The world on our doorstep

As is often the case, one tends to make obvious and important decisions; when a glass or two of wine has been consumed. So was the case last week for myself. Sharon and I, did you know we were married by the way, were enjoying a lovely meal at some friends house when I started to remark about our pudding. Delicious though it was I had a moment of envirophobia (if there is such a word) and started to analyse where in the world the ingredients would have needed to be imported from to satisfy our tastebuds. Now i know this isn't exactly new as we have been made aware of this for some time, but have you actually done it ?????
Well we did; and the innocent raspberries on my plate took on a whole new significance. After a couple more glasses of wine two of us decided to embark on a voyage of environmentally friendly consuption, we would only digest seasonaly available products produced within the UK and no more raspberries from Chile for goodness sake.
Many reasons accompanied our thoughts for this momentous decision for instance our lack of understanding for seasonal variation, moral integrity, the environment (obviously), health (we all seemed much happier and healthy when we were young and had less choice) , supporting local and historic business's etc etc. No problem.
On Saturday Sharon and I went shopping for the first time since 'The decision'. I innocently started putting the usual stuff in the trolley when Sharon had a moment !!! After my initial worry I realised that she had simply thought of something, phew !! And then she looked at me and I knew I was in trouble. Unable to avoid the laser tracking movement of her eyes I was caught in the proverbial headlights. '' Do you remember what you said on Wednesday ?'' and in that moment it all flooded back to me. Hesitantly I glanced firstly at the shopping trolley and then Sharon. I knew she was expecting a quick reversal from me as food and alcohol were involved, but lifting my head ''no'' I said ''we will start today''.
We had only progressed ten yards into the shop and of the twelve items placed in the trolley all had to be removed except the cabbage!!! great. As we steadily progressed we realised that there would be no lemmons for G&T's, no spinach (only available from Israel) no apples (some imported from China) and by the time we got to the end of the first isle it had taken 3 times the length of time as normal and our nerves were a little on edge.
However we persevered and knowing where to look on the lables for point of origination details we quickly picked up the pace, although by this time we knew that we would have to re think our recipes and altered our thought patterns accordingly to take season variation into account. By the time we arrived at the alcohol section our trolley was half as full as normal, excellent I thought; Money saved can be spent on something else; and gosh look where we are !!!!
However after several points of contestation it was agreed that wine must also be brought into the equation and my favourite French tipple should be replaced by a British wine. After 3 days of trying to locate a British wine I was forced to ask a 'I'm here to help' person where I should go. Please dont answer that yourself !!! Proudly I was shown to the British section to find the one brand stocked was 'Out of stock' aaaaaaahhhhhhh.
After quickly becoming an expert in British cider manufacture I purchased 3 bottles and felt a wave of relief.
In the car on the way home Sharon and I discussed our little adventure and surprisingly we both felt proud. We determined to carry on our quest having located an excellent butchers and greengrocers which only stock locally produced seasonal items.
I think its easy to be aware but sometimes all of us have to be reminded of our comfort zones, which ever form they take and do something to challenge ourselves, whether its our favourite food or our job or how we communicate.

Our journey will continue !!!!!!!!

Design and Communications placement

DESIGN & COMMUNICATIONS PLACEMENT.

HOURS OF PLACEMENT: 8 HOURS A WEEK

JOB DESCRIPTION:


PERSONAL OBJECTIVES:

A chance for you to develop P.R. and communications skills by working in the
diverse environment of Vision.

The placement offers the chance to work alongside Vision staff in a number of areas
including media relations, producing information leaflets, publicity materials and policy issue and when needed to support Vision staff whether delivering training or support to those in the community.


BENEFITS OF THIS POST INCLUDE:

Gaining an enthusiastic and creative approach to using your skills in entrepreneurial yet community focussed organisation.

The opportunity to have in-house supervision once a week.

To increase your confidence in a working environment.

To increase your imagination and sensitivity to reach a diverse range of new
customers and to market Vision to existing customers.

Volunteers Expenses are paid at the end of every month, all receipts and invoices must show the date and time accounted for.

If you are interested in the above post or you would like to find out more please contact Vision on : 0115 941 8242 or E-mail: info@visionconsulttraining.co.uk
Or if you would like to find out more about Vision please take a look at our website www.visionconsulttraining.co.uk

Dealing with difficult people

People who are difficult absorb your time and energy. The earlier you can identify who will be difficult and when, the better your chances will be of dealing with them successfully.
Difficult people stop us achieving our goals. Understanding why people are difficult helps you to anticipate who will be difficult and take action to prevent problems and reduce conflict.
This 1 day awareness workshop will help you to deal with difficult people.
Date: Thursday 15th May 2008
Time: 10:00am to 3:00pm
Venue: Vision Development Consultants, 63B Mansfield Road,
Nottingham, NG1 3FN
Cost: £95.00 plus VAT

Assertiveness at work

This one day introductory course titled Assertiveness at Work is designed to
enable you to learn the essential skills of assertiveness. You will be given the opportunity to practice and develop your skills in the working environment.
Date: Thursday 8th May 2008
Time: 10:00am to 3:00pm
Venue: Vision Development Consultants, 63B Mansfield Road,
Nottingham, NG1 3FN
Cost: £95.00 plus VAT

Government visit

Vision look forward to a visit from The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) on Friday 8th February. Mary Crow and Carolyn Mainard will visit our specialist fulltime alternative education base as a centre of excellence.
Our Alternative Education programme combines Personal Development with Academic qualifications and is proving to be extremely successful.
For more information on our various alternative education programmes please contact Brendan at Head office.