New partner in crime

Well, you may already have heard, or seen over on the Melcrum blog, that me and Liam are running our last Black Belt together this month. 

It feels quite strange, after all this time. Anybody who has done Black Belt or knows us will know we're almost total opposites on a number of fronts. Which means we've driven each other mad from time to time, but we've had some fantastic fun and hopefully complemented each other too. I prefer to forget about the time we were described as Richard and Judy (me: "she's TONS older than me!" Liam: "he's vain!"). Liam quite liked the comparison to Phil and Kirstie, but told me I wasn't 'posh enough' to be Kirstie because of my northern accent!

Talking of which, as a quick aside, we have someone on our current Black Belt who is the absolute double of the afore-mentioned Phil. In fact one participant did, at one point, call him Phil. And I had to engage him in conversation about it in the first break to explain why I kept staring at him so much! Maybe I'll see if I can persuade him to guest-blog, so he can put his photograph up and you can see for yourself!

Anyway, I digress. My new partner in crime on BB from January will be Sally Hinder. I first met Sally, ironically enough, when I sat next to her at lunch at a Melcrum conference. She was still in-house at the time, but we discovered we had a shared interest in coaching, training, psychology and 'what makes people tick' in general. We kept in touch from that point on, and ever since Sally left the in-house world, I've been looking for an opportunity for us to work together. And here it is!

You can read more about Sally over on the Melcrum blog, and she'll be joining me on here soon, too. We're running our first BB together in January.  All change for the new year!

Sue 

Comments

[Liam FitzPatrick]

Well farewell and good luck with it all - I'm certain Sally will be a worthy ally (I commented on it on the new blog - http://rickie.typepad.com/simplyblogging/)

I hope she has as much fun as I have had over the last couple of years (although I'm sure she won't come close to homocide as well).

My high points from our time creating, developing and delivering Black Belt include:
* the delegates that came back for module 2 who had visibly grown taller and more confident
* the many great case studies that people shared with us
* the excuse to spend hours reading up on good practice and the challenge of explaining some complicated ideas

And of course we'll always have:
* silly awards ceremonies (I still have the pictures)
* daft presentations (synchonised swimming and sex changes will always have a special place in my heart)
* the first time someone laughed at your David Beckham jokes (they have so much to answer for).

I don't think there were many lows (apart from the food and bedrooms at Henley and the infamous sushi ice cream at Cranfield!).

Good luck with it all - I'll keep blogging over at http://rickie.typepad.com/simplyblogging/ so I look forward to your interventions from time to time!

Liam

[Sarah Darlington]

Liam,

All the very best I prefer to remember you as "Phil" and also to picture you in your cycling shorts ;)

Welcome Sally happy ramblings!!!

[Liam Fitzpatrick]

Thanks - the cycling shorts are still available for viewing elsewhere on the web!

And on the very last ever of my Black Belts this week we had a chap from Vodafone who was a dead ringer for Phil (so much so that people started calling him that by mistake!)

Liam