Holy god, its like a disaster movie at the moment. Okay, so I acknowledge I am extremely lucky to be living in town AND about 15 minutes, walk, skate or shuffle to work depending on the weather. But even still. Is there any need for the mass panic and hysteria which seems to have kicked in over the last few days. Par example my workplace. Full of mostly relatively sane people. Well yesterday someone said something about the buses being grounded and there was a flurry of activity. People were into their coats and out the door in record time. Yes it snowed a lot. Yes it was shocking about the buses being grounded but the panic? A bit much. Today was not as bad but still around 4 as the freezing fog started to descend upon the city, another flurry of activity. Coats being brandished, flowerpots and fruit being knocked over as people ran for the elevators shouting something about the buses not running past 8. It was 4 o’clock, how long could it possibly take people to get home?

This morning there was at least 45 minutes of a conversation about how packed the trains and the Luas was. Maybe its my age showing but I can manage 2 sentences on the weather and they usually go along the lines of “Yes, tis very cold” and “Really, 2 cms and they grounded the planes? And in Krakow they had 20cms and the planes were fine, really? That’s wow, that’s amazing” and if I can’t escape on time I’ll throw out the “Grit, really? They ran out? Of grit?” and so on, you get the picture. Actually speaking of pictures, here are some

This one is the view from the starbucks at the top of our building on the 8th floor looking out over Hueston Station

I guess though the weather does bring out the sense of drama in people and whilst my brother who is never short on drama has that streak in him, I thought he outdid himself
today when he txted that he wasn’t sure they were going to make it to Holland if the weather kept up. Just to clarify, its not this weekend he’s flying out. Its not next weekend either. Its the 21st. Whilst the column inches pile up with every reporter who has suddenly become a weather expert, commenting on how this weather will last until March, I do think things will calm down. I’ll most likely eat my hat or words if this time next time I am still commenting on the weather. Or even better writing a whole post on it…Oh wait..Hmmm..redface

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 7:06 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Day 2 of the blogging every day task. I suppose the fact that I made an effort to start a post must count for something. The big freeze is still upon us. So much so that we had to import grit. Yes, you did read that correctly. We imported dirt for our roads. I don’t know where to start with Ireland the weather. Because honestly we do go slightly over the top when the smallest bit of snow falls. We’re well used to the rain, so Noah would have to set up a relief fund before we take it very seriously and procliam the end of the world is nigh. But the snow, well it gets headlines all over the place. 1cm fell overnight proclaims one broadsheet, 2 cms and falling at an average of 3 flakes a minute report a red top. We may all freeze to death proclaims family trapped behind 2 of the aforementioned 3 snowflakes pictured in another red top whilst sipping hot choclate and watching Ryan Tubridy on d’telly. Its ridiculous. Yes, it was colder then normal, yes the roads were treachrous. But we closed the airport and Dublin Bus refused to budge until there was more grit on the road. So the council went onto ebay and bought it by the bucketload. Pun intended.

Despite the severity of the weather and only the brave(everyone) heading out into these harse conditions I went training last night. I paid up for the yearly membership as there was a sale and this is a lot more motivating then 15 euros every class. Parting with a large sum of money and not seeing the fruits of your labour straight away has a way of making one more motivated. Another great motivation during the class was Katie “I’m kissed a girl and they won’t stop playing and remixing this damn song” Perry. Sure enough, a dance beat and stupid lyrics and I was having great fun with the bag. The actual punchbag as opposed to Katie Perry. My grading, all going well will be at the end of Feb when I hope to climb to the lofty heights of a yellow belt. Everyone has to start somewhere. One of their cheesy catchphrases is “A black belt is a white belt that didn’t quit” which I don’t quite subscribe to, but sometimes it helps to know that even the likes of Bruce Lee had to start somewhere. Even though I secretly believe he arrived out of the womb in that classic jumping sidekick position he is famed for. Which might have been a tad uncomfortable for his mother I fear.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 3:54 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

It wasn’t my best laid plan, the whole updating on a daily basis and and I am not even going to pretend that my new year’s resolution is to update more regularly cause I hate new year’s resolutions, think they are pants. Also I was only instilled with the whole I should totally blog everyday after watching Julie and Julia. She had a task which was to write about all the receipes she was trying out. I’m not big into recipes so I suppose I could pick something to write about everyday. I shall have a think
and see if there is anything that doesn’t involve navel gazing cause god knows you don’t want to read that.

Anyhew, in big news I am an aunty. The wee niece was a week a bit later cause she waited for her cool aunties to arrive. I mean literally. We flew into Dusseldorf airport on the 11th of Dec, J’s dad and stepmum picked us up because J was at the hospital
with the sister K who had gone into labour. Sounds like an episode of Seasme Street but you get the picture I felt like we were in a movie, it was christmas time, we were mingling with other familes, there was christmas lights and a baby was about to arrive into the world. So we followed the star and came to a small Inn. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. We arrived at the hospital, chatted to the sister who was floating on the epidural after enduring 3 days of contractions. A few hours later, the little one arrived. Talk about great timing! See how cute she is here.

Prepare to hear a lot of ‘cute’ stories. I put cute in quotes because I know some of you won’t have the slightest bit of interest in what happens when she burps, poops or smiles and will just nod and scroll. Don’t say you weren’t forewarned!

People keep asking me do I feel any different because I’m an aunty or how I feel now that I am an aunty, which I think is the same question just phrased differently I don’t feel hugely different. No sudden wave of maturity, because lets face it I am totally mature. I do find though that I have a ridiculous amount of love and affection for a small person who has no clue who I am or how cool I am. Which I will of course recitfy as soon as she starts to get older

Christmas and New year were fab. Loads of cool pressies, chilling on the couch with the kid and the missus, getting my ass kicked at scrabble and returning the favour when it came to poker and lots of potatoes. What more could you ask for? It was the first time in a while we didn’t venture out for new year’s. Mammy2 had been quite sick and it was looking like another really cold night so the couch looked very inviting. Looking back over 2009 I have to say I was very lucky in relation to lots of highlights and very little if
any lowlights. Stand out moments were obviously the niece arriving, the kid doing so well at her course and really seeming to have matured so much and sitting on a park bench in Madrid with the sun shining down on us and Mammy 2 curled up resting on my lap. It’s a tough life

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 3:48 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

My best laid plans of updating the blog on a daily basis fell to the wayside with a manic week in work and just about enough time to get home and get some sleep. I’ve decided to post a rant, don’t I always about the budget. About the governement’s somewhat clever in their minds tactic of releasing some figures regarding social welfare fraud. So when the time came for them to cut social welfare, no-one would give a damn. Sure why would we? In theirs and a lot of other peoples minds, scarily enough, they don’t contribute to society in any shape or form so why give a damn? Do they honestly think everyone on the dole is a waster?
Someone that can’t be bothered to get a job? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not that niave to think that everyone is honest and everyone wants a job. But I also refuse to tar them all with the same brush. Thankfully the kid is in full time education so she gets to keep her allowence, the full whack. The boyf loses 50 euro a week. Again they’re lucky enough that there are no kids. Notice they didn’t touch the old age pension after the last disaster which was getting rid of the medical card. They learned somewhat even if it did take the wrath of the nation’s grannies and grandads down upon them.

I am so angry I can hardly articulate what I feel but I did read this article in the examiner this morning which shows me I am not alone in my thoughts or anger and expresses a lot better how I feel.

In terms of its social outlook, in terms of its contribution to the building of a community, in terms of any concept of fairness, today’s was a merciless and unforgivable budget. Of course, if you like a drop of whiskey or are in the market for a new car, it wasn’t too bad. But if you’re a lone parent trying to raise children, if you’re a person with a disability struggling to live as independent a life as possible, the message is different. You, I’m afraid, are going to have to cut a new notch on your belt. The minister may not have had the nerve to mention it in his speech but in another shameful cut both people with a disability and people who are blind have had €8 a week taken from them.

Full Article at examiner.ie

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

So its a post the day after I posted, almost as if this is how a blog is supposed to work. Anyhew, a rant coming up. Sure I’m long overdue one. I was hoping to be writing about the Civil Partnership bill and how we have kicked off wedding plans now that its come before the Dail. I reckon we most likely will wait until its signed into law before the big plans start being made. I digress. Family or more specifcally the brother sometimes induces headaches and stress. Stress which I am supposed to be working on keeping non-existent if we are hoping to have chances of a successful attempt with the clinic. Granted we’re not starting treatements again until the new year but still I need the practice. Obviously the brother didn’t receive the newsletter. This year I have no leave left at all and so the only time off over the christmas is the 4 days including christmas day and Stephen’s day. So I told the brother
that this time we would travel down the day after stephen’s day and have a meal with him in Athlone. The last couple of years he’s come up to us and I’ve found it quite stressful as I often do around christmas when I have loads of things to do. I thought would be nice to have christmas day and stephen’s day to relax and then catch up with him the day after. Sounds straightforward? Not with him its not not. He thinks I don’t want him around. He drove me demented yesterday asking how many days I had off, what was I doing on Stephen’s day and so on. I was so stressed out.

Got an email from the mammy-to-be in Holland, the sister K, today and she said he randomly txted her talking about the weather and then mentioned how they weren’t coming up to us for Stephen’s day. I have now gone from feeling guilty to being angry with him. He’s being such a drama queen about the whole thing and if he continues I’ll tell him we won’t catch up with him when we are down visiting the grave. He can feck off. However I won’t let him ruin my Friday good mood. We decorated the office today so its looking a lot more festive. However as the rest of the isn’t decorated I did want to be slightly surreptitious about the whole thing. This plan was foiled when I decided to press the belly of a musical toy without first checking where the off switch was. Cue a loud rendition of Jingle Bells. I had to lock poor Singing Santa into the cupboard until he shut up. At that stage I may as well had a big neon sign above my head pointing at me and my box of tinsel. Thankfully the colleagues ignored me. Can’t wait to get through the day and head home and relax. I will need all of my energy for the 12 pubs of christmas tomorrow. A mate organised it and whilst we are not famed for our lasting ability, we shall give it our best shot. Which may be only 4 pubs but at least we made an effort.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 2:31 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.