Monday – Radio Scotland

The excellent Radio Scotland program Get It On is a theme based program where you can suggest songs that match the theme. On Monday, not only did Brian Burnett play a song for me, the whole program was based around a theme that I had suggested: Happy Then Sad.
Then, to top it all off, my song suggestion on his blog prompted some great donations to my fundraising page http://www.JustGiving.com/26Miles4CHAS for CHAS – Childrens Hospice Association Scotland.
A HUGE thank you to Bryan and all the listeners !

Tuesday – Instant Karma

I managed to finish work a little early on Tuesday so I headed home to avoid the usual M8 congestion.
I pulled off at Junction 5 – Harthill to phone home. Pulling into a little side street to use the phone safely, I realised too late that the road was thick with ice and muddy puddles and I got stuck fast.
A HUGE thank you to the kind gentleman who took the time to help me get my free.
Less than one minute after freeing my car and continuing my journey, a car was coming towards me with flames coming from under and around his engine compartment. I managed to flag him down, he had not realised that his car was on fire.
Neither of us had a fire extinguisher! As I had just been stuck I had my shovel handy. A few shovelfulls of snow and the fire was out.
I dread to think what the consequences would have been if my altered journey times and kind samaritan had not happend just as it did.

Thursday – Winner !

Since restarting my jogging at the start of the year I have been a huge fan of the ParkRun concept, a weekly free 5k timed run, especially my local Glasgow ParkRun in Pollok Park.
I found out on Thursday that I had been selected as February’s SweatShop monthly prize winner. SweatShop are one of the fantastic sponsors of ParkRun that help make this fantastic free event possible!
The weird thing was, on Monday I was considering buying a new pair of running shoes so that I could get them broken in in time for the Edinburgh Marathon on 23rd May!
Karma strikes again!

Friday – Bandwidth Issues

Walking to work on Friday morning I got an E-Mail on my Blackberry from PlusNet, my ISP and website host.
Due to my website using considerably more than my allowed bandwidth my website had been taken down.
I had no idea as to why this was, I expected a spike on Monday following the publicity on Radio Scotland but had no idea why the spike happened on Thursday or Friday.
It turns out that Real Radio were running their Bring £1 To Work Day campaign. Part of this included them spending the day at Rachel and Robin House and soing a broadcast from there.
Some intrepid Googling turned up an mp3 that I had on this site of when Emma went to Real Radio with her friends from Rachel House. I have removed the file from my site and this is what casued the bandwidth problems. If you would like a copy, email me and I’ll find an alternative file host.

Background

On the 7th September my 17 year old daughter; Emma Berry Goodman died of Motor Neurone Disease.
Previously I had promised her that I would run a marathon before I was 40. I have just under a year to ensure that I do that.
The only experience I have of running was doing a 10k for MND in 2008 so the half marathon is the next logical progression.
Never one to do things by half I have also signed up for a 50mile cycle ride as a “cool down” event after the run.
If you have never heard of Motor Neurone Disease have a look at their website http://www.mndscotland.org.uk/ I would pay particular attention to the video. The film has been given a cert 15 classification. It is a graphic portrait of how many people diagnosed and living with this illness can feel.
In addition to making a donation here, it would be fantastic if you could either join me on either or both events or if you could come along on the day and cheer me on!

Thanks

Ross Goodman

Twitter

I have invested a lot of content to Twitter this year.
This is primarily due to the convenience of the platform racking up almost 1200 updates in the year here.

Flickr / Photography

I can’t find a way to get stats for the year so here are my top five photos:

Web Site / Blog

By far the most popular post on the site was the photos page here.
Second most popular page is the “About Me” page here.
As for the blog entries themselves they rank at:
1 – Business Objects XI 3.0 New Features – Conditional Prompts
2 – Crystal Xcelsius – Filtered Rows From A Filter Component
3 – Modelling Change In Your Dimensions
4 – Business Objects XI 3.0 New Features – Change Data Tracking
5 – Dimensional Modelling – Facts
As you can see here the site only really started getting traffic last January so that gives me 17300 page views.

Personal Stuff

Obviously the biggest news of the year was the passing of my daughter Emma.
Celebrating the Life of Emma Berry Goodman
And the year ends on another low point with the passing of another member of my extended family.
George Miller – Footballer | 1939 – 2008

18th April 1991 – 7th September 2008

Emma Berry Goodman

I’d like to thank EVERYONE for all of their gestures of kindness and support.
It lifted my heart to see everyone at Emma’s service wearing bright colours as was her wish.
Many people have asked for a copy of the tributes that were read during the service so I have posted them here:

Read By Laura Winchester

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Read by Denise Dair (from Rachel House) on behalf of Aimee Corbett

When Tomorrow Starts Without Me
When tomorrow starts without me, and I am not here to see,
If the sun should rise and find your eyes all filled with tears for me,
I know how much you love me as much as I love you,
And each time you think of me I know you’ll miss me too.
But when tomorrow starts without me please try to understand,
That Jesus came and called my name and took me by the hand.
He said my place is ready in heaven far above,
And that I have to leave behind all those I dearly love.
But as I turned to walk away a tear fell from my eye,
For all my life I’d always thought it wasn’t my time to die.
I had so much to live for and so much yet to do,
It seems almost impossible that I was leaving you.
I thought of all the yesterdays the good ones and the bad,
I thought of all the love we shared and all the fun we had.
If I could have stayed for just a little while,
I’d say goodbye and kiss you and maybe see you smile.
But then I fully realise that this could never be,
For emptiness and memories would take the place of me.
And when I thought of worldly things that I’d miss come tomorrow,
I thought of you and when I did my heart was filled with sorrow.
But when I walked through Heaven’s gate and felt so much at home,
As God looked down and smiled at me from his great golden throne.
He said “This is eternity, And all I’ve promised you,
Today your life on earth is past, but here it starts anew.”
“I promise no tomorrow but today will always last,
And since each day’s the same here there’s no longing for the past.”
So when tomorrow starts without me don’t think we’re far apart,
For every time you think of me I’m right here in your heart.

Read By Rev. Alastair McKillop on behalf of Emma’s grandparents

Miss me, but let me go
When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me.
I want no tears in a gloom filled room.
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared.
Miss me but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take,
And all must go alone.
It’s part of the greater plan
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good works
Miss me but let me go.

Read By Ross Goodman.

When I first met Elaine, Emma and Sarah; Emma was 4 and Sarah was 1. Sarah was learning to walk. Emma was just a typical four year old and into her hair and make-up. At that time, I had long hair and Emma loved nothing more than practicing her plaits, pony-tails and putting bobbles in my hair. I’m not sure who was more traumatised, me for forgetting I had them in, or Emma when I got my hair cut off. She did get a “Girls World” dolls head so that she could keep practicing her technique.
Emma always amazed me with the range of hobbies and interests that she had and the enthusiasm she had when she threw herself into them. When she was young she loved dancing, especially highland dancing. This was something she held close throughout and Emma and I went to the Edinburgh tattoo a few weeks ago. This meant that I was thrown into the deep end, having to do Emma’s clothes, hair and makeup. I did my best but apparently the clown look is not in just now so an emergency phone call to Lynne saved my bacon. I’m not too worried as Emma was a perfectionist; there was no way that she would go out if everything was not JUST right. I know my place; the toothbrush was my job but hair and make-up brushes were off limits.
I also managed to get her involved in some of my hobbies, photography became a very keen interest, which was just so appropriate for her. I taught her the technicalities of how to take a photo and then she taught me how to slow down, look after the little details and how a small change in the point of view can make a HUGE difference to a photo, as indeed it does to life in general. As always Emma excelled, in this, setting up her enterprise at school called “A Gift From The Heart” where she exhibited and sold her work. And as is typical Emma, all the proceeds from this went to charity.
Emma was very strong willed; to the point of converting me to watching Big Brother every night for the last 90 odd days. She loved the program. She often thought that she would love to be in the program but did not like the thought of everyone watching her ….. Luckily she is now in the House Of Our Lord, there are no more trials, no public scrutiny and no evictions.
My one dream is that I can prepare my children to walk in my footsteps. I’ve changed my mind now and I want to walk in Emma’s footsteps. Everyone knows that words can’t capture the spirit of Emma but what an act to follow:
Humour (she was the only one to laugh at my jokes), Courage, Bravery, Confidence, Dignity and Pride but mostly FUN
She was SO strong willed and knew exactly what she wanted, she also told us how to make today perfect for her, hence the kilts, the bright colours and the music selections. Shortly we will hear a song from Braveheart, one of her favourite films and poignant for so many reasons. One quote from the film that always sums up Emma’s life is :
“Every man dies, not every man really lives”
Please Please; be like Emma: always live your life, always see the best in everyone, always have a smile for everyone.
Thanks everyone for joining us today and helping us through this difficult time.

In The News

STV

Hamilton Advertiser

Emma has finally gotten around to registering on Flickr after years of me harrassing her to!

She has uploaded some of the photos that she took for her photographic exhibition, have a look by clicking on the photo above.

Both Emma and Sarah were recently recognised for their hard work at school.

They make me so proud!

My daughter; Emma Goodman was on Real Radio last weekend.

I have removed the mp3 of her appearance as the size of it has exceeded my sites bandwidth allowance. If you woul like a copy, pleas contact me and I will send it to you.

A while back my daughter; Emma Goodman, was interviewed by a researcher from The Press Association who was interested in her story.

She has just called to say that Emma will be featured in the Spring Special edition of the Pick Me Up magazine that goes on sale this Friday.

I have just picked up my copy: 14th march edition, page 27.

This adds nausea as drowsyness to the list of symptoms !

In addition: Sarah has been off school with an upset stomach and Elaine has slept most of the day as she was up all night with Emma: JOY !