Lost in translation – grumpy old women part 4

I THOUGHT it would be overload to post this with my last post but it happened on the same day, only I had Tetra’s company to assure me that it wasn’t just me, though as you will see by the graphic I am adding to these posts tomorrow she has made up a redmum grumpy song and even drew pictures.

It goes something like ‘it’s not a drama – it’s a gingerama’.

Anyway we met after my journey on Friday for a sit-down, I couldn’t walk in my shoes by this stage at all, drink in her local pub aptly named grumpys, (no joking).

We took a booth and proceeded to have a laugh, with her singing my new theme tune among other frivolities then a guy came up and asked us did we know where there was a pool table nearby ‘really nearby’.

Initially we couldn’t work out where the guy was from but that wasn;t the most pressing question, the most pressing one was where was there a pool table nearby.

Our thought process wasn’t enabled at all by the fella’s stupid attempts at miming playing a shot and we hmmed and haaed trying to think as he tried even more unsuccessfully at showing us what pool is.

The fella didn’t like this delay at all but the last time I played pool in Dublin it was in the early 1990s and I couldn’t think of anywhere.

He was going ‘come on come on’ before saying ‘don’t kill yourselves’.

The only reply to that was (which we did in unison) ‘NO we DON’T’ before we turned back around to each other before going saying to each other ‘arse’.

We felt slightly guilty later when we talked to him again while outside having a ciggie. He was friendly, slightly mad and because he was French we reckoned there was a lost in translation moment, maybe that comment sounded funny to him, to us it was just plain rude.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs grumpy lost in translation

Hell is other people - grumpy old women part 3

Hell is other people… on trains

I think I should be worried but I am finding it very easy to write my grumpy old women posts. And here is another.

Trains would be great without the people – I was up again on Friday at 5.45am to get the 7am train to Cork again and the next time I will definitely have to get to bed early, it ends up such a long and tiring day and bed time at 1.30am does not work.

As it was bank holiday weekend and although Jazz Festival goers would probably not be catching the 7am train in order to get to the venues early I thought it made sense to book my ticket online. That system is a joke.

No one pays any attention to it as far as I can see unless the train is packed to the gills and the people in the yellow coats who assist people on the train guide you to correct carriage it is impossible (or feels like it ) to comprehend.

But I managed somehow on Friday morning to find my seat and sat back to enjoy the sun coming up, camera ready just in case there was something that caught my eye, and off I travelled.

When the buffet car opened I thought breakfast in order and left my coat and a bag with non-valuables on my seat (I had a four seat bit to myself).

After breakfast I returned to my seat, only it wasn’t my seat anymore there was someone sitting at my seat and someone else opposite him.

‘Can I get my seat?’ I said.
He said yeah and didn’t move. Defeated I sat down in the seat beside him though I was seething inside.

I like the window seat so if see something I can try to capture it. I previously missed an amazing shot going by the Curragh. There was a beautiful morning mist with all sorts of muted browns and greens and as I sat down from having taking pics out the windows between the carriages I saw four people on horseback disappearing into the mist. I didn’t catch it before the train whizzed by.

So on Friday morning I just wasn’t happy at all.

I put on my ipod, took out my notebook and started writing. Then the fella proceeded to try and read what I was writing.

Another thing that bugs me about travelling on the train is when people are walking by and nearly take your shoulder and continue on by without so much as a glance over their shoulder.
I know this happens, you are on a moving train, but come on when did sorry be dropped from everyday use.

Once in Cork I went to a colleague’s house where his massive, friendly and frisky Labrador wanted to play fisty-cuffs with me and somehow managed to open the top button of my blouse.

Normally I’d wear a vest top underneath because when I bend over I can reveal more of Tipperary than I’d like due to the top button being lower than I’d like.

When I went to bed last night the black vest I thought was sitting on the dresser actually turned out to be something else entirely at 5.45am. I thought frig it, put on a cardigan – a move I would later regret.

Particularly seeing as how my colleague’s dog completely exposed me and I spent a frantic two minutes (it was surely longer) trying not to draw attention to my exposure by discreetly buttoning up my blouse.

The dog, it was a he, was having none of it and keep punching me with his paws starting off a series of at least three exposures.

At one stage I nearly greeted my boss in a very novel way when I say nearly there is a very large chance that he was greeted in more ways than one, two actually and he was too polite to pay notice. I am hoping of course that is not the case.

Somehow to my relief, the buttons started behaving themselves at lunchtime, thank God. The only flashing I wanted to do was with my camera.

On the way home on the 7.30pm train I tried to catch 40 winks. I slooped down in the chair with my coat over me and managed to snooze, until a fella banged into my legs so he could sit down. Cheers for that again excuse me has been dropped without my knowledge.

He sat opposite me so I could no longer stretch out, I think he had an aversion to sitting at the window. I didn’t sit at the window cos it was dark and there was nothing to see.

Even if I was able to snooze again I couldn’t because he started to tunelessly hum, whistle, and make other noises as he did a su-doku puzzle.

Seeing as how I couldn’t sleep I thought I would get a glass of wine from the bar, only they had sold out and I didn’t fancy anything else.

It was all a conspiracy I tell you, all because I insist that Belfast is the second city not Cork, cos it is not. *Preparing for a deluge of annoyed Cork bloggers he he*

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs grumpy travelling Dublin to Cork

RM October 19 - Teens and binge drinking

Teens and binge drinking

Teaching teenagers a realistic education about safe levels of alcohol is more successful in dissuading our teenagers from excessive drinking than shock horror tactics, a conference held in Dublin this week has been told.

That makes sense to me; I’ve always felt that demystifying alcohol is a good approach to giving your teen a healthy attitude about drinking.

On occasions where there’s been champagne like at weddings, the Young Wan has always been offered a glass to join in the toast. She’d then take a taste and pull a face. Sometimes I would put some orange juice into it and it would be sitting on the tabled discarded hours later.

In the interests of her participation in the proceedings and to put away any notion of alcohol being forbidden fruit and therefore more desirable I always thought this was best.

It was always my experience growing up that it was those of my friends who were absolutely forbidden to drink who would be the ones who would need carrying home now and again. It rarely happened in the households where drinking was out in the open and discussed with an open mind without lecturing.

The Young Wan recently asked me about alcopop drinks and what they were like. I told her I thought they were vile, horrible sickly-sweet drinks however when I am out lots of people do drink them.

I went on to say they can be dangerous because they taste like lemonade and people end up drinking lots and lots of them. In a short time they are absolutely hammered and health risks aside getting into that state can lead you into dangerous situations, particularly when you are young and not used to drink and it’s effects on you. That’s not being out and about and enjoying a drink and craic with your friends, that’s just drinking to get blottoed.

When I first started going into pubs, we would drink glasses of cider and blackcurrant and nurse the glass all night. Course that was the 1980s and most teenagers did not have money to do anything else. But we were out socialising and having fun so we did not feel we were missing out on anything.

From cider and blackcurrant we switched to cider, beer and blackcurrant known in Belfast as a ‘purple nasty’, only we didn’t think it was nasty. Again though we didn’t have the money to enable us to get absolutely langers. Would we have if we had the money probably we were teenagers.

It is a far different story nowadays, many teenagers actually has what amounts to a disposable income, so they can spend their own money on whatever and for some it is going out and getting hammered.

All this binge drinking will have serious health consequences for many of our young people in years to come. But for them as they are now, health problems are something that only happens to old people; it is not something they get.

The other problem of peer pressure is another fraught aspect to teenagers coming of an age where these temptations are put in their way. It can be hard for them to say no to their pals which emphasises for me the need to be open and honest with your teen about drinking. There is no point saying no to them and having a drink ourselves, or saying they wouldn’t enjoy it when we clearly do. It is more about setting an example where you can have a drink in moderation, have fun and most importantly be safe while doing so.

When this raises it’s head for me as a mum, I hope I can stick by all this, I would prefer for her and her pals to have a drink in my home with me there rather than on the corner of some alley way.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs Redmum column young wan teenagers binge drinking

RM October 12 - Kids the second mortgage

Kids – the second mortgage

Only weeks after the start of the school term and all the expenses that incurred, I have forked out a small fortune over the last week. At times having a child is like that saying people say about owning a car, the repairs aren’t €20 and €40; they run into figures akin to your week’s wages.

It feels like I have been handing over large amounts of money regularly, oh yeah that’s right, it is not just a feeling I have.

First of all was the weekly drama classes which cost €200 a term, then there was €100 for supervised study in school in preparation for the Junior Certificate exams.
And hopefully they are both worth it.

You might remember we had a deal – Sundays through Thursdays, she is mine; the weekends are hers, well within reason of course.

Only so far it has not been working out that way, she seems to be under the misguided impression that Mum’s time begins when she arrives home from school. The fact that she has arriving back later and later is giving me no end of headaches, not to mention the fact that she has been getting it in the neck for all this nonsense.

Oh and she still thinks she is entitled to her weekends.

In fairness the last two days she has been making an effort but only after being punished by not being allowed to go to a friend’s house one evening.

That will continue over the weekend but she will go to drama; the reason for that is bigger than the punishment.

She has never really been involved in anything. I’ve brought her to different activities in school and she never really got into whatever it was. I think it is something that needs to be driven by the child too, there is no point me thinking that camogie is great if the only thing she enjoys is standing leaning on her hurley chatting to people.

I was motivated to do sports as a teenager, the Young Wan is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Then somehow since she started secondary school it has been harder to organise her to do things, between work and school, and the fact we do not have a car and someone to ferry her about while I am at work have all contributed.

So I was determined that she would start something this autumn, something that was not related to school, where she could still learn while having fun. And she loves the class so far, well she is a drama queen being a teenager. She loved the people and had lots of laughs and she cannot wait to get back.

It’ll be so good for her confidence never mind being occupied, which is always a great thing particularly at her age.

I thought the supervised study would be a different story. But the first day home she seemed thrilled. Now I am not fooling myself – she may have been practising her newly-learnt acting, but she did seem proud of herself.

There was lots of ‘I feel so good, I have actually STUDIED’.

Like many other teenagers and I was no exception she needs to be forced to study and forced she will be.

Will she study in reality, who knows, you can lead a horse to water and all that.

So as I said both these pursuits have cost €300 for this term alone, that is bloody expensive with the same amount to be spent after Christmas and after Easter, I may try to start saving now. Oh yeah that’s right I have nothing to save having forked out €300. But sure hopefully it will be worth it.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs Redmum column young wan

RM October 5 - Dating rules

Dating rules

The Young Wan is learning a valuable lesson this week, well I hope anyway, with the introduction of one of the most important rules of dating. And that is friends’ exes are a no-go area (in most circumstances, there are exceptions of course).

Her pal has been seeing this young fella for the last couple of weeks. A gang of them were out in town recently and the Young Wan came back delighted because her pal’s boyfriend had bought her a necklace.

And she was all full of chat about him and I thought ‘mhhh, this doesn’t sound great’.

How and ever this boy rang the Young Wan the other night to say he was going to break up with the pal. So the Young Wan wanted to phone her and having no credit in her phone despite being given €20 on Saturday, another rant another time, she used mine.

At this stage I stepped in and said ‘friend’s boyfriends are off limits, you don’t do that. It causes bad feelings and it is something that you steer away from as far as humanly possible’.

Did she listen to me, of course she didn’t.

I believe that when she phoned her pal to tell her about the fella’s impending breakup scenario that she may have asked if it was okay if she went out with him.

So the next day somewhere in between home time from school to being outrageously late getting home, this boy has finished his courtship with the pal and asked my daughter out.

Charming or what!

It all appears to have gone a bit pear-shaped because the pal phoned her last night saying that she did have a problem with it so the Young Wan has agreed not to see the Romeo himself.

Now if she had listened to me a lot of this could have been saved but hey that would be too sensible and we all know many teenagers do not do sensible.

I got a great response last week from two teenage readers of The Echo about my emo column.

Orla 14 years old said: “I just had to say thank you for the article written in The Echo about the emos. What I am thanking you for is clearing up what an emo is…. After reading your article I was happy to see people writing about the positive qualitys in emos as I am usually slagged in school saying I cut myself and that I want to die. This is all false and thank you for showing the creativity in emos.”

Trish who is 15 said: “I have to say how much people exaggerate on the whole emo situation. People’s views on emo kids are ‘oh they sit in the dark’ or ‘all they do is cry’ or ‘oh they slit their wrists, freaks’ but the majority of people who are emo are the complete opposite… I don’t understand why emo gets the most slagging when all they do is dress a certain way and listen to a certain music, but is that not the same for people who like metal music? It is… Personally I am proud to dress emo and listen to the music because it is what I like and everyone is different.”

Thanks for your emails and just so long as you are happy do any labels matter?

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs emo Redmum column trend young wan

RM Sep 28 - Deal or no deal

Deal or no deal

We have reached the end of the first month back at school, the first month gone into the Junior Cert year and so far not one of the deals the Young Wan and I made have been met.
Not any substantial ones anyway.

The main deal was that from Sunday to Thursday she is mine, all mine. Her job is to do her homework and an extra half hour study of one subject each night.

From what I can see homework has been done, just about and I am more than a little frustrated with it all.

I am fed up sounding like a nag; I am fed up reminding her of her side of the bargain.

I know it may sound a bit over the top to be insisting on such a routine at this stage of the academic year. However there has been no routine at all regarding school up to now. And I feel it is important to get stuck into a healthy and doable study regime because of that lack up to now. Think of how much less pressure she will be under come exam time.

So what was the Young Wan to get from all this? Well her weekends for a start.

Take for example last weekend, she finally cleaned her room to perfection (wow, really but that is for another column another day) the week before so her pal came over to stay.

I decided that I would spend the evening with Tetra and the beautiful Ella, leave the teens money to get a pizza and have fun without me hanging around.

The next morning I made them a gorgeous breakfast/brunch of French toast with maple syrup and crispy bacon.

I sent them off to get bacon and this was the first infraction of the day. They returned from the shops which are ten minutes away an hour and a half later, hence breakfast turning into brunch.
Once the dishes were washed up and away I handed the Young Wan money to go into town with only one instruction ‘do not come back with the crazy white make up’, then the bargaining over what time they could come home at started.

I said ‘be home at 5pm’, she said ‘7pm’. I laughed, heartily and said ‘6pm’, she said ‘6.30pm’, I said ‘6pm’.

At the end of the day it was Sunday evening, it was a school night and the dark evenings are drawing in, so I wanted them home relatively early.

She came home at 6.40pm and so this nonsense has continued. And she is coming home from school a little later each day. What part of during weekdays you are mine is she not understanding, it looks like the whole thing.

And I am not happy and neither is she, well would you if you were getting an earful all the time?
There is an easy answer to all this or is that too much to expect with a teenager?
Well I can tell you – it definitely is too much to expect.

But I am determined to make this routine work. I am determined to get a study routine in place; I am bloody determined to make her exam year easier on her and easier on me.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs Redmum column young wan

Some advice needed

I'M looking for some advice here on upgrading my laptop, well putting my spluttering old dear to rest, well not so much rest as passing it over to the Young Wan but you get my drift. I was looking at Dell's double memory and free delivery deal which expires tomorrow. So if anyone has any wisdom to impart, feel free. This is what I am looking at and given the drain on a computer due to countless amounts of pictures, what do you think, is it worth it?

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More Moo freebies

HOT on the tail of ordering my free Moo cards, I was captivated by the sexy design and ordered more, which arrived within a week. While the second batch have some cropping issues, they could very well be my own fault.

Despite that I love them and have been posting them (via snail mail) to all my pals who, ahem, already have my contact details, but not on the back of a gorgeous picture (ha no praise like self-praise). I have also been thinking about other uses for these lovely cards, like the moomagnet (thanks Damien) which is also being discussed here in the Flickr Moo group, or alternative Christmas pressies for pals, using maybe a pic special to them and their contact details. There's lots of things I can do with them.

Moo are now offering more packs of 10 free in a deal with skype but they are not the cool picture cards more business cards, they still look nice though. I'll not do it and let someone else get something cool in the post. Go to this site and the promo code is freebie.







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Hits of the day

Damien's discovered that a past post of his on Thinkhouse PR has disappeared from a google search despite being in the top three previously. Odd indeed and delighted to see the tags from all the corresponding posts has dominated the cloud tag on Irishblogs.

It reminded that that when I moved to Blogger Beta I trackedbacked (well I think I did, I'm still grappling with that one) to a post on Blogger's Buzz about problems I had with it. The next day I got loads of visits from people passing by from the Blogger Beta post. When I checked back a couple of days later it was gone. I presumed at the time that they only allowed so many trackbacks to be shown at any time, maybe I was wrong!

Another important link is to Cllr Seamus Ryan's blog with his online petition for Breastcheck to be extended to all parts of the country. It is mad to think in 2006 that your geographical location dictates whether or not you can get avail of this vital service. Go sign the petition.

Meanwhile Cllr Damien Blake is calling on bloggers to start an internet campaign on the carnage on our roads, I don't agree with all his suggestions but I'm all for action on our roads.

Well done to both councillors for utilising the internet on two very important issues. We need more of this in the Irish Blogosphere.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs roadsafetyblog breastcheck thinkhousepr

Grumpy old women - part 2

BELIEVE it or not but there is an unspoken etiquette in launderettes, though you wouldn't have known it today in my local.

I went down with the week's washing and was lucky to get two machines at once so I loaded up the washing before going to get dinner in the supermarket.

This is a weekly routine which I have off to a tee, I put in the washing and by the time I am done in the supermarket, the washing is also nearly done and ready to go into the spinner which takes off the excess water before going into the tumble dryer.

When I got back after the supermarket I had a couple of minutes before the next stage so I sat down and started to read one of the Sunday tabloids which are bought by the launderette.

The washing finished so I put it into the spinner, as I was taking it out an older man came in with a wash he obviously did at home which he then proceeded to load into the only free dryer.

Rule number one broken, you cannot come in with wet washing and take a dryer which is about to be used by someone who has spent the afternoon washing in the place. I learnt this many years ago in the same place by one of the women who worked there.

He then proceeded to sit where I was sitting and read the paper, despite my coffee sitting on the table, my cardigan over the back of the chair and being surrounded by my shopping and the suitcase which I carted the washing down in.

I told him 'I'm sitting there reading that' and he looked straight through me. I wasn't trying to be rude I was sitting there reading. He thought I was mad and continued to flick through the paper.

So I stood waiting on a dryer and picked up the Indo. Not content with having usurped me from the window seat where I was, he would flick through the paper and look up at me every now and again. He then came up to me and said with serious attitude 'are those your newspapers, or do they belong to the shop'. And he was certainly being far from nice he was being narky and trying to make some point that I was mad to expect to sit where I was sitting and continue to read the paper I was reading.

Incrediously I replied 'catch yerself on' and went back to the Indo. He went back to his/my seat and glanced at the ads you get at the back of the tabloids for adult dances at Barry's Hotel.

I ended up going over, lifting my coffee and left him to it.

Then another cardinal launderette rule was broken, he proceeded to watch as I folded up the clothes which I wasn't putting into the dryer. Ehm STOP. Specifically men should not watch women fold up their clothes, it is a private moment in a public place and it is regarded as pervy. Nick Camen and I heard it through the grapevine it is not.

His final blow against the mad woman (me) in the launderette was when he returned the newspapers to me with a flourish. Ah gee tanks!

I finally got a machine, got my clothes dried and got out of there.

Other cardinal rules while doing laundry include not touching others' washing unless you absolutely have to, coming in the door and taking a machine before paying for it (when busy those people at the counter are actually paying to use the machine you have just taken). There are more but I can't think of them just now.

Or maybe I am becoming even more grumpy!

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Overheard in Dublin visitors

LISTENING to Ray Darcy on my way to work this morning, they had one of the creators of 'Overheard in Dublin' site talking about the book they are publishing from contributions on the site.

From 9.45am onwards (roughly about the time of the interview) the amount of searches on google.ie for 'overheard in Dublin' leading people to here was startling. Just shows you, all those people in work listening to Ray and googling for the site because he was talking about it. Well thats my analysis of it, there are occasional visitors dropping by here (maybe three or four a week) after searching for that but not 40 in two hours.

Thanks Ray :)

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todayfm Overheard in Dublin

Quack update on Metro

A QUACK (sorry sorry) update on the Metro or duckgate as TCAL hilariously put it, I was in contact with Metro yesterday and sent them a link to the orginal flickr pic. A short time later the picture desk replied with a price list and details of what to put on the invoice.

It was sent this morning and I just received an email back saying payment would shortly be on it's way.

So pending the arrival of payment I am happy with the outcome.

I still think it is off publishing a photograph in a profit-making publication or the like without permission. What if I had a moral/principled problem against a publication or indeed one of my pics used to illustrate a story I do not agree with or if a photograph is taken out of context for an article?

But that is just hypothetical situations which in fairness could easily arise for any of us. I have no problem with Metro on a story like 'where are our ducks' provided my permission is sought for the pics use and payment forthcoming. The no byline is annoying but fair play to Metro for not quibbling about payment and being prompt with their replies. When the cheque arrives I will take a pic of it before cashing it.

And once again I was blown away by the support of my fellow bloggers, it (including your comments here and on others sites and emails) has all been much appreciated.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs flickr metro permission

Some autumn inspired pix

THE LOVELY autumn light has been inspiring me to find myself walking along with one hand constantly in my bag ready to get out my camera. Here are some of the snaps I've taken over the last couple of days.


St Stephen's Green


Juggling in the park


Swimming in October in Dun Laoghaire, despite the lovely weather, brrrr


Please please no Christmas until Halloween is over at least




Totting up your grocery thingies in Superquinn


O'Connell Bridge


Ha'penny Bridge

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs flickr

The front page and robber duck - judge for yourself

THANKS to everyone for the kind words, support, emails and expletives on my stolen pic post (not to mention the huge traffic today from In Fact Ah, TCAL and Adam. In my rant I didn't mention that the pic was a side bar one on the bottom banner of the page, so I snapped the page today to give you a view and you can judge for yourselves.


The full front page


Close up of offending pic


And the original

I am sorry to say I didn't get a chance to send off an invoice today but it will be sent by tomorrow. And I'll keep you posted on my progress or lack of.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs

New addition to Blogger Beta

Oohhh Blogger Beta have added another new feature which makes adding labels to posts so much easier. Up to now I have been going into each past post and adding labels which is time-consuming and labourious. For those who do not know Blogger, adding labels is a new feature, so while you can add them to posts as you go along, I had some 300 posts without labels.

I like the labels, it means I can categorise all my posts into topics like Flickr, teenagers and so on. So if someone is interested in looking at all my columns, they can click on RMColumns and see them all. It has also meant that I have been able to tidy up the site a bit and clear off a lot of the old lists I had on the side bar.

When you go into edit posts, you see a list of all your posts and a drop-down bar with all your tags listed. You can tick each post and add an existing or new label to all the posts at once. Excellent. Adding labels is still time-consuming but this new way is much quicker and easier. Nice one.

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Gggrrrrr Metro

SITTING on the bus last Thursday I picked up a copy of the freesheet Metro when I noticed a very, very familiar photograph on the front page, my ducks pic.


Robber duck

The pics related to a story 'where are our ducks now' which Daragh wrote on the Dublin Blog on Tuesday evening. Is this a coincidence? I think not.

Now I wasn't asked permission for my photograph's use and on page three there were other photographs credited to another photographer. So not only was my permission not sought and no money was agreed upon but you would be forgiven for thinking this other person had taken my pic.

I have been asked for permission to use my photographs in the past and have allowed it for no fee, particularly for not-for-profit organisations. This is completely different and not on, especially seeing as how I did not get any credit for a photograph they deemed strong and good enough for the front page. This is all the more annoying considering they already had photographs of the duck race.

Daragh talks about it on his site. So I will be invoicing Metro in the morning. For me this also puts to bed any journalist's argument that blogs are useless and no threat to the mainstream media. Maybe they aren't a threat, but blogs are not so useless if stories and photographs are taken from them. And it is at the very least a poor show if journalists do not name their source.

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Grumpy Old Women

I WAS up early this morning, 5.45am. I don't do early mornings well but I had to catch the 7am train to Cork for work. The early start was made even worse by the fact that I didn't get to bed until about 1.30am.

It wasn't my intention to stay up so late but I had many phonecalls from both Tetra and Anna who had both earlier told me to get to bed. Each time they rang they would say 'Are you STILL up?' and then we would chat for too long.

When I finally dragged myself out of bed, I was absolutely knackered. Luckily everything went smoothly, my taxi arrived five minutes before time and I was well on time for the train. Everything was going so well so far, except for the fact that under my tired exterior was a grumpy old woman waiting to moan out.









Heuston Station - 6.32am



The first taste of things to come came after I took a seat in the first carriage which was empty and realising I had 20 minutes before the train left I went outside to the platform for a ciggie. As I stood there having a smoke and snapping some snaps I realised this man had gone through the whole empty carriage and planted himself down in the seat opposite me. He opened up his laptop taking up most of the table and got himself comfy with earphones.

This is so wrong in many ways not least the unwritten social interaction rule where you sit as far away from the person boarding ahead of you public transport. You know this one, Desmond Morris talks about it, one person boards a bus at the back, the next at the front and so on until the bus fills up. (I've tried unsuccessfully to find a link to this but here's Desmond himself.)

I would have no problem with him sitting beside me if the train was getting full but this carriage was empty. So I harrumped, grabbed my bag and coat and got another seat. What I should have done is insist on taking the window seat beside him, making him get out of his seat and sat at his side looking directly at his computer screen that would have made him as uncomfortable as he made me.

Now in my new seat as soon as the train set off, I phoned the Young Wan to get up and get ready for school. It is annoying that I still need to get her up kicking and screaming from bed, but such is life. So while I felt like I could doze I couldn't until I was sure she had left for school and wasn't sitting sleeping on the sette.

By this time it was 8am and I finally rolled up my coat neatly, placed it between the window and my head and tried to sleep. The new Cork train is quick and kinda comfy if you are sitting up straight, but it was hard to grab forty winks. However I perservered and dozed off.


Coming into Thurles - the calm before the storm

Until we hit Thurles that is when the basket ball team from Presentation school got on, hooping, screaming, cackling loudly. I could have happily throttled them all, one by one, slowly.

I huffed and puffed and got all annoyed each time the decibel levels rose until I could take it no more and I got out the ipod and turned it up to drown out the girly glee.

Sleep was now impossible and I wasn't a happy bunny at all. By the time they got off at Mallow they were quiet listening to their own MP3 players and chatting quietly.

On the way home on the 5.30pm train (not the lovely fast train) I couldn't get a seat that wasn't pre-booked so I headed into the dining car and took a seat among the other travellers who were also chancing their arm. And we were not told to move along, fantastic.

I got chatting to an older couple talking about how lovely Cork is, the new train and all sorts of things. And unable to help myself I told them of my grumpy start to the day.

Off we headed and when we got to Mallow, guess what? All you hear was a gaggle of school girls boarding the train behind me. I turned swiftly around thinking 'no way', the man from the couple looked at me inquisitively and it was them coming home.

He asked me 'is that them' laughing I said 'YES' when they all piled into the dining car. But feeling less grumpy than earlier and guilty for feeling grumpy in the first place I caught the eye of one of the team who had been sitting opposite me on the morning train and probably bore the brunt of any dirty look and grumpy sigh that emanated from me and said 'hiya'.

And very nice she was too because she said hiya back. I asked them 'did you win', guessing that they must have been to some kind of tournament and they did. So well done Presentation School from Thurles and sorry for being an auld kill-joy and credit to you for being so polite and lovely in the face of such grumpiness.

I'm sitting now writing this with a glass of wine, a sore shoulder, and a weight of tiredness on me (so apologies in advance for any glaringly obvious typos, I can barely think) AND I am working again in the morning so that means no lie-in till Sunday :(

I think the Beastie Boys had a song about that.

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs teenagers Thurles Presentation grumpy old women

Easy peasy pie

I THOUGHT I would do another easy peasy recipe which I learned recently and thought I would share it with you. There is just one rule it has to be called Sheila's Pie after Tetra's Mum Sheila who shared her recipe with me.

It was over at Tetra's flat one night when she reheated up her Mum's much-loved mince steak pie and it was wonderful.

I have never managed pastry apart from my easy peasy pizza of course so I asked her to ask her Mum Sheila how she did it. The only problem was Sheila does it all by sight so she would have to stop and measure it all and she did.

So here it is, only my photo-step shows steak pieces pie but I will tell you how to do the mince one which is delicious AND apple-pie which I haven't yet tried.

Measure 8oz of self-raising flour, place in a mixing bowl and add 2.5oz of Echo margarine and 2oz of whitecap lard (being in Dublin I couldn't get these brands and I do not know whether or not it makes a difference to the taste I don't think so).



Then mix together into breadcrumbs, use your fingers to work through the marg, lard and flour, sprinkling down on top of the bowl (ehm for lightness I think).



Would you believe I forgot an important step, open the wine!



Then you add half a mug of cold water and mix into a dough. If it is too sticky add a little more flour.

While all this is going on you could be frying up your onions.



When your onions are sauteed enough, take off the heat and set to the side.

Now this is where I did steak pieces. I bought round steak, thought I may experiment with more things, I figured stewing steak would take too long. I cut the steak into pieces and fryed until all pieces were brown.



If you would like to try the minced steak version, after you fry your onions and set to the side, fry off your mince (we used just under a pound in both cases, steak and mince steak - ehm I think 454 grams-ish but you will know what is too much) in a little water. Then when browned off drain off and mix with the onions.

Then get your pastry and place on a well-floured surface and cut in half. (I don't know if I am wrong or right but I do little kneading, just until it is bound together.)



Roll your pastry out flat and large enough to cover the pyrex plate you are going to place it on, then trim around the side of the plate with a knife to get rid of the excess pastry.



Once you have covered the plate, add some gravy granules to your ingredients, but if you do not like the thought of that, you could add some cornflour mixed with a little water to your ingredients and mix well. You may see in the pic I also added some mushrooms to my steak pie which I fried off after frying the steak. Add your pie filling in the middle leaving just a little rim so you can join up the top pastry layer properly.



Then roll the second lump of dough (or is that pastry?) large enough to cover the top of your pie. Before you add the lid dab water around the outside of the pie. Then use a fork to bind the top and bottom layers together. To ensure the pie's success you must also make S and P from your dough scrappings to honour Sheila's great cooking.



Just to keep you in suspense as to how my pie turned out, I thought I'd show you a self-portrait of the aftermath of me baking, and this is just a snapshot, I was much flourier than this shows. I'll get the hang of this sometime. Cook your pie for 25-ish minutes at 190.



And here it is, was and ended up.





It was delicious with mashed potatoes, gravy (I make a mean gravy) and garden peas. Perfect for wet autumn evenings like tonight.

(To make a mean gravy, fry off onions until burnt and I mean burnt, you could add red wine if you like, then add water and boil down. Sieve out the burnt onions, add some stock maybe from what you have been cooking but I normally save stock from Sunday dinners. I also at this stage add water vegetables have been cooked in like carrots or something, than add some cornflower mixed with water and thicken, yum.)

I have decided that some weekend I am going to make a load of this pastry and freeze it as I haven't gotten the knack of making it very quickly yet. You can also make the pie and freeze it.

To make an apple tart make up your pastry as stated already. Take three cooking apples and slice very thinly. Heat in a small taste of water until it bubbles and then remove with apples with a slotted spoon. The add two and a half table-spoons of sugar to the mixture and make as above. Let me know how you get on.

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Blogging the Election

BEING the last person to blog on the weekend’s Blogging the Election conference (or it certainly feels like it from all the other posts I have seen) I thought if I didn’t do it soon, I would probably not get around to it.


Damien, Mick, Cian and Suzy

Well it was a great day and night, I was a sh*tty mess all day Sunday. Not only was the day informative with many thought provoking bits and pieces put out to the floor, but it was also good to meet up again with and meet all those people I stop by regularly. (There were more but I feel slightly linked out after that paragraph)

Richard Delevan kicked off the day with an inspiring introduction which covered many aspects of blogging. I found his take on things very interesting, how the small town nature of things might be more of an issue here. And it is true to a large degree we all know someone who knows someone so it will be something to watch as in whether or not that will be a big consideration in blogger's coverage of events in the run-up to the General Election.

On the topic of anonymity Richard did not have any problems with but like everything else be sure and accurate in your research. But above all he said 'be funny, be fierce, be fearless' a pretty spot-on mantra to my mind.

The politician’s panel threw up its own issues, such as Ciaran Cuffe’s internet campaigning, Damien Blake’s knowledge of the media and Dominic Hannigans quandary over sock puppet commentators and what way to handle comments.


Dominic, Ciaran and Damien

That was a theme that came up throughout the day with Guido, Simon McGarr and in the pub later.

Guido Fawkes was wildly entertaining, extremely informative and as colourful as you would imagine. It was fascinating to listen to the lengths he goes to in his blog and the proof is in the pudding.

It was at this stage I prevented Ellie Babes from doing anymore live blogging when she was good enough to allow me to upload my morning’s pix. This was great, there is no point in having this wireless broadband access, digital camera, flickr account, a flickr uploader button without being able to have as much liveflickrblogging as possible. And I was a hostage to those with better laptops than I and Ellie was a honey allowing me the time on hers. Oh and she is quite mad too.

Simon McGarr scared the socks of us in another more than informative section. Now while I have to admit when I am taking photographs I can sometimes switch off to the whole picture that is going on around me I believe the bottom line amounts to 1. no disclaimers (they are no use), 2. take down any comments you are unsure of, 3. apologise immediately if something is dodgy and picked up on by an annoyed potential legal-action taking person (unless you are sure of your facts), 4. if needs be consult a libel lawyer. (And if I got any wrong please don't sue Simon :) )

As I said I may have passed over many points raised in the pursuit of pics but I think it was one session that could have run and run and maybe one that should definitely be expanded upon in a future Irish Blog Con.

Antoin O Lachtnain from Digital Rights Ireland spoke about Freedom of Information and once again the audience proved to be inquisitive and engaging.

The room then broke into groups and I took the time to snap some more and then upload the afternoon’s stash of pix so I missed the discussions but I loved the idea of the ‘Bringing down the Government’ session.

It was a great day, unfortunately the amount of women dropped considerably as the day went on which was a shame. When I first went in there were few women however our numbers grew before the start of the day but disappeared during the sessions after lunch. Despite saying this I would be very confident that our numbers will increase by the next one.

Then we went for some pints…But I couldn't possibly publish those pics for fear of incriminating people and threats of legal action...

We started off in the Brazen Head in numbers which dwindled somewhat by the time we got to the Porterhouse. I wasn’t capable of much on Sunday. All in all I'd say the day was a complete success, much kudos to Damien, Cian, Mick and Suzy, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Meanwhile here are a selection of pics from the day.


Mr Mulley working his magic


Bernie and Ellie live blogging the day


Antoin O Lachtnain


Breaking up into groups


Guido Fawkes


Remember bloggers "be funny, be fierce, be fearless"


Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs flickr Irish Blog Con blogging the election Irishelection.com

Don't push the button

I remember my brother telling me the roof of his new car was badly damaged by his kids constantly pushing on the big red button in his kitchen which was the automatic garage door. If the car was not parked fully inside the garage, bang.

I was reminded of that when I saw this. (Borrowed from Reflections in the Mirror.)

When you have kids, I am going to stand outside your house laughing

I HAVE had occasion over the last couple of years when friends have contradicted my parenting in front of the Young Wan to say that when they have their children I am going to wait outside their homes in years to come; when I hear kiddie-tantrums I am going to shout through their letter boxes 'go on child, give them hell' before manically laughing and leaving with a parting shot of 'heh heh'.

I had one of those the other day.

Tetra is a demon for it. She constantly sides with the Young Wan because, well I don't know, I think she loves giving out to me. When I check things regarding the Young Wan Tetra will pipe up 'ACH leave her alone'.

Sure the Young Wan is delighted. She has an ally, someone stand up for her in front of me all the time, not to mention all the fabulous clothes she donates to her. I end up being demonised as the grump in the corner.

Well it all went a bit pear-shaped for them both the other night.

The Young Wan and I decided to go over to Tetra's on Sunday, cook her dinner and relax for the day. After all she has her arms full with her beautiful baby and Daddy was gone for the day watching some sport somewhere.

So after spending an hour or two in work while the Young Wan walked around uninhibited by her Mum in Stephen's Green, we went over to Tetra's.

I cooked and asked the Young Wan to do the dishes afterwards, nothing too demanding. Then Tetra asked me where her birthday card was, I had forgotten during the week.

Dammit, I got her a card and forgot to sign it. She didn't believe me. So over the next while I got up, took the card I had bought and signed it.

Then I called the Young Wan and said 'would you clear this up here?' while making nudge nudge wink wink movements with my eyes.

Tetra, who had her back to me, piped in immediately 'ach ginger leave her be, she's fine, leave it, I'll do it tomorrow'.

The Young Wan was half up then half down following Tetra's statement before saying all frustrated and hassled 'What'.

This went on and on, too long.

I asked Tetra to give over and told the Young Wan 'Madam just do what I am asking you to'.

The frustration of this built up because everytime I tried to make eyes at the Young Wan while saying 'would you just...' Tetra went 'ACH' and the Young Wan was throwing her best teen-anxst parent-nagging shapes, I was also getting more annoyed and louder.

Eventually I went 'Young Wan WOULD YOU JUST COME AND SIGN TETRA'S BIRTHDAY CARD PLEASE'. They both went sheepishly 'oh', Tetra turned back to the telly and the Young Wan came up and signed the card.

You know what I am not trying to be a pain in the arse all the time, believe it or believe it not. Sometimes when I ask for something to be done it is because it is a good idea and there is a method in my madness.

On the other hand Young Wan just do what you are bloody told, no questions, no answering back, just bloody do it.

And to the non-parent friends of people with children, it is not big or clever to contradict their parenting in front of the kids. The worst thing is most of the time this happens people are messing about. You cannot do that with children. You cannot undermine a parent. If you genuinely feel they are being hard or whatever on the kids, wait until the children are out of earshot before saying so.

But in fairness Tetra just enjoys the sport of contradicting me, apparently we are a double-act and bicker (though that is too hard a word) and mess each other about all the time. We are probably (or so I am told) very alike personality wise, so while we click in so many ways we also clash. And on the whole I wouldn't have it any other way.

Can you imagine the fun I am going to have when this gorgeous girl grows up. *Cue Red Mum practising her best 'Heh Heh'*


Tetra's beautiful arrival

Technorati tags: redmum irishblogs flickr teenagers parenting Young Wan

Two parcels in one day

I CAME home the other night and there was a delivery notice from An Post and I thought excellent it is my Moo cards! So off I headed to the sorting office the next morning with not one but two delivery notices as another had arrived.

When I got to the office there was a queue of people all waiting to receive lovely parcels, then I noticed this grafitti.


Hello welcome. I hope you get something nice in your parcel! Me too, it's exciting!

And it's true, I think we all love getting parcels.

Only it wasn't my Moo cards, even though others here in Ireland such as Des have received theirs :( Instead it was a cool package from an old pal Mr Gary who sent me the latest and last (sadly) edition of Small Axe comic as well as some music. Cheers, it was delightfully received. We should all send more parcels, the only people I know who do are Tawdrey and Mr G. Actually one of the groups I belong to in Flickr all sending other members fun parcels, I might sign up to send and receive one!




And there was a second package, oh what joy, maybe this was my Moo cards. But it wasn't it was a broadband router from Eircom for one of the other flats in the house. So because I had already signed for it before realising it wasn't for me I had to bring it into work where I have forgotten it tonight, uh oh.

Someone told me that I should go into it, whatever that means, and put in a pin which means I can hack into their broadband. While it is tempting because I want broadband but do not wish to commit to it while in this flat as in my head it commits me to this flat, I just couldn't do that.

Besides I have no idea what he was talking about or how indeed I could do it. I normally stumble through and find my way somehow.

But as I said I couldn't and wouldn't do it anyway. I will remember to bring it home tomorrow night and I might offer him half his monthly charge to piggy back his account. Has anyone ever done something this before, do people go for it?

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