Wednesday Haiku - a little smile for the day

Remember the Sunshine: maintaining motivation

Motivation can be a fickle thng.  Weeks and months go by and we never have an issue, but then WHAM! and all of a sudden it's gone.  Whether its through personal circumstances or the professional landscape that acts as a backdrop to our daily lives which changes in some unexpected fashion.  We all have those moments, periods really, whether measured in seconds, minutes or hours, during our day where we really need to regain our focus.

Motivating ourselves can be a brief task and simply shaking our head and refocusing may do the trick, but many of us need more physical, and sometimes emotional or social, input.

Whether you are in an office with others or working from home, the simple act of making a cup of coffee or tea could do the trick.   However, it may be more ingrained and refocusing on a project that needs your input, or getting writers' block, is probably going to take more than a trip to the kitchen.

Writing a list of what you need to work on is always a good start and, if towards the middle of the day, a walk outside can also help consolidate those action points.

Remember that you also need to put your tasks in perspective and, if the task is making you unhappy, a walk around the block, will help shake the fatigue, but remember to make that list first.  It will help you focus, the walk itself will help you, and if it doesn't, talking to a colleague who is not related to the project at hand could you give fresh eyes.  That list is also key as your walk will assist to shake down the components of the task.  For example, if the task is a report, drafting the conclusion (believe it or not) may be a good place to start.  The actual exercise of visualising, and then drafting, the whole thing may help you put the introduction and methodologies into the correct order and, although the conclusion may change in the detail or in the approach, the act of writing the report in this way will refocus your point of view and make the act of writing a little more straightforward.

Of course, this doesn't really help if you are a home worker, but the principles are the same.  If the task at hand is making you uncomfortable or unhappy, that list may simply haunt you.  So a walk, a coffee in a coffee shop or café, with a note book and a pen, could do wonders for your thought processes.  Perhaps the relevance of not taking your tablet or laptop with you and utilising a notebook instead will break the lethargy.  Simply having some social interaction outside of the four walls of the room you call your home office, may be all that it takes to shift that block.  Taking this method back one step, could also be of help.  If you are in the habit of working in the same room every day at home, simply working from a different room in house (or apartment) may help and, indeed, if you are mobile enough, working from a friendly café with WiFi, also helps too.  It depends simply on how you work best. 

The key here is be honest with yourself, if its the fact you aren't interacting with people enough, being where people are simply around, may help.   If its the technology that's giving you grief, leave it behind.  If its simply a change of scene, again, easily remedied, but only you will know, and if you aren't sure, try all three to see if that motivation comes back.

A good friend of mine, for many years, had writers block continually throughout her projects.  Whether it was writing the initial proposal or to the final report.  The act of presenting and carrying out the project itself was what she loved most.  The key for her was acknowledging this and simply using her network of friends and professional contacts to bounce off ideas and drafts.  In the end, she kept those blocks to the barest minimum by simply talking to people. 

I've talked about distraction earlier in this blog as a tool, and although I wouldn't recommend it for tasks that need immediate resolution, for longer timescales or for a particular block which has ingrained itself into your head, distraction may also be a key in helping you.  Remembering (and visualising) that beach  or simply completing a task which is opposite to the one that is providing the current challenge.  Distraction can also become a tool for creativity, whether you are working solo or part of a team. 

For a solo exercise, I've already pointed to writing a Haiku.  However, if you are more visual, try taking a large piece of paper, closing your eyes and then, with a dark pen, making large squiggles without taking the pen off the paper.   Once you think you have done enough, open your eyes and using other colours, draw out of the page a face or an animal or any image which bounces out at you.  Put in as much detail, or as little as you like, but I would spend at least 30 to 40 minutes on this exercise.   As the image forms and you put additional detail into it, you will find that your mind will calm down and going back to the task at hand will be more focused.  If using this as a motivation tool at home, I would write my list first, make a tea or a coffee, then do the exercise, and then review your list.  As you review your list a second time, there will be details and aspects of the list which you will naturally add to and your focus should return.  Again, only you will know what works for you, but I would try this a few times, taking less or more time drawing out the image.  Perhaps at the back of that notebook that you carry around with you has a few pages which are crying out for a mini version of the above, so rather than be in the habit of carrying just a few pens in your bag, a small packet of coloured pens are added too?

For a team, if there is the time, then provide coloured pens and paper (and paint if the circumstances allow) and ask each team member to draw an aspect of the project but without telling their team mates which aspect it is.   On the reverse side of the sheets the original contributor's name is written but they cannot use words or numbers as part of the exercise itself, so the drawings must be purely visual.    The sheets are then rotated around the group, each team member adding their own interpretations onto the sheets.  At the end of the process they review the pictures and comment about how the project works in their minds.  Each team member gets five minutes of uninterrupted time to share their thoughts.  At the end of the session, the team or exercise leader then leads a discussion of how the project could move forward.  As everyone has had the opportunity to contribute to the project in a non-verbal way, as well as having time to explain their approach or the imagery they have made, motivation as a team and as individuals  are maximised.  Of course, the exercise or team leader sets the scene, so that the participants have some guide as to which part of a project or timeline they are focusing on.  It could be the launch of a potential new brand or the design of a new front page for an online channel, but balance the detail with the freedom for creative input. This approach also assists later, when people become demotivated, as they can return to the images and the feelings of fun and creativity that they evoked.

If the key to your lack of motivation is more emotionally based, perhaps your organisation is undergoing negative change or perhaps you aren't focused for personal reasons, the main tools in your arsenal is taking some key points and drawing the practical aspects of the job at hand.  Make your list, it will be purely factual components of the task but focussing just on these will itself prove a distraction to anything negative around you.  This works well if you are an assistant in a large company and simply need to get those travel arrangements done, then writing what needs to be completed in the correct order, will focus you and then you can tick of each aspect of the task.  As you have your very practical list, it will be easy to focus on these and not what is happening around you.

Finally, if all else fails, go back to basics and simply stop what you are doing and give yourself a break.   It may be difficult if this is at work, but if you are part of team and your part of the project is crucial, there may be some flexibility in speaking with a team leader or your manager, perhaps with a view to swapping your task with somebody else.    If this isn't possible, having an open conversation with your manager, perhaps by shifting the deadline or the act of talking it through, may also assist.

Whatever your approach, I hope the above has at least given you some inspiration or a well needed break from your tasks of the day.

Sunshine smells and friendly thoughts

Our sitting room is shed in sunshine in the mornings.  If we have flowers (and we often do) on the coffee table, their smell can be overpowering at time with the heat of the morning.

Today was just such a morning, the stocks were a gift from a client of my partner's and they were proud of place in one of our best vases, and all the more gracious as their colours are so vibrant.

The regular check of emails and the large cup of tea was only interrupted by this incredible aroma and, as I closed my eyes to sunshine letting it wash my morning bones, the added sensations of the scent allowed me to forget the troubles of the past few weeks in a way that that I hadn't done for a number of years.

Funny how old habits return and the mind allows you to escape at the best of times.

My morning haiku today was inspired by this and remembering that escape can come in so many unexpected ways.

Early deep colours

Calm, sickly sweet aroma

Eyes shut, peace returns

Sunshine colours, sunshine food

Gorgeous Roasted Vegetables and Feta

We all want to feel good and when our food is colourful and we've taken time to enjoy the process of preparing it, it tastes in even better.

Using finger aubergine cut into short lengths, their skins retain some of their bright purple hue if you only bake them for 20 minutes or so.  With the addition of red and green paprika and some slices of courgette, bathed in fresh, extra virgin olive oil, this makes a real treat.  To maximise the flavours just sprinkle a little salt and leave covered to one side for up to an hour before putting into the oven.

The oven should be pre-heated to 180c and should take no more than 20 minutes.  Add your feta after this, crumbled roughly so that that you large pieces as well as small and place back into the oven for five to ten minutes with the heat switched off.  As the oven cools the feta will become soft and the will partially melt with vegetables.

As you put the vegetables into the oven, take a cupful of couscous or bulgur wheat and add warm water and cover for 30 minutes.  Drain this just before you take the vegetables and feta out of the oven.  Serve separately with chopped parsley mixed into it with a pinch of salt and pepper and squirt of lime.

To make the dinner a trio of dishes, why not add a simple tomato salad.  Very ripe tomatoes, chopped up roughly, with a small pinch of salt, a generous helping of olive oil and two dessert spoons of good sherry vinegar.  Add an inch of grated ginger and stir and leave to stand for 20 minutes before serving. 

Sunshine: Falafel, Dara and Leather Lane

Falafel, Dara & Leather Lane

Falafel, for me, conjures up quickly caught lunches by Leather Lane market, in the centre of London, when temping back in the late 1980s.  It was cheap and tasty and, as a lover of hummus and hot sauce, this was a perfect break to a very conventional day.

I remember telling my immediate neighbour of this and Dara, who lived a few doors further down overheard and decided in her very pronounced French accent, to show me how to make it myself, "then it will be even cheaper".

It was just approaching summer when I first met Dara properly, she was always chatting outside the little greengrocers on the small parade of shops just a few hundred yards from our building.  It was a very friendly neighbourhood, and the parade also including a shop that acted as the local bakery at the back, but in the front was every kind of dried pulse, bean and herb you could ever imagine.  Dara was well known to them as often I would see her enthusiastically giving some advice or other to one of the assistants behind the counter.  Mr Elvi was the owner and would come out of the shop with a smile, a sigh and a shrug, light up a rolled up cigarette and let the chatter pass him by.  I caught his eye on one occasion and he laughed and rolled his eyes.  A few days later when I saw Dara struggle with her purchases I offered to help.  She was a lady, perhaps in her early to mid sixties, who was always cheerful.  She looked me up and down, “I’m not old yet you know”.  I remember laughing and saying it didn’t matter, I just wanted to help.  She had looked at me sideways at the time, who was this very young man offering to help, but she shrugged and gave me her bags… all of them.

So, back to the chickpeas and Dara was, true to form, insistent and after just a few days of resistance, I knocked on her door as arranged.  As usual, Dara was beaming but first she insisted on giving me a full history of her family before she started showing me her culinary expertise.

I was told that every Jewish and Middle Eastern household has a recipe for falafel.  Depending upon where the household is, the recipe will change.  In Dara's case, her family moved to Tangier in the early 1930's from a little town outside Paris.  So her recipe is based on her mother's and how she had adjusted from living in once city to another.   She, and her mother had been so distraught about the move but her father had wanted to take advantage of new opportunities there and the much cheaper raw materials.  Her father had been a jewellery maker and had worked silver and gold, and the house, at least to begin with, was also his workshop. 

When extended family started to arrive later that decade, he, being the oldest of his own siblings decided they needed a much larger house, and so they moved again, this time to Marrakech.  In this new city, although Dara was still very young, remembered it being much busier and much more alive.  The house, as promised, was indeed much larger and her father apprenticed a number of her cousins to the business.  The second world war didn't seem to affect them, their neighbourhood was friendly and supportive and as more family arrived, there were more aunties and cousins to help.  In later years, her mother confided in Dara that she had been so proud of him, he had been supporting more than a hundred family members during those years.   I asked about the uncles, Dara had just looked at me and tipped her head, "it was a bad time for them", and that was the beginning and end of the subject.

Her little one bedroomed flat was colourful.  We had all moved into this mansion block of flats after it had been refurbished and everyone had put a little or a lot of individuality on the magnolia standard that adorned the rooms.  In Dara's case, this meant a burnt umber living room, with panels of her art, silk and paper collages which she sold at different markets, and throws of a similar style thrown over two low settees. 

Her kitchen was a mirror image of my own but packed with so much more.  She had added shelves and cupboards to the walls, thankfully hiding the acidic green for the most part.  But she had beads in the window, which filled the room with stars on a sunny afternoon and she still had space on a bit of a wall, to hang an old photograph in a very ornate frame of her family.  Taken in the early 1950s and gleefully pointing out who was who, the three youngest of the family, sitting proudly on adults’ knees, the middle one so obviously Dara herself.

In Dara's recipe the chickpeas were soaked overnight with slivers of raw onion and a number of dried chillies, but she admitted this was her addition, her mother and aunts had insisted that the chickpeas be soaked on their own.

Dara obviously made falafel at least twice if not three times a week judging by the covered bowls on a wide shelf above the draining board and sink.  But she was also sprouting mung beans and other things. Falafel and hummus weren't the only regular visitors to this kitchen.

The following day the chickpeas are pounded into a rough paste along with the onions and chilli as well as two table spoons of chopped parsley and a clove of garlic for every 4 oz of pre-soaked peas.  A number of other spices and dried herbs were also added (which I found out later would change depending upon the mood, the time of year and what was in the cupboard) along with 4 or 5 tablespoons of olive or Argon oil and a little water.  Corn flour and a little baking soda is then added to the paste.  All of this was then placed in a covered bowl, in the fridge (if there was room) or left on the side (if not) for about an hour.  Patties were made and then deep fried for a few minutes.  The result was amazing, but Dara had warned me, they were spicy!

I was “supervised” the first time I made them and after, when I started making my own versions, Dara was happy to test the results.  She admitted on only a couple of occasions that a particular variation reminded her of one of her Aunts, who was “still alive” somewhere.  I asked if that was good or bad, she looked at me and smiled.

Sunny days: Tomato salad with salted black olives

In many ways this recipe is a repeat of one I wrote a few years ago.  I have refined it a little due to evolving tastes.  It is still a very popular salad in this or in it's original form.

With its juicy tomato base, the salt preserved olives have an almost leather quality but, soaked in a mix of one part dry vermouth and five parts water, these little packages of flavour are a wonder to behold.

A great accompaniment to many a main course, but especially served with risotto or grilled fish, this salad is more of a salsa with its smaller pieces and with its mint, lemon and capers has more than just nod to Malta and North Africa.

For two to three generous portions:

• 150 grams of tomatoes, deseeded, cored and chopped into one centimetre cubes
• 100 grams of cucumber, deseeded, peeled and chopped, again into roughly one centimetre cubes
• A good handful, approximately twenty, large black salted olives (soaked ideally overnight as described above), chopped roughly and retain the liquid
• a dozen or so large caper berries, thinly sliced
• 20 grams of fresh mint, chopped coarsely
• A half teaspoon of dried mint
• A half teaspoon of dried cumin
• Two dessert spoons of good extra virgin oil
• The juice and zest of half a lemon

Add the tomatoes, cucumber, olives, capers and fresh mint into a bowl and mix thoroughly.  Add the dried herbs and mix once more and cover and place in a cool dark room.  Ideally not a fridge as I've found the temperature takes away some of the flavour of the ingredients.

In a small bowl, add the soaking mixture from the olives, the cumin, oil, lemon juice and zest and combine thoroughly.  This mixture you do chill.

Combine the two mixtures well just before you are about to serve. 

Equally good as a topping for appetisers or as an alternative mix to add to couscous.
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Spring Tulips for Easter

Tulips to make you smile.

Easter makes me think of these beautiful blooms.  The first time I visited the Netherlands was an Easter weekend and I was only 20 years old.

It was the first time I had ever seen whole fields full of flowers and it took my breath away.