Grannymar

It was mine, all mine.  Do you think I should have charged them?

I do have some left!

I think I am going off my hair stylist.

He is very selective.

He left all the grey hair behind.

Seriously now my friends….

I did have this very scientific discussion with Lord of the scissors, a few months ago, but he could not grasp the concept.  He did grasp my hair long enough to cut it, and still had the strength to hold his hand out for my money.

Only the front half of my hair is turning silver.  The back half is still a brownish red - the glorious autumn glory has gone the way of last winter’s snow.  Enough of the tangent, and back to my scientific discovery.

When I wear my hair brushed to one side or back off my face the hair is grey.  IF on the other hand, and it is a big IF, I brush my hair forward (seldom happens as it doesn’t suit me), the hair is as brown as that you saw on the floor above.  So the answer is simple, the front half of each strand of hair is grey and the remainder is red/brown.

What?  You don’t believe me?  Huh!

I bet there is a mad dash for the seclusion of the bathroom in your house right now.  Go on and test out my theory, don’t forget to come back and tell me the results.

I’m waiting…..

She stuck with him for 40 years!  That is two life sentences in this neck of the woods and…

You get time off for good behaviour!

Mayo

Sharon is a Saint and there is no doubt about it!  I don’t have a decent photo of Sharon, and refuse to use a bad one.

Glitter Graphics

Glitter Graphics

Glitter Graphics

Glitter Graphics

Almond Biscuits
Preheat oven to 190°C

6 ozs all purpose flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 ozs butter
6 ozs light brown sugar
4 ozs ground almonds
1 egg, beaten
Few drops almond essence
Flaked almonds for decoration

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Beat butter & sugar until fluffy, beat in the egg, fold in the flour, ground almonds and almond essence.  Form the mixture into teaspoon sized balls. Place on a greased and floured baking tray 2 inches apart and flatten slightly with a fork. Press almond piece on to top of each biscuit and bake for 8–10 minutes.

Swans ~ Stainless Steel
Eamon O’Doherty

The death of Eamonn O’Doherty was announced on Thursday last.  He was born and grew up in Derry.   He graduated from University College Dublin with an Architectural Degree and was awarded a Visiting Scholarship to Harvard University. Before turning to sculpture full-time in 2002, he lectured for many years at the Faculty of Architecture at the Dublin Institute of Technology as well as the University of Jordan, the University of Nebraska and the Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris.

The overhead cables are not part of the work.

The sculpture is owned by Antrim Area Hospital and is located on an elevated site close to the main hospital entrance.  It stands 4.5m (16 ft) high and is visible from the front of the hospital, and from the main access roads – when the bushes are trimmed.

The sculpture is made in stainless steel and the surface reflects the changing light. The imagery of swans was chosen for several reasons; it reflects the colonies of swans at Lough Neagh; it has reference to migrating birds, their returning each year giving a sense of continuity; and it also has reference to the story of the Children of Lir, in Irish mythology when four children were turned into swans.

Eamonn O’Doherty is best known for his large-scale public sculptures, thirty of which stand in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Among these are landmark works such as:

The James Connolly Memorial, Dublin
Tree of Gold, outside the Central Bank in Dame Street, Dublin
Anna Livia Fountain - aka Floozie In The Jacuzzi (1988), Dublin
The Quincentennial Sculpture in Eyre Square, Galway,
The Great Hunger Memorial in Westchester, New York, completed in 2001 and described by the New York Times as “this great work”.

He is also a painter, printmaker and photographer and has won major awards for paintings.  He is the co-author of books on the diverse subjects of environmental planning and traditional Irish music.
You can read more about him here

Typical Irish tongue in cheek farewell to Eamonn O’Doherty

The Mater Infirmorum Hospital, commonly known as The Mater is now an acute hospital in Belfast.  The Latin word Mater is commonly pronounced both “matt-er” and “mae-ter” by residents of the city and this has led to the phrase “You go to the maeter to find out whats the matter.”.

The Mater Infirmorum (Mother of the Sick) Hospital admitted its first patients in November 1883, in Bedeque House on the Crumlin Road. It was initially founded by the Sisters of Mercy but has always treated patients without regard to class or creed.  The main hospital opened in 1900. In 1909 the Mater Hospital was officially recognised as a university teaching hospital and is still associated with and receives students from the Queen’s University Medical School.

As the first phase of a modernisation programme, a new ward block and day procedures unit was built at the rear of the present block, at a cost of £15 million.  The old and new blend well together.

The doorway above leads to the old hospital where the outpatient clinics are held.  It is like entering a different world.  Victorian Corridors, dark wood, high windows and claustrophobic clinics.

On the way there and back I came across this Elevator that looks well used for over one hundred years.  I decided to use the stairs back down to ground level.

It was in the hand of gaelikaa to come up with the topic for today.

Unforeseen Circumstances

My inspiration came at the misfortune of another.
Conrad was having problems on his blog.  It was sick.  It caught a bug.  A bugger of a bug – excuse my French!  He would clean his house blog, all would appear well for a time and then suddenly re-infect.  In my usual non techie fashion I asked a question.

“Would one of us who visit regularly, unwittingly be the carrier?”

“I am checking everyone’s dirty feet at my welcome mat right now, although I don’t think it is any of my regular readers.”

The words dirty feet brought back a memory from my childhood and gave me my tale for today.

When we were five in number, long before my sister was born, I think it would have been about 1951 or 1952.  Our ages ranged from nine to eighteen months.  Four of the five children were showing signs of being ill, so the family Doctor was called.  Unlike today, where every visit to a doctor is treated in isolation with no regard to other illnesses or family traits, our family doctor looked at things in the round and checked everyone in the household.  Not known for his bedside manner, he certainly made up for it with 5***** Diagnosis.

Scarlet Fever was the culprit this time.  All but brother No 2 showed the symptoms.  He on the other hand was his usual bouncing bundle of noisy energy.  What to do?  The normal procedure at the time was to move the patients to the nearest fever hospital.  Mammy and the Doctor went into secret conclave – they sat in the kitchen with a pot of tea.  It might be easier to isolate brother No 2.  Would Granny be willing and able to take him for the duration?  How did mammy feel about barrier nursing the four of us at home?  Was there anyone who might help her?  The rooms would need to be fumigated when the patients recovered.

Not everyone had a phone or a car back then.  We fortunately had both, granny had neither.  Somehow arrangements were made and Brother No 2 went to stay with Granny.  My father had a sister who was a district nurse in England, not far from the border with Wales.  She was consulted about the barrier nursing and what it involved.  You know how it is, you hear words like ‘Scarlet Fever’ and ‘Fever Hospital’ whispered, yet have no idea what is actually involved or required until it hits your own doorstep.  My aunt had leave due, so she offered to come over and help mammy nurse us back to health.

The Doctor was almost part of the furniture until my aunt arrived.  “All into the one room!” he suggested.  Lets push that big bed up against the wall make it up cross wise, then the four of them can go in together.  The headboard and footboard can act as bed sides and nobody will fall out.  I told you, the bedside manner was out the window, but boy was he good at his trade!

So we were four in a bed and the little one said……

The routine quickly developed and I have no idea how long it went on for,  I was five, I remember all of us being in the bed, and mammy and my aunt wearing white hospital coats and face masks when they came in the room.

After a couple of weeks my aunt decided that she should go over to Granny’s house and give her an evening free from child care.  She would bathe my brother and wash his hair etc before she put him to bed.  This she did.  As she was drying his feet she noticed that the soles of his feet were peeling.  The final stage of Scarlet Fever!  Brother No 2 was the carrier of the bug, the one who brought it into our house in the first place.  Mammy and the Doctor had decided to isolate him because he showed no sign of being ill.  He had gone through the whole thing while still on his feet.

So you see why it is important for Conrad to check everyone’s feet and footprints.  I sure hope he sorts out the problem real soon and the playground is declared free of all unforeseen obstacles and circumstances!

Visiting time is over now, so tip toe over and take a peek at what Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, gaelikaa, Magpie 11, padmum, Ramana, The Silver Fox Whispers, The Student Diaries, Will have to say on our topic.  Today our group grows ever stronger with Noor and Rohit joining us for the first time, I do hope they have fun in our playground.

You pick up a hitch-hiker,  a beautiful girl. Suddenly she faints inside your
car and you take her to hospital.  Now that’s stressful.

But at the hospital , they say she is pregnant & congratulate
you that you are going to be a father.

You say that you are not the father, but the girl says you are. This is
getting very stressful, so then…..you request a DNA test to prove
that you are not the father.

After the tests are completed, the doctor says that you are infertile, and
probably have been since birth. You are extremely stressed but relieved.

On your way back home, you think about your 3 kids at home.

NOW THAT’S STRESS!

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Thanks Anonymouse for this bundle of stress.

Way back in the midst of time (November last year) my friend Darragh wrote to me.

Hello lovely lady!

That is how the old Plámásach (sweet-talking) young man began… I shuda known, my mother warned me… sure I never listened did I?

He was passing on information – anything that has a whiff of ‘old’ about it – is pushed my way. Well now, to be fair, Darragh was nudging me towards a proposed project. He is a hard man to say ‘NO!’ to. One of these days I might learn……

In anyways, as they say. This was the project:-

Irish based company Fitzgerald & Stapleton in collaboration with Choreograph.net - the online site for writings on performance- are creating an online interactive performance called MINE. This project will involve Fitzgerald & Stapleton working with 4 Irish based women of different ages (12 years and under, 13-18years, 19-59 and 60+ years). Over an 8 week period we will post one question every two weeks relating to themes relating to society and life, which each participant may respond to through all mediums for example writing, film, drawing, photography. We are looking for honest opinions and responses from the participants that reflect their individual life experiences. There is no right or wrong and no artistic experience is necessary as we want to work beyond the regular artistic community and include the wider public within the arts. Throughout the process the participants may contact us at any time for help or feedback. The participants will need access to a computer, and experience of emailing - or someone who can assist them with uploading any writing film or images. Unfortunately we cannot offer a fee for the participants but all will be credited, unless they wish to remain anonymous.

At the end of the 8 week process Fitzgerald & Stapleton will collate the feedback of each participant to create four individual choreographic scores - like a choreography for the internet- which will be published online on choreograph.net. As well as this we would possibly like to discuss the performance of these movement scores with the participants in the future, which we would definitely seek funding for to offer payment. The language scores are how we as a dance company perform our dance work, using writing and visual material as a score to direct our movement for performance.

November is a bleak month, and sure I needed something to keep me outa trouble, so I let my name go forward…..

Áine Stapleton a bundle of bubbly delightfulness was my contact, generous with her time and encouragement for me, at every stage. No matter which side of ‘the pond’ she was on the lines of communication were kept open.

The questions came and the four selected victims participants wrote their replies within their own space, under their biographies. Some of my replies appeared as stand alone posts here on my blog after they were published.

Week followed week and I posted my homework, it was fun, but for me, a little more difficult with each question…

Question 3 – Compose and sing at least one version of the following song -

“Who Am I (What’s My Name)?”

Me, with not a note in my purse never mind my head…. WRITE A SONG

I struggled, squeaked, even tried shoving the hairbrush in my mouth but nothing worked. I had a bath (they say that everyone sings in the bath), but the only result from that was a clean body and wrinkly fingers! Looking in a mirror was no better, all I saw was my mother telling me to get on with the job. I finally gave Tobias the rest of the day off and shut down the laptop. Next morning all bright and bushytailed I set to work and managed to produce some lyrics. Don’t waste time looking for “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” by Grannymar in the top 100, anytime in the near or distant future. I can guarantee you that it will not be there.

Then came the bombshell.

Question 4 - Create and perform your own choreographic score.

Don’t get me wrong, but I thought that was what Fitzgerald & Stapleton were supposed to do. Well I struggled. Struggled in more ways than one. I was hit by nasty bugs. Tobias came off worse and needed a few days in ICU for laptops. The bug that hit me, left me in bed for two or three days of sleep, only venturing out of bed for more fluids and medication.  Circles and Feet were swirling in my head, perhaps I was hallucinating. As I recovered and thought of question 4 for MINE, the words seemed to fit so I took it from there.

Suddenly realising I had passed the date for publication, I fired off the following comment:

I apologise for being so late, my laptop was borked for over a week and I had a bug myself. I hope I am still in time to add my contribution.

I was encouraged to go ahead, so I posted my last contribution, I saw it as a skeleton of the leaf, giving the girls the freedom to flesh it out or chop and play with in any way they choose. That was back in January.

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At the weekend I had an email from Áine. Their final result was posted on the site.  The piece is a combination of all our contributions. Now all they need is a Sponsor to aid in funding the performance of this movement score.

Thank you folks for the opportunity to stretch myself in directions that I never dreamed I was capable of.  I wish you every success in this endeavour and look forward to the day it is performed.

Following my LBC Post on Friday Do you Listen, Will sent me a link to a TED Talk by sound expert Julian Treasure.

In our louder and louder world, We are losing our listening.

In this short, fascinating talk, Julian Treasure shares five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening — to  other people and the world around you.

Sticky Chicken Drumsticks
Preheat the oven to 200°C
10 chicken drumsticks
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of white wine or vermouth
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Finely chopped fresh herbs of your choice
A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

I place all but the drumsticks in a Pyrex dish and mix to combine.  Add the drumsticks rolling to cover with the marinade.  Cover and leave to marinate for at least an hour or overnight.

Cover the dish in foil or lid and bake in the oven for About 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and spread the drumsticks on a shallow baking dish and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Reduce the juices over a medium high heat and simmer and whisk until the sauce thickens. Serve the chicken with a tasty salad and coat with the thick sticky sauce.