Hiya all, hope you and your families are all well? We have been fine, a few coughs and colds but that is kinda normal!
What isn't so normal is me developing a really bad sore throat, that lead to me losing my voice for a few days. It was all down to the fact that business has been busy, we Thank God, I ain't complaining, far from it, but we all know how important it is to try and keep healthy. Hence the reason for my 'missed opportunity'.
Two weeks ago, I had 5 cakes to do in a week, normally this would not be a problem but as I had been tutoring a lovely lady (a crash cake decorating course!) during the times my toddler was at pre-school, that meant I had to be up at night doing the cakes! Some cakes take on average about 10 hours to do from start to finish, this includes baking, shaping, covering etc! So as you can imagine, I didn't get much sleep at night, most nights I was getting to bed at around 5am and waking up at 7 am to sort the kids out. As I wasn't able to find the time to nap during the day, this started telling on me! I felt run down and my immune system must have been quite down, voila here comes the sore throat. We mums just get on with it don't we. It then turns out that the following week I get another 5 cakes to do! (2 of them were late orders) with very little sleep I tell myself (and my hubby warns me) that I'm going to have to say no to any orders that come in for that week. I get a call on Monday saying 'is that DHG creations?', before even replying I'm thinking to myself that I'm going to have to refuse this order but lets just see what it is. Well it was only Elstree Film Studios (the studio is about 5 mins from us, great as we get to see loads of soap stars ever so often walking or driving around here). They wanted a 3 tier birthday cake for ......wait for it......the next day! I mean here I am with 5 cakes to do, one for a 1 year old's birthday party the next day which I hadn't started decorating yet! What to do, what to do, I tell you for a split second I really wanted to take it, but I remembered how terrible I had felt the week before cos of my sore throat (I was still talking with a husky voice!).
I eventually said that I couldn't possibly do it due to the short notice, but before they hung up I asked what was it for, all they said was that it was for a Channel 4 programme. Anyway later on a friend calls and I lament to her about the cake I couldn't do, she now says " I'm sure it's for BIG BROTHER......... ". "Oh nooooooooooooo" I groan. My friend says there is a birthday coming up on programme and hence maybe the reason for the need of a cake! As I'm shopping in the supermarket I bump into another friend and I mention to her the call, she looked at me with eyes wide open and said "hope you took it" , she wasn't happy when I told her I hadn't. I was trying to make myself feel better by saying that it's not as if the housemates could say on the show that this cake was made by DHG creations as such advertising isn't allowed on the show! That's when my friend made me feel even worst by saying that they could put that sort of information on the 'Big Brother website'. Even if they didn't at least I could have taken a photo of the cake before delivering it and then put the photo on my website saying 'as seen on Big Brother series 8'
Anyway it's all in the past, I didn't seize the opportunity and I pray I've learnt a lesson or two from all of it. Funny though about a day later I was flicking through a book that had been lying around the house for a while, I randomly pick a page to read and guess what it said....
The Energy to Excel
On our journey towards success it is really useful sometimes to take a step back and look at the lives of those whom you identify as successful people. What is it that really provides them with the power to succeed? Is it knowledge, is it experience, or is it a combination of things including some form of dynamic energy, something that drives them towards the achievement of their goals? Isn't it true that in most cases these people appear to be tireless? They appear to be able to stay focussed on their goals.
Well if this is true, let's take a moment to decide how we might employ this ability ourselves. It has been said that opportunity isn't necessarily a polite thing, it doesn't wear a white tie and tails and a top hat. It doesn't arrive at a mutually convenient time. It is more like a slippery streaker that you have to be quick to grab, by any available part of its anatomy, as it whooshes past you. To do this you need something magical, something special, called stamina.
(from Personal Success Tips by Brian Larcher)
On our journey towards success it is really useful sometimes to take a step back and look at the lives of those whom you identify as successful people. What is it that really provides them with the power to succeed? Is it knowledge, is it experience, or is it a combination of things including some form of dynamic energy, something that drives them towards the achievement of their goals? Isn't it true that in most cases these people appear to be tireless? They appear to be able to stay focussed on their goals.
Well if this is true, let's take a moment to decide how we might employ this ability ourselves. It has been said that opportunity isn't necessarily a polite thing, it doesn't wear a white tie and tails and a top hat. It doesn't arrive at a mutually convenient time. It is more like a slippery streaker that you have to be quick to grab, by any available part of its anatomy, as it whooshes past you. To do this you need something magical, something special, called stamina.
(from Personal Success Tips by Brian Larcher)
I've added a couple of photos of some of the cakes that had kept me busy!
Catch you later
