But Muuuum, I'm Bored!!!.....

Monkey boy is spinning around and around, he's been doing it for about half an hour now, intermittent falling down from dizziness allowed. It makes him perfectly happy (well, he is 2) as does stamping his feet, shouting nonsense, pointing and other seemingly simple things.

It got me thinking about entertainment. We seem to need it more and more, and more and more of it. Ipads, iPods, iEverything, X-Box, everything seems to be preceded by a letter, and we need it all!! Right?? Well no, not for anything life sustaining, like breathing, but I think a little dependence is creeping in here and there. I couldn't manage without my digital + on the tv now, even though I've only had it a few months. I like having permission to get up and pee whenever suits without having to wait until the ads come on, no jigs being danced in my living room any more.

I've had a little hint that I might be getting one of those smartarse phones for Christmas. You know, the ones that get you up in the morning with a nice cup of tea and tell you you're the fairest of them all. There's an app for that right?? I do need a new phone, mine gets the hump with my friends and hangs up on them on a regular basis. It also has an odd habit of dropping half of my text message and adding another bit it found somewhere in an old text I wrote. It doesn't tell me about this change, it just sends off this Frankenstein's monster of a message to some poor unfortunate who has to work out what the hell I'm talking about and if I really need them to pick up some marmalade at the zoo next Tuesday!!

I don't know if I really need a phone that's a camera, mp3 player, browser, facebooking, tea making machine, but I bloody want one!! If even just for the pinching photos thing!! Any amount of pointless apps, silly games and constant(er) contact with the unsuspecting outside world will soon be mine!!! While I wait I guess I may as well do some spinning around with my son. Entertain me!!!!!!

42 Things

You've probably heard of the website 43things.com. The idea is that you make a list of 43 things that you want to do or accomplish, you can comment on other people's lists and pinch their ideas if you don't have any of your own. I had a list of my own once, but I left it and forgot the login. I wonder how many threads of myself I've left floating around the world wide web, half finished, but that's a blog post for another day.

I thought I might do my own 43 things type idea now and then on the blog, mostly because I love making lists, at least ones like these. However, as a huge Hitchhikers fan I think I'll do 42 things instead (happy little nerd moments may also be a regular feature) So I'll start with the same theme as my inspiration...

42 things I need to get done:

1. Learn to drive - Anyone who's seen me play Mario Kart will warn you of the dangers there.

2. Potty train Monkey Boy - That will be messy!!

3. Finish making my little studio I've been promising myself for years.

4. Learn a language, any language, just to prove to myself that I can.

5. Finish all the niggly bits of DIY we never got done in our lovely concrete box.

6. Write more, poetry, prose, interesting blog posts...!!

7. Learn to sew, properly, with a machine, my poor children in their trousers made from curtains!!

8. Quit smoking, for good this time, for health reasons, and so my mum doesn't find out I didn't quit for good last time!!

9. Get back to reading a book a week, or so, like I used to. The reading pile is getting topply!!

10. Stop having ridiculous ideas like writing blog posts with really long unfinishable lists in them!!

11. Actually get paid for writing something, I seem to spend a lot of time writing things I'll never get paid for, and I love it, so I must find a way to make money from it. All ideas welcome!!

12. Figure out this whole career business, before my career break ends and I end up just going back to work in the same soulless pit.

13. Join something and get really into it, I need a hobby, like apart from facebook!!

14. Get back to volunteering somewhere, the payment is always more than you could imagine.

15. Either go to college or start a distance learning course, in psychology I think, seeing as that's my main area of interest.

16. See people, in real life, who I talk to on the internet all the time.

17. Visit my family more often, they're old you know!! 

18. Turn my bedroom into a boudoir of ill-repute, or at least do it up so it's less boring!!

19. Learn more about loads of things I'm interested in, history, science, space, politics, art, and heaps more.

20. Go to the cinema more often, we rarely go these days because Monkey Boy would only sing or climb people or something. There's such a difference though, between seeing a movie on the big screen or at home.

21. Half way there and regretting starting, so finish this bleedin list!!

22. Go to Sligo!! I've been promising a friend of mine for years that I'd visit him. I went there once, years ago, I think the rain and the lack of roads put me off!!

23. Find some confidence in my own abilities, for example, when I write something I have to show it to Hubby or Snappy before I can post it or send it off.

24. Talk to my dad, it's not that we don't speak, we do, but we never talk if you know what I mean. I'd really like to sit down with him and really talk, there are so many things we don't say, I don't want it to be too late...

25. Do up my family tree, and find out who all the old dears in my mums photo albums are, she learned all this stuff off and so should I really, mostly so I can force it on Smarty Pants when she's older!!

26. Find a way to sort out my poor sick head, without pills and all that, just so I don't carry on the legacy of ridiculously nervous women in my family, and so I can be free!!

27. Get a dictaphone and keep it in the bathroom!! I have all my best ideas in there and then forget them!!

28. Cook more than the 5 or 6 things I cook now, I am good at it, just not so adventurous these days.

29. Learn to do maths again. God I hate maths, I hated it in school and that's never changed, my brain doesn't do sums the way other people's brains do. But Smarty Pants has inherited my inability to long divide and this must be remedied!!

30. Stop reading the news, well no, maybe not, it is good to be informed but it makes my blood boil to a point where I'm sure it can't be good for me!!

31. Have more "me" time, I tried to have Me Fridays, I did 2 and then they just didn't work out any more, but I need to try harder, and get Hubby to have Hubby days too, we all need a break sometimes.

32. Sort out my old email accounts, does anyone else do that, subscribe to things using an old email address in case it's spammy and then never check them? I think I have 3000+ in my Yahoo account last check, maybe a Nigerian prince has some money for me, or I won the Austrian lotto, who knows!!

33. Travel!! Ok, I know everyone says that, but 'cause of the poverty I am probably the least travelled person I know.

34. Get rich so I can fulfil number 33!!

35. Get a routine, since I went on my career break I'm all over the place, I always said I would try to treat the housework and stuff as my job, but I have a terrible habit of putting it all off until the evening when I'm most tired. I should be fired really!!

36. Get healthy. Now, not bean and lentils Gillian McKeith healthy, I don't want to look like Skeletor any more than anyone else does!! I just used to be healthy, and fit, and not half dead!!

37. Be rebellious again!! I used to be a terrible rebel, if you told me to go left I'd go right, just to spite you!! I know mostly it's a pain in the ass for everyone else but I'd love to get that little spark back, for the rush!!

38. Play more!! With my kids, and just in general. There never seems to be enough time in the day, and I never seem to have enough arms to do everything I want to. I want to have time to play chess with Smarty Pants, matching animals with Monkey Boy and Follow the Van with Hubby ;)

39. Go to more markets and silly little itty bitty shops. I used to spend every Sunday wandering around Dublin's markets, and every Sunday evening recovering in the pub. I think those kind of places will become more popular again now that everyone's broke.

40. Learn Reiki. I don't normally go in for hippy kind of things, at least not too much, but I have experienced Reiki first hand and it really is amazing. I would love to be able to do it, even just for my kids and maybe my mum.

41. Spend more couply time with Hubby, we never go out or do anything together any more. This is mostly due to the fact that no one is able for looking after Monkey Boy, he is a bit of a handful. Maybe we should start having date nights in the house, "Hi, do you come here often..." Hmmm maybe not.

42. Stop typing ridiculously long blog posts and get on with the bloody hoovering, ah well, life goes on....

Snow - The controversy!!

My blog is becoming a bit "Theme of the day" with birthdays and Thanksgiving and now snow. Can't be helped I suppose, these are the things on my brain.

Snow!! It has the country divided worse than any controversial politics ever could, even more than X-Factor for God's sake!! It's fecking up peoples travel plans, making the commute even more unbearable and so slow, causing falling over (snigger) and all sorts of other horrendous things. Ah stop yer moaning the lot of ye!! It's great!! I love it!! I love the look of it, the smell of it, the crunch underfoot. I love watching it fall, checking out the window every 5 minutes to see if there's more.

Yes, I am 5 years old at heart!! I realise half the country's at a standstill, I know old people are cold and lonely. I appreciate how awful it must be to get stranded somewhere or worse, stuck in the house!! I just can't bring myself to hate it, even a little, despite all these things. Just look at it, it's so pretty!! The pile of junk in my unfinished back garden is now covered in a layer of loveliness. The utter embarrassment that is my front garden (also unfinished) now looks like a picture postcard. I love looking out at all the poor yeti's trudging down the road.

It's Gnorman!! Courtesy of the very talented Laura Nagle, see more of her work at www.flickr.com/lauranagle and love her on facebook, just search for Laura Nagle Photography

Here is my advice for all the moany moos, for what it's worth. Look inside, past mortgages, deadlines, work and driving. Somewhere in there there's a bit of you that used to wake up with the purest of joy to see everything covered in white. You used to beg your mum to wrap you up and let you at it. That bit of you is still in there somewhere. Put on your hat and gloves and go out and make a snowman, or a snow willy if you want to be more grown up ;) Laugh and run about like a loon, it's good for you!!

Thank Christ for that!!

So here I sit in my poor torn country. Ok you might say, it's only a bleedin' recession, not a nuclear disaster or anything, and you'd be right, to be fair. It feels very sad though, to think that those we choose to lead our people care so little about them that they would allow this travesty to happen. This beautiful land of mine, that I love so very much. I can't imagine why anyone would want to do this to her. But that's enough of that! I imagine in many Irish houses there's a nerd bent over a laptop, spilling out vitriol about the whole sorry mess. Many more besides I'm sure are trawling through news feeds, blogs, what have you, looking for the next piece of news, that will, undoubtedly make their blood boil. I'm sick of it to be honest!

Today is Thanksgiving in the US, or what's left of it (I'm burning the midnight oil here a little) All over the states, and elsewhere I'm sure, families are holding full tummies and fighting amongst themselves over the remote control. Earlier they feasted and they told each other what they were thankful for. It's a lovely idea really, one I think we should all adopt, if not in a hallmark occasion kind of way.

So here it is, my little list of things to be thankful for:

• I am thankful that I somehow managed to marry a man who, as well as being all that I could wish for, can still, after 10 years as a couple, make me laugh so much that clean underwear is often required.

• I am thankful that I can proudly say my daughter is growing into a fantastic person, that she is so very talented, funny, sweet, clever, and so much more. I can hardly wait to meet the wonderful woman she will undoubtedly become.

• I am thankful for my son who, on a daily basis, reminds me that real joy is found in the smallest, most seemingly insignificant things. For the true bliss I feel when I look at his shining little face.

• I am thankful for the friends that I have around me, and those who are further afield, but who thanks to the wonders of facebook, can still make me laugh on a regular basis.

• I am thankful for Snappy (Ok so I couldn't come up with another name, I'm working on it) So very thankful that I know I can tell her anything, and no matter how completely weird it may be, she will just get it, somehow. That she says the most outrageously wonderful things, just at the right moment, to make us all pee ourselves. That she shares her talents with me, and lets me help her share them with the world.

• I am thankful for Delia (again, working on it!!) That we seem so different but we just fit perfectly together somehow, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. That I know she'll always be there for me, and will calmly organise me when I'm all a fluster. So thankful for our little texts in the mornings and our email chatter, our nights out and chats over cups of tea. That things seems to be falling into place for her in ways she maybe doesn't even know yet.

• I am thankful for my family. For my mum, who I can't go a day without nattering to and who has a solution to every problem, no matter how insurmountable. My dad, our punning wars, his old seafarer way of looking at everything and a good old pint in Peggy's. My aunts, who are all batty in their own individual ways but who just happen to be some of the nicest and wisest people you could hope to meet. My entire family-in-law which is made up of a hell of a lot of people, who's names I still have trouble remembering at times but who are all fantastic in their own ways. Finally, all the children we have been lucky enough to welcome into our family over the last few years, and those on the way. It's always a joy to watch them grow and see their little personalities emerge.

And lastly, we come full circle. I am thankful for my country, her people, her culture, so diverse, so ancient, so full of the craic. Ireland is a most beautiful place to live. We may complain, and certainly recently we have plenty of reason to, but we have to remember, we are blessed to be her children, at the end of the day, her grass is much greener than anyone else's. So even when I have to listen to the anger of the callers on the radio, to the worries of my husband, the crack in my mothers voice as she tells me how all their retirement plans are scuppered, I love this place, and I wouldn't swap it for the world. 

Ouch!!

I get hangovers akin to the Black Death in severity, at least!! They leave me with a shaky icky feeling for days afterwards. It doesn't actually matter how many beers I have, I'll still feel yuck the next day, even after one or two. Ah well, in for a penny in for a pound says I, quickly knocking back as many I can muster, which was probably only about 6, but I'm not so good at mustering beer!!

It was the Concrete Box birthday weekend!! Myself and Monkey Boy (my 2 year old son, who will from now on be known as Monkey Boy, because of his uncanny resemblance to a tiny primate!!) have birthdays a week apart so it seemed apt to combine them into a sort of two-fer. 

Accurate representation

A mountain of sandwiches and a lot of house polishing later and a party was born. Best friend (a) or Delia for short, provided an array of baked goodies, some of which I have squirrelled away for laters!! Best friend (b), in no particular order, or Snappy for short (I'll most likely change these later) took photos of it all, which I managed to avoid being in, for the most part.

I always find the mix entertaining, my family and Hubby's family are so very different. The kiddies all busied themselves with spinning round, roaring and other such activities. The adults (Now when I say adults I mean the proper grown-ups, not me like!!) after some obligatory gossiping, settled on Strictly come dancing. Mum and parents-in-law (I don't normally refer to them as The Outlaws, I swear!!) having natters about all the celebrities, Dad paying it all no attention what-so-ever, and 'Holy Aunt' looking on and tutting periodically at the skimpy outfits.

Of course eventually the groups at each extreme of the age range went off for their evening naps leaving us 'Young people' to gradually reduce a mountain of beer into a mountain of recycling.

While it still feels like hurricane George may well be hiding in my stomach, I truly believe nights like that are worth every bit of a hangover. I am honestly blessed to have such a fantastic, if slightly clinically insane, bunch in my family. To top it all off to have somehow, in my lifetime, gathered the most incredible, if slightly clinically insane, people to have as my very own dear friends is just luck of lotto win proportions. We initiated a new member into the group this weekend, I hope we didn't scare the crap out of him too much!! 

(Photo was yoinked from http://media.knoxnews.com/media/img/photos/2009/07/18/071909george4_t607.jpg)

Personally...

I read a good few blogs. Not necessarily the same ones all the time, but there are one or two I read every day. They're pretty much all personal blogs as I don't have enough of an obsession with any one subject to want to be reading about someone else’s opinion on it all the time. As far as I can see personal blogs fall into three categories: People who's lives are interesting enough to actually blog about their day to day activities, people who's lives are not at all interesting enough to blog day to day but they feel the need to share it all with us anyway, and people who blog about whatever happens to be on their little minds at any given time in no particular order.

Now given that my day to day life is about as interesting as that dangly bit of a cobweb that persists in hiding on the corner of the ceiling, and I have no desire to subject anyone, even myself, to a record of it's constant monotony, I think I'll be sharing whatever happens to be on my mind at any given time. If you know me you'll know that that's a much scarier prospect than it sounds, but it's ok, you can leave at any time, I promise not to follow you and ask you why you're not following me!! :)

Being 20-ahem, cough hack....

I turned 30 last year. I know, I know, it's hard to believe I'm a day over 21 with my dashing youthful looks (can girls be dashing?, Must look into that!) Birthdays aren't exactly new, I've had 30 of them, but this last one felt different. I've had different feeling birthdays before too, but not many, 12 and 21 I'd say, possibly 18 but I think I was too drunk to remember!! At 12 I felt a bit scared, thinking about the prospect of growing up, and excited, thinking about the prospect of growing up, big conflicted brain on me even then!! My experience of 21 was a little different from my friends' as I had a 2 year old girl and was out on my own in the big bad world. More on that in future blogs I have no doubt.

30 loomed ahead last year and I dreaded it. I thought about all sorts of things. Being a grown-up, even if I have been playing at that for the last 11 years. Maybe having to finally figure out what direction my life is going, or even where I'd like it to go. Time passing me by far too fast. The eventual reality of my parents getting old (I'm stupidly close to my parents, but I need them, I don't do independence well!!)

As the last week of 29 ticked along I had a long chat with my very close friend. She had done the turning 30 bit earlier in the year. It's really nice, she told me, it feels just right or something, comfortable, like. She was right you know, she's rarely wrong. She gave me a little box of tricks for my birthday, all sorts of goodies lay within. My favourite thing though, I think, was this in teeny book form.

I realised I'm quite happy with who I am. I have no idea who I will be, and that's ok too. We're all on a journey I suppose, in our own personal way, and birthdays are just signposts along the road, reminding us to quit belly-aching and be happy with our lot. I turned 31 today, quietly in a way, and I don't know what it's like at all.....yet!!

The more things change.....

My mother is a quare individual altogether!! If you broke your leg or got a paper cut or a scratch on your knee she'd be telling the world about it. Passing strangers would be regaled with tales of the volumes of blood that spewed forth from your near fatal paper cut, it was almost the end of you, naturally. Now if the paper cut was in your mind that'd be another thing altogether. You must never tell anyone if you're a bit odd in the head!! Not doctors, teachers, friends, co-workers, no one must know you get a bit sad sometimes, or you have an irrational fear of bananas or whatever.

So I grew up believing that this was the case. Thoroughly convinced that if I told anyone I was a bit batty, the authorities would snatch my children away and I'd be unceremoniously dragged off to the madhouse to live an unemployable, unfriendable existence for the rest of my days!!

My mother is not to be blamed for this attitude. It's pretty average for anyone that grew up in Ireland in the 1950's or thereabouts. The mental health history of Ireland, as of many countries, makes for an interesting read and I suggest you all have a google at it at some point. Anyway Mammy was only looking out for me, if in a rather unhelpful way.

Oddly enough, whilst thinking these things about myself, I never had any problem with anyone else's wobbly head issues, in fact I have a bit of the agony aunt in me I suppose. I like to listen, to make people feel better, get stuff off their chests etc, to the best of my ability anyway. So I suppose a large part of me knew this attitude I had inherited was probably not the healthiest to have in this day and age. There's still that niggly fear though, Mammy's voice in the back of your mind somewhere. I mean what if she's right?? Imagine!! So I shared what I had to with who I had to, and hid the rest from the rest, as you do!!

So here I am writing a blog about it all, and everything else as well. Mammy would be a bit cross with me now wouldn't she?? So what's changed? Well, not much, yet, I still keep a lot of my cards close to my chest, but all things in time, we'll see, won't we.....