No.248 Of Pasta and the Planning

If one more visiting friend buys me a Vegetarian cookbook as a present I'm going to open my own on-line book store. I've a pile of them now in my bookcase. They're good but all require a lot of planning and thought which I don't have in great measure. Measure by the way is another thing I have no patience for. How much is 40 grammes of butter for example? And can I be bothered to measure out three teaspoons of cream? Nope.

Ok so it's Sunday and I'm going to give a dish a go this evening so it's off to Tesco this afternoon in search of 2 cloves of garlic, freshly and locally cut asparagus (it doesn't travel well apparently), single cream and a bunch of herbs. Pasta I have already in copious amounts ready to burst out of my cupboard and jump into a saucepan and end up in my next great creation. I may just buy some ready made sauce for pasta in case all goes wrong...

No.247 Of Education, Education Education

We held our first first Education Law event in Dublin yesterday. It was a huge success. Attended largely by Principals I was expecting the audience to consist of well suited austere looking professionals carefully studying their notes over half moon glasses hanging round their necks on string. I counted just three out of the 140 or so that might fit this clearly dated stereotype of mine.

The refreshments, the food, the Chairman, the speakers, the hotel, the Legal-Island staff - all great.

What a way to end the week. Onwards..!

No.246 Of Big Firsts

Things are not going well for us at the Winter Olympics. Our World Champion Bobsleigh team are currently 10th and our Northern Ireland skater fell big time in the short programme. She got up well though. I was watching the cross Ski-ing event last night which is new to the Olympics. It's four skiers at the same time going hell for leather to get to the bottom first. Great stuff. It makes the Downhill race look really tame in comparison. The big day belonged to the Canadian McIvor who won the first Olympic gold in the event. She was a local girl and had been practising on the track for the last four years me thinks.

We've a big day tomorrow with our own first : the first Education conference in the ROI for Legal-Island. We have a capacity crowd. Hold tight... hell for leather lets go for it....

No.245 Of Strange Weekends

I spent the weekend on the North Antrim Coast with friends. We were concerned from the weather reports that we'd be snowed in and unable to get back. But it was odd. We woke to see no snow out the window but loads of reports on the T.V that many people barely 30 miles away were snowed in. Emmm.


Bushmills is a strange place. It has one of the best places to stay in NI (for the Bushmills Inn takes some beating). It has one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area (the Bushmills Distillery) and is barely 2 miles from one of the 7 Great Wonders of the World (in the Giant's Causeway). Yet many of the town's building are in a poor state of repair. One, right in the centre you just can't miss as it overlooks the main feature of the town the War Memorial. This former bank has its windows smashed in and is an awful eyesore. Farther up the road yet more shops boarded up. Emmmm.


On Saturday night the Bushmills Inn featured some Ulster/Scots/Irish folk music. It was great but they all sat around looking very serious about their musicianship almost like they were trying hard not to enjoy performing. For some strange reason this seem to add something to the experience and certainly made it harder to forget.


So to sum up the weekend : Emmmmmmmmmm

No.244 Of Whether the Weather......

Glorious weather. Spring is here and boy have we earnt it. But will it hold for the weekend? I hope so. I want to take the MG out for a spin. She's been feeling neglected these past few months.

The breakfast seminars seem to be going down a treat. Lots of people are talking about them and the reviews are good. I think we've got the pitch just right. One hour for delegates to get a shot of something important to think about before they start their day's work.

I'm off to meet a friend for lunch later. She has a bit of time on her hands at the moment and she's an avid reader. I always take her a book to read. If she says its good I add it to my reading list. If she doesn't I try her with another. I'm still reading Abraham Lincoln's biography. I'm 400 pages in with another 500 to go. If the weather's awful this weekend I might just finish it....

No.243 Of Coaching Parking and Reversing

I almost reversed into an employee this morning. Not a great start to the day for either of us. Ho hum.

I'm meeting Niahm Shiells of Advance Coaching and Trudy Arthurs of Dancing Leopards today. They are both also of the Association of Coaching. We use coaches a lot at Legal-Island to great effect so I'm keen to meet them and exchange experiences/views.

We have the first of our main events this year in our new training centre which is great. The centre is getting fab reviews and I can't think of anywhere more convenient to access in terms of parking and public transport.

No.242 Of Things You Need to Know....

It's an outrage! 38 grammes of sugar in every 100 grammes of Kellogg's Special K cereal. 20 grammes is considered high and too much apparently.

I've just attended Jane McClenaghan's breakfast seminar on healthy eating. Jane's a great presenter and I love watching her speak. With Jane it's like you get two presenters in one. There's the verbal delivery and there's the body language speaking loud and clear too. She interprets much of what she says through great hand movements. I wonder if asked to present with her hands tied behind her back one day she'd be half as good.

Before, when shopping I used to inspect the labels for animal fat. Now I'll have to look out for saturated fat too, sugar levels and amounts of sodium. Better still I could get someone else to do it and not ask too many questions....