The contents of my freezer

TO SAY it has been busy over the last week would be a massive understatement. The weekend before last was spent getting the flat ready for not only Nanny but also a glut of visitors who were coming the weekend before last. Well not exactly a glut but more than enough to spur house-keeping action on a wide range of all sorts of things in the flat.

But that is a post for another day, last weekend alone will be blogged but I am still so tired and so worn out by all the shenanigans that I haven’t been able to start. Thinking about it alone leaves me wanting to get out the foot spa.

As per usual I am digressing, what I was posting about was the fact that at one point this evening my Mum/Nanny began to defrost the literal icebox that is my freezer.

It turned bad about six weeks to two months ago and I haven’t had the energy, inclination, willpower anything to sort it out. I did it two months ago and it started to freeze over practically straight away.

I have already decided that in the January sales I am buying a new fridge freezer, this one is too much work.

And back to what I had originally started posted about which is Nanny tackling the freezer.

Thank God for that.

Nanny’s comments were funny so I started to jot them down. This is a rendition of the list she realmed off as she hauled things out of the freezer with my explanations where necessary in brackets.

• Potato bread
• Sausages
• Steak
• More potato bread - (I’m not even a mad fan of potato bread, it is soda bread all the way which probably explains why there is so many)
• Some kind of tomato sauce - (my own home made stuff)
• Pepper Sauce - (in an iced over jar, I made too much)
• Donegal Catch - (half a packet)
• Meatballs - (my own home made ones)
• Lamb chops
• Mince steak
• Half a loaf - oh its ciabatta!
• Don’t know what that is - (in relation to something wrapped in tinfoil)
• Croquette potatoes
• More potato bread - (as I said I prefer soda bread)
• Breadcrumbs
• Burger baps
• beef burgers
• Something wrapped in tinfoil - (which turned out to be stuffing from when I made too much one Sunday)
• Pancetta ham
• Coffee
• More mince steak
• Sausage meat - (for homemade stuffing)
• More burger baps

At this stage the Young Wan came in and saw me writing what Nanny was saying and was wondering what on earth I was doing.

‘Is this for the blog,’ she said.

Nanny replied: ‘I’m not doing it for the blog. I’m just trying to clean the freezer’. Nuff said and back to the contents.

• Tuna steaks
• Mince steak
• Smoked salmon
• Rosemary
• Soup Vegetables
• More coffee
  
• More soup vegetables
• Packet of puff pastry
• What’s this? Oh a square of puff pastry
• Tortillas
• Don’t know what this is, I think it’s some kind of chicken - (you know the kind, the chickeny sort)
• What’s this? - (I couldn’t shed any light on this package at all)
• More soup vegetables
• Yet more mince steak

Considering the size of my small freezer it is mad to think I have been able to put all this into it. So we will be having some strange dinners I reckon over the next week or two in a bid to clear out the freezer ready to start again.

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Late Late interruptions

HE HE, priceless, isn't YouTube great! Cal67 posted this and as I post it here there have already been nearly 1000 views and it only happened last night, excellent. (I heard it was already on YouTube and I spotted the link on Bloggorah) Go on the Plank.



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RM November 16 - Teenagers ARE stupid

I HAVE said it before and no doubt I will say it again, but teenagers really are stupid.

Take this morning for example, I took my bra off last night in the living room as it was annoying me and I left it on the settee. When I got up this morning I went into the living room to get it and it was no longer there.

The Young Wan who dresses in the living room as it is warmer than her own room must have seen it and thought ‘I’ll put that on and she’ll (me) never know’.

What she should know by now is that I always know AND I always hit the roof.

She has her own, of course she does – lots of them, but they are somewhere, God knows where in her own room.

It is not my fault that she doesn’t know where they are. It has nothing to do with me when she tidies her room by shoving everything in any available space, shelf, corner, cubby hole. Again it has nothing to do with me if the Young Wan does not believe in sorting out her clothes in a way that is manageable.

So where underwear should be actually contains pajama bottoms, one boot, some socks, jumpers, t-shirts books and all manner of things, shoved into one big messy ball of stuff.

Nah, none of that matters when she knows exactly where to get what she needs in my room. The fact that when I do the laundry I place everything into lovely neat tidy piles which only have to be placed in their appropriate place. Does that happen, of course not, that would be too easy.

Does it matter that my bras are too big for her, hell no, not at all. Most times I can tell just by looking at her whether or not she is wearing one of mine.
So what it she is wearing an ill-fitting bra. After all droopiness must seem like a long way away to her. I’ll ask her again when she is older.

At times it has gotten to the point where I am considering putting a lock on my underwear drawer. That way I can be assured of finding the bra I want when I need it instead of having to change from a white top to black because I can only get my hands on a black bra.

What gets me is the misguided belief from the Young Wan that I won’t notice. How on earth would I not. Besides knowing where I leave things there are only two of us in our household unless you count the doggie which makes three and being only two the doggie isn’t wearing bras yet.

But of course when I question her on these things, she will do the blank look she has perfected so well and feign innocence.

I have to admit though I did the same when I was a teenager to my own mum, though the bras fitted me, droopiness was not something I intended to speed along.

Besides my Mum loved me borrowing her clothes, honestly she did. God what would I be like with a couple of teenage girls, it would be like Fort Knox in our house.

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RM October 26 - Young Love

I am skipping one or two of the columns because they have been posted here already in one form or another, here's the latest.

A CHILL isn’t the only thing in the air as the nights are getting longer; romance is very much all around me (not mine I might add) as the Young Wan has met a lovely wee fella.

It’s been going on now for a couple of weeks and it could have been a disastrous beginning considering he was her pal’s boyfriend first for a few weeks. God teenagers are so fickle and it was clear to me anyway that the Young Wan had a little glint in her eye over this fella.

I warned her ‘friend’s boyfriends are untouchable, don’t go there’. But she did and thankfully the pal didn’t take umbrage or fall out with her, it was all resolved amiably and the romance was on.

He will meet her after school and walk her to her bus, he meets her after her drama class and presents her with credit for her phone and he has met me already, poor lad.

I had one of those pulling-hair-out frustration and anger building up moments over the weekend. The Young Wan was in drama and I was working and the arrangement was to phone when she was finished. Only her phone was on its last power legs and so was mine, a bit of a disaster really.

The end result was when I finally heard from her, an hour late, I asked her where she was. ‘The Number 1 shop in Temple Bar’. ‘Where?’ I said. Well actually it was more like ‘WHERE?? FOR *£$£% SAKE’.

She repeated herself and I told her to get to the Central Bank but not before the line went dead. Now it is a long time since I hung out in Temple Bar but the Number 1 shop is not a landmark that I know. Is it a landmark that anyone knows?

To cut a long story short I scouted around all the black-clad teens at the Central Bank hoping that she had heard me, of course she didn’t and I headed down to the main square wondering how on earth I would find her. At this stage it was starting to get dark and while she is not stupid she doesn’t get out at night and I was starting to panic.

Then we had one of those moments where I was outside a shop when she phoned again. She said she was outside the Centra, I replied ‘you are not I am outside Centra and you are not here’. I could kinda hear her replies not only in my phone but also to the side of me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her at the other side of the shop’s entrance. Giving out for Ireland I stormed off and she followed.

Through the red mist that descended on me I realised the tall good looking lad that had been standing beside her must be the new beau, only I was too annoyed to realise it at the time.

Once I calmed down I felt guilty, what an introduction, so I invited him over for Sunday dinner and even cooked a home-made apple pie.

And he is lovely, chatty and polite not to mention helpful. He insisted the Young Wan start the dishes now and helped clean up after dinner. Unlike some of the sullen nothing to say for themselves teenagers, he is a charming credit to his mum and dad. I think I made a better impression on the second meeting than the first, not that it was a meeting more like the beginnings of World War 3.

This is the first ‘real’ boyfriend the Young Wan has had, well in my definitions anyway and she made a good choice, someone nice to treat her well. The fact that she won’t see him over mid-term because she is grounded and not allowed phone calls is a story for another day.

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Movie slideshow of some pics

I AM all delighted with myself, I figured out how to make a movie slide show and here it is. Let me know what you think. It is a rough first version I didn't put much thought into the photographs I choose. But I have many ideas for things to bore you with in the future.



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The Worst Burglar Ever

The worst burglar ever, well according to the title. Considering the guffaws coming from me at 4o seconds, 52 seconds and 157 seconds into the clip, I have to agree he has to be up there with the worst.




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Yet another Moo card use post - Moofobs

SINCE I received my freebie Moo cards and then my ordered and purchased Moo cards like many others I have been wondering about all the other uses for these cute wee things.

These thoughts included ordering them for friends with pics relevant to them and their details, Christmas cards, change of address cards when I saw via Damien's blog what Meg did with hers in the form of cool fridge magnets, not to mention the cool pics she took also of the process.

Then it came to me, laminated key fobs... Moofobs

So here's the step-by-step on how to make your own laminated Moo key fob. Sorry the pics are not as artistic as Meg's but hey.

You will need a laminating pouch (available from stationary shops), a laminating machine or an iron, tinfoil (if you are using the iron option) and key rings (the actual plain rings), some books for pressing, scissors and thats it.



If you are lucky enough to have a laminating machine in work, you are in luck for perfect little key fobs. Open up the laminating pouch and add your Moo cards.



Now if you don't have a laminator, don't worry. It turned that the one I wanted to use was broken so I thought, well I might try an iron - that could work. So I did. For those of you who will be able to machine laminate them do and skip to the appropriate step ahead.



Lie up the moo cards in the laminating pouch which has been placed on top of tin foil. Then place another sheet of foil over the pouch, to protect your iron and cards.



Iron with a hot setting, being careful not to spend too much time on any one spot. You can go back over parts which haven't taken.



Once you have ironed the sheet and they are laminated. Place a couple of heavy books on top to flatten the sheet. Two of mine didn't take as well as I would have liked but those that did look great.



Then cut them out.



Then admire them for ages and insist on showing your pal them over and over again. 'Did you see this one?' God I am sad.



Then get your hole puncher, line up the Moo card and punch a hole for your keyring.







Viola, you have a Moofob. And here's my first one in action in my handbag.



I am also going to adapt Meg's idea and use these as fridge magnets. Most of my friends have kids who love fridge magnets, being laminated they will stay lovely and clean and washable.

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Most interesting Flickr stuff

HERE'S a link to an interview in last weekend's Guardian with Flickr founders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield where they speak about inadvertently (seriously) setting up Flickr when trying to set up a multi-player online game. (Spotted earlier on Flickr Blog) Amazing stuff. Here's a link to a written article but the MP3 has much more and therefore is more or should I say most interesting considering where this post is going to go.


Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, photograph by Patrick Fraser

It turns out even the founders are amazed by people's creativity in using the site and how it has developed with help from the aforementioned creative members. They speak about the social networking side of it all as well as mentioning a couple of the active groups on the site such as In Numerical Order. I like a lot of these groups, they give me ideas for projects and inspire me. So it is cool to hear what the founders think of it all. And to think Flickr was not their original intention.

And even more/most interesting for me (ha) is the fact that there are one million pictures uploaded each day so making the top 500 most interesting is quite a feat.

I was delighted to see yesterday that my Close Storm pic was number 2 for May 27, 2005 only trouble is that it has dropped to number 42 today. Ah well, that is the nature of it all.



This table shows you the highest ranking of the photo in Flickr.

12 hours ago:	42
22 hours ago:	3
31 hours ago:	2
3 days ago:	4
4 days ago:	3
5 days ago:	6
6 days ago:	2
7 days ago:	44

It'll probably drop out of the ranking altogether over time.

This next pic was number one for a long time for September 26, 2005 but has since dropped up and down and up and down.



I haven't had any in the top 500 since my ducks pic back in June (I won't post it again since the duckgate incident saw it posted here loads of times, I fear the Irish blogosphere will throw ducks at me for posting it again.) But I am delighted the little doggie made it in April reaching the dizzy heights of 191 . I think the most photos I have had in the Most Interesting is 22.



Donncha has more thoughts here on Flickr's Most Interesting. There are many things behind the mysterious workings of Flickr's Most Interesting, you can read more about it here also. And find out if you have made the most interesting list with this handy search page.


This is from April 2006.

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Swindling money from the Sally Army and Dublin taxi drivers

I'VE been meaning to post this for a while on two things I spotted recently in some Irish blogs. The first was on Howard's Way on a post entitled How not to swindle money.

Howard is an officer with the Salvation Army in England and he recounts an incident where someone came into his office asking if they could borrow some money to pay half of a parking fine, the man claimed to have the other half. Howard, cleverly, said give me what you have and I will pay the fine on my credit card.

Of course this didn't suit the man, he was trying to get money out of them by attempting to appeal to their Christian nature. As Howard points out he needed money for something but it wasn't a parking fine. He didn't get the 40 quid off Howard, instead he left with a tenner. Howard said: "I was asked by the staff ‘why did you give him anything’? Because I believe that in this day and age it is easy to become hard and cynical and just say no. I don’t want to turn away the genuine person that one will day walk in."

Howard's post is thought provoking dealing with the cynicism that is all too rife in modern life, overcoming that cynicism because we are not always right and about not judging. The last line of the post is a classic "the word 'Christian' is spelt CHRISTIAN and not MUG". Excellent.

The next one is something I read after I wrote a grumpy old woman post about taxi drivers and change or the lack thereof. I can't remember where I came across it at all, so sorry about that but I did grab the url before it disappeared into a blogstorm of a million posts on everything conceivable, something that happens to me a lot. I like something and don't mark it down and never find it again.

I've never seen John's Dublin Taxi blog before (he's been blogging since September) and had a quick look at some of his posts, one line in 'Not the Bunny' which caught my eye and made me laugh out loud. He was talking about airport runs and said: "My fare worked in insurance so there was not much to say".

Ha excellent. Have you ever had moments like that where you ask someone what they do only to be rendered speechless because there is nothing you can say about it, at all. The worst thing is the silence that follows is so awkward and they know and you know they know that you have nowt to say. I feel that way about accountants. 'Oh ehm really, ehm so you like numbers?'.

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Photo update

HERE'S some recent pics from the last couple of weeks. More can be seen on my Flickr account.


Hand held shot with bracketing of -5 stops.







This one taken in Limerick is best viewed large, click on the image to be brought to a bigger version.

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Ta da - an end to duckgate

WELL I got my cheque from Metro for my ducks picture in the post on Friday and here it is.



I feel a bit of a fraud about it all in that I didn't lodge a complaint about the way the pic was used, but there was no quibble, no arguments and they paid up when I showed the link to my original pic. So I suppose alls well that ends well, but it would have nice to have been credited for my work instead of it seeming that someone else took it. BUT they paid which I suppose is worlds apart from those who have had their images taken without credit or payment.

Once again thanks to everyone for their interest in the story.

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Table quiz tomorrow evening (Thursday November 3rd)

DARAGH at the Dublin Community Blog is taking part in an amazing project to build houses in a township in Capetown. He needs to raise €4,000 and would love to raise even more, each house costs €5,000. As part of his fundraising he has organised a table quiz tomorrow evening. But I'll just copy what he wrote on Dublin Blog. You can also read more at this link to all the posts on the township challenge at Dublin Blog.

Ok, I’ve had a few emails from people, which is really encouraging, looking for more details on the quiz. I’m really hoping that the blogging community can get behind this a little and spread the word, as well as turning up on the night. The whole idea is to raise as much funds as possible for the Niall Mellon Township Challenge, so, the more there the better!

The quiz is taking place in 4 Dame Lane this coming Thursday (Nov 2nd) kicking off from about 19:00 onwards. It will be taking place in the upstairs function room of 4 Dame Lane. Suggested entry fee is EUR 10 per person. I say suggested, as the whole idea of the night is to raise as much as possible, so, if people want to add more to the pot to enter, it would be very much appreciated. The norm for table quizzes is to have 4 entrants per table, so, I’d like to stick it something close to this, however, won’t be strictly enforcing this either! :)

If anyone wants any further info, drop me a mail quiz@dublinblog.ie

And again, if you’re not able to make it on the night, you can always make a donation via PayPal by clicking below.

I'll be going along, hopefully with some pals, so if you fancy an impromptu blogger meet, come along, you'll be more than welcome. And you might prevent me from not sitting at a table on my own:)

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Ah love I wouldn't have change of a fifty - Grumpy Old Women part 5

WHY do taxi drivers balk at €50 notes? I cannot understand this at all, and I have had so many harrumph moments with them over the fact they

a. have no change
b. have just started
c. that’s the third/fourth €50 note they have had in a row

Which ever it is, I do not care. Their job involves the exchange of money, so have change and if you don’t, get some, it is very easy.

I got one taxi today after having lunch with Tetra to get back to work on time. As we drove around a very packed Stephen’s Green where the traffic wasn’t moving, I realised I only had a €50 and of course the driver had no change.

He wanted to bring me right around the block, the block being down Dawson Street, by Trinity and back up Merrion Square, did I mention the traffic wasn’t moving and I got the taxi so I could be back in work on time.

I had one suggestion where he could call to Tetra and get the tenner I owed him but he wasn’t having saying he couldn’t possibly drive back to Meath Street because he wanted to go on the rank at the Green.

It was then I went ‘look I am not being arsey but money is a tool of your trade and you need to have change, I need to get back to work and driving all around the place in very slow moving traffic won’t help me’.

He eventually parked on one side of the Green while the Young Wan ran down Baggot Street to get change from one of the shops there.

But the onus is not on me to have change, not at all. I don’t arrange to take photographs of someone and ask them do they have a camera. A painter and decorator will not come to your house and be annoyed that you have no paint or tell you that this is the third job where people have had no paint. You do not expect to go into a shop and buy something for them to tell you they have no change so why is it any different for taxi drivers when they are being paid for a service they provide. They cannot come to work without their taxi so why would they come to work with no change or realise the last job has left them with no change without getting change. And why would they start a day without at least change of €50.

If they get three €50 notes in a row, tough, a pain in the arse it might be but hey we all have moments like that in our jobs, get change and give my head peace.

Besides which €50 might feel psychologically like a lot of money, we know it isn’t. It is only worth £35 odd in old money. It is not like I am handing them €100 which I might understand them being annoyed at, but €50, come on.

Just after the euro changeover I had an incident with a taxi driver whom I told when I got into the cab that I only had €50 (though in the spirit of what I am saying here, I shouldn’t have to even do that) and he told me I would need to stop in a shop and get change.

I told him ‘no I don’t need anything’ and he said I should get a paper. I waved my Irish Times at him and said ‘nope I don’t need anything’.

He must have thought by my Northern accent that I didn’t know the worth of the money and tried to tell me it was a big note. I wish it was it isn’t.

So taxi drivers get your act together and come prepared for work, like the rest of us.


Hope they had change

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A death on our roads for everyday in October

I HAVE not been at all comfortable with some of the views expressed by other bloggers where they have condemned dead drivers for speeding and all sorts. I can more than understand their anger, of course I can, but I cannot help thinking about the people, their families, who have been left behind. I imagine they have more than enough on their plates without condemnation from people who do not know them.

I know no one has condemned the family but if they came across any of the comments try telling them that. Besides until there is an inquest it is not fair to presume we know how the accidents happened. Meanwhile the carnage on our roads continues; watching the news last night it is clear that the demographic of those who die on our roads are young males.

Reaching those drivers is proving hard, October's death toll on our roads proves that.

RTE’s Nine News last night reported the sobering fact that 459 cases of suspected drink drivers were stopped by the Gardai over the bank holiday weekend. Will these people ever learn?
The accompanying statistics on the item also proved to be emotive with 31 deaths in October, the corresponding names and ages hit home in a way other campaigns haven’t.

I did a quick round up and average of those deaths. I only tallied 30 in the news clip, so I am not sure if I missed one or if RTE did but what I have reveals that of the 30 deaths documented, three were children under three years of age. Of the remaining 27 four were women ranging in age from 24 to 31 with one elderly woman who was 84 years old at the time of her death. The rest were male. The average age of all those who died, not including the children, was 26. Of those eight were teenagers, 11 were in their early 20s and four were in their 30s.

It was somber viewing with such a trail of devastated families in their wake and such a waste of life.

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Bad campaigning on an important issue

I MEANT to blog about this before concerning the recent advertising campaign carried out by the Marie Keating foundation.

Everytime it came on the telly I turned it over, it made me hugely uncomfortable to say the least.

For those of you who don't know what I am talking about it was an ad with the message that there was a time when we (women) used to be excited about changes (as a child) now it could save our lives.

I don't know what the ad company was thinking. The tv ad involved kids wearing (I presume the message was their Mum's) bras stuffing them and all sorts. Mad. The day when we could portray that type of innocence has long gone. Unfortunately the message was lost on me after seeing the children in the ad. I know the message because I have just looked it up. If I had to explain it before doing so I would have said 'we were once obsessed with our breasts as children and we should be as a grown up', not quite the same message.

Even the explanation makes me want to run, or beat people around the head:

Print Advertisement
Picture of young girls excited about changes in their breast development.

I can see-ish (at a push) where they were coming from and why they thought it was a good idea, but it just wasn't, at all. I don't understand how it even came to be made, I just think it was dodgy. Even the paragraph above upsets me hugely.

Breast cancer and early detection is such an important issue, 650 women die from breast cancer each year in Ireland and some of these deaths can be avoided with early detection. But I think an advert misses the spot if women want to turn over. Having discussed this with other women they felt the same as me about the campaign. What were they thinking.

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