Not much to report here as I have had the week off to do lots of admin stuff and catch up on those things I never got round to doing! Have been catching up on a load of work with my computers and trying to learn more about using the software to build myself a website. I am using iWeb on my iMac computer. It's a great bit of software and once you have learned a bit about the program you can go on and design your own web sites.
Friends of mine say to me - well you are really good with this sort of thing so it's easy for you! In my experience of life - nothing is easy - it's the application of your brain and just hard work which makes this sort of thing come together. Hairdressers are the worst with IT & computers. Half the time they never check their email and managing their accounts is something left till it's too late (and I can identify with that LOL). So unless you devote some time to understanding your computer - it will never do what you want it to. After all how can we cut hair unless we learn the fundamentals and then build on our repetoir to continue to do our job? So what is the difference with your computer? So play around with it and learn how to use the damn thing!
I am getting into this new program by Mark Bell at www.cutshort.co.uk - it's brilliant and the more I apply myself to using it the better picture I am starting to get of my business. I actually now know how many clients I have; how many are men and how many are women - most of us don't even know that information! I even know how much they have paid me this year :-) As well as how much I earn each week; month or on a daily basis. YES I am getting a better picture of my business and it's helping me to change my bad habbits and become more efficient. Why not give it a try? There is a free trial to get you started and give you a taster.
I am lying on the bed reading Saturday's Times newspaper & have just come across an article in the body&soul news section entitled 'Splitting hairs can detect skin cancer'. Basically it was saying that a strand of your hair may soon provide an early warning alert to identify people who are in particular danger of developing skin cancer!
Did you know that each year in Britain there are nearly 2,000 people dying from malignant melanoma. It would seem that this number is likely to treble in the next thirty years. Italian scientists apparently are developing a quick and inexpensive way to screen people and determine their natural suseptibility to melanoma Dr Stefano Rosso of Turin's Piedmont Cancer Registry, says his system examins the light spectrum refracted by hair to find out how much melanin it contains. Melanin is the stuff thats in our hair and skin & it protects us from the sun's damage. Dr Rosso has written an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology - for those that want to look this up further.
I am looking forward to the FHBF INSPIRATIONS 2007 on the 10th of June 2007 in Solihull. It will be a great time to catch up with other freelance hairdressers (I hate that word 'Mobile Hairdressers') and see what is going on in the industry. I shall be meeting up with my old friend Paul Evans who I have known since I joined the federation. It's hard being a bloke in a profession that is mainy full of women. Wella are the sponser's this year (I love it when they do) and the guest star is Beverly Cobella!
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Sunday, 6 May 2007
Official - it's Sunday!
Well it's just gone 3am and it is Sunday morning. I am wide awake and my dog Tigger is asleep beside me. So where shall I start... Oh yes Friday.... Well Friday was a good day; unfortunately my little sis went home so the weeding never got finished but she did most of my ironing & left just one pair of shorts for me to iron - so I cannot complain ;-)
My friend Carole came over for me to cut & colour her hair; I still find it fascinating how different a head of hair looks after you have done the regrowth. I am sure it is the way the light hits it and reflects up the shaft of the hair - all clever stuff eh! I use Koleston Perfect tint and most of what I am using now is the new formulation - definitely getting better coverage with it plus the smell really is much nicer as well as being subtle in perfume - well done Wella!
I had left a few hours free as my next client was new to me and he had recently lost his brother in a tragic road traffic accident. Whilst I had met him a few times before at a friends party - I didn't know him that well and I thought it would be nice - if appropriate to spend some time with him just chatting. His name is Matt and he is an extremely easy guy to have a conversation with. Whilst only in his early 20's and a real boyish way about him; he is quite mature in his level of conversation. Over a cup of tea... somehow 50 minutes vanished quickly! Suddenly we had been in one another's company for three hours and I had another haircut to do so sadly we had to part. :-( That was the end of a pleasant afternoon for me... still - hopefully he was pleased with his hair and just maybe we might meet up again.
Nipped over to see my mate Andy and fix his hair and he showed me how he had managed to get a really good global position on his MacBook Pro using Google earth - he just zoomed in on his house whilst he had the GPRS installed - all vary clever stuff. We were like two kids with a new toy - sadly I had another haircut to do and so we couldn't play any longer and I had to rush off - shame really as we were just getting into things. Poor Carole - when we get together we always end up playing computers and discussing the meaning of life! Yep - we do have intelligent conversation too. LOL
My last haircut of the day didn't fancy a coffee - but I did manage to get her to have a glass of red wine (Pauline will never say no to a glass of wine). After haircut she invited me to join her and the boyfriend for a meal & so we whizzed off to meet him at The Goat - I believe it has changed hands recently and we decided to go for the carvery and we all had the roast beef - gosh it is making my mouth water just thinking of it. Had all the trimmings - yorkshire pudding and lashings of horseradish sauce - now my mouth really is watering (sad at 3:38am eh). What a pleasant way to end the evening :-)
Well Saturday morning I just had to have a cooked breakfast before work - needed to be set up for the day eh! First two cuts just went so quick - nice conversations and two haircuts later & suddenly it was 12:00! My next was a friend that I was at school with - she now lives in Spain with her husband and daughter and we had a good old chat and caught up on some of the gossip - gosh and was there some of that! There was stuff I never went on and I was quite surprised - but I won't say what as I still cut her hair. Hmm - that will have to go in a book some day ;-)
Two more haircuts and I was finished for the day - last client was an 18 year old chap that really lacks confidence and yet he is a nice - good looking young man. For some reason he lacks confidence in his looks and how to wear his hair (and he uses shower gel to wash his hair). I had to sort it out with a conditioning treatment before I started and packed him off with a bottle of my shampoo & conditioner and give him some lessons in how to maintain his hair. Sadly he is not into products - I feel it is due to the old peer pressure of those around him at school. Well hopefully I didn't nag him too much and maybe he just might do as I told him. Gonna have to work on him a bit more but hopefully I just might get somewhere with him - maybe when he goes off to uni things might change.
Rushed off to good old M&S for a treat for dinner - ah yes let's have a curry! Boy was it nice & Tigger got to sample the delights of what was left. Thought I'd do a bit of surfing whilst I watched Dr Who and then saw Mark from CutShort online and got him to sort out a few transactions that I had entered incorrectly as well as change some code in the program so I could enter some transactions in a different way - good old Mark! Somehow I managed to fall asleep on the sofa with the dog whilst watching casualty and woke up to Jonathan Ross around 1:45am ish! And the rest as they say is history :-) Now it's 3:57am and I have finally finished my blog. I suppose I can now finally try and get back to sleep - I hate it when I fall asleep on the sofa as it's always difficult to get back to sleep after - now I know I will sleep in late on Sunday morning :-( TTFN
My friend Carole came over for me to cut & colour her hair; I still find it fascinating how different a head of hair looks after you have done the regrowth. I am sure it is the way the light hits it and reflects up the shaft of the hair - all clever stuff eh! I use Koleston Perfect tint and most of what I am using now is the new formulation - definitely getting better coverage with it plus the smell really is much nicer as well as being subtle in perfume - well done Wella!
I had left a few hours free as my next client was new to me and he had recently lost his brother in a tragic road traffic accident. Whilst I had met him a few times before at a friends party - I didn't know him that well and I thought it would be nice - if appropriate to spend some time with him just chatting. His name is Matt and he is an extremely easy guy to have a conversation with. Whilst only in his early 20's and a real boyish way about him; he is quite mature in his level of conversation. Over a cup of tea... somehow 50 minutes vanished quickly! Suddenly we had been in one another's company for three hours and I had another haircut to do so sadly we had to part. :-( That was the end of a pleasant afternoon for me... still - hopefully he was pleased with his hair and just maybe we might meet up again.
Nipped over to see my mate Andy and fix his hair and he showed me how he had managed to get a really good global position on his MacBook Pro using Google earth - he just zoomed in on his house whilst he had the GPRS installed - all vary clever stuff. We were like two kids with a new toy - sadly I had another haircut to do and so we couldn't play any longer and I had to rush off - shame really as we were just getting into things. Poor Carole - when we get together we always end up playing computers and discussing the meaning of life! Yep - we do have intelligent conversation too. LOL
My last haircut of the day didn't fancy a coffee - but I did manage to get her to have a glass of red wine (Pauline will never say no to a glass of wine). After haircut she invited me to join her and the boyfriend for a meal & so we whizzed off to meet him at The Goat - I believe it has changed hands recently and we decided to go for the carvery and we all had the roast beef - gosh it is making my mouth water just thinking of it. Had all the trimmings - yorkshire pudding and lashings of horseradish sauce - now my mouth really is watering (sad at 3:38am eh). What a pleasant way to end the evening :-)
Well Saturday morning I just had to have a cooked breakfast before work - needed to be set up for the day eh! First two cuts just went so quick - nice conversations and two haircuts later & suddenly it was 12:00! My next was a friend that I was at school with - she now lives in Spain with her husband and daughter and we had a good old chat and caught up on some of the gossip - gosh and was there some of that! There was stuff I never went on and I was quite surprised - but I won't say what as I still cut her hair. Hmm - that will have to go in a book some day ;-)
Two more haircuts and I was finished for the day - last client was an 18 year old chap that really lacks confidence and yet he is a nice - good looking young man. For some reason he lacks confidence in his looks and how to wear his hair (and he uses shower gel to wash his hair). I had to sort it out with a conditioning treatment before I started and packed him off with a bottle of my shampoo & conditioner and give him some lessons in how to maintain his hair. Sadly he is not into products - I feel it is due to the old peer pressure of those around him at school. Well hopefully I didn't nag him too much and maybe he just might do as I told him. Gonna have to work on him a bit more but hopefully I just might get somewhere with him - maybe when he goes off to uni things might change.
Rushed off to good old M&S for a treat for dinner - ah yes let's have a curry! Boy was it nice & Tigger got to sample the delights of what was left. Thought I'd do a bit of surfing whilst I watched Dr Who and then saw Mark from CutShort online and got him to sort out a few transactions that I had entered incorrectly as well as change some code in the program so I could enter some transactions in a different way - good old Mark! Somehow I managed to fall asleep on the sofa with the dog whilst watching casualty and woke up to Jonathan Ross around 1:45am ish! And the rest as they say is history :-) Now it's 3:57am and I have finally finished my blog. I suppose I can now finally try and get back to sleep - I hate it when I fall asleep on the sofa as it's always difficult to get back to sleep after - now I know I will sleep in late on Sunday morning :-( TTFN
Friday, 4 May 2007
Thank God It's Friday
Well it's Friday already! What has happened since last Saturday.... Last Sunday am my sister text me to ask if she could come and do some ironing for me - this is her way of escaping from her husband & the kids. Not an ideal position for her to be in but who am I to refuse getting a load of ironing done :-) I bought some plants to spruce up some hanging baskets outside the studio and the troughs outside as I want to create a nice impression.
Well Monday morning before little sis arrives I nip off to get the car cleaned at my mate Adam's new car wash business in Staines - if your over that way he can be located at TW18 1EH (Langley Road). What a nice job - all looks clean & sparkling now - took off the Hindhead Computers sticker as I want to advertise for me and not the Dreaded Dan!
Popped into Kingston with little sis & called into the Apple Store in the Bentalls Centre - my favourite place. What a shame they don't serve coffee there as I could then spend the whole day there soaking up the atmosphere. Last week I invested £79 in buying ProCare
now I get one-to-one training for an hour a week and priority support - GREAT! So I decided to see if I could get a lesson booked & managed to have an hour tutorial in using iMovie. How great it is just to be able to have someone devote some time to teaching me new tricks ;-)
Tuesday morning I fitted a really nice client in for a cut & colour. She bought me some lovely roses for the studio and some really nice cakes from M&S. We had great fun talking about how to control kids with a cattle prod - we were only joking of course! Mandy (little sis) started digging up weeds on the patio which made it look much better. A friend of mine came over and mowed the grass for me & he got 9 full bags of cuttings - could only fit two lots in the compost as there wasn't enough room.
A friend of mine was over on his cousin's boat in Chertsey and asked us if we wanted to spend the evening on the river but Mandy's feet were killing her and she decided to stay at home and have a bath & chill out so I had to go alone.
Wednesday morning we discovered Mandy had lost a diamond out of her ring - well it was the only one actually as it's a solitaire :-( That has overshadowed the whole event and every available opportunity we looked around the garden or house. Its a reasonably busy day today with a couple of colours thrown in for good measure. Lots of nice conversations - busy making people coffee and washing up. Times like this I wish I had a personal slave! Managed to finish reasonably early and my neighbor loaned me his electric chain saw - no I wasn't going to use it on any client's - it was to chop off a few branches in the garden.
Kelvin came over early and discovered me & the neighbor chopping away at trees and so Mandy entertained him till I finished (actually I think it was the other way round). Off we rushed to the Weir at Walton for a Smart meet; Craig turned up with his new dog Eddie - boy is he cute. Of course we forgot to take any jumpers and got frozen and so Kelvin; MCC; Mandy & myself came back to mine for a coffee - just had to show MCC my 24 inch iMac running windoz to impress him.
Thursday I didn't start work till 4pm - I do hate these late starts but hey I must not complain. I knew it was going to be a pleasant evening as Sandra; Corven & June were coming over and we always seem to have a bit of a laugh and some interesting conversation. I finished the evening off with a BBQ but it was too cold to sit outside and eat. Mandy & I decided to have an early night as for some reason we felt a little tired - I don't think it was the red wine... or was it?
Well Monday morning before little sis arrives I nip off to get the car cleaned at my mate Adam's new car wash business in Staines - if your over that way he can be located at TW18 1EH (Langley Road). What a nice job - all looks clean & sparkling now - took off the Hindhead Computers sticker as I want to advertise for me and not the Dreaded Dan!
Popped into Kingston with little sis & called into the Apple Store in the Bentalls Centre - my favourite place. What a shame they don't serve coffee there as I could then spend the whole day there soaking up the atmosphere. Last week I invested £79 in buying ProCare
now I get one-to-one training for an hour a week and priority support - GREAT! So I decided to see if I could get a lesson booked & managed to have an hour tutorial in using iMovie. How great it is just to be able to have someone devote some time to teaching me new tricks ;-)Tuesday morning I fitted a really nice client in for a cut & colour. She bought me some lovely roses for the studio and some really nice cakes from M&S. We had great fun talking about how to control kids with a cattle prod - we were only joking of course! Mandy (little sis) started digging up weeds on the patio which made it look much better. A friend of mine came over and mowed the grass for me & he got 9 full bags of cuttings - could only fit two lots in the compost as there wasn't enough room.
A friend of mine was over on his cousin's boat in Chertsey and asked us if we wanted to spend the evening on the river but Mandy's feet were killing her and she decided to stay at home and have a bath & chill out so I had to go alone.
Wednesday morning we discovered Mandy had lost a diamond out of her ring - well it was the only one actually as it's a solitaire :-( That has overshadowed the whole event and every available opportunity we looked around the garden or house. Its a reasonably busy day today with a couple of colours thrown in for good measure. Lots of nice conversations - busy making people coffee and washing up. Times like this I wish I had a personal slave! Managed to finish reasonably early and my neighbor loaned me his electric chain saw - no I wasn't going to use it on any client's - it was to chop off a few branches in the garden.
Kelvin came over early and discovered me & the neighbor chopping away at trees and so Mandy entertained him till I finished (actually I think it was the other way round). Off we rushed to the Weir at Walton for a Smart meet; Craig turned up with his new dog Eddie - boy is he cute. Of course we forgot to take any jumpers and got frozen and so Kelvin; MCC; Mandy & myself came back to mine for a coffee - just had to show MCC my 24 inch iMac running windoz to impress him.
Thursday I didn't start work till 4pm - I do hate these late starts but hey I must not complain. I knew it was going to be a pleasant evening as Sandra; Corven & June were coming over and we always seem to have a bit of a laugh and some interesting conversation. I finished the evening off with a BBQ but it was too cold to sit outside and eat. Mandy & I decided to have an early night as for some reason we felt a little tired - I don't think it was the red wine... or was it?
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