Into 2009 and I’m already thinking of a long weekend in June in Somerset. Here is one I took from the top of the hill at the Pyramid Stage in June 2008.
I was both surprised and pleased at the way it turned out. ~It was a 3 second exposure with the camera balanced on my knee for stability.
It makes me want to be back there …….
My business is located on a small industrial estate. This year has been something of a roller coaster ride at work ending with a bit of a nasty crash. Christmas has been and gone. We had two bank holidays and a weekend to follow - fantastic. When I got up to come back to work on Monday my better half was not best pleased - “You should be here, with the family!” , I was told. I’m afraid I thought I should be at work and went.
I’ve been at work every day since then and only one, only one of the other businesses on our estate has been open for business. There will also be a bank holiday tomorrow - leaving only Friday as a potential day for work this week. Somehow I don’t expect anyone to come in then either. So this entire week has be taken as some kind of extra holiday by all on this estate and I’m sure this has been repeated elsewhere.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I feel more than ever that I have to get my head down at work given the global economic crisis we are currently facing. The only way I see out is to graft - and not to take an unecessarily extended Xmas break. Is it just me??
Over the years there have been times when I have found that an element, or very occasionally two, of my life have seemed out of my own control. Having other elements of my life in order, and therefore witihin my own control at those times, has enabled me to work through those issues. So, for example, if things in my working life were out of kilter, a stable and happy home life has allowed me to keep things in perspective and therefore ultimately resolve whatever was causing the work related problem.
This year has been unusual. Earlier posts have identified that there is cause for concern at work. Coincidentally things at home are far from perfect too. Relations with my better half are at an all time low which is also now impacting on the children. Additionally my nonagenarian parents, who still live in their own home have now reached the point at which they really cannot cope with looking after themselves and the house and garden. Unfortunately, like many before them, they are not able to recognise that fact, and stubbornly reject any gentle advice from me or my siblings.
I’m currently finding it very difficult to resolve any of the above. Not quite sure what to do about that - so I am, properly - Out of Control.
I have spent the last month or so concentrating on getting equipment shipped to the US. Yes, the interim deal came off so we have been delivering the outstanding orders via a different route. Thankfully, that company also agreed to pay cash which has pulled our overdraft back from the brink. Now that we have shipped the backlog it is still not clear if we will have someone to work with from now on, and certainly not clear that we will ever receive payment for what we are already owed. If I don’t get a positive response soon I will have to try to find a new partner to work with in the US - should be fun!!
For now, though, I need to graft hard to pull enough business in to keep us going over the coming months - no fun at all!!!
I received a call from my failed US customer today. I had been trying (in vain) to get him to talk to me since his last call, so I was not expecting to hear from him.
He has outstanding orders for our products from his customers which he cannot fulfil because he already owes us a large sum of money, and I will not ship. He tells me he has brokered a deal with another company who will pay us in advance for those products. Apparently the idea is for that company to take over from the ashes of this one, and take over our product line too.
It sounds good, as it will put cash in the bank, and may ultimately mean that we will be paid for the outstanding debt too. Unfortunately I think I have to go with it too, because I can’t afford not to, but I’m already regretting it before the event. I really don’t want to carry on doing business with people who are SO untrustworthy and lacking of any integrity.
I feel trapped into joining forces with a company I know only a little about, on the sayso of someone whose actions have taken away any respect I might previously have had for him.
Business in the modern world? Not a lot of fun.
If we think about lost civilisations of the past we wonder what caused their demise. Natural disaster of one sort or another is the most obvious candidate I guess most of us would point to.
Looking at the state of the world we all now live in, it occurs to me that our civilisation might be considered a candidate for becoming ‘lost’. Now you may consider that I’m being somewhat pessimistic, but honestly we really aren’t doing very well are we?
I can envisage, In thousands of years time the people of some new civilisation investigating the remains of our lost civilisation, and wondering what caused our demise! Credit crunch?
Just a thought.
Spooky Skeleton
As a bit of light relief, here is a photograph I took during a recent trip to the Natural History Museum in London with my children. It was a bit of a chaotic vist as the schools were off and it was also raining - so every man an his dog were there! Didn’t stop it being interesting though.
The skeleton was hanging in front of a stained glasss window.
At first glance it almost looks to be part of the window itself.
On Friday I finally received a phone call from our US customer to tell me that they were going to shut their operation down next week. He said he was working on a deal with another company to ressurect it from the ashes, but given his recent track history of lies, I don’t hold out much hope.
So, we now have to attempt to deal with an approximately £25k hole in our finances . For a small operation like ours it will be very painful - quite possibly fatal. One thing is certain, we will not be paying ourselves a salary for the next few months.
The pressure of the situation is already impacting life at home. I am not the happiest person to be around right now and the forthcoming financial implications will soon start to make things worse for all of us.
I may have mentioned in an ealier post that I part own a small business. Eight years ago I established a business relationship with a company based in the USA. They sell our products in the US badged as their own. It has been a reasonably fruitful association for both parties with inevitable ups and downs over time. As you might expect we have helped each other out when things got difficult.
I’ve been doing international business for almost 25 years now and have made some very good friends around the world, having met them in a business environment. I still do business with a good number of them and the business we do together has a strong element of trust. I thought I had reached that point with the CEO of the US company we work with. So much so that when he recently asked me to make a shipment of product, even though he had not paid for the previous shipment, I did. The reason I did was because he told me that he had wire tranferred the money - but they need the good urgently. The big mistake I made was to trust him at his word. I did this because I did not imagine that he would lie to me.
Now, he will not communicate with me in any way. The relationship is at an end. The consequneces of his having stolen from us, and my naivety/stupidity are severe. We have a huge hole in our cash flow and may not recover from it.
If anyone has come across this blog and even read a bit - they will have quickly realised that I have not really got going with it. I was coming to the conclusion that another mundane life really wasn’t worth writing about. Not much of interest to the wider community to say the least.
The events of the last months, and in particular, the last few weeks have changed my mind. I have more than just a feeling that my life and those around me are about to be profoundly affected by this credit crunch thing.
So, starting today, I’m going to write about how it impacts on my life and those near and dear to me. Without going into exact details (for obvious reasons) I’m going to try to be as open as I can, warts and all. There is a stong possibility that it will get messy, very messy.
Just another bloke
