Author: boomingbanter

Our niece Brinda who is an architect working in Mumbai India  has taken the very brave decision to start her own business Urban Creative.

She is focusing on her passion, the environment, and has just this week announced the launch of her first product.

This is such a big step and one you can follow by visiting her Urban Creative blog.

What Brinda has done made me think of other dear friends who have built their business around their passion.

Take Connie Kelly in Switzerland who has applied her passion for nutrition in starting her own company Connie’s Kitchen and launching the company’s first product a great tasting ketchup just last month.

For my cousin Joyce in England her passion for cleaning became the successful Dolly Mops business.

For my bestie Lesley Megarity, her caring heart for the elderly over the past 25 years resulted in the award winning Domestic Care Ltd that is now a major employer of over 600 people in Northern Ireland

For Jaspal Bajwa who is based in Canada and is the founder of Sunja Circle it was about teaching and coaching and helping other in building leadership skills.

All around the globe there are many like Brinda and Connie who are starting up and others like Lesley, Joyce and Jaspal who now have well established companies.

No matter the phase of their business each one is inspirational in taking their passion and with it truly walking their talk!!!

What is your passion and what can you do with it? Post your story for us all to see.

Blessing # 57 – Learning from the leaps that others take

 

 

 

 

There was an iron man challenge happening in the town where Aaron works and so he had to start at 4:30 to feed those hungry athletes who were staying at the hotel.

When he got home from work at lunch time he decided he was going to feed us too.

So in a jiffy he russled up some fine Bacon Butties.

Dibley is licking his lips.

Blessing # 56 – Learning the tricks of a trade

 

 

Today is one of my very dear friends birthday.

I have known SANDRA since we were in first form at secondary school so that makes it 47 years.

There were maybe a few years when we didn’t see each other but in all that time we always kept in touch and thought of each other as besties.

Today thanks to Facebook we know much more about what is happening in each other’s lives than we ever did since we left school. I really love that.

It is of course great to see each other face to face but the most important thing is to know that no matter what we are there for each other anytime.

Blessing # 55 – Knowing all you need to do is call

 

My Mum was a great woman. She had everything under control including shopping and meal planning.

She worked all week so she got her groceries on Friday evening and her fresh produce on Saturday morning.

On the dot of 9:00 am on Saturday whether rain or shine, my Dad had to take her to Sandy Row. This will be a well known area for people from Belfast. Suffice to say for those who don’t know it it was a place of character and characters.

First stop was Evelyn’s for vegetables and fruit, then on to the bread shop, and finally to Davy’s the butcher.

All the food was home and stored by no later than 10:30 and the pan was on to make a big fry up.

This we all enjoyed and was in part to prepare my Dad for the afternoon drinking session that was to follow with his mates!!!

Such was the precision of the plan that all the fresh food that came home on Saturday, and thankfully it was plentiful, was all eaten by the following Friday.

Now I guess this was because my Mum has a budget to stick to unlike what we have today.

We buy buy buy and end up freezing what we don’t use in time to the point where the freezer can take in no more.

So this week I have declared war on further buying until we have used up all in the fridge and tackled enough in the freezer to allow me to clean the shelves.

I have absolutely no plan as to what will be made but hope to say BYE to a few deeply buried items.

Blessing # 54 – Never being short of food

Krishna and I got our first dogs in 1995 when we moved from Switzerland to Connecticut.

The puppies came through the  Nestle Purina Adoption program and arrived the day before thanksgiving.

There arrival is a story worth sharing that I will save for another time. I can see my sister in law HEMA laughing as she recalls that day !!!!!

Being very fond of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice we named the boys Darcy and Bingley.

These boys travelled the world with us going to China and then Switzerland and ultimately Darcy went with us to France. They were adorable and like most Labradors would eat absolutely anything except lettuce.

When dear Darcy passed in 2008 we got Dibley a Tibetan Terrier. We wanted a boy with character who would be great with kids but not quite as big as Darcy and Bingley.

As we are very loyal to our Nestle Purina family of products we started Dibley on Beneful Puppy. Coincidentally the puppy on the product looks just like him.

Dibley’s eating habits are quite different from those of D&B. This little man will eat only what he wants and will fast if he feels like he is not getting what he wants.

He also will walk only just as far as he wants to go unlike D&B who would plod on for ever until I said we’d go home.

Fast forward to today and Dibley is now quite a senior gentleman. Walking less but wait for it STILL eating Beneful Puppy!

Not what our Nestle Purina nutritionists would say is ideal for a senior citizen but this boy is one stubborn puppy who simple refuses to give up on his favorite food.

Blessing # 53 – Different Characters Each So Special

 

As you know Aaron got his first car yesterday. This morning before leaving for work he was looking for a key chain to put the prized car key on.

From my big bunch of keys he pulled off a chain that Krishna had given my Dad the first time my Dad and Mum came to Switzerland.

It is a five franc Swiss coin and my Dad loved that key chain so much  He always had his own car key and our house key on it and I took it as a souvenir when he moved upstairs.

All of this made me think of when my Dad got our first car. It was an Austin 1100 and he paid the princely sum of 75 Pounds for it.

I was eleven at the time so I can remember so well all the excitement of us getting a car. Up until then my Dad went to work on his bicycle and my mum walked to her work.

We really enjoyed that first car. Most people would have called it a Banger but we lovingly called it « Learny ».

Mum and I would sit in the back of Learny while an elderly man called Geordie Black sat up front with my Dad chain smoking and teaching my Dad to drive.

The car had been brought over to Northern Ireland from England and had a unique registration number for our area that was DWP829B.

Funny the things that stick in your mind!

As soon as my Dad passed his driving test he’d have me behind the wheel of Learny in deserted parking lots all over Northern Ireland. He was absolutely determined that as soon as I was old enough I’d get my license and my own car too.

God bless him he wanted my life to be so much easier and better than his.

I was really so touched and happy this morning when Aaron found that old key chain and asked if he could take it for his car.

My Dad was certainly involved in that move!!!!

Blessing # 52 – Links of love that never leave us.

In our area we have the most beautiful brightly colored birds.

There are the Cardinals which are, as you would expect, a brilliant red and the state bird of Ohio.

The little blue birds that often nest in mail boxes are like our European Robins with a little red breast but elsewhere bright blue in color.

This year has been a great season for Goldfinches that are vibrant yellow and very fast on the move.

Today I got the best treat of all!

As I was watering my front yard a tiny  hummingbird was having its breakfast on one of the plants right at our front door.

I can show you the plant that has just started to flower but was not fast enough to get the bird feeding on it. So I picked a pic from Google that shows a bird most like the one that came to visit.

These little critters are so amazing. Their little wings are truly a feat of nature and such a joy to watch.

Hope this little baby enjoyed this nectar and will be back often.

Don’t know the name of the plant it was feeding on but it has a flat red leaf and small purple blooms on a very long stalk.

Blessing # 51 – Being in the right place at the right time

When my friend Carol and I were little girls we would pretend that we were going to The Country Club.  This play involved our dolls who would all be dressed up in their finest for the evening.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would indeed one day be a member of such a club.

Five years ago Nestle sent me on a great training course to China and Switzerland. Here I met an inspirational trainer called Mark  he convinced me that I could change my fitness level if I dedicated just three hours a week to training and exercise.

Having just quit smoking a few months before this meeting I thought why not let’s give this a go.

So with the support of Nestle we joined the wonderful Wedgewood Golf and Country Club and I started to go to gym classes.

The first person I met and ny first instructor was the amazing Jodi and she helped me so much to build up strength and endurance. So happy to call Jodi a friend to this day even though she is no longer at the club.

There were regular members in class who also are now dear friends who encouraged me and also helped me along. I was in really bad shape!!!!

We have such fun together in our classes.

The best fun of all is at Zumba with our sweet instructor Missi who has the patience of a saint.

Now that I can go to day time classes as well as the Saturday morning Zumba I’m at last getting the moves right for BIG BIG BOOTY and the other routines.

Just last week we also started water aerobics with Michelle and that is such a feel good experience.

What great people all these fitness instructors are.

Their dedication to helping others is amazing  and worthy of much thanks as is the commitment of Nestle to supporting their staff on the Nutrition Health and Wellness path.

Blessing # 50 – Those That Inspire Us To Keep Fit

Krishna and myself love to go to garage sales and Church sales to see what treasures we can find.

Generally our bargain hunting happens on a Saturday as it is unusual for garage sales to take place on Sunday.

Yesterday as we were coming home from Church we saw directions to a garage sale in our own neighborhood. So of course we had to go.

Over the past six months I have been accumulating “projects” to tackle with all the feee time I’m going to have on my hands.

These projects are old pieces of furniture or items for the yard or garden that were picked up at sales and that will be transformed into wonders of exceptional beauty!!!!!

No single transformation has yet occurred and there is a very definite possibility that when it does it won’t be a work of art but heh I HAVE A DREAM!

Part of all these plans involves spray paint. What is dark will become light and what is dull will shine.

Well you will not believe it but yesterday I struck gold.

The lovely lady having the sale was moving to San Francisco and has a husband a bit like me. He had projects and man did he have paint.

So bingo I bagged a good selection of exactly what I needed and a lovely little Christmas plate to boot for the princely sum of $2.

This rusty frog who has been KABOOMED overnight may have guessed by now he is set to be transformed into something colorful if not quite a prince!

Blessing #49 – Dreamers of Dreams

We had to make a run to Trader Joe’s as we were low on stock of my favorite fizz.

This chain of stores is amazing. Everyone is so helpful, there are never lines at checkout and the goods are always of the finest quality.

We love going there but it is a bit of a hike from where we live for the weekly shop so we save it for a treat. For the weekly we shop at Aldi which is owned by the same family.

Not only does Trader Joe’s have the best wine selection they also have the most beautiful and freshest flowers. Everything is top quality the products and the shopping experience.

Best of all everything comes at a reasonable price so the value is great. Check out this armful of blooms for under $15 for the lot. They look beautiful and they smell great too. Flowers aren’t the same if they don’t have a perfume!

Which store do you love going to?

What makes it you favorite?

Blessing # 48 – A Store that Spells and Smells Success