Staying Well Connected

23 year ago Grainne Crawford came into my life. First as a client, then as my receptionist, promoted to Well Connected's Practice Manager and then my business partner and some would say "partner in crime"!

In the begining.

We had many an adventure, enjoyed journeys across the world, even survived moments of crazy lifestyle choices and car crashes, both literally and metaphorically. Living to tell the tale...

We held presentations to golfers, business women, yoga courses in Italy, dream weekends in Scotland and we excelled at "networking" both here in the UK and abroad.

However let me start at the begining ... and as our business strap line said. Life is a journey - enjoy!

Our friendship started with Grainne experiencing physiotherapy and becoming aware of the various therapies that I could offer my clients and she was very much a part of my first toe in the water launch into the business world, one of employing staff and building an expanding business.

However combining being business partners and friends can be tricky, as Grainne and I found out, when many a time we were at "cross" purposes with me wanting to paint the bigger picture and Grainne deciding to consolidate on what we already had. 

Yin and yang as the Chinese philosophers would say. The best of both worlds is more what Grainne and I would agree to. 

Agreeing to compromise is definitely the name of the game in just about any walk of life and we were learning to walk a business tight-rope together, neither of us having any experience before.

 So Grainne is now about to celebrate her 60th birthday in May and decided to start her year celebrating with a couple of friends... as mentioned before "Life's a journey - enjoy". So Lucy and I got to join Grainne on her inaugural birthday bash... 

There are so many people wanting to share in Grainne's celebrating that it was a privilege to share a posh hotel d/b and b party time and it reminded me of a few previous moments that we have shared over the years as we chose to share "amicizia". The Italian word for friendship...

Good friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 There was a memorable trip to Toronto, when we were part of a Scottish contingent promoting Scotland as a golfing destination and ourselves, Well Connected Golf, as an essential part of the golfing experience!

... and how could I ever forget sharing a trip to Japan to visit Grainne's son. Memorable doesn't even begin to cover it!

Karaoke in Japan!

We journeyed together, through our various Well Connected business ventures culminating in a business we coined as  "Well Connected Life" and even received the accolade of Investors in People award which I believe exactly described what we did... invest in people!

receiving our award

I have been retired from the business "walk" of life for over 10 years and Grainne moved over to the east and a complete change of employment within Edinburgh public services. However we have stayed in touch, regularly phoning each other and visiting each other's homes. 

We don't see the distance between east and west as a barrier, and recognise that "staying well connected" is what we all need to do at this time...

Buon compleanno Grainne!

p.s. if you want to hear more about our adventures, drop me a line/email me and I will share those that I can....