As I am visiting in Holland and my kids are watching some tripe on dutch tv i decided to have a look at my blog site. To my surprise I was down as a female but last time I looked I am a male and NOT in touch with my feminine (is that spelled ok) side!

Been to cinema and watched kung fu panda as weather isn't great and we enjoy going to the cinema. As I've recently re-discovered my christianity I felt very connected with this film in which I saw lots af lessons in life. Maybe it's just me....

Always nice to be back in Holland not so nice to read on the AJAX website that we have given a 2 0 lead away and lost 3 2!. Now these games between ajax and the gunners always give me dilemma as I both support ajax and arsenal.... My first love of course is Ajax but as i've left Holland 8 years ago I lost lots of contact with Ajax. Also lost my sattelite connection when canal digitaal in Holland found out I actually live in the UK. If anybody knows how to get round this problem I would be very interested!!

To come back to Ajax and football in general I went to watch Ajax play Cardiff City the other day....Spent almost 2 hours going over to Cardiff from Hereford and then so a very slow game which didn't inspire me at all! Talking of Hereford, Utd didn't do too bad in league 1 I think. I vow to go and watch them play a bit more as I haven't been AT ALL last season and I believe they are gonna need all the support they can get.

Busy in work last week with lots of wedding orders. Credit crunch? What credit crunch!!!!
And the price of Diesel is down by about 8 pence a litre which is good news too!

Almost in a good mood now!

Be good and be with God

Baan

Sorry for not doing any blogs for at least 4 days. Bit busy actually. It strikes me as a bit strange that when the credit crunch is apparently biting that flower sales seem to be on the up. I know times are hard for all of us but flowers are surely a luxury item?

At this moment in time it seems to be ok. Don't get me wrong many people are moaning how quiet it is but they still buy flowers. This is a strange time of year in the flower trade with the holidays now in full swing...
Against that we have lots of orders for weddings coming up but even when customers have no weddings they could get the guests buttonholes and so on.

Lots of florists don't like wedding orders as they are a pain in the neck because understandably the orders are quite particular and have to be spot on! What they don't understand or know that at every wedding party there are at least two potential new brides... What happens if the bride has had an experience either good or bad? They tell their friends and family! What a lot of people don't seem to get is that the customers can buy flowers anywhere nowadays. We need to be bending back over backwards and kiss our customers' feet. They pay our mortgage and let's face it that doesn't come down much lately either.

Too hot for me today, or should I say too sticky? I need to be grateful of all the business still coming my way and I am sure that God is at work here. It seems to me that He keeps pushing me in a certain direction lately, an area which I haven't thought of before. I keep getting customers on the edge of the area requesting extra deliveries on a day where I got some hours to fill ...

My partners granddad is currently in Hereford Hospital being quite ill but seems very upbeat and with the care of the nurses you can't blame him. He's 84 or so and lost his wife 4 years ago and we all expected he would be soon to follow but until this year he's been relatively good health wise. We have to thank God again as my partner wants to be given away by her granddad on her wedding day as she hasn't had contact with her dad for years. I don't know the ins and outs but we agreed that when she was pregnant with our first child she should get in touch again, which duly happened. Regarding the wedding we were due to get married 4 years ago but cancelled it then with her nan sadly died. Franky we still miss you every day, we know your in heaven and are laughing how silly we are and the mistakes we make.

Didn't what to write but haven't done too badly.

Sorry, but forgot to blog yesterday but there wasn't much to say anyway and if you don't have much to say you may as well say nothing! Wahey ! Another pearl of wisdom!

Anyway today was another day in another week, getting too depressed to listen to the radio as you only hear bad news. I must admit I can't stand music radio, well radio 1 or all these commercial stations with all the blabber instead of talking! Must say that I'm quite a big fan of radio 5live.

Not a bad day today but find it hard to motivate myself at the moment. Any ideas anybody! There are so many thing going round my head don't find a moment's peace. Sometimes you wonder why you do what you do.... I work in the service industry if you like but it never seems to be enough service for your customers. When you read the books reap what you sow, what goes around comes around and go the extra mile and so on.... I have done all these things and was hoping to get SOME breaks but not at the moment.

I am counting on that ONE BIG BREAK and it's only round the corner, surely it is. When you come to think of it that true happiness won't be found in a big bank account although it does help but in your LIFE. Now what is life? Is it work, is it rest, is it the community you're in? Life to my thinking is all these things and it's personal. For myself I can't imagine working 9 to 5 and then switching off. And although I gripe and groan I do like my life.. I have build it myself, made my bed and am lying in it.

My real bonus this year is that I have relocated God in my life and although I don't wanna go on about it He's made me happier already, Nothing to do with monetary gain( I wish...)but much more to do with rest in my soul, can't explain it but I have found rest in my restless life and am starting to make decisions what I think is right not what the business requires. I have decided to take a few days of at the next bank holiday. You may say so what, but I haven't allowed myself or my nearest and dearest more than 1 week holiday when the business is quiet anyway.

I feel at ease with myself, my family and with all the difficult decisions I am going to have to make. Now THAT'S what I call a bonus...

Go well, all of you out there!

Baan

First warmish day for a long time, now I am not a fan of the heat. Trying to establish new customers every day but wasn't successful yesterday. More bad news on the credit crunch and people don't wanna hear no more. We have to be careful otherwise we TALK OURSELVES into a recession. When I was back in Holland two weekends ago there was talk about growth however small it may be. Positive thinking will get you through these bad days,weeks and months. By having a positive outlook on life you look for solutions instead of problems. Problems are only opportunities to make things better! This credit crunch will open new opportunities for lots of people including me. It will decide for me where to go with this business or any other possibilities or chances when they come along. After a long day's work it's always nice to see smiling faces of my kids, who thankfully don't have any concept of good or bad days at work. Just unconditional love at this age.

Hoping for a good day today,and know that it's all gonna be al right in the
end.We can just hope and pray that we see the opportunities send on our path by God.

Have great day,

Baan

Good Morning All, A new blogger yet again. My main thoughts will be penned down here. I thought what the heck instead of using pen and paper having to buy new pens and journals to write my thoughts down why don't i modernise?

After all I am already 42 years of age! Maybe a bit about myself to introduce me to the world...

My name is Baan and a Dutch ex pat living in Hereford with my partner and 2 beautiful kids, I hasten to mention I have 2 more beautiful kids in Holland which I visit as much as I can, minimal once a month. My blog name gives it all away: I sell or should I say TRY to sell flowers for a living.

The title of my blog also gives a lot away. I am trying to find time to do lots of things in a very limited time, who had the idea to make days as short as 24 hours? There again some 24 hours seem to last a lifetime. Over the recent years and months lots of things have happened and I won't bore you with the details but life hasn't been easy for my poor partner. I chose this road and I will stick to this road but she is just an innocent bystander who has supported me through thick and of late mainly thin.

I haven't been easy to live with for the first years!of our relationship but after realising that the blame lies with me and no-one else I had to stand up and take responsibility, which I have duly done. I read the whole collection of self help books with the back up of cd's and dvd's.
One day I came to the conclusion that all the books and other gadgets had one thing in common: They were all preaching the straight and narrow... Now I used to be a religious man but lost my way and I have been pointed back to that road yet again.

I thank God for guiding me back to the road which has served me so well. I know now from hind sight that all the things I hunted I already had. I'd thrown it all away to start again and found peace in believing in God. Since I've embraced Him again my sleepless night have all but gone and I am making the business decisions which I was too lazy to do for years. He is helping me to make the right choices now. My empty years are behind me... However time is of the essence. We have a business to rescue here, and as we are in a credit crunch and flowers are a luxury item we have to be creative and look for new ways of doing our business. We operate in the wholesale field of the market and life hasn't been easy but I feel that this crunch will help us focus on what to do and this will sort out the men from the boys.

If we are on the right side of the divide time will only tell. I am open to suggestions and ideas... The finding time heading of my first blog has to do with the hours I work already, I don't want my work to be killing me but would also like to survive, couple this with my re-found faith there don't seem to be enough hours in the day.

I hope somebody will have the stamina to read all of these ramblings. My aim is to blog as much as I can and to trust my thoughts to you.I know there is somebody out there who may have been or still is in the same situation who can give me strength to continue this business...

Have a great sunday,

Baan