No.344 Of Nerves in all the Right Places

Great two days of rain forecast. Time to double my efforts to get through a whole lot of work.

It's a big day today on the Island. We have 6 lawyers all sitting their assessment to become mediators. Assuming they pass that's them loose on the General Public and it's for Legal-Island to direct them towards effective dispute resolution. I met them a couple of days' ago and they looked suitably anguished. It was really quite reassuring to see even the most accomplished lawyers suffering from exam nerves.

Still, as someone once said to me when I did exams at school if you're not nervous before an exam you're not showing it the right amount of respect.

No.343 Of Different Ways of Seeing Things

I was talking to some hard nosed employment lawyers today about the value of Mediation as an alternative to litigating in the employment tribunals and courts. They clearly didn't see a value. Not much anyway. They said "Yes we agree to mediation whenever we want to delay a case and get it put back in the list. We turn up to feel their pain then tell them to bog off".

No.342 Of Lessons Learnt When I could have been Watching the Football

I went to see the Royal Opera House production of Salome last night. The main character, Salome, is glamorous indeed but golly does she have issues? She compliments John the Baptist on his body, his hair and his lips. When rebuffed she then tells him she didn't like any of these really and then demands that his head is chopped off! When her wish is granted she then seeks to kiss his lips and wonders where the passion has gone!

A friend of mine was in the production. It's a strange feeling watching an opera recognising someone. Makes you want to prod the person next to you and say something like "Err I know her". I didn't though behaving impeccably throughout.

It was a complicated opera and I didn't understand it fully. What I did take from it though is if a woman asks me for a kiss and her name just happens to be Salome I should just get on with the job...The lessons you learn when you could have been watching the football instead...

No.341 Of Well Made Plans

I lunched at TGI Friday's yesterday at Victoria Square. It was pretty uninspiring. The menu contained just two vegetarian dishes : Brusheta and Veggie Fahitas. Whilst waiting for my dinner companions a table of 6 arrived - a Mum and Dad and four kids in tow. After studying the menu and talking to the waiter they all got up and walked out not looking at all happy. When I asked the waiter what was wrong she said they had gone out in a huff when she told them them they were out of Coke.

Much more inspiring was the company yesterday. At lunchtime I met Gareth Dunlop and Niall McKeown of Ion Online Marketing. I like these guys. The way they play off one another is very Morecombe and Wise at times and its amusing to listen to them talk about the benefits of the Internet and disagree with one another.

Also on form yesterday was Gerry Rooney from Polaris HR. He's currently training Legal-Island's first set of mediators. I met him last night at the Hilton for a sharpner. The plan was for us to meet and chat for 10 minutes and then get an early night. Like all good plans in good company it didn't quite work out like that and I wasn't hitting the sack much before 1a.m.. Seemed like a good idea at the time...

No.340 Of Performance in and Out the Pool

I've begun this week by clocking 30 lengths in the local pool. I planned to do 65 (a mile) but boredom struck before fatigue and I found myself getting out half way through my early morning objective. When I jumped in the showers a man there said "I seen you in the Belfast Telegraph last week". I left there pretty quick too.

It's catch up week after our week in the training centre. And it promises to be a busy week inside of a huge month too. I've 4 Ops meetings today a deal to tie up in London tomorrow with more meetings on Wednesday and Thursday back in NI. We've also got our performance reviews to get through this month - like the lengths of the pool they're a chore but worth the effort.

No.339 Of God & Football

They were all talking about it this morning on the BBC World Service. Should the Uruguayan football team be proud of itself or thoroughly ashamed after one of its strikers handled the ball on the line preventing Ghana (and it would seem Africa too) from scoring and winning the match?


May be the Ghanaians might have realised how the English felt when Maradonna performed his hand of God goal or the Irish when the French kept them out by playing with their legs and their hands in the qualifiers.



Ok so the culprit was sent off yesterday but it was the end of the match so it didn't matter anyway. What else can you do to deter such behaviour at critical points in the match bar threaten amputations? Guess the culprit Suaraez wont be staying on for a holiday in Africa or returning for a while..

No.338 Of The Love of A Good List

We've just had a meeting to decide what as a company we plan to do to encourage personal development. It's not a bad list :

* Voluntary Work - each staff member has agreed to do voluntary work outside of Legal-Island but within working hours;
* Business Mentoring - we've agreed to try and share our expertise with business Start-Ups in the community around us starting with the lady in the local flower shop
* Triathlon - we're looking to take on a local company at a triathlon. Watch out world
* Indian Restaurant - we're going to commandeer the local India restaurant and cook for a local company or even just ourselves;
* River Clean Up - we've agreed to have a day in August cleaning out Six Mile Water river followed by a barbecue.

Well done the team. Not a bad line up though I say so myself.