This sent to me by my dear friend, Michelle Fagan. Feels particularly right today.

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.

The second son said no, it was covered with green buds and full of promise

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfilment

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up. If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfilment of your fall

With thanks to Bernard Njoroge

I know you’re all going to laugh at me. Some of you may even wag your finger and say ‘I told you so!’

For a few years now, we have been implementing a policy of hot-seating. In theory it’s fabulous: in support of family values, work-life balance, and flexible working hours, we have set up our work place to be very virtual. Most Avos have their own laptops with wireless and 3G functionality. We all are able to work at home, in the Seattle coffee shop, even at the ‘Pied Piper’, watching our children scrambling over playground equipment while we bash out the latest proposal or catch up on our email.

And if we feel like a bit of Avo ‘love’, then we pop into the office, find ourselves an empty desk, and voila! All is sorted.

There are a few Avos who are office-bound. They have their own desks and PCs, and are not really part of the hot-seating community. And then there are a few hot-seaters who seem to have developed very deep relationships with particular desks or spaces within the Avo offices. Heaven forbid you sit in their desks when they’re not around - by complete unwritten law, most people leave their spaces completely alone.

Then we won the lottery contract. We bought and rented another 30 desks and chairs. We squeezed another 20 PCs into the house on the hill. We set up ‘garden offices’ under the trees and in the outdoor restaurant. Space is suddenly at a major premium. It’s becoming a first come, first serve world, and if you show up later than 8.30 - well, we’ve also installed a carpet, so you could probably find a comfortable enough corner on the floor!

So then it happened to me. I got up EARLY in the morning. I chased all my children out of the house and off to school. I broke all speed limits to get to Avo by 7.30, and miracle of miracles: there was the nicest desk at Avo, with the nicest view of the Kensington valley, blissfully unoccupied! Exitedly I set up my laptop. I fetched my cup of coffee and settled down happily to my emails and the nest-building weavers in the tree outside. After a couple of hours, I picked up my handbag and slipped off to my first meeting of the day, leaving my desk very much occupied by my stuff.

2 hours later, on returning to ‘my’ desk of the day, horror of horrors, I find my desk occupied by another body, and all my stuff unceremoniously moved to the back room facing……the wall.

I must confess, I got ‘boss indignance’. I was tempted to belt out the ‘do you know who I AM?’ line (until I remembered the ad). I coached myself to get over myself. Then I spent the rest of the day second-guessing myself about the wisdom of hot seating.

Our Ngikwazi Lotto team is about to move into new premises we rented in Bedfordview, so things will soon return to normal here on the hill. But maybe we need to rethink this hot-seating thing. How do you Avos feel about it? How should we approach seating arrangements when the Ngikwazi team moves on? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Until then, I got here really early again today, and booked my seat by the window. I’ve cancelled all meetings off site, and am not going to drink any coffee so that I won’t have to leave to go to the loo. I can be contacted via cell phone or email, and meetings can be held at my desk.

Oh, and bring your own chair!

‘And Why?’ I hear you asking yourselves. Because I’m about to expose Avo!

That’s right! From now on, I’ll be doing a weekly (or bi-weekly, depending in how interesting the Avo’s are…) blog on what’s up with the Avo Pips. That’s anything and everything I think deserves to be written about! It’s sort of a little update… .

Like the fact that all the Avo’s offspring should be back at school this week. David and Kevin (Grant and Jules’ sons) started school on Wednesday, big moves for both of them as Kevin went to a new class at Paragon, and David went to his first year of big school and he looked so smart in his uniform!. Jules’ oldest son Jono has been accepted into the 2nd Rowing team at Jeppe Boys High even though he is only in Grade 10!. Jenny’s daughter Kerryn went to grade 4 at the ‘big school’ at St. Teresa’s in Rosebank. Dinah’s daughter Kayla has gone into the final standard of primary school, so it’s off to High School next year… . And don’t forget our new receptionist Memory.

So I thought I would warn you all before I dive straight in.

Now the only thing left to do - is be exceptionally interesting so that I have lots to write about!