Out my window

FINALLY a lovely day. I am sitting at the table working on photographs on the laptop in front of the open window with a gorgeous breeze blowing. Will I put a scud on it if I tentatively ask 'is summer finally arriving?

Whether it is or isn't I am enjoying the day and delighted with the plants I added to my little window boxes. I had planted a load of plants but had left them in the bedding tray for too long and some of them just gave up the ghost.

The window boxes are turning out to be a mixed bag of lavender, lobellia, petunas, mini-fushia and geranium. I've wanted a window box of lavender for a couple of years. Last year I bought six plants and only two were happy. This year of those two, one is delighted where it is and the other looks like the runt of the litter; small though it is, it is still looking healthy. Neither have flowered this year, however, the smell on your hands after running them through the plants is amazing.

I've no room for any more window boxes which is a pity because I do love them and would make lots more if I could.

Anyway here's what I'm looking at right now. (And I do know I've been memed I promise to do it soon.)

RM May 18 - Long 'Hot' Summer

RM column - May 18th - Long 'Hot' Summer

The countdown to change is getting closer and closer and I don’t mean the General Election, I mean the Junior Cert. As each day passes we are getting nearer and nearer to the Young Wan’s first foray into State exams, her first official getting older moment.

With work busier than ever thank God for Nanny being here to cover me when I am working late, for making dinners, lunch, eh beds, you name it in the flat and Nanny has had some part in making sure it is working, clean and tidy, cooked, mended and studying.

Once the Young Wan’s exams are over Nanny is whisking her off for the summer. The holidays are too long here, three months. I’m sure our young people don’t agree, or indeed our teachers, but I do.

It is so hard for them to get back into the swing of things following such a long break. Never mind what do you do with them for that length of time.

Luckily because the Young Wan is now 15 being looked after isn’t an issue, though at times you wouldn’t know it and think back to the days of childminding with nostalgia.

In fairness though I trust herself not to be going bananas if I’m not there and I could not have said that last year. Last year I never knew what I would find, you know what I mean, gangs of kids smoking, messing about and once the brats opened up one of my little bottles of beer. Jaysus they must have thought they were the business. Well until I came home and hit the roof that is.

However, that was last year and I know she wouldn’t mess about like that now. Not to say I 100 per cent trust she won’t mess about hence my need to know policy that I talked about here before.

And in fairness what would she do that wouldn’t end up in her being completely bored. Course I could take time off, like many parents I already leave my holidays for the summer time anyway. And like many other parents I do not get three months holidays as lovely as that would be so it is inevitable that they will be at home bored, watching telly all day.

The Young Wan is too young to work which could be good for her, get a bit of responsibility and earning your own money. We live a good bit away from most of her pals and I wouldn’t be comfortable letting her roam around where we live without me being there too.

But what to do with her for the summer is a worry, only Nanny has stepped in and off they will go once her exams are over.

Only I panicked the other day, flights are already booked for the day after the exams finish. And I was not content until I saw the timetable myself and knew for sure that yes the Young Wan is definitely finished on the 14th.

I had the awful foreboding feeling that the Young Wan had read the timetable wrong rendering the flights an awful waste of money.

However, I sold her short in this one and she had the dates properly read. So the two of them will head off immediately after her exams.

I will be more than a bit lost over the summer with an empty house and just the doggie and me. And Eeekkk what will I write about, though I am sure I will find plenty.

I do hope to join them and then I can bring her home and have some lovely summer time with her.

RM May 5 - Three weeks and counting

Just catching up on a few columns here, bear with me. This is from the start of May when the countdown to the Junior Cert stepped up a notch.

Three weeks and counting

Three weeks and counting, no, not the election, the dum dum dummmmm Junior Cert. There have been deadlines for projects, art exams, last minute preparations, stress (mostly from me) and studying, thank God.

There has also been some last minute expenses, such as paying to register for the exam and more than a little snottiness from the school.

Apparently the Young Wan asked me sometime ago to get the past papers for History. I promptly forgot. When she has asked me to get stuff, I always tell her to remind me when I am in work, because I will and have forgotten.

Apparently her teacher threw a wobbler on Monday and herself and a gang of non-History past paper holders were told to leave the class.

The school then phoned my home, despite constantly being told if they want to talk to me to use my mobile, where they talked to Nanny.

Well they actually scolded Nanny like a bold child, why do teachers adopt this tone? It is not as if I am going to ignore what they say and reward herself for bad behaviour. If she is in the wrong I will and do take the necessary action.

So I do not appreciate ever having a teacher give out to me for the Young Wan’s alleged bad behaviour.

To make matters worse Nanny then phoned the Young Wan who was now in her next class setting off her mobile phone, a hanging offence in her school.

Course when the school phoned and said she had been put out of class Nanny thought she was put out for the day so she called her. While her phone was on vibrate, the Young Wan was caught frantically trying to turn it off.

So now the Young Wan’s phone has been confiscated as she was caught trying to turn iut off and if we are to get it back I must fork out €20. I am refusing. While she shouldn’t have had the phone on, the incident was preceded by the school’s behaviour.

When I phoned up they told me she was texting, I said she wasn’t texting but I didn’t have the full information of what happened until I got home.

So when I eventually got back onto them and told them so they stuck to their guns, so I told them to check the phone logs and they can find out for themselves.

I also complained about the tone the teacher used when talking to my Mum and again the school saw nothing wrong with this.

Well I do, I am not a bold child, my Mum is not a bold child and if the school wants parents on their side they should drop the patronising and ‘you’ve been very naughty’ tone.

Notice the way I haven’t yet ranted about the wisdom of barring a child from your class weeks before their first major exam, way to go to be supportive Teacher!

Now this is where I lost the plot with the Young Wan. When I was told of the incidents there was no mention of ‘Mum you HAVE to get me those papers’, I thought it concerned something she had already and didn’t bring to class. Nothing to this effect was said when I told her at this stage she really needs to be more organised.

No I was clueless until she was put out of class again two days later. Seriously. That’ll teach her, not.

Once again way to go Teacher.

I know it was my fault she didn’t have them and this has now been rectified but I still feel this was way too heavy handed, petty and frustrating.

The sooner this Junior Cert ordeal is over, the better.

And some news, drumroll please...

ONLY Neil beat me to it in the comments of the last post, *shakes fist at Neil* :) I was about to tell you all that I'm staying put in the press office. I'm delighted and was told earlier in the week that the job was there but wanted to wait until it was more official to spread the news.

I have to say thanks a million for all the wonderful comments, job suggestions, emails, phonecalls and to those who blogged about it. The response was seriously overwhelming in a wonderful way, not to mention giving me loads of leads to follow up. There are a few people who are owed a pint from me and someday soon I'll be delighted to do so.

The Tribune piece on Sunday was a bit of a shock. I got a call from a pal saying 'I saw in the Trib you are job-hunting, hows it going? I'd gotten the paper but just hadn't read it completely yet and there it was. So thanks as well to the Tribune who seriously upped my Sunday visitor figures. Nanny and the Young Wan were well impressed which was great because the poor Young Wan started her holiday seriously worried and no amount of me telling her that it wasn't her job to worry, she still did.

There was one stage last week where I thought ''ah Jaysus guys come on', that was just after the landlord told me he is seriously thinking of selling the place, the sign will go up any day.

But thankfully I don't have to move with my job prospects somewhat unclear. I will write about that again because flat/house hunting is a nightmare and the rents are akin to the mortgages no one will give me. I am loath to pay that amount of money without it being mine. How and ever thats the way it is.

On the up side, it would be nice to get somewhere bigger and more suitable for us now :) It really would. Course I would need to hide the doggie...

Gizzajob

So I’m job hunting. I found out late last week and I quite sure that if I blogged about it before now you would have seen visible tear drops on the web page blurring out a word or two.

My contract is up and funding does not stretch to its renewal. I was really hoping it would but it wasn’t to be. There were a lot of things I had hoped, worked for but they weren’t to be.

Some of you know what I do in the real world already and for those who don’t I have been working with the Labour Party. I never blogged about it before now because when I started up the blog it had nothing to do with work, it still doesn’t really. But as time went by I pushed and pushed the idea of blogging to people in the party. And more and more the lines blurred.

However I have still tried hard to keep work off my personal blog. I never intended and still don’t intend this to be a space where people debate the Labour Party - there are more than enough sites out there for that without my own personal space turning into another one.

As well as being a press officer for the party, I have also maintained the website (along with our brilliant webmaster Tom); take many/most of the party’s photographs that you may have seen in our literature and have developed the party’s Flickr account which has become a valuable working resource for the party. My images have appeared in local papers all over the country, on the RTE website, many other websites and on our own literature, leaflets, policy documents, manifesto, etc. I’ve done the party’s YouTube account and made the ‘this is…’ internet ad-campaign series which Labour released over the election.

And I’ve loved it all. I have loved working somewhere where you have the opportunity to develop other talents and put them to use. I have found things in myself I never knew where there and that has been amazing.

Now I find myself as one of the other casualties of the election. When I was reading articles after the election particularly the accounts from journalists of the sadness accompanying TDs packing up their desks I couldn’t help thinking about the staff behind them losing their jobs. Now I am one of them. This isn’t completely out of the blue. My main role was to work with candidates on the press side, now that isn’t there anymore and there isn’t a job there now. I had just hoped that something would come up.

Job uncertainty is not something that I have ever gotten used to. But then who in that position does get used to it? When I took the job originally three and a half years ago it was for a six-month contract. But I felt that moving from a full-time job to a six-month contract with Labour was an opportunity I couldn’t pass by.

For me part of the horror of job uncertainty is the worry of money. At this stage in my life I feel the money worry monster is part and parcel of me, part of my personality even. I have never been an adult and not seriously worried about money. If it is not something you worry about you cannot underestimate how deep and gnawing it is. It affects everything, absolutely everything.

Sometimes people talk about spending obscene amounts of money on clothes or whatever and I don’t get it. I never have. Probably because I have never been in a position where I can spend €300 on a pair of shoes and think nothing of it. I have never spent that amount of money on shoes or clothes. In fact I recently (well its not recently it was in the last two years) spent €100 on a coat and had to have the decision on spending that amount of money validated by my Mum who of course said ‘yes buy it’.

I’ve been bringing up my daughter on my own and financially its been more than tough at times. When she was a toddler I managed to put myself through college and that was difficult. Life after college was also hard, having to work my way up through low-paid jobs to prove myself and get experience behind me. Money has always been tight and hasn’t really gotten any easier. And it is something I have always worried about. I have always looked forward to the day where that isn't the case and here I am, 36 years old and still worrying.

I cannot be without work for a week, I suppose who can. All I know is my own situation, living in Dublin, bills to pay, rent to cover and teenager to bring up, oh yeah and the debts incurred because of living in Dublin.

So now I need to decide what I am going to do next. Time to dust off the CV, update it and get it out there. Then I’ll put on a big smile and pretend that I am not worried to be looking for work because I have to.I have a lot of decisions to make. Do I go for another 9-5 job? Will another job I want to do come up in the time I have to find one? Do I try and go out on my own, be my own boss? What would I do? Can I earn enough to allow me to do whatever that may be? Why oh why have I never been in a position to save money. Cos I could do with having a stash of savings right now. Right now it is time for days of action.

Anyway that’s my tale of woe. Wish me luck. Oh yeah and gizzajob.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Fathers' Day to me.

Well I have been both Mum and Dad rolled into one. Course my baby has gone on holiday and I am rattling around the flat on my own.

Trouble with Firefox, can anyone help?

Mmmh I have been having trouble using Firefox, I wonder can any of you help. I noticed last week when I tried to start Firefox that it just wouldn't start then the computer prompts me to find a programme to open it.

When I start my laptop it also does a search for a CD burning programme Sonic which was on the computer when I got it.

I uninstalled Firefox and it worked for the evening, all my bookmarks where still there, then the next time I tried to open it up, it once again doesn't recognise the programme.

I have also done a virus search on antivirus.com and it showed up some malware which I deleted but still nothing happening with Firefox. Since then I have been using internet explorer and I realise how much I love firefox now cos internet explorer is pants.

Nanny may have had something to do with it, she discovered forums, and has been browsing all these mad sites. I wonder was something picked up there?

Has anyone any thoughts or advice?

Strange searches

I should probably do an update on the wacky, weird and wonderful not to mention strange searches that have brought visitors here.

Here's one that caught my eye, and Red Mum is second in this particular google search.



In case you can't read this it says 'ginger women with big bloggs'.

It's official or about to be

WELL it's official or will be soon, the new/old Government is about to be elected albeit it a little Green around the edges, so failing winning the lottery I will probably be into my 40s before I am ever able to afford a house/apartment, if ever. Nice one electorate, I thank you from the bottom of your wallets. I wonder would some of Bertie's mates help me out with a dig out? After all, I am probably more deserving.

Great Irish Women part 3a - Susan Jocelyn Bell

WHAT an amazing woman, did any of you catch the BBC 1 programme Northern Star? I was enthralled from beginning to end.

Jocelyn Bell is truly an inspiration, the programme showed her as a student, as a lecturer, as a scientist and an amazing woman.

"I hope younger women have an easier ride than I've had, I've had to fight quite hard most of my working life."

If I thought she was something special beforehand I think it even more now, wow. And where do I begin here.

So many things strike me about the programme and it's insight into Jocelyn Bell. One is her own non-belief in herself for so many years because she didn't get the qualifying as it was known, or the 11+. Speaking to students in her old school she said: "Failing an exam is not fatal."

And probably because she was brought up in the Quaker faith where girls where encouraged to be educated unlike many around her she continued her studies.

She also spoke of how hard her life as a scientist and a woman was. Despite discovering pulsars she explained of how when she became engaged she was taken less seriously. Because it was somehow obvious to the men she worked with that she would no longer want a career as a scientist when she became a wife. This wasn't obvious for Jocelyn and it must have been so frustrating for her at that time.

Her authorship on the pulsar discovery and the subsequent Nobel Prize was only really stamped after another leading scientist, Fred Hoyle, wrote a letter to the Times stating that the award should have gone to her also instead of just to her Professor. This instigated a media burst for Jocelyn Bell and the beginnings of people's recognition of her massive discovery.

Course her Professor Anthony Hewish who was awarded the Nobel Prize disagreed but he would in fairness. It was funny watching their different accounts of particular incidents. Such as one where Susan explained how she approached him with her first findings. The instruments were recalibrated and after a particular period of time nothing happened and he threw a wobbly. His account tells of how he just teased her about it.

But then the readings came again. And of course during her trawling through three miles of paper she studied the pulsars more.

During her research to pinpoint what was going on she told of how she drove out to the laboratory in freezing cold weather on her moped, the equipment wasn't working so she cursed and kicked it and got five minutes out of it. Somehow luck was on her side, well not to mention her hard work, she got the pulses, or scrum again.

When I researched Susan before I read her comments on the Nobel Prize where she was outrageously gracious about not being included and I did find it strange. But it is clear that isn't how she feels now if she ever really felt that way about it and that now she does feel robbed.

Her former Professor, the Nobel awardee obviously doesn't feel this way and almost dismissed her as having found some kind of feminism. I would have thought that a Professor could have come up with something better than that.

The programme brought the two together at the end and that was soo telling to. At one stage Susan said to him 'you opened a big door' and he replied saying something like it was a big part of his career. And then silence, that uncomfortable silence. I think that says so much about her.

Susan now spends a lot of time in Donegal as well as everywhere else she is as a scientist. She said of Donegal: "I am confused as to what I am, there is something in the coast and mountains that appeals to me."

There is no confusion to me, Susan Jocelyn Bell, is a role model and an inspiration.

The Apprentice winner is....

Simon won the Apprentice. Poo. Kristina I think you were the best, hands down.

Young Wan's Junior Cert Diary - Day 6

Day 6 - Business 1 and 2

I went over everything for Business, I can't stand business and can't wait to drop it. I don't mind business but I hate the accounting part of it all.

Business 1: I think I did well on this paper but I am not expecting miracles when the results come back. It was a lot of short questions put together and then Section B was six long questions and we had to do four. They are like Mary and her family went on holiday, the brocure said they are five mins from the beach but they are actually five miles. What law was broken? Write a letter of complain. I think I did alright on Paper 1.

Business 2: Paper 2 was arrgghhhh, warrghhh, terrible, the worst paper I have done so far. Terrible there is no more I can say, oh maybe, disastrous, catastrophe.

Overall: Meh *shakes hand to and fro*

Tomorrow: Science, last day, last day, last day, last day. Ohh last day.

Young Wan's Junior Cert Diary - Day 5

Day 5 - French, History

Studying for French involved me going over phrases over and over again. I was going over new words and verbs and tenses and well French in general. For History I went over my notes and Skoool.ie.

I also got assigned again to verify that the superintendents didn't open the exam papers before it was time to open them.

French: First of all we had a listening test, then we had the actual exam. The listening test was really easy because it was like mostly concentrating on numbers, half the time it only takes one word and you cope onto to what the word was. We given a load of questions to answer about someone, what they like, what age they are, etc.

All the questions except for last two were reading comprehensions. The last questions were a note and a letter. The paper was okay, I think I did well, I think I didn't do badly.

History: History was harder, I was really lucky, I answered 15 of the short questions, you have to answer 10. We are always told to answer more in case. I think I knew them all. They were like what is an artifact? Give an example of a secondary source? It was so easy it was brilliant.

We had two documents and two pictures. They were okay, the documents were pretty much relating to a question like a reading comprehension, the answer was in the text. I had to write an account on a monk in a monastery, Leonardo Da Vinci and a Roman. Well it was an ancient civilisation and I choose Rome.

Overall: Grand

Tomorrow: Business 1 and 2

Great Irish Women - on the telly

You may remember Susan Jocelyn Bell from my Great Irish Women series. A hugely lauded and accomplished scientist, Susan discovered pulsars when she was only 24 years old.

Well BB1 Northern Ireland is showing a programme about her this evening, sorry I meant to blog about it before now, at 10:45pm 'Northern Star'.

Astrophysicist Susan will talk about the impact of her massive discovery, being a woman in the science field and more I am sure.

Now the real question is whether or not Nanny will allow me to watch the show. Seriously I have to fight over the remote control. But seeing as how the apprentice is on shortly and she LOVES the show, as do I now thanks to herself and Tetra, so maybe I will get to watch about our own Nobel Prize winner.

Okay okay she didn't win the prize but it was her discovery that won the prize and that is as good as in my book.

Oh and I hope Kristina wins The Apprentice. I thought that other eejit woman, Katie, was an absolute talker with no substance whatsoever. 'Global Brand Consultant', yeah yeah, for the Met Office. How does that work? That title to me reeks of 'Refuse Technician' for 'Bin Collector' to me. The guy Simon inspires nothing in me, I thought he was sh*te, all talk again with crazy ideas, likeable though.

Anyway do check out Northern Star on BBC1 at 10:45pm. Right I'm off to watch the Apprentice.

Young Wan's Junior Cert Diary - Day 4

Day 4 - Geography, Maths 2

I got a bit of studying done over the weekend. I spent my time switching back from maths to geography and I think I got a good lot done. Before the maths exam everyone was going crazy trying to remember theorems and trying to get the sin, co sin and trigonometry down. That made me feel very nervous and I was mostly revising for trig as I wanted to get at least 50 marks down.

Geography: It was funny because the night before I was looking at Skoool.ie and it was about fold mountains. The exact same stuff came up on the exam and I was delighted. It was only worth about nine marks but it was part of a whole question.

We had a question on ordinance surveys and I didn't choose that as I forgot how to do it and picked the other questions instead. One was a photo that we had to draw a sketch map of and outline stuff.

The only thing that really annoyed me was the layout of the paper, which was nothing like the mocks. In the mocks we only got one paper and in the Junior Cert we got two sections.

Maths 2: I think I did well on the first question and question six. The other questions were about finding the area and we are allowed the formula, I tried my best to work them out. Overall it was fine, it could have been worse.

Overall: So so

Tomorrow: History, French

Young Wan's Junior Cert Diary - Day 3

We didn't get around to putting Friday's up until now, and I realise that if we don't put it up immediately the Young Wan completely and utterly forgets lots. Seriously how could you forget something so big so quickly. I had to eeeekkk this out of her with about 60 questions. Ah well, here's what she remembers from Friday.

Day 3 - OSSP/CSPE, Irish 2

OSSP: This was simple except I didn't know all the leaders to the political parties and my Mam went mad at me. The rest of it was a piece of cake. We had a selection of different topics like getting to know your neighbour and a mock election. I picked the mock election.

It was brilliantly, I wrote a page and a half on the tasks I would have to perform to make it work. I said that we would have to notify the students about it and ask our local TD about how to run an election and more stuff like that.

I also drew a poster, as part of the question. I wrote on the poster 'do you want to make a difference, VOTE'. So all round OSSP was fine.

Irish 2: This was also fine. We started with a reading comprehension and that was easy enough. It was just answering questions and answering your views on it, a bit like the English paper only in Irish.

There were questions on poetry and a novel, Dhialann Chaoimhe, we studied. Irish was simple but then it is an Irish school so you would hope so.

Overall: Friday was perfect.

Next: Maths 2, Geography

Young Wan's Junior Cert Diary - Day 2

Day 2 - Maths 1, Irish listening comprehension and Irish 1

I was really, really scared this morning, petrified in case I didn't know enough and would fail Maths paper 1. I left early and walked to school. Everyone was really scared too when I got to school. The vice principal opened rooms for everyone to study in so we did. He rang the bell and we went into the hall and took our places and I signed the exam papers to prove the examiners didn't open them beforehand. I felt very important :)

Maths 1: I opened the paper and knew the first question straight away, it was easy. But when I went on through the paper it got harder and harder and I just started answering bits and pieces of everything I knew. Then I went back in the last half an hour and went back over the questions I hadn't answered and wrote some stuff to hopefully get some marks. One of the sixth years forget her calculator for her exam and was nearly hysterical, I'd say she got one from somewhere.

Irish Listening: We were put into separate rooms for the listening comprehension and it was the easiest thing I have done since I went to the school, seriously it was so easy and it was higher level. ( Red Mum says: mmhh) It was so unbelievably easy it was great. We were the last class to finish so all the other classes had to wait on us to start the exam.

Irish 1: It was a reading comprehension, essay and conversation I had to write, to see how good my language is. I wrote about five pages altogether and it was fine. I was finished in about an hour and a half, the exam is two and a half hours, and I went over things for a bit and ended up leaving early because I was just sitting there. I don't think anyone stayed for the full exam, it was that simple. In other exams I won't have time to waste so there will be no leaving early.

I think they will try to shock us tomorrow with paper 2 because even someone with little Irish could have done paper 1.

Overall: Today was grand, Maths meh, Irish brilliant.

Tomorrow: OSSP/CSPE and Irish 2

Young Wan's Junior Cert Diary - Day 1

STUDYING and other things permitting, the Young Wan and I are going to attempt a Junior Cert diary. She is going to talk to me and tell me about it and I am going to attempt to put it down true to her telling here.

Day 1 - English

Last night I wasn't nervous but I was this morning. It was hitting me, oh my god, my Junior Cert, this could affect my Leaving Cert and everything. I got up at 7am and looked over some of my English notes and then I left early and went into school to find everyone was there already.

We just sat about talking for a while waiting to register for the exams. Then we all got called up to the library with the Sixth Years where a nun from the school said special prayers for us, all the guys were laughing in the background and then the principal started going mad saying 'everyone who doesn't want to take the communion, just get out'. The whole of our year walked out, no one stayed and some of the sixth years walked out too.

We then went down to the hall to find our seats and I am on the third row. They started going on about how important this is and all the rules and one of the guys who looked really stern talked about mobile phones and that you can't turn them on and make sure they are off. His phone went off twenty minutes into the exam.

English 1

It was fine and is mostly about my personal writing, functional writing. It was okay only after a while my hand kept cramping up so I had to shake my hand a lot.

I wrote an essay with the title 'the day started the same as any other nobody could have known by that evening I would be ruler of the universe'. I wrote about my friend and I finding a magic goldfish with a funny Dublin accent that helped us become rulers of the universe.

I think my Mum would have liked 'the teenagers guide to life' in the personal writing section but I didn't do it.

English 2

The first question was about drama and I took the Shakespearian one from the Taming of the Shrew. It was perfect, great. I looked at the others but I didn't like the questions so I did the Shakespeare one.

The poetry was fine, it was a comprehension on the poem and I had to choose another one. The poem I choose was 'Stellar Manipulator' by Paul Durcan, one of my favourite poems and that also went fine. I had to describe why the title was interesting and say why it appealed to me, an easy option I think.

I wasn't too sure about the fiction as I was finding it hard to concentrate at this stage. I couldn't spell Roald Dahl and had to write it down a couple of times.

Overall: I am happy with today.

Tomorrow: Irish 1 and listening test, Maths 1

RM column May 31 - Don't Panic

This is from this week's column and I just thought no better time to publish it here than today because exams have started and also considering the amount of junior and leaving certificate search queries hitting here. So good luck to all our Junior and Leaving Cert students, remember don't panic and worse things have happened at sea.

Oh and for tips and all sorts check out Skoool.ie, Leaving Cert stuff is already on the front page while the Junior Cert tips are here.

Don't panic

Darling, by the time you read this your exams will have started. They are the first of many exams you will sit over your life. And each time you have exams you will think they are the most important thing in the world. At this time, they kinda are but in the bigger scheme of things, they aren't really at all.

For now though the Junior Cert is your first big academic milestone, well if you don't count starting school in the first place or indeed secondary school. As big as those moments are, the first time you walk into the exam hall and see the evenly spaced tables and chairs, the vigilators, and feel the tense and nervous atmosphere you wont forget it.

Getting you to study has been hard and stressful on both of us and about a month ago I came to the complete realisation that nothing I said or did would get you to study in reality. I could shout, roar but at the end of the day unless it comes from you it won't happen.

Instead of panicking I have chilled out a bit and you appear to be studying and I say appear because we all know that you could be sitting there with all the books in front of you, making what looks like notes, flipping the pages of a text book and in your head you are singing 'Smells like Teen Spirit'.

Time will tell on that.

Besides I am constantly being reassured by people that the Junior Cert is more about scaring the hell out of students in time for them to knuckle down for their Leaving Cert. I don't know if that's true not having been through the education system here. But I know we will both be disappointed and devastated if your marks do not reflect your ability.

However at the end of the day once these exams are over, they are over, nothing to do until the results come in. And once you start the Leaving Cert course, the Junior Cert ceases to matter really. That's the way of exams once you do others above the last ones you have, the previous ones are pretty much defunct.

The main thing to remember over the next weeks is don't panic. Even the worst case scenario isn't the worst thing in the world. As I was told myself as a child, worse things happen at sea. Exams can always be resat, disappointment can always be overcome. Stress on the other hand can make you sick. So forget worrying just get your head down and do your best, that's all any parent wants their kids to do, their best. I couldn't ask for more.

This is not only to my darling, the Young Wan but it is also for all those who might read this column who are about to sit or have sat exams.

Remember don't panic, don't worry, do your best and worse things happen at sea.

Spideal Abú

I'm just blogging this after a wonderful and long weekend in Spiddal. As I write we are coming into Athlone, there's no air-conditioning on the train so to say it is hot would be an understatement.

But I suppose seeing as how I wanted good weather for the weekend, I am not complaining not after the crazy rain we had on Saturday, but Friday, Sunday, Monday and today were all absolutely gorgeous.

I love going down to visit my pal, her husband and their two babies, it is just bliss and this time was no different.

When I arrived my mobile was bleeping away with all the twitterers and my pal was just amazed at this.

And even more amazed when I explained it all.

'Eh you are saying that people are texting this site saying what they are doing?

I replied sortof, there's more to it than that, but that kinda sums it up for laypeople, particularly as they don't get my blogging either and are only coming to terms with how handy mobile phones are AND recently got a laptop and barely use it.

So all things twitter was one of the jokes of the last couple of days. Everytime my phoned beeped, they would go 'oh that'll be a commercial break then', or 'just getting my dinner', 'should I have a beer or a glass of wine'. You can imagine.

They didn't get it at all not even from my recollections of the fantastic reportage from twitter during the election. No they think I'm sad and all you other twitterers too.

My reply was at least someone texted me, sortof, unlike them who didn't get one the whole weekend ;)

I did get a cool t-shirt from my pal's husband, but I'll post that on its own, it deserves it.

Anyway as usual, here's some pics from the weekend, Spideal Abú.


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