Of Would you in a Wudu?

Now here's a question for you. Have you ever heard of a Wudu? Nope I hadn't until yesterday so I popped into the gent's loo at Birmingham Airport to see what one looked like.

Inside the gents just off from where all the urinals are situated was another room which I guessed must have been the Wudu. It wasn't in use at the time although there were two other businessmen like me curious as to what one was peering in through the door.

Now, I figure this must have two purposes. It allows men to do whatever they do in a Wudu (I'm guessing it's wash their feet) and others to talk about what a Wudu is doing in an airport loo and possibly why the idea has not caught on. There's a dyer shortage of talking points in a men's loo so anything that encourages us to be sociable at our time of need and possibly swap business cards too has to be a good thing if you ask me.

Of Mediation in Northern Ireland

I'm currently working on The Great Mediation Symposium for Northern Ireland due for 21 September. It's quite a challenge co-ordinating input from the private, public & third sector. They all have their own way of working and doing things and you have to understand them pretty quickly to know how best to move forward.

The line up is already looking good. The afternoon parallel sessions are packed full of mediators from a full range of activities including family, legal, community and employment.
The theme of the event is driving mediation towards a tipping point. A number of mediators have said to me recently that mediation is going to be the "next big thing". When I ask them how long they've been saying this many have replied "For the past five years at least"!

Of The Wows of Wimbledon

Yey! It's Wimbledon and what a great one it is proving to be!
The story so far belongs to Sabine Lisicki. Last year she's at home with an injury and has to learn to walk all over again. Last week she beat the French Open Champion on Centre Court in front of 15,000 spectators and millions of viewers at home. She won because she wanted it so badly. You could tell that from every part of her body language - the mental focus was supreme. That's why tennis is such a great game. You get to a certain level and then improvement is all about developing the mental game.
A few years ago there was tennis on a Sunday on account of the bad weather the week before. I queued up almost overnight to get Centre Court tickets and was rewarded with matches including some of the greats that year and one great of all time Roger Federer.Federer didn't really appear to me to be a tennis player but more a wizard with a wand. As one BBC reporter commented he found angles with his racket that your geometry teacher would have told you at school were impossible. Geat stuff!

Of Being in Love with Shakesbeare - or not

I went to Shakesbeare's Globe theatre on Saturday in London. It brought back memories to me of Shakesbeare at school - none of them happy ones.

I hated Shakesbeare at school. I guess at 12 I wasn't that keen on reading and if I had to do it I wanted a book on Dracula, Burke and Hare, or Sherlock Holmes but the Merchant of Venice for heaven's sake? If the reading wasn't bad enough we would then have to write 500 words on Shylock's "pound of flesh" speech. It felt as painful as well, losing a pound of flesh cut with a Shakesbearian knife I suppose.

I tried very hard Saturday night to follow "All's well that ends well" but I struggled. In fact, to be honest by part way through the second Act I had given up trying. Instead I mused why it was that 3,000 had paid good money to be utterly baffled for 3 hours, many of them foreign and a good number standing throughout.
Shakesbeare is known and respected 4 centuries on. He's revered throughout the world. People who know almost no English proudly recite some of his lines like "To be or not to be. That is the question". I didn't get it at school and I still don't get it now. But oddly, 48 hours on I realise that I really enjoyed it and would probably go again.

Of a Right Royal Encounter

A friend of mind this morning is all excited. Her work place is expecting a visit from Prince Andrew. In fact, she doesn't know this for sure. They've been told its a Royal but not which one. But the hot money is on Andrew. She's in catering and will be making his cuppa tea.

I've never met a Royal although I did wave at Lady D once and she returned fire. I was coming out of a concert in Birmingham attended by Princess Charles and Diana. We decided to leave early to beat the crowds and we took a short cut across the car park. Just as we were getting ready to cross a main road a rather nice car shot by and there they were. A strange feeling came over me. It was like I was caught in a moment. I was conscious of very little except looking down and seeing my left arm waving away at them. She smiled and waved back which was nice of her. She didn't have to.

I watched Princess Andrew at work a few years ago at a Royal Garden Party at Hillsborough. Quite why I was ever invited to this I'm not sure but there I was standing behind a line of guests all waiting to be introduced to him. I was earwigging I suppose. There was about 12 of them in a line who had been waiting patiently to meet him. The rumour was out that he was late because he had been playing golf. Guest number one wisely asked him how the golf went and he politely replied that it went well and thanked him for asking. The next three in the line wisely didn't ask him about the golf but number four (clearly out of earshot from number one) did as did number eight and twelve. The poor fellow responded each time "It went well and thank you for asking". What a boring task I thought.
I came away feeling impressed by the effort he made to engage with people he's unlikely to have met before and unlikely ever to meet again. Likely he'll remember none of them. They'll remember the meeting for the rest of their lives. A strange encounter when you think about it.

Of The Olympic Tickets Saga

Oh yes! I applied for a whole bunch of tickets for the Olympic games next year and got....women's weightlifting!

Bring it on!

Of Big Lungs & Big Weeks

I went to see the Scottish Opera's "Rigoletto" over the weekend at the Royal Opera House Belfast. It was very different to the production I remember seeing in London last year.

You might say it was a tale of two halves. The first felt long and hard going and I have to confess to nodding off high in the God's for part of it. My Opera companion assured me that I didn't snore however so I didn't disgrace myself completely. The second half was so much better. It was packed full of emotion, excitement, angst and tragedy. The lead singer had the best pair of lungs on her I have heard in a long while.

I've a huge week ahead. Belfast networking tomorrow, Dublin all day Wednesday and London after that. Bring it on!