No.191 Of Dancing Dramas

Oh bum! I've lost my pool routine. I climbed out my pit this morning at 6.30a.m. to get to the pool for 7.15a.m. only to be informed that it is closed until next year for essential maintenance. Does this mean I have an extra hour in bed each day or that I should replace 40 lengths in the morning with a steady jog to work or something?

I watched the docudrama last night on Margot Fonteyne and Rudolf Nureyev followed by a documentary which showed them performing together. Their dancing together was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It was one of those moments when you actually regret not being much older so that you might have had a chance to have been there to experience it in person. A bit like the last Beatles concert at Candlestick Park, San Francisco. Margot danced until she was in her 60s and died in 1991 in poverty looking after her dirty rat of a husband, Tito. That bit the docudrama never seemed to explain. But then life is full of unexplained complexities I suppose.

No.190 of Sir Reg

Well it was a mad week last week but a great one. We had the last of our Annual Reviews - this time at the Ramada and it was a rip roaring success.

We also skipped along to Hillsborough Castle to pick up our Investors in People award. Yours truly should pick up an award himself for best faux pas of the year. I thanked the Minister Sir Reg personally for the support he has given Legal-Island and for speaking at one of our events. I wanted him to know how much his support meant to us. It was only when back in the office that staff reminded me that he's never actually spoken for us and that he pulled out of an Annual Review because he was unwell. Poor guy probably thought I was a sarcastic b.......d.

Loads on this week including inhouse trianing on Mindmapping - should be interesting.

No.189 Sitting in the Dock of a Bay

It's been a manic day today. It started at 5a.m. with breakfast and a shower then into work for 6a.m. I spent an hour on the laptop prepping a breakfast seminar duly delivered at 8.40a.m. at the Ramada, Belfast. I then raced down the motorway for a meeting at 11.30,a.m. a second at 12.15p.m. a third at 2p.m., a fourth at 3p.m. a fifth at 4.30p.m. with the sixth and last due for 7p.m. in half an hour's time

As I bang this into the blog I'm sitting in the Burlington with my laptop docked into the corner of the Foyer people watching and tonight the "game" is plentiful. There's air stewardesses from Eithad airlines coming in from a flight with most likely their relief crew just checking out. They look rather fine in their blue grey uniform, but rather silly in their head scarves that drape down one side of their face only which looks mildly irritating to me. Also mildly irritating is the airline captain who leads the stewardesses around. They follow dutifully like ducklings behind daddy mallard. Unfortunately said captain is the spitting image of Leslie Neilson who once played the hapless captain in Airplane. I wonder if his ducklings realise this and are too polite to tell him. He takes himself very seriously.

Taking themselves seriously too are the bouncers mulling about trying hard without much success to melt unnoticed into the scenery. Others (not bouncers) dart about in fine dress on their way to what appears to be a rather well-to-do ball in the main suite of the hotel later this evening. There's an air of confidence about these people which they seem to have gained from this dressing up experience the same sort of confidence that I saw today at the Four Courts as I watched barristers parade up and down like peacocks in their wigs and gowns. Strange what costume or fine dress does to the psyche innit?

No.188 Of Sir Reg & Awards

So there we have it. Legal-Island is now officially recognised as a holder of the Investors in People award. Said award was presented to us by Sir Reg Empey himself at a ceremony at Hillsborough Castle. This is a castle worth visiting if only for its toilets for they are quite special. Of course they're not signed toilets but cloakrooms at the castle.

Sat there waiting to be called for the photo I wondered just how many speeches that poor man has to do every week and whether he really wanted to be there. I say poor man but we shouldn't forget he volunteered for public service and the eminent post he now holds.

So where too now for the company and its people management? There are three more levels it seems bronze, silver and gold. I once got a bronze swimming award for jumping in a pool in my pyjamas and retrieving a brick from the bottom of the pool. I'm guessing Sir Reg's bronze award involves something a bit different.

No.187 London? What's Wrong with Antrim?

Wow! A weekend away in London. Friday night the English National Opera House and Bluebeard. Saturday night Royal Opera House and Sleeping Beauty. Throw in the rugby on a huge screen jaunts round Covent Garden Tafalgar Square and Camden Market and I'm left feeling do weekends come any better than this? Answers on the modern day equivalent of a postcard please...

Back to porridge this morning with one big event tomorrow and an even bigger one Thursday. Roll on Christmas or at least 7 days of doing not very much.

No.186 Oh No I'm a Celebrity

Oh No! I'm a Celebrity is back on and Oh No I've started watching it! I hate myself for this more than I hate the British obsession with celebrity. So why do I do it? Picture someone headbutting a wall if you will...

I'm finishing at 12noon today in advance of a long weekend in London. This means I have loads to do today and have to start deciding what's only urgent what's urgent/important and what can be left until Monday. Next week will be huge. Two Annual Reviews in one week and big meetings in Dublin Thursday and Friday.

Onwards!

No.185 Of Front Crawling to the Weekend

The problem with having a big conference on midweek is that the following day you feel it's the end of the week and you're crawling to get to the weekend.

On the subject of crawl it was front crawl today 40 lengths this morning beginning at 7.15a.m.. A speaker from yesterday claimed she does 64 lengths every day and I believe her. In a spare moment I worked out that in the past 10 years she has swam 3,840 km. that's the equivalent of almost ten swims to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg if you could swim all the way. Mighty if you ask me. I bet she doesn't flag by Thursday.