Mom's mistake and a happy St Patricks Day .

my mom is well known for both statements of the obvious and verbal bloopers . for example she would tell me to take a scarf and put it round my neck or put some shoes on my feet , that kind of thing .  the last statement of the bleeding obvious i recently got was to lick a stamp and stick it to the envelope !

the other thing you need to know  to make the joke i am about to tell you funny is mom has very bad sight without her glasses.

anyway on Tuesday night she did an injury to her rib by stubbing her foot in the stairs and jerking  her side .  she went to Dr Mc Shane the next morning who told her he suspected a fractured rib .  mom mentioned it to the doctor at her chemo session and got taken for an x ray . she was sitting waiting for her turn when an elderly  man joined her . she saw him go off through a door that mom thought was the x ray area . she then noticed he finished after about 3 minutes or so and came back through the same door . mom remarked to the man you were very quick . it was only after mom was taken for her own x ray that she realized the door she saw the man go through was actually the toilet ! that why he was gone for so short a time .

 rather then make a second blog post i thought i would take this chance to wish you a happy St Patrick's day or la fheile padraig shona dhaoibh. if you prefare it in Irish . my family don't really celebrate it all that much .in my opinion this day is more for tourists then for locals .   i am not patriotic although i do like my county , even though there are a lot of things wrong with it too . another reason for my lack of patriotism is both my dad and boyfriend are form the UK therefore i would never make a republican ! ( american people please note in Ireland republicans are Irish nationalists who wish the 6 counties that currently make up northern Ireland to be governed by Ireland not the UK as i is at the moment , it is not a conservative political party )

today , saturday ,  is the day itself but we have been granted next Monday as a public holiday . so i am sure you will find a lot of the population of Dublin in the pub yesterday today and tomorrow  ! the weather is nice too so  i hope the St Patrick's weekend  festival will have a good attendance .

 i will leave you with a toast to  St Patrick:

St Patrick was a scholar who through strategy and stealth
drove all the snakes for ireland
have a toasting to his health .
but not to many toastings least we loose ourselves and then
forget the good St Patrick and see the snakes again !

enjoy the weekend !

congrats to my uncle kevin and todd .

we had some good news from my uncle and his partner Todd in new york a couple of days after my birthday.  on the day i turned 37 Kevin , my moms brother ,  and his partner Todd under took a civil union .  they have been together since the 80's and mom dad and i wish them nothing but the best . at least one member of our family was there . my cousin Ann was a witness . Kevin had planned it for that date as she was spending a long weekend in new york .

this nearly caused a bit of a brouhaha between Kevin and my Mom but not for the reason you might think . Kevin is 81 and is a great letter writer . he has never used a computer or for that matter a mobile phone (Todd has both though )  he and Todd sent a letter of explanation concerning the civil union to both my mom and my cousin .  we never got the letter , my cousin did but never mentioned it .( i can only imagine Kevin asked her not to plus my mom has been up to high heaven in chemo and other cancer treatments )  it was sent a day before i was sent a birthday card from them which i got on 8th march  . when mom never mentioned the ceremony to Kevin he thought she dissaprooved . Kevin rings mom without fail on a Sunday evening  and apparently the call last weekend was made with trepidation .  at least Kevin called , told  us ,  and  found out everything was fine ,  if he hadn't it could have caused  problems .  an post (the Irish state post provider) nearly caused a fuck up in my family relations ! by the way we never did get the letter . i think it is lost in the post !

reflection on 37 years of living

well last Friday was my 37th birthday . what was going through my head for a lot of the day was what have i learnt in 37 years of being here . well i am not sure my life lessons are very deep but for whats it;s worth here are 10 of them .  :

1: be yourself .  some people will hate you some people will like you but you are valuable as you are .  .

2: try not to let the opinion of those that hate you become your opinion of yourself . even nice people can have an off day and be snappy !

3: grow older but don;'t grow up !

4: the best way to get revenge is to move on and  show the person that you can live without them .

5: you get more good things by being polite then by being rude .

6: watch something that makes you laugh every day . with the world in recession  laughing is vital . try not to take life to seriously . i know parts of life are serious but  do not take all of it that way

7:  read a book . it doesn't have to be anything of educational value . reading is cool . you might find out a few things you never knew before

8: tell the people you love you love them . comes a time they might not be round to hear it .

9:  even if you don;t agree with it try and see a bit of the other persons point of view .

10: learn from your mistakes .then hopefully you won;t repeat them .

what a day ! ( or it;s my blog and i'll vent if i want to !)

i hope this doesn't come across as a post that is full of complaints but as i said in the title this is my blog and I'll vent if i want to !  1st march 2012 what a bloody day !

got mom off to the hospital for her chemo therapy no problem . mom even went in a little earlier then last Monday . as she was getting ready to go out mom heard on the radio an add for Tesco that stated 3 bottles of quite posh wine for 15 euro . she asked me to go to to get them . i went to one that was a bit closer to the hospital . yes my mom is allowed a little wine  though she is having chemo therapy  . her oncologist said it is fine in moderation .

 when i got to Tesco merrion centre first thing happened  was both of my trolley  tokens that i have on my key ring wouldn't go in the aperture on  small shopping trolley . it was too big . ai had to use a euro coin instead . this meant i had not got the money to buy dad the newspaper .i forgot to get some more cash . as i had the family credit card to pay for the shopping . all i had was 2 euro coins and a bit of small change . 

just before i went to the cash desk to pay i remembered i had a load of extra Tesco point vouchers in my cash bag . i went to get them out and found out  my cash bag was not in my pocket .  remembering the last place i had my cash bag was at the shopping trolley area by the main entrance at the car park i left my shopping at the customer service desk and ran back there . no cash bag .  just as i went back to the customer services . just as i was asking about my missing cash bag a man came up with it in his hand to hand it in . nice to see there are still some honest people left , although there was nothing of value in the bag ! .

 when i went to pay for my shopping the credit card i use was refused . i had to ask the guy behind the cash desk to cancel the sale and leave without my shopping . that had me really pissed off as i had no idea what happened to the card  as i had used it in tescos the day before and it was fine .

sitting in my car just before leaving the shopping centre  i tried to call the bank form my mobile phone .  they couldn't deal with the visa card problem . i had to ring our banks  visa centre . i did'nt have the number to hand . mom has it at home on the visa statement . on the way home i remembered i was given a receipt for the cancelled sale in Tesco . which made me wonder had the same gone through and was it an error on the Tesco computer system . i pulled in and rang Tescos . no clear answer was given to me. i was shitting kittens as mom has a credit card on the same account as my one also . if i had to cancel the card it would mean moms would die as well .  the last thing i wanted to do was give mom more stress on her chemo day .

 i drove home and decided to try another branch of tescos for the same shopping to test if the card was the problem or if it was a fault elsewhere . same result card refused . i went home again without the shopping . i rang mom  and told her what had been going on , she told me where i could find the visa centre number and then my mobile phone ran out of credit . i had to top up online as i had neither credit card or money ! that meant i had to get the credit card sorted out first .

 when i got home i rang the visa centre . dad had to speak to the person on the phone as the visa account is in his name to answer a couple of security questions  . my dad is very hard of hearing .  i had to talk to the lady and ask her to tell me what she wanted dad to tell her   , pass the phone to dad tell him the question and let him answer it . once she got the security information she them spoke to me . i told her the story of the credit card being refused at 2 different branches of tescos . turns out there yahoo were to blame .  the day before i had sent 44 dollars to yahoo to pay for keeping my Flickr account a pro one . to test out whether the credit card was real yahoo made a charge of 1 Euro on it . apparently internet fraudsters do the same .  a security alert was put on the credit card either on the morning of the first of march or the evening of the 29th february . that meant the card couldn't be used . the lady on the phone admitted they should have phoned my house the second the security alert was put on to check if the one euro charge was correctly made .  they did'nt get round to it .  the lady i was speaking to on the phone was really nice and patient but i could have killed her . the stress i had gone through was unreal . she was able to confirm  that the 2 refused transactions in tescos had not gone through , she told me about the last few transactions on the card to see if they were OK  and she asked me if i would accept the 1 euro charge form yahoo .  when i said i would the security alert was taken off the card and  my stress level  got back to normal .  i shouldn't have been so uptight as this happened before .  i bought as song off i tunes for 99 cent and that caused the same thing to happen .

i took a little rest topped up my and my moms mobile phone form my online account  then we went into tescos in Bloomfield shopping centre . the wine my mom wanted was gone . just 2 gaps on the shelf . i had to wait the best art of 20 minutes to find someone to ask .  then i had to check if the wine he bought out to me was the wine on the offer . by running to customer services . i had no time to eat anything at all during the day and i was like a bear with a sore arse . ( i am always totally grumpy when really hungry) although i couldn't get the wine mom wanted me to get i got her and Dad some wine i know they normally like . the thing that might make you laugh is i hate wine ! Jack Daniels  or lager is my alcoholic beverage of choice .got mom from chemo . came home ate a double portion of sushi and that was it for the rest of the day i parked myself in front of this computer , helped mom with the dinner  and took it easy.

 thankfully one thing went right . moms chemo therapy .  moms porto cath which had been causing  her pain when the phlebotomists were trying to take blood from it ( and failing ) worked today . hopefully no more struggling to find veins in her hands for a cannula .

How Things Have changed .

last Wednesday  i came home from the supermarket to find one of our neighbours in the house chatting to mom .  she was amazed to hear about moms illness  , also our neighbor had some sad news of her own . i had gone to school with her daughter, we were in the same year , and while we had not stayed in touch after school finished  , her mom kept in touch with my mom . we already knew that  her daughter was  living down the country working as a teacher married with 3 children .and she had got pregnant for a 4th time . last Wednesday we were told that sadly that baby was still born at 27 weeks .  the  reason i bring up this sad news is that the way the loss of the baby was treated today is very different form the way it happened back in the early 1970's when mom lost her baby also through still birth .

my mom never saw her baby or had a proper funeral for the child , we do know where moms baby was buried , in the plot of the holy angels Glasnevin Cemetery  but we don't know the exact grave  , if there is one as the cemetery has changed a lot in the 40 or so years since this took place .   finding out exactly where in the plot of the holy angels  the child was buried  was something i always meant to do for mom but never got round to . now mom is ill again it will have to go on the long finger again .

.  at the time my uncle Davy who was a very religious man had to ask to see if the baby had received catholic baptism rites (she had ) my mom tells me too that in the days after she  gave birth a nurse was with her all the time , even if she went to the bathroom  , it must have been some sort of suicide watch .

 my friend was able to hold her baby , a little boy , plan and attend a funeral   she also has a grave or some kind of memorial that she can go to so it can help with her grief .

 i can;t understand how mom was not allowed at least to look at the child she gave birth to or attend a funeral . her baby was quickly taken away after birth and buried by an unknown undertaker . i suppose it was considered less emotional strain on the mother if the baby was forgotten about  , not something i agree with .   .  nobody offered her counseling or professional help .  thankfully mom had the loving support of Dad and her family to help her through this horrific time . this was the first time she was pregnant too .

as it happened over 40 years ago mom doesn't often talk about it now but does mention it from time to time especially around the child's birthday in September .  she always tells me not to mention the loss of the child to Dad . she doesn't want to upset him .

i am very glad that my friend her husband and her parents could mourn the loss of their child in a way my mother was not allowed to .

Getting to know me

saw this on the net  thought i would fill it in here for a giggle .

1. ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT? 

on my chest . it was an acne scar .

2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM? 

some train and bus pictures pictures my boyfriend gave to me and one i bought myself in covent garden market London  , a page of music score to the song raingods dancing by the Scottish singer fish . it is  signed by the music 's composer Tony Turell  . i won it in the raffle at the fish fan club convention in 2009  . a steel manchester untied crest with my name engraved on it . i bought that in a shopping centre in Puerto Rico gran canaira couple of years ago  , and a Jean Michel Jarre poster i got when i saw him in 2010

3. DO YOU SNORE, GRIND YOUR TEETH, OR TALK IN YOUR SLEEP? 

snore and occasionally talk in my sleep

4. WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO? 

classic rock , bit of  jazz ,  blues ,  electronic , Irish traditional and

  new age .

5. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME YOU WERE BORN? 

i don;t as i am adopted and my adoptive parents were never told .

6. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW? 

A job. and for mom to get safely over her chemo therapy .

7. WHAT DO YOU MISS? 

my boyfriend .

8. WHAT IS YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION? 

i pod , portable DVD player , computer

9. HOW TALL ARE YOU? 

5ft 5.

10. DO YOU GET CLAUSTROPHOBIC?

yes

11. DO YOU GET SCARED IN THE DARK? 

no

12. THE LAST PERSON TO MAKE YOU CRY? 

Me when i get my time of the month i cry like a baby for no reason .

13. WHAT'S YOUR WORST FEAR? dying

14. WHAT KIND OF HAIR/EYE COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX? 

not fussy to either

15. WHERE CAN YOU SEE YOURSELF PROPOSING / BEING PROPOSED TO AT? 

doesn't apply i don;t want to get married

16. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINK? 

Coffee.

17. FAVOURITE PIZZA TOPPING?
peperoni

18. IF YOU COULD EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

moms roast chicken dinner

19. FAVOURITE COLOR OF ALL TIME? 

red

20. HAVE YOU EVER EATEN A GOLDFISH? 

goldfish cracker yes actual goldfish no

21. WHAT WAS THE FIRST MEANINGFUL GIFT YOU'VE EVER RECEIVED? 

Jesus i don;t know .  i am just grateful to receive gifts form people .

22. DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH? 

yes on my boyfriend

23. ARE YOU DOUBLE JOINTED? 

no

24. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND? 

outsize clothes shop Evans .

25. WHO IS THE HOTTEST FEMALE/MALE CELEBRITY? 

Hugh Laurie . strange to say i never got into house i like him from his music and his pre american comedy acting career .

26. DO YOU HAVE A PET RIGHT NOW? 

not now but we used to .

27. WHAT KIND IS IT? 

we had 3 Airedale terrier dogs .

28. WOULD YOU FALL IN LOVE KNOWING THAT THE PERSON IS LEAVING? 

yes . i am in a long distance relationship . i see him leave all the time .

30. SAY A NUMBER FROM ONE TO A HUNDRED: 

39

31. BLONDES OR BRUNETTES? 

not fussy

34. HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF THE USA? 

i live in Ireland . the question should be have i ever been to the USA !

35. YOUR WEAKNESSES? 

i eat too much

36. MET ANYONE FAMOUS? 

the cast of the BBC radio show I'm sorry i haven't a clue about 4 times now . the goodies , Alan rickman twice  , Stephen Frost  Richard Vranch and Steve Steen from English whose line is it anyway  ,  Phil Jupitus , actor from eastenders Todd Carty.  the year 2000 manchester untied football team  , especially David Beckham ( i must say he was a total gentleman ) fish , marillion  Rufus Hound , Jason Manford , Jack Dee ,

37. FIRST JOB? 

weekend job in my Dads shop

38. EVER DONE A PRANK CALL? 

once

39. DO YOU THINK EVERYONE OUT THERE HAS A SOULMATE? 

i think so

40. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU FILLED THIS OUT? 

browsing the net

41. HAVE YOU EVER HAD SURGERY? 

yes i had a lumpectomy on a lump in my breast back in 2005 .thankfully the lump was benign . i was told 3 cysts had fused together .

42. WHAT DO YOU GET COMPLIMENTED ABOUT MOST? 

nice personality

43. HAVE YOU EVER HAD BRACES? 

no

44. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY? 

 some money

45. HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU WANT? 

none

46. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? 

not as far as i know . dad wanted a daughter called Linda so that what i was called

47. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST TURN OFF OF THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Being over blokey , 

48. WHAT IS ONE THING YOU MISS ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL? 

 Nothing

49. WHAT KIND OF SHAMPOO DO YOU USE? 

god i have to go and look !

50. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? 

nope i am dyslexic no one can read it .

51. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT? 

ham

52. ANY BAD HABITS?

starting things and then not finishing them .

53. ARE YOU A JEALOUS PERSON? 

try not to be . there will always be people better of in the world then you . having said that there will always be people less well off then you . no point in being jealous

54. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?

i would like to think so.

55. DO YOU AGREE WITH FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS?
as long as you are not cheating on anyone else .

56. DO LOOKS MATTER? 

not to me

57. HOW DO YOU RELEASE ANGER? 

i tend to throw tantrums .

where the fuck is 58 ?

59. WHAT'S YOUR MAIN GOAL IN LIFE?
to keep on going as i am now .

60. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE TOY AS A CHILD? 

don;t remember ( hell i am just about 37 !)

61. HOW MANY NUMBERS ARE IN YOUR CELL PHONE? 

20

62.WERE YOU A FAN OF BARNEY AS A LITTLE KID? 

too old to be a fan of barney !.

63. DO YOU USE SARCASM? 

sometimes .

64. MASHED POTATOES OR MACARONI AND CHEESE? 

 Mashed potatoes

65. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A GUY/GIRL? 

Someone who treats me well and is nice to me .

66. WHAT ARE YOUR NAMES? 

Linda irishmanufan fcutdlady

68. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE TV SHOW? 

whose line is it anyway  UK and USA  , dirty jobs , mythbusters

69.WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH YOUR ENEMIES? 

ignore them

70. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? 

vanilla

71. DO YOU HAVE ALL YOUR FINGERS AND TOES? 

yes.

72. DO YOU HAVE A COMPUTER IN YOUR ROOM? 

no  in a converted bedroom across the corridor form my bedroom .

73. PLANS FOR TONIGHT?
to stay on my computer and answer my e-mails .

74. WHAT'S THE FASTEST YOU'VE EVER GONE IN A CAR? 

100mph on the m50 . i was driving .

75. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS? 

if you want to  !

76. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO? 

marillion

77. LAST THING YOU DRANK? 

marks and spencer lemonade

78. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? 

Dad

79. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE IN THE OPPOSITE SEX? 

face

80. WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME? 

muck about online , support manchester untied , listen to music and watch dvd's  .

81. FAVOURITE THING TO HATE? 

hypocrisy and pomposity

82. FAVOURITE MONTH IN THE YEAR? 

August

83. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE TYPE OF CANDY? 

 not fussy

84. HAVE YOU EVER REALLY AND TRULY HAD A BEST FRIEND? 

yes

85. WHAT IS YOUR HAIR COLOR?
dark brown with Blonde highlights

86. EYE COLOR? 

Blue

88. FAVOURITE FAST FOOD PLACE? 

Eddie Rockets

89. FAVOURITE RESTAURANT? 

the guinea pig restaurant in my suburb of Dublin .

90. DO YOU LIKE SUSHI? 

yes

91. LAST THING YOU WATCHED? 

whose line is it anyway on you tube

92. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR? 

Christmas.

93. PLAY ANY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS? 

no wish i did .

94. REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT?  i presume you mean liberal or conservative ? republican means something very different in Ireland ( it means an extreme Irish nationalist !) i am a lilly livered liberal .

95. KISSES OR HUGS? 

 Both

96. RELATIONSHIPS OR ONE NIGHT STANDS? 

 Relationships

97. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU BOUGHT? 

did some food shopping today

98. DO YOU HAVE A LOW SELF ESTEEM OR A HIGH SELF ESTEEM? 

middling

99. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? 

hello darlin the autobiography of Larry Hagman

100. DESCRIBE YOUR LOVE LIFE

nice !

Duncan Edwards - A Manchester United Legend And the Munich Disaster of 1958 .

 i missed the tribute to the those united players who died in Munich  in 1958 this year  , which is is most unlike me  but thats the joy of mom being in hospital at the time . one of the united fans i follow on twitter mr mujac posted this you tube film about a player who died in the air crash , Duncan Edwards ,  on his feed earlier  today so i thought i would post it here

Duncan Edwards was arguably one of the best Manchester United players ever ( although comparing players of his generation and the players of today is impossible ,  the game is totally different ) he was part of the young united team built by manager Matt Busby in the 1950's . they were known as the busby babes . Born in Dudley in West Midlands UK in 1936 he sadly died age 21 as a result of  the plane crash at Munich airport Germany in 1958  .  he showed  the same strength he had as a player by surviving for 15 days after the crash ,  despite very serious injuries ,  but sadly lost his fight for life , he last words were reportedly asking assistant manager Jimmy Murphy what time kick off in the next match was and lets get stuck in . .

my dad was lucky enough to be able to see the team several times  . he was born in manchester ( although he came here in 1950) and along with my grandad always supported united  . he certainly rates Duncan Edwards very highly .

 for those of you that might not know the Munich air crash happened as the united team were flying back to Manchester after a successful progression to the next round after a 3-3 draw with red star Belgrade winning 5-4 on aggregate ( all early rounds of the European cup were played home and away )  .
in those days it was necessary to re fuel at Munich airport . twice the plane tried to take off and failed . on the third time it never made take off speed  , due to ice on the runway ,  crashed into a house and a fuel dump at the end of the it .

 the following people died in the crash  :

Players : Geoff Bent , Roger Byrne , Eddie Coleman , Mark Jones , David Pegg , Tommy Taylor , Liam (Billy)Whelan

Staff: Walter Crickmer (club secretary) ,  Tom Curry (trainer) ,  Bert Whalley (chief coach)

Journalists:  Alf Clarke  (Manchester Evening Chronicle) , Donny Davies (Manchester Guardian) ,  George Fellows (Daily Herald) ,  Tom Jackson (Manchester Evening News) , Archie  Ledbrooke(Daily Mirror) Henry Rose (Daily Express)  Frank Swift( News Of The World , also former England and manchester city goal keeper) Eric Thompson (Daily Mai)

Flight Crew: Capt Kenneth Rayment DFC  – Co-Pilot
 Tommy Cable – Steward

Others: Bela Miklos – Travel Agent
Willie Satinoff – Supporter

Those who survived:

Players:
 Matt Busby (Team Manager), Johnny Berry , Jackie Blanchflower , Bobby Charlton , Bill Foulkes , Harry Gregg , Ken Morgans , Albert Scanlon , Dennis Viollet , Ray Wood

Harry Greg showed a huge amount of courage by going back into the aircraft , after having been warned it could blow up at any time . this was due to the fact it had a full tank of fuel  ,  to rescue Vera Lukic and her child Vesna .  he also rescued a third member if the Lukic family as unbeknownst to Greg Mrs Lukic was pregnant .

Journalists
Frank Taylor , Peter Howard , Ted Ellyard

Flight Crew
James Thain – Captain , Rosemary Cheverton – Stewardess , Margaret Bellis – Stewardess
George William Rodgers – Radio Officer

Others :
Mrs Vera Lukic – **Contrary to popular belief, Mrs Lukic is NOT the mother of John Lukic, who played in goal for Arsenal and Leeds**
Mrs Lukic’s daughter and the child she was pregnant with .Mrs Bela Miklos – wife of travel agent who arranged trip . Mr B Tomasevic - passenger

 all information taken , with thanks ,  from http://munich58.co.uk/

on the 50th anniversary of the crash 6th of February 2008  i read on the net MUTV was to be broadcasting for free . Dad and i cried off work to watch the tributes . i asked dad does it seem odd watching something you lived through being shows on TV like a history lesson .  my Dads response was it could never be just history to me .