I think it’s time I introduced Edward Frankle!
3 years ago, I was looking for someone to facilitate a workshop for my organisation, and a colleague suggested I try Edward Frankle for the job as he was well regarded in the business and at my workplace. Well I had worked there for 7 years and never heard of this person, which is something to say as I work for a medium sized organisation and literally know everyone.
Anyway, off I went with the recommendation, and he did our workshop, it went well. He was quite friendly, but didn’t really do much beyond time keeping, and, well the post event notes were abysmal. He took forever to send us the invoice and when he finally did, I was astounded by his hourly rate! We paid that out, and that was that. I was probably too busy being a mum, or just didn’t think of myself as a woman anymore, whatever the reason, I never thought of the guy beyond how expensive his notes turned out to be!
And 3 years in, I struggle to not think of him!
It was around my 40th birthday I think when I first took notice of the man. I was walking around telling all my work mates about my impending trip to Hawaii to celebrate my 40th when a tallish man looked up at me with an amused smile and asked who I was going with. I told him it was a trip with my girlfriends, no husband and no kids and got a gorgeous smile in return!
He was very chatty and went on to tell me all about a trip his friend did to Hawaii and all the things I could do.
Then somehow the conversation shifted to plants. Well, by now we know I can talk anyone’s ears off when it comes to plants. So, we had a bit of chat about plants, Edward shared that he would like to grow some vegetables and could use some help.
Over the coming weeks we talked about his veggie patch, and for a highly intelligent man, he was clueless about keeping plants alive, so I would like to think I educated him a bit. He also has the strangest sense of humour and it all revolves around roosters, must be an English thing, because I have yet to understand any one of his jokes!
Months went by, and, Edward would ask me for information and then suggest we talk over coffee! If I had to be honest only one of those coffees had anything to do with work. Mostly, we’d just get to the café and he would regale me with his stories that ranged from his obsession with ties, to his passion for water-polo. We would of course talk about plants, and I really enjoyed listening to him. I was happy to just hang out with someone who did not know me and seemed to like to hang out with me.
I Love Me 