hehe..me and technology .....

I love technology. I've been used to using it, in one form or another for most of life. However, this new all-singing all-dancing pda / phone / swiss army knife device is driving me mad. Unlike the last one, this one has to be actively plugged in, and I constantly forget to. Upshot? Two hour-long (plus) meetings 15 minutes apart, one for Empire HR's new multimedia project and the other for Aberdeen College. Needless to say, Ian Caie, my co-director in Rocket, took one and I took the other.

I missed my friend's leaving do in London. AH well, I'll hopefully see her later in the year when I go on holiday. After all I got 1 week in Florence last year, that's a sign of things to come ....... time off. Hopefully the 70 hour weeks won't keep going for another 18 months.

It was brought to my notice by designer friends, that a couple of design companies are being hit with the closure of all the shops and offices on the south side of Justice Mill Lane, due to a new hotel development. The Bonaccord Swimming Pool next door is also closing due to council cutbacks ..... is this a coincidence? I don't think so. We've been hit by this as well, as we had a small shareholding in a Chinese Takeaway in the same block, and our lease has not been renewed. C'est la vie.

growing up ......

We have had to make some mature decisions for the various businesses recently. Not as much fun as usual, but it still has to be done. We've actually put a formal HR protocol in place, complete with contracts and all the gubbins, and actually employed an external service to administer it. Scary! We've also had to seriously look at setting up a holding company for our various interests. This may be getting too serious. While I enjoy business, and largely treat it as fun, I've had to make some hard decisions recently regarding expansion, particularly of Rocket. While Paradox has clients all over the world, Rocket is also now getting more and more work from clients in other countries. We've supplied to Switzerland, amongst other places, and have just completed a new site for the Amber Trust in Rajasthan.