Hilary's Blog

All Change

2008-11-04T14:09:00.000Z

This blog can now be found here.

Big day!

2008-03-07T16:54:00.002Z

Today was a big day; I got dressed! Well, it's not like I've been walking around the house naked or anything, but I put on clothes, rather than just wearing my pyjamas for the day.

I also went outside. (Actually, I went outside yesterday too. J's Dad took me to our house to pick upsome clothes. I don't really want to admit to this venture since I did it in old jogging bottoms and a pyjama top.) Today I went for a walk - with baby.

I put on a jacket and a hat on her and tucked her up in her pram; put on a big fleece on me and went for a walk. I walked for 30 minutes, but not sure I got very far. I'm walking alot slower than I used to, but it's a good start. Norah didn't even notice she'd left the house and is still sound asleep as I write this (hence I'm able to write this).

Not alot else going on in the land of Mummy and baby. We eat and sleep, and eat and sleep. On Monday we have to go to the doctor for her 2 week check - that will be exciting.

Positive Birth Stories

2008-03-01T12:25:00.004Z

As most of you will be aware I had my baby last Sunday, 24th February 2008. A little girl, Norah Mary. She is wonderful, and we are now both at home and doing well.

During my antenatal classes the teacher was very keen that we should be spreading positive birth stories. Western culture has given women a built-in fear of birth which does not exist in other parts of the world. She feels that by spreading our positive birth stories, rather than the horror stories that are so often told, we can overcome this fear and teach women to enjoy the experience of childbirth.

To this end I want to tell Norah's birth story but I have to give advance warning - many people may read this as a horror story. For me, because we had a happy ending and achieved the ultimate goal - a happy, healthy baby and Mum - I can only see positives. I also need to warn that it is long. What follows is a memory dump of my day, last Sunday.

I have gallstones and due to flare-ups of horrible pain, I was admitted to the maternity hospital for observation from Thursday. Each time the pain would flare up, I would need Pethidine and as a result they needed to keep me overnight to monitor the baby. On Sunday morning, I met a surgeon who was very positive in that, he agreed that the gallstones need to come and that he would be the man for the job, but none of that could happen until baby was born (due in 4.5 weeks from that day). I was told to stick to a strict NO FAT diet, continue to take the medication that had been prescribed and call him when baby was out for an appointment. I was about to be discharged.

As I had been fasting for an ultrasound scan of the gallbladder, which was now cancelled, they brought me tea and toast, so I wouldn't have a weakness :-) I ate the toast with no butter, just marmalade and within 30 minutes was doubled over in screaming agony (again)! Pethidine was administered and 30 minutes later the nice midwife came in to begin the trace of baby.

She couldn't find the heartbeat and I didn't worry cos as baby moves so does the heartbeat. It took a few minutes than longer but eventually there was baby's heartbeat. However, the heartbeat kept disappearing and going low! She called another midwife, who thought that for safety's sake they should call the doctors.

The doctors arrived and didn't like what they were hearing from the trace machine; Internal examintation, not dilated, no explanation to be had:
'Okay, Hilary,' said the nice blonde doctor, 'we're moving you downstairs to the labour ward, we need to break your waters and see what's going on in there.'
With that, me and my bed were gone from the room and I started to panic a little. I tried to console myself that it was all ok, and this was just a precaution. I didn't have the opportunity to ask any questions and I didn't want to seem like a silly billy.

In the labour ward my waters were broken; the heartbeat didn't improve and they were worried about leaving baby there. So, they started to prepare for an emergency ceasarean section. I was whisked into another room, given a spinal block and all this time ten different people came to explain things to me and ask different questions about allergies, or what could I feel here. To say at this point that panic had overtaken me bodily would be a gross understatement. I lay there silently hoping everything would be ok, but really not sure what was happening at all.
The aneasthetist was being helpful telling me what was going on:
'They're just making the incision now', she said
'Thanks', I said, 'you don't need to tell me everything', and I smiled weakly.

In a short few minutes someone said:
'you have a baby... girl!', and I heard a cry. I breathed a sigh of relief and they held up this little blue, mucky person above the screen so I could see her. Another few minutes and I was being wheeled back out of the room.

I was still in shock as all this happened so fast, but all I knew was that my baby was alive and healthy and I was a Mummy. Ten minutes later Jamie was wheeled into the room and our little family was together for the first time.

I forgot to say: The reason for the distress to Norah was a true knot in the umbilical cord and she had managed to get herself wrapped up in it. Afterwards the doctors tested the blood in the cord and said that Norah was not deprived of oxygen for long enough to cause any concern. Phew!

Not Long Now...

2008-01-14T12:03:00.000Z

Today I'm 30 weeks pregnant. This means that in 10 weeks I may have my baby! (I say 'may' cos my Mum went overdue with me and all my brothers, so I expect the same to happen to me so it might still be 12 weeks before we get to see Beanie in the flesh.)

The picture on the left is how I look now. I feel huge and awkward; I'm finding it hard to get up out of chairs. I walk slower; Jamie is often a few feet ahead of me before he realises I'm not there and I waddle a bit. It's all a sign that things are progressing.

Right now, our baby weighs about 2.5 pounds. Average birth weight for babies is 6 - 8 pounds or so. This means that our baby has to more than double in weight in the next 10 weeks. This puts the picture of my bump into perspective; I have ALOT of growing to do!

This also explains the constant tiredness - I've been feeling like a right lazy lump for the last week but now I think I'm going to start taking afternoon naps :-)

Some sort of review

2008-01-04T13:36:00.000Z

The start of a new year/era/episode should come with a review of the one gone previously. I saw this on another site (yes, I'm stealing ideas, there is no limit to how low I will stoop to appear interesting) and decided that a review of my travel would be the most interesting thing to do, since I spent most of my time travelling anyway. Here is my year by places visited:

Prague, Czech Republic (x2)
Hungary, Budapest (also x2)
Sczcecin, Poznan and Warsaw, Poland (1 day in each city so not as interesting as it first sounds)
Barcelona, Spain (and I even had spare time to visit a tourist attraction!)
Southampton, UK (x11)
Zagreb, Croatia (x2)
Hannover, Germany (as ever not interesting)
St. Petersburg, Russia
Zilina, Slovakia
Olathe, KA, USA
Athens, Greece
Ljubljana, Slovenia (x2, also visited briefly Izola and Lake Bled)
Roscommon, Ireland
Tobago, Caribbean
Moscow, Russia
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Actually, this year wasn't that boring since we moved from UK to Ireland (Cork), I managed to keep my job and work from home, settled into a new house, Jamie got a job, we bought lots of furniture for our new house, and we're having a baby.

2008 is going to be a good one. Happy New Year to all.

Christmas hospital trips and not alot else

2008-01-02T16:36:00.000Z

Well, I can definitely say that this Christmas was different.

While at J's parents place on Christmas day, killing time before the serving of the traditional turkey and trimmings, I was struck with a bout of (what I thought was) indigestion pain. J's Mum, being a clever nursey type, said that's not indigestion. It's apparently not supposed to be that bad. So following two calls to South Doc and one visit to South Doc, I found myself sitting in the A&E department of CUH.

After 3.5 hours, the nice American/Canadian doctor said 'I can't provide pain relief cos you're pregnant' and sent me on a wheelchair ride over to the maternity hospital.

After another round of poking, peeing into bottles and answering the same questions, they decided they liked the look of me and kept me for the night. So after missing my turkey and trimmings, I got a bed and tea & toast at 1:30am, 26th Dec. And why? It's most likely I have gallstones. I spent St Stephen's night in hospital too - as they were about to discharge me that morning, my body decided that bourbon creams with tea (recently consumed for elevenses) were a good reason to attack and the pain came back. I got Pethidine for that :-)

Since leaving hospital I have had 1 bout of the extremely severe and horrible pain from gallstones and as long as I stay away from chocolate and rich or fatty foods I should be fine (so far so good).

That's about the most interesting thing that happened over Xmas. I do have to thank J's mum who provided us with leftover turkey, so I got my seasonal fix. We didn't travel anywhere for fear of getting struck down in gallstone induced agony.

I have a scan booked so they can confirm the presence of gallstones, as long as Beanie keeps his big head out of the way. But even so, nothing can be done until Beanie has made his exit/entrance (really depends on your point of view there, doesn't it?). I have normal liver functions - how many of you can say that!

I will keep you posted, although, gallstones aren't that interesting.

100 days to go...

2007-12-17T12:06:00.000Z

Well there are (at least) 100 days to go until the appearance of Beanie, so what's happening....

I'm larger! To be expected really. I am more awkward in my movements, slower to get out of bed, need to sit down to put my trousers on (sorry TMI), etc. However, many people (mainly women who know about these things) keep telling me I'm tiny, or the classic 'you're very tidy'. One women did approach me in Dunnes last week and was surprised to learn I still have 3 months to go. She seemed to think I was massive. For a moment I felt vindicated (I am big, who do those people think they are telling me I'm small), then I panicked. If I'm big with 3 months to go, how big can I expect to get? I'm not really seeking answers to this one, thanks. I will carry on blissfully unaware, until I get stuck in a doorway.

There is something stuck in my rib cage. I'm convinced there is a leg/hand/head right under my right ribcage. It is very uncomfortable when sitting down, especially if I laugh. That's gonna get annoying

Chronic indigestion. A couple of weeks ago I experienced my first bout of heart burn. I was mildly amused by this as I knew it was another symptom of pregnancy and it wasn't too severe. Yesterday, however, for 6 hours I had the joy of experiencing the worst indigestion pain ever! I kid you not (Jamie thought I was in labour). I had this horrible pain coming from my back, right through my chest. I couldn't sit or lie down as that made it worse, so I basically paced the floor. Not good. I had visions of being part of an alien movie, where I would be killed off early for a dramatic shot of an alien exploding from my chest. sadly such relief was not to mine. But Jamie's mum provided Zantac and 45 minutes later there was no pain. All hail Zantac!!

Baby kicks. These are funny. They usually come when I'm lying down going to sleep. Much to the annoyance of many people around me who would like to feel a kick. I have decided that this is better than any DNA test for proving this is Jamie's child - champion sleeper, rarely awake :-) It took me ages to realise they were baby kicks but now they are getting stronger I'm sure what they are - when they do come!

Not alot else happens pregnancy. I had high blood pressure for a while, but this has gone back to normal. I've stopped travelling for work now - which is great as planes and airports are not fun places to be when you're pregnant.

I'll try to keep you posted better and if I get over my laziness will eventually get around to putting up photos of Beanie - in bump form of course!

There or not?

2007-10-12T11:44:00.000+01:00

I think this is something all pregnant women go through. At that phase where there are no outward signs of pregnancy and things like morning sickness have eased, you start to doubt if it's really happening. could you possibly be pregnant without any tangible evidence to support it. Complete strangers can look at me and they won't know I'm pregnant - I haven't got a bump. This has lead to severe cases of bump envy - all other pregnant women have better bumps than me.

And so, the debate has raged in our house as to whether I have a baby bump or not. J says I obviously do, but I think I just look like I ate a large lunch and may have wind!

This morning, however, I remembered the Test! When I first found out I was pregnant, I asked Jamie to measure the 'inny-ness' of my belly button (many women's belly buttons pop out when they're pregnant and I wanted to be able to check if mine would do that). Anyway at that stage Jamie was able to up to the first knickle of his index finger into my belly button (I've realised, just now, how seedy this sounds and yes I have a VERY inny belly button).
Last night I insisted the Test was repeated. This time J was only able to get half-way to the first knuckle on his index finger in. This means that whether you can visbily see the bump or not there is something in there putting pressure on my belly button in an outward direction!
I am less inny than before ==> therefore I must be pregnant!
QED

Goggle Box

2007-10-08T11:32:00.000+01:00

Well, after 4 years of being without a TV we have succumbed and purchased one this weekend. We picked it up on Saturday and unpacked it yesterday.
The strange thing is, in the shop it looked like a normal sized TV (see left). Probably because it was surrounded by similar sized or larger TVs; but sitting alone in our living room it looks huge. It's actually a little scary so I've taken to avoiding the living room at the moment (I haven't even drawn the blinds today).

Don't, however, expect comments on the current set of TV programs as we still don't have TV channels. Living in a valley we can't get good reception on terrestrial channels. So we rely on Sky to provide those, along with some more interesting channels. It could take two weeks for Sky to turn up and install everything but that's ok we were prepared for that. We have recently received a shipment from those wonderful people at Amazon containing Season 3: Battlestar Galactica and Series 6: 24. We will put our TV to good use!!

News

2007-09-20T11:11:00.000+01:00

Well after weeks of waiting we can now tell you - although I'm fairly certain most of you know already. Jamie and me are expecting our first baby; due 26th March 2008. We are very excited. We're also very excited to finally be able to tell people. We had our 13 week scan yesterday and all is well.

We are hoping for a girl, but really if we get a boy we won't mind - although some quarters are now taking bets on this!
Copy of the scan will be added later. See above for the ticker tape that will keep track of progress for the coming months.

Do you feel like Dancin'?

2007-08-02T12:45:00.000+01:00

Inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre in the Philippines perform dance routines as part of their morning exericse. Below is the video of them dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller. They have done many other routines including the Village People's YMCA. The dancing is part of their exercise because it apparently helps to control behaviour. So successful is this form of exercise that two former inmates have gone on to become professional dancers.

Felicitations!

2007-08-01T09:41:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday to Jamie, he is 30 today!

Feeling a little left out!

2007-07-23T15:30:00.000+01:00

I was feeling pretty clever when I pre-ordered it on Amazon. Afterall, that's what I did for the previous book in the series. Of course, I forgot that when you live in England you get post on Saturday mornings, so you have your much-awaited book to read over the weekend.

I live in Ireland now. We don't get post on Saturday. Not only that, but it seems I didn't pre-order early enough since my copy was only dispatched yesterday!!! Come on people!

It was all made worse by walking into eason's yesterday where there are endless copies piled high. Taunting me.

Friends who relied on local bookstores for their copy have not only got it but finished reading it and I haven't even received my very own copy! I feel silly and left out now.

Being optimistic the earliest I can expect my copy would be tomorrow - that's being optimistic!!! And I work from home. How will I control myself? How will I focus on my job, when the book is sitting on the hall table, calling to me.

I should have bought it in easons on Saturday. would it really have been that silly - at least I'd know what happens and wouldn't feel so tortured.

Lovely evening

2007-07-11T09:45:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a lovely sunny evening, and Jay and I maximised it.

After work I went for a swim at Castlepark beach. To say it was refreshing would be an understatement; that water was cold, but I'm still glad I went for the swim. After sitting on the beach for a while, we got freshly picked gooseberries from Jay's Mum. Then we went home and had a BBQ.

After the BBQ I staked my sunflowers. They have all now been replanted; some to a bed in the garden, others to various boxes and pots. They are doing really well after early wories that I may have killed tham following weeks of torture in pots far too small. I think I even spotted a flower bud on one this morning! I have also replanted the redcurrant plant which is thriving in its new home.
I do feel that my mini trailing petunias are suffering in their pot - they just don't look as healthy as they used to and the leaves look all bitten but I can't find what's eating them. To give everything a boost I sprayed them all with Miracle grow last night. Let's see what happens.

I definitely think we need a few more sunny days and sunny evenings!

Update: It is with some embarrassment that I admit that the 'flower bud' I saw this morning on one of my sunflowers, was in fact a spider, making a little nest for herself. I sorted her out, though.
I also sorted out that giant bloody slug that thought he was moving into my window box of sunflowers too - over the wall with him!

Well done!

2007-07-04T13:41:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Jamie, who's entry to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind Calendar Competition has been selected for the 2008 calendar.
This will be Jamie's first published photograph and it is well deserved. Well done, babe!

Holiday, Celebrate!

2007-06-22T13:46:00.000+01:00

We have booked a holiday for the summer. It is very exciting as this will be our first foreign holiday in 4 years :-)

We are not counting trips from england to Ireland as foreign, or holidays; since it's not that far and we were coming home to see family, friends and organise a wedding. This is a proper holiday - you know, a getting-away-from-it-all type holiday.

We're heading to Tobago in September. Don't ask me how we chose Tobago out of all the places in the Caribbean; I leave these things to Jamie as there's usually more he wants to get out of a trip than me. It would be unfair to say he's picky, but all I'm looking for a is a beach for swimming and sitting on while reading, which is convienently located for the bar. Jamie, on the other hand, likes activities. We will be snorkelling, maybe a sailing trip or two and getting photos of all the tropical birds on the Island - and apparently it is quite unspoilt.

We booked it through these guys, as they are apparently the experts on the caribbean in Ireland. What a cushty job that is. The on-hold recording tells you that all of their advisors have personally inspected all of the destinations and accomodations they offer. By the time I got through I wanted to apply for a job, not boko a holiday.

No doubt there will be blog posts and phtotos on our return. Wahoo!

2007-06-12T22:36:00.000+01:00

When writing a blog post I often find myself searching for related articles, you know, things that might help the understanding of the story or add credence to something a little strange.

While writing one post earlier today, unbelievable as this may sound, I searched for related articles and I came across this forum.

AppleInsider is apparently a forum area for MAC users. So here's a bunch of (I gathered from references) male MAC users talking about poo! Regularity, consistency, timing, you name it!! I do have to admit that there were parts I was reading and I was just crying with laughter but almost the funniest thing is that these grown men continually referred to it as poo and at one stage some guy called it #2's.

Does this make me a hypocrite now? Aren't girls supposed to use the politer terms for these things, but men are rough, hardy souls whose terminology is also on the rougher/cruder side?

I'm not going to worry about it, I'm going back to my sofa.

House & Garden - Update

2007-06-12T21:23:00.000+01:00

I feel like a BBC 2 programme with these sorts of posts, which is not a good thing for a woman of my young years. But I am very excited about our new house (and the garden).

We've rented in apartment-land for so long that it's great to have the extra space and comfort of a whole house. We've also rented the new place unfurnished so we now own some nice bits of furniture, and will continue to add to our collection over time. Despite the fact that there are only two of us in a three-bedroom house, we've managed to fill up all the spaces - mainly with junk and boxes we are too lazy to unpack. Most of those unpacked boxes are filled with books and we have no bookcases. Although, I imagine to store our collection we would require a room of wall-to-wall book cases (MGB knows where I'm coming from). To date we have bought a bed from Swan Beds, a kitchen table and chairs from Whites on North Main Street and 2 sofas from Caseys on Oliver Plunkett Street. I'm hoping that this shameless plugging of local businesses will earn me a discount the next time I go in (note for locals and Limerick people: Caseys are beginning their Summer Sales this Thursday, June 14th).
A thumbnail of one of our sofas is to the left, more photos of the interior of the house can be found here.

The other joy about our new abode is the garden! Especially on sunny days when you have a private space to sit and enjoy the sunsine, with a glass of wine and some BBQ! As an update to a previous post about gardening I have some pictures of the plants I've been ~~killing~~growing.

This (left) is my 'Money' plant (known as Jade plant. I get pretty impatient about these things and in the last 7 days have not witness nay progress so believe that the thing is dying. Although there are no obvious signs of death on this plant, so I'm trying to be positive.
These (right) are my Giant Sunflowers. They have reacted very well to the rain the last few days, so I must now be the only person in Ireland who is happy that it's forecasted to rain for the rest of the week. The rain is doing good for my plants, it takes the pressure off me when I can blame external forces for any potential failures here. I also have some Evening Sun sunflowers, Teddy Bear sunflowers and some kind of dwarf sunflower. At this stage they all look the same except, as might be expected, the Giant sunflowers are somewhat taller and bigger.

I have been informed that the large bush in this pot is an 'ornamental' redcurrent plant. The most disappointing thing about this piece of news is that I am not going to get nice red berries which will make the plant look even prettier. It may not be clear in the photo but the leaves at the top have a nice redish tinge to them. And here is a close-up of the pretty mini trailing petunias that I bought in B&Q.
There are also some herbs but I'm fairly certain that the chives are going to die soon (they and the parsley got severly water-logged before I managed to get them repotted) and only 2 small bits of parsely have survived so far, so I'm not holding out great hope for them. It's kind of embarrassing since chives and parsley are some of the easiest herbs to grow and herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow.

Discoloured P**

2007-06-12T17:42:00.000+01:00

This is one of those things that Jamie won't allow me to tell him so, inappropriate and all as it may be, I am putting it here. I'm sure others have had similar experiences and may want to share; this could even turn ito a little online support group!

For those of you with a sensitive disposition, I am giving you fair warning, turn away now!

About a week or so ago I threw together this little salad. It was one of those really hot days and it was a nice, light meal for the evening; something just a little different. Anyway about two days later during my regular morning visit to the toilet (my father refers to this room as 'The House of Horrors'; that has always amused me), something was amiss. I was startled to find a purple colour staining in the loo!!! I know, this is shocking - there wasn't that much beetroot in the salad. Ok, I did have beetroot in my sandwich for lunch the next day but I thought it took copious quantities for it to change the colour of your p**. And anyway, doesn't it change the colour of your #1's not your #2's?

I have looked this up - there are no definitive articles by healthcare professionals but it is widely known that beetroot can effect either #1's or #2's!

Jamie finds it distrubing that I noticed this at all, because he can't understand why I would look into the loo after doing anything. I have explained to him that it's a basic healthcheck thing. Apparently, he never does this; I find this worrying!

Kiss me quick

2007-06-11T13:13:00.000+01:00

I am not sure if this is sweet and romantic on a very laarge scale or just plain weird....?

Discoloured fingers

2007-06-07T11:20:00.000+01:00

Our new house has a small lawn out front and small garden at the back. This has encouraged us to try some gardening. First steps in this direction were for me to plant some sunflowers and some herbs in seed trays and see what happened.

J's mum helped with repotting them last week. I didn't realise they would need repotting so soon and didn't have pots and generally wasn't prepared. The next step will be to plant them in the garden, so J mowed the lawn the other night (very domesticated isn't he :-) and next we will have to find the perfect spot in the garden for the sunflowers. For now I think I will keep the herbs in a pot so I can move them indoors in the winter; so I will need a bigger pot.

I also have a large flower pot on our front porch - a present for my last birthday. It came with a red currant plant in it, which is growing quite fast (I'm proud of this fact). So in a few weeks it will be too big for the pot, and I will need to find a spot for it in the garden!

In the meantime though I have added some mini trailing petunias to the pot to give it some nice colour (bedding plants rock, you just plant them, and you have instant flowers, all the hard bit is done).

My brothers girlfriend gave me a cutting from a money plant - I've always loved these. I have put it in a nice pot (thanks to J's mum, again). So we are working on developing green fingers, although I am sure I will have to tell you of all the disasters that will be fall us (andmore importantly our plants) soon.

Working from new home

2007-06-05T16:09:00.000+01:00

We moved house about 4 weeks ago; we are now renting a lovely 3-bed in Riverstick, Co. Cork. We do like our new house, but more on that later.
For various reasons (getting eircom to connect broadband, travelling) today is my first day working from our new home, in the little dedicated office in the box room. It's quiet here and I've been settling in and getting on with work. I've just discovered, though, that this is the time of the day our next door neighbour likes to start up her sewing machine. It sounds like she might come through the wall. I'll let you know!

Happy Anniversary

2007-03-12T13:15:00.000Z

I was reading a blog this morning and the owner had recently posted about how his blog was about to be 1 year old and what should he do to mark the occasion. Well this got me thinking about how old my blog is.... 4 yrs, 1 wk and 2 days since the first post.

I remember what started it. Jamie had been blogging for a while and was constantly trying to convince me that I should do it too. I couldn't see a reason for this, what would I write about? I mean Jamie has his techie thing and he spends his life on the internet so he always finds weird and interesting articles to show people. I don't really do that; and as soon as I start to think about writing about anything that's happened to me, it suddenly doesn't look/sound interesting enough to put out there. Also, I thought it was just for geeks (am i wrong?). Anyway for my 26th birthday Jamie got me a digital camera (he's great, really!) and told me that I could take pictures wherever I went and then blog about the pictures. As it turned out I don't take much pictures, hence you haven't seen alot of them. Plus the 'Photos' section is down (Jamie!) so I can't point out any of the few pictures I did take. But still, here we are!

And how has it been? Well it can't have been much fun for you. I've read some old entries, no I have never checked my spelling before I publish! Plus what can be of interest in the life of a woman whose most interesting coversation of the day is with the two border collies she walked at lunch time? You know probably the most interesting thing to happen here is that some crazy kids kept mistaking me for Hilary Duff. And that could only be becuase the photo section is down!

I always say I will blog more/better but it never happens. So i'm not even going to try to say that now. What I can promise is that entries will continue to be irregular and of little interest to anyone. That way, no pressure on me to write it and no pressure on you to read it. See we're all happy with the status quo!

Manic Monday

2007-03-12T11:41:00.000Z

It's not really a Manic Monday but I saw the Bangles song listed on a naff 80's compilation album in Virgin at the weekend and now I have it in my head. It is actually quite a dull Monday.

Jamie headed off for his first day of his new job this morning, understandably a little nervous. Since PhDs don't count as work (sorry to all the PhD people I know) Jamie hasn't held a real job in 3 and half years. Actually, because Jamie doesn't consider his time in MLE a real job, he's counting it as 5 and a half years. It's going to be tough for him to settle into the routine but I'm sure he'll soon come to hate it as much of the rest of us .

Work for me is quiet today (watch: I've just jinxed myself and I'm going to be up to my neck in it in about 4 minutes). This is the first time I've been in the house totally alone since I started working from home. It's weird, I always work better when there is background noise - total silence distracts me. I am forcing myself to stay in my office, and occassionally actually sit at my desk ;-)

Feelin' Blue

2007-03-06T12:04:00.000Z

As many of you will now be aware we have moved to Ireland. This was about 7 weeks so it is really old news.

However, in the last 7 weeks Jamie has found a job and found a place for us to live. This is great news, but unforunately I was not present for either occurence. I was out of the country when Jamie got his job and away again when he found our new place. I find it a little depressing to have missed out on some of the major changes in our life but I was lucky enough to keep my job when we left England.

It's a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand we still have one salary while Jamie was looking fora job and we set ourselves up. On the other hand the travelling part of the job keeps me away alot and I am missing out on all the good stuff that is happening.

I guess it's cos we're newly married that I feel it's more important that we do these things together. But I don't think that anyone (except Jamie) sees that it is so hard to be away so much, when there is so much changing at home.

Review

2007-01-16T20:11:00.000Z

I have just been criticised for the poor quality of my blog! No surprise there, but it should be noted that I come from a long line of people who believe constructive criticism was just an excuse to start a flight - usually at the end of a wedding/funeral when someone says to the bridesmaid/widow: "did you not take a look in the mirror before you came out?" And there will always be one gentlemanly soul to jump to her defense, thereby starting a classic punch-up which brings the whole event in question to an end.

But the criticism is doubly cruel because it comes from one of those young, hip people (basically anyone at the other end of their 20's is young and hip to me - as I draw closer to the 'age that cannot be mentioned' I find myself referring to everyone under the age of 28 in this way). These young people (phht - I spit when I say it) surf the net with the attention span of a retarded gnat and can decide in milliseconds if your site is cool or shite and then they're gone. These are the people whose opinions inform marketing companies of what we all want to buy/see on our telly/listen to on the radio/wear next season - god help me but 3/4 length tousers, mini-skirts and yellow have never and never will look good on me but thanks to the young, hip people (phht!) they're the choices I've had for the last 3 seasons!!! Screw you, whatever happened to jeans and a T-shirt? Spandau ballet? Refresher bars?

This blog was Jamie's bloody idea anyway, to draw me into the world of geekdom. And I fell for it; anything for a pretty face. I mean I don't have a life to speak of and no one would be interested anyway. Every once in a while I surf the net and find other peoples blogs and I think "hey I'm more interesting than that!".
However, I have been reading this blog - to try to understand where the criticism came from. Mother of divine sorrows, I cannot believe I wrote about counting and re-boxing my prescription medication (it obviously wasn't having the necessary effect). What total weirdo thinks that's interesting to anyone.

It is plainly clear that there is no one left reading this blog at this stage, the insanity has gone too far. So I can say what I want. Stay tuned, it's not about to get any more interesting!

Season's Greetings

2006-12-22T10:49:00.000Z

Before I go off line for the holidays I just wanted to say to everyone that I hope you have a happy, peaceful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Happenings

2006-12-20T10:53:00.000Z

You can tell there's not alot happening at work for me at the moment, as I seem to have time to write more posts. Notice also, that the posts don't get more interesting, just more frequent.
This post is mainly being written so that in a few weeks when I've forgotten what has happened I can refresh my memory as to how strange I can be sometimes.

(J thinks this one's a doozie) I am currently on some prescription medication (no comments please) and had to get a refill yesterday. There are 84 tablets in all, and the first time I received 3 boxes with the tablets split between them. The nice thing was that each strip of tablets had 4 tablets each and this was handy cos that was one daily dose. Yesterdays lot came in 5 boxes of 15 and 1 box of 9; each strip had 5 tablets, except for one with 4. 15 is not an even number and strips of 5 tablets don't help a person keep track of whether they have taken the right dosage or not. So, I emptied all boxes onto the table and repacked them so that there are now 4 boxes of 20 and 1 strip of tablets with 4 tablets. This is much easier to manage, I have one days worth on a strip and then each box contains 5 days worth. Much more sensible.
J had to laugh; apparently OCD is alive and well!!

There's a guy at work who used to make fun of me because of my Irish accent and specifically how Irish people say certain words. For a while this guy was stuck on how Irish people say the wrod 'film'. Repeatedly, for weeks, he would ask me to say 'film' and I would respond and say 'film' - sometimes to be cheeky I would say 'movie', see I'm not that funny. Anyway, last night we were going to the cinema again and after dinner I walked out of the room and said to J: 'Our filum is starting in 20 minutes'. I stunned myself. When put on the spot I have the concetration to say it right but when talking naturally it seems that I fall into the sterotypical irish way and I say 'filum'. Can you see the difference? Can you see what I'm getting at?
I guess I should be proud, after 3 years in England I have managed to retain my Irish-ness and I still sound like a spud-gobbling, cabbage-eating bogger from the arse-hole of nowhere :-)

This one has nothing to do with my strange-ness but I feel I need to warn everyone who might go to see The Holiday in the Cineworld Southampton. There is a part in the movie where Jack Black is singing in a video rental place. Anyway, just before he gets to his big crescendo the sound goes for a few seconds and when it comes back, right at the moment of the big crescendo, the volume comes back but MUCH louder and you get Jack Black's booming voice at its loudest ear-bursting best/worst (depends on how you feel). Anyway, I feel the warning is necessary since after this moment you may never hear properly again.
As an aside the movie is only ok.

Good movie

2006-12-19T12:48:00.000Z

Personally, I would never pay any attention to a movie review from me. I will pretty much watch ANYTHING; I do not have what can be described as discerning tastes.

That said, I do think that Deja Vu was pretty good. I tend to like Denzel Washington movies. While the basis of the story was a little unbelievable (being able to watch the past happening), if you can put that aside, there was a story which had flow and of course there were explosions. I like explosions :-)

Anyway, for an action packed 2 hours, go see it.

BTW, did anyone else notice that Jim Caviezel was cute? well, i did.

And then there were 2...

2006-12-19T11:33:00.000Z

Well, we were always 2; but now we're 2 with not alot of stuff. The movers came at the weekend.

You see we've been keeping a little secret from some of you; we are moving back to Ireland in the New Year. So from January we will be residents of the Emerald Isle once more!

We booked the movers some time ago and they were quite vague about exactly which day they would come to get our stuff - we don't have furtniture so it is just stuff. Anyway we figured we would at least get a couple of days notice. They rang Jamie on Friday afternoon at 2pm to tell him they would be collecting our stuff on Saturday at 3pm!!! Oh my God, there was total panic but by 2am Saturday morning we had just about everything packed.

And now it's all gone. The place is so bare, there isn't even a radio. We are eating our meals off picnic plates and drinking from beakers. It's so pathetic! But at least it is only for a short time.

Back to motherland :-)

More on food

2006-11-07T20:19:00.000Z

I spent the end of last week in Greece, where I ate lots of lovely Greek food :-) However, that did not stop me from spending the weekend cooking up a storm.

On Saturday evening we had friends over for dinner (this is a rarity and creates much excitement in our home). I cooked gnocchi bolognese - I love this recipe but Jamie apparently doesn't like the texture of the gnocchi. I think it is the perfect dish for the cold weather, and it was decidedly cold at the end of last week. It was served with garlic bread, some salad and plenty of vino! The surprise for me was that Jamie said he really liked it. It seems that the texture if fresh gnocchi is better than that of the long life stuff I have used in the past. So there's the tip, use fresh gnocchi if you can.

On Sunday it was just me and Jamie, but as I was leaving on Monday evening for most of this week I wanted to leave my guy with a stock of food. So I made a (quite large) Moroccon Chicken Pie. I imagined that this might have a bit of a weird taste but it was really good - if I do say so myself. It was served with a nice white wine from Yalumba.

You will notice that all these recipes are from Waitrose. I have built up quite a recipe collection by picking up the cards in store - they change the recipes each month. But as you can see these recipes can also be accessed online. Generally, they are quite simple and quick to prepare but are very tasty.

I'm currently in Poland, a place it has taken me a long time to get to (more on that later, maybe). I believe I am on a promise from Jamie - not that kind you saucy minx! He has indicated that he will cook on Thrusday and I think I might be getting his Sweet & Sour Chicken with Special Egg Fried Rice. I love when he makes this so I am really looking forward to getting home on Thursday evening.

Books that lie

2006-10-31T12:20:00.000Z

I had considered buying this book when it first came out and decided that it would be too "sciency" for me. But a few weeks ago Jamie bought it in a second hand bookshop. As I have temporarily run out of Terry Pratchet books to read, I began reading this. At first I thought it was ok but last night I found myself getting slightly frustrated with it.

You see, the author promised, in his prologue, to answer all those questions that were never answered for you as a youngster in Science class; such as 'how do they know that?'. Well, while he provides an interesting insight into the, often weird, lives of the scientists who brought us the knowledge of our world, he also often creates more questions than he answers in explaining their life's works. For example, the angstrom is the smallest unit of measurement, and apparently is the distance you are separated from your chair when you sit on it! Now I don't doubt this but what my question is, is how do know? How did they absolutely, irrefutably prove that you do not physically touch the thing you are sitting on? In short, how is the angstrom measured?

This wasn't the first time in the book that he explained something that left me with more questions than it answered. So I feel slightly cheated by Mr Bryson. Before starting this book I was blissfully unaware of angstroms and the like, and now I feel lacking that I do not know how scientists discovered the gap or measured it's distance.

Disappointed and Confused, England

2006-10-31T08:52:00.000Z

Adventures in cooking

2006-10-30T12:56:00.000Z

Jamie says that not everyone puts the same effort into cooking that I do. He said this on Saturday night after a wonderful meal, cooked by me. He says alot of people just wouldn't bother doing the recipes that are too fiddly; I think that's rubbish.

Anyway, since I never seem to have anything to write on my blog I decided that I could tell you all about my cooking. I tend to do the more adventurous recipes at the weekend - I just don't have the time or energy during the week. So this blog is going to (hopefully) get a bit more foodie in the future; that or I'll go back to 'no posting' like some people.

Now when I say adventurous, I don't think I am; I find recipes online or in Waitrose or in some of the books I have and just do them. I have a tendancy to make most things only once and then get bored with it.

So this weekend...
Saturday:
Surfing the net on Friday afternoon at work (I know, tsk, tsk and all that) I found a recipe website. I was curious to see what I'd find under 'Irish' in the Cuisine section. Well I found this and I can tell you I never had this as a child - but it did turn out very nice. I was most impressed with the mash, which was creamy, obviously, and will probably cause a heart-attack in one or both of us (me and Jamie, that is) if I were to ever make it again.
I was very proud of dessert, which was this - foil baked strawberries with Pimms and clotted cream. As I only required a couple of cups of Pimms for the recipe and the smallest bottle I could find was 75cl, we ended up spending the rest of Saturday evening working our way through the bottle. Pimms and lemonade makes me very giggly :-)
We watched Serenity on DVD and then tottered off to bed.

Sunday:
Nothing too crazy here; I made Red Pepper risotto, which I got from a vegetarian cookbook I have. I underestimated how long it would take to grill the peppers and how fiddly it would be to peel them once cooled. Well we eventually got dinner at 9pm. I thought it was delicious but Jamie, it turns out, hates risotto. Apparently, he let me cook it because he knew I really wanted to. He's so sweet, he even emptied his plate.
Due to the lateness of dinner there was no dessert on Sunday.

The Date

2006-10-26T15:30:00.000+01:00

You know, we haven't had many official dates. The sort where the boy comes up to you and sheepishly asks if you're free tonight and you make him sweat cos you know you won't have many opportunities in the rest of your life to have that kind of power over the man....
Anyway, my husband wandered into the kitchen the other night as I prepared curry (a lovely veggie korma) and asked if I would like to go to the cinema with him - he's so cute sometimes!! Well I said yes, cos I like spending quality time with my man - have I mentioned how cute he is?
[If this was anyone else I'd cynical and say honeymoon period.]

The plan in the became to scoff the curry at high speed (easier said than done) and then head down the road to the cinema (the one we have to pay for you know! Tsk!). The movie of choice was Marie Antoinette and for the first time in a long time we had to queue to get tickets. However, the nice thing about LeisureWorld in Southampton is that they have a Ben & Jerry's cafe :-) All I can say is 'Core Sundae' - well actually I'm going to say more than that. We had a large sundae to share. We got 3 scoops of ice-crean (we went for Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Phish Food and Fossil Fuel) filled will with hot chocolate sauce, covered in mini-maltesers and then topped with whipped cream. Yyyuuuummmmmmmmm!!!

At this point I have to say that for me the sundae was the high point of the evening. I was not that impressed by the movie, I found it slow and I'm not sure what the point was. Were they trying to show Marie Antoinette as completely vacuous or did I miss some underlying message? Anyway, I wouldn't be recommending it to anyone but the sundae was super!

All mine, my precious!

2006-10-04T10:02:00.000+01:00

As of Monday my little car (Betty) is all mine! After 11 months of financial hardship all the repayments are done and I can claim her as my own - it is so cool! I don't think I;ve ever owned something so expensive. And we have had such good times together.

Betty has taken us on numerous treks into the New Forest, we've been shopping in Portsmouth, she took me to London in July for a trade show, she took us (and all our luggage) to Ireland to get married and then came on honeymoon with us and last weekend she took us to Bedfordshire for an airshow. She's like our little baby... OK that might be getting a bit weird, but you know, she's special and now she's mine!

The deed is done!

2006-09-12T10:59:00.000+01:00

Well the big day has been and passed. I am the new Mrs. Lawrence and have learned to respond to this title. I have even begun changing my name in places, such as in email address. Still waiting for the marriage certificate before I can change it on all official documents. Although it is still weird to see the name.

The day itself was fantastic. In the morning it was absolutely pouring out of the heavens and in a typical wedding day miracle all was clear and sunny by early afternoon. So sunny in fact the photographer was heard to complain that it was too sunny for the photos :-)

The hairdresser that morning was very exciting with many giggly women driking champagne! Otherwise it was just alot of hanging around waiting until I could get into the dress - can't do these things too early, in case one needs a pee. We won't tell the story about the bride, onece in the dress, decided she did actually need to pee....

Everyone was on their best behaviour, there are hundreds of photos, the food was fantastic, I got a little drunk and went to sleep that night deliriously happy! Unfortunately, during my second week of marriage my new husband is in Finland at a conference. Not his fault, but I do miss him. On his return I'm sure there will be photos online!

Photo credit to Greg Lawrence, my brother-in-law!

A lot of hard work

2006-08-25T12:10:00.000+01:00

Wedding favours are a big thing over here, although they don't seem to be in Ireland.

I instantly liked the idea of little gifts for everyone, with pretty bows and stuff. But looking at it, it can work out quite expensive to do this - even for small weddings. We've spoken to people who've done clever things, like cookery book of the couples favourite recipes, or CDs of the couples favourite songs - these are a bit different and have the added extra of the personal touch, but still tot up on old financial side.

I decided then, what with me being a little crafty, that it would be nice if I could make something small that could be given to each guest. Well I found a pattern online for a very nice little basket and decided this was it. So I crocheted these baskets, then starched them (on top of wine bottles!), then added ribbon. They are now packed in shoes boxes awaiting trasnportation to Ireland this weekend.

We are putting some silver covered chocolate balls in the baskets. I am very proud of these and hope everyone at the wedding likes them.

Closer

2006-08-24T14:24:00.000+01:00

There are 9 days left to the wedding!!!

Yahoo's long-distance weather forecast predicts scattered showers on the day. All I can do is hope they are appropriately scattered around my exits/entrances to/from cars/buildings. Otherwise I don't really mind.

I don't want to put the mockers on myself by saying this, but I think I have been very calm in the lead up to this wedding. Besides the hair-dresser fiasco at the weekend, everything has gone smoothly (fingers crossed to continue this way). The fiasco was that the hairdresser, which I had booked for hair trial and wedding day ages ago, had no recollection of my appointment when I rang to confirm last Saturday. 2 weeks before the big day! Fools! To be fair to them, they did have the appointments written down, but had ommitted to put my name next to them, the appointments being booked for "a lady" (I am not joking); and then refused to accept that these could be appointments for me so wanted to book new appointments on the same days. What made it worse was that although they realised that this was for my wedding, they were not one bit sympathetic that they were impacting on the wonderfullness of my day with this screw-up.

I have since found a replacement hairdresser who seems much nicer and I feel better about the whole thing. There will be pictorial evidence if she turns out to be a good haridresser. If she's terrible ALL photos will be destroyed.

Surprise stress came in the form of a phone call from my mother-in-law to be. Now I get on great with this woman, she is really lovely and has been a great help so far. But last night she asked if I was having the dress steamed/ironed before the wedding. I am not planning on it. But then I wondered; is she asking because she thinks the dress is too crinkled to be worn and needs to be steamed, or was she asking out of a geniune curiosity. My own panic means I keep having the internal debate as to whether I should have the dress steamed and if so, where, when? I imagine the internal debate will rage til the day of the wedding and then I won't care anymore.

The only other bit of stress I am expecting will come from packing the car for the drive home. (On Sunday morning we drive to Wales to get the ferry.) I am extremely anal about packing and have already started a list and planned the order it will go into the car and where it will be placed. Jamie does not take the same pride in packing that I do and this often leads to disagreements! We will share the driving to Wales but I want to drive on the other side of the ferry journey, as next week sees my first experience of driving in Ireland.

It's all very exciting really.

Countdown

2006-07-28T08:38:00.000+01:00

5 weeks from tomorrow Jamie and I will be getting married. I'm very excited. Jamie, apparently, hasn't thought about it so doesn't know if he's excited or not.

I have my first Major stress attack last Friday evening. According to other women I've spoken to I've held up pretty well not have had one sooner. I was collecting my wedding dress from the alterers, and due to the Jordanesque style of dress I have chosen, trying to get that into the car on a sunny day, on my own when the car was parked on a hill resulted in me getting extremely upset. I threw shoes at the back of the bedroom door when Jamie tried to talk to me from the other side - something I have never done before.

I'm glad we're having a small wedding. I couldn't imagine doing this organising for a larger number. Not the way I get worked up, anyway.
Quite frankly I'm amazed Jamie's still willing to go ahead with the whole thing.

Moderator

2006-07-25T14:28:00.000+01:00

I have had comments on my site for a while now (thanks, I have to admit, to Jamie). I never really had a problem with them, mainly cos I don't have what you could call a readership. I don't take it personally and I'm not here to mull over whether anyone loves me or not.

Recently, I found it necessary to moderate the comments that were being left on my site. In the main the comments now fall into two categories; people offering me free access to their porn/pharmacy site or (silly) Italian and American kids who think I'm Hilary Duff. I kid you not!!

Strangely, it's the second class of comment that worries me more. I mean the people offering the free porn, or the low cost Viagra are really in business they're just trying to make money. The people who think I'm Hilary Duff have not bothered to engage their brains in the recent past. And as the song says the children are our future, so this is a cause for some worry.

So, ok, if you are reading this site because you searched Google and in your infinite wisdom decided that I was a blonde, 19 year-old American, singer/actress, on the one hand thanks, I'm flattered. On the other hand I have to say Pause! Look at my site, why would Hilary Duff own a 6 year old Renault Clio, buy cheap MP3 players, travel around Eastern Europe drinking cabbage soup, and tell the world about the minutae of her life that never once involves recording a song, or making a movie or setting foot in the US where she apparently lives? You can't answer can you? Because it is now blatantly obvious to your microwave, MTV generation pea-brain that I am NOT in fact Hilary Duff. Thank you!

As you have made it this far and patiently read my rant I'll help you out: your next stop should be here. For all other readers, normal service will resume shortly; I'm cranky now, I need a nap!

Venus or Mars

2006-07-25T14:22:00.000+01:00

Jamie and I went to see Superman Returns last night. Personally, I liked it but I think it was mainly cos we've finally gotten a vaguely attractive super hero. I never did find anything nice about Christopher Reeve (sorry!).

Anyway, that's not the point of the blog. I don't want to ruin the story for anyone but I think this bit was fairly predictable, Lois Lane's kid is Superman's son. As we were leaving the cinema I said:
"Ah! Superman had a baby!"
Jamie responded with:
"Hey! Superman had sex!"

I think this small snippet goes to show the fundamental differences between the females and males of our species.

MP3 - Wahoo!

2006-02-28T23:08:00.000Z

I got one of these, it really is tiny. Dixons were doing a fantastic deal - I got the 1GB, silver Q-Be for less than half price, £40!! It would be a sin to leave it there at that price. It's fantastic company when in the airport and on the plane and the neck lanyard/necklace thing is a really handy way to carry it.

I've seen reviews that say it's TOO small but really it's just too cute. I can't believe something that small currently has over 180 of my songs and plays them for up to 17 hours before running out of battery. This is one happy customer!

Love

2006-02-13T08:52:00.000Z

I'd rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine.

Jim Weatherly

Soup

2006-02-08T08:24:00.000Z

It's strange... all the countries I've been to seem to have the same national dish, usually involving cabbage. All these countries also seem to like cabbage soup. I'm sure you're thinking 'how gross!', but hey, it's actually really good. And besides that it's got medicinal qualities which I require at a time of immune defficiency.

So I've decided to provide you with a culinary guide to Eastern Europe. Yes, I'm doing the cabbage soup tour of the East :-)

So far I've had cabbage soup in two places: Vilnius, Lithuania and Prague, Czech Republic. Right now Prague is in the lead!
The soup in Vilnius was very tasty although a bit over salted. It was essentailly a thin broth with floating bits of cabbage. I thought the blob of cream was a nice touch. (7/10)
The soup in Prague was a tomato based soup, much thicker with chunky cabbage and also chunky bits of sausage. It was tasty and quite filling. It too had the blob of cream on top. (9/10)

Next stop Poland!!!

Trip

2006-02-08T08:16:00.000Z

Several things occured to me on the drive in from the airport last night. In the interested of consistency I am going to make a list!

Bad things about this trip:

My head cold - travelling when you feel poorly is terrible. But I wasn't sick enough to take a day of work therefore I had to travel. And here I am in a hotel room swallowing headache tablets and sucking on strepsils. I'm pathetic!

Knowledge - I have arrived in this country not only with no local currency in my pocket but realised that I don't even know what the local currency is [I have since rectified at least one of these points - currency = Czech Krone]

Sudden death - the hotel sent a car to pick me up. They really oughtn't send psychopaths to pick up guests. He drove like a maniac, taking corners at over 90 mph, which then meant he had to brake like his life depended on it. And it did but so did mine. Very bumpy journey in the snow, I was rather scared.

Good things about this trip:

I've always wanted to visit Prague. Although I'm syure I'd prefer to be hear with Jamie and not have to do all the work stuff

The AC/DC being played by the driver on the way in (although this may account for the bad driving)

All in all, it seems the bad things win. I want to go home to my bed and be pathetic :-(

Test

2006-02-07T11:14:00.002Z

I'm away this week, so I'm testing out the whole blogging while you travel business. Flying to the Czech Republic and then on to Poland. Hope it's not too cold - I never checked the weather.

Well this works....

Tagging? Lists?

2006-02-01T12:20:00.000Z

I was intrigued by this tagging thing, and I like making lists so here I go. (Does it make me really sad that I'm doing this and I haven't been tagged by anyone and I'm doing this anyway?)

Four jobs I've had:
1. Shop assistant
2. Researcher
3. Temp receptionist
4. Regional Sales Manager

Four Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Grease
2. Shrek
3. Steel Magnolias (God forgive me for admitting to this stuff)
4. LOTR (any and all of the 3 movies)

Four places I've lived:
1. Clarecastle, Co. clare Ireland
2. Limerick, Ireland
3. Dublin, Ireland
4. Southampton, UK (and also 2 months in Australia while travelling around)

Four TV shows I love:
(This will be hard as we haven't had a TV in 2 years)
1. Desperate Housewives (thanks Lil and Brendan :-)
2. Scrubs
3. I used to love StarGate SG-1, is that still on?
4. um.....

Four places I've vacationed:
1. New York
2. Australia
3. New Zealand
4. I currently spend holidays at home in Ireland

Four of my favourite dishes:
(I can only have four?)
1. Spicy prawn and rice (an adapatation of a recipe I found, it's like paella)
2. Lasagne
3. Pizza
4. Coconut based curries

Four sites I visit daily:
1. Mike
2. Jamie
3. BBC News
4. google

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. At home with Jamie
2. In Dublin having a girlie lunch with Lil
3. In a swimming pool
4. Ireland - anywhere

Four bloggers I am tagging:
1. Jamie
2. Mike
3. Simon
4. any volunteers?

By the way

2005-12-20T12:06:00.000Z

Company Xmas do tonight (yeah - party dress and dancing :-), travelling to Ireland for 2 weeks Xmas hols tomorrow - I feel Christmassy.

Merry Christmas one and all!! I hope it's a happy one :-)

Passenger drivers!

2005-12-20T12:02:00.000Z

Right well, I've been driving (pretty well) for about 4 weeks now. At the weekend myself and Jamie went to the New Forest for a nice Sunday outing. I drove. Jamie was the passenger...

And what a passenger!! Apparently it's not that he doesn't trust my driving (he thinks I'm a good driver for one so inexperienced) or that he's particularly nervous, he just feel s the urge to give constant instruction. To some extent I don't mind this, it can be useful to have an extra pair of eyes in the car. But the one that absolutely kills me is, at a set of traffic lights when we get the red and amber lights together and Jamie says "Go!" As if that's not what I was going to do!! Honestly!!

He'll get over this, or he'll get gagged!

King Kong

2005-12-20T12:00:00.000Z

King Kong, is actually a much better movie than I expected. I quite enjoyed it. Althought Jamie LOVED it!!! Take what you like from that.

Serenity!

2005-11-23T10:51:00.000Z

I found this funny. It kinda describes my attitude to my current job. It's also cool that I tied for Zoe - she rocks!! Love Serenity.

You scored as Jayne Cobb. The Mercenary. You are in this for the money, plain as that. You like things simple that way, but mainly as anything else confuses you. You get the job done, and don't care what people think. Not as long as you get paid anyway.

Jayne Cobb

81%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

81%

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

75%

Simon Tam

75%

River Tam

63%

Capt. Mal Reynolds

63%

Inara Serra

63%

Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye

63%

Shepherd Derrial Book

50%

The Operative

50%

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

New Car

2005-11-21T12:46:00.000Z

I GOT A NEW CAR!
Well actually it's a second hand car but it's new for me. A 1999 Renault Clio (Va Va Voom), silver and lovely.
As I've not had a lot of practice driving on my own I am a little apprehensive about the drive home tonight and also it will be dark. But if I survive the rest of my life will be super and mobile!!

Time Warp!

2005-11-02T18:44:00.000Z

Between 28th Oct and 6th Nov, I will have visted 3 different countries - not counting the UK, I'll only have been there for 2 days. During November I will visit 5 countries in all and already my mind is whiring from the airport-hotel-show-hotel-airport scenarios that are being repeated.
I currently sit in a very swanky hotel in Warsaw while doing the work that has been piling up during the first half the scenario played out earlier today; airport-hotel!

As travel is going to be a large part of my new job (and I'm starting to feel a need for better financial compensation for this!!) I need suggestions for some/all of the following:
Good books to read while travelling - nothing too heavy-going. Currently reading Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy?
Things to do to remove the tedium of hanging around airports/hotels?

Hey, I was impressed by this!

2005-10-25T13:53:00.000+01:00

My blog is worth $2,822.70.
How much is your blog worth?

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Proposal

2005-10-14T14:12:00.000+01:00

It's been a tough week. I've worked hard at having nothing to do without making it obvious to my superiors that I have nothing to do - which is a skill you know. That is, until today. Today real work landed on my desk, so I've genuinely been working hard.

I feel that I deserve a decent pint. So after work I'm heading for a pint of cider down the local. Anyone want to come along? All are welcome.

Question

2005-10-14T09:35:00.000+01:00

What's cuter than a chipmunk?

Delivery

2005-10-11T12:43:00.000+01:00

I LOVE ordering things online... oh and also over the phone cos it's so efficient.

The other week I ordered a laptop bag from Tech Air. Their site says if you order it before 1pm, it will be delivered next day, order after 1pm and will be 2 days. I ordered a v. nice bag after the 1pm threshold and it was delivered next day :-) Marvellous service.

Yesterday I called Virgin to order a new phone. I was so delighted after the call becuase I had received an upgrade discount that I didn't know I was entitled to and they had been friendly and helpful. I didn't actually mind that she said I would have to wait two days for my phone to be delivered. But here I sit, the next day, gazing at my new Samsung E350, charging on my desk. Wonderful!!

Kudos to those companies that give good service and delivery early. We love you!!

Sad Day

2005-10-11T09:52:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, after a long life of 15 years, Sally, my parents dog had to be put down.

She was a jack russel terrier we got for my youngest brother's 11th birthday. It's going to be weird going home with no Sally there, she always comes out barks at you cos she's so excited to have visitors [and i guess this sentence should have been in the past tense].

She was suffering from arthritis, so bad that in the last week she found it very hard to stand up when she first woke in the morning. Although the vet said he could give her injections to ease the pain from the arthritis, my Mam took the difficult decision. It's best really as anything else would just have been prolonging the agony.

RIP Sally.

New Shoes!!! (II)

2005-10-10T15:29:00.000+01:00

This time I really did get new shoes :-)

I bought those boots in Dune at the weekend. The picture I showed on an earlier post wasn't the right one, but Dune don't have these boots on their website. Strange, when the girl told me they were the No. 1 seller at the moment. They're brown suede, wedge-heeled, slouch boots. I feel very in fashion - I have read that slouch boots and wedge heels are in this season and I've got them all in one. This never happens, I'm usually seasons, nay generations behind in fashion. So, at least for this week I got it right :-)

I have also purchased a new phone. It transpires that the technical difficulties I have had i nthe past are not down to the network/network operator but are in actualy fact down to the shitheap I call my mobile. So after much convincing from Jamie I have purchased a Samsung E350 from Virgin.

This spending spree must now cease. I am going to revert to what I usually do when i have to stop shopping. I go mad shopping for food and cook for Jamie :-) Grilled Chicken with citrus cous cous for dinner tonight?

Movies

2005-10-10T09:56:00.000+01:00

Serenity, go see it. A good, solid entertaining movie from start to finish. I cannot believe this didn't make it as a TV series. I loved it.
MGB: Please do not go to see this movie. You poo-poo every movie you see, I do not want you slating this piece of artwork.

The Wallace & Gromit movie is also very entertaining. I've actually not seen any of the other Wallace & Gromit movies (I know, I think I was living on the moon at the time!). But this was really funny. Also funny, was the mini feature shown before the movie. The Penguins from Madagascar in a Christmas Caper. I'm glad they recognised that those penguins were the best thing about that otherwise very mundane animation. And it was a brilliant little piece. I love penguins!

Saw a trailer for March of the Penguins - very excited about this one people :-)

New Shoes!!!

2005-10-06T15:36:00.000+01:00

Well actually I didn't get new shoes, although I saw some lovely wedge-heeled boots in Dune at the weekend. They will be mine, oh yes, they will be mine :-)

No in actuality I got a new job!!! I am still with the same company, but would you believe they went and promoted me. Shock! I am a European Sales Manager for the company, and I am responsible for 14 countries. When written down it looks like alot of responsibility but I will spend most of my time sending emails and then flying to foreign parts to (get this) "see the market, get an overview". (I love sales/marketing speak - so funny).

Other cool things that come with the job are a Blackberry - which I haven't fully gotten to grips with - a laptop, a bigger desk (seriously, I kid you not) and alot of travelling to some fairly cookd destinations. Travel plan for the remainder of the year is as follows.... Denmark (1 weekend, including travel time), Greece (same again), Amsterdam (1 week, including some personal time to visit Ciara), Oslo and Gothenburg (these are lumped together cos I'm doing them in one trip in 4 days). Oh and Dublin for a weekend, but that's to see Lil and sort out wedding related bits (hers not mine).

So far I'm in that newbie phase of the new job - reading lots, so I can learn/catch-up. I find it really frustrating becuase my previous role was so busy and it literally stopped dead at the end of last week. And now I'm reading emails/sales reports/etc and booking flights. I am fairly positive it will pick-up and I look forward to when it will. IN the meantime I;m getting back to shopping on the internet (list now includes shows, coat (as seen in TopShop at the weekend), mobile phone and jewellery).

P.S. I don't normally blog about work and I'm not gloating. Please note this was only written because Mike nagged me into it. He said you would all leave "Hilary Rocks" comments. So get with the commenting!!! We'd hate to see Mike be so wrong?

Pirates

2005-09-20T17:06:00.000+01:00

Only becuase everyone else is doing it (I'm such a sheep :-) And also I purchased a pirate eye-patch at the Southampton Boat Show this weekend (it was in aid of charity), so I feel I can continue in this vain until I have all the bits to be a fully fledged pirate.

My pirate name is:

Iron Mary Kidd

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Bewitched

2005-08-24T12:40:00.000+01:00

We went to see Bewitched last night. I know it should be no surprise that it was pants. The most interesting thing to happen was the lights went on in the middl eof the film for a few minutes and then went off again. Otherwise, very mundane , repdictable, and not really that funny. BUt then again Will Ferrell? A comedy genius he is not - don't like him.

I thought I used to liek the re-runs of the Bewitched TV series, but I always got that one confused with the other one - I Dream of Genie. I definitely preferred the genie one, I liked the genie costume she wore all the time!!!

Problem

2005-08-23T14:01:00.000+01:00

You see, all weekend I swore I wasn't going to get on a weighing scales this week. But I passed one in the warehouse and couldn't resist - morbid curiosity.

Anyway, those 4lbs that I gained and lost a few weeks ago are back, thanks to the antics of the weekend.

I'm going to the pool tonight and tomorrow night to see if I can lose it again. Wish me luck!!

Le Weekend

2005-08-22T17:03:00.000+01:00

MGB visited...

Friday started off with a text from MGB explaining how he was stranded on the runway at Shannon, in the plane! Aer Lingus - jesus!!! Later they were sent back to the terminal. Later still they were boarded again and even later than that they took off. After all of that MGB was only an hour later than we expected him.

The remainder of the weekend seemed to be an experiment in how much a person can eat and drink before doing irreperable damage to themselves.

There were a number of happy occassions to celebrate, not least of which was me passing my driving test. So we began Friday evening with champagne. We then ordered lots of food from P.O.S.H - a colonial Indian restaurant. MGB went for the Jhalfrezi - when I ordered this I received 3 warnings about how hot it was. Mike didn't seem to have any regrets, even when he discovered whole green chilies in there. I don't knwo if that counts as bravery or stupidity. There was lots of food there and we did it great justice. As we sat there with buttons popping the phone rang. P.O.S.H wanted to see if we were happy with everything - nice touch, we'll be calling them again.

Saturday was pleasant enough. We drove into the new Forest (Mike was threatening to shot the ponies, which upset me lots. I'm very senstive you know). The weather was nice and after much pony and heather chasing (don't ask!) we found lunch. Lunch was a sandwich but being the pigs that we are, we all ordered sundaes for dessert. These it turned out they never charged for - so there's another establishment we can't return to for fear of arrest :-)
Saturday night there was lots of food. I made Oggies - cornish pasties basically - fileld with lamb and mint. We had an array of gourmet sausages (thanks MGB) to keep us going while the oggies were in the oven. Lots of Corona/wine was consumed and we rolled to bed at midnight.

Sunday was a little better in that we had a long walk and a simple lunch. We all got a little pink in the sun but I think consensus was that the walk was a good idea. We came home only to turn around and go get all-you-can-eat-chinese.
I thnk we were quite restrained - well we all managed to walk home, we couldn't have eaten that much. BUt i tend to be a pig at the best of times. Beer and chinese were followed by a sedate game of scrabble and more alcohol. Alcohol always makes scrabble better, especially when Jamie surprises everyone my winning the game in his second go!!! Poo-poo!!

So all-in-all we had a good weekend but we do all need to start some serious detox now!

Testing Experience

2005-08-16T13:50:00.000+01:00

Well, some good news. Today, I passed my driving test.

After the last fiasco I was REALLY nervous. I genuinely didn't see anyway to pass a driving test. I had failed already because of nerves and I was really nervous. Ipso facto, I was going to fail again. I was totally inconsable last night. Bless Jamie, he puts up with alot.

Anyway, after a long bath and hot chocolate before bed last night, I slept like a baby. But within 10 minutes of waking up I was fighting the nerves again.

My lesson started at 8:30, and as per usual it went without incident. You see, I'm a good driver, which is why the whole not having passed the test thing is annoying. So I drove fine and then we headed to the test centre.

The examiner I had was really chatty. Chatty is good, cos it's the silence in the car that makes me nervous. Then once I'd left the test centre without hitting anything I felt much better about the whole episode. I drove much better, generally watching my speed, slowing appropriately. My maneouvres were fantastic - in fairness no one does a better turn-in-the-raod than me, as is evidenced by no errors on my test report for that maneouvre. I also did the reverse into a parking space, which only ever goes right in the test. So about 10 minutes before the end, while waiting at some traffic lights I was convincing myself that I'd failed. I was sure that despite not having done anything that fails you outright, I would have enough minor erros to warrant a fail.

In the test centre car park after turning off the engine:

Examiner: [counting errors on sheet]
Hilary: [head in hands]
Examiner: Well, Hilary, I'm delighted to tell you that you've passed.
Hilary: [look of disbelief] Are you serious?
Examiner: [confused, cos he doesn't know how to joke] Yes.

So I am in a a state of pleasant shock, if such a thing exists.

Lazy Weekend

2005-08-15T12:24:00.000+01:00

I have just spent the laziest weekend ever. And you know what it was really enjoyable!

The plan had been to tidy and sort out the apartment as we have a visitor coming next weekend, and I like things clean and presentable for guests. Well I slept til about 12 on Saturday. After that, we went to a double bill at the Harbour lights cinema - Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. The first film was very romantic, the second I thought was a bit more cynical, but then we all get more cynical with age :-)

After the cinema, and before heading out for fish & chips (Jamie's Idea), I slept for 30 minutes - a power nap!!! I slept til 11am yesterday and didn't do very much for the rest of the day.

Our visitor is just going to have to accept the squalor. I'm well rested though, so looking forward to a very active weekend next weekend.

Baffled

2005-08-12T16:42:00.000+01:00

I watched the video on this site twice and I'm still not quite sure how he gets the t-shirt perfect?

If someone else works it out I'd really appreciate a one-on-one demonstration. Thanks (via phdcomics)

UPDATE: Jamie showed me how and now all our t-shirts are getting folded nice and tidily :-)

Project: Slim Hilary

2005-08-03T14:08:00.000+01:00

I came up with the idea shortly after Jamie proposed. I thought I should use the wedding as an excuse to get a bit more weight off, reduce the love handles. It actually really hasn't gone anywhere (except backwards, thanks to all-you-can-eat Chinese).

So to redress the balance of the bad Chinese, last night I swam 22 lengths of a 25 metre pool. I'm prou dof me :-)

Tonight is ladies night at the pool - it sounds so seedy doesn't it. I'm going back to swim another 20-odd lengths. I let you know if the pounds are just dropping off me...

All You Can Eat

2005-08-02T14:46:00.000+01:00

Last night we had all-you-can-eat Chinese (Pilgrim House - we recommend it). It was Jamies birthday and he picked - she said accusatorily!!!

It was great - we could order starters and mains as much as we wanted, as often as we wanted. We had two rounds of starters (I can't believe I'm admitting to this with out durress), 3 mains (shared) with two lots of egg fried rice. The food was great too. As you can imagine after that, we couldn't actually fit in dessert, so paid the bill and rolled home like the barrels we are :-)

This morning while passing through warehouse I stepped on the weighing scales to discover I'm 4 pounds heavier!!!! The thing practically called me a Fat Cow!! So this proves that project "Slim Hilary" never really got off the ground.

There is a moral to this story: Don't step on the weighing scales the morning after all-you-can-eat Chinese!!!!

That's good advice people.

Happy Birthday

2005-08-01T12:30:00.000+01:00

to Jamie :-)

Pathetic?

2005-07-18T12:25:00.000+01:00

Is it really sad that the most exciting to happen to me in the last couple of months is the release of the 6th Harry Potter book?
I need some sort of a life, don't I?

Harrymania

2005-07-18T12:01:00.000+01:00

The 6th Harry Potter book was delivered at 8:04am Saturday morning. I finished reading it at around 10am Sunday morning.

(Now I could have finished it Saturday but Jamie would have felt like I was ignoring him, so I had to stop at regular intervals and talk to him..... Get this, he had a new laptop to setup he should have been busy!! :-)

Anyway, I thought it was great. Lots of backstory, I like that. But I reckon the next book is going to be action packed. the unfortunate problem is that I am not stable enough to wait ~2 years for the next one.
This is an appeal directly to J.K. Rowling - GET WRITING IT NOW, WOMAN!!!

Beautiful

2005-07-05T15:37:00.000+01:00

The Da Vinci Code

2005-05-25T12:43:00.000+01:00

I know there's been a lot of bashing of the Dan Brown book (MGB), but I'm actually looking forward to the film. This morning I was working on a code of my own...... It was fun!!

Now you try
The Da Vinci Code Web Quest

Update
Then try this one (I haven't cracked it yet!)
Another Da Vinci Code

You're not to Laugh

2005-05-20T12:25:00.000+01:00

I feel a mite embarrassed by this, but then I was sad when he wasn't president anymore (via MGB)...

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Coolness

2005-05-06T13:16:00.000+01:00

I think I might be ok!

Total Spanner

2005-04-07T08:43:00.000+01:00

I know it's cruel to joke, but I think I might have some like serious illness (Parkinsons?). For a few days last week I did some really muppety things and at first I was ashamed to tell anyone but maybe someone could let me know if I might have something terminal, or if this is just a case of your common or garden muppet!

1. Last Thrusday evening, surfing the net. While waiting for the webpage to load up (we form part of the poorer classes with only a dial-up connection :-) I noticed the mini stapler on the desk was broken. So I was fiddling with it trying to fix the little problem, when suddenly - CLICK! Yes, I stapled my finger. I looked on with shock, as tears formed in my eyes from the stinging pain brought on the tiny piece of sharp metal protruding from my index finger. Jamie laughed heartily. I mean what semi-intelligent adult staples their own finger???

2. Had my driving theory test on Saturday (I passed, wahoo! I would remove the Theory book and Highway code from my reading list but allconsuming.net went down.) On my way out of the test centre, I got the elevator down to the ground floor. In the elevator I was looking for the result on the results sheet - they don't make it obvious - and next thing I hear the elevator voice say "doors closing" but I'd been in there for a few minutes. There I was at the ground floor, in an elevator I couldn't get out of. I just mashed all the buttons and then the door opened. I straightened myself trying not to look flustered and hurried out the test centre.

3. Sunday in the pool - it all went fine, there were no disasters in the pool itself. On the way out, through the automatic doors, I walked confidently ahead, straight into the door. The didn't open as wide as I expected and I nearly fell over backwards - again Jamie laughed heartily!!!

4. And finally, on Monday morning at work while going up the stairs to my office I tripped and fell up the stairs in a most embarrassing maneouver. These are open stairs so all of warehouse could see me but luckily no one was around. This event on top of all the other nearly made me cry!!!

What have I turned into? Am I ill or ahve I, in my old age developed "clutz disease"? HELP!

Things I've Learned this Morning

2005-04-01T08:35:00.000+01:00

1. It's still dark at 6:20 am, and it's still no fun waking up in the dark.

2. Bus drivers are Satan's workers on Earth. Talk about a palava over small change..... Basically people kept giving the guy notes and it was his first journey of the morning, so he was left with no change. At one stage he had a go at the entire bus, just shouting randomly at us. He got change from other bus drivers and shops on the way and then half way along discovered he was short money!!! He was an Angry man tough.

3. Being the first one in the office isn't as bad as it could have been - quiet cup of coffee, some emails, some blogging..... pity about the bus!

4. I love Jamie - lots of time to think on the bus, empty brain, Jamie :-)

Shiney Love

2005-03-31T14:15:00.000+01:00

For those of you who weren't aroun dEaster weekend, who haven't seen and probably won't see it for a while...The Ring:

It's shiney love, mmmmmm!

Proposal

2005-03-30T16:40:00.000+01:00

Inch Strand, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Sunday 27th March 2005. He said:

I said YES!

Hair Today

2005-03-09T12:26:00.000Z

You see, I never learn, do I? The hair has changed again.

Last week, I decided it was time I got a hair-cut. I hadn't found a hairdresser in the UK, and I do feel it's important to spend time finding the hairdresser that's right for you. The last time I got a haircut (August 2004), I did so in Cork on the recommendation of Jamie's Ma.

Anyway, in spending all this quality time finding the right hairdresser, in the end I went for the cheapest. I got a haircut on Saturday for £12.00. The next cheapest was going to be £30, so I got me a bargain there. And as you can see from the photo I didn't get scalped. This is pretty much the haircut I asked for - I wanted the layers at the front to be shaped around my face and this doesn't seem to have happen. But if I am going to insist on getting a cheap haircut, I really can't complain about such a minor point.

On Sunday though I dyed my hair. Many of you may have heard me in recent months swearing that I would never change hair colour again... "chemicals in the products..", "...ultimately bad for you", ... "grow old gracefully", etc. And after the last fiasco where I ended up looking like a traffic light, you'd think I'd have learned. And strangely I again went for a dramatic colour. I stood there in Boots going through the various shades of brown (I really was lanning on being undramatic). And I settle don one with a hint of copper - all mature and sensible. J then pointed to a sign that declared the particular hair care product I was holding was on a 2 for £7 offer. And I randomly picked up something that looked "interesting"!!.

Everyone has said it was nice, but there were a few surprised looks. It can best be described as purple and I quote one of the girls at work telling here boyfriend over the phone: Hilary's cut her hair really short and dyed it purple.

The box said Burgundy/Blackcurrant - the last time I had my hair this colour was when I was in first year in Uni; ten years ago!!! But I'm over the initial shock and I like it. Garnier Nutrisse Burgundy.

Understanding Personal Space

2005-03-08T12:42:00.000Z

Jamie and myself went to the cinema last night. We saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the Wes Anderson film. I didn't enjoy The Royal Tenenbaums and so didn't have high hopes for this film. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

But to review the film is not the point of the blog. The point is to rant (cos I'm really good at that) about other people's lack of consideration for their neighbours when in a fairly enclosed space.

Basically, right, some stinky f%*ker was sitting very near us - it was either the guy beind us, or the one on our row. After discussion on this with Jamie we deduced it was the guy behind us. So, if you were at The Harbour Lights cinema last night, watching The Life Aquatic, sitting behind a girl with short purple hair, this is about you, smelly!!!

About 20 minutes into the movie, I noticed a disturbing spell. Now, before any of you start, I know the smell wasn't eminating from me, and I'm woman enough to own up to these things. I looked at Jamie with watery eyes and mouthed, "was that you?" To which he shook his head. It was foul, and it lingered, as would be typical in a room full of people with no fresh air getting in... Thankfully it passed, and it would be nice if I could tell you that was the end of the story.

No, this person must have come into the film floating because after this woeful fart he proceeded to burp - lots. Not noisy ones though... I never actually heard him burp but every few minutes this scent of death came over the air. Seriously, this guy ate something rancid and it kept repeating on him all night - to the detriment of those sitting around him.

Surely there are rules on cinema etiquette, that say when in an enlosed space, with an essentially captive audience you do not disturb everyone's viewing by adding what is termed in UGC cinemas as:

your own special effects.

If you know who you are, I hope you have now learned a lesson. Farting and stinky burps are funny at home but not where the victims are just innocent bystanders who wanted to see a movie.

Think! Before you Stink!!!

Travels

2005-02-22T10:55:00.000Z

I hope this blog doesn't give anything away about where I might work.. I don't like to talk about work, it can be quite boring, especially as I don't have the world's most exciting job. So I try to stay clear of it as a subject.

I wonder what the worlds most exciting job is...... Hmm! [pondering]

Anyway, the reason I am going to mention work today is because, for work, I am travelling to Dublin this afternoon.
On Wednesday this years Irish Boat Show begins and I will representing my company. This in itself is not really exciting, but it does mean that I get to spend a week in Dublin.

I have missed Dublin since moving to Southampton. I mean I wouldn't live there again but there are lots of things Dublin has that Southampton doesn't.

The first and most important thing is connectivity. I'm not talking about various types of access to the internet.... I'm talking about all the people in our lives that are in or around Dublin. We've lost the close connection we had to some of these people since moving to England. It will be good to spend a week hanging out, catching up and generally feeling close again...

Other things that I miss is the cafe culture. Lots of little restaurants and cafes that do food at an affordable price in a good atmosphere. You would not believe how much this is lacking in Southampton.

I will have a little friend on this trip (see left). I think he's going to go to a good home in Dublin. I think he looks freaky and may scare his new owner, but everyone who's seen him so far thinks he lovely. His real name in Barnaby but I like to call him Franken-bear.

Books and stuff

2005-02-02T14:57:00.000Z

I've realised recently how dull and boring my life is. All I talk about is reading...... it seems that that is all I do. I don't mind not havinga telly, but where do all the hours of the day go, if I just sit reading?

I wanted to get back to an earlier blog, where I may have lied a little. It wasn't intentional, it would never be my intention to mislead readers....
I said that the reason I resorted to reading Terry Pratchett books was because there were no other books left in the house. Well that was not quite true, there are lots of books left in the spare room/office/library (make us sound posh if I write it that way :-).

The Kindness of Strangers by Kate Adie. I chose not to read this for a while, as when Jamie was reading it I think he told me all the funniest anecdotes...

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. I got ot page 2 when I realised what a mistake that was, but I feel it's unfair to slag off a book without having read the whole thing first. We will be coming back to this one.

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

The above are all Jamie books - this is a genuine categorisation in our library. First Light looks interesting but I never seem to be in the mood for reading a "Boy book". I don't think I can read Neal Stephenson books. They're very big books with small writing, and I think it may be quite complicated and sciency - not me at all.

There are also books related to Jamie's PhD which I have no intention of ever reading. So one evening, after finishing the only two pratchett books in the house I found the Dan Brown book. There will be Dan Brown bashing to come....

Happy Thought

2005-01-31T10:24:00.000Z

I know today is Monday, but I'm trying to be positive. The only happy thought I could come up with is:
Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, which makes today the LAST day of winter :-)

So I Gave in...

2005-01-28T09:27:00.000Z

We have no telly, so we read lots. However, I have a small handicap when it comes to choosing books to read - I can't. I can't stand in a book shop for hours flicking through books. I usually default to picking a book based on how attractive it's cover is. If the cover catches my eye then the book gets more consideration than any other book in the shop. Suffice to say, on this basis, I don't read a lot of what might be described as literature - well except for Harry Potter.

Since reading the Harry Potter books I have found it even harder to find books I like. Rather than go out and spend money on books I may not finish I have just gone through every book in the house and read it (Jamie reads a lot of stuff I wouldn't consider, so I've lowered my standards).

Anyway, a couple of weekes ago we came to a very difficult point. The only books left in the house, that I hadn't read, were Terry Pratchett books. MGB has spent a long time trying to convince me to read these books, and since reading two of them, Jamie joined in. Anyway, I succumbed and have so far read Monstrous Regiment and Maskerade.

They are very entertaining books - Pratchett is a very witty man. Sometimes you really have to force yourself to keep reading cos it all starts to sound wierd. It seems that there is no point where he explains Discworld and when he introduces, for example, a troll or a vampire in very non-chalant way you have to convince yourself that it will be ok and make sense in the end.

Of course now I've finished the only Pratchett boks in the house, I may find myself buying a few more to keep me amused. The sad thing about all this is that one reason I got so desperate to read any book I could find isbecuase I'm avoiding reading my driving theory test book - silly girl!!

Civilisation

2005-01-26T16:51:00.000Z

Is it a sign that I live in a relatively civilised town, if my StarBucks density is only 1? [via Alison]

Asparagus - HA!

2005-01-25T09:57:00.000Z

Jamie was home from work before me yesterday evening. An unusual occurence, but a pleasant one as he will prepare the evening meal - hurrah!

When I walked into the living room I was greeted by a strange sight. I asked Jamie:
"Why is there asparagus in a jar?" [There was asparagus in a jar on top of the stereo unit. Some of you who know Jamie will be familiar with his... eccentricities, but I still find myself questioning little things like this.]

Jamie's response to this question was to turn on the living room light. At which point I realised that the asparagus were actually daffodils which have not yet opened.

He bought flowers, which have yet to flower. So within a week or so, the asparagus-in-a-jar will be lovely yellow daffodils. NOT asparagus!!

Live Music

2005-01-14T09:12:00.000Z

Last night, I experience, for the first time in a long time, the joys of live music. Jamie and myself went to the Joiners in Southampton, with a bunch of his college friends to see a gig.

There were four bands playing, but the main reason to be there was the head line act - Karalta. The lead singer/guitarist is a friend of a guy that sits in Jamie's bay at the University.
The first band to play really impressed me though. Maybe it was the excitement at being at a live gig and getting swept up in it all, or maybe it was the just-stepped-out-of-a-salon hair the lead singer had, or maybe they were really that good.... they were called I am Jack. Good solid metal music was provided by these youngsters, and they knew what they were doing....

The next two bands - Idle Hands and One Man Rescue - didn't make any great impression on me. Actually Idle Hands struck me as a bunch of mid- to late-thirties guys who've been at this gigging lark for a while. I think I was distracted by Jamie's mates arriving and just chatting to those guys. But I paid attention again when Karalta took the stage. They're quite a good band, mainly metal with a hint of jazz funk. If they're in an area near you soon you should go see them. If not you can always wait for their album release in early March.

Live music is cool, I think myself and Jamie are going to have a New Year's resolution of going to more live music events.

My Day...

2005-01-13T16:57:00.000Z

Today, is the feast day of Saint Hilary - the patron saint of snake bite victims. Alot of people seem to think that's ironic, what with me being a native of the land famous for it's lack of snakes.

I was actually named after St. Hilary, although my father will argue that I was named after Dr. Paddy Hillery the then President of Ireland (this annoys my mother no end, which is why I think he says it). But to some people in Ireland any member of the Fianna Fail party is a saint.....

It has been pointed out to me that St. Hilary is man. I have always been perfectly aware of this fact, but Hilary is one of those unisex names, it can be applied to boys and girls. So there, I'll have no more on that discussion now!

My mother always tells how the priest was refusing to christen me. In Catholic Ireland many priests would refuse to christen a child that was not being named after a saint. The priest had no knowledge of my namesake and could find no mention of him. But my mother persevered saying the name appeared in her bible at home, threatening to go home and get it, to prove the saint existed and get me christened. The priest didn't have time for this. You see, he was an ardent GAA fan, and Clare were playing Tipperary in a hurling match later that day - in Tipperary. Not to risk being late for the match the priest put the argument aside and christened me. So, basically I was christened thanks to the GAA. How many people can say that :-)

But the important thing to remember is... today is my day!

The coolest

2004-12-22T09:01:00.000Z

Last evening Jamie and I exchanged Christmas presents. This is because Jamie is flying back to Ireland today and we won't see each other until after Christmas day. The sad thing about it was that it wasn't so much a present exchange, mopre of a present for Hilary evening. This isn't because I'm mean. I have bought a pressie for Jamie, but I have had it sent to his home in Ireland. I thought it might be nice for him to wake up to a present from me on Christmas day.

Anyway, Jamie got me the coolest present ever. I got the Iomega Micro Mini 256MB USB 2.0 Drive - I know, it rocks. The coolest thing is that I can change the colours of the outer casing. This means that I can co-ordinate my memory drive with other accessories or clothes. At the moment I've got the blue cover on and it matches the lanyard I use for my access card at work.

Another good thing about this gadget are the flashing LEDs. There is a USB extension cable, for those hard to reach USB ports. When you plug the cable in, there are LED lights on either end that light up - how cool. The storage drive itself has a LED that flashes when transferring data. This little thing is cool.

My Christmas pressie rocks!!! But you know what - Jamie rocks more.

A Bad Combination

2004-10-26T13:09:00.000+01:00

Last night myself and Jamie went for pizza. (Chambers on London Road do a 2for1 pizza deal on Monday evenings.) We were there with a guy I work with and his girlfriend. We had a good evening and a few beers. Now for most people that would be the end of the story....

When myself and Jamie got home things were ok. There was a bit more chat from himself than I usually get, but this is easily expolained by the beer intake. However, when I went to bed, things took off - and I'm not talking about the nuaghty stuff. Jamie was really giddy, like a 5 year old child. He would not let me lie down and go to sleep. He was even using teddies as puppets to distract me from trying to sleep. For the first few minutes it was funny, cute even. But after 15 minutes of this crap I was actually getting cranky. I couldn't understand it, it's so unlike Jamie.

He did finally calm down and I did find the root of the problem. Earlier in the day, before meeting me in the pub, Jamie had a half pack of Refreshers. These fizzy sweeties are like sherberts, which we know have mood enhancing properties. I believe, the combination of the Refreshers and the beer caused Jamie's behaviour. Jamie is now banne dfrom shervert and sherbert related product.

No News is Good News...

2004-10-25T13:18:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed that this site doesn't change very often. Well the sad fact of the matter is I don't have a very interesting life. I get up, go to work, come home, repeat daily....

In recent times any gaps in this routine have been filled with me being a Domestic Goddess. (I believe this turn of phrase was coined by Nigella Lawson, I fell bad using it as I've never bought any of her books, but I'm sure she won't mind.) It is a great occupation actually. I have found a real sense of achievement from cooking and cleaning.

The problem comes from the cooking side of thing. I tend to cook quite alot yousee. For example, a couple of Sundays ago (Sundays are good for cooking, not much else happens on that day), I cooked a giant fruit crumble, soda bread, a vat of soup and meatballs for an army. "What's the problem?" I hear you say.

Well, the problem is, Jamie is only one man. After a day of my cooking there is enough food in the house for us, and a select few friends, to survive a nuclear holocaust - structural changes need to be made to our building of course but I was strictly speaking in terms of supplies.

This weekend, I employed the clever art of freezing. Instead of one large crumble, I made two small ones and froze one for use later - I can do a "Here's one I made earlier" moment at some point in the future. The bonus, of course, with the freezing, is that the nuclear holocaust can happen any time and we have the supplies. Whereas, previously we would have needed the holocaust within 3-5 days in order to benefit from our stock :-)

I also made chilli this weekend. I'm working up to a stonking hot one. The first was a bit tame but I blame the Good House Keeping Institute - I used their recipe, not advisable if you want stonking hot. Last night's was quite nice, but I think it needs a bit more if a kick. If anyone has any advice it's greatly appreciated. Michael Barry any advice you have could you keep to yourself, I remember some meatballs that nearly caused me to go blind they were so spicy. You are at a level (with spices) that I'm not ready to go to.

So you see, my life has little or no excitement, now that you've been bored by the goings-on in my kitchen.

Add on....

2004-09-28T13:31:00.000+01:00

By the way, in the end, the hair turned out NOTHING like the girl in Starbucks. Just another little lesson...

Hindsight - The Great Educator

2004-09-28T13:08:00.000+01:00

There are a couple of pieces of advice I can offer and I think all the ladies should take heed. These may come in handy at some stage in your life...

When dying your hair and viewing the chart that shows what your final colour will be, take into account the numbers of colours that you currently have in your hair and then look at the chart again.

When your boyfriend picks the hair colour, regardless of how many good fashion suggestions he may have made for you in the past, ignore him. He is still just a man and this is your hair we're talking about, WOMAN!

Let me give you some context...
So a couple of weeks ago on a rainy Sunday afternoon, we ducked into Starbucks (Ugh! I know! but there aren't many other options in Southampton on a rainy Sunday). Anyway, while sitting there with hot chocolate and frappacino, he says to me
"You'd look nice with that colour in your hair", pointing to random young chick at the other side of Starbucks
"Meh!" I thought. I haven't really felt the urge to change my hair colour again recently and defintely nothing as dramatic as a nice shiny red. (More advice: go with your first instinct on this one - HE IS DELUDED!)

So it was still raining when we left Starbucks and Boots is just next door. In we ducked (we're good at ducking now - we could just buy a bloody umbrella!). In the hair dye sections he's looking at bottles and I'm picking some up and trying to get his opinion. Half way through this scenario, he forgets why we're here and asks me what I'M looking for. (You see another sign not to follow through, but did I get the cosmic hint? OH NO!)

We pick a Feria colour - I can't even remember the name. And it sits in the bathroom for 2 weeks. Part of the "I'm not sure I want to change my hair colour now" thing. But on Sunday, not one to waste money on something as frivolous as hair dye, I did the deed....

To describe this will be hard, you won't get the full effect. But if you think for one second I'm insane enough to put pictures here, think again. (I have also learned that with hair this colour I can now no longer question ANYONE'S sanity!)

I had previously dyed my hair with L'Oreal Colour Experte. One colour plus the highlights. But this was four months ago and I had two inches of naturally brown roots showing. So I have three different shades of red in my hair.

Now I say red and I know you're thinking, a nice copper colour, maybe a hint of auburn. Oh no. At my roots is a deep shade of cherry red - looks like it might be a nice colour. Where the hair colour was reminiscent of the previous dye I can only describe this as traffic light red!. Yes, I am serious, I could literally, at this moment, stop traffic.

The reaction from people (including total strangers I passed on the way to work) was total shock. It's crazier than anything I've done before. And I have now learned:

Not to listen to Jamie for advice on hair colour (Jamie has also learned this and has offered to provide me with a sane hair dye in recompense)

I think I'm too old to do crazy things with my hair and need to take Jamie's offer

When thinking about a change in hair colour, ladies, remember me.
And no, I'm not putting up pictures.

Second Driving Lesson

2004-08-02T12:50:00.000+01:00

Progress.... Yesterday was my second driving lesson and I'm coming on leaps and bounds - if I do say so myself. Initially, we recapped on last week, practiced changing gears and left turns (at junctions). I proved quite good at this - although sometimes forgot about the steering when trying to change gears or stop.

Then we did some right turns at junctions - which are infinitely harder. Ok. Slight exaggeration, I was finding most of it hard to take in, but did manage to turn right at a junction without killing anyone or landing the car in a wall.

And then.... the instrctor guy suggested I drive us home. AND I DID!!!! Oh my God! I was on main roads, took on roundabouts, the whole lot. I drive through Shirley High Street. At one of my more confident moments I discovered that I could be a hardened criminal...
[Hilary - cruising along at a 33mph]: Should I change to fourth gear now?
[Instrcutor]: No, Hilary, this is a 30mph zone.
Pause
[Instrcutor]: Hilary, you might want to ease off the gas there so that we're going just under thirty...

At least I'm not afraid of 10mph anymore. Now to find the happy medium...

Good Book

2004-08-02T12:44:00.000+01:00

Finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger at the weekend. This is without a doubt the best book I've read in some time. It's a love story with the added twist of time travelling - but it's not a sci-fi book...
I would strongly recommend that everyone go out and read it. And I would recommend you do so before Brad & Jen destroy it...

It is reported that the Pitt/Anistons production company have bought the rights to the movie of the book. There is also some talk that the couple themselves may play the lead couple. I think this would be a bad idea. I don't think they're right for the parts.

You know the way when you read a book and you have a visual image of the characters, places, etc? Well, I really don't think Brad and Jen are the couple in the story and I really hope they cast it better than just putting themselves in the leads...

Weekend

2004-08-02T12:39:00.000+01:00

Have to say that I had a very nice weekend. The weather was lovely and myself and Jamie just chilled out, going for walks in teh sun or reading our books in the sun... It was Jamie's birthday at the weekend and we spent saturday afternoon having lunch in the sun, nice bottle of wine, good food, sunshine it was really nice.

It made me realise that while I've been saying I'm not happy in Southampton, I must be... I was happy all weekend, from Friday night, right up to this mornig at 6:20 am when the alarm went off. I think the only thing I'm really not happy with at the moment is my job (and that's cos they don't pay me enough). So right now life is good and I'm going to practice not whining about it so much.

Hilary's Blog

All Change

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Positive Birth Stories

Not Long Now...

Some sort of review

Christmas hospital trips and not alot else

100 days to go...

There or not?

Goggle Box

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Feeling a little left out!

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