Do you have wifi?

Is it just me, or is there now an innate expectation that most pubs, restaurants, hotels and anywhere else you have to spend a fair amount of time, will have wifi? Even my hairdresser has wifi.

And yet there are still those quaint businesses who are determined not to buy into this new-fangled technology of the twenty-first century. When you ask the owners of such establishments whether they have wifi they almost seem proud of the fact that they don't. However, approach the staff, who are probably asked several times a day, and they are somewhat more contrite at this obvious oversight.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a big fan of being 'on' at all times. By this I mean the inability to ever switch off, be still and be out of touch once in a while. However, this has very little to do with wifi or not to wifi. Wifi is now the ubiquitous medium for us to access our 'stuff' be that newspapers, magazines, books, music, film, ideas and notes. Increasingly, as more of our 'stuff' is stored in fluffy clouds, we will need wifi to access it. Businesses that don't get this will simply be left behind.

I was in the pub today at a 'business-cum-christmas-catch-up' meeting and there was no wifi! I guarantee you we will not be meeting there again, nor would we consider it to be a viable venue for future events, because without wifi it is simply sub par and most definitely behind the curve.

Unless BT Openzone fills in the gap, I predict that businesses that do not get with the programme will simply be left behind. Love it or loathe it, Wifi is going to be more important than having a telephone.

Slow and Steady

It's a bit late but this is just a quick note to say, I did it!

The Great Birmingham Run of course, or the 'Birmingham Half marathon', pre-rebrand. And this year, although it was bigger than better I was slower than ever. At 2.15 I finished in my slowest ever half marathon time, a good 10 mintues slower than last year. The frustrating thing is I'm not really sure why, although I had done far less training than last year so that may have had something to do it.

But when all's said and done, I still finished, in a fairly respectable time, to most people. Just not for me. Once you have set your standards and your goals - a 4.30 NYC marathon next year in case you were wondering - it's quite difficult to accept anything less than progress. I did thoroughly enjoy it, even bumping into an old family friend on the way round. There is nothing better than running round familiar streets, when you are pushing your body to it's limit.

The lesson from this run? Sheryl needs to run faster (first ever third person self-reference, what is that a sign of?) I think I see the first of my 2012 resolutions already - to join a running club!

Finding my own calm

After two weeks of doing nothing on a beach I returned to work as chilled out as I could possibly be. I had left the blackberry at home and forgotten my mobile phone in the car at Gatwick, so all in all I was pretty much uncontactable, apart from via iPad of course. For books, you understand!

This semi-comatose state was great, until I to got back to work. It has taken me two weeks to properly engage brain. On returning to the midst of a flurry of last-minute budget changes and general head-scratching, I felt somewhat distant from it all, and even felt a tad 'left out' of all of the chaos, which I obviously thrive on as well as loathe.

And then there's the economy, which has generally gone from bad to worse to diabolical. It would be easy to feel a sense of uneasiness, anxiety, panic even. Thanks to the genuine r and r I enjoyed whilst away I still have a strong sense of inner calm. Hopefully they effects will longer than the golden tan!

As Good As It Gets

Yes, I am on holiday.

I haven't had a proper holiday for a couple of years now, so this latest break has been carefully planned out to present the maximum opportunity for total destressing, chilling out and doing pretty much nothing. Hence, I decided to swap the running shoes that normally accompany me, for me yoga mat.

Sticking true to my new year's resolutions I strolled through LGW with guitar in hand and had no problems carrying it on to the Virgin flight.  This too was a good omen to the rest of the holiday.

This isn't trip advisor so I'll spare the amateur reviews.  Suffice to say, this latest trip has just gone from 'great' to 'nirvana' when for our second week we now have a free upgrade to the cottage which is closest to the beach - spitting distance in fact.  And so I practiced my Yoga on the beach this morning, with the sounds of the waves lapping the shore.  If this is as good as it gets, I'm happy.

Wired for Sound

OMG! Napster has finally gone apple here in the UK.

I do believe it was way back in September last year that napster announced it's iPhone app was coming to the UK. Blogs went crazy, tech magazines went into overdrive - the granddaddy of music downloading was back in the game. OK, so I'm exaggerating slightly but I think you catch my drift.

Unfortunately there was then a pregnant pause, of about 9 months, until the thing finally went live last month. The fanfare seems to have been scaled back so much this time around that I actually heard nothing, nada. I just happened to be telling my sister how I couldn't wait to get rid of my spotify subscription when the napster app finally arrived, and managed to stumble on it. I guess the napster marketing team were scared of another disappointment so muffled the fanfare.

Anyway, no use crying over spilt milk it's here now and that's all that matters. Now people will see how second-rate spotify really is. Napster wins hands down in terms of back catalogue, user interface and functionality. And all this just in time for my latest favourite purchase, my ipad2. Whoop whoop!!!!

Over The Rainbow

There's something about the changeable nature of Spring weather.

This year my mood seems to be as variable as the British weather.  Sunny and bright one minute, downpours the next.  Referring back to my DIY psychoanalysis babble book I am reasonably confident that I know the source of my emotional swing-ometer cum newton's cradle.

Put simply I am frazzled, trying to do way too much.  Add to that the fact there is a new Board at work, which brings the usual tension, politics, navel-gazing and land-grabbing.  But mostly I am missing one person at work who really 'got' me, someone I really clicked with - even if it was, at times, like working for Miranda, aka Anna Wintour's caricature in The Devil Wears Prada.

Anyway, on one particularly crazy busy day, while in my boss's office peddling hard towards the next powerpoint deadline, I suddenly spotted a rainbow, a double rainbow at that.  Lovely, just the thing to take your mind off life, if only for a few seconds.

American Idle Judges

I was intrigued to see how American Idol would fare without Simon’s semi-rehearsed, but nevertheless hilarious one-liners. Or his childish giggling with Randy, to the point of near tears. And how would Steve Tyler’s personality fit in the same studio as Ryan Seacrest’s ego? The will-she, won’t she surrounding J-Lo had not made the small print, let alone the headlines here in the UK so I was fairly indifferent about the obligatory, glamorous eye-candy judge appointment. I was very pleased that there was no Ellen De Generes. Don’t get me wrong she was incredibly witty and obviously a big music fan. But seriously, whoever chose her for last season needs to be fired.
So back onto this season’s panel. They are called judges for a reason. They are there to judge whether the batch of sugary sweet, shaggy-dog stories and downright crazy, are worthy of being given a shot at American Idol. Everyone knows that there is a pre-screening process of sorts, guaranteeing TV gold by putting through the best and the worst to be filmed. This is where the judges earn their kudos. Their job is to find someone who can either sing reasonably well and win the people over with their charisma, or completely blow them away vocally and become a major recording artist. We all know that only a handful of finalists have gone on to become anywhere near Idol status. We also know that becoming a recording artist is about more than just being a good singer. Heck, sometimes the singing is totally irrelevant and it it’s purely about ambition and hard work – Madonna, Spice Girls and, I’m afraid, J-Lo herself - all fit well in that category.

The role of the Judges, therefore, is to see past the everyday mediocrity of wedding singers, cruise ship singers, ‘water for lunch’ singers, as Simon calls them, and find something special. Over the years we have seen the judges argue about seemingly good singers who do or don’t have ‘it’. This is what they are paid to do. Every armchair fan can tell whether or not someone can hold a note. They want to hear what the industry professionals really think. They want to see whether that small town kid who looks like the girl next door, is about to have their lives changed. Simon knows this, hence why he is so tough to please. He also knows that the audience will eventually get bored of mediocre singers, which is why I believe last year’s X Factor attracted so much controversy – google Gamu and Cher Lloyd. It was all about finding something completely different.
So far, Steve Tyler is the best thing on American Idol but looks bored by the end of each day. J-Lo claims to be unable to say no, but is actually very good at sarcastic put-downs. And with the panel so biased towards a bland, idle “yes”, even Randy has joined the love-fest. Lets hope they toughen up by Hollywood.

Q Do you want to walk with me, or run on your own?

This is the question my other half asked me on Sunday morning as I was doing up the laces to my running shoes.

Beset by a knee injury, he has taken to walking a few miles on a Sunday morning, whilst I run almost every day, and usually clock in a long run (9 m +) at the week-end.  Concerned that we don't spend enough time together, I am pushing for more family mealtimes, more family days out, and other types of 'glue'.  Its a combination of the textbooks, my traditional, religious upbringing and my common sense, that tell me this 'glue' is important.

Glue is the perfect adhesive when things are meant to be stuck together, and you are using the right type of glue.  Being 'stuck together' is the perfect state when you believe the same things, have the same things in common, are heading in the same direction, and at the same pace.  When some, or all of the above, is not true, being stuck together is actually pretty uncomfortable, full of compromise and can causes a lot of friction, heat and often pain.

I have a wise old owl friend who told me years ago, that many couples diverge and converge at different times of their partnership.  A bit like the ebb and flow of a river, the dynamics change, and it causes a little bit of shifting.  Now, I don't know many couples who have a perfect relationship, or even one that I envy, if truth be told.  Picking the right partner is not something that is taught at any stage of life and so most of us get it wrong - fact!  So, I'm thinking that maybe the trick here is not trying to force the compromise, in order to conform to the 'state' that we think we should be in - 'stuck together', blissfully happy all the time, soul mates.  We have two clear choices - we can either co-exist in close proximity but perhaps ditching the matching kagools, or we can create artificial harmony with compromise that becomes so compromising we call it quits.

For now, I'm going to run on my own.

Urban myth: illegal downloading stealing legit album sales

Remember when people thought the Earth was flat, or that cannabis was completely harmless, that Terry Wogan did not wear a hair piece, and that Coca Cola invented Santa.

If people hear something often enough, they start to believe it. Album and single sales started to decline around the time the Internet started to grow, ergo illegal downloading took revenue from the music industry. Absolute and utter poppycock, complete bobbins, fabricated nonsense spun by lazy music executives who can't come up with new ways to make money in a rapidly changing world.

Jessie J, she of absolutely amazing talent, was heard saying on Radio 1 yesterday "fans don't realise that if they download my music illegally I won't be able to make a second album". Hmmm, let me get this straight. Firstly, and I've said this before, does she really think that every illegal download would have been a single/album sale? She's damn good, and possibly the best new talent to come out of the UK, but really?! Second, surely her "fans" are actually very likely to buy her music in a legit way, be that download or physical, as well as going to her concerts and subscribing to whatever else her mgmt company has the commercial sense to put out there.

What is definitely progress, is the fact that music you hear on the radio will now be available to download immediately. At last! It's only taken the labels a million years to realise that this is by far one of the biggest frustrations about trying to buy music to listen to as soon as you first hear it. Maybe they are finally starting to think about how people consume music, rather than thinking about the transaction - legit or not - these are two completely different things and probably increasingly unrelated.

Every day's a School Day

I always thought that I was a glutton for change.  I thrive on the learning that comes from taking the experience from situation number 1, applying it to situation number 2, seeing whether it gives the expected result and altering my approach accordingly.  Change may as well be my middle name.  Or so I thought, until a recent reorganisation left me feeling less than positive about the new landscaoe that was being drawn.

In a challenging, new corporate environment I had been merrily filling a sheryl-shaped void for the last 18 months, bringing light and delight to one and all (ok, maybe not all).  But suddenly it felt as though my world, and everything familiar was being turned on its head.  Things were changing and I was no longer calling the shots when it came to my place in that world.  Not sure where exactly I was, or presently am, on the change curve, but my initial reaction was to fight this feeling of a lack of control, with the need to take control.  So I insisted on certain outcomes, and even considered resigning altogether - in short, hurling my toys out of the pram and onto the nursery floor, hitting a few of the other children and one of the nursery teachers on the way down.

A wise owl told me to be patient, don't do anything rash, give people time before making snap judgements.  And they were absolutely right.  Why I made such a fuss in the first place I really don't know.  And even if my worst fears come to fruition, I can always do something about it.  So worrying about the change is surely wasted energy.  This I have learnt today.

NY Resolutions - One week in and going strong

I am finding this new take on resolutions delightfully energising.

I have strummed on my guitar virtually every day since watching with envy at the frolics and fun of the band playing Jools' annual hootenanny.  I know now a number of chords and have even taken to playing quite a few 3-chord songs - including 'The Star Spangled Banner', Irreplaceable and many many songs made famous by the Everly Brothers, who my Mother used to love - she has played and written songs for years.

I am still using my sumptuous Sanctuary, Champneys and Clarins spa products every day.  This one is easy as I have obviously reached an age where my friends are both mature and insightful enough to buy me these indulgences for birthday and Christmas pressies - lush.  So I don't even need to spend a penny to keep this one!

My other resolutions are also going well - eating meals regularly with the family, blogging more(!) and I am certainly planning to buy the Sunday Times tomorrow and spend at least an hour reading it in bed.

One week in and all is well.  Give it a month and we'll see :)

Don't Stop, Start

Last year felt like a really tough, fairly stressed out year.

But is it all just relative? I mean, I am still in good health, still have a good job, and a supportive family. So why am I beating myself up about gaining a few pounds, anxious about my next move at work and tense about improving happiness at home? I really do not know, but I think it's what some people would call being ungrateful, others ambitious.

Either way, it's that time of year when, even if you swear you don't, we all make resolutions.

We all look back at the past year, grade ourselves for both effort and achievement, before arriving at the one thing that we need to fix in order to be a better person.

Stop smoking, speeding, gossiping, drinking, shopping, eating too much, and a myriad of others which tend to all be of a similar bent. They involve us stopping a habit that we currently enjoy, on some level. Hence why they are often doomed to fail.

So I agree wholeheartedly with Alice Du Parcq in this Sunday's Style magazine, whose solution to this conundrum was to take something up, not give something up.

For once, I cannot wait to throw myself into my list of resolutions, which include learning to play guitar, and using spa bath products everyday.

I, for one, am giving up the giving up!