Kaitlin Bailey

What if we all could vote for the next US president - it would only be fair as US politics seem to affect the rest of the world. I came across this today which allows everyone in the world to give their opinion on the matter! http://www.communitycounts.com/globalvote/

You can vote for John McCain or Barack Obama - it seems that the developers have ruled Hillary Clinton out of the running as the Democratic presidential candidate though... what if it turns out to be her and not Barack Obama that gets to run for president...

If you want to show your opinion, go and place your global vote. You will be able to see each country or city's preference as well which can be interesting. They should do a similar global vote on Mugabe!

A word of advise: Don't Google your ex! Having recently been reconnected with some old school friends online, my thoughts went to think about other people that have passed through my life... old work colleagues, ex-boyfriends, old dates. This made me turn to google and I tried to remember some names.

Obviously the more common names did not give much as it is like looking for needle in a haystack, but some of the more unusual names gave direct results. One of my exes was found very easy - there was a picture of him with his arm around a woman looking very cosy. I recognised her as the same woman that was with him when I bumped into him about a year after we went our separate ways. Well, that is ok I thought, they are obviously still together and happy. Good for them. Then I did the mistake of actually looking at the date of the picture... and realised that it was taken while we were still supposed to be a couple!!

Did I notice anything - no! Did I have any suspicions at the time - no! I was travelling a lot for work, and was even stationed abroad for a few months. We basically did really just have a long distance relationship at the time so how would I notice it? I remember him actually being very jealous while I was away, calling and sending text messages asking me if I had been seeing someone else while I was away. Of course I did not, but this jealousness was what really killed our relationship in my eyes. He seemed so possesive and trying to be controlling. I never realised he was acting like this just because he was the one having an affair(or at least I think so now that I have seen the pictures).

On another search, I remembered the name of one disastrous date many years ago that I had forgotten about. It was a blind date ok and those can be pretty horrific under normal circumstances. Anyway, this guy now seems to have predicted that the end of the world is near and have even published the date for it to happen. Made me laugh, and at the same time I made myself the promise to never google an ex (or even old blind date) again. I just don't want to know what lunatics I have been out with. I will however carefully google any future dates just to be on the safe side!

It is fantastic how a week of sunshine and warm evenings make you forget what a miserable and non existent summer we had last year! It actually feels like it has been this nice and warm along and those cold April days seem like a fiction of my imagination.

So now I am spending my self employed days working outdoors, going for long walks at lunch time to make the most of the sun and see changes from day to day in trees and flowers and wishing that this will continue for the next 6 months.

Nothing wrong with wishing...

It has only been a 4-day working week but it feels so much longer than that. Having worked long days all week, I am about to call it a day... but hey, there is more work to be done. Just not enough hours in a day! Not sure how to get everything done that needs doing. Problem is that I am waiting for other people to come back to me so I can proceed with plans. Why are they taking so long? What is the problem? Seems like an endless circle and I am getting drawn into it further and further... Making promise to myself - no work this weekend! Only relaxing allowed!

This sunshine is fantastic. I have already forgotten how miserable last summer was... well, almost forgotten...

In the last couple of days, the my plants have been thriving. The first round of roses are budding, the tulips have literally just appeared today and I have noticed differences in the plants just within a couple of hours. It is amazing to see.

Well, I can not wait to see what surprises my garden have in store for tomorrow!

Had the unpleasant experience of someone calling me just to shout at me this morning. I dont understand people that shout rather than putting forward their viewpoint on a certain matter in a more constructive and calm manner.

It was a client who decided to pick up the phone and start shouting down it rather than addressing the issues at hand in a constructive and calm way. Once I had met each 'shout' with a calm and constructive explanation the client eventually calmed down and all was ok again. I can take constructive criticism but see no point in anyone being aggressive about it and also being unfair in their accusations. (this is how wars are started!!!)

Having left the conversation with an action plan for moving forward all was fine to proceed in normal manner. Or would have been... I felt rather unmotivated to actually carry out the work at hand after being shouted - I still did the work but I felt much more distanced to the assignment and that I do not care about it now. I am usually very passionate about the work I do and also undertake on behalf of other clients. The 'shouting' episode have left me feeling completely distanced from the work and that I no longer have any respect for the client in question. I have worked very hard on this assignement, putting in the hours that were not even contracted and this is how I get treated?

I guess the client is always right, however I think that anyone that is someone's client should reconsider how they treat their suppliers in order to get the best out of them. If my client would have approached me in a calm and constructive way, then I would probably have been working lots of extra hours today on this assignement, however as a result of this incident I am only doing what is required by the contract. And as a result I am even considering whether it would be better for me to just use the exit clause in the contract and pick up one of those other assignments that I have been too busy to take on.

So this is me having a bit of a moan about how someone turned what started as a beautiful day completely upside down. But I find writing great for my own sanity! Now let's turn the day back into the beautiful day it was destined to be and end it on a calm and happy note. I think some people just have an aggressive way forward in life and unfortunately for them it makes their lives stressful and more difficult to live. At the end of the day, I am just annoyed that I let someone disturb my beautiful day. The sun have been out all day and the evening is looking stunning. I think I am going to settle down on the sofa and look at the amazing colours in the sky as these fade.

Life seems to roll on so quickly and I have been really bad with updating my blog... Have been out travelling a bit, most recently to Italy where I did a tour of Northern Italy and the lakes. My favourite is the Garda Lake. It is simply stunning with views of the mountains in the background (and still plenty of snow on the mountain tops). Highlight of the trip was taking the cabin car up from Malcesine to the top of the mountain and walking around in the snow even though the temperature down in the town/village was in the early 20's.
Will soon post more details on the highlights of my trip!