Hello, I’m NCS.
This is where I think out loud, mostly from the little yellow beach hut I built on Lancing beach. Notes on reading, work, life and lighthouses, written when something is worth writing down. More about me.
Latest from the collection
Lighthouse stamps and postcards, and the stories behind them. See all the postcards and stamps.
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Feel, Felt, Found
Today, I had the opportunity to talk with a colleague. The discussion was how to handle the situation when a customer is perhaps reacting to some unwelcome news. I shared with him a ‘tried and tested’ technique. Situation: A customer has heard a piece of disappointing news, how to manage this is adopt the method… Read more
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Sorry, I could not find time!
I hear this stated on occasion, many subscribe to the fallacy of time as this elusive currency we all struggle with, what we actually mean is; “I did not consider this task important enough over my other things.” It ranked low on their list and they don’t like saying it as they have not truly… Read more
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Seen it all before
I think we can all agree age is a very high price to pay for maturity, but what maturity teaches you is the feeling so often that you have seen that before, heard that debate before, experienced that moment before. Being married to a historian just cements this assertion. My wife reminds me that we… Read more
action, advice, aphorism, Beach, beaches, blog, Blue mind, books, carpe diem, choices, endeavour, failure, fate, first lines, hard work, hardwork, heat, ideas, just do it, just keep swimming, knowledge, lancing, learning, lessons, life, loss, narrative, newspapers, people, philosophy, quotes, Reading, Sea, seas, seaside, sharing, ships, Shoerham-by-sea, Story, storytelling, sussex, swimming, water, waves, wisdom, Writing -
Little disappointments
When I was a teenager studying english literature at College I was fascinated by the short stories of Katherine Mansfield, I loved her writing and a collection of short stories including ‘The dill pickle’ and ‘Miss brill’ those tales will be forever a joy to me. I loved the idea that rather than the big… Read more
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Hop reading
I was sitting in Costa this morning “Hop reading”. Its basically where I hop from one subject to the next in an ADHD, Jazz like riff of reading one article or link or Video and then after the hour I have been all over the place, ending up reading a completely different topic to the… Read more
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Fish and chips by the sea while reading books about the sea
Some weekends the pleasure of being alive is just within reach and the warmness of the moment is understandable also. It’s a gift to be alive. And each moment, each breathe we take is literally the chance of a lifetime. Read more
Beach, beaches, blog, Blue mind, books, carpe diem, experiences, heat, ideas, just do it, just keep swimming, lancing, lessons, life, mentoring, newspapers, philosophy, quotes, Reading, Sea, seas, seaside, ships, Shoerham-by-sea, Shoreham-by-sea, sussex, swimming, water, waves, wisdom, wordpress, Writing -
No crabby pants allowed only happy clams
As I write this post the bank holiday weekend still has half of Monday left but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it has been one of my best long weekends for ages. I am at peace with ‘the me’ down at the beach. Whether it be short walks on the… Read more
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Surprising Sunday
Sunday surprised me with some lovely blue skies, light winds and no rain. I suppose as it is a bank holiday that explains so many people walking up and down the beach paths. I hope you do forgive me for taking yet another photo of my Hut and path outside, I could take a photo… Read more
