Dark Words For A Dark Soul #blogboost http://ping.fm/kk77f

Are you a FIFO parent? This story is for you. http://ping.fm/7DzuH

A Pinprick Of Light http://ping.fm/SazJG

Three Words – Touch, Quiet, Gift

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 as compass points for your efforts over the year to come. They’re not resolutions. They’re ways of framing what you plan to do in the coming year.” 

Rather than being hard and fast objectives, the words you choose should be multifunctional and provide a number of different ways of being applied …. Nana’s Blog – Three Words

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How Quirky Is Your Sense Of Humour?

On the way back to the car park after this morning’s breakfast, I asked a complete stranger if I could share a joke with him. He looked a bit quizzical but said yes.

I pointed out a sign which offered “Wellness Scanning” visually represented by a woman in a white coat looking through a microscope.

I said to him – Look at that! They will scan you to see if you have any wellness in you and if you do, they will get rid of it for you, immediately.

He nearly wet himself laughing and said the word “wellness” will never be the same for him again.

I said “I don’t have “wellness.” I am well, thank you very much.”

Boneyard – A Poem

This is a beautiful poem and I love sharing it.
http://ping.fm/rFvcN

Blog Post – How To Get Your Own Facebook Page Name

Just updated the blog at Stories My Nana Tells with a new post on how to get your own unique name for your business page on Facebook
http://ping.fm/afNcD

Blog Post: Disappearing Work

I am devastated! 500 words of notes on nine hours of work just disappeared off the screen, when I did a draft update in my wordpress blog. It’s 2:00am and I have to be up again no later than 7:00am. Totally shattered.

Seeking FIVE outstanding women – do you know one?

The Women’s Information Network (The WIN) is creating a series of International Conferences around the world in 2011 presented under the banner of  Global Women’s Summits.

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

The  founder of WIN, Dr. Paula Fellingham will be a Keynote speaker at each event as well as Conference Presenter. Dr. Fellingham is an internationally recognised speaker, writer and a passionate activist in progressing issues of humanity.

You can read Dr. Paula Fellingham’s Story here Global Women’s Summits

We are seeking nominations of FIVE outstanding Australian women, who will be honoured by Dr. Paula Fellingham during the closing session of the AUSTRALIAN conference, which will be held at the Good Earth Hotel in PERTH on JULY 30, 2011.

Who would you like to nominate?

Dr. Fellingham will honour an outstanding woman in each of the following categories:

• Leader of an organization
• Community (school, religious community etc.)
• Business
• Family
• Nation (country, government, military service etc.)

You are invited to submit your nomination (to be received by June 28, 2011) by sending an initial email to
Global Women’s Summit – Perth and give us the details of your nomination.

Once your nomination has been received, Lesley Dewar will contact the nominees and liaise with Global Women’s Summits to assist in selecting the five woman to be honoured at the event.

We look forward to hearing from you – with powerful recommendations of five women who should be honoured for their roles in their communities.

When making your nomination, please advise the following:

1.   Name of the recipient and their email address

2.   Name of the nominator and their email address

3.   Description of service

4.   Their picture (this can be supplied after the nominee has been selected)

Once the award winner has been posted, they will be notified that they are a recipient of a Global Women’s Summit Outstanding Leadership Award, as will their Nominator.

GWS Leadership Award recipients will receive the following:

• ·       Global recognition for their outstanding leadership with the placement of their picture and description of service on the Global Women’s Summits website for one year.
• ·       Placement of their picture and description of service on The Women’s Information Network website for one year.
• ·       Recognition at the GWS event in their country with a free ticket for themselves and one for a friend.
• ·       Membership in The Women’s Information Network WINNER’S CIRCLE for one full year. (Value=$239.40)
• ·       GWS Outstanding Leadership Award certificate presented by Paula Fellingham.

Leadership Workshop with Dr. Paula Fellingham

In addition, she offers interested  women an opportunity to participate in a one hour workshop on Leadership and Media Training – either on the night before the event or for an hour before the main conference commences.  For non-conference attendees, there is a nominal fee for the workshop.

For full information on the Global Conferences, go to their website

Thank you for honoring the women in leadership in your network.

Nominate Your Candidate Here

Getting there is half the fun!

Setting out to go around the USA and Canada for six weeks, most of the time on your own, is a great adventure.  The first part of this event was to get from Perth, Western Australia to Los Angeles and then to meet Pauline in New York for a couple of days.  From there, we had to come home to Toronto where I would stay for a week with her and my son, Colin. He actually took a week off work to hang out with me – how cool is that!

The Perth to LA leg had the beginnings of a big adventure – when I missed my first flight out of Australia  which I blogged earlier . Thanks to Qantas, the LA arrival was not only on time, but even a few minutes early.

At LAX, I took a shuttle out to The Ayres Hotel in Hawthorne near Manhattan Beach.  Easy – except the shuttle went around Tom Bradley Airport at least three times until we had five passengers and then we took off.  I was first on the shuttle and second last off.  The Ayres Hotel looked exactly like its pictures; another passenger told me a little about it and I got to the reservation desk around 10:00am.  Bit early for a 3:00pm check-in, but there was little option.  The desk clerk says “the computer says ‘No!’ We have no reservation for you.”  Beg your pardon, sir?  No reservation?

I took my notebook out of its case, fired it up on the desk and found the confirmation.  ”Well, ” he says “I guess we had better find you a room.”  My printing had arrived, delivered direct from Vista print and Linda Hollander, the organizer of Women’s Small Business Expo had been given it by the hotel staff, they assuming that everything coming in was for her.  She brought it out for me and I went to my beautiful room.  How good was this – early check-in instead of having to hang around for three or four hours and meeting the conference organizer early.

Later that evening, I had dinner in the bar; the food was excellent, the beer very good and I was very relaxed about setting up at 6:00am the next day for the expo.  Except I had no idea how my showcase table would look.  Around 1:00am (local time) I suddenly woke up, had brilliant idea of how to put it together   A Little Ingenuity in LA and then worked for the rest of the night. So by the time I got to set up at the Expo at 6:00am – I had already been up since the middle of the night.  An afternoon nap, the day before, had definitely not been a good idea.

What a global, story telling Nana needs to do her job well.

The whole Expo was excellent; I was very happy with the display I put together and packing up that night didn’t take too long.  After that, it was down to the Matisse Restaurant for an after work drink, dinner and to spend some time networking with any of the ladies who were still there (hopefully) from the Expo.  I spent some very profitable networking time talking with Robbie Motter, Sheila A Caruso and Evelyn Gray.  These ladies gave me so many names and contacts to catch up while I was in the US.  I got to bed about 1:45am – a full twenty four hour, on the go day.

I spent part of the next morning trying to buy a mobile phone – but it was all too hard.  So, I decided to stick to Skype.  Maybe I will change my mind later.  Met a LinkedIn friend, Todd, for lunch and we had a long talk about his plans for the new book he has written and how I might be able to help him through my network.  He is sending me a copy by email and I will check it out when I get to Toronto.

Packed my suitcase later that night, while I watched the Royal Wedding (yes, had another afternoon nap and got to eat around 10:00pm again) so, I was up from just after midnight until I left the hotel to catch my 8:10am flight for New York.  During the evening, I took

Merci, my friends.

the time to write 12 or so “Merci” cards for some of the women who had given me great advice and friendship during the Expo.  The cab driver wasn’t too sure of the Qantas departure terminal at Tom Bradley International Airport but I had already checked the flight (Q107 for NY) was on time and had no trouble getting myself and my luggage through check in.  The Qantas desk was virtually deserted at that time of the day in LA but the plane was actually full, once we left for New York.  The entertainment system was not working – but I wasn’t too worried. NY is only about a four hour flight from LA and the Australian cabin crew were fine.

Pauline had told me to grab a Yellow Cab – flat fare, $US45.00 plus a tip (about 20%).  I went with a shuttle – $US19.00 plus a tip.  My Hotel was right alongside the World Trade Centre site  World Trade Hotel – Club Quarters

Pauline was checking in first and had sent me an email (at about 5:30am) to meet her that evening uptown at a very swish restaurant for dinner at 9:00pm after drinks at The Plaza around 8:30pm.  Sounded very nice – very New York.

The traffic was horrendous – even the shuttle driver said it was bad for a Friday night in New York. I was the last to be dropped off.  He had no idea how to get to 140 Washington Street, because there are road closures everywhere while the new Memorials and buildings are going up on the old WTC sites. I arrived, after many detours and map readings, about 8:30am. No Pauline!

She only had a short flight down from Toronto to New York and had been leaving about 3:30 in the afternoon.  No Pauline!  Me, with no phone.  Skype NOT working on my notebook, even though we checked it before I left Australia. Out comes the notebook – again.  I fired it up – no more emails.  Couldn’t check in without her.  No mention of me as her guest. I found her cell phone number and amazingly, Google offered me FREE calls in the US because I have a Gmail account.  Phoned her cell; left a message.  Still none the wiser and started to really worry about what might have happened to her.

By now it was 9:00pm and the Hotel phoned the restaurant.  Sorry, that party has not arrived.  I shot off a quick email to Colin, and Warren and Lisa at home because they may have been able to phone her, to say I had lost Pauline in New York.  Colin’s cell phone was off, so my Google phone was of no help anyway.  Barely had the emails gone, when she arrived.

There had been a shooting in the tunnel her shuttle driver would have taken from the airport (no, she didn’t take a cab either). All the traffic was diverted – she had taken over six hours to complete the trip from Toronto to the NY hotel.

A quick email to say she was found; we checked in, dropped our luggage and repaired to the lounge on the 20th floor for a good strong drink. Then some food, a shower, a good sleep and we were ready to hit New York!

How Can I Go To America Without My iPhone?

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 uploading photos to both Facebook accounts, we use Twitpic for Twitter.
• Have secure webmail to access emails sent to the website
• New passwords and email addresses set up for LinkedIn and Ning.
• Facebook and Twitter are fine (with new passwords)

• Notebook is set up with cordless mouse and WiFi connection
• New card reader installed and used for uploading photos from camera to notebook, to web and blogs.
• Bought a new 16g memory card for the camera
• Have spare camera battery;
• Bought three x 4g flashdrives and an external 500g passport harddrive.
• Have bought a Sany0 Bloggie for taking videos – need a bit of practice on that one!
• Have a converter for US power

What have I forgotten? Please let me know!

This is part of the great adventure of Nana’s Walkabout.  Finding new ways to stay in touch, keep up to date and accept the inevitable glitches and surprises that will come out of taking on the challenge.  Who knows what exciting new stories we will have to share in Nana’s Blog!

Oh, and by the way, just so that you don’t think I am getting away without any problems, one of the two hard drives in the server failed yesterday.  My IT guys will have to sort that out while I am not here. That’s down to my Dad, Warren, the electrician installing the new solar power and the IT guys to work out between them.

Preparing to be away for six weeks without my fabulous iPhone.

The idea of setting off on a six week trip around the USA and Canada (without my fabulous iPhone) was initially a terrifying thought.  For the past fifteen months or so, my iPhone was my lifesaver: while I had a frozen shoulder and could only type with one finger at a time, I could tweet – even if I couldn’t use a keyboard.  Laid up, unable to walk for several weeks at a time, first with the shoulder and then a hernia, my iPhone saved my sanity.

Humpback Whale in Broome

My beautiful HP notebook was bought as a blogging “option” when I went to Kununurra and Broome – on a whim to see the NT and go whale watching – and until now I really had not put my mind into neutral and started free wheeling into truly “mobile” communications.  I seem to remember wasting about $50.00 in Kununurra on pre-paid internet access that was never used because I did not feel very secure when I was not “tied” to some outlet or plug in the wall.

Once I was back on my feet and really started hitting the keyboard on the PC for Stories My Nana Tells around late September 2010, a horrible ADSL problem surfaced with the physical line and suffice to say it took six months to be fixed and that, in itself was extremely stressful because I had to resort to the TIO to get the problem taken seriously. My access to the net to work online was almost none and had it not been for my iPhone - I would certainly have been out of business!

Now, I am happy to say we have excellent ADSL access and I work Wi-Fi from the notebook in my lounge room most days. With a couple of POP boxes on the notebook, good access to webmail and a dongle – I am one happy camper.  Well, have been.

With the iPhone, notebook, a cordless mouse and the dongle, I have been highly mobile in the past few weeks and didn’t even have to panic when the power pack in the PC died last Sunday. The US and Canada have free WiFi all over the place, so I don’t expect being able to get on line a problem.  Buying an inexpensive pre-paid SIM card here and there will probably all I need to top up my internet access.  Great for all my web work and browsing.

But – six weeks of travelling without my iPhone looms large. Touring the US and Canada on Nana’s WalkaboutYes, for those who want to know,

• it is tethered to Telstra,
• I don’t know how to “jailbreak” and
• because the roaming charges are horrendous from the US.

The best advice I have been given so far is to pick up a cheap pre-paid phone while I am there and recycle it when I leave.  So the lovely man in the Telstra shop told me.

I have successfully set up couple of new mailboxes at Google GMail so that I can stay in touch with all my LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Meetups and other contacts and groups while I am overseas for six weeks and after I come home.  I appears that I may be able to access cheap phone calls from Google while in the US and in any event the next step is to install Skype on the notebook, get a nice little mike and use the webcam that sits in front of me all the time I am online with the notebook.  Just means making sure I have got my lipstick on, when I log in!

Having to adopt new technology sometimes pushes your buttons. It can be scary, because it is unknown and moves you right out of your comfort zone. If you never stretch yourself, you never grow.

So, this is part of the great adventure of Nana’s Walkabout.  Finding new ways to stay in touch, keep up to date and accept the inevitable glitches and surprises that will come out of taking on the challenge.  Who knows what exciting new stories we will have to share in Nana’s Blog!

Talking With Simon Cowell

It was a complete mystery to me when my friends started freaking out, after I told them I had been talking with Simon Cowell.  I had posted a tweet and a note in LinkedIn, too.

Of course, at that time (in June 2009) I was totally oblivious to XFactor and XXXX’s Got Talent.  I was just very excited that everyone want to know more about what Simon was doing.  Simon Cowell is the founder of and presenter of TV’s Wildlife SOS. Wildlife Aid helps over 20,000 animals each year as they bid to redress the balance of man and nature His website is WildlifeAid.org.uk

We should be excited, too – because he is in Africa working with Gorillas right now.  He tweets:

wildlifeaid Wildlife Aid

I’m off tomorrow for 3 weeks in the Congo so I’m afraid my tweets will be sparce if at all for a while unless I can use Gorilla mail !  (March 10, 2011)

If you want to make a donation to his WildlifeAid campaign in the UK – I recommend you do so through his website.  He and the hedgehogs who have just come through a terrible winter will greatly appreciate it.

PS:  When he comes back from Africa, we really do need to get him to set up an easy blog – so he isn’t posting a string of Tweets that get spread about in your tweetstream.  If you are on Twitter, please follow Simon here and ReTweet his updates.
—————————————————————————————–
This was my original post, that caused all the girls hearts to flutter.

Using Twitter: FundRaising For WildlifeAid in the UK – Follow Simon Cowell on Twitter @wildlifeaid (June 27, 2009)

I just have to tell you – I got a phone call from the lovely Simon Cowell (http://twitter.com/wildlifeaid ) at 5:22am the other morning – well, it was 11:00pm for him – and a RT on Twitter about a fund raising drive for his charity that I have helped to set up from Australia .

He is just the most fantastic person and has a real dream about establishing a fully fledged rehab centre. Please check him out and follow him. His group needs the support of Twitter users – financially and to spread the word.

(RT @WildlifeAid Just spoken to the most lovely lady in Australia who tweeted about us today. [ http://tinyurl.com/qba9s2 Make a difference])

June 27, 2009

Stories My Nana Tells – written by Lesley Dewar

Lesley Dewar is an Australian grandmother, an avid surfer of the net, a published writer and is constantly travelling, browsing, researching and uncovering the unusual. She has been bungy jumping in New Zealand; flown in helicopters across icy mountains and rocky deserts; trekked across a volcano crater, been white water rafting in Bali and swimming with dolphins in Hawaii.
She encourages children to be adventurous and enjoy life! Her stories have been widely endorsed from Perth to New York.

Lesley is widely recognised as being highly proficient with Social Media. She appeared on the Kerri-Ann Kennerly Show to talk about Twitter and has presented a number of workshops on using Social Media. Lesley has published her first eBook Networking To A Plan for business. This book has had wide international success, with internet distribution across the world.

Read more about Lesley Dewar here

One Minute Tip – Work Around For Invalid New Password Link

It is very frustrating when a URL sent by WordPress for a change of password will not work if you try to open it by clicking in the BigPond Webmail site

You consistently get the response that the link isn’t valid.  I have no idea why this is, but this is my workaround

Instead of trying to open the link through Webmail, I forward the email including the link to my iPhone.  When the email appears, open up the message, click the link and VOILA – it works perfectly.

If I ever find out WHY the BigPond webmail always fails, I will update this discussion.

Do You Have A Hero In Your Family?

Last Monday was Feb 21 – 2011. A day of strange disruptions in Perth.
After a lovely weekend of catsitting in the hills at Chateau de Liswar while Warren and Lisa took overseas friends to Rottnest, I came home mid morning to try and sort out some communication issues with Telstra.  A planned Skype conference was deferred and I used Twitter on the iPhone to push my case along with Telstra. With a short window of opportunity in the afternoon, I wrote two of the three stories that had a rapidly closing deadline.
In the early evening, I jumped into the car to drive into Perth for a networking meeting with a group of LinkedIn friends I had been dying to meet for ages.  To my absolute surprise, the radio announced that the city was in lock down; a bomb alert had the CBD completely shut down and it was not recommended that anyone try to drive into the city centre.
So, I decided to take the train.  The train is about four minutes walk from our home and run very frequently. I arrived just in time to hop aboard, checked what was happening on Twitter and as we approached the city, I held up my iPhone and addressed the passengers at large – telling them about the bomb threat and that I was getting off at McIver, to walk into the CBD.  Central Station was closed, so there was no way of knowing how

Praise Is Better Than Prozac!

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 so sad as a book that isn’t loved, owned and cherished! (unless it belongs to your local library, of course – or the school or your best friend, or … well, you get the idea.)

In between flights in Sydney a few years ago, a chance purchase of Susan Mitchell’s book “Be Bold! and Discover the Power of Praise” has proven to be one of those casual moments that changes your life. It has gems of fabulous advice on raising the self-esteem of children and adults. It is full of brilliant, inspiring ideas and practical ways on how to make yourself and those around you feel good – for a lifetime. It

Swimming With My Dad – Aged 92

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 toughen up the skin, to enjoy his company and to have a swim myself.

Today was the fourth Saturday in a row that we have been down to the Indian Ocean in Perth and we are both loving it.  The change in his skin is remarkable, too.

We have put up a little quiz on Facebook: Tell Us About Swimming With Your Dad Come and have some fun with us!

Quick Check On My New Facebook Widget

If I have set this up correctly, with a new profile at WordPress, the No Tall Poppies blog is entirely managed by me, with regards to posting to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  I have selected No Tall Poppies to be the most usual source of posts, rather than Stories My Nana Tells.

The theme Twenty Ten at WordPress lets me choose the level of publication, with each post.

Each post now has a Facebook share button (Like me!), a Tweet button, email option and using the #in tag when I post to Twitter should carry the post through to LinkedIn.  Full integration. Full control.  Lovely!

A Great Blogging Partner: Alpha Inventions

We have known Cheru Jackson for several years now. When we first started the No Tall Poppies blog (campaigning against Japanese whaling, in particular), Cheru’s blog search engine Alpha Inventions directed massive traffic to our blog posts. We are very happy to see Cheru keeping up the good work and improving Alpha Inventions all the time.

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