One thing one should never do when their friendships are sketchy is to give a birthday party.  You will blow your cover right then and there.  You can’t take it from me because I have always had successful parties.  I never aim too high though…..I simply invite family, friends and trusted folks who like me.  That is the key.

But I have experienced dateless birthdays though.  And working with a  bunch of females just may make you want to become more creative to throw them off your dateless trail.   Girls are girls and can be silly when it comes to boys, I’ve been there too.  But  I mean no one really has to know your Birthday Activity Schedule.  Or that you’re going to spend your birthday at home or worst with a bunch of females.  I mean that’s fine when you’re all young and on the make, so to speak.   But when everyone has a boyfriend and you don’t, let’s call this a CREATE A MAN DAY.  That’s right.You can create a facade so swell that you will be the envy of all the girls……. Here’s how it goes:

1.)  Say your birthday is on a lovely Spring Friday.  Start on Wednesday getting that floral bouquet ready.  Take with you, your brother, cousin or a best friend and pay him to order that arrangement to come to the Office.  Pick out a  generic but sexy name like “Dexter” and have the message “Please say yes, Dex…..” on the bouquet.

2.)  You will want to look cute and a little mysterious that day so wear your jazzy little hat, your rhinestone glasses, cute shoes and nicely fitted pencil jeans, since this is a Friday, your birthday and Dress Down Day anyway, you can pull this off.

3.)  Find a way to have a little impromptu meeting with the Secretaries so that they can come in smell the flowers and see that romantic “Please say yes” note while the phone rings and the mysterious Dex and a couple of your girlfriends call to really solidify this birthday……  Your cousin who is playing your boyfriend is at it again and probably getting tired of you by now but loves you enough to get you through the day.

4.)  Arrange to have your mystery cousin-man pick you up at lunch.  Guarantee you that some female from the Office or the Office building is going to come out and see you get into the car.  Women are naturally nosey spies so give them something to spy about.

5.)  Return to the office with a smile and a few scant details and busy yourself while looking just a tad smug.

6.)  If you must call a cab to go to meet your date, that’s fine, just make sure you linger behind the girls.  Get home, take off your shoes, relax in a nice tub with bubbles, drink some champagne, eat your chocolates.  Your job is done.  You really and truly do not need a date to have a cool birthday!

These anti-theft devices come in the form of zip-locked bags and even paper bags. They are made to look as though there is mold growing on the lunch. Whether or not they work depends on the person trying to steal what is inside but at first glance, they are very persuasive. The dark green forms on the inside of the bag (visible on the outside) literally make it look as if there is dark mold on the food inside.

The sandwich for the baggie has to be in the right size to make it look right and the same goes for cookies and other such things. There is a variety of these products on the market. They are great for using as a joke on someone or they can be used for a child going to school. There are plenty of cool uses for them, of course the main one being as a preventative measure against a stolen lunch.

I went to breakfast knowing my wife would be pleasant and say, “Happy Birthday” and probably prepared a present for me.
Forget “Happy Birthday”. She didn’t even say “Good Morning”.

I thought, “Well, that’s wives for you, the children will remember.”
However, the children came in to breakfast and didn’t say a word.

I went to the office feeling pretty low.
As I walked into my office my secretary, Janet, said, “Good morning, boss, happy Birthday!”
And I felt a little better; someone had remembered. I worked until noon.
Then, Janet knocked on my door and said, “You know, it’s such a beautiful day outside and it’s your birthday, let’s go to lunch, just you and me.”
I said, “That’s the greatest thing I’ve heard all day. Let’s go.”

We went to lunch. We didn’t go where we normally go; we went out to the country to a little private place. We had two martinis and enjoyed lunch tremendously.

On the way back to the office, she said, “You know, it’s such a beautiful day. We don’t need to go back to the office, do we?”
I said, “No, I guess not.”
She said, “Let’s go to my apartment.”
After arriving at her apartment she said, “Boss, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go change.”
“Sure.” I replied excitedly.
I started getting very excited and thought today is my lucky day.

She went into the bedroom and in about six minutes later, she came out carrying a big birthday cake, followed by my wife, children, and dozens of our friends, all singing Happy Birthday.

And there I sat on the couch naked!

• Vegetables. If you have the chance and space in the garden to do so, you might want to try growing your own vegetables. Obviously it’s a little late to be thinking about this in December, but you could always create a vegetable patch for next year’s Christmas Dinner. If you don’t want to grow your own, then you might find that you are able to find things cheaper in independent farm shops than you can find in supermarkets. You could save several pounds on your vegetables, so it would be worth it. You could also buy some vegetables, such as carrot crush as many people like to have with their Christmas Dinner, frozen from supermarkets. You can give 4 portions for as little as £1, and you are able to buy these well in advance.
• Turkey. If you end up throwing away a lot of turkey at the end of the year, then you might want to think about getting a smaller bird this year. Similar to vegetables, you might find that you are able to buy turkey for a little bit cheaper if you were to buy it from a smaller butchers rather than if you got it from a supermarket. If there is only you and your partner, then you should consider buying a smaller piece of turkey rather than getting a whole bird. This can help to save waste, and it is obviously a lot cheaper than buying the whole thing at once.
• Stuffing. You might not have noticed this, but in December, supermarkets tend to mark up foods that people tend to buy for Christmas so that they can make a little more of a profit on it while they have the chance to do so. If you look at the packaging on stuffing, you will see that you can often freeze them for up to three months, so you could buy your stuffing cheaply in October and then simply keep it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it.

If you take these tips then there is no reason that you can’t have an economical Christmas which can be just as exciting as anything that you might have experienced during the past. 

1. Take advantage of Laptop or Computer. Whatever the reasons you’re not in the mood to work, try to Etap good friends with this one thing. Activity plays a mouse or mangetik clever way that indicates when you’re busy. Just use the chat, reply to incoming email, play games, or open the desired site. Try not to use the phone because you’ll just look busy SMS’s or an air-fuel. One more thing, leave the phone emnggunakan vibrate (vibration) so you can sort the phone is less important.

2. Set Position. Main laptop is also not effective if not accompanied premises that fit the position and expression. Such as leaning on a bench or laughing after reading the status of a friend is not the right step. So, keep the monitor with a serious face. As much as possible buried deep desire to laugh. So even with the attitude of sitting. Sitting upright is the best position. Occasionally kerutkan forehead. In this way, employers will see when you are working seriously. However, please note the location of the laptop screen, if the boss is easy to see your work. As a workaround, leave applications open word or excel. So, when the boss came over, just click the application as the active window.

3. Let Desk Fully Visible. Do not leave piles of paper documents or wasted, reserving to meet the workbench. Let puplen, flash, or reading books are also lying there. Sampaia more interesting if there is a fall on the floor, uppss! You’ll look super busy, especially if followed by the two previous steps. Desk tidy too josong and gives the impression that you puny lot of time to membersekan table. So, make a little messy.

4. Delaying Lunch. Nothing wrong with saying “catch up” when you invite friends to lunch. No need to linger, ten minutes is enough to postpone lunch. Say if you’re responsible in doing the report. Do it when the boss was in the office. If it does not. Better on time. Putting the work and briefly delaying lunch indeed indicate if you are very focused on the job. But if Sampa forgot to eat, might not even be considered not love yourself. Well, just provide healthy snacks for the stomach.

5. In a hurry. Show your passion of your work in front of colleagues and superiors to continue to appear energized, like typing with ceapt (although just a chat), accelerating the pace of the legs, and looks do not want to be disturbed. So even when toward the cafeteria for lunch, occasionally eat faster than usual, and excused himself to go to the office first. Tell me if you have to call the client (when he’s calling). But not too often yes, if you do not want isolation from other colleagues. Peegaulan remains important, for the sake of getting a comfortable working environment.

6. Bring documents. Bring the document even though only a few sheets of paper or book report notes, as if you’re making toward meeting or busy completing the work. Then, get busy yourself with membecanya repeatedly as if you were checking the report. Do not forget, to take advantage of post-it notes. Write down all the work to be completed along with the words of encouragement. Let him stick even though they had completed. In addition to look busy and industrious, this could be a way so that no reports are sure to be made.

7. Schedule Atus Overtime. Do not let deh cap “Ms. Tanggo “or” Mr.. Tanggo “given to you. Hours home teng, langung go. Occasionally more you know to be useful for smooth career. Because the overtime indicates that you are willing to sacrifice dem firm, comfortable in the office, or even considered to be in love with the job. Such employees will usually be more attention compared to those who hnya put back on time. However, if the conditions that you feel just the opposite, namely more overtime, to be sure you do not need to bother to pretend to look busy, right? If so, set when it’s time to go home on time. You are entitled to it. Yes keep the spirit!

However, a recent turn of events has left us without this privilege. Teachers are now told to dismiss us when an alarm goes off on their computers. These computers don’t make it to the hallways, so no one has a way of knowing if we’re late or not. Problem? Yeah.

The biggest problem I’ve noticed with this is the lunch periods. Before, we had bells going off throughout the period to tell us when to go, but in order to “make us a more academic school,” they’re taking this system out and attempting to tell us when to go somewhere. Some of us, like me, don’t spend the entire lunch period in the cafeteria, however. A lot of students like to use this time to go to the restroom, go to their locker, visit a teacher, or get other important things done. This means that I don’t get a dismissal. I’m forced to either learn the exact times of all my classes, (which ended up off today anyway because lunch was so backed up), or hope that I get back to my class on time.

This will not end well.

If anything, they should have waited until later in the year to attempt this, and they should have explained it fully to all the teachers and students before going for it. Rule of thumb: if the intercom isn’t working, stop trying to change things! You’re just confusing everyone!

Typical Norfolk misty landscape

My Great Auntie Nell, a Londoner by birth, had, as a young woman during the early 1920s, moved to Norfolk (UK) to become a nanny for a wealthy family from Old Catton on the outskirts of Norwich. 

The family, unlike many major landowners and minor nobility, treated her very well and as she had no family close by to return to, they allowed her access to a pony and trap on her afternoon off each week.   

On one particularly hot sunny summer day, after breakfast had been served, Auntie Nell asked the mistress of the house if she would object to her borrowing the pony and trap for the afternoon and taking a picnic tea out as it was her free afternoon.  The mistress instantly gave her permission and suggested that Auntie Nell take along some of “Cook’s best boiled ham and roast chicken from the larder and a bottle of homemade lemonade” and also handed Auntie Nell a lady’s magazine for her to flick through.

Auntie Nell went down and told Cook what the mistress had said so Cook happily obliged.  She prepared some ham and chicken sandwiches and a bottle of lemonade  and added some home-grown tomatoes, a hard boiled egg and a piece of fruit cake.

It then occurred to Auntie Nell that the children may like to accompany her as they rarely got the opportunity to go on informal picnics, so she approached the butler and asked if it would be alright to disturb the mistress again.  The butler, at that time, told her that he was about to take mid morning coffee and cake up to the sitting room and said that he’d ask the mistress although he was sure she wouldn’t object. Needless to say, the mistress was delighted that Auntie Nell was prepared to carry out her duties even on her half day off!

Catton Old Hall

So, at around two o’clock that afternoon, after the children had finished their lunch, the groom brought round the pony and trap while the footman loaded up a hamper (with additional sandwiches, cake and lemonade for the two children).  They were due to return by six o’clock that evening in time for dinner.

Auntie Nell went just a couple of miles away from the Hall and, by that time, the children were so excited at the prospect of a picnic and a chance to run around freely that Auntie Nell decided to take the pony and trap down a small dry, grassy track known as White Woman Lane and pulled into a meadow.  White Woman Lane was so named as it was supposed to be haunted by a white woman although it seems nobody actually knows the full story behind it and who she was.

The children eagerly helped Auntie Nell to put down blankets onto the grass in amongst the poppies, daisies, buttercups, and campions, while Auntie Nell gently lifted the wicker hamper full of goodies from the back of the trap and led the pony to a sheltered spot under a gnarled oak tree to keep it out of the sun and allow the pony to graze leisurely for a couple of hours.

The party partook of their picnic tea at around half past three and then the children went for a run around the meadow while Auntie Nell settled down to read the mistress’s magazine.  After a while, she packed everything away ready for the journey home. 

As she packed the blankets on top of the hamper, she checked her watch and found that it was almost five o’clock so she called the children back and settled them down in the trap, turned the pony back into the direction of White Woman Lane and began the journey home.

Before they’d got back onto the main track back to the Hall, the pony suddenly came to an abrupt halt and despite Auntie Nell’s protestations and urges to go on, the pony became more and more tense.  It was then that Auntie Nell noticed a mist on the meadow to the left where they’d recently been enjoying their picnic.  The mist, despite there being little or no breeze and the sky being brilliantly blue and cloudless, drifted with some speed towards them, crossed the track in front of the pony to a wheat field on the right and, as suddenly as it had appeared, it just disappeared.

The pony then just trotted on as if nothing untoward had happened.  The children eagerly told their parents what they’d witnessed and the parents, as most would these days, just thought it was childhood fantasy and indulged them.  Auntie Nell had obviously witnessed it but decided it was best to keep quiet about it as it could alarm the family and could ultimately lead to her dismissal from their employ with no reference to enable her to gain further employment.  It certainly wasn’t the sort of subject that would naturally occur in day to day conversation between employer and employee although I understand that Auntie Nell did write to her brothers and sisters back in London to tell them what had happened.

So was this mist connected to the ghost of the white woman?  Or was it just a normal mist which often occurs naturally here in rural Norfolk; in fact it happens on the meadow at the bottom of my garden as the sun goes down.  I’m no Einstein but I do know that often, after a hot day, mists form over damp ground but bearing in mind it was only about five o’clock in the afternoon and not late it seems strange that the mist had formed so early.  The mists in our meadow during mid summer don’t tend to form until around six or seven o’clock at the earliest.

It also seems odd that the mist moved so quickly across from one side of the track to the other as there was no wind and usually mists drift extremely slowly.  And the mist disappeared extremely quickly once it had crossed the track and gone into the wheat field.

The onset of the mist also upset the pony into the bargain.  We have horses on the meadow at the bottom of our garden which are owned by a local animal sanctuary and they certainly aren’t spooked by it.

This isn’t fiction; it’s a true story told to me by my great auntie when I was a child and she was in her 80s.  And it wasn’t just a tale she made up for my benefit as my grandmother, my Great Uncle Rich and my Great Auntie Alice confirmed that Auntie Nell did write to them that following weekend.  And my mother now has in her possession the letter which was addressed to my grandmother.  My grandmother was a great hoarder and had photographs, postcards, correspondence and even old newspapers going back to the year dot!

I’m not convinced some 40 years on that it was a ghost or a spirit being of some sort but, for the life of me, I can’t explain it.  I like to think I have an open mind to such things but there’s always that inkling of doubt  and that there surely must be some scientific explanation.

Photo via telegraph.co.uk

KNOW YOUR LUNCH TIME.

When you are overloaded with work and you don’t have time to take your lunch. By starving yourself doesn’t help you to concentrate of your work. Make sure to have cookies or sandwiches stored up in horrible time like these. You can eat and do your work at the same time.

SHORT BREAKS

Everybody needs a break. In the study, it shows that taking a short break about 5 to 10 minutes in every 60 to 90 minutes can help to improves overall work performance.

 LUNCH WITH SOMEONE

You are always with your colleagues during lunch time; it can be boring to see them all the time even during lunch time. Try having lunch with a friend once in a while. Make sure you will not lunch too near, so you can gossip to your heart’s content.

PICTURES OF FAMILY

Try to put up your family pictures in your cubicle so you can take a nice glimpse and simply reminding them can recharge you in wondrous ways.

AVOID TO ACCOMMODATE TOO MUCH

It is really not easy to say no when your co-worker asks help, then, don’t say no! But be polite by saying “I’ll check back with you” or “Let me get back to you once I’m done with on-hand tasks.” It is better to say that way because you’re not rejecting anyone nor promising anything.

 SNACKS OR DRINKS LYING AROUND

Having snacks can help in productive use of breaks but be ensure that you don’t end up eating too much.

CLEAN YOUR WORK STATION

When your work space is clean you feel comfortable and satisfaction about it that usually translates to good work and better performance.

BREAKFAST WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES

If you are the type of employee who arrives early, then take time to have breakfast with your fellow early birds. Doing so is a great privilege to interact and relax at the same time before you start to work, and It can set the mood for the whole day.

KNOCK OFF ON TIME

Are you afraid to do this? Well, it’s a little frightening if you don’t like to do these things. But sometimes it makes you feel happier after work knowing that you can knock off on time.

BE IGNORANT

Be ignorant of things that don’t concern you, if the issue doesn’t concern you, ignore it! Doing it keeps on focused on your tasks and free yourself of unimportant things.

You might interested in:

How to make a long distance relationship work?

Proper Handshaking

Why People Get Married?

First off, do you know that your waiter/waitress only makes  $2.13 an hour?  You didn’t?  Well, now you do.  We work for tips.  We NEVER actually see a paycheck.  It goes directly to the government and then at the end of the year we have to pay all of our remaining taxes.  Please remember these things when you dine out.  We have to make a living as well.

A few other items to remember when dining out are as follows (and these ARE just a few).

You ARE NOT the only person your server is attending to.  Have a little patience.  We know you are on your lunch break or have some other time constraint, and do our best to get you in and out.  If you do not actually have time for a “sit down” dining experience, there are several fast food chains.

Every moment is crucial when serving.  Every second spent with one guest takes away from another.  Remember this when you are dining out.  If you, for instance, tell your server you are ready to order and then continue to peruse the menu while they wait for your order, you have just taken time away from another guest.  You need to remember this because you could be the other guest (and one that is in a hurry to get back to work).  You must also consider other things you might do or request that are unnecessary.  A fine example of something that takes away precious time (especially when the restaurant is busy), is asking for a half sweet half unsweet tea.  Are you kidding me?  Yes, we will get it for you with a smile but it is ridiculous.  Get unsweet tea and some sweetener.  Constantly refilling your half and half drink takes a lot of precious time.

One more MAJOR item!  DO NOT PAY FOR A MEAL WITH A HUNDRED unless the total cost is $70 or more.  We do not have some unlimited amount of change.  Do you even know how long it takes to find change when someone pays for their $11 meal with a one hundred dollar bill?  THINK PEOPLE!

There are many other items diners should be aware of, but these are some of the more crucial.

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t agree with how some schools are banning homemade lunches. Why should the government have say with what kids can and can not eat? Especially if in some cases it is the parents who are making the choices. I feel as if the parents have say with their kids not the schools.

Recently a Chicago elementary school banned alot of the parents rights of making kids their lunches. The only parents who are now allowed to make lunch for their kids are ones with allergies to certain foods. Just because they claim it may be healthier for the students. However I feel as if a mom wants to bring their child into school with cake or soda it is their choice. Who are we to determine what is right and wrong for that child? Parents should be allowed to do what they want with their kids.

They are saying that the children have a choice to either eat the school lunch or to go hungry. To me it seems as if it is a conspiracy to get all of the kids to buy lunch from the school, just so that they can make money for the school. When it should be about what the parents want and not the schools. Also if kids go hungry because they don’t like the food their grades may also be at jeopardy because they are not able to concentrate fully in their classes because they are to hungry to. So grades should be effected just because the schools want their way? Why shouldn’t the parents have say in decisions like these? What if because of their religion they are not able to eat certain food should they go hungry because their parents aren’t allowed to make them their lunches? I remember school lunches from way back when I was in school they tasted horrible. I refused to eat the schools lunches and I would have rather gone hungry then eat what they were serving.

So how is the school going to take power away from their parents in giving them a homemade lunch? To me it doesn’t make any sense no matter how many different ways I try to look at the situation. All in all these are the parents kids not the schools. I feel as if every parent has the right to make their children lunch if they chose to do so and no one should be getting in the way of that.