New boots..and money raised for charity!

This weekend I ventured north of the Cork county and went to Dublin. Myself and my fellow CL comrade Joanne had purchased tickets for the Childline concert last night. Now the line up was not one that I would've picked for myself (except for Westlife - an adoration stemming back to my 11 year old days, that grew with me, I cant seem to let go!! And dont even get me started on the "split") but it was of course money contributed to keeping the Childine service open and running which as you know is very close to me. As volunteers we got pre sale tickets which I assumed meant we would be up the front, however we weren't, but as it was tiered seating we still had a perfect view. The O2 is actually a nice venue and will have to try and get there again. There was plenty of kids there along with their parents who all seemed to be enjoying themselves and I think the total raised was over 400,000euro - so successful on all parts!

I also managed to buy the nicest pair of boots ever while in the capital!! I had seen them in Penneys in Cork but as usual not in my size (6 seems to be quite popular) but I had to have them. So I traipsed from Pearse St to Grafton St to O'Connell St and to Henry St where I finally found them...and I freakin' love them!! I cant wait to wear them when myself and himself venture out Friday night for a few social drinks :-) 

Aren't they awesome??!!

Its all about the Kids...

I was reading an article in the local paper about this time last year about the ISPCC and its lack of call facilitators for its phone service, Childline which resulted in thousands of calls from children being unanswered! This pulled at my conscience and heart strings a bit, quite a big bit in fact that I felt I had to do something to help!! So I signed up to become a volunteer for said service and a few months, various interviews and checks later I was on the training course! Now for me the idea of going back into a classroom environment was not great, I hate the idea of having to speak up in a room full of strangers..but that I did!! It was a small group, 9 or 10 of I think and 2 nights a week we would do our training. The main point of the service is that its a listening service...now while many think they may be good listeners, its actually harder than it sounds! We had to learn how to read between the lines and explore the bigger picture all the while maintaining out boundaries with the callers, not giving them advice and sticking to our my service as a listening provider..not someone at the other end of the phone that's going to tell the caller what to do! We empower the caller to see things for themselves, to call the shots in their situations. While its not always easy, its extremely satisfying when a caller thanks you for listening and that now things don't seem so bad. I spent last weekend at the annual volunteer conference for the ISPCC and it was the reminder that we all needed, to remind us why we are doing this!! The ISPCC relies a lot on volunteers to provide its services and at times its hard fitting it in with everyday life...family, friends, work etc, but I try to bear in mind that Im lucky enough to have all those things. The conference was inspiring, a big part of that due to the guest speaker, John Lonergan (I felt completely inspired and motivated after hearing him and will defo have to go and buy his book this week!! He made a very good statement which went along the lines of...When volunteering for something, do it without expecting anything back and that's when you'll get the greatest reward!! And to be honest, it couldn't be more true..I didn't know what to expect going into this so didn't expect much, but now I've gained so much from it, from the friends I've made in there to the thank you for listening comments from the little voice at the other end of the phone that just wanted someone to hear them and what they had to say...after all children are our future, the next generation, why not give them the best start to life we possibly can!!

John Lonergan - Former Governor of Mountjoy Prison - Go buy it!!