No.79 Of Narrow Vision and the Big Picture

Survived the Derry/Londonderry experience yesterday. On the way there from Antrim I counted 5 signs showing the distance to the city. On four of these the "London" part of Londonderry had been painted out. This says a lot to me. During the time I lived I never heard one person suggest they change the name completley but loads of arguments (many heated) that it should be one not the other and for a multitude of reasons. Changing the name completely to say, Foyle City, would have shown that the city had vision and was prepared finally to embrace everyone. Instead the debate is stuck where it's been for centuries and everyone has to suffer the dilema of which name to use each time they have to refer to the place. Best not to.

Shot over to Corrs Corner Hotel this morning for a meeting listening to Radio 1. After 15 minutes of nothing but Chris Moyles talking I switched to Radio 2 playing Waterloo Sunset. Bliss! My problem is that I remember the good old days of Radio 1 when DJs were there to play music. Now we have commercial radio peppered with annoying adverts or Radio 1 with egos and mouths to match.

According to the news on Radio 2 the Earth is due to collide with Mars in 6 millions years time. No point tidying my desk then...

No.78 Of the Derry Welcome

I'm off to the Maiden City today to meet Jane Corr about a family law seminar. I note on the web today there's a report by Sir Roy McNulty chair of the regeneration body for the city who's stated that "the city's ambience failed to make people feel truly welcome". I wonder if the place has changed since I was last there? Hope so.

No.77 Of Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

Bad start to the day. I did just 10 lengths of the pool and got out. Too many people around and too many looking to chat. I can't bear being among such friendly people so early in the morning!

Last night I heard all about the Lady Captain's triumph speaking at the Annual Golf Dinner. I knew she'd bag it. She followed the three golden rules of how to get ready properly for a speech : preparation, preparation, preparation - others on the night it seems had not. She is a Brown Owl so Be Prepared should have come easy for her I guess.

Loads to do today including preparation for the Irish News Awards on 18th June.

No.76 Surprise Surprise!

Wow! What a weekend. Picked up the MGB on Saturday. She leaks. She rattles. She vibrates. But she also purrs too and I love her. Saturday night driving back from friends the British weather threw everything it had at us both for a good two hours but the partnership held out steadfast, resiliently and to the bitter end. Rule Britannia.

Alan’s right. The car sticks to the road like the proverbial to the soldier’s blanket and with the top down you get a sense of belonging to the road that I’ve not experienced in any other convertible.

With the hood up you get a sense of being in a German wartime bunker for the windscreen is long and very narrow and really concentrates your vision. There’s an override button on the gear knob which when flicked is supposed to give you more acceleration. It doesn’t but it delivers a great noise under the bonnet and makes you feel terribly James Bond as you employ it hurtling into the corners.

The nephew’s 18^th birthday was great. He’s actually turned into quite a gentlemen. We were worried for a while when he was young and going through the terrible Twos. In fact I think we were worried for about 10 years come to think of it.

Sunday proved to be a day of surprises for me and for my rels. It started early as I wanted to get on the road as soon as I could and start the journey north. By accident I found the short cut to the motorway I can never find when I try to find it.

After two stops at service stations and an awful lot of wind rain and spray I arrived in Chester unannounced at the house of my aunt and uncle. Aunty ended up in the car navigating me to cousin Jennifers at some speed as time pressures required us to get to her house then to Liverpool inside an hour or so. Aunty Ann should have been a rally driver’s co-pilot. Crickey she was good. “Second left just where that bus is turning right, it’s not too early to indicate and slow down right now.”

Jennifer and her boyfriend were surprised indeed to see me and the former showed me round her new house whist the latter fixed me a cup of tea.

By 6p.m. I was standing at the back of a church in Woolaton, Liverpool expecting to see Father Des a friend I had met whilst working in Romania many years ago. Alas it was my turn to be surprised as I found out that he and other redemptists had headed south on the same motorway on which I had headed north that morning.

No. 75 Of Parties and Presentations

It's my birthday today. I am 44. That's fouty-four. That's half way to 88 by which time I could well be dead. Possibly even long dead. So far I have celebrated by doing a three hour performance review and a two hour round trip to Newry for a one hour business meeting (which featured a painfully boring presentation in place of a birthday cake for me).

Tomorrow is a big day but I am nervous about it for two people. One is a friend. The other is me. Said friend is delivering a speech tomorrow evening written by my goodself. I've assured her she's nothing to worry about and it seems to have worked. She's very cool and checked-in about it. It's me that's stressing for her. I've asked her that if it's a success she pays me the sum of 5p so that I may change my Twitter bio and add "Professional Speech Writer".

I'm also stressing because I have to attend a party tomorrow night in fancy dress. It's a 60s theme and I just can't be bothered with that sort of thing anymore. I'm too old. I'm half way to 88 for heavens sake.

No.74 Of Networking and Network Rail

I spent another day today networking. Sometimes it doesn't really happen for you and you feel you've wasted an awful lot of time setting up meetings and travelling around and getting nowhere. Occasionally it does work and today was one of those days. I met one person after another who came with some great ideas and an awful lot of willingness to work with L-I and provide good quality serivce. May be its the recession that's forced it on everyone.

There were two highlights today both in the form of solicitors from two of the Big Five law firms in Ireland. Liz Ryan of Mason Hayes Curran and Kerry Hiles of Matheson Ormsby Prentice you are superb ambassadors for your firm, great listeners, so down to earth and a delight to work with. Legal-Island salutes you.

I sat on the train returning home today in a carriage in which you would think there was a competition on to find the most annoying ring tone on a mobile. First, just opposite me was an old fashioned kind of ring that might come from a phone in something like "Dial M for Murder". Wow it was loud. Across from me a mobile sounded with a decidedly Indian theme to it with a guy screaming out a chant of some sort. This was particularly annoying because its owner seemed to let it ring for ages as though to let everyone in the carriage know he'd got a ring tone no-one else possessed (did he ever wonder why?)

The award for most annoying ringtone however went to some guy half way down the carriage who must have had his phone switched from "Normal" to "Pneumatic drill noise" by the sounds of things. Why would anyone want to take that around with them? I imagined what I'd do with his phone if I had a pneumatic drill.

No.73 A Short Blog on Shorts

In Dublin today netwoking. First appointment cancelled next one 10.15a.m. . Then trying to arrange another at short notice for lunch before having two more meetings and hoofing it for the train.

Am sporting short sleeves in expectation of the 24 degrees forecast. At this rate I'll be in shorts by the weekend. World you have been warned!