Colette’s Commercial Tips/Guidance

1. I love Moleskine notebooks, they are so robust, last forever and my particular favourite is the ones with squared paper inside.  Don’t ask me why but that type helps me be more creative.  I filled my last book with stuck in leaves, flowers, poems, short stories and could not bring it with me to Malta.  Do you know, I am missing it still and am determined to get a new one fast.
2. I have long copied my mother in using Oil of Ulay as a moisturiser (pink bottle).  She would hold all my children’s faces to her cheek when looking after them and they would return to me smelling of this cream.  I cannot use the sensitive version or even the sunscreen one as they don’t have that gloriously familiar smell.
3. One of my son’s girlfriends introduced me to Donkey/Ass soap.  Don’t laugh, Cleopatra used it after all, and I have to admit for cleaning the skin this soap beats everything else on the market.  Before you laugh yourself silly, try it!
4. Never ever write letters, complicated emails or have deep detailed conversations last thing at night.  It is a recipe for a sleepless night.  Create a bedtime routine that includes calling yourself to account each night.  This should not be a berating self-damaging process.  It just means thinking about the day and how you handled yourself, what you would improve, what you would do better and what you should have neglected.  It should help kick start a better day ahead, not finish you off in depression.
5. Don’t backbite as a principle.  I remember being in a committee meeting with a very challenging person who invariably got everyone’s back up.  One meeting I had a heated consultation with her and said my piece honestly but knowing me bluntly too.  The next meeting the lady did not show and suddenly the other committee members launched into verbal assaults of this missing member.  I was furious and told them that if I had a problem with anyone they would know about it and I certainly was not willing to attack a person who was not there to defend themselves.  Besides being a waste of time I have long felt that what people do to others they eventually do to you.  So, if they are running someone down be pretty sure when you are not around they are doing a hatchet job on you!
6. Be with good people as much as possible.  My neighbour on Rhodes was an architect, when not feeding the local stray cats with huge bags of food that he bought, he was on the slopes of the island planting trees for the environment.  Apart from that he was an exceptionally kind person who was a joy to our entire apartment block.  He and his wife just improved the neighbourhood somehow and raised the bar on what a real human being should be.
7. Be grateful, it has nothing to do with what you have, own or are.  It is a state of being and as such should be aspired to.  Be grateful for health, if you don’t have that be grateful for loved ones, if you don’t have that be grateful for all those who you once had, if you have never had anyone be grateful that in the days ahead you will have an opportunity to love someone you have yet to meet.