Could your thoughts help your financial situation? Sondra Ray thinks so

I wouldn't normally put something like this up but it's a favour for a friend - and you never know, it might help someone:

What Are Your Thoughts Worth? - Prosperity Consciousness seminar by Sondra Ray

You'll learn how to create harmonic wealth in all parts of your life financially, relationally, mentally, physically and spiritually.

The Prosperity Consciousness Seminar is designed to be powerful and effective for you.

Sondra Ray is going to tune up your capacity to create abundance, prosperity, health and fulfilling relationships no matter what the “economy” and other outside forces appear to be doing.

The workshop includes teaching, interactive processes and guided breathwork (rebirthing), designed to help patterns fall away in the areas of finances, health and relationships.

If you’re feeling you are not using the full potential you have, this seminar may be just what you’re looking for.

It's on Saturday and Sunday June 27 and 28 from 10am to 5.30pm and costs €250

To book please contact: Rosemary Khelifa at 087 247 88 20 or email
rosemary.khelifa@gmail.com. You can find out more over on Holisto.com or Rosemary's website at http://www.spiritualhealing.ie

US expert in M.E, C.F.S and Fibromyalgia speaks in Dublin this Thursday

Via the comments:

The Irish ME/CFS Association is delighted to announce that US ME Expert, Dr Derek Enlander, has agreed to speak in Dublin.

Title of talk: "Current treatment of ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome".

Venue: Mount Herbert Hotel, Herbert Road, Dublin 4

Time and date: 7.45pm, Thursday June 18

Admission: €5. All are welcome.

Dr Enlander grew up in Northern Ireland and studied medicine in Dublin in the 1960s before obtaining a fellowship to Stanford University; he has lived and worked in the US ever since.

Dr Enlander’s practice in New York is devoted to ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia. He has co-authored numerous research papers on the illness and is principal investigator of a US$900,000 study investigating the use of hyperbaric oxygen in ME/CFS.

Around 12,000 people in Ireland are thought to suffer from ME, now often diagnosed under the name Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The exact cause of ME/CFS remains unknown, but most patients experience a flu-like illness before the onset of ME/CFS.

Patients experience symptoms such as sore throats, concentration problems, sleep problems, muscle pain, and flu-like weakness and exhaustion especially after activity. There is no known cure at the moment, though some sufferers do improve over time.

Further details and a free information pack can be obtained from the Irish ME/CFS Association, PO Box 3075, Dublin 2.

E-mail: info@irishmecfs.org
Tel: 01-235 0965

I'll certainly be there. Suffering badly at the moment.

"I'm going to twitter!!" - the #darraghchute movie

Well, I did it. €2129.99 so far.

Niamh and I made a very cheesy video of the day, which is below. Will try to do a higher quality version later. Also used footage from the Irish Parachute Club.

I was nervous. VERY nervous. Of course it wasn't "the first live tweet ever from an aircraft". I love the "I'm GOING TO TWITTER" yell!

There's so many DO NOT WANT expressions on my face, especially as the parachute opens, and basically, I was in bits for a while afterwards.

But I did it.

Once again, thanks to everyone who donated, blogged, tweeted and wished me well. As embarrassing as this video is, this one is for you :)



There's a far more professional documentary about the day right here:

What you've done

Here's what you've done.

You've put a smile on their faces:



The lady on the left? 102 years old. Beside her? Her Carelocal volunteer.

You've got this woman up singing with a band:



She lives in a nursing home. Loves to sing - sang all the time to her family as she got them ready for work and school, went out with her friends to dances and gigs and sang along with the band. Her voice may not be as strong but she still loves getting up and blasting out a bit of Joe Dolan.

You've got these people up dancing:



They don't get out as much as they used to. Either stuck in their houses or the nursing home, they haven't been out for a good dance in ages. Quite the Hucklebuckers in their day, they love having the chance to get up and have a bit of fun, or being worried about how they're going to get home safely.

You've got these people talking:



They don't get to talk to others that much any more. It's lonely at home waiting for someone to call, if they do. In the nursing home they're looked aftr, but people are busy, some get more visitors than most and quite often it's easier just to switch off the mind and watch TV. Sometimes you don't feel up to date or know what to talk about. Sometimes you don't feel relevant.

You've entertained all these people:



They're all over in Finnstown House Hotel, having had a great, free meal served to them, having a laugh along with the entertainment and the band. They've been driven to the door, welcomed, fed, watered and looked after for the first time in ages.



That's what your donations to Carelocal will have done for these people - helped an outing like this for Summer 2009 happen. As I write, the donations are up to €1733.33, which is fantastic.

Fair play to you all. All I'm doing is getting someone else carrying me to jump out of a plane...

Thank you. Sincerely. You rock.

Where the bad jokes come from...

Bill had been getting progressively more bald at a very young age, and it was depressing him quite a bit.

Eventually, he decided to get a wig, and the following evening he came into the pub looking 10 years younger, with a full head of jet black hair. The locals admired his new look, and complimented him on how realistic it looked.

Eventually, Joe asked him for a closer look, and, though slightly embarrassed, he slipped the wig off and handed it over.

However, as soon as Joe took the wig, he began to complain about everything: the weather, his job, the quality of the pint, anything and everything you could think of.

Puzzled by this irresistable urge to moan, he handed the wig to Tom to give back to Bill, and suddenly his normal good humour re-asserted itself.

Tom, however, even in the few seconds he had the wig in his hands, had already announced to the pub that his wife was useless: couldn't cook, and was ferociously dirty around the house, but not, unfortunately, when she got to bed. Again, as soon as he had handed the wig back to Bill, the torrent of complaints dried up, and he was his old cheerful self again.

The three friends, completely confused and puzzled, were starting to discuss what on earth had happened, when the barman leant across the counter towards them, and told them not to worry about it.

"Why?" they asked.

"Ah, 'tis perfectly natural, lads!" he said. "Sure doesn't everybody complain when they have Bill's toupee?"

Have a look at the Boards.ie Pun appreciation thread. There's loads there. The whole humour forum is a gold mine!

• Energizer Bunny arrested; charged with battery.
• A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
• A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.
• My wife really likes to make pottery, but to me it's just kiln time.
• Dijon vu: the same mustard as before.
• Practice safe eating: always use condiments.
• I fired my masseuse today. She just rubbed me the wrong way.
• A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.
• Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.
• I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.
• I used to be a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the ax.
• If electricity comes from electrons, does that mean that morality comes from morons?
• A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.
• Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.
• A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
• Corduroy pillows are making headlines.
• Is a book on voyeurism a peeping tome.
• Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.
• Banning the bra was a big flop.
• Sea captains don't like crew cuts.
• Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
• A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.
• Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
• A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.
• Without geometry, life is pointless.
• When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.
• Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.
• Reading whilst sunbathing makes you well-red.
• When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

Where your skydive donation is going: Carelocal say thanks

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated money, awareness and good wishes to the Skydive for Carelocal.ie

I visited the office yesterday to say hello and find out more about them. Sheila Desmond, the Volunteer Coordinator is in a unique position with the charity, as she meets all the older people they help and also all the volunteers that work with them.

Brazenly, I stuck the camera in front of poor Sheila and asked her to tell you where the money you have donated is going and what the difference your help will make to the charity and to the life of an older person. It's a rough and ready take but was loads of fun to do: