Friday Quicktakes

1. In the car yesterday, Anna was telling us about a joint English/ History project for school, in which she has to pick a person- anyone at all, dead or alive, famous or not, and make a persuasive argument for how they displayed courage and influence. She wasn't sure who to choose and we chatted briefly about courage and examples of it. Then later, we heard the news that Nelson Mandela had died and suddenly her choice seemed obvious, for who more worthy than he? RIP Mr Mandela.


2. We're putting up our Christmas decorations tonight and, would you believe, I'm in the doghouse already? Pour quoi? Because this year I committed the grievous sin of quietly ordering an artificial tree. I mean, honestly! You'd have thought I'd told them Christmas was cancelled and Santa wasn't coming by the looks on their faces.
'What's that? What? A fake tree? Noooooo! Is it tiny? I bet you it's titchy! We only love big trees!'  Eh,Yeah I know.  Last year's Griswald-esque one was only flippin'18 feet tall but I'm the only one who remembers the stupendous needle drop.
So then I tried explaining that it was no ordinary fake tree - it was a snow tipped Laurence Llewellyn Bowen inspired tree-luxuriant and a bit camp, rather like Mr LLB himself, now I think of it- but they weren't remotely impressed. There could well be a stand off later but I'll keep you posted.


3. Update- I went to my class yesterday, got back my assignment and was really pleased with my
mark and the tutor's encouraging words. It's definitely inspired me to keep writing.
Now part of me was still busy thinking- 'Behave yourself! It's just a short story. It doesn't make you flippin' Marian Keyes so get a grip.' But the other part just wanted to run home with it and tell my Mammy.....So that's just what I did. And in true Mammy style she put me over exactly what the tutor said five or six times, and then wrote it down word for word to tell her friends/ family/ dogs on the street later. I suppose some things never change and I'm very glad they don't.


4. Always on the look out for purveyors of fine tray bakes and unlimited coffee refills, three-year-old Luke and I arranged to meet Herself (Mammy/Nana) in a place we'd never frequented before. We walked in and Luke was assessing it all- the Christmas decorations, the smells, the impressive selection of goodies- and then he turned to me, nodded approvingly and said, 'Good choice, Mummy.'  (That's ma boy!)

5. Finally, when we lived in the US, I listened to a radio station rather embarrassingly called  WASH-FM - Soft Rock, and for a whole month, from the day after Thanksgiving, until Christmas Day they would play only Christmas songs 24/7 -Well, I LOVED it! It totally put me in the Christmas mood and I got to hear every Christmas song under the sun- who knew there were so many Country ones? Anyway, the first time I heard this one, I could hardly drive the car I was crying so much...in my defense, I think I was pregnant at the time. So here it is, a big slice of Christmas cheese maybe.....but still guaranteed to bring a wee tear to my eye every single time.
Enjoy and have  a good weekend , my Lovelies xxxxx

Friday Quick Takes

• This week, I discovered Funky Monkeys and what a place it is! (For you lucky ones who don't need to know, FM is a franchise of indoor playgrounds for children.) Now, while it could certainly be regarded as a primary coloured hell on earth, and NO ONE in their right mind would go there sans children, it does have its bonuses. Luke loves it- he gets to socialize, play, climb and fall down, while I get to drink endless coffees and catch up on my emails, without feeling guilty. (I'm not altogether sold on the background playlist though- 'I'm sexy and I know it ' seemed a tad inappropriate for the under fives. Where's the Wiggles when you need them??) I also had a bit of a 'moment', on discovering Luke, hungrily licking the (stolen) Philadelphia off someone else's bagel. By the time I'd clocked him, it was too late and he was nonchalantly sporting a white ring of evidence all over his face. I was faced with a dilemma- prise it from him and risk a two year old's earsplitting wrath, thereby drawing unwanted attention to ourselves, or keep my head low and hope the rightful owners were finished eating. (Okay, I totally did the latter, and as luck would have it, they were just leaving, which is just as well because I couldn't have returned the gnawed, soggy mess anyway!)                                                                                                                                            
•  I also had a little run in with a pillar this week. Late as usual for a school pickup, I was half way up our lane, when I met a tractor and trailer coming down. To put you in the picture, depending on where one meets another vehicle on the narrow lane, someone always has to reverse, and as I was closest to a driveway, it was me. So off I went, and (I'm just gonna be modest here), expertly reversed down the lane into our neighbour's driveway. In fact, I was in the process of mentally congratulating myself, when I went a teensy bit too far and knocked our tow bar into a red brick pillar, denting the bricks at the bottom. Crap crap crap! Needless to say, Loverboy was NOT thrilled. (I mean I sucked it up and all, but the way he went on, you'd think I did this all the time! But that little bust up with the hedge was AGES ago AND it was -20 at the time, FFS). The funny thing was, when I 'fessed up to our lovely neighbour, and after he'd established that I hadn't reversed over his dog, he laughed and asked if I was looking for things to write about on my blog... You know that moment when you realize that actual, real people read the nonsense that you write...yes that!                                                                                                             
• Welllllll, I succumbed and bought 'Fifty shades of Grey', just to find out what all the fuss is about. Marian Keyes, (did I possibly already mention that she follows me in on Twitter!?), called it 'Fifty Shades of Shite' which I'll admit put me off a bit. All I know is, the main character is called Christian and it all gets very bold and dirty, but Peeps, I was weaned on my Granny's Jackie Collins collection, so how bad (or good?) can it be? If you've read it, do share...                             
•  I can't BELIEVE the weather is this awful for June. I mean, even by Irish standards this is dire. It's also slightly unsettling, when we've just spent a fortune on a 'caravilla' (Thank you Ursula! I SO prefer this to 'mobile home'). The upshot is, that we won't be going anywhere hot for DECADES...now, THAT'S depressing! But,the good news is, it's Friday, it's wine time later and I've got Christian Grey to keep me company. Happy Friday loveliesxxx

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