A Bit of This, That and the Other...

Totally pulling it off

This week, Loverboy and I at last jumped headfirst into 'Homeland', and I have to say that I'm completely hooked! Also, and I won't deny it, there's a smug pleasure in only being on episode 4, while the rest of the country is wailing and gnashing their teeth at the series' end. And the thrill of taking it in turns to fast forward through the ads? Let's just say it doesn't get old...I wonder is it wrong to love Sky+ this much?

 The downside of all that of course, is having to be on Spoiler Avoidance Alert all the time! It's a MINEFIELD out there between TV, Facebook, twitter and just general conversations. I've already had to do the 'fingers in the ears La la la, don't tell me, don't tell me!' three times this week.
And isn't Claire Danes tote amaze? And Damien Lewis as well. I mean, obviously I don't rate him hotness wise,

Soames-such a gen

( it's the old ginger/ginger clash I've touched on before), but as an actor he's fabulous. I really thought that I'd never be able to get past his 'Soames' persona, (Forsyte Saga-boxset it) but now I'm all 'Soames who?' (Oh and FYI apparently he's lovely IRL too- he was filling up his car recently in a garage in Belfast and my uncle spotted him and  started chatting and he just couldn't have been nicer...I just LOVE to hear stories like that.)
Speaking of Twitter, I absolutely 'get it' now! I tried it about a year ago but clearly I wasn't focused enough, and I slunk back over to Facebook. Then recently,well frankly, I was  too afraid of missing something, so I gave it another go and sure it's great craic altogether.. It's basically people dropping in and out for a bit of a yarn as they muddle through their days. The whole 140 characters  was a bit tricky at first, but it really forces you to think snappily (and wittily!). It sharpens and hones the mind.... like sudoku, only with gossip and jokes.
You 'follow' people, which means you get to see their tweets, but they have to 'follow' you to see yours, unless you tweet them directly. So slebs have thousands, sometimes millions of followers, but they actually follow relatively few. This is where it can get a bit playgroundy- everyone's vying to be the wittiest/cleverest/rudest, with the ultimate prize being a retweet or even better a direct tweet from your fave sleb. It's easy to get caught up in that, I suppose, but actually far better fun if you don't. That said,  I was BEYOND THRILLED to have a little interaction with Marian Keyes, (the very same!), who I LOVE LOVE LOVE, and where else could you do that? And isn't it marvelous it's even possible at all?
The other big news around here is that it's Cormac's First Holy Communion this Saturday. The school's trying to keep the numbers down to three per family (boooo!), but that ain't happening around here. I mean, I've been utterly ruthless, and we're STILL sitting at eleven. Oooops...looks like I'll need to hide a few of them up my skirt.
Afterwards, it'll be a stampede back here for barbecue, bouncy castle and (obviously) wine. The weather isn't playing ball right now, and of course a gorgeous day would be fabulous, but I'm not overly concerned. I mean, I've witnessed Loverboy and Mr Bouncy Castle, (whose name I shamefully don't know, but I've rented too many bouncy castles now to ask him), tie it down to the drive on lawn mower, in a sleeting wind tunnel, and it STILL didn't stop the kids wrapping up and getting out there...(and honestly, only the bare minimum of 'encouragement' was required ;-)) ) catch ya later, Emx