Grannymar

Good morning from a sunny Dublin.  I am actually weraring a summer top because it is so warm.  Summer has arrived in ernest.

So who wants to know how I am

To be truthful I am feeling rather confused…

I am a Mammy and I have a daughter.  I got that right didn’t I?  Somehow the roles have changed when I wasn’t thinking or looking or listening.  It is all very confusing and upsetting really and for a ‘lady’ of my mature years, not good at all.

Yesterday when I arrived I was dispatched to the shops for a message and then when I got back I had to sit still and be QUIET because she was working.  Needless to say I kept my mouth shut tight but danced up and down like unelegant elephant just to get my own back.

Today I thought that peace would reign since she was going into the office.  Alas, as I was sitting enjoying the lovely coffee that George made for me (not a bad lad that fella!) when along comes little miss with a pen and paper.  Yes I did say PEN & PAPER!  When that happens you know things are serious.  ”I taught that girl well!” I said to myself…. make a list of all that you need to do and that way you won’t forget them.

It was when she started talking and writing like an oldfashioned school ma’am that I began to get worried.

The paper was for a list of chores; to be done…..   BY ME!

You should see the list it is as long as your arm.  One item has 2pm after it!  Talk about time and motion.  At this rate I’ll have no energy for Toyboys tomorrow!

I would eat the list but for the fact I don’t like the taste of paper.  I can’t throw it up on top of a wardrobe ’cause they all go to the ceiling.  There is no fireplace to burn it, so I need your help!

How can I get rid of the list and what should I do to get my own back?

We all know the phrase ‘Walking off into the sunset’. Mostly it brings to mind the idea of walking off into the never, never land of eternity, or as I like to think of it, walking into a new life, a new beginning. I was reminded of it last night while watching the sun set.

The sky at night on several occasions this month reminded me of another new beginning thirty years ago. Elly arrived in our lives in the early days of May and with her the beginning of a glorious summer. She was outdoors from 7.30am until it was time to bed her down for the night. The good weather lasted until October that year. Many a night Jack and I sat until well after the sun went down, I can still hear his remark ‘I suppose we better go in!’

May was a beginning for Elly and now it is also a time of endings. Last year it saw the official end of her single status as she prepared to marry her true love, George. This year May marks the ending of the time they spent is their temporary home and the new beginning of the move to their first step on the property ladder. Making a move like that is not easy nowadays. The current climate in the financial world has not made it any easier. They are to be admired for sticking in there and seeing it through.

I wish them well in their new home and look forward to sharing many visits. I hear ‘Mammy’s bed’ is on order so it won’t be very long before I have an excuse to travel south more often.

I only hope my visits are not like this:

I think you are all aware by now that I have a Son-in-Law.

He came to see me yesterday.

He had a little something for me…

He put it on my fridge and..

Then he did what it asked.  I had a very nice day!

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera

So goes the song, and it is fast becoming my daily mantra.

On Friday I was looking forward to some great big hugs! Elly & George were coming North to do an enormous number a few calls and ‘the mammy’ was about fourth on the list. It was to be a short well timed visit. Leave some stuff for me to deal with, sort something for my computer (well there is no point in having two experts in the family if you cannot make use of them!), have something to eat and collect a bag full of items waiting here for them. I will have the opportunity to pester see them in a couple of weeks time when I go south for the Irish Blog Awards.

I like to be prepared when they come, so I spent Thursday hiding the evidence of Toyboys deleting any incriminating evidence from my files tidying up the place. Now tell me can you overwork the internet? I ask because my Internet connection died! Zilch! No Firefox, no Internet Explorer, no emails, No RSS!!! What was I going to do? How would I keep tabs on my Toyboys?

Feeling a little cross about this I closed down and went to bed.

Bright and early on Friday I opened up the computer and the Internet was still on holidays, so I phoned BT my provider. I had to phone as there was no way of reporting it on-line without the internet! Now I looked at the last bill and it gave only one number for reporting faults. I phoned and you know the procedure, 57 varieties of options and finally what I was looking for: If you are reporting a fault with Broadband please phone 0845 XXX XX XXX! WHY, oh why, was that number not printed on the bill? It makes sense surely.

I spoke to a very nice young man who asked about 7000 questions, but forgot to ask what I had for breakfast! Do you think they have deleted that one? I did ask him to suggest to his manager to arrange putting the phone number for Broadband faults on the bill. It might mean his callers being a little less frustrated!

So I had to unplug this, and plug in that, etc, you know the form. Not very successful, he would have to pass it on to the Diagnostic team. “Did I have another number so they could contact me?” the young man asked casually. “Do you mean have I a mobile number?” I said. “Why do you need a mobile number? Please don’t tell me you are going to cut off my land-line! I need it to be able to contact the Toyboys ‘Nee Naws’ Emergency services!

The young man promised they would not cut the phone line but that it might be 12-24 hours before the internet was up and running. Now that was serious! I was out of control! Well there were Steph, Hails and K8 all with the perfect chance to steal MY Toyboys! I needed the spray and I needed distraction.

I went to the kitchen and set about making soup and a dinner for my travellers. I had my soup for lunch and cleared up all the dishes. I returned to the living room about an hour later and the modem was flashing away to itself. I had email! I had Firefox! We were back in action. Ten minutes later the nice young man phoned to tell all was working again. Their was a fault their end - yes he said that! So I thanked him and let him go to the next person in distress.

Now why did I use that word (distress)? I sat down to rest and check on the toyboys read the blogs. Suddenly my body went into shock and I was frozen, it felt like someone had put me in a walk-in freezer! Having no pain I was not worried. I put on the electric blanket and went to bed for an hour or so. I warmed up and the feeling passed. The dinner was sitting in the oven ready to be switched on and Elly could serve it up. No worries, I was fine!

They came, we hugged, we talked and they did the swapping about and we eat. It was wonderful to have them here even for a short visit. Everything was cleared away before they left and I had a call to let me know they were home safely.

So Que Sera, Sera, the moral of the story is live for the moment and let the hours take care of themselves

Toyboys, I’m back, but we will take it slowly.

Last night I spoke to my one and only offspring. Did you know I had an offspring? Elly is not a bad little girl really. The fact that she is now taller than me is by the way. I suppose I am now on the way down.

Well we had a good mother/ daughter chat. Sorry I am not going to tell you what we bitched talked about. We have our secrets!

She did tell me she got a letter yesterday. Now getting the odd letter is not unusual for me. My Elly however, lives in the modern world. The world of ether – no I don’t mean a funny substance, I mean the world of the airwaves, I mean the internet thingy stuff! Letters are a little ‘olde-worldly’ to her! The bills come in letters, but cute egg that she is; they all come addressed to George! I wonder at times how he got mixed up with her.

Well back to the letter. It came from the wee North. Yes, this part of the world where I live. It had a Royal Mail post mark (that’s twice in two days they got a mention here, but I am still better value)! The letter was addressed to herself and George.

St James’s Street tonight! Will you pick me up off the floor! It was a wedding invitation acceptance. “What is going on here”? You might ask. No wonder they have not come to see me so far this year. Is there something I am missing here? I thought that they were already well and truly married. I made the outfit. I gave her away. I made the speech. They must be married!

It was a wedding acceptance for the wedding that happened on 23 June 2007. Now I would like to know where the letter was all this time. Did it arrive in your post box? Did you have it sitting behind the clock on the mantelpiece?

Will we have to hold the wedding all over again?

Will I need a new hat?

Help!

Grandad asked a question on Saturday.

The conditions of his release from a short spell in captivity include lying low and not interfering with his neighbours property or staff building workers, shooting Tourists, or ranting and raving about the dedicated and hardworking personnel who so unselfishly and wholeheartedly give of themselves for the good of Ireland by serving in Government. This leaves little for him to do so in his boredom he committed a few short words to the laptop and asked a question.

Now this was either a ploy to check up on the loyalty of his followers, or to get them to do all the work and fill Cyberspace with their answers and keep his stats up. There is also the possibility that the answers would provide meat fodder topics for further blog posts.

The question he posed was ‘Why do I(you) Blog?’

I quickly sent my first thoughts winging over the Interweb:

• • Elly walked me into it.
  • The novelty.
  • Now to keep in contact with all the virtual friends I have made.

Happy enough with that I went about my daily chores. Alas there was no peace, the question haunted me at every twist and turn.

So, Why do I blog?

Yes, the answers above were all correct. Elly did walk or push me into it. I was her guinea pig for Bar Camp South East way back in September ‘06. I did say “what would I want to do that for? and many other unprintable things as well. But we I got there and my first post was two sentences!!!! Yes two.

Elly was more concerned with me learning about Podcasting. I did my best, and my first effort The Favour was all of two or three minutes. Way to long for anyone to suffer listening to such a dreadful voice!

With time I became more comfortable and adventurous, the blog posts grew longer as did the Podcasts. I learned to insert graphics and photos and last week I managed to add a mini video clip.

Slowly, very slowly over time the comments started to arrive. There are some folk who visit and tip-toe away saying nothing, and that is their right, but there are other stalwarts who visit everyday adding their wisdom, another point of view or sense of fun. At this stage I feel they are my friends and I cherish them. Not being able to ‘Run the Roads’, as they say here in Norn Iron, as much as I would like, I appreciate my blogging friends all the more.

Thank you, Elly for the push! Thank you George for your help also (now where are my flags?). I have learned so much since I started, I discovered there is so much more to learn and most important of all plenty more fun to be had.

So in short I blog, and read blogs because:

• I learn from others.
• Ranting or readings rants, raises my blood pressure.
• The laughter is like jogging on the inside.
• The smile some posts put on my face requires the use of more muscles than a frown, and it also keeps the laughter lines curved upwards giving my face a softer look!
• Then there is the ‘T’ word…..

So please visit more, you are good for my health!

I was listening talking to Elly the other day making arrangements for my next visit. We do this on a regular basis, talk that is. ‘Visit’ arrangements are something else altogether. You see, in my head I want to go here and do this that and the other, while my body says NO WAY!

All my social arrangements both at home and away are prefixed with ‘IF’. I continually have to remind my head that the body is not thirty years of age anymore. Alas, the body rules. There are mornings when the thoughts of how I will feel after a shower, are what gets me out of the bed! There are some days when that is not enough either. Some days I start off well and suddenly I am drained of energy. The best way to describe it is a feeling that someone has pulled the stopper and the energy drains away like water in a sink. My colour goes with it and I need to SIT DOWN right there and then. Elly & George are used to this happening and quietly deal with me. I knew there would be a bonus of having a strong, solid and good looking Son-in-Law to lean on!

I have to keep going, so I make plans with an ‘if’. “I would love to come…if.” “Certainly I will go…if.” You get the picture.

Now I want to travel down for the Irish Blog Awards to rub flesh with my virtual friends and meet more new ones. It is an easy one for me to attend because it is held in a nice room with comfortable seating and space to move around. The seats are not pre-booked so if I need to cancel it is not a problem. If I don’t turn up somebody else will use the seat.

I have not put my name on any list to attend the meet-ups before or after the big night, because I hate to say I will go somewhere that requires having space booked for me, and cause expense only to discover at the last moment that my health won’t let me attend.

So Sabrina, Red Mum and Deborah please excuse me and I hope all the events are a wonderful success.

This Podcast tells the story of the power of love between a child and his or her favourite toy.

The Velveteen Rabbit

Sleeping Elly and Sammy

Sammy in his bag today

• Get out from under the bird of darkness hovering round my head for the last month or two.

• Realise that lost time can never be found.

• Spend more time outdoors.

• Enjoy the simple things.

• Feel pride bursting through my chest when Elly, George and my friends do well and are happy, and tell them that I love them, at every opportunity.

• Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until I gasp for breath. Spend lots and lots of time with friends who make me laugh.

• Learn something new - Never let the brain get idle (“You don’t lick knowledge off a stone” A quotation from Tom Murphy’s Grandmother.). “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s!

• Try everything twice. Now where are the Toy boys?

And finally my wish for you in 2008 is:

May peace break into your house and may the thieves come to steal your debts.

May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of €100 notes.

May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!

May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be those of joy.

May the problems you had, forget your home address!

In simple words….

May 2008 be the best year of your life, try not to screw it up!!!

As the year draws slowly to its close, we all regardless of age seem to look back over the events of the past year, remembering lost loved ones, re-live our celebrations, rejoicing over achievements, tiptoe past disasters and move on to plan for the year ahead.

At first glance sewing seemed to overtake if not punctuate my year at every available space. In fact it was actually a year of great variety. In March I attended the Irish Blog Awards in Dublin, where I had the opportunity to meet with other Bloggers with amazing talent. A week later I turned sixty and officially become a senior citizen.

Over the months many hours were spent talking to Elly simultaneously on the phone and internet working through suggestions, ideas and plans for the wedding.

Moving forward to May I was approached on Skype and asked to help a young man in Italy to improve his English. I almost said no, but now we talk regularly and I think at this stage he can be counted as a friend.

The Wedding in June brought family and friends from across the globe to help celebrate and witness Elly & George’s Special day.

The weather was kind and Elly looked happy and glowing in her outfit. She said that it was very comfortable to wear and gave her the freedom she wanted.

The train of her outfit was detachable and was removed for dancing.

The end of June was rather scary with an emergency trip to hospital but thankfully I have recovered, and learned yet again to listen to my body! By the end of September I had sufficient energy to attend Podcamp in Kilkenny. It gave me the opportunity to learn and share, while renewing old friendships and making new ones.

November saw the passing of Cherry the mother of my new Son-in-Law George. I know that with Elly by his side, and the love of his father and siblings to share the great loss, George will feel the smile of sunshine on his face once more and hear and enjoy the birds singing.

Back in July I quietly marked the 30^th anniversary of the day I married. Sadly, and not by choice, I have been alone for a third of that time. When Jack was alive our world was wonderful and I am thankful for warm loving memories.

The mention of marriage reminds me of a radio interview I smiled at over the holiday, an 80-year-old lady was the focus, because she had just remarried — for the fourth time.

The male interviewer asked her questions about her life, about what it felt like to be marrying again at 80, and then about her new husband’s occupation.

He’s a funeral director,’ she answered.

Interesting, the young man thought. He then asked her if she wouldn’t mind telling him a little about her first three husbands and what they did for a living.

She paused for a few moments, needing time to reflect on all those years.

After a short time, a smile came to her face and she answered proudly, explaining that she’d first married a banker when she was in her early 20’s, then a circus ringmaster when in her 40’s, later on a preacher when in her 60’s, and now in her 80’s, a funeral director.

The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and asked why she had married four men with such diverse careers.

She smiled and explained, ‘I married one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go.’