Evil Fish

It was a weekend dominated by fish.

We saw pretty ones!







Floated beside famous ones.


(This is robbed from somewhere as I wasn't quick enough to picture him myself! It's Funghi in case you don't recognise him!)

Ate dodgy ones.



There was much vomiting and illness and as a result we gave up and retired to the bossom of our family early.

However the early part of the weekend was lovely, the sun shone, the phat-mobile was in tip top motoring form and we had a lovely time. Tis a pity that the fish got us in the end!

Culture Vulture

I've spent the last two nights immersing myself in very different and highly entertaining cultural art forms and the thought struck me that the Midlands probably won't offer me such wonders, and I felt sad. But on further consideration although I will more than likely miss opportunities like seeing Glen Hansard play in Christ Church Cathedral in the future the point is that I've done it now and have been doing cool stuff like that for 10 years now so maybe it's time to move on! Besides I have secret plans to stay in hotels and have wild and decedent weekends gorging myself on theatre and gigs and fine dining, not to mention the company of friends! And really and truly that could be fun too!

So as I mentioned we were at the gig in Christchurch on Monday night, and it was brilliant. The setting was as you would expect, very atmospheric. There was beautiful use of light in the church, like this!...



and the acoustics were amazing!
I really enjoyed the music which was really beautiful and felt very relaxed and happy leaving which is a good thing!

And then tonight we buggied on down in the phat-mobile to the Opera! It was cool! Faust rocks as far as I'm concerned even if the subtitles did break down and I had to make the story up in my head! I loved it anyway! Great production by the way if you fancy going I don't think you'd be disappointed.

As for this weekend Me the boy and the Phat-mobile are heading to the Kingdom! I just hope the weather is nice as we have 5 days in which to entertain ourselves while there! It'll be great to have a break and lie about drinking Guiness! Now that's real culture!

Ooo I almost forgot!

Me and my blog have been together a whole year (plus some) already.

I was just looking back on my first few posts and it only seems like yesterday in a very surreal way, as we're only seeing the fruition of plans laid then now!

This time last year I was between exams and waiting for results, that really doesn't feel like a whole year ago believe me! We had also made the decision to travel but hadn't gotten as far as laying plans for upping sticks and leaving Dublin altogether, that came later. I'd forgotten that the initial plan had been made so early on isn't that strange? Such a big decision and I'd forgotten when we'd made it! Ah it's not that odd if you knew just how ditzy I really am!

Well it's been a good year, a positive year and I'm really glad that I have this record of it so at least I can have some appreciation of all that I've done and achieved in the recent past.

Next step is to get me a lap top so I won't have the boy peering over my shoulder giving out about my spelling or moaning about cyber stalkers! Ah well it can't be perfect I suppose!

"Wheeling" and "Dealing"

We've sold a house.


We've bought a house.


We've been vaccinated.

It's been a crazy humdinger of a week!

Go On! I Challenge...

Red Mum

Elke and Steve

Gingerpixel

and

Blank Paige

to have a go at naming their favouite things! It'll be good for you! Honest.

Thanks RM for the suggestion!

Here are a few of my favourite things!

When the dogs bite and the bee's sting I often find it a useful exercise to count my blessings and take pleasure where I can!

I'm not saying it's all doom and gloom at the moment or anything but there are times when sustenance must be taken from the simpe pleasures in life!



So here's my list!

1. My new car!
A bit of a no brainer there I guess but I am really enjoying the fabulous freedom of being able to leave whenever I want!

2. McVities Digestive Biccies
A simple pleasure I grant you but lurvely none the less, especially when dipped in very hot tea until they are soggy but not mushy. Yum!

3. Deal or No Deal
I have become addicted to this TV show, I watch it on More 4 in the evenings while cooking dinner. I got fierce excited this week when one of the contestants (I think it was Emily) nearly won £250,000! She only got £100,000 in the end! Hah I'd take it and be glad! It's a cool show based on nothing more than luck and Noel Edmund's personality! I'm glad he's back on the telly!

4. Planning my trip.
When all else fails I close my eyes and try to imagine I'm in China!

5. Working out.
I didn't think I would ever say this but I love going to Curves in the evenings. I've lost 6 inches so far and can really see my body beginning to tone up, it also brings the reality of leaving closer to home as well as I'm only really going there so I can be big and strong enough to lug a back pack around the world!

6. Cuddling the Boy.
Ah yes he's great at the oul cuddles alright and they always make me feel 100% better. What would I do without him?

7. Having a little cry
This is an odd one but stay with me here! There are times in ones month when having a little cry, whether it's over Cornation Street or stubbing your toe, clears the air and makes it all a little bit easier!

8. Listening to my MP3 player.
Especially when it's on shuffle and I don't know what's going to appear next! It can be anything from Pearl Jam to Bluegrass and all sorts in between!

9. Cooking
Even when I'm shattered and miserable making yummy food and, even better, eating it never fails to make me happy!

10. Going for a long walk
This is a pursuit best attempted at home where the air is clean, the birds sing prettily and there's lots of things to look at, unfortunately it doesn't work so well for me here in the Big Smoke!

11. Blogging/Writing
Although I haven't been writing as much I used to here I find myself still jotting down my thoughts and ideas on scraps of paper in work and then eating them in case they are discovered! (I'm joking, kind of, it's just they don't like any form of self expression in the Bank, and I'd hate at this stage to be found out as an individual, I'd probably get the sack!)

So there you go that's my top 11 it's one better than 10 you know!

Freedom!

We bought a car a couple of weeks ago and it's just bliss!

I've wanted to own my very own car ever since I can remember but circumstances have always made it -well the best word to use is - unnecessary. And it's bothered me a little over the years, as I always saw myself as being a car owner first and foremost when I was little and tried to see what the future held for me! I was completely obsessed with driving when I was a kid as well to the point where I used to insist on sitting on the armrest in the back seat of the car and "pretending" to drive! This involved using my feet on imaginary pedals, shifting the imaginary gears whenever the parent did, holding an imaginary steering wheel (properly mind none of this random wheel turning for me!), checking mirrors the works! I reckon I knew the theory behind driving inside out by age 5!

And here I am 28 flippin years old and only now have I got my first car, little me would have been disgusted!


This is very like my car!


I love my car! It's a 99 Ford Focus 1.6 Ghia. It's got all the bells and whistles ya need including a cd player, air con, electric windows and it's got a wood finish dash! Very swank. It's currently parked up during the week but this weekend we decided on a whim to go to Cork, then we went to Athlone and back to Dublin this morning, it's great! Next weekend we're heading off again and I honestly don't know where it will end! But I'll keep you informed.

Oh yeah and yes we are still going away the car will be minded by Grandad when we go so don't worry all plans are still moving forward!

The Unluckiest Teenager

My little sister, Ró, is pretty cool. She's 15 going on 16, very grounded, funny, intelligent and unfortunately for her a bit unlucky, well recently she has been at least.

Unlike her more slutty friends, who have been serial snogging young greasy child-men for the last few years, she has taken a more discerning approach to boys. She has her standards and she's been sticking to her guns! I didn't show the same restraint myself I'm ashamed to admit but applaud her and her principles! Besides I've seen the crowd she hangs out with, and can see her point!

But anyhoo it was with delight that I received a text from lil sis in which she wanted to inform me that she was going on a date, that the boy was reallllly nice nice (which I take is a good thing) and she was very excited/happy.

Oh joy thought I she's off the mark!

But really there is very little justice in the world, the poor chicken is now laid up at home with an enlarge spleen and, wait for it....


The unluckiest teenager


Glandular fever.

All you can do is laugh! And bless her she does see the funny side of it too!

What a week eh?

Ok I have no doubt that this topic has been discussed ad nauseum in the blogosphere all week but I didn't get a chance to come here until tonight so now it's time for my thoughts on the Recalcitrant Rotweiler of Ranelagh!

It was a weird story wasn't it? I mean we're all used to Mr. McDowell doing his own thing and not really giving a damn for the consequences but here we had a situation where he not only lost his temper, his composure but also let's face it his dignity.

I'm not a big blue shirt fan, and while they may have had fascist leanings in the past (cue Eoin O'Duffy and his marching band) it was a strange and wild use of fantasy to claim that poor mild mannered Richard Bruton (or Brutal the younger if you will) was the next Joseph Goebels. But to wake up the following morning to hear our esteemed Minister for Justice apologising on Morning Ireland really confused my start to the day! I don' t think the presenters really knew what to do with him or his apology!

But then to top it all off he half heartedly apologised also for claiming Green Party supporters were responsible for trashing the PD's headquarters during the recent riots. But I actually don't think he did apologise for that one and it was just smoke and noise to cover the fact that he still things the muesli eating, sandal wearing anarchists were to blame.

He's a bit of an odd fish really isn't he? He appears to the type of man who would fight with his own toe nails if there wasn't anything better to do! And I suppose for a man in his position it does take a lot of courage to admit when you're wrong, we all know it stinks when you get caught out but I really don't think he had another option in this case!

What DOES it mean to be Irish?

With the coming and going of Paddy's weekend I, like many others in the media and in the country at large found myself pondering the big question as stated above. I found myself looking around at our country and scratching my head over the furore and drinking plans being made by so many over our national saints day.

I read in the newspapers how kids in primary schools have no idea who St. Patrick was, I heard from a priest I know that the only child called Patrick in a local national school recently visited by him was a little Jehova's witness boy, who really couldn't care less about the patron saint of this country.

And then I watched the parade in Dublin on Friday from the safety and comfort of my sofa, to see if I could glean some inspiration about why we feel need to celebrate our Irishness in such a loud and boisterous way. I was left feeling a bit bemused and even more confused by that experience I have to say. Apparantly Irishness is about dressing up in silly costumes and/or playing brass instruments, or as in one very memorable display, wearing a bikini in the freezing cold and pretending that your're Brazillian and it's Mardi Gras??? I'm very confused about that one.

And still I was left without an answer about what it means to be Irish.

Saturday however brought a whole new set of experiences for me to ponder and it also brought some results.

You see I now am firmly of the opinion that what it means to be Irish is simpy that we prove that we are better than the English.

Our wonderful, dogged and talented men in green showed me on Saturday that even when I had given up, there is still hope that we can win. I was so sure that it would be another gut wrenchingly disappointing day of rugby, with the English finding their courage and their mark and wiping the floor with us, as has happened so often in the past. But this weekend it didn't. That victory together with the fantastic record 10 wins at Cheltenham by Irish trainers showed me what it means to be Irish without a shadow of a doubt.

My faith in this small nation, and my pride in being part of it despite all of its failings and the aspects of our culture which I feel is not to be lauded, was in fact reinforced. So there you have it, it was a momentous weekend for me in many ways!

Running on Empty

Ever see that film - Running on Empty? It was one of my absoloute favourites as a teenager. It had River Phoenix in it, a James Taylor soundtrack and a teenage love story as well as radical political undertones and overtones! I loved it, I must have watched it at least 20 times! Ah memories.



Anyway it only came to mind cause I feel like I'm running on empty at the mo! But the James Taylor soundtrack in my head will keep me going I just know it will!

Time is ticking by for us. The house is being viewed is attracting some interest but no bloody offers yet, which is beyond frustrating. We have more people coming back for a second look this week and I hope to God somebody decides that they want to live here for definate. At least then we can relax a little knowing that we'll get a decent sum out of the place and can realise our dreams and aspirations! There's a lot riding on this for us you know!

On the other side we're off country bound for the second weekend in a row this Paddy's day, I hope to view the car of my dreams that Daddy dearest has sourced for me and also to do a lot of lying around shouting at rugby games. I can't wait! Wouldn't it be marvellous if we won not only the triple crown but also the Six Nations? I suppose I can dream eh?

Congratulations and Celebrations!

I have a sneaky suspicion that this blogging lark in general may not be destined for anonymity for much longer. It was with delight and excitement that I came across muchos media coverage of the Irish Blog awards which took place over the weekend.

Congratulations to one and all, especially Twenty Major for his THREE awards and to Sinead who is by far and away one of my favourite bloggers.

I came across coverage of the awards in high profile media areas such as the Last Word with Matt Cooper and in the Irish Times which can only be a good thing for the Irish Blogosphere!

But it did get me thinking, who would have thought the bould Twenty would become an Ambassador for us all!

Randomness and Ramblings

Well I haven't even dropped by here myself in recent days to see what's up and who's coming to visit, so if you are sticking with me thanks! I'm sorry for the crappiness and the not postingness but between scrubbing and painting (or watching the boy paint, to be strictly fair!) oh and crap broadband connections even checking my email has become a bit of a luxury recently.

I've had lots of thoughts over the last week and have even composed whole posts on scraps of paper but now that I'm finally sitting here I don't want to write about what happened a week ago! This blogging thing is a very current medium I find!

Anyway here are a few pics of our little garden coming to life. We planted hundreds of bulbs last year and it's just amazing to see them growing and blooming, despite the horrible weather.

Oh Lordy Lordy Lordy

My hands are red raw, my eyes sting, my back aches, but finally, finally our house is ready to sell.

We have painfully considered auctioneers' pitches and dealings, and made a choice based on random things at the end of the day, those poor folks fighting over our house like that, I almost feel sorry for them.

So now it's really happening. Viewings will be taking place, strangers will be invading our little haven, with beady eyes and greasy fingers.

It's time to sit back with digits crossed and hope that the market is as greedy for a pretty house as we've been told it is!

Spawning in Springtime!

NO! Not me!

Elke!

She's having Steve's baby!

She's the first of my college mates to get proactive and procreate! It's mad! We're all so old now and there's only one of us making more of us!

I'm soooo pleased for them and you can view the "Peanut" on their blog.
It's in the sidebar "Here is New York".

I can't be arsed doing the html thing as it's late and I'd have to dig around to find it!

Fear & Loathing in Dublin

It was disgusting and upsetting to listen to and watch the reports from Dublin yesterday concerning the riots which took place on O'Connell Street before the Love Ulster march was due to take place.

Why Ulster Unionists feel the need to march in the North is something I don't understand. I understand even less why they feel the need to march on the streets of the capital of the country that they don't want to be a part of, however if it is supposed to help the healing process well I'll stay away from it and ignore the fact that they are probably trying to taunt us. Lining up in front of them, throwing masonry at undermanned Gardai and burning out cars however is not the way to make these people not want to march on our streets.

Those thugs that took over our streets yesterday in the name of Republicanism have only succeeded in confirming Unionist hatredand disparity of our Nation and that is not going to help this island find a lasting a peace. It was a shameful display of thuggery and criminality and not something that I would want to associate myself with or condone in anyway.

Happiness is...

I was a bit of an old misery bag earlier today due to having an almighty tummy ache last night which left me feeling tired and emotional ( I have since found out that I have an infected stomach. Yuck.) But anyway as a result of the pain and the misery I had one of those mornings in which the slightest thing threatened at worst to shove me over the age into absoloute abject misery or at best make me cry. Not good.

So to cheer myself up I made a list of all the things taht were positive in my life, all the things I have to look forward to and all the reasons why everything wasn't s bad as it seemed just now, and that helped a little. I then went out in the rain to a local book shop and picked up a book which gives tips and advice to travellers which gave me a warmish feeling inside as I flicked through it and dreamed of places I want to go and see.

But the real restoration of my spirits came when I wandered into Butlers Chocolate Café and purchased happiness in a cup. A low fat Mocha. So much yumminess and happiness in one purchase! I need never feel blue again! I've found my salvation! Although I'm not too sure it was the best thing to have with an infected belly it sure did make me smile!

The art of the PFO

I sent off a bunch of letters and CV's last week to various high profile solicitors in the Midlands just to test the waters. To be honest I really didn't expect to get any acknowledgement from any of them or any indication at all that the application had been received as it was unsolicited. However I received my first PFO today! And I'm pleased! Well at least it means the application was received and they said they would keep me in mind should they start looking for apprentices which is a little ray of hope that I'm going to hold onto! I'm not ready to take up a position immediately anyway as we have the travelling planned first but at least my name is out there and maybe I'll be remembered in the future. Yah never know!

I'm about to post a review of Good Night and Good Luck on the other site now and am then going to watch the champions league! Better be quick as it's rapidly approaching 7.45!

But ugh speed and me are not good friends at the moment! I think the combination of the extra walking distance to and from work, the longer day, and curves is really draining my energy! Plus I seem to be eating more than I really need which is counteracting the point of exercising.... Feck it! I'm hungry!

Busy busy busy

I know I've been a little off with the blogging thing lately but believe me I am contributing here whenever I can it just doesn't seem to be happening very regularly at all. So I'm sorry.

Life has become very busy very suddenly for me and the lovely boy! The change of job has also had a huge impact on me not least for the fact that I don't have internet access anymore but also because unlike in my last job I'm busy and I'm learning stuff and it's good for me to experience that again as the last place I worked in was a far cry from the reality of life.

On the home front we are preparing our house for sale and next weekend we are heading out of Dublin to view houses in areas that we think we might like to live in. And I'm very excited about it all! Our current house needs very little work done but even the act of decluttering (I'm a hoarder I'm afraid!), refreshing paint work, weeding and cleaning takes time, effort and energy, which is leaving very little of anything for me to use to express myself here.

However saying that I am really missing my blog. I miss thinking about stuff and then putting those thoughts into words and commiting them to a medium. Today I've been working on the house all day and was feeling a little blue as it's sunday and I hate the thought of having another week of working and not moving to face into, but after spending a little time here I feel better already! So I am going to keep the blog up but it may only be a post once or maybe twice a week. But for me that will be better than nothing!

On Empty Vessels

It is only when you are forced to mix with people and have no choice as to who it is you are sitting next to or walking in front of that you truly realise just how dumb some people really are. My prime examples for this little rant will be taken from my recent experiences at the cinema.

I'm sure we've all had to suffer through the indignity of having our chairs kicked or popcorn crunched loudly in our ears while attending the cinema, and while annoying, these events come with the territory and just have to be endured. However we have recently come across a much more annoying and to me baffling form of aggravation at the cinema. Talking. Out loud and throughout the whole film.

What is the point of that? Surely you pay nearly nine quid in to see a movie because you want to see it not because you want to talk to your mate? Or am I missing something? The prime culprits seem mostly to be young women in groups of two between the ages of 18 and 25. My advice is to avoid at all costs or risk having to become obnoxious and slightly aggressive in a bid to get them to shut the hell up.

On a different note, on my way out of Good Night and Good Luck this weekend I happened to overhear a particulary vacuous but amusing conversation between two such empty vessels.

Girl One: That was shite.
Girl Two: Nah I liked it, but if me ma asks me what it was about I won't be able to tell her.
Girl One: Yeah I liked it too.
Girl Two: But it was confusing right?
Girl One. Oh yeah, definately.

I used to think we were a nation that was able to pride ourselves on our education and intelligence. Yet the more I look around the more depressingly obvious it is to me that most people just reflect exactly it is that Ed Murrow warned us about fifty years ago. And it would appear that it is unlikely to improve.