Joe's Blog

I'm still fighting a cold, I'm starting to feel better ... or I tell my self I am. We arrived in Manchester last night for the Paradigm annual conference which begins this morning. We've been here for years and know a lot of the people who are attending or presenting. Moments after getting into our room we recieved a phone call about meeting up for drinks. I am doing the afternoon keynote tomorrow, I have a cold, there was no way I was tempting fate by going out. I encouraged Joe to go, he knows as many people as I do.

It was actually nice to have some time on my own. I fiddled on the computer, rearranged my notes for the keynote tomorrow, lay down and read my book. A couple hours later, Joe was back. He was full of stories of the evening and came bearing 'hello's' from a number of friends. But he was going on an on about a woman he had me who was so ... funny ... she had been knocking back glasses of red wine ... joking about her husband and telling tales about her honeymoon in Paris.

"Right now, I wish I had a blog," he said.

I was glad he had a good time but ... really. "So this woman works with Amanda?" I asked, trying to get the picture. "No, no, no, she's here attending the conference with Amanda, she has Down Syndrome."

"Honeymoon in Paris?"

"I know! But it wasn't what she did that impressed me, it's who she was. She was just so ... so ... undamaged by life. I promise you, tomorrow when you meet her, you'll see more than just a story to blog about, you'll see ... I don't know ... hope."