Next time you sit in an inevitable traffic queue through Abbeyleix on your way south, cast your eyes to the right and you will see something has changed in the local library. It has a big glass window.  Take time to pull over and explore further.  This is a library like no other library in Ireland.  The joinery is down to www.riversidefurniture.ie . One of the best we know, they also make fantastic kitchens like the one they just installed in what used to be the old SitesToGo Office featuring paintings from www.emmabarone.com – and reclaimed for cullinary purposes. Hard to imagine starting corporate life in this sleek (nearly finished!) kitchen. Nice to have it back though!

This week finally I responded to almost 12 months’ worth of requests from Linked In participants to ‘link’. Why? Well Albert suggested I added him to my list of contacts. And Albert is a very special person.

 Within a day I had contact from 8 people who I had lost contact with. None were business contacts, but somehow in my early days I had registered and forgotten about this sort of grown up myspace. So please if you want to talk to me this week please check this out. And I will report back if business transpires!

Seduced as I was by a reasonable fare versus the escalating costs of diesel and the thorny carbon footprint issue I decided today that the train was the way to travel and it was about time to test out the relatively new online reservation service from Irish Rail..  After researching routes and times I decided on Templemore as a starting and finishing point in order to get me to Birr from Cork for a nights frenetic networking courtesy of the local County Enterprise Boards.

Acquiring a booking is a pretty user friendly experience. I missed only something telling me how the tickets would be delivered and assumed til a relatively late stage in the process that I would get a Ryanair type e-ticket. When asked for my full address I began to be concerned and sure enough they still like to deliver your tickets by snail mail. As my trip was booked only a few hours in advance I opted to collect tickets at Templemore. A link invited me to check the ticket office opening times. Aha! Been caught on that one already so I carefully checked.

Templemore is a nice station with two bridges, lots of wheeelchair access, pretty strong 3G signal and a smashing ticket office man – but absolutely no chance of issuing a ticket from an internet booking. Why? That smashing ticket office man has not been trained in the system, not even trained to log on to the shiny new computer in his office. He is despondent but after a little while he cheers up when I suggest that as I am changing at Thurles I could pick it up there instead.

So here I am about to get on a train with a piece of paper that says on no account does it qualify as a railway ticket on my way to meet Annie in the Thurles ticket office. How risque! Perhaps I will be prosecuted before I get rescued by Annie.

And probably all because training is the HR department and systems are the IT department. Folks please get your act together, one with out the other is about as much use as a chocolate teapot!

This weekend among the usual mix of emails from the website came a real blast from the past. Way back in the distant mist of time the original SitesToGo logo was designed by Henry Iles, a graphic designer that I worked with during my not for profit days.

The ethical marketer’s dream, this guy once fell out with me when our Japanese colleagues insisted on replacing an artistic egg (a fertility symbol in Japan which is not quite appropriate for a Youth Hostel!) with a geisha (which offended Henry). The Japanese won but only just…

Not surprised then to find he is now attached to In Control a Uk based charity working dedicated to helping to change the system of social care. Like Microboards here in Ireland. Putting people with disabilities in control of their relationship with authorities. The Microboard website will go live shortly but I have suggested they comment on this blog to get the information out their a bit sooner.