Social Etcetera

14/09/2023

🤒 Know the symptoms and act quickly!

Two months ago, I walked into a drawer under my bed and picked up a wound…

…that turned into cellulitis...(I'd hardly heard of that!)…

which turned into sepsis...

I could have died.

Without being dramatic about it, I nearly did and as it's , I wanted to share the symptoms.

I naively thought sepsis would look like the meningitis rash.

➡ My light pink rash expanded over my lower leg and felt warm, but was still blanching so I didn’t worry too much.

➡ I was so very thirsty...

➡ I had febrile seizures - due to a high temperature.

➡ I was slurring my words and feeling confused.

➡ I couldn't eat - and was struggling to drink. I felt worse than I've ever felt...ever.

➡ I had to crawl up the stairs or get my hubby to carry me.

➡ My lower leg and foot were ridiculously swollen and sore - due to the wound.

➡ I even took my husband to the GP with me - when does that happen?!

I saw a GP who prescribed antibiotics, but I couldn't keep them down...I think I was too far down the line...

And it was only when I felt an irritation up the inside of my leg, that I realised it could be something serious (sounds ridiculous now!).

The sepsis rash travelled up my leg - tracking a vein - like a long line of redness - towards my lymph nodes which were also very swollen.

Time for A&E...

🔺 My heart rate was >150.
🔺 My blood pressure had crashed and they struggled to stabilise it.
🔺 My potassium had dipped to dangerously low, heart attack levels.
🔺 My inflammation markers were ridiculous - they are severely elevated at 50mg/dL - mine were 550.
🔺 All my blood results were out of range.
🔺 I was very ill.

The A&E staff at were utterly AMAZING and literally saved my life❤️.

🏥 I had the ‘bleach’ of antibiotics through an I/V for 9 days.
🏥 I couldn't get out of bed or see my kids.
🏥 I used a zimmer to get myself walking again!

BUT feeling hugely grateful to be feeling so well now. And feeling very loved by local friends 🥰 who helped out with the kids and dog.

At least I have a dinner party story now!

16/08/2023

✨Board meetings don’t need to be boaring.✨

This evening, the Board Meeting is at the supercool Chiswick co-working space in .

And I decided to go all out with tassly shoes and bright red dress.💃🏻. Why not!

Can’t wait to hear more about the extensive autumn events calendar, array of international collaborations and the Chambers Business Awards coming up in November.

The Chambers are attracting a thriving network of businesses across Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham and so, if you’re looking for a community who will support your growth, connect you with large and small businesses and give you some sanity in regularly seeing familiar faces, come and join one of our events .

Arghhhh so busy typing, sailed past my stop 🥺😫👋🏻….🏃🏻‍♀️
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08/07/2023

Love it when it gets to harvest time at the allotment 🌱.

06/07/2023

💫 Two million sign ups in two hours! 💫

And apparently - according to Zuckerberg this morning - there were now over 10 million on the ‘Twitter Killer’ app and now at tea time, it’s 30 million!

I'm talking about Threads, Meta's new social media platform, designed to be a direct rival to Twitter. Given the latter's string of issues since Elon Musk's takeover, Meta has spotted a gap to introduce a more 'open, friendly and civil place for people to have conversations', in the words of Insta boss, .

Will you be trying it or are you on it already?

I've had a look and here are 10 random facts about what I noticed so far 👇

⭐️ It's super easy to join. Simply download the app onto your phone and access it via your Instagram login - which should already be visible.

⭐️ It's completely linked to your Instagram account. .

⭐️ You can follow all the accounts you already follow on Instagram - automatically as they join Threads.

⭐️ Adam Mosseri, Insta boss, says it's all about conversation - less about photos and videos - so useful if you like to engage. I've just watched him in a video though?!

⭐️ The feed is full of accounts you don't know, but algorithmic recommendations are built in too.

⭐️ Currently there is no advertising, but you can bet your bottom dollar that will change!

⭐️ It looks and feels like Twitter - just the 'Meta way' - copy what is done elsewhere! You can send posts of up to 500 characters, include images, gifs, and videos of up to five minutes in length. There is stricter moderation though, which is good for businesses.

⭐️ There ain't no hashtags...at least yet. No DMs either.

⭐️ You can search for people, but not products...at least yet.

⭐️ You can hide replies that contain offensive words.

Would love to know your first impressions! 👇🏻

03/02/2023

What a fine bunch of people doing all sorts of wonderful things in the local Brent community. From reggae museums to flowers for care homes to a brain tumour support charity, it was such an interesting experience.

This was my first Social Media Strategy workshop focused on the Not-For-Profit sector, organised by the wonderful .caleb on behalf of .brent.

“Thank you for such an engaging workshop”, said Elsa, and gave me a LinkedIn recommendation on the spot. Thanks Elsa! Always a pleasure.

I learnt a lot from the participants too and I loved how they swapped ideas with each other, shared emotions on the more sensitive topics and solved each others’ challenges.

Looking forward to the next one already.

25/12/2022

✨A very late, but a very Happy Xmas to you all! Clients, Suppliers, Collaborators, Networkers and Friends, best wishes to each and every one of you. ✨

We’ve had a great, but busy day with family and are looking forward to relaxing over the next few days. Plenty of sea air, long walks and seeing friends are on the agenda. Have fun whatever you are up to! 🎄

📸 at my sister in law’s for Xmas lunch.

29/11/2022

13/10/2022

House of Lording it up yesterday 🌿

I had the pleasure of being invited to the House of Lords yesterday to celebrate the end of a fabulous Sustainability programme I did with . Really got me thinking - more on that later.

Was lovely to meet up with Sam from who has just the best business - a mobile shoe shop for kids! All that stress chasing them round the shop as they lift every shoe in the land - be gone!

Also Sophie from who do the most practical, but beautiful, luxury playmats. I wish I’d known about these when mine were little.

AND it was great to meet - awesome LinkedIn trainer. I’ve known Louise from afar on LinkedIn for a while and finally got to meet her yesterday. Turns out I knew her when we were kids, she knows my auntie, lives a stone’s throw from my mum and our grannies were first cousins! This is Northern Ireland all over ❤️.

Oh and glad to be back on the squares…

18/07/2022

This maybe my new happy place. Our allotment 😍 (well, not this whole place obvs!).

With the heatwave rising over the weekend, I’ve been coming here early in the morning to get everything watered before the sun is too strong. Saying that it was 23 degrees at 8.30am 🤷🏻‍♀️ this morning.

I’m thinking I might set up home office here over the next few months. So peaceful ✨.

On another note, it was yesterday and Instagram released some emoji insights, with a particular focus on the use of sport emojis around the world.

⚽️ is the most popular one across the board. No surprises?

🧘🏻‍♀️most used in the UK (behind ⚽️and a reflection on Instagram users maybe?)

🏉most used in New Zealand & South Africa (I’d say Ireland overtook that at the weekend 😜☘️).

🚴🏻‍♀️ in Singapore, Poland and Colombia.

🏄‍♀️ in…wait for it…Australia!

The main message is that emoji use continues to rise year on year. Are you still a fan?
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01/07/2022

Fab business brekkie to start the day . Exciting chats.
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27/06/2022

It’s that festival time of year again…when I raid my daughter’s accessory box (she does have some cool bits aged 8 🤪).

Today I was at an online networking festival - NetFest - with the

More than 350 business women had registered for this fab event which was a mix of networking and zoom ‘tents’. The tents hosted a variety of online training sessions presented by various members of the network and were interspersed with networking in multiple groups of 5 or 6.

A great day was had by all 🧝🏻‍♀️🧝🏻‍♀️🧝🏻‍♀️.

20/05/2022

✨Wow, things are busy right now. ✨

Are you finding that? I’m hearing it from all around, so hopefully you’re feeling a bit of that too.

I haven’t exactly fallen off the edge of the planet, but I am aware I’ve totally ditched my own platforms! Clients come first, of course, so my social-ising has become a bit slack ☺️.

This was me yesterday before delivering a training session on Instagram Reels to the lovely Athena Dorset crew. Earlier in the week, I spent some time with helping her to use Reels in a faster way. Jenny has a creative background, so could bring a bit of fun to her finance-based page. Can’t wait to see what she does with them.

It was a lovely change from the normal day job to spend Tuesday with at their Board meeting and we even managed a Mexican wave - see the last post for the evidence! So many plans and discussions coming through to add even more value to local businesses in the Hounslow Borough.

On top of that, I had my ongoing client work and of course running the family including pup around here, there and everywhere.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi 🙋🏻‍♀️ and have a lovely weekend all!

11/04/2022

Not sure what we did without this little man in our lives, but we’re very glad he is now. He’s certainly loving a bit of beach life in County Down.

Happy National Pet Day, Stanley 🥰❤️.
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04/04/2022

✨April Awareness Days✨

Ok, Ok, I’m a working day late! I need to ‘fess up and stop gathering the info at the last minute! Will get my act together for next month. Still, my motto is ‘don’t do perfection’ these days. I’m learning.

💁🏻‍♀️BUT it does feel that everything has become super busy all of a sudden…with the arrival of spring, you can smell a new confidence in the air, people wanting to try new things and committing to that investment in their businesses again. It feels different, brighter, lighter. Are you experiencing that?

So forgive me for the lateness, but hopefully it’s useful nonetheless!

Here are a few Awareness Days for April to help you plan out those that are relevant for you and your business. 

🙋🏻‍♀️ My favs:

🐾 National Pet Month - since we now have Stanley, our puppy - only 18 weeks old and we are already totally in love with him.

👩🏻‍🎨 World Creativity and Innovation Week - lots of fun to be had with clients that week being as creative as can be.

👩🏻‍🌾 Community Gardening Week - oh yes, will be down the allotment…much work to do on that one. We took over a VERY overgrown plot last September and only just got it tidied and covered for the winter. The blank canvas will be attacked after Easter hols.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Tartan Day - my love of Vivienne Westwood means I love a good tartan pattern…and of course, I love all my Scottish friends :), oh and kilts :)!

🧺 Hanging Out Day - my friends would tell you I have a weird love of ironing…and that is even better after a day of lovely fresh clothes coming in from the line. Strange, I know 🤪.

👉🏻 And so many others this month…National Walking Day, World Health Day, International Mother Earth Day, On Your Feet Day (phew…) and errrr my big errrr birthday 🤫🤐🙅🏻‍♀️.

Tell me your favs 👇🏻
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27/03/2022

✨Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing Mothers ✨.

Have a brilliant and relaxing day 🥂☕️🫖.

I’ve been lucky enough to have had breakfast in bed, me-time for yoga and soon off to Richmond park for a doggie walk. And dinner out at the pub this evening with the fam. Feeling lucky ☺️.
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21/03/2022

✨What a fab sunny day spent with lovely Strategic Business Coach .danel.✨

We’re both lucky to have spent two business days in a row at the bright and funky workspace in Chiswick Park (thanks again, Bilge & team 🥰), with today spent working with Henriette on Instagram reels, followed by lunch, a natter, a walk and a bit more work.

Working outside the home makes me remember what it’s like to go to work, to have that separation between home and the laptop, to pop out and actually eat lunch, to talk to others, to do zero washing or washing up, and to have some time to unwind on my cycle on the way home. I highly recommend it!

Mondays are meant for meet ups like this 😍.
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18/03/2022

✨Wonderful morning at in . ✨

The sun glimmering on the water gave us the perfect welcome ☀️.

We were there for the and face to face networking event - one of the first away from the zoom screen since the pandemic.

One of our Athena members is the Community Manager of Venture X - a beautiful co-working space on the 5th floor with fabulous views across the town and beyond. See my stories for more views ✨.

Hosted by of , , Regional Director of Athena West London and Helen Bantock of - also Regional Director of
Athena Richmond.

There is nothing like meeting people face to face - many of them I felt I had met already, but realised I hadn’t. Seems like zoom is pretty successful then!

We heard a fantastic talk by and about normalising money and how to manage it throughout our lives including the shocking financial impact on women due to having families and heading into menopause.

Thanks all - brilliant event. Roll on the next one.
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08/03/2022

✨And it's giving me goosebumps today...✨

🥳 I love working with both women and men, and in fact my corporate career was largely in male-heavy, industrial environments. I loved the banter, the 'craic' as we say in Northern Ireland, the directness, meeting room dynamics - all of it.

🦹🏻‍♀️ BUT I do feel a sense of pride on International Women's Day knowing that all women are coming together in their own ways to just celebrate being a woman and all the amazing women holding them up!

Obviously starting my business life when I did, I have of course seen discrimination, bias and sometimes just downright unfairness - and have myself suffered from it on more than one occasion. I think that has just been par for the course unfortunately, but I'm confident that with the increasing conversations, more standing up for what is right and speaking out for what is not, we are moving the needle for our kids and younger generations. They are now raised knowing not to accept any of that nonsense and even my 8 year old daughter is a passionate feminist these days!

“I think every woman in our culture is a feminist. They may refuse to articulate it, but if you were to take any woman back 40 years and say, ‘is this a world you want to live in? ‘ they would say, ‘no’.”

- Helen Mirren, actress

🥳 Here's to ongoing change and a big cheers to all the amazing women in my life.
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02/03/2022

✨What a fun, productive day working with at the Digital Dock in Brentford.✨

Simon, funnily enough (!), runs Simon Inc - an independent branding design agency, helping public sector groups, local authorities and Not For Profit organisations to connect with their communities and stakeholders through inspiring design and strategy.

He creates fabulously colourful and engaging branding - he designed the Look and feel of the Digital Dock, a co-working space in Brentford as well as local initiatives like the Creative Mile, local art trail, and Hounslow Borough’s branding for their ambitious multi-million pound housing estate regeneration programme.

Simon asked me to help him create a Social Media Strategy that will connect him specifically to his key audiences across the major platforms.

We made a great start today. Looking forward to next week’s session already.
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01/03/2022

Sometimes, we just don't know what to post🤷🏻‍♀️.

Right now it’s especially difficult to know how to pitch ourselves given the Ukraine situation.

Anyone feel the same?

👉🏻I suggest to keep going with your business content.
👉🏻Acknowledge the crisis in your content.
👉🏻Tell your audience how you are helping, if relevant e.g. clothes or financial donations, neighbourhood initiatives to inspire others to get involved.
👉🏻Comment and share on what you see. e.g. I’m pleased to see my old company Shell doing the right thing and divesting.

Here are a few Health & Wellness 🏃🏻‍♀️ Awareness Days for March to help you plan out those that are relevant for you and your business.

🙋🏻‍♀️ My favs:

💃🏻International Women's Day on 8th.

🤳No Selfies Day on 16th - except I’ll probably take a selfie just because🤫.

☘️St Patrick's Day on 17th - I'm Northern Irish.

🧘🏻‍♀️As Young As You Feel Day on 22nd. My 50th birthday is fast approaching in April but I still feel as young as ever inside!

👫Mother's Day on 27 March - I'm a Mum of 8 year old twins and Stanley, the puppy.

Tell me your favs 👇🏻
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28/02/2022

Insta Boss, Adam Mosseri, recently announced that Insta Reels are to be rolled out to Facebook.

This means we can now share our Insta reels straight to Facebook, potentially increasing our reach - I’m assuming Facebook Reels will also receive a favourable algorithm nudge.

One influencer shared her experience of 2k views on Instagram reels versus 200k on Facebook. (The functionality has already been available in US, India, Mexico and Canada since last year).

Will you be trying it out?

👉🏻Keep refreshing your Instagram app to ensure you get the functionally as soon as possible.
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25/02/2022

✨Love it when networking connections become friends.✨

Had a lovely time last night at my old local with these fabulous ladies - hypnotherapist , essential oil lover and Thermomix Advisor .

We all met at the Athena Network and and were just missing the lovely Nutritionist/PT .

When you’re self employed, it’s essential to have connections in the same boat, sailing both calm and stormy seas and with similar seasickness 🤪 tales….ooh and lots of remedies to share.

Lots of stories, laughs, work & networking chat. Loved it ❤️. Until the next one 🥳.
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17/02/2022

✨ Have you ever done anything wildly different to your day job? ✨

Modelling was never something I would’ve put me down for…EVER…

…and there I was at 49 doing handstands against a wall for the wonderful Bandit Bee™ 🐝] last summer. Check out their fab gear by the way! Super comfy and soft - excellent for yoga.

💕Lovely networking pal was the ace photographer (phew!) who gently helped my awkward bod into the right positions and finally got me to relax ☺️ and enjoy the experience.

🌟One of the highlights was finding a new friend in my fellow model (and fellow twin mum!) 💕. We bonded immediately whilst trying to make each other laugh ‘naturally’ for the pics. I definitely needed something 😂.

Thank you Mandi from Bandit Bee™ 🐝] for pushing me out of my comfort zone and giving me something different to experience 🙌🏻🥰.

Tell me if you’ve ever done something you would never have imagined doing.
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14/02/2022

✨No Social Today✨

📘However, as it’s ‘International Book Giving Day’ (and yes, also Valentine’s Day (we don’t pay too much attention to it!), I thought I’d share this pic of the tidiest, coolest book shelf ever.

This installation is in the Modern, where we took the kids today for the first day of half term.

It’s by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare to highlight the impact of immigration on British culture. All 2,700 books contain the names - in gold on the book spines - of 1st and 2nd generation immigrants into Britain who have made significant contributions to British culture and history.

I loved the colours, the orderly display and most of all, the story behind it was very interesting (I’ve added a pic of the story to my Stories - take a look!). There is an interactive element to it, inviting and considering different viewpoints on Immigration.

Did you share any interesting books for ‘International Book Giving Day’ or what would be the go-to book you’d share if you could?
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07/02/2022

✨What do you think of having an avatar to represent you on Insta?✨

🔜 Instagram boss, Adam Mosseri has recently announced that Avatars are already rolling out across US, Canada and Mexico and are coming to our shores very soon.

We’ll be able to use these 3D Avatars of ourselves on our DMs and Stories initially.

⁉️Nothing new, you say? Even more so, why??????

🌏 Well these are getting us into position for the new Metaverse that’s coming over the next decade.

🙋🏻‍♀️What’s that, I hear you say?

It’s the next version of the Internet, in simple language, or Web3 as it’s also known.

This virtual-based world will bring very ‘immersive experiences’ where we will need an identity of sorts to get around and show our presence.

Right now, we do that via profiles / bios…In the virtual world, we need something a bit more 3D and they will be quite sophisticated in looking like us (I’m having the fear already!! 🤯🤯

👗Apparently you will be able to change your avatar’s clothes, keep virtual money in there and any Digital products you might have bought. In the future, they’re saying that our whole bodies will be ‘Avatar-ed’ (arghhhhhhhhh 🤯🤯🤯) to keep things super realistic.

😳I’ve heard rumours of digital art and a virtual Gucci bag that sold for $4k last year on a metaverse-like platform.

The fear is real, all. How are you feeling about it?!
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03/02/2022

✨A few February Awareness days to help you plan the month.✨



Remember:

✅ Use the ones that are super relevant to your business to help you tell your story and to share things your audience don’t know about you. Maybe 3-4 in the month only.

❌ Definitely don’t use them all - they couldn’t all be relevant, could they?!

Which are your favs?

⛑I like Children’s mental health week from 7-13th. Such a sensitive topic, but one that is more talked about these days, though not enough. It feels like the pandemic has created additional anxiety in some young folk - I can see it in different ways with my own kids.

🍞Real Bread Week on 19-27th - I’m all for that - will get the husband to hunt down that old starter that was shared around the neighbourhood during lockdown 😜.

🐦I ‘m a bit of a bird spotter in my old age :), so National Bird Feeding Month is ace to raise awareness of how much we should look after our little friends through the Winter especially. I love seeing robins - they remind me of my Dad who used to chat to them on a daily basis 😊.

🐕‍🦺I’m secretly hoping our new bundle of joy - we’re getting a dog! - will be here for Love Your Pet Day - watch this space :).

👗And I won’t be working Naked tomorrow, just for the record!

Tell me yours ⬇️⬇️ and Enjoy!
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14/12/2021

✨It’s no secret that it’s all about Video these days on Insta ✨.

👥 As it tries to keep attracting young audiences - who are flying in their droves over to TikTok - it is all about Video, but that’s no surprise, right?

➡️ Soon we’ll see a range of Images, Stories, Reels and video content on our screens in a TikTok-y kind of way.

📹 Longer form stories - up to 60 secs - will be the norm (according to recent experiments) following research that users want fewer interruptions when they’re viewing video.

✂️ This is all part of a streamline exercise across the platform, consolidating and removing various forms of content - look no further than the removal of IGTV a few months ago and now, stories becoming longer forms of content.

I love Stories just the way they are. I love the informal, unpolished nature of them and feel they may change in pursuit of a more perfect form as a longer video. What do you think?
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