Banana Bars, Birthdays, Britain’s Got Talent & Bladerunner

I’m writing this after a Bank Holiday when I actually took three days off from the computer  completely.  It was my daughter Phoebe’s 14th birthday and what with the whirl of (her) social activity, my feet hardly touched the ground.

http://www.phoebesoremekun.com

She kicked off with an under-18 party at The Pier Club in Worthing, then off to her dads’ for a night, then back to ours for pressies, a trip to Brighton to get her first and hopefully her last piercing (I know! but I did promise when she was about 9!!) and then to Prezzo’s for dinner with the family.  They call it belly button piercing but it’s not, it’s the tiny bit of skin above the belly button, and of course it was filmed for YouTube.  Not by me, I was just there to sign the form and avert my eyes, but by her mate, Keturah, who was done last month.  It did look very pretty with the pink “banana bar” against her brown tum and PunkTured Studio was very clean, funky and nice – great name for the place and a good website too!

Last week’s business building / wealth creation activities included speaking for the inaugoral Brighton & Hove Property Networking event, where they had a good turnout of more than 50 property investors.  One of the other speakers was a young chap called Liam, who recognised the income potential of HMO’s when he was still at college, and has subsequently built a successful upmarket HMO buying and renting machine, always near to universities or hospitals.  Classic stuff and I hope to interview Liam on a webinar soon.

The really exciting thing about Liam The HMO King though, is that he’s been on Britain’s Got Talent, but although he was hoping to be featured on this Saturdays show, I couldn’t spot him.  He is a dance act and while he couldn’t divulge how well he did, he was smiling.  This week another contender for the singing crown emerged though – Jamie Pugh, lorry driver by day and pizza delivery man at night.

Jamie kept the story of his wife dying of a brain tumour recently as secret as he didn’t want the sympathy vote, not that he needed it.  He sang another song from Les Miserables “Bring Him Home” and I’m thinking that, obviously in spite of the name, that musical has got some cracking music in it.

Could Jamie be the next Tom Jones?  So, my top three tips for the top on Britian’s Got Talent are, so far, Shaheen Jafargholi, Jamie Pugh and Susan Boyle, in that order.

Back to the point of business building / wealth creation, I also picked up my magnetic car stickers, which I hope will stimulate some interest in my Rent2Own activities locally.  I drove home with them on and within an hour I got a Facebook message from someone who lives in London but has a rental property round the corner, who had spotted me driving though Shoreham – talk about co-incidence them being there at that precise nano-second.

I’ve pretty much given up on trying to advertise with the Worthing Herald, whose advertising department seems to specialise in doing every thing they can NOT to take my money.  In this day and age, why they can’t just keep your card details and run your ads every bloomin’ week, I don’t know.  You have to check your ad in case they miss it off AND call them every four weeks to renew it.

Leaflets next, but I need to get a bit more of a sniff of a deal before I can justify that, as it will cost in the region of £500 to do the Worthing area. I feel that’s the most cost effective way to attract vendors though.

Another weird thing happened this weekend, my sister heard from my mother, who apparently lives in Hull.  It was her 70th birthday recently and it made me feel very weird to think I have a 70 year old mother who I never see.  I’ve written about my mother before, on her birthday last year

Apparently she’s been saving for her funeral, but something happened and she had to use the money.  So she’s saving up again which can’t be easy on a pension.  We all found that very odd, because 1) when you are dead, what do you care who pays for your funeral?  and 2) we can probably afford to bury her between us by now.  Morbid thoughts perhaps but perhaps it becomes more important as you get older?  I just want to make sure the dying speech by the replicant Roy, in Bladerunner, gets played at my funeral, along with some great tunes including the entire Nu Yorican Soul album, to remind people that’s where I’ll be when I go, watching the attack ships off Orian and busy being the Black Gold Of The Sun.

Thinking about my mother being 70, made me realise that I’m nearly 50. She had me when she was 18 and then sister Heather 18 months later – and my father was away at sea all the time – can you imagine how tough that must have been?  I had my babies in my thirties with a very involved husband and that was hard work enough for me!

I certainly don’t feel nearly 50 – I feel more like my mid-thirties.  HOwever, my ankles are a bit stiff in the mornings and I do have to move books about in that middle aged way, to read in light that is not so bright. I might have to get some pinze-nez to wear in the evenings….LOL.

Have fun on the wealth creation journey, we always do.

Nicola

Susan Boyle Move Over – Here Comes Shaheen!

While news of Susan Boyle’s talent swept around the globe last week, this week’s Britain’s Got Talent unearthed an even bigger singing sensation!

Shaheen  Jafargholi blew everyone away with his voice as he started to sing Valerie by Amy Winehouse, and then Simon Cowell shocked everyone by stopping Shaheen and asking him if he knew any other songs.  “Who’s Loving Loving You” by Michael Jackson was the second choice and from the very first note we knew we were watching the potential winner. Ok, so Shaheen blows my theory about it taking 10 years for any overnight success to “make it” as he’s only 12, but he’s an exception, a force of nature, dare I say it….a God / Universe given talent.

OK, so the whole changing song thing was rigged but man! did it make for GREAT television! And what a blues voice at 12 years old!

Other highlights included Julian Smith is the first saxophonist music teacher to ever grace the Britain’s Got Talent stage and he is brilliant – I would link to the show’s main page so you can see him but they have done two things that have really annoyed me this week. They have taken away the ability to embed the shows videos on one’s own blog, but worse, they have enforced the watching of ads before each video. Bad enough on the TV but I won’t watch ads on my computer too!

Britain’s Got Talent | Susan Boyle | Dreamed A Dream (And Achieved It)

I’m always banging on about overnight success taking at least 10 years but Scotland’s own Susan Boyle, who stunned Britain’s Got Talent judges and audiences alike this Saturday, took nearly 47 years to become an overnight success.  Watch this video and enjoy! I’ve been watching it daily and loving it!

There are so MANY wonderful moments in this video – from Ant & Dec’s gleeful little boy expressions, to Simon Cowell’s sigh of happiness – he’s already offered her a record deal apparently.

The media from the UK to Australia are running stories and even my internet marketing maties are Twittering about Susan Boyle from West Lothian Scotland, a collection of little villages apparently!

Here’s a video of Susan singing “Cry Me A River” on a charity CD from 1999.

Other highlights from Saturday include the dance act Flawless and you can watch the YouTube video here >>>

BTW, YouTube disabling the embed function for some of these videos must be losing them market share eh?

We All Cried On Saturday

Madonna Decena blows the judges and audience away on Britains Got Talent 2008 with a breathtaking performance of this famous Whitney Houston song..Britains Got Talent 2008. But this 33 year-old from the Philippines lived up to her billing, as she wowed the judges and audience with her powerful performance and heart-felt story. Trembling and a little unsure of herself, Madonna walked onto the stage and told everyone her reason for being there. Six months ago she flew out to Britain in the hope of creating a better life for herself and two young daughters. Agonisingly she had to leave her precious children behind with their grandparents in the Philippines, until she had raised enough money to send for them. Her rendition of I Will Always Love You brought a collective lump to the auditorium’s throat. “I know you were singing that song for your babies” said a tearful Amanda. This audition was no Holiday for Madonna, it was potentially life-changing, and when the panel told her she had made it to the next round… it was as if all her dreams had been answered, just Like A Prayer.

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8RbNez044io]