NewZealandCoach’s Weblog

I’m really looking forward to the teleconference tomorrow morning.

Teleconferencing involves (for me) a whole different set of listening skills. There are so many voices on the end of the line. The phone I use isn’t cordless unfortunately, so I am in one place from the beginning of the call to the end. In the beginning I saw this as a negative. I wasn’t used to ’staying put’.

Then I saw it in another light.

I spend some time making myself a nice nest for the two hours that the call takes. I have my cup of tea, jug of water, my oil burner or a scented candle, and all my pillows behind my back. I have my trusty laptop so I can make notes, and see the work that we’re about to cover laid out in front of me. I can look out the window to the garden, and hear the budgie chirping in his cage. All this preparation helps me to concentrate fully on the two hours I spend on the phone with this particular group of people.

I do this for clients who visit me too. There has to be the jug of water (sometimes with lemon), sparkling clean glasses, comfortable chairs. I usually have something interesting on the table : a vase of flowers, a polished paua shell. Doing this helps me get into the right mindset, so that by the time they come through the gate I am totally focused on them and what they’re bringing to the appointment.

I love Thursdays.

Finally, it was my dad’s birthday today, and we went down to visit with him and the rest of the family. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to collaborate with my mother and sister on the perfect birthday presents. It was fun to arrive and see the little grandchildren running around, happy and excited. There is just something about a bunch of very little children singing ‘Happy Birthday’.

But it was the ultimate to watch his face as he opened up the card to see that in four months time he and my mother are going over to Australia to watch the Melbourne Cup!! (it will be the first time they have been overseas).

Our present to Dad? a nice new suitcase of course, with all the zips, wheels, pockets, and locks that I could possibly find

Happy Birthday Dad xxx

talk to me : coachdawn_newzealand@yahoo.com on yahoo messenger