Halloween 2007

WHILE there are lots of fireworks going off around me the build-up to tonight has not been as noisy or as bad as in previous years. But they are going off tonight.

I snapped some of the various Halloween things that I spied throughout the day as well as attempting to capture the fireworks and I mean attempt. They were a bit a way and I was hand-holding the long lens. There were loads of different things to snap today, I caught a guy in face paint on a bike at lunchtime, a fornlorn and lonely pumpkin left out on bins and a company's festive door-decorating.

There were also loads of things I missed, such as on the way home where a gang of what appeared to be angels and devils meeting up at the Spire (it was dark and I was travelling by on a bus) to the rest of the mad assortment of costumes. Anywhere here's what I did manage to catch.

Someone broke the internet

I'VE seen this already on someones blog and I cannot remember where so sorry about that, but I happened upon it again on Flickr. Enjoy and remember not to open too many applications, pages and tabs at once...


Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

On and off

Once again the following were taken during my morning commute. I love these lamps, particularly the colours on the first one. Found around Dolier Street.

On bloppers

I WAS reading Grandad over at Headrambles and this laughed at this bit:

"In the shop, I saw a notice pinned to the wall. To cheer myself up, I read it, as it was from the local Senior Citizens’ Club.

'Dear Friends, It’s that time of year again when we have our last get-together. With supper, music and dancing. '

What the hell is this about? Senior Citizen Culling? A Lemming Syndrome? I didn’t realise they held an annual mass-suicide. I won’t be going. I have no intention of popping my clogs just yet."

It also reminded me of a massive blupper a pal made a couple of years back, you know who you are... Or you will do presently.

My pal, her husband and the then new baby moved into a wonderful wee street in a small town. Their neighbours were long-time residents and a few other young families like themselves.

There would be lots of smiling and waving at people until they were at that stage where they knew their neighbours but didn't really know them.

This particular incident saw my pal's mouth engage before her brain.

It was just before Christmas and herself and the hubby were unpacking the car when one of the older neighbours ladden with shopping bags went by.

Hailing my pal the neighbour said "this is the last..." before my pal interjected "Ach the last Christmas?

Apparently the neighbour looked horrified, walked off while my pal's husband just tutted at her.

He he that still makes me laugh.

Is it spring yet?

ABOUT two weeks ago I planted a number of bulbs in preparation for our new back yard and next spring. However they have decided not to wait and are coming up all over the place. I suppose I should have moved them from the living room... Soon I'll have snowdrops, daffodils, hyancinths and more. I would have prefered them next spring, how and ever. Does anyone know, will they come back up again in the spring.

Dancing parrots - Fun Friday

I SAW a piece in the papers this morning about a dancing parrot on You Tube so I checked it out and it is cool. I want a parrot.

LOLSecretz

INSPIRED by Twenty's Postsecret post from way back, I posted two images to the very funny LOLsecretz site as recommended by Rick (I think).

As an aside the amount of visitors Twenty's post and my posting of his post is huge, I reckon it is the second most popular post of everything I've done and when I say popular I mean from the visits. Anyway check out the site it can be funny and here's one of my contributions.

RM column October 12 th - Tubridy on Teenagers

RM column October 12 th - Tubridy on Teenagers

I was listening to Ryan Tubridy on the radio one morning last week when he was talking about teenagers, dating and sexuality.

Normally Tubridy drives me nuts sometimes and this show was no different, you would have thought Tubridy had never been a teenager at all, mmhh it strikes me that he was possibly always an auld fogey.

On that show his guests included a mum of two teenagers and Ruth Gilligan the teenage author.
One of the things that struck me about the programme was how much Tubridy tried to get the more salacious and tabloid stories of teen sex, promiscuity and sordidness.

What he got was a different story altogether which showed me that being a teenager hasn’t changed much over the years.

Sure there are more obstacles for teenagers nowadays; our society is much more sexualised than before. Music videos leave little to the imagination but I would say that has always been a problem from the time when Elvis shook his pelvis scaring the living daylights out of parents all over the world. It is all relative.

Don’t get me wrong I have heard all the mad stories of teenage girls going out with no underwear on and according to Ruth Gilligan she had heard of this but never actually knew anyone who conducted themselves like that.

I’ve read all the tabloid stories of teen-orgies in the papers and without appearing blinkered to my own daughter’s life none of them ring true to things she does or indeed her friends.
Certainly some of her pals are drinking and when drinking like that they are leaving themselves open to danger for want of a better word.

Generally they are acting like teenagers have acted for decades and they are not waiting for every opportunity to have wild-rampant sex.

They talked at length about discos for young people and all the debauchery that Tubridy imagined was going on at these social events.

I am not so naïve that I think this doesn’t happen, it does, but not for the vast majority of young people.

For many their relationships are as innocent as we would like them to be, where the hottest and heaviest they get is eating the face of each other snogging.

Normally if I was listening to programmes or indeed conversations like that where all sorts of accusations are thrown about, I would think that it is because the accuser has actually behaved in that way; I doubt that is the case with Tubridy.

Maybe as a teenager he thought everyone was getting up to all sorts because he wasn’t.

The mother on the show and the charming Ruth Gilligan were the voices of reason and were reassuring that teenagers are not the hedonistic youngsters the media often paints them as.
One of the most important things a parent can do is talk to their child and be open about sex.

The younger you can have these conversations the better before the embarrassment factor seeps in and before they learn nonsense from the playground.

It is something that I have talked to the Young Wan about, on how not to race into growing up, how no matter what happens that she should always conduct herself with respect for herself as much as with others. All we can hope is that the lessons we have taught them throughout their lives will be remembered, the rest is up to our teenagers.

RM column October 5th - Laundry Day

RM column October 5th - Laundry Day

I am having a bad day and it is all down to underwear or lack of. I should also warn you in advance that I am going to talk about knickers.

To explain the background to this rant, laundry day in our house is at the weekend, normally Sundays. Then one weekend I went to launderette and found little to nothing of the Young Wan’s washing, meaning another trip to the launderette would be needed just so at the very least she would have clean clothes for school.

The last thing I can handle is the thought of a day in work followed by two hours in the launderette in the evening. So when I realised that not only did I not have her school uniform to wash but there was little else belonging to her despite being asked a number of times to get her washing together.

I decided that the best way to enable her to be more organised with her washing was to make it her job. That is all well and good in theory but the reality has proved something else completely.
I will sometimes go down the road with her, help her pack the machines before I head off to get some shopping. By the time I have finished in the supermarket the washing has finished. So I either leave her to it or sometimes I will help her pack the dryers before heading home with the non-tumble dryer clothes.

The trouble is when I leave her to her own devices I lose clothes, predominately knickers, the mind boggles, or it would if I hadn’t discovered what has been happening.

I’ll pack up the washing which includes a week’s worth of underwear, only when it comes back I am often left with one or two pairs of knickers. This has had me stumped.

Sure over the years like socks, various items disappear but it happens over time and sometimes you only realise you haven’t seen a particular item for about a year. Clothes walk, I don’t know how, but they do.

However, the unexplained knicker loss is a completely different story altogether.

When I do the laundry the Young Wan is handed a pile of her clothes all categorised and neatly folded. I am not foolish enough to think that is how she would do it. But I would expect a certain amount of duplication.

Oh no, that’s not the way at all.

The fresh washing is left in a pile somewhere in my room, sometimes it is still in the laundry bag itself and sometimes it isn't even in either of those places.

So come Monday morning I go looking for underwear, only to find nothing. Seriously there have been times when I have sent down seven pairs only to have none come home.

I have been a tad freaked out by this imagining that I will someday walk into the launderette and there will be piles and piles of my knickers pinned to the noticeboard with a sign saying ‘are these yours?’.

So far though that hasn’t happened.

And I have just found out what was the story is. Aside from herself robbing particular knickers she likes, she also makes an executive decision on what she will wash and won’t wash; a dreadful move altogether.

What she isn’t washing she hides in her room. Seriously, I have found a pile of my clothes, including lots of knickers hidden in her room.

I think she believes that she will pull them out and include them in the next wash but of course, the next time the laundry has piled up again and it never happens.

So having just discovered the hidden stash this morning, I am at a loss, really and truly.

The only light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that we are moving house soon AND we have a washing machine, what joy of joys! No more will I inexplicably lose knickers and thank God for that.

Moving again

NOT only are we moving, but here is moving too. Like our house move, God knows when I'll get the packing and unpacking done here. In the meantime has anyone suggestions for a nice clean wordpress template? Will let you know when the move is on.

Some recent pics

HERE'S some recent pics, all with a high-key colour theme going on.

The first load is ready to go

WHO knew I had so much stuff, well actually I did know that but it packing up a house is a long, arduous job. I have found so many things I had forgotten about, photographs, letters, drawings, you name it I have found it.

Some of which will be uploaded to Flickr and other stuff will be piled and filed away into a pile called stuff. You know what I mean, it is indefinable, things from college, certs from past courses, the Young Wan's artwork over the years, cards from herself, postcards, letters, you name it I found it over the weekend.

It has been a slow process with no moving date as such, more an idea of a time, it is easy to come home after work, make dinner, then flop for the evening. Weekends on the other hand are mad, I allow myself Saturday afternoon to relax and then get stuck in. Any other time I have moved I have had a timescale so it is hard working in a kinda vacuum without one. Though it takes a serious amount of pressure off on loads of levels, financially sorting out my current landlord and bills to the actual logistics of moving. I hope to have the use of friends' vans and need to work out when suits them and us and when we are ready to bring in the big guns of packing. Once I get the vans in I am moving the big heavy items so obviously I am not there yet, but I have to say one jaunt in a van with what we have packed so far would be good.

We have been packing away some stuff and stashing it in the Young Wan's room underneath her tall raised bed. Her room is packed away completely, or so she says and at the moment it is like a black bin bag attack in there. Hopefully some evening this week we can get them moved up to the new place. My room is a third done, the living room/kitchen has bits and pieces packed and there is still much to do, not bad for a small two-bedroom place, eh?

My plan is to paint what will be her room and then store what is already packed away in her new room while the rest of the house is sorted. That will leave me more room to continue packing and dumping away. I expect this packing nonsense will dominate a lot of things over the next while so pardon me if I bore you, but it is a massive big deal for us and one I am not going to be able to get away from, so if you are stopping by here neither will you I'm afraid.

RM column September 28th - Working Teens

RM column September 28th - Working Teens

I'M a proud Mum, the Young Wan has decided to do some volunteer work after school and I think it is great.

All summer long she has gone on and on about wanting to get a part-time job. Once it doesn’t affect school and homework I have no problem with working whatsoever. Getting a job is a good thing and teaches them so much.

Course by the time her next big exams start to come round she will not be allowed to work. The only downside and a big one at that to working as a teenager is allowing your school work to suffer. Or the other scenario where the youngster maybe works semi full-time over the summer and thinks the money is their pocket is so good that they either start to let school seriously slip or they leave altogether.

And yeah at first the money in their pockets is great and they might feel loaded. Then they hit their 20s and the money no longer seems that great at all. Meanwhile their pals are finishing college and able to command more money. So while I will encourage herself to get a job, there are limits around it.

So by working part-time, not only do teenagers have a little money they have earned themselves but they learn how to cope in a work environment but being only 15 no where will hire the Young Wan.

One place asked her to send in a CV; normally that would seem like a pretty standard request, but how does a 15-year-old have a CV? I mean what do you put on it? Okay there is your name, address, contact details and education to date and well, eh that’s it. She has never worked and the experience section wouldn’t read too well with ‘I wash dishes, badly!’

And having your Mum as your referee is hardly reassuring for a potential employee. So bearing all this in mind the Young Wan then decided that she would try volunteering in of the local charity shops.

The first one she approached was delighted and told her to start that week on her school half day.

Speaking to her afterwards I don’t think she was all that impressed, I don’t know what she was expecting. But it was just herself and an older woman working, the Young Wan even got to work the till.

I would have imagined that working the till was something you had to work up to. Next week she could be out the back steaming the clothes, I should send down a pile of ironing for her to do while she is at it.

The highlight of her day was a cup of tea and a biscuit. But she is going to stick at it, which is brilliant. She even heard of other volunteering she can do at a local hospice and is seriously considering doing that.

So not only is she giving some of her time and giving back (even in a little way) to our local community, she is gaining experience and something to write on her CV and when the time comes to apply to college all these things will be good too. Well done darling.

Going Stateside for the

I MET up with my first-cousin this week, if she is my Mum's cousin, she is my first cousin isn't she? She moved to the States decades ago and I last saw her 15 years ago when the Young Wan was only six months old.

We only had an hour or so before herself and posse, her husband (ehm my eh first cousin's husband) Big Ron and their friends had to go back to their hotel for a good night's sleep before their 7am flight the next morning.

My uncle Ron, that's much easier and appropriate to say, had a scene in a movie which made it into a top-whatever list of worst movies ever made. I remember that since I first met him when I was seven and went to the States for the first time with my Mum and Nanny.

Oh my god, such excitement that was, from when we realised in Dublin Airport that the passengers they were calling for the flight was actually us and we missed it to being put up in an airport near the hotel which still makes me smile when we pass.

In the hotel I remember we had two rooms next to each other with a balcony running along all the rooms. I remember my Mum saying it would be a laugh, or something like that maybe it was just 'walk along the balcony and see if your Nanny is up', and I went out to her room window and nearly scared the living daylights out of her looking in her window as she pulled up her tights.

I laughed myself hysterical until tears ran down my cheeks.

Being away with my Mum for three whole weeks was amazing. In the hotel at breakfast she took my spoon and moved the cereal (am I so sad I remember they were rice crispys) that was up and around the bowl back into the milk. That was wonderful.

I remember my first-cousin/Aunt Sally picking us up at the airport with a freezer box full of ice and cans of coke and driving to their home, which in Irish terms was bloody amazing. They had a deck and what they called a pond but was really a small lake out the back.

The lake had turtles and catfish in it, the turtles ranging in size from small ones to one massive one I would see swimming underneath the surface every now and again. The house also had a wood beside it and one day I got lost in it. When I was in Turkey I saw a photograph my Mum has taken that day of me rubbing my eyes after crying, having been lost never to be found again, beside the wood. It is funny because I remember being a bit 'I'm traumatised here and you are taking pics!

Mm slightly ironic now but sure.

I went to school when I was there too but the rest is a story for another day, I just let myself wander there, sorry about that.

Autumn leaves

I've been meaning to get out some evening after work and get pics of the wonderful light and colours I've been seeing.

I met up with an Aunt tonight and managed to catch some pics on my way. You can see them on Flickr I think this is my favourite, eh or is it the one below, I can't decide.

Two-legged dog

THIS is one of the maddest things I have ever seen, the Young Wan and I were laughing heartily at this last night, more because it looks strangely mad and strangely cute. I don't know if it is cruel or not, the dog appears happy as larry and it was rescued. Sure have a look yourself.

What I was doing when I wasn't packing...

Ehm anything but packing, we went to see the new house and had a lovely walk along the way.

My morning commute in pictures

I snapped my way to work the other morning, it was a gorgeous warm and sunny autumn day so perfect shooting weather with lots of lovely long shadows.

Anyway I hope you enjoy it and all images are on Flickr.

Young Wan on Jerry Springer

THE Young Wan on Jerry Springer: "that show is for people with no lives 'we have big problems so lets get naked'".

He he.

Roadworks on a Sunday evening - when else?

THERE I was having spent Sunday beginning to clear out stuff so we can move (will post again on that one but we are so excited!). It was a long day with what appeared to be little to show for all my endeavours.

I was looking forward to sitting curled up on the sofa reading the papers which were finally bought after the Young Wan was attired suitably enough for the local shops when I heard some noise outside.

I looked and saw some workmen sorting out traffic cones, this was at about 7.30pm, they were still there at 2am.

Nipping to the shops, but first...

WHY is it when on Sunday mornings I ask the Young Wan to 'nip' to the shops to get the Sunday papers, she has to have a full face on.

Yesterday I asked her to run out quickly for me. The next time I saw her was about half an hour later, with a full made up face on AND her hair washed...

I thought she had been and gone and would have papers in hand. *Big sigh*

It is days like this when I really miss the 'I'll count and see how long it takes you' ploy, you know the one where they run off like mad fast wee whippets as you go '1. 2. 3. 4.' Normally at this stage they are out of earshot and you can resume whatever it is you are doing, only to restart when you hear them coming back.

I tried it recently but it didn't work anymore :(