What a simply brilliant week I've had. I got to spend time with a great bunch of friends in the company of one of life's truly inspirational gentlemen, Dr.Tom Hill.
The good Doctor told us the story of his life , in a simply beautiful "good ol' boy " accent. He changed career dramatically at the age of 50 , leaving a life of education behind to develop a mortgage franchise which eventually resulted in a US$3bn business that he sold a few years ago. He now spends his time helping deranged fools like me to see a way through life by looking forward and planning. A chord that struck me was " Nothing changes until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing". But if I had to sum up Tom's ethos is one line I'd have to say it was :
"You can't dream big enough ."
I came back from meeting Tom and had to get on with some of the regualr weekly stuff that I enjoy , but with a new found appreciation of little things. On Thursday nights I coach my youngest son's under 8 football team, the mighty Drumkill Rovers. I take Elliott and our neighbour's daughter Fifi (not her real name) to training and usually on the drive over they prattle on about something while I try to listen to the news on the radio. Last night I switched the radio off and listened in rapt attention to Elliott and Fifi debate a very important subject that I thought only separated the sexes much later in life :
Elliott and Fifi share the same class at school and yesterday there was an emergency. Someone had stuffed too much toilet paper into the girls toilet making it unusable and now - SHOCK / HORROR - the girls would have to use...the boys toilet. ( Fifi was quite vocal on who exactly it was that had stuffed the girls toilet but as I can't verify it I'd rather not repeat it ).
This situation resulted in the boys and girls taking it in turns through the day to use the boys toilet until two things happened :
1. A boy did a wee on the toilet seat which the next girl into the tiolet was not thrilled about. Teacher had a few words to say to the boys about that, instructing them to lift the toilet seat before performing. ( Elliott and Fifi both shared the same opinion on who the culprit in this instance was but again natural justice prevents me from naming Albert ).
2. A boy left the toilet seat up after performing and this shocking fact was reported back to teacher by the next girl. Teacher was even more vocal in her lecture on toilet etiquette to the boys.
Elliott still did not see what all the fuss was about. If the point of lifting the seat in the first place was to keep it clean and free of wee for the next person why make a song and dance about it . Fifi used the tried and tested female arguments and getting frustrated with Elliotts ambivalence finally harumphed :
"Elliott, why can't you see that it takes so little effort to put the seat back down when you are finished ?"
" I can see it, that's why I don't understand why you can't simply put the seat back down yourself."
Touche Elliott !
On Sunday I will be storming up Slieve Donard with a great bunch of people to raise money for Water 4 Life and wearing a beautifully water resistant Jack Wolfskin jacket. We will also be carrying a 25 litre water can but I think I'll be drinking most of it before we get to the top.
Inspired by this weeks endeavours I'm offering a special prize this week. We will offer you a Jack Wolfskin jacket of your choice and a £100 donation to Water 4 Life in your name if you can answer the following two questions and I'll pick that one I like the best :
1. Toilet seat up or down - what rules in your house ?
2. Just how reassuringly expensive is the Jack Wolfskin North Country jacket on Brix workwear, the fourth largest work store in Monaghan ?
Answers on the bottom of the blog please.
Cheers,
Paul
P.S. Today, inspired by Tom, I am listening to Ravel's Bolero and trying to get my brain to it's Alpha state.