No.108 Of Logs, Blogs & Industrious Poles

Busy day today. It started with 20 lengths of the hopefully log free Antrim pool. (Did I not mention it was closed pretty damn quick for a day last week when a rather unfortunate piece of flotsam went floating by?).

I had three meetings today. All of which were very productive but it didn't leave much time for real work. Arnold the Polish engineer called round to the office today to show me a picture of the bits of the distributor that's needed for the MG. It wasn't the actual picture but a similar one he had found in a Morris Minor manual in a skip in Randalstown. My golly that guy's resourceful.

Three meetings tomorrow followed by a trip to Dublin on Wednesday. I wonder if my washing will be dry when I get home this evening. It's been raining then sunny n hot all day.

No.107 Of Shane's Castle & Disney's World

Yesterday I attended a Vintage Car Rally at Shane's Castle. It was a rather splendid affair with lots of jolly drivers firing about all over the estate giving dogs abuse to some fine old vehicles. I'm not sure what was more interesting the cars or the people who were behind the wheel. At lunch we adjourned for a picnic on the lawn by the summer house and everything was terribly civilised.

I had a go in a 1920s Austin which had three gears, a driver who was positively bonkers and a picnic basket on the back for ballast. As we fired along I wondered if we looked like the living incarnation of the cartoon couple in Disney's 101 Dalmatians that used to race about in a vintage car creating merry havoc.

A charming day. Quite unlike any other I'm likely to experience this year or any other year come to think of it. Jolly D.

No.106 Of Missing Mania & Fast Cars

I'm feeling very disorientated today. I can't find my mobile phone even though I remember using it to check the time late last night. There's people I need to phone today and can't. There's friends I know who will be calling me about plans for this afternoon who wont be able to tell me where to meet up. With most other items I employ a simple policy. Don't let it bother you and forget that you lost it. There'll be no stress and when you're mot looking for it you'll find it. But the loss of this mobile has got to me.

Yesterday I made South Dublin to my door in Antrim in two hours flat (including a stop for petrol and a flapjack). This is a PB and at a time that was just after rush hour. I'm wondering if paperwork will follow in the post to amrk this record journey.

Off to a vintage car rally today to watch a friend abuse a 1936 Ford Roadster.

No.105 Freddie's Back!

Wow! Seven presentations in two days! That's what we're all expected to do on this Dale Carnegie High Impact Presentations course. Better still after each one (for which we have no more than 5 minutes prep time) we're carted off to a room to review the performance with a coach on video! Watching yourself for the first time on video is scary alright horrifying even.

I'm currently staying at Bewleys, Leopardstown. It's a strange hotel. Outside it aspires to be a Hilton or a Radisson with a grand enough entrance way and a long queue of taxis that suggests the hotel is stuffed full of rich and well-to-do people all planning a night out. Inside, it has quite an institute type of feel to it -rather like many of the Polish hotels I stayed in during the 80s or for that matter come to think of it Hotel Riga in Latvia last year. I'm on the seventh floor here which is apparently not the place to be if there's a fire for the fireman's ladders reaches only as far as the sixth floor. I guess if there's a fire tonight I head up onto the roof and wait for a helicopter or enough landing mats below before practising high diving techniques.

I've just returned from a jog. The receptionist had recommended Leopardstown race course as a venue for such an activity. Strangely however I hadn't planned on horses being present at the same time so I cantered back and off round a local business park instead.

No.104 Of Enemies, Dragons & Lame Excuses

I went to see Public Enemies last night. It's ok but who wants to see a film that's just OK? Johnny Depp is good but I was really indifferent as to whether he was shot at the end or not. It's not a patch on Bonnie & Clyde or Pulp Fiction where you steadily grew awkward realising the two you are rooting for are actually murderous villains.

Hay tonight is the return of Dragons Den. Can't wait. Trouble is I have a dinner appointment at 7p.m. in Dublin. Lets hope he's a fan too and at 8.30p.m. he makes some lame excuse that he has to leave for an early start in the morning...

Time to zip off for to do 20 lengths of the Antrim pool.

No.103 Of Old Muckers & The Blues

The long weekend featured an old friend I hadn't seen for 23 years. He arrived Friday night at the airport and we spent three days reminiscing & lamenting like two old men. We did all the standards that most tourists aspire to see. The Giant's Causeway, Free Derry Corner, Malin Head, Innishowen 100 & the view from the top of Slemish. Being the 12th I couldn't let him go home without watching a parade so yesterday we hoofed it over to Ballymena to watch a few Lodges go whistling by.

On Saturday morning we drove past the local bonfire decked in an Irish tricolor with the words "Keep Antrim Tidy" across the front. It was only afterwards that the significance of the first letters of each word dawned on me. We stopped to speak to an ex Legal-Island employee out walking his dog. "Will we be ok attending the bonfire tonight if we decide to go?" I said. "Ah sure everyone is welcome" he replied with a laugh....We never did go.

Saturday night was fun. We went to a Blues Festival and I got talking to one of the guest musicians a man we'll call Frankie. Frankie is in his 50s and it turns out has never done a day's work in his life. The Social are after him & Frankie is under pressure to do "The Bins" or risk losing his benefit entitlement. He was a tall man and of few words but could he play the Blues...?!

No 102 Of Pumped Up Staff & Fiddling with Flat Tyres

Yesterday was interesting and a whole lot of fun - at least early on. Colm O'Kane, the Legal-Island motivational coach did a session with us all. I've never known anyone so pumped up before a gig in my life. I got a mauling from his enthusiam before the session started. "Barry I'm going to do this" and "I can't wait to do this" and "What do you think about this?"

I've never known anyone too play a fiddle in a Legal-Island training session and teach us a thousand words of French (not at the same time I hasten to add - that would be beyond even Colm's capabilities.) The session left us feeling all pumped up ourselves. His enthusiasm is infectious. Colm we salute you. It was brilliant.

Last night I went for a bike ride along the banks of Lough Neagh. It was a lovely evening topped by an amazing sunset across the Lough. Afterwards I attempted a repair of a puncture in the front tyre. I had forgotten just how blooming awkward the process is. And it's not got any easier in 30 years. Why hasn't anyone invented a method of repair that doesn't involve a whole lot of anger management, cursing and bent kitchen forks?

The tyre put up lots of resistance but at some time before midnight I finally cracked it. I quickly tightened the wheel back into the frame and gave it a triumphant "don't mess with me you little b...d" kind of look before hitting the sack.

This morning I went out to empty the rubbish to find a flat tyre grinning at me. Bikes all too easily nowadays end up in rivers. There's a river just behind my house.