Grumpy Old Women - Part 7

*warning big rant to follow*

I THOUGHT I would resurrect my Grumpy Old Woman series, it has been a while, June actually, and not because I haven't had grumpy moments, oh I have, but I had an evening of it last night so no better excuse to pull out my gingerama pic.

Tetra and I had been looking forward to the Feist gig for ages, they were playing in the Tripod and have been sold out for a while.

The band themselves were brilliant, she is fantastic with such a beautiful voice, but the venue was absolutely awful, woeful.

We were crammed in like sardines, that surely must have been against fire regulations if anything had happened last night.

The evening itself started off well, Tetra and I went for pizza and then headed up to meet with Mr Mulley and Alexia before heading into the gig.

It was absolutely jammers, seriously packed, with ten-deep people at the bar though in fairness you expect that. Then the gig started and so did the people at the back, with their talking.

If you haven't been to Tripod before there is the main hall, half of which is raised and is the bar area. There is another bar at the other side and it made sense, to me anyway, to keep the other side open and close the bar within the main venue itself.

But they didn't and somehow people at the back thought their innane chatterings added to Leslie Feist's amazing voice, they didn't. At times Tetra was turning around and telling people to shush.

We managed to find a spot where we could just about see the stage, well just about, I spent most of the time looking at the backs of Mr Baldy, Mr Smelly and Mr Long Flipping Hair.

I was constantly pushing my hair off my face only to realise it was Mr Long Flipping Hair. I didn't realise Mr Smelly was actually Mr Smelly until he high-crossed his arms right in front of my nose and Mr Baldy somehow managed to have so much more room than anyone cos he was moving all over the place.

Oh and here's an open message to Little Miss Pushy, you nearly knocked me over not because as you said of my large bag, it was because you were a pushy shite. And yes I did notice that you managed again to shove me out of the way as you returned to your spot. I also noticed the parting of the sea of people as you made your way through. It's funny how no one else managed to nearly knock me off my feet as you did despite my large bag.

And Little Miss beside me how on earth did you manage to shift me over from my vantage point where I could just about peer over the shoulders of Mr Long Flipping Hair and Mr Smelly. Being about six inches smaller than me I don't see how my spot suited you better.

I found myself trying to deal with the moving crowd in the same manner than I do walking down Grafton or Henry Street. I try to walk in a straight line and not veer off from it. Course it doesn't work I either end up being banged on the shoulder by a passerby or I end up walking along abandoning my straight line plans and dodging left and right out of people's ways. How do those people seem to manage to walk in the straight line while no matter how I try I can never manage it.

So last night in the same ilk I tried to stand my spot and it didn't work at all.

On top of all that the bar were running some crazy rules where drinks are served in plastic glasses while bottles are beer are served with glass bottles! Now this makes no sense whatsoever.

If I were so inclined I could do damage with the glass bottle. On top of all that I was drinking wine which was sold in the little bottles. Because I still had wine in my plastic glass I asked could they give me back the lid. Apparently it is house policy not too, which I questioned as being stupid and despite having been given the lid before. Incidentially the next drink had the lid on it, nothing like a bit of consistency.

So I was back in the hall, balancing a glass and an open small bottle of wine, a bottle of beer, my big bag and the non-budging people.

We were so far back that I only managed two shots of Feist, one of which I am kinda okay with and then we retreated to the other bar where we could hear them but not see them. Though seeing as how we couldn't really see them anyway it seemed like the best plan.



All this had Tetra and I talking about how we are just getting old. Twenty years ago we would have been holding onto the bar at the front. Seeing as it is twenty years later that isn't the bar we want to hold onto.

So we decided that we want to return to the Las Vegas type shows, where you buy tickets for a booth, with a lamp on it and waiting staff bring you drinks, hey even a supper. Once we eat we want to be entertained. Considering last night's tickets were €25-ish, I'd pay €50 for a seat at a gig. Hey but then I'm just a grumpy old woman with sore feet.

Just a small thing

Seriously people if you have to eat a boiled sweet near me, please please please don't bang it around your teeth or noisily smack, suck and crunch it. Because I hear a punch in the mouth often offends... Right, back as you were.

Some pics

I'VE NO internet at home at the moment because, well, I spilled stuff all over the laptop and it isn't very happy with me at the moment, so there will be sporadic posting here until I manage to get it all sorted, oh please let me get it sorted.

Aside from having serious internet withdrawal symptoms I am also lamenting not being able to work on photos at home. I realise there is nothing I like more than being out and about with the camera and then tweaking the pics when I get home. Only I can't do that at the minute...

Anyway here's some pics from the last couple of days.

The Commitments

I just happened to be flicking around the channels and came across BBC1's Movie Connections programmes that brought back some memories.

The Commitments was first released when I moved to Dublin and it is one of the first things I remember doing on a night on, going to see the movie. At the time it was playing in cinemas around the clock. I remember having a press release for the movie at the time, all swish and even with a Dublin to English translator. Well I used to have it, but God knows where it has disappeared to over the time since.

When I went to see the movie I remember sitting behind this gang of giggling girls who annoyed me no end, eh no change there then but I remember the pride around the film. This was more than cool cos I was a newly-adopted Dub, well a blow-in but sure.

The thrill the movie brought to the city was huge, the pride immense and it is a cool memory for me particularly given the fact I was from Belfast and anything made there had us locked in the 1970s with awful clothes and awful story lines. But hey I'm not knocking anything I have always loved something set in Belfast, even if it is to tear it apart because it isn't realistic.

Anyway The Commitments, what a great movie. The programme explored the casting, quite a brave and wonderful move/s (going with mostly unknowns) among lots of other things, so if you get a chance to catch it again do watch it. Wonderful altogether.

Eh did I miss something

Hey when did autumn start and how did I miss it, it must have been while I was sleeping last night.

I am freezing, it doesn't bode well for the winter! But sure I love autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and all.

RM column September 7 - There's no bread

RM column September 7th - There’s no bread…

WITH ONLY two of us in our household you think it would be easier to not run out of things. After all we don’t really do a weekly shop, Jaysus no the Young Wan would have the fridge cleared out in a day, and there isn’t a clutter of kids tearing through the cupboards; so generally I pick things up as we go along.

So you would think it is more manageable to keep on top of everything. Normally it is but establishing a routine after having three weeks off work and a summer where it was only me in the house has proven elusive.

Each night I get home and only when I go to do something do I realise I can’t because there is none left. Like bread…

I went to make herself a sandwich for school only to find a near-empty loaf packet with a slice of bread and a heel, which doesn’t really make for a lovely lunch.

And I wouldn’t mind but I ring from the supermarket and asked herself if there was anything we need.

As far as I was concerned there was bread, I didn’t know that she had eaten it all, so let me know so she can have lunch the next day.

Or shampoo, she knows as soon as she has squeezed the last out into her hand that we need more, so tell me when it’s finished. Particularly when she has a habit of bringing empty bottles into the shower to squeeze them all out leaving me with the illusion that we have shampoo, lots of it.

The amount of shampoo used in our house is outrageous. Okay we both have long hair but I don’t think even Crystal Gayle or Rapunzel would use the volume of shampoo we seem to put away.

Course at the beginning of the summer when the Young Wan was away with her Nanny there was always shampoo. I had to use shower gel the other day and let’s just say the results, while clean, were not good.

And don’t get me started on toilet roll, seriously don’t. Whole rolls can disappear in a few short hours ending up in the bathroom bin covered in creams and makeup. Despite there being cotton wool for the same purpose and despite all the face washes, etc that she has.

One of the ones that really annoys me is milk or lack of.

The other evening I got home and started to make dinner and needed half pint of milk. As I had bought a litre two days before and I thought she hadn’t used any, I didn’t pick up anymore.

I opened the fridge and pulled out a near-empty carton of milk. She protested that she had left me enough for a cup of tea which I suppose is a major step forward in comparison with before. Then I would have a cup of tea ready for it’s milk only to pull out an empty carton from the fridge.

I don’t get that empty carton, packet, container being left behind fooling you into thinking that you don’t need to restock. One little moment of absolute slovenly laziness could prove disastrous later as the Young Wan found out to her dismay on the milk night.

So for now it is back to a check list when I call from the supermarket, milk – check, bread – check… you get the idea.

RM column August 31st - Get to bed

RM column August 31st - Get to bed

A SUMMER of late nights, lie-ins and taking it easy have now come to an end and it is time to try and get a routine whereby the Young Wan won’t be completely wrecked getting up for school in the mornings.

Like most of us the Young Wan when allowed can sleep for Ireland, and watching late night telly hasn’t helped with the lie-ins. Course over the summer there’s no such thing as bed time anymore, well certainly not like days gone by when B.E.D would be spelt out at 9pm on the button and off she’d trot.

If I was to do that now, she’d just laugh at me.

However now school is back she will be told to get to bed at a reasonable hour, well that is the plan anyway. I am not under the illusion that she will fall asleep straight away but it is important to get the head down and chill out from the day.

Recent research in England has revealed how one in three teenagers are surviving on as little as four hours of sleep a night and are going to school exhausted.

That sounds crazy to me; how on earth are they only getting four hours sleep. But to find the answer to that we only need to look at computers, television and games.

I never really felt televisions are a good idea in bedrooms. In addition to that there was never really the room for such extras in our flat. Now that she is older I wouldn’t have the same objections but I would be annoyed if she was staying up later and later watching nonsense on the telly.

And I would also be concerned with what she is watching. If I am still changing channels with something risqué comes on, why would I give her free rein all the time in the privacy of her own room?

A quarter of the teenagers surveyed said they fell asleep while watching the TV, listening to music or with some other electronic items running.

Never mind sleep depravation, think of the carbon footprints!

A third of the 1,000 polled 12 to 16 year olds were only getting four to seven hours sleep instead of the necessary eight hours.

One of the experts behind the research, Dr Chris Idzikowski from the Edinburgh Sleep Centre said: “Teenagers need to wake up to the fact that to feel well and look well, they need to do something about their sleep.

“This is an incredibly worrying trend.

“What we are seeing is the emergence of junk sleep – that is sleep that is of neither the length nor quality that it should be in order to feed the brain with the rest it needs to perform properly at school.”

Being deprived of the proper amount of sleep will leave a teenager not able to concentrate in class leading on to a poor school performance.

Not only that but teenagers release hormones essential for their growth spurts during sleep, so not getting enough sleep can make you small.

While it’s easy for me to go on here about how herself will be in bed, she’s a divil for being told to get ready for bed. She then disappears and I’ll get busy doing something else and forget about her until she reappears an hour later having gone and listened to music. Course she is neither ready for bed or indeed sleepy.

But I’m onto her, she won’t get away with that this year…

Yobs

THERE I was trying unsuccessfully to take pics of this perfect line of swans as they swam up the Liffey under the bridges. The low light ensured that I wasn't able to capture the parent and it's six cygnets as I would have liked. So I decided to go one better and film it.

As I was filming I realised that a lad standing on the boardwalk was chucking rubbish at the beautiful line. What a gobsh*te. While they swam onto the next bridge and then took off I thought it would have been more appropriate for them to fly out of the water then and clout the lads with their wings. Maybe the next time. So here's the beautiful and guilty parties.

Yeeeharrrrr results are in...

Well the Junior Cert results are in and we are delighted. Two passes and the rest honours! Well done Honey. The celebrations are on me tonight :)

Dum dum duuuummmmmm

A DRUMROLL please, tomorrow the Junior Cert results are in... In a couple of hours, my baby will have completed her first cycle of State exams, done and dusted and results in hand.

However it goes we are going to go out and celebrate with dinner. Sure what can you do, as I said before worse things happen at sea. And this time is something to celebrate.

So we'll grab an early dinner with some pals (one has a young baby) and then head back for a mini-party, after all it is still a school night ;)

And isn't that much better than the customary Junior Cert celebrations where they all get dolled up to the nines, get a carry out, get pissed and then finish their night throwing up somewhere.

So tomorrow the Young Wan will be well-behaved and it will be me getting dolled up to the nines, getting a carry out, getting pissed and ending the evening peuking ;) Oh and yeah, wish her/us luck.

Clips of Lady Icarus - Great Irish Women

I WILL be getting back to my famous Irish women series as it is not only something that I really enjoy doing but it has also put me in touch with people I wouldn't have come across before.

Like Peg who read my piece on Nellie Cashman- the Angel of Tombstone and who was recreating one of Nellie's 350m supply journey throught the Koyukuk region in Alaska.

Or Lindie Naughton who has researched the incredible life of Lady Mary Heath, written a book about her and is now seeking to make a movie on her incredible life. The more hits the clip gets the more chances they have of getting backing. Click and enjoy.

Reading on the bus

I'VE done my fair share of lengthy commuting to work, approximately five years worth, and an absolute necessity when travelling on public transport is something to read.

If you are on a journey that might take an hour not only is a newspaper and/or a book essentialI find my camera comes in handy as well. So once my Metro was finished this morning I took out the camera and started looking around.

I took a couple of pics before I realised I had a theme going. So here you go. Reading on (and in the last image off) the bus. There are loads more of my commuting on the bus on a slideshow on Flickr here, seems I spend a lot of time on buses and trains...

Guest posting at Mulley.net

I JUST did a guest photoblog post for Damien. He's been asking different photobloggers to pick two favourite images and write about them. It's been a great series with Treasa, North Atlantic Skyline, Gingerpixel, Rymus, Lili and McAWilliams.



I kinda stretched my post a little and didn't pick my favourites or indeed two. But you can read it here. Thanks Damien :)

Here comes the summer

We love the Iron Bru advert in our house, it is one of the funniest ads I have seen in a long time. Here comes the summer...



And extra footage of the roller coaster, who didn't want to be one of the scout troup that ate their lunch on a roller coaster courtesy of Jim'll Fix It.

RM column July 6th - Lessons in Google

I wrote recently on how the whole family is becoming more and more technology-minded and it’s generally great, well except when they want to get on my computer when I am working.

So whether the Young Wan is browsing YouTube, Nanny her cheap flight sites or me anything and everything, the laptop can pretty much be on the go all the time.

When you consider the fact that Nanny lives a good bit away, far enough away that regular phonecalls are just too expensive, her recent foray into the internet and all its bounties is very welcome.

After all we can talk for free on Skype, or just chat through the excellent instant messaging service that is available for free with no messy downloading on Google Mail.

I tried unsuccessfully to get the Young Wan interested in it last year when she went away, but she was insistent on using the MSN instant message service involving downloads which is not something that every work place allows.

Besides if you are a bit of a computer novice, it makes absolute sense to keep things simple and what could be simpler than a chat facility where you can just chat.

So that’s how I have been keeping in touch with the Young Wan. She goes online and can see that I am also online and we can chat.

A funny thing happened though the other day that made me realise google chat has actually increased and benefited our communications, and more importantly my probably non-existent listening skills where she is concerned.

Take for example a situation recently the Young Wan opened a Bebo account and in a short period of time the former friends who were bullying her last year found her page on Bebo and started to post comments.

Given the grief they caused last year I probably would have hit the roof if we were having the conversation face to face. It is hard for me to understand why you would put yourself through that again. In real life I would probably rant/rave and ask a lot of questions the Young Wan is not really supposed to answer. She is just supposed to nod her head and agree with me.

If she gets fed up with this she may resort to becoming cheeky which then piles on even more annoyance from me.

However, we were chatting the other day online and she mentioned her new Bebo page and I immediately typed ‘are you wise?

She explained she uses it to talk to her friends who are not on Google mail, so I suppose it is fair enough she is older and wiser than last year. But she was chatting to some random fella who is into the same music as herself which I didn’t like at all.

She told me: “They are all weirdoes but what’s the harm if they don’t know anything about you? I replied: “Because you could inadvertently tell them more than you should.”

She added: “I’m not stupid mum! I just talk to them about music and all that. I’m not a baby I can handle it and it [the bullying] was a long time ago. It was just them being horrible its fine now.”

Well I can’t really argue with that, at all. Much as I want to fight all her battles and protect her from the nastiness of others, I suppose I can’t do that all the time. She is now growing up and becoming more and more mature and capable.

And the beauty of all this is because I am typing a question to her on Google chat, I have to wait on her answer. It’s a far cry from how sometimes situations like this are handled in real life when I sometimes don’t give her a chance to answer. It’s one question after another bombarded at her.

Mmm I think there may be a lesson for me here in Google chat!

RM column June 29th - ethugs and cyber bullying

God it has been a seriously long time since I published any of my columns and I don't know where to begin with them. I'll need to go back and check them out, some of which have been included here in some version, others are completely new. The last one I published was from May 31st and I reckon after that there were a lot of Junior Cert related ones which have already been posted here.

So I'll take a stabbing guess now and publish what I think to be the next one along, it probably isn't though. And I should do an update for this one, because the ending (as has happened over time) is not what I have initially written. I'll explain that again when I get the energy.

E-thugs and Cyber Bullying

New figures show that our young people do not appear to be learning how to use the internet safely or indeed responsibly with one third of American teenagers and one in five of UK teenagers who go on line claiming to be the victims of cyber-bullying.

While these figures do not relate to Ireland there is no reason whatsoever to think this is not happening here on our kids’ social networking Bebo and MySpace pages.

Branded e-thugs, cyber-bullies are using the internet to target others. Bullying on the internet has hit 39 per cent of teen social-network users in the States compared to the 22 per cent of teenagers who do not use social networking sites who have been bullied.

One of the biggest complaints is that personal information is being shared, embarrassing photographs are being published on-line without the person’s permission. This kind of thing could be devastating for any of us let alone those vulnerable teenage years.

The Young Wan is on holiday and recently set up another Bebo page. She has definitely learned from her previous experience where former friends targeted him in a nasty and vindictive campaign of bullying. This stemmed onwards and outwards and they even spread their vile to kids she was in primary school with.

This resulted in me visiting one of the perpetrator’s parents who were brilliant and understanding and we cleared the whole thing up and had the vicious remarks deleted from the site.

Now that she is away from the summer she misses her friends and has been keeping in touch using gmail and her new Bebo page. But one of the former pals has found her page and has been commenting with his normal-brand of idiocy.

The good thing is that she appears to not be too bothered by this. And that’s fine. My worry is that he will start to take it up to the levels he did last year where I was compelled to bring it to an unsuspecting parents’ door.

It is as if the kids feel the internet removes them from their actions; when in fact it links them to this bad behaviour in ways they could never dream of. Ways that could see the Guards knocking on their door. Or ways that will edge a vulnerable teenager over the edge, over something that possibly started off as a joke or a slagging.

That’s not to say I think they are unaware of the consequences of their actions, some of them don’t care at all and I know that.

As horrible as the playground bullying is, bringing that to the internet gives it another life, it spreads and could become linked to the victim for a lot longer than a bad nickname would.

A whispered rumour in a school takes on a whole new dimension on the internet. With rumours time passes and others become the centre of attention. Sometimes the rumour may not even make its way back to the person targeted.

However, when this rumour is put out on someone’s Bebo page it can get a whole new life.

We need to constantly talk to our kids about appropriate behaviour on-line; none of us would like to think our kids are bullies but everyone has the propensity to poke fun and at any time even that can get out of hand.

As I have said before talk to your kids about their internet use, make sure they know the very real dangers of giving out personal information, posting pictures of themselves online and of how they conduct themselves in relation to others. We know the effects of bullying is immense, the effects of cyber-bullying could be much more far-reaching.

You can read what I have written before about social networking sites here . If you have any stories on cyber-bullying I would be very interested to hear.

Belfast Flickr MeetUp

WELL that was a great weekend. Mymsie, a pal on Flickr who is based in LA, was in Ireland and we had arranged a Flickr meet up in Belfast on Saturday.

Having headed up on the train on Friday evening, dog and all, we went in on Saturday afternoon and met with the others at Custom House Square. When we arrived Anna was there with StepBar with Nicky and over time we were joined by Alan in Belfast, digitalEnvironmentalist, Dogtired and Jett.



Just some of the participants, sorry that my camera isn't wide enough to capture the full row of people

With no real plan in place other than walking about to find interesting things we set off and wandered around all the little back streets until we came to St Anne's Cathedral to inspect the new spike they have installed instead of a spire.

St Anne's is a beautiful building with lots to photograph so off we ambled around until we all were drawn to the sectioned off part (eh the altar) underneath the spike/spire. Alan thought the first person who went shimmied under the guard rail was due a prize before promptly slipping under and pointing his camera up at the roof.

I'd say I was about the fifth person to do it and at that stage was feeling very brave and not at all worried about someone coming and shouting at me to get the hellskates out of there.









After the Cathedral we moved across the road where a gang of lads were freerunning, you know where they run around and throw themselves at walls, jumping, somersaulting and generally flinging themselves around the place.

Well they were excellent models and great fun, they ran at the wall when we asked them to. They posed and made for an interesting shoot and judging by the pics the others came up with, we all enjoyed ourselves.





From there we walked up towards the Crumlin Road where we stumbled upon the orange shoe...



As we walked on we could hear the beat from a marching band so the next stop was the Shankill.









At this stage coffee was definitely in order, although in poor Anna's case, eh not in order and she wasn't amused particularly seeing as how the rest of us were all served long before her. That aside the break allowed us a chance to chat more and check out some of the pics we had taken so far as well as some silly snapping.





From there we headed back slowly to Custom House Square where the day was wound up with a much-earned pint and more shots (from the chair) of kids playing about in the fountain.



The next day, Sunday, Mymsie and I headed off to shoot the Falls (he) just so she would have a more balanced view of it all and finished up with a pint in Kelly's Cellars, the oldest bar in Belfast, before heading for the train back to Dublin.









You can see more of mine here and everyone's pics at this link. Thanks to everyone for making it a great and productive day. Now I can't wait till the next one.