Tag: working girl

Yelly Writes

Week 1 done!

Yelly

So, this is my first entry for 2019!

New year and new (recycled) resolutions. Have you written written down yours?

I’ve said I would, this year, do the following:

  • Write more (either blog or journal, although, great Instagram captions might apply?)
  • Read more
  • Get healthy (no that’s not a metaphor for me gaining weight, on the contrary, I need to lose weight, lower my blood sugar levels and move more)
  • Take more photographs (for the blog, for Instagram and for my personal development)
  • Finish the Instaretreat (I am such a good starter but a very weak finisher. I need help and motivation!)
  • Bake and cook more (and write about it, hey, it’s two birds with one stone! Yay me!)

I’ve been busy with real life and the past few weeks have been quite the challenge. I have been adjusting to my new meds (that’s another blog, in itself. But it takes courage to write it down for all and sundry to see. I’m not quite that brave yet!), and they make me really sluggish. But I’m trying to find ways to deal with the sluggishness and the excuses I make for being stuck in the inertia of inactivity.

The week started with me hitting the ground running. It was a short week, but was it ever so busy. The work just kept running and I just felt that some of the people I worked for were throwing stuff at me because they wanted to hold my attention for longer. I used to work for just one person but now that I’m working for 3 directors, someone feels a little less looked after. Bless! I can be magnanimous now but at times this week, I’ve had to bite my tongue and sit on my hands and give in to my desire to say, “Hey, I know what you’re up to, and I’m not falling for the rank-pulling! What are you, five?!” But I didn’t…and I am proud of myself.

I’ve put together a book list and I’ve started with a humdinger of a read. I’m reading Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions. Have you read it? What are your thoughts? Unlike some people, I don’t mind spoilers because I do get stuck in and despite knowing the end, I still, somehow, get surprised (if there is an unexpected twist). Opinions are welcome! Oh and if you are reading something, what are you reading? I’m curious!

The kitchen in my tiny little flat has been busy this weekend. I’ve actually managed to make banana jam. Why banana jam, you ask? Because Alan and I went to Yotam Ottolenghi’s Spitalfields restaurant and I fell in love with the banana jam (it’s slathered on that lovely piece of sourdough on the the left in the picture below).

Alan found the recipe and I couldn’t believe something delicious only had 5 ingredients and it was so easy to do! I’ll have to remember not to scarf down my banana jam-laden piece of toast and take a photo for the blog (and my food IG account @yellyeats…yep, I’m not ashamed to self promote!). I’m told (by the blog I read it from) that this recipe isn’t in any of Ottolenghi’s books so if you’re interested in making it, the recipe I used Belleau Kitchen’s measurements and it’s ever so yummy. I will, however, take a page from Dominic’s book and tweak it so that it becomes my version of the recipe. I do have a few more bananas left so I guess that means I’m baking banana bread again!

In terms of health, I am going to charge up my Fitbit again and start counting steps again. I’m going for 10,000 steps or more every day. Fingers crossed!

I’ve got to stop now as I do need to finish washing up and making a fish pie for supper. It’s been a lazy weekend but a busy one too! What have you been up to?

Yelly Writes

Prayer for concentration at work

Yelly

I have always wanted to write more about my faith and my feelings.  Because if you can’t be yourself and say what you want on your blog, where else can you (provided that what you post isn’t illegal or offensive to other people’s civil liberties – I’d like to say it’s exercising responsible freedom of speech!) be?

I saw a comment on one of my old blogs, talking about how a prayer that I posted about concentration at work helped them (they were looking for a prayer for concentration and apparently my prayer was easily modified for purpose).

I thought I’d share it with y’all because I know that it was something I came across as well and that I modified according to what I needed.  I’m hoping that it helps someone who comes across this blog post too!  In this world of instants, there are so many distractions.  Sometimes it helps to just close one’s eyes and focus and draw into oneself and centre oneself by praying.

I hope this helps!

Dear Father,

I draw near You to seek Your help.  I have the assurance that You love me so very much. Lord, the Scripture says that You love the prosperity of Your children.  You know the importance of being able to concentrate at work.  Father, bless me with Your guidance and let me work on my things to do list properly.  Lord, I confess that I get distracted easily; I have more interest in less important things instead of what is urgent in my in-tray.

Please forgive me and gird me with You grace (I love the word gird Lord, because it makes me feel like I am going to battle, and oh I do love a battle!  See Lord, I am digressing, yet again!) and strength so that I concentrate in my work.  Without Your help I cannot achieve any success Lord!

Please help me to overcome all my weaknesses and strengthen my mind. Take full control of my wandering thoughts and give me Your wisdom and knowledge. Let me shine at work, Heavenly Father and let me be a blessing to to everyone. I lift all this up in Jesus’ name.  

Amen.

Yelly Writes

Back to the salt mines!

Yelly

I had 10 days off work.  1o days!

It was a struggle to go back to work this morning and the day sped by so fast I nearly got whiplash!  But, that being said, after 10 days of not being chained to a desk (and my determination to keep my desk as paperless as possible), today was a good first day back at work!

Today was actually a really good day.

WUKABKR

Yelly Writes

It’s not always my fault

Yelly

I think I’ve had a proper breakthrough today.  It’s finally hit me, very properly (right in between the eyes, so to speak), that sometimes, it really isn’t me.  Sometimes, another person’s inconsistency isn’t how they’re reacting to me.  It’s really just who they are, and no matter how much one tries to be efficient to manage everything in the background, sometimes it just isn’t possible to manage someone else’s inconsistencies.  I’ve always had an overdeveloped sense of responsibility.  When something goes wrong, my first instinct is to think “What have I not done?”  But sometimes, it’s not my fault.  I need to stop taking it on as my fault.  Because I know that I’ve always done my absolute best with what time I have.

You're OKI can only do what I can do, in the time frame that I have to do things.  If I can’t get it done, then, well, I can’t because I can’t create time magically.  It’s not my fault and I am not taking responsibility for something I don’t have control over (i.e. someone else’s priorities).  It’ll have to be done another day.  I am only one person.

Yes, Alan, I am finally listening to you properly!

Save

Yelly Writes

Of cold calls and hard sells

Yelly

I know that when we receive cold calls at work, it’s people trying to sell the firm all sorts of services (from cleaning services to tax software products, you name it, we’ve probably received a sales call about it!). So today, I take one such cold call for my director from a Sam from DataTracks (I have his contact number).  He wanted to know if we had an iXBRL reporting service provider.  I had to make sure I gave the right so I had to check with our admin head.  We did and I know we’d just renewed the contract because of the merger.  So I said we did. He asked (not very politely) who it was so I said CCH.  He started getting aggressive wanting to talk to my director (who was honestly on the phone) and asked me if I knew what it was, how important it was for corporation tax reporting to HMRC.

Of course by this time, I knew he was going to try to get me to transfer him to one of the directors so that he could try and sell him their services.  It was a Friday afternoon, and all of our directors had better things to do with their time.  I politely told Sam that we didn’t require services from a new provider yet because we had just renewed our contract.  I suggested that if he could send over information about the services his company provided, he could send it to our enquiries email address so their services could be reviewed and the appropriate person could get in touch.  Somehow I could feel Sam getting agitated (his English started changing from an American accent to an Australian accent and some transatlantic call centre accent)  and he asked me if I was admin or an accountant because it’s possible I didn’t understand what he was talking about.  It ruffled my feathers because the implication was that because I was just admin staff that I knew nothing about what our office did.  So I said I understood that he had sales targets to reach but that we already had a provider we were happy with and to have a nice day and I hung up.

boilerroomI wish I could be rude to him but as I still had my PA hat on, I had to be polite and professional, and it wouldn’t reflect well on the firm if I was rude back. I get the sales target thing, that it can get all boiler-roomy and that they’re under a lot of pressure to sell. But if you provide a service (a professional service at that), the hard sell isn’t always the best way to get your foot in.  I hope Sam gets more soft skills training. He definitely needs it!

Thank goodness it’s the weekend!

Yelly Writes

Budget Day 2016

Yelly

Today, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announces his plans for Britain for the next 5 years.

This was a busy day for me because I work for an accounting firm and we always have a post-Budget Announcement presentation for all our clients, so our firm can let them know how the Budget Announcement can affect them.  Our tax team were busy preparing the materials for the e-shot which came out 6 hours after the Budget announcement with an analysis of how things would turn out.  There were figures to check, powerpoint slide presentations to proof read, and handouts to prep.

Needless to say it was a busy day and there was a lot to do.  I missed the train I usually get on by a mile (not that I was there on time by any stretch of the imagination – by the time the train doors shut and the train pulled away from the station I was still proofing the notes on the slides!).  I got home later than usual, nursing a pounding head and my cold has gotten worse (yes, I would like to have a little sympathy, thanks!).

Budget Red BoxAfter reading all the Budget analyses I could bear, and reading the statement from the Chancellor saying “This will be a Budget for the working people,” I think Gideon may have got it (very) wrong.