How To Win Friends

My work takes me to many small retailers over quite a large area. I've learn a lot about what makes a business work and how simple things make or break businesses from  small to large. I never cease to be amazed at the great lengths to which some businesses are willing to go to drive their customers away, and at what little things they refuse to do to keep them.

On my way to a meeting today I had to stop for a few minutes to send a document to a client. I sat down at a table on the street in front a cafe, got out my laptop and plugged in the 3g dongle.

A few minutes later the cafe owner came over and very politely told me they had free wifi, he said it would be much faster and he told me the access password, then left. As he was going I asked if he would be so kind as to grab me a coffee and a croissant.

I fully intended to buy a coffee when I sat down, but this approach was so refreshingly friendly and helpful. I got my document sent, made it to the meeting, I came back to the cafe with my client, we spent some more money there and concluded our business.

This cafe is nothing flash or stylish. It's in a very uninspiring location, but it had such a great feel about it. I sat back for a while and watched them work. Some excellent flamenco guitar was playing, the owner was buzzing about and looked to be really enjoying what he was doing. It was a quiet morning but there were plenty of occupied tables. I tip my hat to the little man at Pistache. He understands why people go to a cafe. Whats hard about that?

Coochie Blues

We were out driving the other day and noticed a poster stuck on a pole advertising the Coochiemudlo Island Blues Festival coming up. Bit hard to get the details from a pole as it flashes by so I googled the event later on. Had no trouble finding the Coochiemudlo Island website but the calendar has no reference to the event. The events page on the website has no reference to the event.

Further searches found two events websites with very limited info about the event - and both listed different dates.

If you are going to the considerable trouble of getting a Blues festival together, I would think it might be a good idea to promote it . And it's probably easied to post the dates on your website than to drive around nailing posters to trees.

So if you are interested in going to the Coochiemudlo Blues Festival - the details are on a tree near you.  And if you are an organizer of the festival and wonder why numbers at the festival are a bit soft, maybe a little info on the website might work. I for one would like to know when to come over and what's on the program.

Recycled Water

I have for some time now been of the firmly held opinions that we are getting stupider as a species. However lately I'm not so sure. I suspect it might be that we are becoming victims of our own politeness and indifference.

I took this snap on a recent trip to Melbourne. This politeness is manifesting itself in this sort of mind boggling nonsense. I can only imagine that when some bonehead suggested the value of this sign being stuck in every toilet in the new complex, it is possible that everyone at the table was too polite to tell said bonehead what a stupid and useless idea it was.

It's assumed that the occupant of the stall has sufficient intelligence to understand the function and meaning of the buttons, but may possibly not understand that this particular toilet uses recycled water which may not be as fit to drink as the water from some other toilet (if that is your habit?).

And this vital information is conveyed both in English and with a symbol that any non-English reader will interpret to mean that the tap water around here is no good. Gives me a headache trying to unravel the logic of it.

Or maybe it's not politeness, it's just lazy indifference. The meeting had gone on too long, everyone wants to get out, bonehead insists on the little sticker in the loo and all agree if it will get them out of there sooner. Who cares anyway?

The Graduate

University graduation ceremony yesterday. I've come to this somewhat later in life than was the original plan. Without getting carried away with detail, if you are doing or have done your degree, do the ceremony.

A degree is so  much more than a piece of paper, it's a milestone, a significant marker in your life that becomes part of your DNA. It becomes an integral part of who you are and how you perceive yourself. And the ceremony is the point at which you fully grasp these changes. On completing the degree I was relived and satisfied, but joining hundreds of fellow graduates and sharing their pride of achievement was a singular experience not to be missed. As you walk on to the stage for your ever so brief moment, that's the moment that you understand the changes.

Unfortunately the moment was soured somewhat when we returned to our seats and took the time to read the graduate certificates issued by the university - they were completely wrong. One would think a university would have the capacity to differentiate between and undergraduate degree and a post-grad. What's hard about that?

Writeagenn.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. Herein lie the meanderings of a confused and curious individual. Please feel free to treat my postings with the contempt they deserve as I share the meaningless and ill-informed banalities that I'm occasionally motivated to pen.

Writeagenn.