Morning commute
Some of the things out the bus window this morning.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Becoming my ma
I BLOGGED before about the psychic moments between Nanny and me during her stay with me. But I am slowly and surely coming to the realisation that I am becoming my Ma.
The psychic moments are coming fast and furious now, I wouldn’t be able to mention them all here, but they range from me thinking ‘I’ll phone home’ then Nanny calls me to asking about random people only to have Nanny look at me strangely saying ‘get out of my head’.
Speaking of phone calls I phoned home the other evening and due to some technical clitch I couldn’t hear anything at the other end. So I repeated ‘hello’ and my Mum said ‘hello’ back. I then said ‘hiya hows it going’ and strangely Nanny said exactly the same thing back to me. I was somewhat confused for a spilt second before I realised that I had that echo thing going on with the line and I was actually only hearing myself. I am my Mum’s voice doppelganger.
The other evening some nifty music came on the telly and I realised that both Nanny and I were shimmying our shoulders in time, I quickly stopped. I am my Ma – it would appear the metamorphism is complete.
And of course at times I find myself repeating the things she said to me when I was a kid, ‘do as I say not as I do’ or ‘EXCUSE me’ when the Young Wan is being cheeky. The ‘excuse me’ is more about the tone than the words, there are more but I am just drawing a blank right now trying to remember them.
So while all this was more than a little unsettling I thought about it some more. My Ma is gorgeous and looks brilliant for nearly being a pensioner (in-joke), she is a good looking woman who regularly gets chatted up. I can only hope that when I am nearly a pensioner I look half as good or indeed have half as much energy and joie de vivre as her.
In addition I hope that I will inherit her sense of and ability to have fun. I also hope that at her age I would think nothing of moving to another country and culture. When I am her age I also hope she will still be able to cut my hair. Having a hairdresser in the family spoils you for coiffing. The fact that she is a brilliant hairdresser also has something to do with it.
This is something the Young Wan will have to deal with in time. While I am turning into my Ma, she will turn into me… And will probably make for a better likeness considering we are both redheads and my Ma (Nanny to you) is a blonde. So if you are heading to the Irish Blog Awards on Saturday evening you may find it hard to tell us all apart.
Anyway Happy Mothers’ Day Mum and all other mothers out there and Young Wan you better be getting us both something lovely, a cup of tea in bed won’t cut it this year ;)
EDIT: February 29th to enter Eamon's competition at Flowers Made Easy.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Irish Blog Awards - Photowalking tour
Just to keep you reminded about this weekend's photowalking tour. In order to facilitate as many people as possible bearing in mind all the different events that are taking place on Saturday, I am suggesting that we meet at noon at the Spire and we can take things from there.
We'll make our way to the docklands area and see what we can see/snap. Things will then be wrapped up around 3pm giving people time to get to the other pre-awards events.
If you think you might be late for the noon start drop me an email and we can arrange for you to catch up with us somewhere along the way. If you can think of any photo games we can play, feel free to shout them out and Elly may or may not have something for us to do too.
There is a Facebook event which you can use to invite anyone you think might be interested and it has been mentioned in a couple of the different Irish Flickr groups.
Okay I think thats everything, drop a comment if you think of something else; so to wrap up:
What: Photowalking tour
Where: Meet at the Spire, then walk to the docklands
When: Saturday, March 1st, 12noon - 3pm
Who: Anyone from camera phones to mega-feck off cameras, you just should want to take photographs.
See you then :)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
All about Honey
Just look at that ball control.
While many people think she looks like a puppy and indeed she still plays like a puppy, Honey is now four years old. I should at some stage record some of her antics because she has a lot more since the last time I did - you should see her with balloons. Because we love her we think she is deadly cute and sit talking all the time about all the cute things she does.
One of her latest 'tricks' is prompted when you ask her 'are you shaking?' and she tenses herself her and shakes, it is very, very funny. When she thinks she is getting a treat she manically does all her tricks at once, which you can see in the video below.
And she loves balls particularly the squeaky kind. Sometimes this drives us nuts so we accidentally throw the offending article behind the settee which is angled against the wall and she can't get in but can manage to squeeze her head behind the wall and sofa. Then she sits and moans and groans because she can't get at it. No matter how many times we play with the softer, less noisier balls, she will always plod back to her spot and moan again. She has the determination of something very determined indeed.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Is that a didgeridoo?
I HAVE been discovering a lot of old pics I had completely forgotten about, not to mention cameras, since the move including a lomo which I will haul out shortly, possibly for the photo-meet fancy coming? I collected them, mostly polaroids, while at college.
One picture I found is a 20x16 fibre-paper image of the Young Wan at about five years old on Belfast's Springfield Road with a Peace Line behind her. She is standing on a bollard with her arms outstretched and her head slightly tilted singing. I love the pic. And following on from what I was saying before one of the buttons on her wee skirt is undone, typical.
The print is black and white and I tinted it sepia-toned. While I cut off the top of one of her hands, as many of you know you can't get kids to pose exactly the way you want particularly when you want them to be spontaneous, I still love the pic. The abandonment on her face is so endearing. I won't talk about how I am looking at the photo thinking 'I burnt that in very badly' - it still is a wonderful reminder of how free and unrestricted about joy the Young Wan was.
Which brings me back to the title of this post, I was admiring the beauty of fibre paper which is a high quality photographic paper used for exhibitions and archiving. You can not only see the higher quality but you can also feel it in your fingers.
So I was demonstrating this to Nanny but holding the photo in my two hands and flipping it up and down making a very satisfying clipped boing sound. And I said 'do you hear that, when you do that with a normal print it doesn't sound like...
I didn't have time to finish before Nanny said 'a didgeridoo?
'Ehm no, it doesn't sound like this (fanning the print again)!
Jeez.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Nanny broke the internet and other stories
IT APPEARS that Nanny's techno skills have once again outshone themselves. First there was the switching of language to Russian on the telly, then somehow Nanny managed to wipe the internet 3g mobile broadband yoke off my laptop, don't ask me how but it is still not working despite numerous calls to both vodafone and apple as well as the fiddlings of someone who knows what they are doing, and multiple reinstalling of the software, thank God I get broadband connected up this week or next week.
Now Nanny has broken the NTL recorder machine. I don't know how, it may have something to do with panicking over the recording of America's Next Top Model which resulted in four empty things in the recorded section. Now nothing is recording at all, it is there on the list but when the time comes up nothing happens. That recorder has been a godsend since Nanny broke the internet.
Big sigh.
Lovely lovely light and pints
I AM really loving the longer evenings and the light at the moment, all I can say is wow. I have found myself on a couple of occasions standing like a mad eejit just looking up enjoying all the beautiful colours spreading over everything. Course other times I am trying to capture it. I took this one in Trinity yesterday evening on my way home from work.
Did I say on my way home, ehm on my way home via the pub, the Brazen Head to be exact.
Whatchadoing there?
Normally when I take pics on the bus people tend to completely ignore me, this is probably helped by me sitting at the back of the bus. This morning this wee girl was just looking at me puzzled, I love the fact that her nose is pressed against the glass.
Monday, February 18, 2008
First trip to the zoo
FOR the last year and a half I have been documenting little Ella's progress since she was born. I have a ridiculous amount of pics of this beautiful cherub, a lot more than I do of my own cherub - blame digital photography.
The weekend saw her first visit to the zoo and I can tell you it is not easy negotiating a pram, bags and a camera while trying to capture some of the child's wonderment at all the animals. But I tried and was happy with what I managed to get. It is a pity many of the animals were in bed! And I wasn't fit for much else myself afterwards.
Friday, February 15, 2008
RM colum February 8th - It hasn't gone away you know
RM column February 8th - It hasn't gone away you know
Since I started writing my blog and this column the Young Wan’s messy/untidy/pig sty bedroom has featured more times than I would care to remember.
The messy/untidy/pig sty bedroom pops up way too much in reality and much more than I write about but sometimes moaning about it bores me let alone writing about it constantly boring you.
The new house provides some coverage from the bedroom for herself or indeed for me. In the last flat as soon as you opened the flat door you were assaulted by the den of iniquity that was her bedroom. The new place allows me to pretend it doesn’t even exist.
Battles over her bedroom are ones that I try to choose carefully. Being on her back constantly is going to do neither her nor me any good so not having it slap bang in my face as I get home from work has been a blessing.
On top of that Nanny is sharing the room with the Young Wan so she has had to deal with it more than I have. And she has been dealing with for the last six weeks, with little gain made.
So for the last couple of nights off the Young Wan goes into her room, to play music, move stuff from one pile to another, hide some more stuff in places that are blatantly obvious to everyone but her, instead of actually tidying her room.
This has been going on since we moved in. She will spend days at a time doing this.
Nanny actually found a pile in the bottom of her wardrobe and pulled it out onto the middle of the floor ready for the Young Wan to tidy it up when she got home from school. Only the Young Wan went in and shoved it under the bed as if that would not be noticed.
But as I have said before teenagers are not known for their smartness.
In the last day or two it began to sound like actual work was being done, probably because the Young Wan wants allowed out at the weekend and knows she will only cross the threshold if the room is actually clean and tidy.
‘Nanny it is done’ – she roared into the living room so Nanny could go in and inspect the work. Much better for Nanny to do that than me.
Nanny had not even reached the door when she went ‘oh no it is not’.
Teenagers seem to adopt selective sight, she can only see what she wants to see. So she will spend time tidying but fails to see the rubbish strewn about the floor, socks lying her and there and shoes kicked off and left where they land.
It is terrible for me to sit back on this for now but I am relieved Nanny has taken this on. Okay okay she hasn’t taken it on, poor Nanny has no choice but to take it seeing as how she is sharing a room with our untidy teen.
Still and all for a time, a short time I don’t have to crack the whip on this one, I can just pretend that messy space doesn’t exist. Eh what bedroom?
RM column February 1st - Reaching Milestones
RM column February 1st - Reaching Milestones
Children have lots of milestones, first steps and first words are the ones that spring to mind, but there are lots more smaller milestones that can make you happy or sad.
Like the time the Young Wan stopped saying aminal for animal, that made me sad or when she stopped freaking out when she met my Mum’s friend Margaret, that made me happy, well happy-ish.
That was a mad one the Young Wan, who wasn’t ever prone to hissy fits or temper tantrums would throw a freak attack when she would be asked to say hello to Margaret.
Funny thing was when we called Margaret Susan she didn’t freak at all. We had no clue as to why this would be the case but sure children are mad and that was the best explanation we could come up with.
Throughout their lives children have many phases which have their own wee milestones, like actually throwing rubbish in bins instead of shoving it in the nearest place. We haven’t reached that milestone yet but I look forward to the days when we do.
There are other more endearing ones like learning to put your shoes on the correct feet, there is nothing more cute than seeing a child who has obviously stubbornly decided to put their own shoes on and wrongly.
Or the time when they insist on feeding themselves and end up with more up their nose and in the hair than in their mouth, again the Young Wan is still working on getting more food into her mouth than on her clothes.
The tying of shoe laces is another thing that gets my goat, the sight of bedraggled and filthy laces tangling behind her drives me mad.
I don’t think it is a fashion thing, I have seen youngsters with the laces not tied, but tucked neatly into their trainers. But that is not what the Young Wan is doing.
I also find the most common thing I say to her is ‘pull up your trousers’ she seems to have an aversion to belts.
Another thing the Young Wan has not managed to do yet is button up shirts, coats and pyjama tops properly. The bottom button is always buttoned on the second button, giving her an unkempt appearance.
And Nanny doesn’t like it.
The Young Wan will walk into the room and it is such a normal thing for me I barely even notice anymore but Nanny does and she’ll say ‘button that up properly’ to the exasperation of the Young Wan.
So the other night the Young Wan came into the living room to say good night and stood there with her arms outstretched going ‘ta da’ revealing a perfectly buttoned-up pyjama top.
It didn’t last, the next night she walked through and as per usual one side of her top was triangularly hanging well below the other one.
So over the next while I expect there to be another couple of milestones reached, the tying of shoelaces, pulled up trousers and perfectly buttoned tops. Ach who am I kidding I can barely do all those things myself, so I suppose reaching milestones is something that happens throughout our lives and not just when we are young.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Little bit of news
SOMETHING cool happened last week and I wanted to hold off until I was sure before posting about it. I'll be writing a column for the quarterly Easy Health magazine starting with the next edition due out shortly and available nationwide :) It'll be a light look at family life so aside from wanting at times to throttle my teenager I should be okay ;)
The first column is already written and submitted and I'm delighted. So many many thanks to Sarah who pointed them in my direction, thanks a million:)
Young Wan - Radio Star
THE Young Wan was on the radio last night. She texted into the station with a helpful hint and they phoned her back. She rushed in all excited telling us that she was going to be on the radio. A few minutes later she turned the sound up and all we could hear was herself saying 'never sit on a plug - it really hurts!
Once the texts starting coming in from her pals she was pretending to be embarrassed rolling her eyes saying she shouldn't have gone on. It must be so hard to cope with fame at such a young age ;)
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Out and about
Yer man has been busy. For Elaine who pointed me in the direction of this shot, thanks!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunny Saturday shots
I WAS thinking of meeting up over the weekend with the other members of the Meet Dublin group on Flickr for a Dublin 8 photo meet. Unfortunately they were actually on a tour of Kilmainham Gaol at the time and phones were on silent so I didn't get through. As I pottered about town waiting to hear from them I got some snaps of people enjoying their Saturday and enjoying the wonderful Spring weather.
To kill some time I went into Habitat which was having a clearance sale and bought some lovely plates. Unfortunately I then got a text telling me where the group was but didn't think a bag of plates was a practical addition to the day so I headed on home. Anyway here's some of what I got on Saturday morning and check out the photo pool of the Meet Dublin group to see what they were up to at the same time.
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