Saturday, April 01, 2006
Morning of the Party Conference
It's now just a couple of hours before the Conference begins. I've been up since seven putting the final touches to my speech. I'm speaking live to the Conference and on RTE1 telly for four minutes at twenty past eleven.
My nerves are not so bad. A few years ago I dreaded public speaking, but then I confronted the worst fear I had (I jumped out of an airplane in New Zealand) and that really helped me to face days like today.
I had hoped to get a good night sleep, but Friday evening was busy. I was at the Eircom League Drogheda United match (1-0 win) and watched them go top of the table. Then I went to the Lourdes Hospital A&E Department to observe the situation there (my speech is on A&E). By the time I joined my friends for dinner in a local restaurant (Bru - great food, takes a bit of waiting around 'tho) it was ten o'clock. However, we didn't get to order 'til half past, and so it was 1am before I got home.
Unfortunately I made the mistake of leaving my mobile phone in the bedroom. Bad mistake. A wellwisher texted me at 6:30 to wish we the best for the speech. I was awake in a shot and didn't manage to get back to sleep.
I'm reasonably happy with the speech. It will all be in the delivery. I got to deliver 1 minute of it last night in the theatre (the party was doing a dress-rehearsal) so I feel alright about it.
Then at lunchtime I am lined up to go live on John Bowman's radio show. I'm not even thinking about that at the moment - the speech comes first...
My nerves are not so bad. A few years ago I dreaded public speaking, but then I confronted the worst fear I had (I jumped out of an airplane in New Zealand) and that really helped me to face days like today.
I had hoped to get a good night sleep, but Friday evening was busy. I was at the Eircom League Drogheda United match (1-0 win) and watched them go top of the table. Then I went to the Lourdes Hospital A&E Department to observe the situation there (my speech is on A&E). By the time I joined my friends for dinner in a local restaurant (Bru - great food, takes a bit of waiting around 'tho) it was ten o'clock. However, we didn't get to order 'til half past, and so it was 1am before I got home.
Unfortunately I made the mistake of leaving my mobile phone in the bedroom. Bad mistake. A wellwisher texted me at 6:30 to wish we the best for the speech. I was awake in a shot and didn't manage to get back to sleep.
I'm reasonably happy with the speech. It will all be in the delivery. I got to deliver 1 minute of it last night in the theatre (the party was doing a dress-rehearsal) so I feel alright about it.
Then at lunchtime I am lined up to go live on John Bowman's radio show. I'm not even thinking about that at the moment - the speech comes first...
# posted by Senator Dominic Hannigan @ 8:49 AM 
