Interesting Times!

Friday 18 December 2009

I attended four Christmas fuddles over the last two days...

One at each of Elmete, Blenheim, Merrion and West Park and it was simply wonderful to see so many talented, brilliant, gorgeous and wonderful colleagues at the end of yet another year here in Leeds; this is my ninth Leeds Christmas and again what a year we have had.

We all know that having bought the banks the next few years are going to be tough and that we will need to work smarter and more effectively and carefully watch all our resources to eliminate waste and drive efficiencies wherever we can. However hard it gets you must remember that talent will out and that you have skills and abilities that are in demand and in short supply. Our culture and values are rare in the public sector and the focus on creativity, innovation, trust and equality rarer still.

The OFSTED Inspection Report on Safeguarding and Looked After Children's Services is published on 7 January and the Review of Children's Services will drive change as the Council appoints its new Director of Children's Services. So change is going to be constantly with us as usual and our job will be to stay focused on the things that matter: ensuring that young people in Leeds are happy, healthy, safe and increasingly successful... whatever it takes!

We live in interesting times is a Chinese curse but I am even more certain now that the future is simply what you make it. So, make it brilliant one. Have a great Christmas; one that brings you and those you love… delight and simplicity, foolishness and fantasy, and noise, angels, miracles, wonder, innocence and magic.
Chris

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Brilliant Quotes!

“I must accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don't set any condition.”
Margaret Lee Runbeck

“Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.”
John B. Sheerin

“Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is difficult to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline.”
William L Shirer

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: If you pursue happiness you'll never find it.”
C.P. Snow

“Doubly rich is the man still boyish enough to play, laugh and sing as he carries and emanates sunshine along a friendly road.”
Charles R. Wiers

"Faith is not a shelter against difficulties, but belief in the face of all contradictions."
Paul Tournier

"Convictions are the mainsprings of action, the driving powers of life. What a man lives are his convictions."
Francis C. Kelley

"To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger; but jump in, and scramble through as well as we can."
Sydney Smith

"It is often just as sacred to laugh as it is to pray"
Charles R. Swindoll

"Things never go so well that one should have no fear; and never so ill that one should have no hope"
Turkish proverb

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself"
Chinese proverb

"Don't bother to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
William Faulkner

"In times of change, learners will inherit the earth,while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists"
Eric Hoffer

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
John Lennon

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation."
Robert F. Kennedy

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems."
Mahatma Gandhi

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."
Abraham Lincoln

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"There is nothing in life so difficult that it cannot be overcome. This faith can move mountains. It can change people. It can change the world."
Norman Vincent Peale

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

"Life isn't measured by the number of breaths we take but the moments that take our breath away."
Anonymous

"Patience and perseverence have a magical affect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
John Quincy Adams

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and woman to win them."
Ralph Waldo Emerson