All Blog Posts (156)

A very Happy Springtime to all Tall Poppies!

Cheers and enjoy!

mariana

It is very easy when you decide to "fix" some things in your life to try and fix everything at once - with the result that usually very little really gets fixed, permanently. Presently I have two fixes in mind: to reduce my waistline to 26" by 26 March 2012 and to get my paper flow under control.

Target 26 came first. 

It started after I attended an introductory NLP workshop and was reminded of some of the awesome things that I had achieved in the past, simply by…

This is a new blog post at Stories My Nana Tells.

The idea of setting three words to help guide you and keep you on track in achieving your goals comes from Chris Brogan, who outlines in his blog how you can cut through all the mission statements, visions and strategic planning by selecting three essential words.

Quoting from his own article at the beginning of 2009, he wrote:  “If you’re not familiar with the exercise, the object is to come up with three words that you use…

The Australian Conference will be held in Perth, Western Australia on July 30, 2011.

Update: We are mobile!

I think we have everything under control - for my launch into the USA next week.

This is what we have done: )

• Skype for phone calls/video set up on the Notebook,
• New email addresses at GMail, (one personal and one for general emails)
• Special email address for Stories My Nana Tells comes to Notebook outlook.
• Logged email addresses for…

My blog post A Mother's Prayer was written some time ago and today I have been cleaning up my office. 

Amongst some old papers, I found some lovely photos of my daughter, Annette, and decided to share them with you. Like all children, she changed to look at and yet remained the same through the years.…

Latest News From Stories My Nana Tells Come and read the story of our newest character: Growly Granddad. It will inspire you. Visit here

Dear Minister Ferguson

The electorate has always been able to communicate directly with the Prime Minister, through his or her office email address, at Parliament House until now.

Almost all Federal Members of Parliament have a direct email box @aph.gov.au – and it is extraordinary that the Prime Minister should choose to have her  usual @aph.gov.au email address closed, when matters of great future importance are being considered.

Make no…

I recently read some statistics out of the USA (Snyder,H), the most disturbing one of all was that 14% of  all victims of Sexual Assault reported to Law Enforcement Agencies were under the age of 6.  This only goes to strengthen my conviction about the need to start Abuse Prevention Education as young as possible.…

Praise IS better than Prozac! The greatest praise you can give an author is to engage with them, in their books.  I have been meaning to ask you, "What do you think about books and how we interact with them? Do you "own" your own books?"

It seems to me that every book needs to be owned – its margins written in and phrases underlined. At first, the idea of ‘defacing’ a book by adding your own thoughts to it might shock you, but there is nothing…

My Dad featured as the first character in Stories My Nana Tells - being introduced to our readers as a father and grandfather.  Characters at Stories My Nana Tells

Nono (real name William) is 92 - will soon be 93 - and the skin on his legs, in particular, has become fragile over the years. A bump or a knock and the skin tears very easily.  So, now I take him swimming in the ocean once a week to help…

 …

A lot of the fun in social media and networking on line comes when we can chat together and share ideas, comments and updates. 

Not everyone wants to use Facebook or join a Membership network - but still wants to be able to share conversations and leave comments.

 …

There were a number of conversations being held on Facebook today and yesterday, about whether any fireworks events planned for Australia Day should be cancelled and the money donated to the various flood relief appeals.

Some Facebook pages were quickly set up to engage the discussion and the overwhelming view was that it was too late to cancel and in the light of the flood tragedies on the East Coast and the…

Updated - within two days, Swan Districts had the financial support they needed guaranteed.  Thank you, very much.  See the comment below.

Through LinkedIn, the CEO of the Swan Districts WAFL club, Brendon Parker has sent a request.

The Club is aiming at sending 50 plus players and support staff to assist in the relief effort. We are teaming with the SAS…

It is January 12 - 2011. The East Coast of Australia is in the grip of the worst floods this country has ever seen, since it was settled over 200 years ago.

As a nation, we have spent the past 24 hours mesmerised by the tragedy unfolding before us on live TV.  I have many friends on Twitter and Facebook in Queensland and the Gold Coast / Northern New South Wales. We have family in Brisbane. I have business friends of…

Having never done it properly before, I have decided to collate all my printed photos into a set of lovely albums.

I bought a matching set of 10 at Things over the holiday break. They will hold 2,000 photos and postcards and I bought as many albums as I expected to need, so that they will make a beautful display as well as keeping my precious pictures safe.

Once I…

One of my favourite performers is Neil Diamond and I really love his song "Coming To America".  It has great vibrancy and enthusiasm. This version was filmed, live, in 2002 in Dublin. Neil Diamond in Ireland

Songs like Brooklyn Roads are among my favourites, too, and it will be really exciting to see and hear him live in Perth on March 29, 2011. Less…