Daddy, what’s that wiggly worm? 😮

What was she talking about!

We were in Wickes.

We’d been training with Freddie and needed to do a spot of shopping on the way back.

First a birthday present for my father-in-law – a nice bottle of Tullibardine whisky 🥃

Then Freddie had his first trip into Pets At Home. His collar is getting a little tight, so time for an upgrade.

And next onto Wickes. We have a leaky tap in the kitchen so wanted to see if they had a washer.

As they’re dog friendly we could take Freddie in with us and he was impeccably behaved as we wandered around.

We found ourselves in the queue for the checkouts, not for what we went in for though, as they didn’t sell parts.

Freddie sat very quietly watching what was going on.

Suddenly we heard a little girl, who was with her dad in the queue behind us, say:

“Daddy, what is that wiggly worm?”

Looking at Freddie it was obvious what she was talking about!

Her dad tried to ignore her, pretending he hadn’t heard, but the girl repeated her question.

At this point we reached the front of the queue, so didn’t get to hear how the conversation ended. 😂

I believe in being up front about these things, and I’ve certainly experienced this a number of times when my girls were little.

I also believe in being honest when it comes to business.

Sometime the truth can be uncomfortable (although not always embarrassing as well), but you can be sure that I won’t skirt around the issues that matter if we work together.

🤔  I don’t believe it!

How did that happen

I hope you were able to have a great festive break and Happy New Year.

My company, JP Legal Assist , reached its 4th birthday yesterday.

I’m really having trouble understanding how much time has passed since I began this new phase of my life.

After working for someone else for 27 years, I wasn’t sure this was a good idea at first.

Making my own decisions and having to do everything myself. 😟

But with encouragement from my husband and former colleagues I took the plunge.

It’s certainly been a bit of a rollercoaster.

There was the first lockdown 3 months after I started trading, followed by the second one 8 months later and then the third one 2 months after that.

Then in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and l lost a Russian client, annoying but understandable!

But I’m still here, helping my clients with the ins and outs of marketing and advertising law.

So here’s to 2024, whatever she may bring. 🥂

We did it! 👏

We deserve a round of applause.

Well, we’ve made it through 2023.

I can’t quite believe that in less than 2 weeks it will be a new year.

I hope you’re well and looking forward to a break over the festive season.

How are your preparations coming along?

I had a busy weekend, collecting both my daughters from their uni accommodation and hosting a pre-Christmas lunch on Sunday with my mum and brother as they will be away for Christmas day.

Freddie got over excited numerous times as he met new members of the family for the first time.

He definitely enjoyed all the attention and slept very well Sunday night, even giving us a bit of a lie in Monday morning!

Hopefully we will get the tree up tomorrow and the girls can decorate it, making sure they don’t put decorations too low down as I’m sure Freddie will think it’s a new toy to play with. 😂

This is my last email of 2023. Thank you for your support this year.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my emails and didn’t mind me wittering on about things too much.

Normal service will resume on the 8th January.

Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year. 🥂

What a nightmare!

I won’t be using them again

My younger daughter lost her phone. It fell out of her pocket on a train and even though she could track it, the rail company haven’t found it.

So it was up to mum to find a new one.

I found a refurbished one on an online site. It seemed a good price and they seemed a good company.

Both my daughters’ phones are oldish, so I decided to buy 2 – a great Christmas present for both of them –  2 birds with one stone you might say.

One phone was to be delivered to my house, for my older daughter to have when she gets back from uni for Christmas. It was delivered within 36 hours.

The other one needed to go to my younger daughter at her uni accommodation in Loughborough.

And so began the saga!

They’d mangled the address, taking the name, house number and street of the delivery address and then the town and postcode from the billing address.

DPD did try to deliver it at my house – the driver had delivered the other one the day before and remembered the postcode but was confused about the rest of the address.

We explained what had happened and rejected the package so it would be returned to the seller.

After 10 days of messages between me and the website trying to get them to deliver to the correct address, they said the package was lost!

A discussion then took place about a form they required, and photo ID (they’ve never seen me so why 😕) so they could start an investigation, which could take up to 10 days.

When I question this, a miracle happens – the seller finds it!

I’d already found a replacement for the “lost” phone, which was delivered within 24 hours, so I’m now awaiting a refund.

It seems their system can’t cope when the delivery address isn’t the same as the billing one.

I try to avoid a certain online retailer that starts with an A and give smaller businesses a chance but that’s where I ended up for the replacement.

It is hard competing with well established companies, but you often do get a better service.

I certainly feel that’s the case when it comes to JP Legal Assist. We may be small but I think when it comes the quality of legal knowledge in advertising and marketing together with the level of service you get, we certainly punch well above our weight.

📚 I hate it when they do that

So annoying!

I think I’ve told you I love reading. 📗

Murder mysteries are my go to – escaping into another world (although there’s nothing wrong with this one).

I have just finished the latest book in the Peter James Grace novels about a detective superintendent in charge of the major crime unit in East Sussex.

The story was about the murder of a farmer and the theft of a breeding pair of dogs and their 5 puppies, who were just about to go to their new homes.

There are a few other stories about characters who are part of the wider tale. One of which these is a family looking to buy a puppy for their 7 year old daughter.

After doing things you’re told not to – including responding to ads on social media – they met the “breeder” in a pub car park where he had various puppies in cages in his van.

The little girl held and cuddled the puppy they’d come to see and another one, which got excited and nipped her nose.

She started to feel unwell. She saw their GP a few times but only got worse, so ended up in hospital very sick.

One of the doctors suspected rabies, which has not been seen in the UK for over 100 years because of our strict quarantine laws. He had seen it when he worked abroad.

I hadn’t realised how bad this disease is – it’s nearly always fatal unless you can vaccinate within 24 hours.

It seemed hopeless until the doctors came across a treatment that had been successfully used in a small handful of cases.

As the book drew to a close, the treatment had started, and the girl was given a 50:50 chance of survival.

The book then finished.

It looked promising, but what happened?

Books should have a beginning, middle and end and all storylines should be tied up.

Sometimes, an update appears in the next book, but that’s not published yet, and may not have even been written.

Looks like I’m in for a long wait.

That’s one thing you won’t get if you work with me – everything will be completed to your satisfaction – promise!

Worthy of a gold medal 🥇

You can’t beat that.

It’s that time of year again.

MOT and service!

I have a Volvo V70, which I love, and have been lucky enough to find a specialist Volvo mechanic who provides an excellent service.

In fact, I have to thank my husband for finding him, as he went to school with his brother!

He’s always busy, and as usual I left it too late to get the car booked in, so the MOT was done last week but I have to wait 2 weeks for the service.

But that’s ok, because he is so good at what he does and I know he will do what’s best for my car.

I hope my clients think I’m good at what I do.

I will certainly always do what is best for them and their business, which can sometimes be difficult if it’s maybe not what they want to hear.

However, there is no other way to provide a service – be honest and work through what’s necessary to find a solution.

A dozen – that will do nicely!

I do love a steamed pudding

One of my neighbours who keeps chickens gave me some eggs.

She’s looking after another neighbour’s chickens as well so she is somewhat overwhelmed with the egg production.

And these came in handy as I made my Christmas puddings at the weekend.

I know it’s not Stir Up Sunday til next weekend, but I always think this is too late as the pudding doesn’t have time to mature properly (nor have enough brandy poured over). 😉

In fact I would normally have made them a month ago but I had one problem – the electric steamer I usually use to cook the 2 puddings broke and I’ve not been able to find a replacement.

The steamer baskets need to have removable bases so you can get the puddings in, and I can’t find one.

So it was back to the old school steamer over a saucepan.

Not being able to find the product or service you need can be disappointing.

However when you discover something you really need that you didn’t know existed, this is amazing.

Many people are unaware of the rules for marketing and advertising, and many more don’t know they can get expert advice on this.

Now, you’re aware, and you know where to find me.

Memo to self: take him out first!

Lot less messy 😉

Our puppy is nearly 14 weeks and having a great time being a puppy!

Now  we can take him out, he’s enjoying meeting the people and dogs in our village, introducing himself to the neighbours.

However, he gets rather too excited at times!

This is fine when we’re outside, but my stepson and his girlfriend came to visit.

He was jumping up and then he lay on his back for a belly rub and there was a little fountain sprinkling the rugs in the dining room. ⛲

I realised I should’ve taken him outside when I saw them arrive so he could empty it out.

Another lesson I’d forgotten from last time we had a puppy.

It’s amazing what you forget about when you don’t deal with it every day.

I’m now racking my brains to try and remember any other lessons that may come in useful.

First to spot the deliberate mistake?

Sorry, no bonus marks 😀

Invigilating session is upon me.

I invigilate at my girl’s former secondary school and the Autumn sees mocks for GCSE and A-levels.

After doing the update training (3 hours of online training videos and tests) I had my first session last week.

There were 5 exams, 2 different levels for French and Spanish, Foundation and Higher, and Physical Education.

We started all the mocks off after explaining the rules, and everything was going well.

Hands went up for help as some had forgotten their calculators, rulers, rubbers and one had their pen run out. Standard requests.

Then one girl sitting the PE mock put her hand up.

She had spotted that one of the questions had been repeated in the paper and wondered whether she needed to answer it again.

No, just ignore it.

Unable to make a general announcement, we had to tell each student the same thing when they reached that point in the paper.

The mocks are put together by the teachers, and it was clear that it hadn’t been checked before being sent for printing.

This was a mock, which means it wasn’t the disaster it could have been, but it is unprofessional and something that is so easy to avoid.

One of my (many) skills 😉 is an attention to detail and anything I create is checked and double checked so this never happens.

A tale of 2 Fridays …

… what a difference 7 days makes.

1st Friday

Rain and strong winds are not the best conditions for driving 200 miles.

But this was Strom Babet, and although we didn’t get the bad conditions affecting Scotland and the North, it made for precarious driving to Norwich.

My daughter is doing a Maters at UEA. She had a reading week, so no classes, and decided to come home. I wonder why. 🐕

Heading up to Norfolk, there were road closures due to flooding. The diversions took me through some lovely villages , which was great fun for the articulated lorries!

A journey that normally takes 90 minutes, took 165!

Conditions were no better coming back. Not quite as bad, but with a road closure due to flooding and an accident, we were on the road for 125 minutes.

2nd Friday

After a week playing with Freddie, it was time to return to normality.

After what had been predicted to be a wet drive, it was a beautiful sunny day, and apart from ongoing roadworks, both journeys were more normal, allowing me to enjoy some of the best English countryside.

It’s a good job I love driving. I passed by driving test 40 years ago and I will always opt to drive rather than be a passenger. I think it’s because for many things I don’t like relying on others.

That’s probably a subject for therapy sometime. 🤔