"We're all going on our Summer Holidays"

Yiiiipppppeeeee last day of drudgery here I am! The photo is of the red double decker bus which Sir Cliff and friends converted into a holiday home for their adventure around Europe in the film

Summer Holiday!

When I was a kid all I wanted to do was take a holiday like that!

But its not to be this time! Oh who cares I am out of the office for 7 whole days. I will be missing from my beloved blog for a total of 11 DAYS! - how will I survive? How will my readers survive and more importantly will they come back to me once I return from my holliers!? Ah well only time will tell!

On a different note I have been given a highly important mission by a friend of mine which includes a covert undertaking to discover who it is that buys lace collars (a la mode in the 16th century) from gift shops in Belgium. I will endeavour to do my best on this one. If anyone else has a mission for me let me know before 4.30 Irish time!!

Well thats me for now I shall post loads about my trip when I return and as many pictures as I can manage!

The Saga of the Search for the Perfect Bra

I seem to spend a vast amount of precious shopping time on the hunt for the perfect bra! If I'm not looking for a specific shaped bra, whether it is backless, clear strapped, low cut orplunge to suit a particular outfit, I'm discovering that yet again my bussoms have changed size!

Since my early 20's I have gone from sporting a very pettite A cup to as it stands pretty substantial D cup. Goodie you might think the amazing expanding chest does exist! However I beg to differ...

The rapid and spontaneous changing bussoms are a bane of my life. I am constantly having to expose myself to the rough hands and cold measuring tapes of bra fitters in drafty changing rooms. I hate this process. I hate seeing myself in 3 way mirrors and I absoloutely hate old women pawing at me. If they were attractive and young then at least I could provide the LB with some food for thought, but generally the reality is embarrasing and uncomfortable.

But yet again yesterday evening I found myself in Marks & Spencers trawling through rails of Mulitway bras searching a) for my newly updated bra size and b) for the appropriate shape and fit of bra to suit my lovely new dress, which I plan to wear to my friend's wedding on Thursday. It was as usual a demoralising and depressing experience and after about an hour of holding back the tears I picked what I hoped would be the perfect bra.

Before you read on - None of these pictures are of me, they are the official photos from the M&S website so don't get too excited!



This is bra No. 1 which was the best of the million I tried on.




This is bra 2 an unmitigated disaster on me for some strange reason.




This is the one I wanted but which for some reason just made me look like a mutant!

Now none of these offerings are particularly sexy or attractive. In fact functional is the word I would apply to them. Searching for a pretty mutli way bra is no way zone it seems and did add to my frustration. Therefore in the end I had to setttle and hope that what I picked would be appropriate and more importantly would stay out of view. So I brought bra No. 1 home and thankfully it fits inside my dress (just) and the straps can't be seen where they shouldn't and so this time I don't have to return it!

And so my recent saga of the search for the perfect bra is over, for now. But no doubt I will be back in the same position within another few weeks and when it happens I might as well share it with the world!

Battle of the Blogs!

Ha ha I won! That cheered me up!

I Nearly Died of Boredom

Uuuggghhhh is how I feel this Monday morning. I spent all (yes ALL) weekend locked up at home studying. I hate studying. I hate the FE1's and I want my life back. This round of staying at home with my nose in the books is a zillion (no I'm not exagerating) times worse than either of the previous times with knobs on. I'm like the antichrist today and I'm just going to take this opportunity to vent. Luckily for you, you don't have to read it! But you can if you click onwards!

Ok so yes I did get quite a load of work done this weekend but I'm still behind in my study plan which I get quite anal about and the fact I'm not following it as its laid out really stressed me out. IS stressing me out. This is not helped by the fact that I will be on holidays from this Thursday. I am of course really looking forward to it, however when I get this worked up about my study I would prefer to keep going at it until I was in a better position. So I have to battle with my inner demons to RELAX! Pathetic isn't it?

My poor abandoned little sister who has recently been released from the Gaelteacht (Irish speaking college for those of you not in the know, and who are gluttons for punishment and are actually reading this post) contacted me yesterday and compounded my misery by requesting that she be allowed to come stay with me for a while so we could spend some quality time together because she misses me. I would love to do this more than anything else, but you've guessed the Plan won't allow it. So I had to compromise with her and she is now coming to stay with me for the Bank Holiday weekend in OCTOBER. Isn't that crap am I not a bad selfish person? The poor thing was really good about it as well and said she understood and was really looking forward to it. I'm going to have to really pull out the stops for her for that weekend to show her that I'm not a boring old fart with no life... Oh hell.

The boy was great this weekend, very supportive a cuddly as per usual. He brought DVDs home for me to watch, all designed for my enjoyment. So we watched Ice Age (very funny) and Seabiscuit (gentle and relaxing with pretty horses) and that and the fajhitas I made were the highlight of my weekend!

The good news is that I feel much better now after all that venting. So if you have read this post thanks for listening!

Viking Invasion!

Ok so I've overstated my position again but I like the title of this post!



This is a replica Viking ship which is currently docked in Dublin and I got very excited when I spotted it on Wednesday. My phone was low on juice so I had to wait til yesterday to take my piccies so I thought I'd share with the wider world!

I have a postgraduate qualification in Archaeology which I really enjoyed doing, although with hindsight was not a great career move! However I did learn lots and I got to play with the dirt for a year which was fun!

Of all of the archaeology that I covered in that year I still have a huge affection for and interest in Viking history and archaeology. I just like it. The Vikings were advanced, intelligent and a bit mysterious. As such I am waiting with baited breath to hear how the excavations of the Longphort in Woodstown are getting on. This discovery is phenomenally huge and I hope its chocka block with lovely finds!

I remember the day very clearly that I first met the Viking skeleton, which was removed from the site at Heuston station, and is now on display in the National Museum. He is incredibly well preserved and I could not get over the length of him, he must have been welll over 6" in his prime. He was buried in full battle gear complete with helmet (the horns are a work of fiction Vikings never wore horns on their heads the Victorians just felt that they should) shield boss, which is the central metal part of a wooden shield, and a huge sword. He's shit cool.

So here's to the Vikings! My favourite of the conquering nations!

Code problems

I'm trying to make the flower in the my title bar appear as background picture and the code I have apparantly won't work. Anyone have any ideas to help me out??

Cheers!

So much bad news

I've been browsing around the web a little this morning and a couple of news stories really struck me. Check out this link to Google for a brief snapshot of whats going on in Niger at the moment. For a better analysis than I can give The Big Drought has highlighted the issue in a succinct way.

I have in recent times began to read historys of Africa, and have found myself becoming increasingly interested in the causes and reasons behind the wars and famines on that continent. We all give ourselves a pat on the back when we donate a couple of quid whenever there is a crisis like the one developing in Niger right now, or the continuing crises in the Sudan, Zaire or any where else you might of heard about recently. But very few people realise where these problems have come from and most people think it is because of natural disasters at most.

I'm not an expert just because I've read a few books and I'm not going to preach here about my opinion on this subject, but what I would like to do is to encourage people to start learning about the reason Africa is in such a bad way. I think that a better understanding of the cruelty and exploitation visited on these people may give us ideas about how to make a lasting difference there. And we still need to keep the donations flowing and campaigning for real and lasting justice - and that is where campaigns like Make Poverty History show their worth.

Other news that struck me today was the story about the Mother who sold pictures of her children in the bath on E-bay. She claims she did not recognise any potential danger in her action and she just wanted to raise money so she could visit her daughter who is living in the States. Maybe the woman is at her wits end and beyond desperate but honestly with all the hype in the media about Paedophiles on the internet there is no excuse for ignorance on this question. At least maybe this story will mean other people who show "cute "pictures of their kids in all states of dress and undress will err on the side of caution in future. For the sake of their children if for nothing else.

I've also just seen that three underground lines have been closed in London due to, so the reports say, the setting off of detonation devices. We'll have to wait to see if this is any more serious than the first reports indicate. We were only discussing this morning here in work how places like London and Turkey should be safer to go to now as terror attacks rarely happen so soon after each other. I hope we're not wrong.

I appologise for the rant by the way I think yesterday's hangover has caught up with me today and I feel unlike my usual chirpy self, which has been compouned by all the bad news, but my theory is better out than in!


I

I'm famous!

Alright so that might be pushing it a little but I was on the radio this morning and I did win a prize!



This is Ray D'arcy a DJ on Today FM and a bit of a hero to my generation as he worked on kids telly with infamous puppets and made us all laugh lots. And I spoke to him today!

I was was wandering into work this morning, late, (I had permission to sleep off the hangover from the post rugby drinking session) and they were looking for people to call in who worked in the legal profession so, being still probably a bit drunk I decided to give it a lash, and they picked me! It was the odd one out quiz which means Ray calls out 3 things and you have to pick the odd one out. I got them all right! I couldn't believe it I think I should get drunk more often!

I've won a hoodie and will never take it off as it is the first thing I have ever won in a competition and I'm dead proud of myself!

The Tag Rugby League Final

The mighty Misfits take to the pitch



Action shots with Twinkeltoes on the ball and Mac running is support.

It was a game of epic proportions. We each had two sendings off. The trys were matched one for one for the whole game. With 2 mins to go the score was 12 points each. Then they got a soft girl try (worth 3 points) and we had a girl try disallowed on the final whistle despite the fact she was tagged over the line as opposed to before it. In short we were robbed.

However as it was such a tight game there was no shame in defeat and yes we were all disappointed but plans were soon hatched to steal the winners trophy and that put us all back in top form again. Unfortunatley we didn't succeed but it was fun trying!

One Pint Lighter

They took my blood and were glad of it! I can't donate platelets yet cause it takes me so long to squeeze out one pint! Eleven bloody minutes it took with me squeezing on the bone thing they give you to hold for all that I was worth! And even at that the machine kept beeping at me until I had gathered a crowd of nurses and doctors around me with obviously nothing better to do apart from encouraging my veins to give up their precious cargo! Ah well while I may not be able to play tonight (I say may, only time will tell if I actually will or not) at least I have the warm fuzzy light headed feeling of giving!

Super Tuesday

I am going to have don my Superwoman outfit in order to fulfill all of my obligations for today. I have somehow managed to organise the blood donation drive for work to clash/coincide with the final, top of the table clash in the tag rugby league. A stroke of ingenuity on my part wouldn't you agree? Odds are I will have to sit out the game due to lack of blood but I'm keeping my mouth shut until I know for sure as they may not want my blood today so there's no point panicking about it yet!

I have 12 of my fellow work colleagues lined up to donate today, and most of them are donating virgins so even if I'm out for the game I can bask in the warm glow of having done something pro-active anyway. So I won't feel too disappointed! Or at least I'm trying to convince myself of that!

Life is going to be a lot less interesting from now on without the tag games on a tuesday night to keep my blood pumping. And God only knows what we're going to talk about in work, as it seems to have dominated nearly every conversation around the table for the past 3 months. Ah wel I guess I'll have no excuse but to get the head down 100% for the exams in October and look forward to regaining a life once they are over. I hope to God I pass them in one go as I think I'll crack up if I had to face them again in the spring time. But that is idle speculation and I would be better advised to use my time and energy concentrating on the task in hand!

Post the Harry Potter Weekend

Well the plan for the weekend went smoothly for once and I did everything that I predicted I would do including spending far too much money on Saturday on stuff I convinced myself I needed (well holidays are fast approaching and I have NOTHING to wear etc etc). So the rest of the month will be spent in abject poverty living off thin air. But at least I have pretty skirts to wear in the sunshine... Oh dear.

On the Harry Potter side of things, I stand before you disappointed. I did my review on the other page so you can check that out if you so wish but the bottom line is that its the weakest of all of the books to date and is in short a filler book. However the story line has been moved on and to be fair I think Rowling has set up the finale to be something very special so all hope is not yet lost!

My so called "friend" who works in a library thought it was very funny to send me text messages all weekend asking did I want to know who died, and threatening to tell me. I found it funny as well but tried to keep the fact from her I don't know who was winding who up in the end, but like I said it was amusing!

The Harry Potter Weekend

I just got an email from my friend who works in a library threatening to tell me who dies in the Half Blood Prince. I'm very upset. If she manages to leak it to me I'll probably kill her. I'm not joking.

I know I'm realtively ancient compared to the target audience for the Harry Potter books but I love them and get such a thrill out of reading a new one! I've even reread the older ones on occassion while bored. Its my secret shame (actually not so secret anymore it seems). And so my weekend will comprise of studying Equity and Property law - I have enough of Tort for the moment, going into town to spend my wages - we get paid mid month here which is very inconvenient as it means I'm broke when everyone else I know is flush, and reading Hary Potter and the Half Blood Prince - which in my nerdy excitement I have pre ordered from Waterstones!

A new route home

The new Sean O'Casey pedestrian bridge had its grand unveiling yesterday evening and I was witness to it as I plodded on my course home!



This is the bridge complete with important people walking across it at about 5.20pm yesterday. I had become bored watching the silly prancing people running up and down the bridge in some kind of dancing show and had walked over the bridge further down. By the time I had walked around I was able to witness the first official crossers of the bridge!



This is my maiden journey across said bridge this morning.

Now you're probably wondering why in God's name I am blogging about the opening of a bridge in Dublin, I can understand that most people really couldn't give a damn. But you see this bridge is very important to me. And there's a story about it so I hope you're sitting comfortably.

You see in my last job in the Yuckiest Bank in the country (I'd love to name and shame them but I had better not) I worked with a most horrible and irritating person, let's call her Niamh. Niamh was a very unhappy person. She also liked to spread her misery.

Now I admit that I can be easily irritated at times, but I recognise this fault in myself and I try very hard to see the good in people so that when I feel irritated I can put myself in a better frame of mind. I worked with this creature Niamh for 18 months I can say with all honesty that despite my best efforts she had no redeeming features. She seemed to suck all the light out of the room and all of the pleasure out of the small things in life. She was constantly belittling me and she just made me feel bad. I was glad when I no longer had to work with her. BUT just when I thought I would never have to see her skinny pointy miserable little face again she pops up on my route home every evening. It's feckin torture. I have done all I can over the last few months to avoid her and its been exhausting. However with the opening of this new bridge it now means that it is highly unlikely I will bump into her anymore and it saves about 5 minutes off my journey to and from work every day! Yippppeeeee! And so that is why I have blogged about the opening of the Sean O'Casey bridge in Dublin. Thank you for listening.

Come back Mr. Sunshine

Mr Sun is hiding behind some hazy clouds today but as I write is making a brave attempt to break through and warm this fair city once again! I know I'm harping on this weather thing but its the main topic of conversation everywhere I go and you just have to revel in the heat whenever it arrives. Remeber this is Dublin and the country is Ireland and it is located on the Atalntic seaboard and the rain hits us first before dissipating over England leaving mainland Europe basking in the sunshine (Bastards).

Speaking of mainland Europe I will be there myself in about 2 weeks time and am now allowing myself to get all excited about my holliers! They've been booked for months but I never think about going anywhere until close to the time, otherwise I'd wear myself out with the excitement. This year we are going to Brussels! I know its not exactly the Costa del Sol but all the reports I've heard about the city have been very positive and I was personally sold on the reports of fine dining and excellent beer, so I'm happy enough.

Last year we spent a week in Berlin which was fantastic! Its a great city and although it was my second time there it wasn't in the slightest bit boring. Its a huge place for a start and there is so much history on every street its cool just to kick back sit in a cafe and take it all in. We also hit Amsterdam and Oslo last year on weekend breaks. God bless low flight no frills airlines its so cool to be only 3 hours away from amazing fresh places to see and investigate a definate perk of living in Ireland!

A Heaven Sent Day

Oh its glorious in Dublin today. According to weather pixie the temperature is in the mid to high 20's and the sky is the most beautiful mediterranean blue! I love this city when the sun shines, the people sparkle and strip off and everyone looks happy! Yesterday was the same which means we have had at least 2 consecutive days of summer weather!!! I'm making a note of this here so that the next time its miserable and raining and cold I can look back at today's entry and remember that we had some good weather this year!
I just checked out overheard in Dublin there's an hilarious account of a 'scary burd' on the 77A. Its well worth checking out.
Oh I'm in a real rambling humour today. But I better go do some work before I get caught dossing!

"Scandinavia looks like a willy"

Quote unquote my mate Liz.!



This is Liz looking a bit blurry and grumpy because she probably doesn't want to be blogged but she gets blogged cause she's funny!

Anyway the background to this story is set against a pub crawl in Dublin with my mates. We ate Tapas from here. Drank Mojitos and Margueritas everywhere and fell around the place laughing for most of the night while protesting that we weren't in the slightest bit drunk.

I learned many new things last Friday night not least of those is that Scandinavia does indeed look like a willy as illustrated by Nutty Liz on production of a euro coin! I also learned that being single in Dublin is very scary indeed and that there are some very odd looking men on the prowl out there. Chief among them (that we liked best) was scary outback farmer/Californian beach bum look-a-like (who was probably from D4) with his skin tight transparent white shirt tucked into skin tight across the crotch blue jeans and his Kerrraaazy dance moves. This guy had to be seen to be believed! I'm sure I'm not doing him justice here! Oh yes and a very special shout out also goes to the leather trouser clad long haired blonde "man" with shiny ear rings. Beautiful. That's all I can say. I wonder did he score the terrified looking girl he had cornered?

What has happened to Mr. Unky?

Mr Unky the moody man has disappeared from his site and now all it says is "Coming Soon" I miss him. By changing the picture here on the blog every day it made me analyse exactly how I was feeling and then the fun part of what image best captured that mood. I am one of those people who will announce to all that could be bother listening that I have PMS or I'm grumpy or even that I'm hyper/happy. I feel that it is only fair that if I'm going to be in any way tedious, annoying or even funny that there should be due warning. Unky made me analyse beyond my usual three emotions (as above) and I was beginning to enjoy it! I hope he comes back soon.

Reactions and Thoughts

Why is it that we feel the need to watch disasters unfold in front of us? Why do people rubberneck when passing car crashes? Why were we all glued to the web or the tv yesterday as the events in London began to unfold? The lovely boy posed a question similar to this as I flicked to the news channel as soon as I walked in the door last night. I told him after I had thought about the question that I just wanted to be prepared should I ever be involved in something like that. I would prefer to have some idea of what to expect than to be caught unawares. This is an honest answer from me but its not a complete one.

The other other side of watching images like those that emerged from London yesterday and from New York in September 2001 is that we have a connection with people in London and New York which many of us on here don't have with people in Iraq or India or Africa. Many of us have friends, relatives and history we can draw on when we see those places and it hits us harder and brings it closer to home. We also feed into the drama and the worry and the confusion, if it can happen there it can happen here. We get afraid.

I guess thats what the people who plan and execute these attacks want. They want people in Berlin, Paris, Toronto, Sidney to be afraid. That's the real power they have over all of us. Thats the lasting effect of what happened yesterday.

Of course the first thing GWB had to say was that the war on terror would continue. The attack in another vindication in his eyes for the terror that his war unleashes every day in the Middle East. The logic (if there ever was any) of that argument must surely be wearing thin even in the most conservative of minds. We forget that while upwards of 40 people died in London yesterday in Iraq at around the same time there were 2 suicide bombs which killed 13. The people there face this sort of terror every day. How must they feel? We certainly don't feel the same sort of fear and worry when we hear about the attacks they suffer every day.

sharp return to reality

My thoughts are with all of those people who are caught up in the events that occured in London this morning.
Thankfully my friends who live there are all safe.
I don't see the point in commenting further on this at the moment as we really don't know what has happened yet nor do we have any real idea of the extent of the damage that has been done.

Minor Miracles

I must have some prophetic blood in my lineage as after a day of unrelentless rain as soon as we hit the rugby pitch the sun broke through the clouds and we basked and played in the warming rays of the summer sun for the duration of the game! Surprisingly it wasn't even particularly muddy on the pitch so there was no real danger of injuries from slipping and sliding like last week. However our "surly" coach did have the misfortune of dislocating one of his fingers (really gross) but the valiant young man popped it back in grimaced a bit, sprayed his hand with that magic spray footballers use to cure everything and went back on to score more trys! I'm not sure if I should be impressed or not but I do admire his commitment to the team! The good news is that we are back on winning form with a 12 point win against our opponents last night! So we all hit the pub happy little bunnies once again.

As for Bex she survived the written part of her Irish exam relatively unscathed but was a little out out by the oral when the examiner started asking her questions that weren't covered in the 2 week crash course like "Why did she come to Ireland" - Bex didn't know what "why" was in Irish and had to be told in English! I can't imagine that went down well but she says she rallied as best she could so fingers crossed she did enough to get through it! She expressed her feelings of pent up frustration at the Irish Law Society by scoring a lovely try for the first time and so I have no doubt went home pretty happy with herself!

Spare A Thought...

For my poor friend Becky. Becky is a lovely funny gregarious young one who is presently sitting an exam in Irish which, if she passes will allow her someday to become a solicitor. Becky is from Essex. That's in England. They speak only English there. She has not one word of Irish. She has been learning reams of gooblidegook (Irish) which she plans to regurgitate in the exam today. She also has an Oral exam to pass. Hopefully a "Hello my name is Becky I'm from Essex" in Irish will be sufficient to get her through that one. The poor gobshite.

On the other hand it is feckin raining in this city again. As its Tuesday that means it will be rugby in the rain again tonight unless a miracle happens and we get a heatwave at about 4.00pm. You know it is possible so fingers crossed!>/span>

Sunshine & politics

Its hard not to think of last weekend and this coming week without bringing the G8 summit into the proceedings. Like a lot of other people I watched the Live 8 concert this weekend and while it was entertaining and it was great to see so many people supporting the event I shared to some degree the scepticism many people in the media expressed about the actual point of the day. That was until Bob Geldof showed a film from 1985 depicting children in Ethopia who were dying from disease and starvation, I asked the boy did he ever wonder what happened to those people and he reckoned they were all long dead, which I agreed with and I felt guilty and sad while watching the little faces on the screen. At the end of the film Bob asked the same question and answered it by introducing a young woman who had featured in the film, who when she was filmed was on the brink of death. She is now in her 20's has graduated from university and is absoloutely stunning, with a future ahead of her. The point Bob was making was that despite all the cynicism about what exposure of the poverty in Africa will actually achieve, there is a point to trying to make a difference and that girl was living proof of it. I was deeply moved by that moment. I know that the >Make Poverty History campaign has its flaws and I'm not holding my breath that this G8 summit will make the breakthroughs that we are campaigning for, but if it makes people aware of the problems that are in the world and the potential soloutions and those people add their voices to the campaign, I can't see how so many people can continue to be ignored. Its worth trying for at any rate.

TGIF!!

Yipppeee its the weekend!

We went to see War of the Worlds last night and I have to say I really enjoyed it! I was on the edge of the seat for the whole film with my hand in my mouth to stop myself from becoming too vocal! It was great! The level of tension and fear generated in the movie is excellent and considering how easy it is to be cynical about these types of stories it was very easy for me to be completely sucked into the "We're all going to DIE!" mentality!
It's always great when a movie hits the right mark and despite the whole TomandKatie pre moviewhatthefuckisthematterwithhim stuff the film stands up on its own.
Tonight its Batman Begins which from all accounts sounds like its a fairly good movie! I wonder will it live up to the rollercoaster that was War of the Worlds though??
I used to love the Batman cartoons when I was younger there such an element of darkness to them and they were so story driven it was hard not to get hooked on them! I've heard that this round of Batman movies have returned to that root, which does give me hope! Considering just how bad Batman 2 & 3 were there is definately room for improvement!