A productive week in Ballinamore

It’s Thursday and all day I’ve kept thinking it was Friday … cool … another day to do some SKIL2 work.

I posted my work To Do list at the beginning of the week and I’ve achieved about 90% of it … plus all the extra stuff that comes along.

Life Dreaming got the short straw so I have designated all next week as Life Dreaming Week … much to my brother Marc’s (and business partner) relief … that boy can nag ever so gently… even when he’s travelling through the US.

SKIL2 has meanwhile bounded along … I’ve been doing up a pile of notes from the two 3 hour meetings that the Depaul Ireland SKIL2 Team have had (with me as Chair) … heaps of great stuff.

I’m also typing up notes I wrote for a SKIL2 information pack … which Marc will make fab with his genius design touch.

And … I created an invitation only Group on my SKIL2 network for my Depaul SKIL2 Team. The rest of the areas on the network are open to anyone.

This will be the space where we email … upload and share files … chat about ideas … and generally develop SKIL2 between meetings.

It’s the first time for some Team members to participate in an online network (other than Facebook) so I’ll be interested to get peoples feedback.

I think it’s miles better than just email.

And … I’ve taken Coco on 2 one hour walks a day since Tuesday … we both enjoy it.

Yesterday we got caught in a quick rainstorm (what? rain in Ireland in summer … how unusual … not) and I happily sheltered under a tree.

Coco went and checked that the sheep were ok.

It’s 3 days now and she still comes back and lies down like a trained sheep dog when I call ‘ Back Here’ … it worked even when she was chasing a rabbit today.

So proud of her.

See how she goes into the point position?

We had a lovely sunny morning walk today and I love seeing how the light comes through the trees … it makes it kind of magical.

When we were walking along Coco spied a pigeon … who tried to quietly sidle away … pigeon not Coco.

And … all the plans for healthy eating have been met … not a chip … chocolate … cake … take away … alcoholic beverage … has passed my lips since Friday.

It’s all healthy and about 2 litres of water a day … I’ll have to do something crazy soon as all this clean living is OTT for me.

And there’s always something that puts our lives in perspective.

Someone I love very much has been going through a very hard time … and this week we spent hours emailing back and forth … listening and sharing and just being there. They are feeling much better than at the beginning of the week and also realise there’s a way to go … pretty much a life time.

I’m so proud of them … it takes immense courage to say you need help … that your life is really unhappy … and that you want to create a better life for yourself.

And it takes even more courage to start taking the small steps to connect to your own power … to really reflect on the habits, patterns and pain that you want to change … to speak your own truth … and worry less about what other people think … to make some real choices about who you want to be and how you want to live your life.

I stopped being a good girl about 20 years ago and as a result I am really happy and content most of the time.

I visit the Sunny Funny Garden every day and it’s getting a kind of Secret Garden look about it. If the sun shines over the weekend I’m going in to do some weeding.

Anyway dear reader … I hope your week has gone well.

I’m off to walk Coco again.

Slan

Liz

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Sunshiney Ballinamore

A gorgeous day so far … sun is beaming down on everyone.

I took Coco for a walk and we smiled and said hello to everyone (we do that rain or shine) as we walked down the main street … nice to see all the visitors in town.

We stopped at the canal basin to admire the bridge and look at the boats that were moored overnight … imagine drifting along in the sunshine today … bliss on a stick.

Then we wandered down the road to the water works … my legs are still sore from the cycle ride to Riversdale last week … pathetic!

Coco once again went to say hello to the sheep and was puzzled why they don’t come over and play.

I think the sheep are all standing there looking at Coco and thinking ‘ yeh right … we’re sheep …  but we’re not that stupid … no way do we want to play with the big Not Sheep‘.

[Obviously sheep do not have an extensive vocabulary of names for other animals … so everything that isn’t a sheep is a ‘Not Sheep’]

Coco doesn’t even bark … she just stands there smiling.

As Coco ran back and forth smelling and checking things out … I continued my wee exercise of looking at the detail in the landscape … seeing the small things that we usually miss as we scan the big picture.

Love all the flowers …

and even looking at a single fern amidst all the other ferns … is kind of nice.

As Coco ran back and forth I tried a new way to encourage her to come back to me … I stood still and called ‘ back here’ … and as she came back I raised my hand in the stay signal and then pointed my finger down and said ‘Sit … Stay’.

To my utter amazement … she did it … and stayed.

clever Coco

I let her sit for about 3 or 4 seconds and then said ‘go play’ … which she was happy to do.

I think we are growing up a bit together.

I saw the meadow full of flowers and wanted to get a closer shot … so climbed a wee rise … and put my hand in some sheep poo … lovely … and got the shot.

And as we walked along I saw a barge floating down the canal.

I bless every day that I live here in Ballinamore … there is beauty everywhere … if you stop and look.

Coco kept running and I enjoyed all the flowers snuggled into the ferns.

I was thinking about when I gave blood yesterday … fear is an interesting beast … it can freeze you … and it can make you bold … motivate you to move forward.

I’m (and my family) are really afraid of needles  … and … I decided that giving blood beat my fear of needles.

Having said that … my heart was racing when I went to the donor centre in our Community Centre … I went there as soon as the doors opened.

It takes a wee while to fill out forms … and get asked questions and have your finger pricked to check your ok … and all the while I’m trying not to think about the needle.

I get escorted to the donor area … I think I may have looked like I was going to bolt … and they check my blood pressure … all fine.

Another nurse comes over and they have trouble finding the veins in both my arms … my heart starts to race as this usually means that they have to move the needle back and forth between my arms … scarey.

I explained my fear of needles and how the last time I went to donate they jabbed the needle into a muscle … yup … I have good reason to fear the bloody things.

Anyway … they found a vein and I looked away with my eyes shut … trying to relax and breathe … and they put the needle in … and it stings.

I kept my eyes shut as I got used to the needle being there … and the  nurse asked me if I was ok … I couldn’t speak as tears of relief were wandering down my cheeks … I just looked at her an nodded.

They were really sweet and said I was very brave for giving blood even though I was soooooo scared.

All done … and thank goodness I don’t have to give blood again for 4 months.

All the staff there are dotes and seem to be on the road a lot … often away from home for weeks on end.

After I finish writing this blog post  I’m focusing on my lovely long To Do list … this is a week of focusing on the details.

I did my fab mind map yesterday to give me a sense of what was a priority … and because I love ticking things off when they get done.

Today?

delighted to see what I’ve already done  … and it’s only 11.30am.

• walk Coco – √ done... may do another walk if the sun stays out
• take pictures … upload & resize – √ done.
• write blog post … √ done.
• email my wonderful sis … √ done.
• type up SKIL2 info pack I wrote on the train
• clean kitchen … part of my One Room a Day campaign
• write brothers birthday cards and post them … √ done.
• go say hi to Mags
• drink a litre of water … √ done.… and will drink another before the day is out
• say hi to Dee … √ done.
• do up window boxes … today or tomorrow
• prepare dinner … lovely baked chicken breasts covered in yoghurt and have with coleslaw I made yesterday
• do one hour of Scribus (open source design software) learning

That should do it … and I’ll find time to loll in the sun … wearing SPF 40.

Hope you have a great day.

Slan

Liz

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Sunday done slowly

Big Reminder before I start the main post from Sharon Sweeney

Just to let everyone know that the Blood Donation Clinic returns to the Community Centre in Ballinamore on Monday 8th June 2009.

Clinic times are 3.00pm to 4.45pm and 7.00pm to 9.30pm.

We were below the 100 donations at the last clinic so we really need to get above this number at the next one or we may lose it to another town.

Thanks to everyone who attended the previous clinics.  Please try to get to this one and if you can get there please bring a friend.

From Liz – My blood is RH O Neg so I’m going to be very brave (I’m needle phobic … runs in the family) and go down there on Monday. I’ll be the one whimpering in the corner … and staying the longest. My blood takes forever to come out … and I sometimes have to have the needle moved around between my arms … I feel dizzy just writing this … don’t want to do it  … fear fear fear … but the blood is needed.

Love Sunday … a lovely slow day … street is quiet.

I read until 3am this morning and was still up at 7am to let Coco out … and then … back to bed to sleep for another few hours.

I’ve been uploading and resizing photos from my Dublin trip this week and Coco is sitting in her chair … looking at the photo and around the office I see I’ll be doing some tidying tomorrow morning.

The Dublin trip was a great success.

I went over there on Thursday by train … very comfortable and I love seeing the countryside go by … lovely and sunny.

My meeting wasn’t until Friday so I had a great wander on both the Northside and Southside.

They are separated by the Liffey and connected by a heap of bridges.

This photo shows one of Dublins favourite bridges … the Ha’Penny Bridge.

I used to live in one of the apartments in the red brick building on the northside (the left) … 1 minute from the bridge.

Some of my favourite streets in Dublin city include:

Dame Street … at one end is Trinity  and at the other is Christchurch … and my Juries Hotel. Temple Bar runs off Dame Street and faces onto the Liffey.

Off Dame Street is Georges Street and the beautiful Georges St Arcade … a covered market. Great little streets run off it and you end up on …

Grafton Street … which is a key pedestrian area with a lot of shops. Stephen’s Green Park is at one end.

Parliament Street runs into Dame street on the South side and then you go across a bridge to the northside and one of my favourite streets … Capel Street.

It has some great pubs and really old shops.

One of the main shopping streets on this side of the river suns off Capel Street … it’s a mix of Mary Street and Henry Street … and there are heaps and heaps of shops as well as open markets.

It ends up at O’Connell Street which is a major part of Dublin history … a little run down but always full of character. The O’Connell St photos were taken on Saturday morning when I was on the LUAS train to Connolly train station … it was bucketing down after days of sunshine.

I was in Depaul Ireland nice and early on Friday for my 11am SKIL2 Team meeting to set everything up. I keep meaning to take a photo of the team but we just get so engaged in our chats that I forget.

The meeting ran from 11am to 2pm and I organised for sandwiches, fruit and cheese to be brought in so we can eat and talk.

The major part of the meeting was spent standing around the SKIL2 learning space design that I have developed … commenting … questioning … adding … changing.

My design mantra is

BEAUTIFUL + SIMPLE + AFFORDABLE

So … that mantra informs every design decision and discussion and the Team are very aware of it … to the extent that they are now commenting on other sites I show them in those terms.

After 2 meetings I feel we have captured the key design elements and the Team has been of invaluable assistance in making it even more user friendly.

This week I’ll be transferring the paper design to a new open source design software called Scribus … which I have to teach myself to use first!

As we are standing looking at the design it raised all sorts of great questions, ideas and comments from the Team:

• how can we engage people to use SKIL2?
• SKIL2 will be a great way to capture organisational memory
• what if we ….. they have heaps of ideas
• here’s how we can link it into existing systems and processes
• it’s a great tool for challenging good practice and sharing our knowledge
• how do we deal with people who abuse the space? [my response … the same way as you do in face to face encounters … link back to your policies on best practice, bullying etc … have clear written codes of conduct …]
• let’s open SKIL2 to our volunteers as well
• how can we eventually include service users?
• etc etc etc etc

The discussions are amazing and I facilitate in a way that makes people feel safe enough to be challenging and excited and unsure.

We also started our Elevator Pitch exercise … where we will develop a 60 second SKIL2 pitch.

I asked people to throw in their thoughts and ideas on the following questions:

1. who is SKIL2 for?
2. what problems/needs does it solve?
3. what opportunities does it seize?
4. what values/benefits does it offer to an organisation and individual?
5. what are it’s key features?
6. what calls to action do we need to develop?

We got to number 4 and we’ll finish it off via a group email.

Over lunch I showed the Team a range of interesting sites … a social media for non profits site ... a cool tools for schools site …a site that shows you alternative open source software to the paid stuff … and open course ware sites [I gave the links in my last post].

At each meeting over lunch I will be showing the Team different aspects of social media … online learning … open source etc.

It’s like a literal and figurative Bite Sized Learning session … their knowledge, skills and confidence in these areas will grow as I show them more and more ways that it all works.

SKIL2 and everything I develop is based on an interesting mix of conceptual models and my own experience:

• adult learning theory
• social justice theory
• social media and Web 2
• community building
• change theory
• group theory
• facilitation theory
• knowledge management
• learning organisation models
• learning styles theory
• communication models
• a range of learning models
• social action research
• organisational development theories
• feminist and power theories
• structure and process systems theory
• psychology
• neuro lingusitics programming
• sociology
• design theory
• art
• information architecture

It all informs the way I work with people … and the kinds of things (products, processes and services) that I want to develop and share with the world.

And at the end of the meeting as we were setting a date in September for the next Team session … I apologised for having to convene 2 three hour long meetings in 2 weeks and I explained that I wanted to get key feedback from them on SKIL2 design before the summer holidays.

I promised that the next meeting would be shorter … maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours … and they all said they wanted the meetings to be longer and stay at 3 hours … they really want to learn and discuss and build SKIL2 into Depaul Ireland.

First time in 25 years people have asked me to make the meetings longer … they are really engaged in the whole SKIL2 process … and … I facilitate meetings that are always results oriented … and fun.

After the meeting I went to stay with a good friend Mary and chatted into the night … love that.

Then back on the train in the rain on Saturday … thanks William for picking me up.

Now I’m off to walk Coco and begin a new pattern of health  living:

• cycling to Riversdale (10min each way) and swimming for an hour … 2 to 3 times a week
• walking Coco every day … at least an hour 4 times a week … and shorter on other days
• eating healthy … which I’m doing anyway
• 4 to 5 alcohol free days a week
• try the You Tube free personal trainer sessions … twice a week

I intend to be Fit & Fabulous for my 50’s … coming up in 47 days.

I will enter that age fitter than I have been in over 30 years.

Slan

Liz

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