I have had a few days away - having an adventure in Morocco with my family. Walking in the Atlas Mountains - swimming in the sea - having a go at surfing too.
I loved Morocco - wonderful, crazy, smells, delicious colours, drama - these words describe the people and the place!
Back home - Squiffy Blue ( my rabbit) and Ronnie ( the dog) - seem fine - if not a little fatter - cos my mate Sue is a softie for animals - and is the tit-bit queen!
It was great to have a break - see things from a fresh viewpoint - have hours in which I was not expected by others ( and myself) to be 'doing' stuff. I read a few books - the most notable - Freakonomics. I want to recommend it - thought provoking - easy read - funny, poignant and good for allowing your brain to grab new ideas.
Now back in my 'work' mode I had the pleasure of meeting 300 of A4e's managers at our annual conference 'One Vision'. Before anyone thinks that this sounds like a dull affair - with corporate reports - STOP - you couldn't be more wrong. (Anyway you would not catch me going to - or supporting - some dry corporate ego fest). It is one hell of an inspirational day - a day in which we work out the things we want to do better and a day in which we celebrate the achievements of the person in the company who has 'improved people's lives' to the greatest level.
This year the whole room was silenced when we heard of Neil Coad who works in a youth offender institute as a teacher. Not only does he do a great job as an inspirational teacher - but he also took it upon himself to research and understand and train himself to give advice on Testicular Cancer and its symptons. He did not wait for permission to do this, he did not need to 'wait for resources or managmnet dictats' - he knew he should - so he did. His actions saved the life of a young inmate.
Neil won the companies biggest annual award - the Improving People's Lives Award.
He gave a great acceptance speech - human and humble, funny and thoughful.
People like Neil inspire me to work out what more i could do - how I could see things anew - how I could understand more. Thanks Neil.