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Stories My Nana Tells are for the young and the young at heart.

Stories My Nana Tells is an online subscriber service, which will dispatch a new story every second week. Each story will come directly to you as the subscriber or can be sent at the same time to your nominated child or grandchild – It will be your choice – you can subscribe for both of you, if you wish. You can subscribe here and it is an “opt-in” subscription, so you will be asked to confirm your subscription

We will delivering the first five stories before we ask you to become a paid subscriber – and then it will be about $US1.93 per fortnight – paid quarterly – so $US12.50 once every three months (including Australian taxes).

Why not give it a try for free, today?

If you missed our launch the party, don’t miss spending a few minutes with us, viewing the launch of Stories My Nana Tells. We gave away toy helicopters and four real helicopter flights on the night. It was fun! Our Launch Party

There is a great press release too – on Andrew Spriegel’s blog, on LinkedIn! Social Media Works!

Stories My Nana Tells has fabulous stories for 7yo to 12old children, so come and try us out. You can subscribe here and you will have plenty of stories to enjoy in the weeks and months ahead.

Stories My Nana Tells

Funky Nana!

Red Helicopter

Why a red helicopter?  Because this Nana has lots of stories to tell and life is fast!  So, jump aboard and come fly with us into a new and exciting world of Stories That My Nana Tells.

Bungee jumping in New Zealand; Helicopter flights across icy mountains and rocky deserts; White water rafting in Bali and Swimming with dolphins in Hawaii -Nanas do it all, these days.In the disguise of “The Idler”, Lesley Dewar writes stories to be enjoyed as both entertainment and with an eye to be educational, too. Travel, health, family, pets and quirky ideas make Stories My Nana Tells a great gig! 

Our stories range from sublime to the ridiculous; from tragedy to the best of belly laughs and you will be tantalised and delighted by them. Tell us about your Nana, too. You are welcome to leave your comments. Register now for your first Stories My Nana Tells. 

Stories My Nana Tells are for the young and the young at heart.

 Stories My Nana Tells is an online subscriber service, which will dispatch a new story every second week. Each story will come directly to you as the subscriber or can be sent at the same time to your nominated child or grandchild – It will be your choice – you can subscribe for both of you, if you wish. You can subscribe here  so you can see the excellent quality of the stories and how they will look when they are delivered to your child or grandchild.  If you want to get the stories and send them on, just subscribe here with your own name and email address. If you want them to be sent direct to your child or grandchild, you will have to enter their name and address – but we really prefer that you subscribe first, so you know what they will receive. It is an “opt-in” subscription, so every one who gets added to the list has to confirm their subscription – anyway.

A Good Read

Ringwraith and his black horse

With a thudding heart, I watched the black rider come down the road and shrank even closer to the side of the road, so vulnerable in the fading light with just a few bushes to hide us from the ominous threat. Corrupted by the power of his own Ring, the Ringwraith’s body had faded until it was invisible to any mortal eyes.

Ringwraith

Yet, beneath his black hood and robes, his eyes reflected the hellish red rays of the setting sun, its light glintedon his sword and our terror deepened when his unholy face swung away from the light towards us and we feared that his poisonous Black Breath might strike us where we lay. Alongside me, Frodo had his eyes fixed on horse and rider – for we had barely………..

This story is now part of our online delivery from Stories My Nana Tells
You can subscribe here and you will have plenty of stories to enjoy in the weeks and months ahead.

Wondering about Twitter

Already comfortable with Twitter? Want to know how to use the best Twitter Applications for more speed, efficiency and better time management? Twitter Tutorials are essential as the next step.

 

Are Twitter and LinkedIn Useful For Fundraising

Discussion on LinkedIn

Join the discussion or comment here.

Spreading the ripples on the pond

Similar to “The Butterfly Effect” – we are now using “The Ripple Effect” to spread the word about Stories My Nana Tells and investigating the most effective form of social media for creating interest in a new online business.

It is going to be a very interesting ninety days and we will be happily updating both here and on our new Squidoo page as Creating A Ripple follows and reports on the ripples we make

Social Media Works!

Check out this SlideShare Presentation on LinkedIn : Stories My Nana Tells – Launch Night

What A Party! What A Blast!

If you missed the party, don’t miss spending a few minutes with us, viewing the launch of Stories My Nana Tells. We gave away toy helicopters and four real helicopter flights on the night. It was fun!

There is a great press release too – on Andrew Spriegel’s blog, on LinkedIn!

Stories My Nana Tells has fabulous stories for 7yo to 12yo children, so come and try us out.

Social media – don’t you just love it! Just Love Social Media Cheers Lesley

Stories My Nana Tells

Alpha Inventions RSS

I have been trying in vain to add an RSS feed from Alpha Inventions to the blog – but with no success. I would be very happy to hear from anyone who has been able to add an Alpha Inventions RSS feed to the WordPress blog – because Alpha Inventions is a great traffic builder.

Maybe Feedburner is the answer?

Word Of Mouth Works Best

One of my friends on LinkedIn – Andrew Spriegel – has given me a great press release on his blog A Born Entrepreneur and “Retired” Financial Planner Launches Yet Another Business announcing both my retirement and the launch of Stories My Nana Tells. Stories My Nana Tells

When a new business is being launched, nothing – but nothing – is more vauable than the support and promotion of friends. Andrew is also a great supporter of Kiva.org and you may already know that No Tall Poppies has a group there, doing micro loans.

Please take the time to read Andrew’s blog and visit him on LinkedIn Andrew Spriegel

Of course, there is an additional spin off from this: the three other businesses mentioned in the press release ( Guildford Landing Function Centre; Sarre Photography and Bob Litchfield (one of Australia’s most highly awarded commercial photographers) are now all enjoying much wider promotion around the world. Word of mouth referrals are priceless!

What A Party! What A Blast!

If there is one thing the financial planning industry knows how to do well, it is how to party!  And what a party we had!  And no photos!

97 Clients and 29 Friends let Lesley Dewar introduce Amanda Doyle & Bruce Ponting as the new financial planners for her practice and then joined in the launch of Lesley’s new online venture Stories My Nana Tells

Stories My Nana Tells Banner

As Lesley tells it:

“Two things I forgot about retirees: they always turn up on time (by 4:30 about 70 were already there), and they stay!”

Andrew Wright (PIS) was very busy helping to put out more tables and chairs as the clients streamed through the door, being met by Amanda and Lesley and taking a lucky number for a door prize.

One of the photos that Gary Sarre took of me

The Guildford Landing Function Centre was bright and cheerful, the tables set with white linen and decorated with red & green balloons; a big banner for the new business Stories My Nana Tells; Professional Investment Services (PIS) signs; the (only one in existence) Navigator ladies picture out the front and one of Lesley herself from her “glamour” shots by Gary Sarre up front and centre as you walked in the door. (Some of the guys did ask for an autographed copy!)  The one we have here is NOT the one which called for autographs.

Her favourite photo of Robbie (Growly Granddad) was off to one side, where he would have been, as always, making sure everything went to plan.  But he was there, in spirit, as always.

Bluey - climbing up onto the new roof of Warren & Lisa's house

Her Dad, Bluey Nancarrow was fantastic, never mind for being 91 years old and a full knee reconstruction at age 90 – before he was climbing up onto the roof!  Bluey’s Knee   He was quickly pressed into service, handing out “loot bombs” (chocolate; hand cream and bath salts) to all the ladies and PIS carry bags to everyone.  They contained the latest edition of The Swan Magazine which featured a story about Lesley’s retirement as a Financial Planner; a current PIS Financial Services Guide and Bruce and Amanda’s Advisor Profiles. Along with a business card for the new venture, there was also a block of 70% dark chocolate (antioxidants are important at our age) or a model helicopter to celebrate the launch Lesley’s new business. (There was some swapping going on – too, over the chocolate and helicopters!)

Lesley had set up a continuous slide show, the first part a reminder of a PIS Seminar done at the Hyatt a few years ago – and, of course, that was to introduce Amanda to her clients as the new bus driver on their financial planning journey – followed up with a segment to introduce  Stories My Nana Tells. 

The Red Helicopter on a Glacier in New Zealand

It featured photos of Lesley in and out of helicopters around the world, including Hawaii and New Zealand as well as being a tribute to her family and friends, including a photo of one ‘adopted’ grandson, Ian.  It did include a couple of photos of her, hard at work at PIS and AFA conferences, as well!

There was live entertainment, with a great singer called Miss Poppy – who sang everything from rock and roll, to blues, jazz and pops.  She kept everything bopping along and only handed over the microphone to Lesley for the drawing of the door prizes and a very short thank you at the end of the evening. 

Four couples won helicopter rides over Perth as door prizes, and there were other gifts for “grey nomads” including four autographed books of photography by Bob Litchfield

One of the helicopter rides was won by Lesley’s very first client, from Perth Building Society days, Mike Read and it was great to watch old friends reunite through the magic of “financial planning nesting” with retirees and staff from various employer groups catching up on current lives and old times. 

One client suggested Lesley’s bad neck came from peering into all those “nests” over the years – keeping the baby birds safe, which she rather liked.  The other noticeable thing was that she wore flat shoes – and now everyone knows how short Lesley really is!  Her answer was that if she had worn flat shoes and had to crane her head up to look at all of those tall men who were her clients, she would probably have had to retire five years earlier.  One client arrived, a little perturbed at the size of the crowd and said “but I won’t know anyone here” and to her surprise, was quickly reunited with some old workmates she had not seen for many years. 

Amanda and Bruce

Everyone said they had a great time, the clients absolutely loved Amanda and several of them asked Lesley if Amanda was actually her “Plan A” – because they did not want to have to go to a “Plan B”.     Fortunately, she could assure them that she was her “Plan A” – “A” for Amanda. Her “Plan B” is Bruce Ponting, in any event, so they have nothing to worry about!

Lesley was happy to pay tribute to her Dad and Warren and Lisa at the end of the night, too, because family is everything.  With a couple of weeks in which to actually close down the office and move out, it was a fitting way to end a long and happy twenty five year career as a financial planner. 

Retirement Lunch at Jo-Jo's Restaurant

Lesley is looking forward to catching up with friends for a coffee and a chat – and to watching a new circle of friends and clients grow through the new venture Stories My Nana Tells.  No photos?  “We were so busy on the night, we forgot!” Lesley said.  But there is one photo, from the official PIS retirement lunch at Jo-Jo’s on the Jetty – just to prove that it did really happen!

PS: The next time you see a helicopter overhead, you might just wonder if Lesley is aboard!

Risings

The pond is under shade cloth, but the morning sun strikes directly on the water, covered with duckweed and surrounded by ferns. Since last year, the plants have made a veritable jungle around the pond. The soil is rich with earthworms, slugs and beetles; we use no herbicides. Tall tree ferns shade fishbone and maidenhair alike; a chicken and hen fern has become quite spectacular in size. Begonias and native violets added their subtle blooms amid the green foliage and in the early evening, nothing will match the sweet, warm perfume of petunias freshly watered. Elephant ears compete with philodendron to be the biggest by the pond; asparagus fern winds its soft tendrils about the butterfly plant.

It is quite an experience to watch the frogs emerge, as the early morning sun clears the tree tops and lights up the pond. Eight, ten or even fifteen frogs have already positioned themselves on the veranda rafters in