By Peter Johnson, on November 30th, 2014 | Comments are closed 
I love this old bridge. It is a wonderful engineering creation that also embraces the local stone in a way that harmonises with our scenery in England. It is no longer used as a road bridge, a newer and wider bridge having been built to take more traffic on the busy road.
In my mind the bridge made me think of two particular things.
The first, that it is a focal point for the river crossing – it spans the River Severn much higher up, and nearer the source, than where I live. The Severn is the longest river in Britain, so as it wanders it way south it provides a supply of water for many
Continue reading A bridge to the new side
By Peter Johnson, on October 31st, 2014 | Comments are closed The significance of dates in history sometimes start to wane as the years flow past. I have little doubt that most people will remember the year 1914 – the first year of the First World War. It is also worth remembering the impact that war had all those years ago, and how very different the world was compared with now. It also bears some time to ponder on how the world would have changed if the result of that war was different.
The type of clothing was so different from today as were the methods of transport, communication, diet and food, equipment, weapons in war – the list goes on. So some things change yet the impact
Continue reading Battle of Gheluvert – 100 years ago
By Peter Johnson, on October 13th, 2014 | Comments are closed In our ever growing cafe culture it is usually a delight to make some time for a slow coffee. Or if the need is for a swift break in a busy day, a cafe always is a welcome sight.
I was out recently and started to think about heading back into ‘civilisation’ so I could hunt out a cafe – it was well past coffee time and I also hoped to combine an early bite of lunch too. I was just looking at the lock of the canal I was near when I noticed the longboat in the picture.
What a welcome sight. As you can see it was a dull day, also with a chill in
Continue reading Longboat cafe
By Peter Johnson, on September 21st, 2014 | Comments are closed I have been fortunate enough over most of my life to be gifted with a curiosity that has meant that I never seem to ‘settle’. There is always something else to look at, something more to explore, something to investigate, to learn. With each stone that seems to get turned over to see what is underneath, I am truly amazed at what appears. Truly amazed – whether this a new word, a new recipe, or a new country that I am about to explore.
As you will know from many of my articles, I have a fascination with personal development. This can be my own development or that of others. One of the things I love to
Continue reading Are you a player or spectator?
By Peter Johnson, on September 15th, 2014 | Comments are closed I am always fascinated by business. The way they work, the people who work and run them, the amazing creativity that goes on behind the scenes. So many ways to develop ideas and become innovative to make them work. Also it is really interesting to discover just how different the approach can be to create the product.
Recently I was invited to see how tomatoes grow, and whilst at first pass this may not sound that interesting, the visit was fascinating. Like many, I have grown tomatoes at home in the garden and struggled to get them to ripen, so the production of green tomatoes chutney formed one of the ways to deal with the glut, when
Continue reading Turning up the heat!
By Peter Johnson, on September 12th, 2014 | Comments are closed As our world speeds up due to the technology we now have, and the seemingly huge demands that are placed upon us to be active and involved, I sometimes wonder if we are becoming less involved. Often, the seemingly busyness can mean that we do not see what there is to see, do not hear what there is to hear, and in our café culture, the speed of eating may mean that we do not appreciate and taste what we eat.
I had decided to walk between appointments in London, and on one longer stretch of walking I passed a favorite place that I had not visited for a while. I have enjoyed many an evening dining
Continue reading What are you missing in the haste of the day?
By Peter Johnson, on August 30th, 2014 | Comments are closed I was walking through one of the side streets of Oxford recently on my way back from a meeting and noticed the motorbikes that you can see in the picture. And whilst there is nothing unusual about motorbikes it did make me smile that in a city renown for the number of bicycles that here was a row of the motorised variety – in fact most of them were Harley Davidson’s, so powerful machines too. All of the motorbikes that were parked up had Germany registration plates, and as they were parked up next to one of the colleges it looked like they were visitors there.
All of the motorbikes were in pristine condition and clean.
It
Continue reading Chains of coincidences – pedal or motorised
By Peter Johnson, on August 23rd, 2014 | Comments are closed I have been a little quiet with my articles of late – all for good reason. I think have mentioned before that I aim to undertake a personal development programme each year to keep me up to date and also see what is happening in the market. Last year I started a new Diploma in Coaching which has proved very useful. My initial coaching training was completed nearly 15 years ago, when if I mentioned I did coaching the assumption was that I taught tennis, golf or something similar. How times have changed now there is a real growth of the term, and also the understanding of the power this approach can have to personal development.
Historically,
Continue reading Taking time out – quiet but busy
By Peter Johnson, on June 8th, 2014 | Comments are closed The television coverage and newspapers have been full of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. The remembrance of the events from the beaches of France.
It was wonderful to see the few brave men who are left who were part of the invasion, proud and clearly still moved with vivid memories of the day – and the the horrifying days, weeks and months that were to follow. Remembering the comrades who were lost on that day in our history, and the following years. They are now in their autumn years – 70 years ago they were young and barely adults.
I was watching some of the events with my parents who lived at the times
Continue reading D-Day – what does it mean to you?
By Peter Johnson, on May 31st, 2014 | Comments are closed I had never been to Canary Wharf before so was looking forward to seeing this part of London for the first time. I arrived by ‘tube’, the underground railway. The station was new, modern, albeit impersonal and possibly clinical in appearance although probably not in the germ count. I looked for directions and they were only of use if you knew precisely the names of where everything was. In my simplistic view I thought that there was only one large tower block, which is where I was scheduled to have a meeting over coffee. How wrong I was – there are many tower blocks each housing different organisations that are known the world over in financial circles.
Continue reading Do you make time to think?
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