IFA2006

so, it's been and done and gone.

no, not the Irish Farmer's Assocation gig, the International Fluency (I'll say it this time!) Association 5th World Congress.

my pre-congress goal was to buy some livestock, sell my stutter, and operate at a small financial profit.

i failed on all three, but it was mint. and lush. and a bit stuttery.

mad for

1. meeting folks who make my brain think, and reassure me that what we're doing is along the right lines. always good.
2. keeping sheehan's irish roots alive by comparing iceberg to a pint of guinness in our presentation.
3. tom (of thestutteringbrain.blogspot.com) demonstrating that he can make flames and flowers dance from 50 metres by doing a diaphragmatic 'la'. v funny. this should be a keynote address at a conference of the future.
4. meeting the our time theatre company (NYC) at last, them meeting our irish kids and inviting one of them up to perform with them at the big fancy dinner. they were inspirationational and a bit "awesome"
5. the IrishSA meeting the InternationalSA and realising that we have lots to do here but we've made a good start.
6. enjoying my stuttering at moments of stress, especially in the company of others.
7. house guests, and post mortems on what we all thought of it.
8. people getting confused by statistics in a presentation and clapping when 'discussion' came up as a slide, as they thought it was 'conclusion'. brain overload!
9. talking about going to croatia next year.
10. thinking about how good an impact stuttering is ultimately having on my life.

not mad for

1. far too many people going on about client led therapy. clinicians need to take responsibilty too. when clients are better informed then it's more appropriate to be collaborative. i agree that we as the stuttering folk are experts on our stutters but not everyone's an expert on how to get through it, that's what therapy and direction is about. bejaysus!
2. people who clearly jump from one therapy fad to the next even when they should know better. learn what works, and what doesn't work.
3. folk espousing theories without knowing what they're talking about, and presenting this as FACT. eep.
4. not getting to talk to some people i wanted to 'cos it was mad busy.
5. how much my legs hurt at this stage. i don't know why this is. as well as a broken mouth i now have sore legs. is there no justice?

i'm off for a wee lie down, and to ease my brain. it's quite full. i may need a spare one to store some of the stuff that's in there now. clearly the woman who tried to drive into me today was not using hers, i may ask to borrow it.

keep moving forward.

pax stutteramus.