Nothing I can talk about here, regrettably- I so badly need an anonymous blog, but my personality won’t allow it!
Two bad days+no net access= a dull girl
Sorry for not blogging or reading other people’s blogs. I have a plan to totally change all of this. I wonder if it will ever see fruition…
😦
Well, it’s done, and we had a great time!
Leigh and I completed the Race for Life at Stormont Estate yesterday. It was a very warm day without a cloud in the sky, which was great in one sense but I think we could actually have done with a bit of drizzle by the end! Next year we should bring water pistols!! 😀
When I got to the site and realised the sheer scale of the event, it was a bit of a surprise. I knew it would be well attended but there was just a sea of pink everywhere you looked. You have to pin a sign on your back saying who you are running for. I have to say, this aspect of it was very moving- the people standing next to me as I waited to meet up with Leigh were running for a little girl with leukemia, and nearly everyone’s shirts mentioned someone close to them. The scale of the effect cancer has on society is really impressed on you and it would be a stony heart indeed not to be moved by seeing those shirts.
Leigh and I met up about an hour before kickoff. An Australian lady was giving a bit of an irksome pep talk over the loudspeaker. I kind of wished they’d gone for someone Northern Irish, she seemed rather out of place, but she seemed to be enjoying herself!!
Next, a Scottish lady who was one of the main organisers came on to the stage and she really was inspirational. She reminded us all of why we were there, but in a fun way.
Just before we set off, we had a warm up in the shape of an aerobics instructor who reinforced my belief that I can never take part in an aerobics class due to my slow wittedness and inability to follow basic instructions. My lack of coordination will probably appear sometime soon on YouTube, courtesy of another participant! 😛
The route itself went all round the Stormont Estate. Regular readers will know that Leigh and I have struggled a bit with the dreaded Stormont hill- which is bloody steep! You find yourself fixated on the sight of the Carson Statue at the top, because he’s right at the top of the hill! 😀
I have to say, I think we kicked that hill’s ass yesterday. We veritably strode up it and I was only a little bit puce in the face by the top. In the past we’ve both practically needed a lie down when we got to Lord Carson!
My Dad and regular commenter Bernadette had walked up the hill to try and see us on our way past, but somehow in the crowd we didn’t spot each other, which was a shame. Next year we should plan things better!
I think everyone felt a real sense of achievement at the end. This is such a good cause- to date I have raised almost £800 for Cancer Research UK and hope to get close to £1000 by the time I am finished. You can still sponsor me online if you have a few pennies to spare.
I feel very privileged to have taken part. I am also very lucky to have been well enough. The past year has been rough, but I am still here, fighting fit and taking no prisoners! Next month marks the anniversary of my diagnosis, and it seems amazing that it’s been so long.
And Leigh, we WILL run it next year!!!! 😀
When my life gets busy, the blog is unfortunately the first thing that gets pushed aside. I’m hoping to be back on top of it soon!
Where to start? Well, my little guy Robbie turned two last Friday! We took a few days off work to try and get the house into some kind of order before his party on Saturday, but despite much cleaning and sorting, the place still looks like a bomb’s hit it. As soon as I don’t have vast daycare bills to pay every month, I am going to employ the services of a cleaner. This should have the desired effect of making me clean the house before he or she comes to clean. We really are the biggest pigs.
Anyhow, the weather sucked and Ian ended up cooking all the food on the barbeque in the garden whilst everyone crammed into our tiny house. Leigh’s daughter Sophie and my son Ricky disappeared to his room for an absolute AGE, but they are only four and the only evidence of any misdemeanour in there was the discovery of an empty family sized pack of dolly mixture later on. Apparently Ricky picked out all the pink and orange ones for Sophie. I can only assume that he ate all the rest of them himself.
It cheered up later on and the kids were able to play outside. My Dad had bought Robbie a swing set for his birthday, Ian’s Mum bought a sand pit which can double as a paddling pool, and we bought a slide. The garden is WELL kitted out now and the kids are ecstatic! It has the added bonus of not being inside our stuffed-to-bursting house too!
Robbie really enjoyed his party and I think he had a good birthday. I will post some pics soon but I’m in work and the pics are on Ian’s laptop. I’m only going to post pics of my own family here, but for anyone who’s interested and knows me, there’s lots more on facebook.
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My weight has got to the stage where Something Had To Be Done. My neighbour Lynn and her sister Jean have been doing Slimming World’s plan for the past year and have lost eleven stone (that’s 154lb) between them in that time!!!
I felt a bit weird about signing up but I have clearly proved in the past that I can’t do this on my own. I can generally lose about 2-2 1/2 stone (28-35lb or so) working alone, but then I have this awful tendency to start thinking “hey, I don’t look as bad any more!” after which I put it all back on again.
SO- I went Thursday two weeks ago for my first meeting. And it’s going very well!
I had my first repeat weigh in on Thursday last and had already lost 6 1/2lb, but I have to confess that I cheated a bit. On my weigh in on the first night, I wore heavy trousers and left my shoes on. This time, I wore lightweight linen trousers and took my shoes off. Shoot me now. 😛
I make it a loss of 4 1/2 lb or so- but for ten day’s work, bearing in mind I went for dinner with Heather and Jacinta one of the nights and had Robbie’s party in between- I am still pleased with that and will keep going.
There’s an element of competition in it that is good for me too. Those of you who kn0w me in real life know that I have a competitive streak a mile wide. Each week everyone brings a healthy food item with them (I brought a pack of wild rice) and it all goes in a big bag. Whoever has lost the most weight that week gets the bag and all the goodies in it. It’s a good incentive!
So I have a massive amount of weight to lose, but feel good that I have made a proper start now, after months of procrastination. I’m not telling you my weight now, but maybe I will if (WHEN!! 😀 ) I ever get down to where I want to be. 🙂
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Leigh and I are completing the Race for Life  this weekend. So, here’s another shameless plug for sponsorship! You can sponsor me at THIS page securely. Thanks to everyone who has already done so- it’s a fabulous cause.
We haven’t been as good with the training as we planned, so it’s going to be more of a fast walk than a run for me and Leigh, I suspect! That bloody hill at Stormont kills us every time we walk up it- running is out of the question, well, maybe DOWN the hill but I can’t see me running up it. Leigh is a nurse, so she can resuscitate me if necessary. I hope. 😛
Looking forward to it anyway! 🙂
ANYHOW- I hope to be back in the blogoshpere properly now as the hecticness in work seems to be calming slightly. I guess it’s pretty bad to be putting my lack of blogging down to being busy in work- I really should be working now!! It’s a bank holiday here but my company is still in. Ian and the kids are away to the open farm, and I wish I was with them!!
Hope my Stateside friends are all enjoying their Memorial Day weekend! 🙂
That’s all for now- this was a long post! If you read it all, you get the prize! 😛
On the up side, Robbie seems to be sleeping through the night a lot more, all of a sudden! Yay! On the down side, this means he now wants to get up at 6am every day! You win some, you lose. So, this morning he got me up early (Ian and I normally take a lie in each at the weekends. We agree in advance who gets Saturday and who gets Sunday- it saves swearing and arguments on the two mornings in question!) so he’s still in bed.
Ricky got up at about 7am and I then realised there was nothing for their breakfast- d’oh! So, I’ve already made a batch of fruit scones this morning! Before I even had a cup of tea! I am so industrious! 😀
The kids are now trashing the house while I try to ignore the mess and play on the puter… 😛
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WordPress bloggers- since they brought in the new stats dashboard, has anyone else noticed a drop in total stats? I’ve lost almost ten thousand hits since they did it. The stats are still correct if you go to “view summary tables”, but isn’t right on my actual site. It doesn’t really matter, but I’m a bit confused about it! I really don’t like the new stats thing but I guess like everything else I will get used to it! I’m not good with change! 😀
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Years ago, we bred from my Connemara pony, Morning, but we sold her daughter when she was three. I’ve been back in touch with her via her new owners this week and it’s been so lovely to hear how she’s been doing all these years, and see some pictures of her too! She’s in England now and has had a long and successful career in showjumping.
Her mother is still very beautiful and a shining light in my life. I should take some pics of her for the blog, as she, even in old age, looks gorgeous.
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Weather here is absolutely atrocious. Normally, May in Northern Ireland is pretty much as good as it gets here, and it tends to be sunny and warm. NOT this year, apparently. Robbie’s birthday party is next Saturday, and I had been planning to have his party in our garden, which would supply significantly more square footage than our titchy little house. I am getting increasingly twitchy as the day gets closer and it’s STILL raining!!!! I’m taking Thursday and Friday off to try and do some stuff to make our house even vaguely presentable, which believe me is going to be a massive uphill struggle. 🙂
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I had a weird night of dreams last night! Weirdest of all was a dream where I was a student again, living in scummy digs in Stranmillis, and (really bizarre) Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol called round (I don’t really know what he even looks like in real life!!!) and although it wasn’t in any way a naughty dream, somehow I had no clothes on and he wanted to look at my scars?! Fair enough, Snow Patrol are from Northern Ireland, but I don’t have any particular interest in them and have no idea what THAT dream meant…my subconscious is up to strange things again!!!!! 😀
Actually I think I’m going to have to make an appointment to see the breast care nurse because the right boob, where I had most of the surgery, is hurting quite a lot and doesn’t seem “right”- I hope it’s nothing to worry about and I can’t find any lumps or anything, and it’s probably just fluid from my lymph nodes having been removed, but better safe than sorry. 🙂
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Right, I just looked up, and my living room looks like it’s been hit by a tornado. There are bits of scone all over the floor and both boys have removed their jammie bottoms for reasons that aren’t yet clear.
Have a great weekend everyone!
I’ve not had the best week in history. It’s not me or my family- in fact I am kind of guiltily looking around us all and seeing how gorgeous my family are and how WELL they are, and counting my very many blessings.
My dear friend and regular commenter here, Kristi, has had the most horrendous few weeks. She has a beautiful daughter, who I am going to call Princess G here, who is the same age as Ricky (four). They had been thinking that Princess G had mild asthma, but during a routine visit to the pediatrician, he registered some concern over her heart, and referred her to a specialist.
The results of the subsequent tests have been horrifying, and every day it seems to get worse. 😦 Initially, they said that Princess G would need major surgery on her heart to close a hole they found, but now it has become apparent that this precious little girl will need a new heart.
Kristi has been my friend for years now, and seeing pictures of Princess G and hearing about her antics (she has THE biggest personality) has been a constant source of joy to me. To hear that her life is in such terrible danger, and that she faces such horrendous challenges now is unthinkable and devastating to all that know her. There’s also the terrible fact that a child will have to die before she can have a new heart. I can’t get my head around it at all, but it’s all I can think about.
It makes you hold your own children closer when you’re hugging them.
There’s other stuff too, but this is so huge in my mind that everything else seems tiny.
Sending huge love to Kristi and her family as they face this journey.
These are questions from kid’s TV show “Den of Doom”, which seems to be aimed at 10-12 year olds. My kids were watching it earlier, and some of the questions were so amazingly hard, I was just as clueless as the hapless contestants.
Here are some of the questions. Try not to use Google! Answers tomorrow… 😀
1. What travels the world, but stays in the corner?
2. What country banned Donald Duck because he didn’t wear pants?
3. What gets bigger, the more you take away?
4. What runs faster, an ostrich or a horse?
5. What do monkeys fling at each other when they’re angry?
6. How many bones are there in your ear?
Be honest!! 🙂
They should just paint a white cross on our front door and have done with it! 😀
We got back from our long weekend away on Monday, and since then our house has been filled with plague and pestilence. I started being sick on Tuesday, and everyone else then followed suit. It only really hit Robbie yesterday, and I feel really sorry for the wee love. He hasn’t a clue what to do, so his bed has been barfed in left right and centre. He seems to be feeling better this morning, though.
Now that the vomiting bug has nearly left town, Robbie and I seem to have developed a lovely head cold. I am thinking that maybe my immune system still isn’t quite what it ought to be! Robbie spends a lot of time snuggled up to me, so it’s natural that he’s going to get everything I get, I suppose!
I made it back into work on Thursday and wow, it’s so busy in there! I barely got to lift my head for the rest of the week!
Yesterday was one of those days where I had a great plan about what I was going to do and when- of course, none of it panned out! Robbie was having a nap so I took Ricky out with me to do some messages. Every man and his dog seemed to want to do those same messages, and I couldn’t get parked at all, to the point where I gave up and went home! 😀
Today the weather is looking better, so I will probably try and get the boys out and about for a while.
I’m going to get caught up with everyone’s blogs too, over the next day or so! Why do I seem to be saying that a lot these days!
Oh, and we’re having a birthday party for Robbie on 23rd May, he’s turning two. I don’t know how I am going to get our house into shape before then!! Yikes!! Maybe if I spent less time on the puter and more time cleaning, I wouldn’t be in this mess now! Still, it’s made me start to have a big clear out, and there’s loads of stuff I am going to sell on ebay to give us a few extra pennies for the summer. It’s always nice to treat the kids, and our house is bursting out at the seams, so the extra space will be good too!
There, you’re all caught up. 🙂
I have some cute pics to post over the next few days if I can only get my act together!
Hope everyone is well!
My brothers are BIG fans of pie. Pie for any occasion, you don’t need a reason, it just has to be pie.
We’ve been in Donegal for the weekend and my brother Marty was heading up there for the rest of the week now that we’re back. He has been jokingly emailing me all of last week instructing me that “I need to leave him some pie” in the house for his arrival. I’ve basically been telling him to make his own chuffin’ pie, because whilst I agree that pie is a delicious home cooked treat, it takes ages to make.
When we were away, I bought a chicken to roast and there were some left overs, but not enough to feed the four of us the next night. So, what do you think I did?
That’s right! It was Pie O’Clock in the McEldoherty household! 😀
Oh, and when Marty gets to Dunfanaghy this afternoon, this will be in the fridge to greet him. 😛
I’ve just had a lovely weekend staying with my Aunt in Coleraine. I mean, it may be some time before my pickled liver recovers, but it was most definitely worth it!
I had been invited to go with my Aunt to Crusoe’s Cafe in Castlerock for dinner, with the added bonus of music in the form of Danny Schmidt.
Crusoe’s is a new place to me- but came very highly recommended. They are mainly a daytime destination, and I understand that they make the best cappucino in the world! 😀 They run special evening events from time to time, and this was one of those. They provide a gorgeous meal, wine and music. I gather that these evenings are heavily subscribed and eagerly awaited by the population of the North West!
My first impressions of Crusoe’s were of the warmth of the staff. You almost feel like you’ve arrived at a friend’s house for dinner, they are so welcoming. We were seated at a very pleasant table in the corner and brought some wine.
The room itself has a strong nautical theme, lots of great big windows and a very high beamed ceiling. The room is, however, dominated by the kitchen, which takes up a corner of the room and looks very homely. I really like the notion of being able to watch my food being prepared, and it says a lot about the team that work there that everything seems so calm, efficient and amazingly quiet in there!
Our starter was lovely- fresh, warm bread rolls served with little pots of seafood cocktail, foie gras and a gorgeous tapenade which had both black and green olives in it, as well as sun dried tomatoes. All of this was outstanding, especially the tapenade (which, by the way is something I’m quite fussy about, as it consists of all my favourite ingredients!), and I was excited to see what would come next!
I wasn’t disappointed. We were served with the most delectable venison pie, slowly braised with, I believe, chocolate and chilli in the sauce. I’d never have put chocolate in something like that, but am absolutely intrigued now because the sauce was absolutely out of this world. This was accompanied by perfectly cooked root vegetables and some tasty cauliflower cheese. It was seriously one of the nicest main courses I have had for a while, and I am, as you all know, not all that easy to please! 😀
Pudding (though I was already struggling!!) was a cup of coffee flavoured caramel topped with chocolate sauce, not overpoweringly sweet, which was a good thing, and really delicious. It was served with homemade shortbread which I was devastated not to have enough room for! I should have asked for a doggie bag!
Just when we thought we’d burst, they then brought out a cheese board! They source their cheeses from the Fivemiletown Creamery and they were perfect, but I couldn’t possibly have finished! The cheese was served with delicious home made pickle.
I have to say it was one of the most yummy and satisfying meals I have had in a long time, plus mind blowingly good value for money. If you picked this place up and set it down in Belfast, the queues would be out the door and down the street. If you’re in the region, it’s most definitely worth a visit!
One of the things, however, that really made the evening, was the quality of the live acts who played. Both of them were quite a lot in evidence before they played and seemed like very cool and relaxed guys, so I was able to check if they minded me taking pictures of them for my blog. Kindly, they both agreed! I’m a terrible photographer as regular readers know, so I hope they won’t get too pissed off if they ever happen upon these! I was using Ricky’s camera and couldn’t work out the settings, so poor Al unfortunately got hit with the flash once before I managed to change the settings. Ironically, that was the only photo which really came out… 🙂
First up was Al Brition, who hails from Coventry in England. He had such a sweet, melodious voice that the whole audience was captivated by the end of the first few bars. Simple, soulful music that was perfect with the relaxed atmosphere. I very much enjoyed the subtlety of his guitar playing too. Really beautiful. Inexplicably, I can find no reference to him online at all, and I wonder if I have got the spelling of his name right. If anyone out there can correct me, please do so! 🙂 He is definitely someone to watch!
Danny Schmidt, hailing from Austin, Texas, was the main act, and he took everyone’s breath away. It’s not just his gorgeous voice and guitar playing, but the lyrics of the songs too. I was particularly moved by his song “This too shall pass”, which he told us was about a time a few years ago when he’d been unwell, and a friend had made him a ring with those words enscribed. From listening to the lyrics of the song, I hope I’m not inferring incorrectly that he must have been suffering from a cancer of some kind back then. Obviously, having been going through my own battle recently, this really touched me and the words will resonate with me for a while to come. Haunting. Other songs had an irreverence which I think unfortunately may have been a little over the heads of some of those present, but I really enjoyed all of it. I will definitely be going to see him again next time he’s in Northern Ireland.
All of this added up to being a really special night out. The evening was £35 per head including wine- stupendously good value. Thanks so much to my aunt for inviting me, and to both Crusoe’s and the musicians for making it a truly memorable night.
Coping with Chaos 
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