Wet Shaving

Shaving well may not make you a Gentleman, but as I have said, as a gentleman you should strive to make the world a better place for others... You will certainly be in a better mood in the mornings if you have enjoyed a good shave.
And besides, grooming is something you should pay attention to and it's something I will probably pay more attention to on this blogg -- mainly because the ethics thing doesn't seem to be coming up as often as it was when I started this.

I remember very clearly the day when one of my teachers told me that it was high time I 'shaved the fluff off my face'. I was about 13 and my dad wasn't around at the time so I asked my mum to get me some shaving gear, and it was her who taught me... and in fairness, she didn't do a bad job.

A little while later when my dad was about he noticed I no longer had the bum-fluff and that I was suffering terrible razor burns. He said that he suffered the same problems and advised that I shave in cold water. He also bought me some Yardley's Original aftershave which felt like applying napalm but did sort out the rashes.

That was over twenty years ago and apart from the fact that I was now using gels instead of cream in a can, and 5+1 blades on my swivel headed razor, not much had changed. I don't get razor burn no matter what I do these days -- I could scrape away at my face for an hour, and sometimes I did, but I never got a really close shave.

And then I came across the idea of wet-shaving with a double edged safety razor.
Maybe I'll go into details of my experiences at a later date... but when it comes to why you should make the change, and how to go about it, I can't do better that to point you in the direction of mantic59's YouTube videos. There are loads of movies there, and he also has his own shaving blog. But to start you off, here is a good playlist:-



This is not the be-all-and-end-all of shaving, there are many techniques, this is however a superb introduction to the subject.

Reflexive Pronouns

I have noticed that a couple of my employees are butchering the English language when answering the telephone. They say things like, "Would you like to bring it to ourselves?", or "I will then return the item to yourself."

Don't get me wrong, my own use of the English language ain't exactly f***ing text book! But this makes me cringe. To me, this is worse than saying something like, "I'm going to get me one of those". The latter just sounds dumb, while the former make you sound like somebody who is dumb but trying to sound intelligent by using longer words. It reminds me of Del-boy saying, "lets not say goodbye, let call this bonjour", or Waynetta Slob putting on her posh accent.

But thats not what this entry in the blog is about. The dilemma here is how to broach the subject without embarrassing anybody.
The main culprit is young, so hasn't the life experience to know this sounds wrong but we have been encouraging him to do more work on the telephone. He didn't start out talking like this, but he has been phoning large companies which have receptionists and he seems to be picking it up from them.
Unfortunately, armed with this new way of speaking, he has gained confidence which has rubbed off on others who are now copying him.

I think that rather than take him to one side, it is best to bring this up at a staff meeting so that I can address it without singling anybody out. I will point out that often it is a bad idea to copy what other people are doing, because often they do it wrong... and then I'll blame this all on those strange creatures called receptionists. We already teach our staff to try and get around receptionists and talk to the person who has the information they need. Maybe I can combine the staff meeting with a quick talk on this, and a mention that while receptionists are on the whole utterly useless to us, for the people who hire them, they are there to filter inquiries, so not to phone until they are armed with the right information to get past the filter... etc, etc.

Tricky isn't it. Effectively I'm putting down receptionists to save my own staff from embarrassment. Frankly, many deserve it so I don't feel too bad. But I can't allow a culture of contempt for receptionists to grow, so I need to build them back up again.

Please note, I don't stereotype all receptionists as useless... although doctors receptionists are beyond redemption.

I have returned!

I haven't updated this blog for a hell of a long time. My wife became seriously ill for a time and it turned things upside-down for a while.

You have to prioritize and unfortunately, this blog comes far behind some of my other commitments, and I think it shall remain so.

However, the missus has taken an interest and is encouraging me to write something on fashion... so who knows?
As a result of her illness she was required to go on a special low far diet, which means the whole family went on it. I have lost about a stone, but I could afford to lose some more around the waist. Apparently, if you do as I do, and only eat once per day, your body stores fat. This leads to you being slim but with a big belly, so as of today, I'm having a snack at breakfast time, lunch and in the afternoon. Maybe eating more will help me lose weight!
If it works I'll consent to allowing her to use me as a model. Yes I know, vanity is creeping into this blog - but I'm sure nobody wants to see my beer belly (not that I drink beer), and in the absence of somebody more attractive to model the cloths, I should put on the best show I can. After all, self-improvement is part of what this blog is all about.