100 Hundred Things On My List #2

This is Number 2!

This is something very achievable. It is so achievable that I am not sure why I have never done this before. I have certainly thought about it, I have certainly talked about it, and during the boom times when the Celtic Tiger was still alive and the property market was awash with over-generous bankers dishing out extra mortgages, I even considered buying a holiday home there. Donegal, yes Donegal. Number 2 on my list of one hundred things that must be done in this lifetime is as simple as going to Donegal and spending at least a couple of days there. I have been living in Ireland for 32 years and have ancestry hailing from this county, but never has the four wheels of any of my cars over the years crossed the county line. Even during the last four years whenI worked for Airtricity, I oversaw a significant project that had much activity in Donegal (click here to see a map), but I never got to fly there via the airport in Derry (in the county of Londonderry - thanks for that one Mr President Clinton!!).

For those of you from the UK, Donegal is our Scottish highlands, just not as high; for those of you from the US, Donegal is our Alaska, just not as cold in the winter (and we don't shoot mooses Ms Palin! But hey Sarah you are cute for a grandmother xx!)

Donegal is a major tourist attraction, and a political hotbed - plenty of international travellers can make it this far, and plenty of politicians over the years have descended from Dun a Ghaill (that's Gaelic you know!) - our current Deputy Prime Minister is a Donegaller (???citation needed!!??).

So what's keeping me and my family from visiting Donegal. Nothing that I can think of. Maybe it's just ignorance, or the fear of Irish roads. But now that it is on the list, let's just load up some weekend, drive out of the estate, turn left on the M/N3 and drive staright for Donegal. It's as simple as that!

And I gather that when you get there, to the top of Ireland, the view is great!

Being an out-of-work Business Consultant is better than being unemployed!

The events of the last Wednesday forced me to make some decisions. The post (snail mail that is) came early, and some documents that I was expecting, but not expecting so soon, landed on the door mat. Now that I had them in hand, it would be valuable to bring them directly to the Local Community Welfare Office where I am now enrolled as an unemployed person, and would hopefully received some benefits to which I am entitled that would contribute to my high cost of living – living costs that have not gone down since I was made redundant by Airtricity.
I decided to cycle to the CWO as parking was at a premium, and the manner of some of their “customers” is such that your car would be easily damaged by another patron. So after a short bike ride, I got in just two minutes before the last bell, took my ticket and proceeded to the waiting room. The room was thick with people of every nation, and the stale pungent air was even thicker – swine flu was all I could taste – jeez get me out of here! So despite the very heavy misty humid air I opted for sitting in the car park, and thought I would make some calls following up on employment agents and job leads. I also wanted to solicit some Management Consultants within my contact base, as working the network is essential when looking for potential work in these current climes. It turned out to be a very productive seventy or eighty minutes in the car park – I managed to get three meetings scheduled and put my name out there in the consulting world. Whilst on my final call, which was now running at about 25 minutes long, I cheekily peered in the window of the waiting room to realise that my number had just been called! Bugger it – I had just missed my slot, and now the last “customer” of the day was at the window, and the security were not happy with me as the policy is clearly stated on posters that if you miss your turn you must take another ticket and wait. Ticket issuing had now stopped and would not start again until Monday morning at 10am! Using a bit of diplomacy and the help of the nice security guy, I managed to charm my way into the final slot and got my interview with the community welfare officer.
The interview was less than productive. They drive a hard bargain. For my application to be truly considered I was tasked with going off and finding even more supporting documents and evidence of my status. Some of the documents requested relate to my home purchase of 12 years ago. That was going to take me several hours of effort, phone calls, and archive searching to produce the necessary goods, not to mention whatever time it would take to get replies through the post, and then present myself at the ticket / waiting room / interview window combination, on either a Monday or Wednesday morning between 10 and 11 am. Not that you only spend an hour of your time at the CWO, average cycle time seems to be more like two-and-a-half hours. When I got home (another brisk bike ride in the heavy heavy summer humid mist), it was good to share all of the morning’s tribulations with my wife over a cup of tea. It was her wisdom that pointed out that the time and effort was going to be much better spent looking for work and drumming up business, given the success I had in the hour-and-a-bit in the car park of the CWO, than sifting through old papers and ringing round building societies that we no longer have business with (like they really need me pestering them at the moment!).
It was at that point I decided it was going to be a lot more fun and better to be an out-of-work Business Consultant than an unemployed IT Manager. Roll on Decursio Ltd (www.decursio.ie)! Yep... the view from the top is great!

100 Hundred Things On My List #1

This is Number 1!

Ever since I was in Tanzania working on the implementation of software for a bank on Azikiwe Street, I have been fascinated with the prospect of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (yes that is the picture at the top of my blog!)

Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa, it's very near the equator, it is still topped with snow, and it is a dormant volcano! What more could you want for a decent workout? I am not sure how soon this will happen as there is a lot to be thought through first, and some domestic logistics to take into consideration - but as Zig Ziglar says in the Lessons of Goal Settings: "State the Goal, Set the Deadline". The summer of 2011 at the earliest but who knows at this early stage.

The Irish Red Cross have a number of sponsored treks up Kilimanjaro this year, one last week, one next week, and one at the end of September. I believe they had to lay on the third trek as the first two were over-subscribed!

Here is a great picture that my eight-year-old son took. I love the light and the colours - the sky and the car have the same shades. He is not an accomplished photographer (well he is eight) but he does know how to use his mini-slr Fuji camera, and this photo has encouraged him to look for creative shots and explore his talent more. And its a brilliant perpective on my car!