No.94 Of 17, 30,31 & 90

Last night the inaugural Greenmills summer barbecue took place which boasted a great turn out. No 17 provided the spread and it was mighty. No 30 provided the craic and it was 90. No. 31 brought us the guitar music which was sublime. No 8 brought self reflection and No.9 the wit and amusing stories. Here's hoping for many more such evenings....

No.93 Of Ballyrobin & BBQs

Cycled last night to the Ballyrobin on account of the evening being so lovely.
There was nothing on the menu maincourse for veggies apart from the standard sentence "Vegetarian option available on request" so I sulked and had a soup and nothing else. My company then felt guilty and had a starter only and the restaurant lost out by about £20.

Biking back I ended up going via, The Shanogue. It's just about the only pub in NI I know that has anything approaching a beer garden and happens to be my local. It turned out it also had a disco bar at the back which was really popular even by 10p.m.. For a moment I thought I could have been in a shoot for ITV's "Benidorm". Mobiles, fags and tattoos everywhere together with an awful lot of drinks beginning to glow in the night time.

Barbque tonight alongside the river with neighbours. There's actually quite a few attending and I'm looking forward to meeting those from "up the other end".

No.92 Of Sheer Joy & Jawbone

Wow! Took the MG last night to Torr Head and onto to Ballycastle along the coast road. What a drive and what a way to travel. Hood down, engine purring, sun dipping over the horizon great vistas everywhere. Life's great. And let nobody tell you any different ok?

I'm test driving a new Jawbone ear piece which bluetooths to my mobile today. It's an astonishing bit of kit. "Jawbone" is actually very misleading. It's simply an ear piece that has a sensor touching the skin. Because of this it cuts out background noise completely. Doubting this greatly I hopped in the MG and whilst firing round the block called Radek our ITC technician who reported perfect sound. He would have had no idea I was in the car unless I had told him. We wondered as a result of this new invention how many guys might call their girlfriends claiming to be tucked up in bed whilst actually out at a nightclub on the prowl. Now its seems guys have ITC to blame when they go astray..

Why is it that most videos posted on UTube just don't work but then everynow and again something comes along ala Susan Boyle style and just provides nothing but sheer joy? Take a look here and see what I mean.

No.91 Of Monica & Mountains

Emmm that's the employment law seminar finished and the Twitter seminar done too. Both seemed to go well but you can never tell until the feedback comes in or perhaps in the case of the latter until and unless my number of followers spikes this week.

The talk this morning was about Monica Leech who received libel damages yesterday in Dublin of almost €2million. I wish someone would libel me. May be they are online and my google alerts need refining. Emmm I feel another seminar coming on...

Meeting Hannah Carney this afternoon to talk about possibly working on a seminar together. There's no point trying to beat the traffic out of Dublin this afternoon so I expect a late return up North. Hope the great weather holds so I can at least have the hood down as I burn past the Mountains of Mourne.

No.90 Of Grafting and Grafton Street

I had a great day networking today. I met just a few people but I get the sense that big things could come of these meetings if I put enough graft into it.

One of the meetings involved a visit to a top ten law firm in Ireland. My contact there said she had had to negotiate hard to get the croissants which were now considered a luxury item. Sign of the times we both agreed. Another solicitor later that day kept on talking of the "carnege out there" the "absolute bloody carnege". I was beginning to feel like I was in a horror movie.

Grafton Street did feel like if not a horror movie then someting of a nightmare. It was packed full of tourists looking left or right at shops but not straightahead where they're walking and about to walk into you. I was accosted by two young females one at the bottom of the street the other at the top both trying to sell something but unusally not decked out in either a bright "World Concern" bib or a prominent charity ID card. Neither seemed bothered or deterred by my frown as they approached (my scariness is wearing off I thought) and the fact that I had doubled my speed to indicate as politely as I could that I was in a hurry, late for a meeting and not wanting to stop and chat. The girl at the top even offered to walk at speed with me to wherever I was going so I increased my pace even more. At this rate I'll be sprinting up Grafton Street next I thought.

I'm currently on a break and heading back in a moment for another bit of prep for tomorrow's seminar on how to use Twitter for business purposes. I'm really intrigued to know how it's going to go down.

No.89 Of Murray & Mints

Murray at Wimbledon. I really despised his opponent today for no other discernible reason than because he wears his cap round the wrong way. If you're going to go to the bother of getting a cap then have it facing the right way round at least. Otherwsie what's the point? Crickey I'm growing increasingly intolerant nowadays....

I had a great day networking today and yesterday. Six meetings so far whilst here in Dublin and another three tomorrow and two seminars to deliver before heading back North.

I'm staying at the Skylone Hotel which at €48 a night has to be bargain hotel of the city. It's well done out, with really good staff and lovely rooms. Opposite are some fabulous restaurants including one I patronised earlier, the award winning "Three Cheeses". By the end of the meal I was in something of a dilemma whether or not to leave a tip for the waitress who was really good. I promised myself earlier this year after really ropey service at the local Tescos that I would complain whenever served badly but tip when served well at restaurants. However, tonight I experienced both at the same time. Really great service by one waitress and really awful service by her colleague who threw into her repertoire of rudeness pretending not to hear my request for another drink most likely because it just wasn't convenient to deal with me just then. Selective deafness hey? Very handy. I left them both my mints feeling one had been underappreciated and the other grossly over compensated.

Have started reading Fergal Keen's Trip through Rwanda. It promises to be a great if disturbing read.

No.88 Of Awards and Rewards

Pictured in the photos above is Heath Stewart, Assistant Conference Manager at Legal-Island collecting the Innovative Employer Award and Jayne Finlay, Events Director at Legal-Island collecting the Award for Best Place to Work 2009.