game with the emphasis on team working, followed by dinner, beer and karaoke – a 4am retirement for me with the party still going on! The next day, with a fair few colleagues in a similar jaded outlook, wrapped up the ‘game’ with the day concluding with a team drum and percussion session lead by the more than able Mark Walker and his talking drums chums. This was a great way to finish off our event but I then had a 3 and half hour drive to an Aquarius gig near Droitwich. As ever, we rocked the place once we were on and I got home about 2am. The next night we played in Worcester, it snowed, and, as per the post title, I started my journey towards Wembley at around 1am. I had a pre-booked room at the Travelodge at Cherwell Valley services on the M40 – got there around 2-30am, grabbed a few hours kip and then headed off to Wembley Arena at 6-30am. Evidence of the previous nights snow was all around with several abandoned vehicles littering various stretches of the M40 but I got to London in reasonable time and was able to make it in to the Arena by 8-30am. The rest of the morning was taken up with engaging and motivational talks/video clips laying the backdrop to further, more in depth sessions to come. All told there was an estimated 40,000 of us attending 4 sessions that weekend although I believe more of them as a proportion had Saturday slots as there were plenty of spare seats on my session not least of which because it was Sunday morning and it had snowed the day/night before. Plenty was made of the spirit required to be a Games Maker and that exhibited by those of us who had battled to get to London.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Some have commented on the ‘quality’ of this session being little more than flag waving and could have been delivered via DVD or some such impersonal means. To make this comment seems to totally miss the point of what this session was all about. Suffice to say that I anticipate the next sessions of Role Specific Training, Venue Training, and for those like me with Team leader roles there will be additional Leadership sessions being more detailed and in depth – that should keep them happy – or, as Eddie Izzard commented – just knee them (the naysayers) in the bollocks – it’s official!

The day before yesterday – so that would be Wednesday – I found myself at a bit of a loose end in the afternoon so I decided to get the camera out and have a go at smoke photography. This, in essence, is quite simple. You light an incense stick and take pictures of the smoke. As the pictures themselves are not very interesting the next thing to do is bugger about with them a bit in photoshop – other digital image processing software options are available

I think what I might do next time I try this is write a bit of a ‘tutorial’ as to how  I did it but for the time being here are a couple of shots from the Flickr Set – I hope you enjoy them

It’s about this time of year, when the current one is all but done, when some if us turn our thoughts to what the next one might look like. Some might be thinking, holy crap, where did 2011 go? If this year has flown by and what started with the best of intentions just turned into pretty much more of the same, then maybe you need to review how you go about shaping your year – and then ultimately your life.

It’s very easy to sit down over a glass of something fermented and say to yourself, next year I’m gonna do <insert whatever you want to achieve> – then maybe come next Christmas think – well I would have liked to have done that but, work, band, school, life, family (and any other excuses) kinda just got in the way or were of a higher priority. Well – they were only a higher priorty because you didn’t actually commit to your goal and make it a priority in itself.

The good news is you can actually do something about this if you want to and it really is very simple to do – why can I say this you may ask – because it’s what I do, and I’ve had another reasonably good year and ticked off a few things that I wanted to achieve – admittedly one or two went astray, nobody’s perfect eh?

So – I’m sharing with you my approach, by no means unique, take from it what you will – but one thing is certain – if you go into 2012 the same way as you did with 2011 and are not happy with the outcomes for this year then don’t be surprised if the outcomes for 2012 are broadly similar. A wiser man than me once said if you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you always got. Alternatively only a mad man would keep doing the same things and expect the outcome to be different.

I digress – here it is – much of it is based on the principle of SMART goal setting with a few added Ian K nuances:

1) Set yourself goals that are within your own power and volition to achieve - they MUST NOT be reliant on somebody else’s input or control. Self initiated, maintained and controlled is the way to go here folks.

2) Your goals must be stated in the positive and have a clearly defined outcome that can be evidenced. As an example a bad goal would be “I don’t want to be as fat as I am now” – A much better goal would be “I want to lose 14 pounds by Easter 2012″

3) Once you have your goal defined actually write it down – get yourself a goal “notebook” – a really nice one, one that you want to touch and open every day, one that gives you real pleasure just picking it up – In this notebook you will start by writing down your headline goal – please write it down – that act in itself starts the commitment process but also does some weird stuff to your brain too – won’t go into details but its sort of like when you choose a new car, suddenly you spot that model all the time (for a while) – this bit of your brain picks up on the fact that you’ve written it down so it must be important so I’ll keep an eye for things that help.

4) From then you will write down how you will achieve this goal and what it will mean to you when you achieve it – all in very strong and positive glowing terms – again this helps to shape your frame of mind as to why you need/want to do this thing!

5) Finally – and this is the key piece – you will write down the first step to achieving this goal and when you commit to doing it.

From here on in you then take control of achieving this goal – you take that first step, write it on a card or a post it note and you put it somewhere where you and others can see it – then everybody knows you are going to do ‘x’ on the way to your goal. This may be a daily task, a weekly task or otherwise but write it down, make it visible and “just do it” – then go back to your notebook, fill it in, complete that first step and define your next step – write it on another post it/card and repeat and rinse as necessary – before you know it you’ll be filling in your notebook daily, ticking off those tasks and steps and achieving goals left right and centre. If others see your tasks and goals you may be pleasantly surprised to find out that they actually help you achieve this goal – a double bonus – so don’t go all shy and English on me by keeping it a secret – get it out there and get on with it!

Of course you can choose to ignore all the above – make a new years resolution, have trouble working out how to get cracking with it, give it up by the 14th of Jan and let the rest of the year steam along until we get to Xmas 2012 and wonder what the feck happened this year – where did that go? I’ll tell you where – it went and you’ll be another year closer to your grave and another year of lost and unfulfilled potential.

So this year – if you want to make a change – make a change! Happy days

So earlier today whilst doing something rather innocuous (and a little bit silly frankly), the details of which I won’t go into here. I was reprimanded for my ‘childish behaviour’! This is quite a common occurrence in the Kershaw household and approaching 50 years of age I wonder if I will ever grow up. This then got me thinking – should I grow up? – what’s the point and what will I miss out on if I do. One of the great things we can learn from children is that failure doesn’t exist. As adults we can all too often stop doing something for fear of failure or, in some cases, not even start something because we think we may not be able to conclude it successfully. Imagine for one moment if children had the same attitude – for one thing, none of us would be able to walk! We’d have a go, fall over, think ‘bollocks to that’ and stay on the floor, much more comfortable down there anyway and much less hassle and pain. No – instead, you learn from the experience, make some changes, alter the approach, and have another go. We enter a positive feedback loop which ultimately ends up in ‘walking’. From here we can progress to fast walking and ultimately running. And all because we were childish enough not to know what failure means.

If something isn’t working then don’t treat this as failure, merely gather feedback from the situation, work out what to change, make the change and gather more feedback. If you retain this flexible and frankly childish approach to whatever it is that you want to try and achieve, you WILL achieve what you are setting out to do – subject to it being possible of course and within your control – but I feel that might be another post once I’ve worked on my own goals for 2012!

So here’s the story. Saturday mornings are usually spent walking the dog after dropping daughter off for her Saturday job – as a consequence we are typically out when postie turns up.
So on our return yesterday we have been ‘carded’, you know the score – tried to deliver a package but couldn’t.

Anyway – this particular instance there were two packages, one for me, with my name on it that needed signing for, and as it’s our daughter’s 18th on Tuesday there’s one for her that’s too big to fit through the letter box.
So off I toddle to the local depot with card and my wallet (carrying ID).
“ID please!” says counter postie, clearly there because of his excellent communication skills and public facing charisma and charm. My ID duly passed over – “I need ID for the other package”.
So the conversation then goes along the lines of she lives at the same address as me, can’t make it to the depot blah blah blah. All to no avail.
“We’re not allowed to hand over mail marked for somebody else!”
“OK – so can you just re-deliver it on Monday then please?”
“Yes, not a problem.”
Here’s where the logic is about to completely break down and that moment reached where you realise that dealing with an idiot and a jobsworth in the same human form is a recipe for frustration.
“So when you try and redeliver, and once again you’re not going to be able to put it through the letter box you’re going to have to knock on the door yes?”
“Well yes, of course!”
“OK, so on Monday, when that happens and she’s out and just me in the house, is your postie going to give the package to me?”
“Yes”
“Will I need ID for my daughter?”
“No”
“OK, so you’re happy to give me her package on my own doorstep, and you’re happy to give me my package now because I’ve proved who I am and where I live, but you’re not happy to give me her package now”
“Sorry mate, them’s the rules!”
FACEPALM!

So the BBC reports: “Former Fifa president Joao Havelange has resigned from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) days before an ethics hearing into his conduct.”

In all likelihood the case investigating his alleged corrupt activities during his involvement with ISL will be dropped – how convenient is that??? Surely this goes beyond being an internal IOC/FIFA matter – have any ‘laws’ been broken here (potentially/allegedly etc) and is it not the duty of some officaldom somewhere to see this sort of thing through?

Has he done this to protect Blatter in so much as what would he have said during his hearing that may have also implicated his old mate?

All too often things of this nature get conveniently swept under the metaphorical carpet – a new phrase needs to be coined – innocent until proven guilty should be replaced with Teflon Resignation – innocent because nobody can make the guilt stick.

If you followed my posts last month you will have spotted that I become bandless (out of choice) due to the hand pains I was getting.

Well the good news is that the Gig Grips are working great and following a great session I am pleased to accept the drum seat with Pete, Chris and Brian – otherwise known as Aquarius.

This is one of those bands that really knows how to make sure that the audience has a great time – all too often bands merely focus on what THEY want to do and forget that the reason they are there is to entertain the audience. These guys don’t have a set list – simply a whole bunch of songs they know and will play whatever it takes to get the crowd going, even inviting them up to sing, dance, join in and otherwise take part in the show.

The band started life in 1974 and although there was a hiatus from the mid 80′s to the mid noughties they are still going strong and I am pleased to be able to join them. Full details coming soon and my first outing will be in the new year – watch this space.

So I was attending a visit to the hygienist and, following the treatment which involved copious amounts of anaesthetic to the right side of my mouth, we got on to the sales pitch. This particular one was related to the new range of interdental brushes they are recommending. This was a sales pitch I didn’t mind as I currently use TePe’s as pat of my daily cleaning routine.

So – with much aplomb the hygienist proceeded to tell me about these new brushes, produced one of the appropriate diameter and proceeded to deploy said brush in a demo of effectiveness beween two teeth on my ‘numb’ side.

“Can you feel the difference?” She says

Me, still numb and with brushing activity still going on, shakes head and mumbles a “No!”

“Well you’re the first person to have said that” she explains in a somewhat dejected fashion pulling the brush out.

“That side of my mouth is numb and I can’t feel anything…..”

Cue facepalm! and a further demonstration on the other side of my mouth

Unless you’ve hibernated already for the winter you will have no doubt noticed facial hair sprouting up in all kinds of hitherto clean shaven places. My very own top lip was one of these areas usually devoid of growth save for the odd 2-3 day can’t be arsed to shave stubble type of unkempt looks.

Well, the reason for all this hirsute activity is the concept of Movember – this is where chaps all over the globe grow a mo’ in the name of charidee.

Anyway – what strikes me is the difference between the sexes when it comes to raising cash for causes. Women, well, they tend to go on some amazing epic affairs such as moonwalks (late night sponsored walks with their tops off), races for life and so on. There are plenty of stories about the fantastic things women do to extract your hard earned for their chosen charity.

What do men do? Revert to type, become lazy and choose NOT TO SHAVE for a month. Not entirely earth shattering or physically challenging (for most anyway). So with much hype and public ridicule I’ve been cultivating my own for the last few weeks along with a few colleagues – if you fancy donating to either me or the team please visit this site and your Movember donation will be appreciated.

For now – here’s a visual update – look away if easily offended or don’t care to be taken back to some 70′s porn madness.

Drumming is taking a back seat for a while whilst I try and sort out a rather worrying pain in my hands – until further announcements I have now quit all band activity and wish my friends at Radio Clash well in their quest for a replacement.

I have purchased a set of gig grips, pictured below, and I’m hoping these will do the job – if they don’t I’ll be remaining bandless – if they do, watch this space ….