NORTHERN PLANNER

On the drive in this morning I played an old compilation tape. It included these four, in this order. it felt really, really good. 

Paint a Vulgar Picture -The Smiths (alledgedly about Paul Young)

Perfect Day (Lou Reed)

The Killing Moon – Echo and the Bunny Men

Under Pressure – David Bowie singing live without bloody Queen

Perfect

Before:

After:

Thanks to the culmination of darkness, the weather and post Christmas comedown, today is supposed to be the most depressing of the year.

So, contrary so and so that I am, I’m rejecting the temptation to pull the duvet over my head and call in sick. Instead, I’m going to be annoyingly upbeat.

Reasons to be cheerful this morning:

1. The wind has abated for the first time in ages, and there’s a wonderfully crisp, clear blue sky out there.
2. It’s cold and frosty like winter is supposed to be. It may even snow.
3. Today is a day off from swimming, training and stuff. Right now my body has that lovely dull ache you get when you’ve pushed yourself.
4. I woke up this morning with the cat snuggled against my leg.
5. I’ve had a Yakult.
6. I don’t have to dread going to work, I mostly like my job.
7. Getting to work means 45 minutes to myself, with the Today Programme and my choice of music.
8. I’m looking forward to seeing that Mrs Potter film tonight.
9. I’m on my second cup of tea. Tea is the greatest invention known to man. As long as it’s made in the pot that is.
10. After the weather forced me to work late on Thursday, my desk is pristine.

So there you go, not too shabby for Andrew.

Not only am I having a day out of the office tomorrow, if I ever get home tonight, I’m having a total computer embargo. Need some time to think and wander around some stuff.

Have a good weekend and here’s a picture I like, just because.

While tidying my desk, I found this old cutting from a newspaper about age and sex. A global study (doesn’t say by who or what for) using 30,000 people (doesn’t say how they were recruited) has found that over 40’s have the best sex. Since I’m 33 and feeling it, I’ll welcome this new knowledge with open arms, despite it’s dubious source. Two interesting asides:

1. Men tend to be more satisfied than their female partners.

2. Australians claim to have the highest satisfaction rate.

I’m liking the thought of challenging the institutionally chauvinistic notion that only the young have the right to get their nooky, and older people doing it is a bit icky. Feels like part of the wider occurance of people staying younger in their heads for longer.

On the other hand, isn’t one persons definition of ‘good sex’ someone else’s idea of a ghastly mistake?

I can’t get home. The cursed weather has blocked off all my driving routes home. Good excuse to stay late and do some work, but first I’m going to tidy my disgusting desk.

I’ve already posted in Lets See what Happens for the first time in months.

There’s a fascinating debate over at Adliterate asking if blogging is killing planning or not. It’s developing into a facts/logic V ideas and intuition debate.

From my point of view, I like planning blogs because:

a) Most good planning blogs don’t just talk about planning, which makes it a great source for finding thoughts to store for a rainy day.

b) Even better, l like the way good ideas get better and bad ideas get smoked out, a kind of blog Darwinism I suppose. Lots of new thinking is put out there, good ideas get talked about, commented on, developed and improved. The not so good either gets ignored or crumbles under the sheer weight of ananysis is gets. I think this helps us all to experiment, try new stuff and learn from each other. I for one get very lonely in a one man department.

Apart from calling me cool, in her comments on the John Steel post Carol wondered if John Steel began to explain what planning really is, and if it’s at odds with the realities of where some of us work:

"Do YOU think he explained what ‘account planning’ is? With all this talk of not being stuck in a professional evironment, well, wouldn’t that make an employer (and a client) a bit nervous? I’ve got friends who are actually clocking on.

Can you imagine it? "From 10:45 to 12:30 I did some account planning". I think we do it 24/7, funnest job in the world."

For what it’s worth, I think he did. He showed planning as stimulating the best ideas that will solve the business challenge. Information is crucial, but that’s nothing without the intuituion that helps start looking in the right place, and using what you find correctly. That needs freedom to look and think in the first place.

Carole took this picture last time we met in London. She thinks I look cool in it. Assume she means not hot since no one has ever said I look cool in the groovy sense before (including Her Indoors come to think of it). At least the forehead isn’t too shiny in this one. 

This evening’s Northern Planning get together has been cancelled thanks to the stormy weather buggering up all forms of transport. We’ll do it in a couple of weeks or so and let everyone know. I’d polished my bald head specially too.