Of Getting on Ya Bike

I've finally got my new bike on the road. It arrived with flat tyres that needed pumping but with no pump. I had two that didn't fit. I borrowed another two. They didn't fit. I ordered another online. It did the job.
The brakes had locked. A colleague helped. I wrestled with the bicycle lock to change the combination from 0000 to something I wouldn't forget. I only half succeeded. I managed to change it from 0000 but to a strange random number that likely I will forget. Most likely when it's chained somewhere far from home and when I need it most.
The bike has about 4,545 gears that I can tell - one for every possible bit of cycling imaginable and many more as well. The handle bars are shaped in a most unusual way. They look part racer part cow horn and if I didn't know better I would think they are inside out and back to front.
The saddle is comfortable though and that's the main thing. Exercise, as we all know, is best done sitting down.

Of Vodka & Death

I was at the last class of the wine tasting last night only we weren't doing wines but spirits. We had to sniff ten different spirits from the glass and guess what they were. I got 4 out of 10 - and that was with a bit of help from my classmate.
What I did learn last night was that home made vodka in Russia kills or poisons around 3,500 people annually. Apparently, the way to tell whether the vodka came from a distillery or someone's bathtub is to light it. A blue flame indicates a pure vodka. A yellow suggest that you should use the rest to help start a fire or run the generator outside for a while.
I was once invited to try a vodka in Poland which claimed to be 97% proof. I was warned if I didn't get my breathing right as I took it down it might kill me. I politely declined a zipped a bottle of an awful beer instead.

Of Good Day Sunshine

It's amazing what effect the first bit of good weather of the year can have on everyone and everything.
The hens are now firing out so many eggs you're lucky if you don't get plastered in them on the way to the hen house. The neighbours yesterday were all out the back by the river picnicking and drinking and behaving like we were all summer of love hippies (perhaps we were?). One of them even came in and danced with me to the Beatles "All you need is love" as I prepared the Sunday dinner.
The convertible cars are all firing round topless with drivers sporting smiles that say "I told you it was worth waiting for".
Best of all the forecast is that this is going to last until Thursday!

Of Saturday Musing Home and Away

It's a gloriously sunny day today and it's a fight to stay in the office. But I'm managing it. Just.

I'm doing two things today. First, a little bit more work on the web site for the Belfast Speakers' Circle. The aim is that if someone in Northern Ireland googles "public speaking Belfast" they get the Circle's web site up first in the ranking.

The next thing I'm doing is trying to locate someone in somewhere like India who would like to run the diaries of staff here in my company via the Internet. It's a job that would require no more than 1 hour's work each week day and would be simple enough. If you think that's you you know what to do and here's where (barryjphillips@hotmail.com)

Of Mushie over Ushi

We had some visitors in the office today from the local blind association. They had called round to pick up a cheque we had for them after some fund raising we had done.
There was three of them. A blind lady. Her minder and a gorgeous dog called Ushi.
I tried not to go weak and melt but it didn't work out too well for I was soon squatting down to chat to Ushi to shake her paw and let her lick my hands and arms.
What a darling!

Of Public Speaking

I'm gigging again today and indeed come to think of it tomorrow too. By that I mean I'm speaking in front of an audience. Today, I'm relaying "The Legal-Island story" to junior and senior managers at Omnisoft in Bangor. Tomorrow I'm co-delivering a seminar on mediation with a colleague.
I used to dread public speaking and stutter and stammer at school when even reading out a short paragraph in class. Now, I love it.
I'm not sure what changed for me. Perhaps it's the challenge I enjoy of trying to hold the attention of the audience, the challenge to make them laugh, have them think or simply to avoid a mistake I've already made.
Bring it on!

Of Atlas Shrugged

I think I must like pain and punishment. Isn't there a word for that sort of person?
Last year and by that I mean almost all of last year I read War and Peace. Now recovered, I'm embarking on another tome of a book Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shugged".
This is considered by many to be a classic but it's by no means accessible as a book. It's over 1,000 pages long all very small type face too. The person who put me onto it described it as life changing and that for me is a good enough recommendation for a book.
I'm on the train Thursday to Dublin for three hours so let battle Barry against book begin.