No72 Of Balloons in Broughshane

Ok so I may be a miserable git (See No.71 below) but I'm also a sometime adventurer and dangerous sportsman. Not many can boast hotair ballooning Saturday night followed by a surfing trip the day after.

We took off last night from the pilot's front garden narrowly missing his telegraph pole and headed - well anyway the wind was going to take us I suppose. The timing of the take off was n't great. By that I mean it was 8p.m which meant I didn't get to find out whether my Sue had triumphed on stage until much later. After clearing a hill by just a few inches (apparently it's a game balloon pilots play seeing how much of nature they can grab and stick in the basket when airbourne) we headed over a good number of wind turbines and got ready to land near the Battery pub just shy of Broughshane. As we floated over a farm house a family rushed out to wave and we shouted down "Did Susan Boyle win?" but they seemed unable to answer between them. Strange folk those round Broughshane!

No.71 Of trends & old friends

I've decided I'm a miserable git. I attended a seminar yesterday which was very touchy-feely and interactive. We had to introduce ourselves to the person sat next to you. We had to play a game of word association going round the room. We had to walk around the room pretending to be a person of low status then a person of high status. The grand finale was getting up and being presented with a certificate to great applause whilst shouting out "I'm a failure". 5p.m and the end of the seminar couldn't come quickly enough. I was worried that feigned enjoyment was turning into mild irritation & possibly anger.

I was never into "trendy training" and now have to accept I never will be. What I learnt yesterday could have be put on three lines of a power point slide - or am I missing something?

The Internet tis a great thing. This morning I had an email from Katz the first contact from her in a good year or more. Katz ran into Legal-Island many years ago when Slovakia had just joined the EU. Her and her sister, Mo, did some great work for us. Like most migrant workers at that time we employed they were far too qualified to stuff envelopes for us but they were grateful for the work and we their labour. Katz had a great business head on her and it was always a regret of mine that we didn't do a bit of Biz together. Legal-Island/Katz & Co has quite a nice Slavonic ring to it say I.

No.70 Of Beta Blockers and Missing Priests

So, it seems Legal-Island has been shortlisted for the Irish News Workplace Awards. I fear that we should not rejoice too hard at this stage for my guess is that everyone who made the deadline and got under the no-more-than four pages limit has been short listed.

Attending awards evenings when you're up for something is just the worse thing in the world - not looking forward to it at all. Perhaps I should pop a beta blocker on the night and Google "possible side effects of beta blockers when taken together with red wine" well in advance of the evening.

Had an interesting meeting with my performance coach this morning. He's got me thinking.

It's a beautiful evening with sunny days ahead forecast too. Am minded to go surfing on Sunday - waves permitting. I'm determined to stand up on the damn thing by the end of the summer - prefereably when the board is on a wave and not a sandbank either.

Planning to surprise a friend of mine with a visit weekend after next. He's a priest living in Liverpool but whether I can find him depends on just how good Google is nowadays.

I feel a dependency on Google developing in my life. How did we ever survive without it?

No.69 Of Spending Money

Why do I always seem to go into the local newsagent when I'm in a hurry and get stuck in the queue behind the critta that's disputing something to do with his £1 scratch card? The latest this morning was eventually given £5 which he promptly converted into five more scratch cards.

Tried to help a friend last night with ideas for a presentation she has to do. Don't think I was much help. The creative juices just weren't flowing. Should have had a slurp of Shiraz beforehand perhaps or even popped a Ginko Biloba.

Currently working on an excuse to myself not to go swimming. Why am I so good at getting to results when I set myself tasks like this? Baha...

Must phone Peter McBride and find out how he got on in Malawi spending my money.

No.68 Start of the Week lets Rock N Roll

Oh No! I accepted an invitation a while ago to a party. Only yesterday I was told that it's fancy dress. I hate fancy dress parties! 60s and rock n roll for heaven's sake!

I watched Britain's Got Talent last night. Why do the judges still buzz people when they have already considered them good enough for the semi-finals? I suppose I will have to go with Susan Boyle same as everyone else now my favourite is out. There's just not the market for belly dancers from Latvia.

Loads on this week but trying to get a couple of days in the diary to do some networking in Dublin.

No.67 A Dose of Paxman & Shiraz

I had the stangest of dreams last night. Dream 1 and I visited a law enforcement centre and was asked to help demonstrate their latest restraint units to passing school children touring the building. They promptly asked me to step inside a steel cage locked me in and left me there!

Dream 2 and I was ascending the stairs of a building with Jeremy Paxman to visit two old ladies who were friends of his. Both were Austrian and made antique chairs but I was given a present which was something like a wooden monkey puzzle.

Emmm may be the combination of a Vitamin A pill plus a glass of red before sleep was not such a good idea....

At work today covering phones realising only this morning that the ROI is not on holiday today unlike the UK.

No.66 Of Bitly, The Beeb & Bank Holiday Weekends

It's a Bank Holiday weekend and saddo here is at work hoping for rain and not sunshine. If the latter makes an appearance I may be tempted out to play.

First task of the day is to work out why Bit.ly is telling me there were 400+ clicks to a particularly page on our web site when google analytics says there was only 40. Someone is telling fibs.

I woke up this morning listening to the BBC World Service and learnt that scallop shells harvested off the coast of East Anglia are sent to China to be bleached in factories in which few health & safety regulations apply and returned to the UK to serve as dishes for prawn cocktails. There's something about a radio porgramme that gives you information you just can't pick up anywhere else.

Planning to complete National Training Awards today, do an awful lot of work on Twitter whilst chewing an awful lot of pumkin seeds.