I’ve been busy doing some leadership development courses recently, reading books and listening to audio books on management topics. Over the last few weeks I’ve received lots of recommended reading which I’ve put together in a small amazon.co.uk store on the website here. I intend to read each one of these books one by one – I may even add some reviews here. I figured these may also be of use to some of my website visitors, so go for it! Please let me know if you’ve read any of these and whether they are worthwhile.

Due to the fact that I now carry an iPhone4 everywhere, and a DSLR hardly anywhere I find myself taking more and more photos with my phone. There are more and more impressive mobile photography apps appearing every week, so I’m now using flickr less and less over time and using facebook and instagr.am on a much more regular basis. My photos page pulls in my flickr feed. When I get some time I will find a nice way to integrate my instagr.am feed into this page. In the meantime, please check out my photos via web.stagram.com and add me with the handle markstanley.

Somewhat of a shameless plug for my friends in Matrix Conservatories here but one I think may help spread the word about something lots of people can benefit from. Are you one of those people who added a conservatory to your home over the last few years? Did you go with one of those polycarbonate roofs and find them to be really badly insulated – either freezing cold or incredibly hot and rarely comfortable? I rented a house for three years with one of these conservatories and it ended up being used as a store-room due to this. Well the good news is that Matrix have invented and are the sole suppliers for a new conservatory roof conversion system that can easily and affordably convert an existing conservatory to a sunroom in a few short days. They have lots of before and after photos on their website so you can see the transformation so head on over and take a look. They provide a free no-obligation quotation so you have nothing to lose, and potentially stand to gain a whole lot more use from that uncomfortable conservatory you have today.

Are you like me and don’t want politicians wasting your time knocking on your door? Get your ‘No Canvassers’ sign today, print it out and keep them from your door. I’ve personally heard enough from politicians over the last few years through the media and now they want my vote they’ll be knocking on the [...]

I’m currently renovating a house in Dublin. The project has been ongoing for about a year now and one of the hardest parts of it was finding building contractors and suppliers that offered the services I needed, good value for money and were easy to work with and trustworthy. Anybody building a house will understand this and those that set out on similar projects will soon find it out! I’m writing this post to help those working on similar projects in Dublin or anywhere else in Ireland. I wanted to give people embarking on similar projects the benefit of a lot of research I’ve done into builders and other suppliers. The following are the contractors that I’ve come to work with and that I’ve been happy with.

Last weekend I spent some time doing two things I love and two things I haven’t done in a while – hiking and taking photos. My family and I (parents, wife and kids) walked up to Cruagh Peak from Cruagh Woods in the Dublin mountains where I took the following photo on my Canon 400d. [...]