Walking to work this morning I stopped to admire the skyline. I quickly realised what I was doing and promptly shook myself. While it was a nice sky, lots of color etc, there was absolutely no need for such dramatic gestures.

It must be PMT, why else would I be admiring the Dublin sky of a Tuesday morning. Granted I got strange looks when I was shaking myself but it was worth it in the end.

The mornings are getting quite hard to get through, usually when I get into work, I’d give Mam a call and listen to her go on about spring and the flowers, cause I’d have such interest in them.There’s a flaming katie, I think its called, at home that is looking to change is name to drop dead Daisy. Rumoured to be one of the easiest plants to take care of, it never stood a chance against the old

” Did you water the plants this week?”
“I thought you did.”
“Ah sure they’ll be grand for another while”
and then death.

It was that and football with mam, with the league starting and us getting beaten in the first match, she’d be waxing lyrical about how shite we were and how it was probably because of the new jerseys. Yes, a staunch supporter she was!

The kid got on okay at her exams, well, she claims she failer her maths and she did alright in her Irish. She was moved up the front as she was distracting other students. I wonder when did she get so bould. She was supposed to come training with me last night as she’s thinking of taking up kick-boxing, I won’t be sparring with her that’s for sure, she lamps me most of the time and we’re not even training!

However, she went to get D who was also coming along and the two of them were late, so we didn’t make it. I wonder will I ever get back into it! Here’s to Wednesday and making it out there.
So its Pancake Tuesday then, apparently the kid likes them now, she never used to. Maybe she heard about them making your breasts bigger or something!
She’s an advertisers dream , that child.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at 11:54 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

She headed off this morning like the little ray of sunshine that she is to start her mocks.
In the meantime , we are to find her a new school. The Joys of parenthood never warned you about
these situations.

Come Wednesday last, myself and Mammy2 were at our wits end with her, she was and still is exhausting. So while out for a bite to eat, we came up with the fantastic idea of sending her
to Holland, the sister lives over there and always said if we ever needed a break to send her over.
The thing was, we had to check with the sister and see if she had time to spare to ‘hang’ with a teenager and then we had carefully broach the subject with the kid. One never knows how she could react to this sort of scenario.

Mammy 2 came up with the great idea of acting like it was a present for the kid after she had finished her mocks.

So, I booked the ticket on Friday once the sister K had confirmed that she would be able to take her for a few days. Thursday evening, the kid rings us asking can she stay over at D’s her best mates. While we tried not to trip over ourselves with excitement, we managed to maintain a nonchalent tone and told her that was fine and we’d see her Friday evening.

Thursday night was so cool, just the two of us. Friday night landed upon us with a bang, she arrived home , a tornado of energy wanting to know what we were going to do for the night.
We’ve just finished work for the week and she wants to party? We managed to settle her on a dvd and the fact that she got her christmas present from K made her a happy camper.
She was busy trying on everything in her wardrobe with the dress and ended up with the same look as she started out with.

Saturday morning,she was up at 9 and spent the best part of 3 hours perfecting her black on black look. We chilled out for the day, spent the morning shopping in the lovely Tesco in Finglas and then watched the rugby. Scotland were robbed, so close at the end of the match and then that clearence, crap.

Wales beating England was a big surprise, they’ve got a great kicker in that Henson chap who looks like he belongs in a boy band!

Yesterday was a crap day for the GAA, Westmeath losing. I’m not sure about their new jerseys either. Okay, so that didn’t affect their play but still, Mammy 2 reckons they’re trying to differenciate themselves from Galway.We went to the local to watch the match and left the kid to ’study’. She was sticking shreaded loo roll on a piece of cardboard as we left her and her last shout out to us was to get munchies on the way back.

We were the only irish in the local, its a touristy pub and it was the only place with a big screen, well, we were too lazy to head up town!

Needless to say there was many a confused glance at my Westmeath jersey and then back to the screen. I think the tourists would be more used to us in leprechaun outfits!

The match was alright, but we were so lucky that Italy’s kicks were miles wide at the best of times. They started off so strong, attacking everything that Mammy 2 exclaimed that they wouldn’t be able to keep it up. We hoped, that and O’Gara seemed to have never kicked a rugby ball in his life god bless him!

We arrived home after the match to the child with a face on her. Apparently the anti-depressants were causing ’severe’ side affects such as making you not breathe and your eye sight failing.
While trying to maintain a serious and explain to her that no-one ever went blind from medication, she marched off to the room declaring she was going to have a lie-down before dinner.

Dinner was yummy roast potatoes with onion gravy and some veg. She drowned it in gravy, mashed everything up and delcared she was finished.

Mammy 2 , the poor thing was PMTing and I could see the knife she was using to cut up her fish being brandished, so I told the kid she could go study whilst we washed up.
We had a nice relaxing bath afterwards and Mammy 2 went for a lie down, more for our safety then hers. Then the kid came out to hang with me and from 7 o’clock until 11.30, she talked. About everything and anything, at one stage i thought my ears were bleeding. Mammy 2 got up
and head to go back to bed.

This kid can talk! She was working away on her wing, which I have to say was looking like a wing then before, and a quick check on the depleted loo roll in the toilet confirmed my suspicions that she wasn’t using old stuff she had stashed away.

While patiently cutting the loo roll up into small white strips, she was explaining to me about all her mates and their names and the little dances they go, FIFTEEN times. At one stage I tried to stop listening to no aval.
She wanted to watch a film then and so we poppped in The First Wives Club and I thought maybe there might be a lull in the one sided conversation and there was…
for 2 minutes while she went to the loo, one presumes to steal more loo roll and then deny it!

She studied until 12 and actually went to bed on time. Calling her this morning resulted in the usual torrent of abuse! I can’t wait until she starts a new school and its all fun
and games again!

Here’s hoping she got on okay today.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 7th, 2005 at 7:55 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

We were evicted last night, it was time for her ritual. She’s big into wiccan, hence the portal opening.
She rang me before I left work, telling me she NEEDED , in this order, a white scarf, lavendar oil and
some white flowers , oh and chocolate, I can just see the witches of yonder munching on a Mars bar
before the ritual starts or passing around the malteasers. I was resisting buying a white scarf though, I couldn’t understand why she couldn’t use a white tea towel. I got the raised eyebrow look. She really should patent it.

She also rang Mammy2 yesterday to proclaim that she was going to die from toxic shock syndrome as she had forgotten to bring a a tampon with her when she went to ‘hang’ with D. I don’t know where she gets her information from , but I’d advise her to check her sources before she starts declaring these things.

We’re all out of popcorn and her breasts are no bigger.

Mammy 2 had skipped lunch, so we headed to Chief’s for a bite to eat and a drink. Chief O’Neills is a funny bar, they seem to do everything in their power to not attract customers. There’s a grand total of 2 beers on tap, no music or is there is music its usually Christy Moore on repeat and they never show any of the Ireland matches.

One wonders why we go there!

Anyhew, we had a nice chat and managed to spend some quality time together. I kept my ears open in case of fire engines, I had images of the kid sitting cross legged in the middle of a burning sitting room. She’s talented like that! Nothing like that happened you’ll be glad to hear, she spent most of the evening ‘tidying’ her room for tidying, read moving everything into a different location and picking her clothes up off the floor.

This could have something to do with her pocket money being docked last week due to the room being in a state, but I’d like to think it was more to do with her not living in a hovel!

She’s heading up to her mates D today and they’re going to ’study’ together.. I wonder. Thank god its nearly the weekend!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2005 at 10:07 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

I know you guys have been waiting with biated breath to see what has happened in our exciting life! Well, on Monday Mammy 2 rang her at the kids nex break and by lunch time she had walked out of the school, citing the fact that they were to lock her up because they read what she had written in her school journal. Now, her journal is full of stuff, a lot of stuff she wrote before christmas when things came to a head so its all about how she hates life etc.

Naturally the teachers were a bit worried about this. Also, she had skipped Home ec again and gotten caught. She rang us thinking we could drop everything and head up to the school to pick her up.
So, when we couldn’t , she walked out. Thankfully, Mammy2 rang her best mate D, who wasn’t at school either. She texted the kid and told her to come meet us.
At this stage, with the workload I had on, my head was spinning. I was convinced she’d either run off again or go hang with some of her mates who can just about spell beer.
She met with Mammy2 who had a chat with her and tried to explain that the school weren’t going to lock her up. The vice principal rang me and was going
on about how she didn’t think the kid should be in the school while she was on her meds, which she hasn’t even started yet. The vice thinks that its too hard to keep an eye on her in a school of over 500 pupils.

After she’d finished with Mammy 2 , she moved onto me and explained how they were planning on locking her up and they were all against her. I think the tv is to blame to be honest!

So, she’s at home for the week studying and we’re going to try and find her another school. Oh happy days.Well, at least she’s in better form and not as miserable which is the main thing.
Her mocks start on Monday and she’s stressing out over them, which in turn is causing us to stress. She may survive the Junior Cert, but we won’t! Myself and Mammy2 are like extras from Shaun of the Dead these days!

We went shopping yesterday for her wiccan stuff, as she has a ritual tonight. I must warn her about opening portals , etc. I don’t want a repeat of the last time we had Mister Corn Beef hanging around. She also is thinking about taking up kick-boxing, I think she thinks it involves beating people up for a period of two hours, she’s going to be disappointed.
Maybe it might help her with her anger issues, of which there are many.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005 at 7:07 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Only if you have it for breakfast according to the kid? Thank god for that. She rang me on Friday morning to tell me this and when I met her for lunch I was expecting to meet just a pair of boobs. Not sure where exactly she gets her information from, but I would recommend a more reliable source!

Here I was about to say things are settling down and the weekend was nice and relaxing when I get a phone call from Mammy2 to say that the kid texted her about having a panic attack and could I ring her. I rang her, she’s hiding out in the toilets at the moment and is really stressed out.

The weekend went grand, it was Mammy2 ’s birthday so lots of celebrating was had. A group of us were out in the local on Friday night, the kid was going to a house party with some mates of hers and ended up missing her last bus, so she stayed over. I was a bit panicked about it, but when I spoke to her she sounded alright on the phone. Lots of laughing and giggling.

I went back to taking care of Mammy2 who wasn’t bothered with pints so much as pitchers. Needless to say the following morning she was a bit rough. Made her breakfast in bed and gave her as much medicine as she required to shake it off.

When the kid dropped back to the flat with her mate D, we checked all her bodily parts were intact and headed up town to go to the cinema. Went to see Million Dollar Baby, I won’t ruin if for you if you haven’t seen it, but it was very good.

We then preceeded to try and find a restaurent, thinking that maybe we should have booked somewhere! We had decided to try somewhere new, so avoiding all our lovely locals we ended up in Little Caesars on College Green. We should have stuck with our regulars. There was a plasma screen telly on in the place, and so halfway through the main course, Casualty was on? Call me old fashioned, but if you go out for a meal surely having a telly on in the place takes away a bit from the ambience?
The food wasn’t great either, but we had a laugh. At our age, because all we were thinking was getting out of the place and heading somewhere quiet! Yes, we are old.

Sunday morning, and the kid bounds into the room to declare a state of emergency in relation to her best mate, D. The kid had walked her to the bus stop that morning, she stays over in ours most Saturdays, as she had the Order of malta thingy to go to. Then apparently, the mad mother of hers got it into her head that she’d spent enough time at ours and that she was banning her from hanging out with the kid?

I think she’s jealous that D likes hanging out at ours more, and who can blame her. The muppets forgot her birthday. So, the kid was demanding I get on the phone to D’s mother and ask what was going on and why D wasn’t allowed down. The rest of the day the kid spent on the phone trying to talk to D, who was miserable. I sometimes don’t understand parents at all.

I mean, yes, when the kid was getting drunk and hanging out with the wrong crowd I could understand any parent not wanting their child to hang around with her. But things have calmed down now and the two of them are good for each other.

So, between studying and phone calls, she was kept busy. She has been working really hard and I hope she can hold it together until the mocks.

If those two teachers, tweddledum and tweddledummer give her any hassle today, I fear there may be an explosion.

D’s mother is bringing her to school as she wants to talk to the teachers. We’re hoping to meet with the vice-principal, the only one who makes any sense in that place, at some stage this week.
I have to ring her again at 10.30 to make sure she’s doing alright. She lets everything build up and then panics about it.

I’m hoping she’ll last until the summer in this place.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2005 at 5:08 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.