Monthly Archives: March 2023

Destinations

Inspirational Destination Wedding Invitations

When couples decide to marry away from home and wish to marry overseas at a fabulous destination. They may wish their invitations to carry on the same theme.

Brides first choice may be a star fish invite. You can perhaps select a long white card with writing in silver. Attach beautiful netting around the middle of the invite with a star fish design to secure the netting together.

For those lucky couples who wish to send out Hawaiian wedding invitations. They may wish to select a pineapple designed on the front of the card. A little taffeta ribbon attached to the side of the card with the wedding wording inside the invite.

If you are deciding on a cruise ship wedding then an invite can be sent out of a cruise photo attached to the front of the adrift at sea. The look can be complete by adding a pretty blue or green bow to the top of the invite.

For the couples whose life long ambition is to start their married life on a beach. Then they can sent out beach wedding invitations to their guests with a glorious photo of a beautiful sunset on a beach. The wedding words can be inserted under the words with an orange or red ribbon tying in the theme of the glorious sunset.

Sea turtles swimming under water may be painted as a backdrop on your Tropical wedding invitations. The wedding words can be written over the top of the sea creatures in a darker green or blue color.

If you are marrying beside the sea why not select a blue wedding invitation with white swirls as the waves. Brides may decide to place words on the right hand side and the wave design on the left.

Have a great time on your destination wedding day.

Cultural

Formula-One and the Bonus-Culture in Business

Sport is a suitable metaphor for business. Formula-1 for instance offers the reasonable fit in comparing investment banking with sport. ING started to sponsor the Renault team some years before the top of the investment market.

The first parallel is the bonus-culture that link sport (F1) and business (investment banking). There is a big bonus to gain in either market. Only the winner gets the full bonus. The necessary control and supervision is also evident in either market: formula-1 needs control (against spying and fair-play) and the investment banking needs control to prevent (Madoff-like) fraud. Cheating is also part of business, whether it is sport (F1) or investment banking. Investment bankers lie about return on investments, sportsmen lie about drug-use (doping) or about fair play.

The recent incident in the formula-1 is paramount for all this. Last year we could witness some exotics in the McLaren-team. The rivalry between Hamilton and Alonso in the same team. We could all wonder about the level of fair play in the McLaren team. It just like in business. Hamilton was favored by the management of the Mclaren team. We don’t know for sure what happened behind the scenes but we can only doubt whether it was all fair. Alonso left as a gentleman, back to Renault with a less powerful vehicle.

Now less than a year later we are again watching the fair-play in the formula-one, and: “… Lewis Hamilton apologizes after admitting to misleading stewards…” writes the BBC… “It was a huge mistake.”

Maybe it was more than a simple mistake. I would refer to the concept of sound and unsound business architecture. Some people have a beer-belly and (therefore) they cannot run fast. You can tell it from their profile. There is a difference between a bank who makes a mistake and a bank that is based on fraud. In sport this is not any different; there is a difference between a simple lie and someone who is a fraud. That people don’t care to notice and investigate, that’s their problem and part of the financial cause we are now in. Those who are currently blaming the investment bankers of all the fraud and misleading in finance and blaming the bonus-culture, should have a look at the formula-one or any other sport. They work under the same principles.

What’s the lesson to learn from all this?

First and most of all, acknowledging the differences between organizations making a simple mistake and others subsequently misleading clients. Both types of companies exist and clients and investors can tell the difference between either type of company, as long as they observe what is happening. We now have experienced some flaws in business and this will have its effect on organization. Clients and stakeholders will (have to) be more assertive in detecting bad-practices (instead of best-practices) and “inform” the organization about it.

A bonus-culture is not necessarily inappropriate. But it requires control as the chance of fraud increases. Have a look at sports and the affect of (bonus) pressure on the attitude of its players / members.

Camping

Camping Breakfast – It Should Be The MAN Thing

This is not a how to cook article.

It’s not an instruction manual on how to fry the perfect bacon strip, or how to flip an egg. Not even a guide to cook up a perfect plate full of food.

Camping breakfast. Start the day off right with a great one and you will be a star for the rest of the vacation. After all, it’s the service that makes camping so fantastic.

Instead, I give to you a recipe on how to give your wife a little time off in the campground. Presenting her and the family with your best breakfast served with all of those little things your family will remember for a lifetime.

The food is secondary. It’s all in the presentation.

Six basics are important. The food is secondary. It’s all in the presentation.

  • Be the Man. You must be up out of bed first. This is very important. You want to spoil the family. This is the one opportunity to show your true colors. You are waited on all of the year. Your family will love you for it so get ready to reap the rewards.
  • Make a campfire. Apart from the great food you are going to prepare and all of the service you will soon perform, the campfire is very important. It will crackle and smoke as it gets up to steam. That is what makes camping fun. Years from now that smell will be the first thing gathered from the memory bank when the word camping is spoken.
  • Cook outside. You are Camping. Don’t prepare the breakfast inside the RV. What fun is that? Since you got out of bed first, let the others take their time. As soon as the aroma of your culinary delights will hit their noses, they will come alive and you will be their hero.
  • Make the coffee or tea first. Is there anything that smells so good as fresh coffee or tea first thing in the morning? The aroma will permeate throughout the tent or RV. In no time, without prompting, people will want some and get up.
  • Cook up the best breakfast you know how. Keep everything hot. Warm up the plates either on the other burner of the stove or near the campfire. We use paper plates when we camp. Makes clean-up a lot easier.
  • Now serve the great camping breakfast outside, if the weather is good for it, or bring in doors if necessary. This is what camping is all about. The family will love you for it.

There you have it. I have always tried to be the chief cook and bottle washer on our family camping trips. After all, my wife is forever cooking and cleaning for me and the rest of the family for the entire year. I always felt the least I could do for the few times we go camping would be to be proactive.

I will be the knight in shining armor who my wife thought she married. Perhaps you will be too.