In the Spring I took a compulsory course for my degree in Finance that was centered on Work Based Learning.

For the ones who don’t know the concept, it is fairly simple. You take an area of your work that needs improvement, you review in detail what you have done, you reflect on the problem, pool and research potential resources and voila, you try something else or deepen your training.

The good side of it is that you can tailor the research to your needs and eventually to the ones of your organisation. It meant that during the course I could choose what I wanted to tackle. It was compulsory to do some time management as it is a common problem. I soon discovered that my time management has a serious downside: I didn’t have enough hours during the day to cover my schedule.  Most – if not all- of the other students had problems such as procrastinating, delaying or being put under pressure by their company. In my case, it turned out that my work was not my main problem. Not that I am so good that this particular area doesn’t require attention, but because I am constantly monitoring my efforts, progress and learnings anyway. Not having a boss, a colleague or a client, I was avoiding almost all of the pitfalls of the course. Even better, I like my job. I discovered I was a rarity.

But what is meant by work is not just your paid job. It is any kind of work you actually accomplish, such as the housechores ( up to 5 h a day in my case), studying ( 2 hours a day), doing the school runs ( 2h daily) and whatever hobby you take. To cut a long story short I was working up to 17h a day.

I was told I should tackle my Work Life Balance. It meant I either had to start being a slob or delegate tasks. I decided to delegate.

I went through the process. I made a mind map of all the activities I had to do and the ones I wanted to do. Read numerous books on the subject, including the ones of David Allen. That was interesting. In my to do list I had things such as :

-working, studying, doing the schoolrun, cleaning, washing, cooking, shopping, ironing, dusting, vacuum cleaning, gardening…

In my ” wants” list, I had this:

-writing kids books, learning to draw, dancing, knitting, doing embroidery, writing, reading, travelling, learning how to sew clothes, painting, sculpting, exercising, going to see movies.

I clearly didn’t have the time. But I was decided to apply my learning. ( It was also part of all the assessments I had to do and the final exam). So I organised a meeting with my family, exposed my problem ( they were shocked), asked for help, set up rules ( such as getting committed to the tasks, having regular meetings to evaluate process, progress, problems and performance, possibility of withdrawing at any time etc). My first surprise was that my whole family decided to do some jobs. We made a list of all the jobs, of a schedule and who was going to do which task. I expected boredom, procrastination, recriminations and other enjoyable challenges.

But my assumptions were wrong. First lesson learned: it is not because you know the folks around you that you know what they think and what they are capable of. I didn’t have any complaints. It doesn’t mean that everybody was happy. But nobody was unhappy.

Second lesson: I didn’t have to set up tasks or ask or beg. In the morning at breakfast the kids would get their directions and then that was it. I never had to ask. I never had to show them how to do anything. It turned out that they had seen me doing it for all these years- so they knew.

Third lesson: We learned from each other. They learned that I had needs too, and wants, and they thought I had the same rights as they did. I learned that I had no reason for feeling guilty of sitting down with a book and a cup of tea. I watched them work then play- and there were no particular value put in these different activities. You do what you have to do or what you want to do.

Fourth lesson: The kids started to reflect too. I talked about my work, my studies, my interests.  They listened. Then they started to help each other, swop jobs, do them even when it wasn’t their turn and showed respect for other people’s work. Now that they were doing the jobs, they didn’t like seeing them messed up. So they paid attention, to their work, to the others’.

I had a few week of peace and the effects on my job was amazing. I could sleep more, I had some free time to do my courses, I became faster and better. I earned more money during that Summer than I had done in the last 2 years.

I then looked at my list of wants and realised that it was not realistic. But I am a woman with a plan. So I started with one project- learn sewing. I kept knitting too and got some time to keep reading more regularly.

I finally went on holiday for a week in Paris- and I felt just better.

If I had made the assumption that this rosy state of affair would falter, I would have been right and wrong. My sons kept the habits they took during the summer. But as they are back to school now, I still have a lot of work on my hand- again. But I was prepared. I went part-time trading and decided I’d only do one course at the time for the year to come. My sewing lessons are a regular occurence and I am now able to do dresses. Learning to do trousers now.

So I’ve learned something. Isn’t what courses are made for?

Due to demand I’ve come back.

Been busy these last months. I’m still doing my degree at University, but have now decided that it would be better to do 2 degrees instead of one. The reason being that doing Economics is very interesting but it doesn’t cover all the questions I have about the markets and how things work. I realised that you have models in Economics, models in Finance, models in Accounting- and I thought : ” What the heck, let’s try to get the full picture here”. So here I am. Doing 2 degrees.

The exhaustion is at point break right now. I’m finishing one course – a technical one about how to do research using search engines, academic journals and info online. It’s interesting and boring at the same time. Interesting because I’m suddenly plunged into some hidden faces of the Web I was not aware of. If I knew about blogs, the dangers of Wikipedia and how to use Google or Bing ( Bing being now incorporated to Yahoo), I didn’t know anything about delicious.com,  academic resources or RefWorks.

So I’m learning, but as always with computers, unexpected things happen. Links disappear, computer fails, bookmarks get mysteriously erased and it can be pretty tedious to explore what looks like an maze for a neophyte like me. Persevering though as the more information I gather, the better armed I am.

I have already booked 3 courses for the year to come so I expect to be even more challenged in the future. I find difficult to run out of time and I trust my house looks like a tip right now. But on the other side I am gaining a growing sense of satisfaction while stepping forward into the unknown. My self-confidence is definitely developping, especially after doing a 100% at a maths course; who would have told I could get into maths? Not me. But my fears are not as strong as my hunger for knowledge and the worst that can happen is that I have to give up- and come back later, hopefully.

So work it is.

Sorry folks, my life has been taking a very fast curve during these last months and I am afraid I went a bit off road.

First by the end of January I had a health scare. That’s when I learned that cancer is just a bad word, not a sentence. Went through one of these operations that are supposed to last 45 min and leave you with a nifty scar on your belly button but ended up most day in theatre and woke up with three scars that are definitely stopping me from wearing a bikini in public for the rest of my life. It took me some time to recover and half a stone.

The scars of course are not only physical. When you’re being told that there is a nice tumour exploding your ovary and that’s just the beginning of it, one will be – I hope- excused from walking down the street in a cold January afternoon wondering what is going to happen next and just wanting to hold her kids and husband in her arms. I wasn’t inshock, I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t numb but I felt so awfully sorry for my family, with an intense feeling of guilt because my body was letting us all down.

The harsh part is breaking the news and getting organized. The children were sent to school, friends and family in order for me to recover quietly at home. Hubby was at work- in a new place- and the heating had to be changed just then. It took me three months to warm up again. I was taking things as they came, reading my University course – by then I had started my third course and getting ready for my exams on the two first ones-, catching up with petty tasks that I could undertake from my bed and watching enough dvds to my heart content. But most of all, I slept.

Once up and running again- not too much time to think it all over- I went straight into my exams. Six stressful weeks followed by the end of which I had to withdraw from my third course as I had the feeling I was totally missing the point. ( Not the opinion of my tutor or the University administration as I was one the best students of my class). But I came to realise that in order to study economics, I had to understand maths and models and I couldn’t accept just being ” good enough”. So I enrolled straight away on a compulsory course for a degree in finance about developing effective performance at work and another about maths. Of course I thought I would collapse, especially as we were having our windows replaced at the same time- lots of dust, of mess and a house tthat is upside down and noisy.

But you know what- I’m still standing. The house is in the process of being springcleaned, I am back to work and I am at the top of my class with my first assessment. It is a challenging time but it forces me out of my comfort zone. I trust I’m not the only one who has to take a leap of faith towards what the future will bring- so I am ready for all the first steps I will have to take.

Warning: this is a great documentary, one of the best I have seen in a long time. It is so well done that once I finished it I considered committing suicide. Pilger is a great story teller and he shows you with accuracy how you live in a bubble and you don’t know it.

In the name of ” national security” the USA have for decades intervened in countries that were seen as dangerous just because they were applying democracy ( should I say real democracy?) and were rejecting the american model. Although Pilger sometimes skim a few facts – such as Chavez ambiguous power- he certainly knows his History and has the guts to show you what you were too blind to see.

Great great documentary. It is a must. I can’t sleep now.

Nobody wants to hear that we are heading for a depression. It conjures images of famine, tramps, extreme poverty, hyperinflation- a nightmare. The scars are numerous and although there are not many people alive today who have gone through the last Great Depression, everybody knows that this is not something that you want to be in.

I have been asked a few days ago what the solutions to our current situation are. The truth is- I don’t know . And before you start throwing tomatoes at me, let me add this: anybody who tells you he/ she knows is probably a crystal ball reader, or in other terms, a liar. Why? Because we have never been in such a situation before and with every new day, a new ” solution” is being thrown in our faces by our governements. As long as there is no pause in the process, there is no way to stop and figure it all out.

Of course there are some possibilities. The first one is that we are entering an era of deflation. ( That’s not good. We ” need” a minimum of inflation to have the markets growing and entrerpises expanding). But with all the money printing by the Feds, the ghost of hyperinflation is lingering in the background- and that’s not good either. It when your savings or your salary is not worth buying a peanut anymore. I am not an expert on currencies but the volatility of these markets are not helping either. And let’s not talk about the details of productivity, interest rates kept low, inexistant savings and more borrowing ( we have now gone full circle- more of the same is not going to make it go away).

By not allowing the banks to fail Mr Paulson and Mr Bernanke have created a monster. We have been told by our governants that they couldn’t let the situation follow its course. If we had, it would have been worse and immediate action was required to prevent a worse future. Of course it doesn’t make sense. By protecting the banks that were meant to fail, they put tremendous pressure on the banks that hadn’t committed the same mistakes. Even worse they are saving companies that do not deserve it (  great example to set) and will probably not learn their lessons ( follow my lead, what happened to Enron? Or LTCM…deja vu someone…?)

Now if anybody thinks that this is going to work…Well, think again. Did it change the situation? Did it allow the markets to turn? People to keep their jobs? Retails to sell their good? Banks to get their loans and mortgages repaid? What good did it do exactly?

You can’t stop a running train. It is even worse with a wild beast. It usually kills some before it gets killed.

So here it goes. We should hit the wall and then we will get up. Governements are trying to stop this but it looks like they are only creating a delay. It will probably happen anyway. But why did they intervene really?

Who is happy to see those banks stand up? People who have their savings in them, that’s right. But if we have our life savings being swallowed up, most of us have to keep doing their day jobs and struggle some more. If the very wealthy ( the 2% who owns the 80%) go into the wall, what will we have? Interesting idea, don’t you think?

The Madoff affair gave a big clue to this. The SEC didn’t respond to the party poopers whistle blowing. Bloomberg’s articles explain very well the why and the because of this. Who were the ones who had every interest not to know and keep the party going? It is the old history of greed. But what is sad is that the ones who should be punished end up being rewarded.

To end this rant, I would like to point out one thing. So far most depressions have ended up in a war. It created a solution to all the problems ( alledgedly). We think ourselves too civilized to take the arms again but I would suggest that you think twice about this before dismissing the idea. Look at Israel/Palestine, Russia/Ukraine, China/Japan or even USA/ South America. How quickly can a situation escalate?  Of course I am pessimistic here, am I not?

But I can do worse. If there was to be a war…Can we afford it? I am not talking about weapons and money here, I am talking about potentially erasing a generation or two of an indispensable workforce in the Western world. A majority of our population is getting older and we will need young people- to pay for the retirement pensions and to answer the needs of the elderly. If we were to damage our human assets more, what could happen?

Of course we are civilized. Of course. Something will turn up alright in the end and we will win the lottery. Good night and good luck.

I wanted to help my best friend practice some English. So I had this wonderful idea to set up an account on YouTube videos and do every day- or as often as I could- a little video where I would pick up a subject for the day. It had to be simple, clear, concise in order for my friend to understand what I was talking about ( she says her English skills are a bit limited).

So I did a little video on the economical situation we are in. Fairly basic: I was just explaining the different root causes of our present recession. The reasons given were: bankers lending money to the wrong people; governements encouraging people to spend; central banks that kept interests low; housing market seen as a pension investment; developping countries expanding- and so on. Then I said that I would come to the eventual solutions in another video.

The feedback was instant. Some guy told me that although I was cute, I had no idea what I was talking about; we are in a depression he said and I should listen to Peter Schiff to learn my economics theories. I had “obviously no idea about the causes link”.  The rant was a tad longer than this, but if I was mildly amused by the reaction, I was definitely shocked by the violence of the retort and the inexactitude of the comments.

You see, I am a woman. In my video I tried to stay neutral and not give away what my thoughts were on the current situation. Although I believe we are seriously on the way to a depression- and a big one- I cannot bring myself to say so for two reasons: one is that a depression is officially a ” prolonged” recession, and a recession has to last on average 13 months. As the US have officially announced that this recession had started in december 2007, I don’t feel authorized to revoke their expertise to decide that we are now in a depression. And  two, actually I will not even say so in February- after the 13 months deadline- as it would simply mean that this recession is a tad longer than average, but not prolonged as yet. For that I would probably wait for a 16 months deadline- the length of the last long recession we had. Keep in mind please that the Great depression ( 1929-1933) lasted officially 4 years.

It doesn’t mean in any way that I believe we are not entering full blast in a depression. I actually do. But I can’t say we are in one yet- because the term would be incorrect.

Funnily enough Peter Schiff says the same…My commentator must have been asleep when Mr Schiff says the word ” recession” in his interviews. Or he’s throwing tomatoes at his tv/computer screen every time he says it, I don’t know. And I have to add that if I agree with Mr Schiff on a lot of his analysis, some of his views are changing quite fast and if you carefully listen to some comments made in the past, some of his views turned out to be wrong  ( the fall of the $ is still expected). It doesn’t mean he’s incompetent, but it is very difficult to predict the future and to be right ALL OF THE TIME. Look at Nouriel Roubini. As Mr Schiff, he did spot the credit crunch crisis way before a lot of people. But now his views are seen as wrong ( he’s in favour of the bailouts and thinks it’s the way to go). Gurus usually last as long as their analysis are seen as right. Then another one takes the throne.

As for the causes, remember, I was trying to be basic and concise. Of course I can go into deep details, such as the reasons why banks started lending to people who couldn’t afford a mortgage in the first place. Think Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, threats to the banks that wanted to refuse to play the game- and we can start digging from there. In my comments I was explaining how we were all to blame in the end as I believe it is time for everyone to take responsability. Blaming others is not going to change the future now but if we all take responsability, collectively, we can see a bigger picture appearing and try to decide where we stand and what we are going to do about it.

So…I realise how Youtube can be a fantastic tool for publicity and marketing – which I suspected already- but also what kind of double-edged sword it can be. It seems that most people watch/ listen to it distractively and the result is that they post comments that are inaccurate or stupid. My own experience was not too bad, but I wanted to see by myself how it worked. So I picked up a lot of videos about economics that I watched carefully- and then I read the comments. Most of them were insulting and started with: you don’t know what you’re talking about…, go and watch..( put a guru’s name here) and learn real economics. It was pathetic. The good comments- the ones that had a point and made sense- were usually explaining simply why they disagreed. They didn’t have the word ” moron” in them. But these were not the majority.

I took my video down. I had a few reasons to do so, but at the bottom of them was lingering feeling that  don’t want to be the butt of comments that were so depreciative. You see, telling me that I am cute when I’m talking work, that really killed me.

…is tough, guys. I have to structure my reports. My tutor has explained to me that my style is conversational- which is lovely but doesn’t appear professional. I get the point and I’m working on it. But it is doing my head in sometimes.

My main problem to be honest is that the matter ( introduction to business studies) doesn’t interest me that much. Learning how a business functions and is structured could always be useful I guess, but subjects such as HRM ( Human resource management) sort of anaesthetises my brain. Don’t get me wrong- I dig the concepts. Job design, development and training methods, Theory X and Theory Y…I get the points. But when I have to draw a report about this kind of subjects I go brain dead ( The anaesthetic didn’t work too well I’m afraid).

So I am suddenly struggling with words. What is important here? What isn’t?

My favourite subject – which is economics- doesn’t give me this type of problems whatsoever. I enjoy the whole proccess- reading, learning, doing exercises, reflecting, even applying on a daily basis. Ok let’s be honest again- I bloody love the subject. And tryin go from the theory to reality just makes do leaps and bonds. It’s fascinating to see how economics apply to about anything. But businesses…forget it.

My fellow students seem as passionate as I am. I’ve been trying to organize a reunion to explore ideas and exchange knowledge but to no avail. On 27 people two seemed vaguely interested. None have asked me for a date. I gave up.

What I found though curious is how much people keep using their own experience at every level on any subject. Whatever we study the same topic comes back to haunt the forum: it’s me time and what I’ve been through- good or bad. I try to relate and occasionally post my own two pence of experience in the workfield- but what I see really is that ” the big picture” is almost always lost. Amazon, Tesco and other big companies play the role of the baddies. Their policies are close to slavery procedures. People talk about their rights a lot. one of them talk about their duties, and even less what the economical requirements of our time do to the business world in general. I may be out of subject here, but I am amazed to see that no one put themselves in a big company shoes. HRM is the holy Grail of working pleasure. Really? Does this reflect reality? Or does it only for a small part of the world population?

But this kind of blindness or blissful ignorance is socially acceptable it seems. I was talking to a banker last week- in Switzerland- and I was underlining that the world population that lives in famine has now reached the billion. That’s not exactly good news, is it, to know that one sixth of the population of earth is dying of hunger? Is anybody thinking about a war here? I was told that this was not new. After all, inequalities had always and will always exist. Let’s move on to another subject.

But I don’t take it as lightly as that. Add the statistics. Population without food on the increase. Fertilizers prices rising. Small farmers ( 80% of the farming world) not planting as much food as they used to. More people without their basic needs being fulfill. What is going to happen?

It is a far far away problem. It almost seems that it is actually taking place on the moon- or even further. Right now what our Wester world is concern about is that instead of buying 10 gifts for each kids in a household, their parents will only buy one or two. Aw, how sweet. That hurts indeed.

We live now in a world where it is time to set our priorities right. Governements are bailing out companies that creating their own misery, rewarding them for their greediness and stupidity. The ones who didn’t commit those offences are being punished by watching dishonest/ unproductive concurrents getting their beggars money when themselves have to just keep going in the current environment- with no support whatsoever. People who can’t repay their loans are encouraged to take another one. If they can’t pay the first one, how can any governement imagine they could pay the last one? Money is being thrown out of the windows- but the results seem only to be delayed. How many individuals debts could have been erased if that money had simply ben given to them? The last time I heard a number, I was told that half of the world individual debts could have been erased. I don’t know how to check these numbers at the moment- but even if it were a quarter only, wouldn’t it have been a better solution?

I’m afraid I’m getting carried away again. That’s why I went back to University- to learn to structure my thoughts, to expand my knowledge and ultimately, hopefully, to do something about this chaotic mess. What I’ve learned so far is that I still have a lot to learn a lot to explore and that overcoming smaller minds issues will be challenging.

Merry Xmas to you all.

I never was a fan of Jim Carrey at his beginnings. Ace Ventura was boring me to death. But when Carrey started playing things such as ” Truman show” or “The number 23″, I became interested. Because the guy has talent- a lot of it- if given the chance. “Yes man” was a film I really was longing to go and see for the plot and for the main actor.

Amazingly I was happy throughout the movie. Carrey’s performance was great and believable. Getting older suits him wonderfully. The guy is becoming seriously sexy. George Clooney- you’re not my type. The plot was good. A guy who’s trying to stay on the safe side ( aka turning into a zombie) ends up in a seminar where he’s being questioned about his beliefs and challenged to seize opportunities. Being on the superstitious side, he follows the plan- with hilarious consequences. But there is something more skin deep than that. The opportunities – although a bit stretched on the reality side- prove that every challenge can be worth taking in life.  Carrey discovers that life is worth living and good things ensue.

That is truly an optmistic movie. It doesn’t make you feel stupid and it shows that you can have a life outside the box. The money issue that we are spammed with at the moment is put back in its right perspective.

Carrey, you made my day. All my family liked it. I will buy the dvd and plague friends and family to go and see it.

It is not a masterpiece. But it is the very best movie  have seen this year.

Kids movie. A mouse saves the day in a kingdom where soup was popular. A rat deviates the course of things and humans, rats and mice end up being unhappy. Of course it takes a David to put things right and show his world that you should never underestimates someone smaller than you.

My girls ( aged now 6 and soon 5) loved it. It had enough action and events to keep me awake. As it wasn’t a Disney movie the graphics were refreshing and quite elegant. The story is good enough.

For small children though.