In September we were very happy to welcome top Mexican chef Angeles Ayala to our Upper Street restaurant, where she ran a corn tortilla masterclass for a select group of Chilango friends.

Corn tortillas are the basis of many dishes in Mexican cuisine including tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas and tostadas, and are made by flattening balls of masa (dough made from curing maize in lime water) and cooking them on a hot griddle. Corn tortillas are often made by machine, even in Mexico, but there’s a huge difference in texture between handmade and machine made tortillas, as our keen chefs discovered:

View the full set of photos here.

kpmarek from the excellent London Burrito blog attended the class and enjoyed the experience, writing “Having a look around the kitchen was cool and being taught how to make Tortillas by Angeles Ayala couldn’t have been any more different to my average Friday. Thanks guys!”.

Thanks to everyone who attended the masterclass!

What up guys!

I am stoked. I just got back from my last overseas trip of the year and will be in town for my favourite month of them all.  December is the last month of the year and it goes without saying that I will want to close this year off with the Biggest Bang! Travelling has always been something I love very dearly and as such, I try to make the most out of all my trips. Though all the trips I had this year were awesome, I would say that the trip of the year for me (apart from the Lifestyle Retreat) was my trip to Italy.

My Italian Connection. Good times!

In a few hours, I will be conducting the de-brief for yet another successful Masterclass. To give you a better idea of how it panned out, here is a testimonial from Whoozy, the latest member of our esteemed TDD Alumni here in Singapore. Here is how that awesome weekend panned out :

“All my life I had been the shy and quiet guy, the guy that didn’t try to get sexual with girls, the guy who studied hard, got a stable job, and had not a very vibrant social life. Then I chanced upon Xavier’s website in the Singapore Lair and started reading up on his posts and the TDD forums in the quest for self-improvement. I knew that I had to take a plunge, that the Masterclass would open my eyes to bigger and better things, and I was right.

Upon meeting Xavier on the first day, I realised I have never met someone with such positive energy, such a powerful vibe. He taught me the theory portion of TDD in a simple, concise manner, such that I could not possibly not understand them. Moreover it is easy to talk with him too, it’s impossible not to be amazed or laugh at his stories. Night game, we head to Attica, where he taught me to have fun, to open sets with the right vibe and pacing, to foreshadow properly. I also saw his sexual insinuation at work. When you see a girl walk up to him and ask if he has a condom, you know that he has the right vibe!

Second day was day game first. He taught me that it’s all about macro planning, mutual agreement and foreshadowing. I crashed and burned that day but I do not blame him, I had alot of information to absorb and put alot of pressure on myself. At night, I learnt the swagger, dance floor macro planning, and of course, some of his killer dance moves! So we hit China One, I was crazy tired by then, and had alot of negative energy, but he was still very patient with me and I appreciated that. And he is definitely the undisputed king of the dance floor. He danced with a girl with the moves that he taught me, and within moments the girl was all over him!

This masterclass definitely inspired me and made me realise that I am living life as a mediocre person. There are alot of aspects that I have to improve on, and the Masterclass is the first step in the right direction.It is a process of self-discovery and I understand that it does not take one weekend to improve my inner game. Some of the things I took note of and he pointed out to me are:

-Volume of voice
-Not dominant in daygame interactions, not creating space sometimes
-Pacing of openers
-Lack of fun vibe
-More spontaneous and fun statements

The debrief is this Saturday so I’m sure there’s more stuff Xavier will tell me to work on. Overall I’m glad to have found the TDD community and Xavier. No more mediocre shit, I will aim towards living the life that I want!

Ken Chan a.k.a Whoozy“

As it’s always the case with our clients, it was awesome to have worked with you. You were the best kind of student a coach can ask for : optimistic, enthusiastic and trusts in my ability. All the best and it’s only a matter of time before you become the 24/7 Attractive Man you aim to be!

Triad Of Champions : Triad Thursday

Alright people, for those of you who have enquired for the Triad Of Champions, look out for an e-mail coming to you soon. In the meantime, do check for updates on the Triad Of Champions at :

http://triadofchampions.yourlovehealthwealth.com/

Pillars Of A Natural

• Mindset Conditioning
• Key TDD Tools- Awareness, Verbal, Nonverbal and Conveyance tools.
• Social Strategy, Lifestyle Design and Game planning
• Extensive Nonverbals and Body Language Training

Alright people, that’s all for now. Expect more updates from me this month due to my lighter schedule! For those who will be attending the FREE Triad Thursdays session, I’ll see all of you soon.

Until next time!

Live and Love,

Xavier

xav@troydizondating.com

http://alife2love.com

Ouvi dizer que a Cia. Ópera São Paulo vai trazer o Juan Pons para a temporada 2010 logo no início do ano, em uma série de masterclasses e, quem sabe, concertos. Já estou esperando!!

Un’idea che ho sempre avuto nella testa, sicuramente poco originale – ci avranno scritto sopra migliaia di libri, fatto mille spettacoli – è che tutte le donne di Shakespeare sono legate da un filo. Come quando prendendo un foglio di carta, dopo averlo ripiegato su se stesso si ritagliava la figura di una donnina e poi spiegando il  foglio si otteneva un piccolo festone di carta di donne legate insieme tra loro. Vedendo Steven Berkoff con la sua pancia tonda raccolta da una camicia nera gonfia come quella di un donna al 7 mese, con le sue mani appoggiate sopra e il sorriso multiforme che gli incornicia la faccia… ho pensato che una lezione di teatro dovrebbe essere fatta pressappoco così: un grande maestro ti mostra come e dove cercare questo filo tra i personaggi di shakespeare  e passa da un personaggio all’altro con la delicatezza di un ragno che si dondola sulla parete. Ti guarda in faccia, ti cerca con lo sguardo, ti fa sentire fondamentale, senza di te lui non esisterebbe. E poi a volte la platea di 500 persone scompare e non resta che un castello dalle scale infinite e  Amleto che sale senza arrivare mai chiamando “Mother”!  Qualcosa passa, in maniera sottile. E’ sempre detestabile star qui a scrivere di teatro e  a fare la filosofia di questo mestiere, il sacro fuoco e via discorrendo. Ma le rare volte che ti capita di vedere una cosa, che non è uno spettacolo, ma come dice giustamente il sottotitolo, “un masterclass in evil,”  pensi che sarebbe bello andare tutti i giorni a lezione da uno così.

Cursillo de Verano impartido por Raquel junto con Pau Vázquez en la Academia López Infante en Logroño el 13, 14 y 15 de Julio de 2009

gracias al autor del vídeo sandra63127

gracias al autor del vídeo sandra63127

gracias al autor del vídeo sandra63127

gracias al autor del vídeo sandra63127

Masterclass impartida por Raquel junto con Eva Juan Y Pau Vázquez en Studio Danza Spagat en Valencia el 27 y 28 de Junio de 2009.

Masterclass impartida por Raquel en Calahorra el 20 de Junio de 2009.

gracias al autor del vídeo miraaverfama

gracias al autor del vídeo miraaverfama

gracias al autor del vídeo miraaverfama

Hey Guys,

This will be the last update on my end for a while as I fulfill the final commitments of my travel schedule and take the necessary steps to make this the most amazing December of my life. As I prepare for another Masterclass weekend tomorrow, I thought I’d write a post for everyone out there.

Challenging Assumptions

“Maybe she’s with her boyfriend.”

“Maybe she has better things to do.”

“Maybe she’s busy.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to talk.”

Sound familiar? It most certainly does to me. These were the excuses that I gave myself again and again when I hesitated upon making an approach. I am not going to lie : there is no denying that the Asian culture here is not as used to dealing with interactions from complete strangers and as a young man living within the Singaporean society, all the more these excuses actually seem like valid reasons for me to not approach a woman.

Back when I was still starting to make sense of the dynamics between men and women, I found myself giving lots of excuses. Like one of my early mentors, Val, would tell you, I would go out for 4-5 hours on some days and not do a single approach. I was always waiting for the right moment.  My inexperience was what caused my mind to wander and make me nervous. The truth is, in those seemingly “perfect” moments, there was a very real chance that things were not as perfect as I thought they were. It was very possible that a girl who was alone and bored (2 positive requisites for a successful interaction) was actually having some alone time and does not want to be disturbed.

In my experience thus far, I’ll strongly believe : There is no perfect moment.

So what should I do?

There are many ways in which a person can solve this problem (drink alcohol, getting someone to push them, drug abuse etc.). But I want to share with you my personal and most favorite solution.

Challenge your assumptions. Developing a good understanding of the dynamics between men and women (which is what TDD specializes in) will help immensely. The more knowledge I had, the clearer things became and the more confident I was. With this new found knowledge and confidence, it was a lot easier to approach a woman despite these assumptions I had in my head.

Be comfortable with success and failure. There is no such thing as PERFECTION. If you have been thinking that there will be a magic pill out there that will bring you instant success with women, let me smash that belief for you right now : There isn’t. As rare as they are, I am not ashamed to admit it : there are times where I did not have a successful interaction. These times are usually due to logistics and matters I can not control. What I do is this : Celebrate from the successes, learn the lessons from the failures and move on.

And here’s where it gets better…

The more I actually approached women successfully, the more it cemented the lesson in my head that all these assumptions were just my mind’s way of protecting my ego. I realised that most of the time, all these assumptions turn out to be false. In fact, as I practiced further, I realised that even if my assumptions proved to be right, by the law of X=X, it turned out that my undeniable good-vibe made the woman commit to an interaction with me. With the addition of my high-level awareness, I was more than capable of continuing the interaction very smoothly because I knew the dynamics of a good Macro Plan thus enabling me to make spontaneous decisions and enable me to give the women what they wanted : DIRECTION.

I adopt this same belief to all aspects of my life. Challenging assumptions also helps your life become less complicated. Most of the time, we already know whether or not we want to escalate things with women or with a task at hand. It is all these assumptions that cause unnecessary worry and hold us back. Knowing that there is not perfect moment and that failure and success are all very realistic possibilities no matter what, I choose to act. It is better to take a chance and gain a learning lesson from it than to not take one at all and regret.

You know what you want. Now push aside all these assumptions and just take action to make it yours!

Live and Love,

Xavier

xav@troydizondating.com

http://alife2love.com

Estão abertas as inscrições para o novo Workshop da ABTM – Workshop de Teatro Para Cantores Líricos. Segue abaixo o flyer de divulgação com informações gerais sobre o workshop.

Para conferir o conteúdo na íntegra, é só acessar o site www.abtm.art.br.

I had the pleasure of chairing an event in Milton Keynes with Public Sector Forums today. Presentations will be on the PSF site from 30 November.

!!!

My Slides are here;

  Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Twitter posts (Tweets) from the day and the parallel infosecurity sessions are aggregated here.

The day finished with a good discussion on the future of Nomad. I was very pleased to hear that delegates see a role for Nomad going forward and grateful for the kind words of support and thanks for our efforts in saving the community (phoenix from the ashes)!

We talked about plans to build a new web2.0 platform to support the Nomad community and enable groups of common interest to collaborate and share learning.

It was suggested that Nomad should also;

• Have a role in procurement to leverage value for money (including by joining up organisations developing similar solutions)
• Consider a Nomad offer to the private sector
• Act as a strong voice for the public sector including on Gov Connects
• Evidence what didn’t work (‘warts and all’ approach)
• Represent all of the public sector
• Broaden scope to include all technology enabled change (transformation),  including use of social media, development of smartphone ‘apps’ and transactional services
• Explore a low cost subscription model (tiered)
• Develop a project database to encourage and facilitate collaboration

It’s not too late to let us know your thoughts. Complete the mobile working survey, including specific questions on Nomad. Or contact us directly at mail@nomadpublicsector.com

Regionaal arbeidsmarktbeleid, een masterclass.

De aanpak van de crisis door overheid, onderwijs en ondernemers krijgt in belangrijke mate vorm via regionale samenwerking. Dit vanuit het idee dat werkgelegenheid en werkloosheid niet stopt bij gemeentegrenzen. In dat kader organiseerde de gemeente Breda in samenwerking met de regio West-Brabant een masterclass over regionaal arbeidsmarktbeleid. Geluisterd naar inspirerende verhalen van Willem Vermeend, oud-minister multitaskende ondernemer, Marja Heerkens, wethouder Sociale Zaken in Breda en Marcel Fränzel, burgemeester van Woensdrecht.

Zaken als kies een heldere focus als regio waarin je wil excelleren. Vermeend vond dat dat digitale economie en duurzaamheid zou moeten zijn. Onder het motto ga niet doen wat anderen al kunnen en veel beter doen, maar richt je op die zaken die nog niet uitontwikkeld zijn. Belangrijk gegeven is dat de Nederlandse jeugd over uitstekende computerskills beschikt die met name de digitale economie tot een succes kunnen maken. Het verhaal van Heerkens ging vooral in op het gegeven dat er in de regio een tekort ontstaat aan goed opgeleide werknemers. Niet nu op de korte termijn, maar over 4 of 8 jaar zeker. Investeren in onderwijs, en nieuwe onderwijsvormen is een belangrijk speerpunt. In het verhaal van Fränzel kwam naar voren dat die focus in Woensdrecht ligt bij Maintenance, Repair en Overhaul in de vliegtuigsector. Niet zo gek als je bedenkt dat vliegveld Woensdrecht een belangrijke vliegbasis is waar nieuwe technologie wordt toegepast. Kortom inspirerende verhalen met mooie vergezichten.

Wat is mij nu het meeste bij gebleven. Als eerste de constatering dat een periode van 4 jaar, de gebruikelijke cyclus waarin politieke bestuurders denken te kort is voor het structureel verbeteren van de regionale arbeidsmarkt. Een termijn van 8 jaar is wel het minimum. Dat blijkt ook uit het feit dat het ROC een opleiding ontwikkelt die over 4 jaar de eerste studenten aflevert die in het vliegtuigonderhoud kunnen werken. Dus geen hijgerigheid, maar een lange adem. Het tweede wat is opgevallen is dat concrete acties nu ook al moeten en kunnen. Als je kiest voor duurzaamheid, waarom niet bouwbesluit aanpassen waarin je opneemt dat alle nieuwe gebouwen op zijn minst energieneutraal zijn en liever nog energie moet opleveren. Het derde punt is, dat wil je succesvol zijn in regionaal verband, er begrip voor elkaars belangen moet zijn. Door te koersen op waar de belangen elkaar aanvullen en versterken in plaats van het verdedigen van het eigenbelang is er daadwerkelijk iets te realiseren dat meer is dan de som der delen. Tot slot – en dat is wat mij betreft cruciaal – kan een succesvolle aanpak niet zonder medewerking en inzet van de professionals op de scholen, de zorginstellingen, de uitkeringsorganisaties en bedrijven. Door rechtstreeks contact met elkaar te zoeken en elkaar te bevragen op belangen en ambities wordt samenwerking meer dan een doel op zich, maar een instrument bij het realiseren van strategische keuzes.

Immers de strategische vraagstukken en keuzes hebben altijd gevolgen voor de werkpraktijk. De strategische keuzes kunnen naar mijn stellige overtuiging ook alleen maar gemaakt worden met het oog op de gevolgen in de dag dagelijkse praktijk van medewerkers en klanten.