Grannymar

The day is dull and the rain is falling but my heart is bursting with sunshine.

Mark the Postman knocked on my door, he had a parcel for me. It came from The King! Excitedly I opened it

and look what was inside:

Then Elly sent a text to say she had one of these in in her hot little hand:

It makes my little mobile phone look like a toy and it reminds me of a story.

Many years ago Jack wanted me right go wrong to have a Mink coat. We were staying in Dublin at the time and having a few hours shopping while Elly was playing shake the flour all over Nana’s Kitchen at making black pastry (well it was nearly black by the time she was finished). The coat was beautiful. A work of art, semi fitted with lustrous skins in a rich deep colour that at that time enhanced my auburn tresses. I did try it on and for the moment wrapped in luxury I felt like a Movie Star.

Then the voice of reason began to lecture, you know the way it is, we all have those nagging voices deep inside our heads. ‘Where are you going to wear this coat’? The voice asked. My lifestyle did not warrant a Mink Coat! It would spend more time in the wardrobe than on my back. So I declined Jack’s very generous offer.

Since I heard that I had won the Nokia N95 8GB through the generous Sponsorship of 02, for the Blog Post of the Month, a new venture of the Irish Blog Awards, my mind has been in turmoil, I could not with all honesty justify keeping it. I have a mobile phone for emergency purposes. Last month I used it for 2 very short calls and 7 outgoing text messages. The technology behind the N95 8GB would be wasted on me.

I made a decision. George, my son-in-law has a dying phone and I know he has lusted after an N95 8GB since it was introduced, but a love-nest took priority and all his pennies. We came to an agreement… the N95 in exchange for an upgrage of my mobile whenever I want it, plus a promise of an upgrade in whatever Nursing Home that Elly picks for me! Enjoy the phone George!

Now perhaps he won’t think of me as the Mother-in-Law from Hell

Blog Post of the Month started in April. Darragh was the worthy winner for May. We are ready to snuggle up closer on the winners bench and make room for new winners over the next 10 months.

Think about it, everyone has an equal chance of winning. Write from your heart and the rest will follow.

If you read a blog post that you feel is worthy, nominate it by blogging about it and linking to it as well as nominating it here. Remember to venture beyond your usual daily diet of blogs. There are many very worthy specialty blogs out there covering music, food, photography, politics, news, crafts, health issues, the Irish language and Technology, among others. While you visit all those blogs don’t forget to say hello and leave a comment. Comments are the Readybrek for bloggers, giving them the zest to keep going time after time.

I look forward to having you join Darragh and I on the winner’s bench. Good Luck!

My heart is pounding and I am in shock, I was literally finished dinner and sitting in the loo when the phone rang… well doesn’t it always ring at the most inappropriate time. Pulling up my pants I ran to answer it, I was waiting for a call, this is the time of day when Elly & I normally catch up on our news.

“Hi Mum” said the voice at the other end. I am not really concentrating because my trousers are at half mast and I am trying frantically to fix them!

“You won! You won!” the voice is shouting.

“What are you talking about, Elly” I say.

“The Award”! “THE FIRST EVER BLOG OF THE MONTH AWARD!”

I am totally lost for words.  I also have a prize of a fab new O2 N95 Mobile phone (are you jealous George?)

Thank you once again to King Damien for the idea behind the Blog of the Month Award, and to all those who nominated me.

I have said it before and I say it again; Commenter’s are the life blood of blogging. You are the people who inspire me on a daily basis and feed my thoughts with topics and subjects to blog about.

OK MS Elly, you proved that ‘Grannymar could Blog, Podcast and a zillion other things’, now can I go back and sit in the corner? No way! As somebody said to me today on another matter, I have taken the steps and there is no return. I really do not want to return to my pre blogging world, but I am well ready to take a back seat and let others have a chance to share in the glory of winning awards.

THANK YOU EVERYONE

King Damien is at it again! We have had Fluffy Badges, Annual Blog Awards and now De dah de dah!….

It’s the all new bright and shiny “Blog Post of the Month” award. I have thought several times while reading the wonderful insightful posts of fellow Bloggers that I would love to award them in some way. Now I have the chance to nominate them for this little beauty.

(Photo stolen from IBA site.)

So if you read, enjoy or are moved to tears and want to nominate a blog post, simply blog about it and link to it, and also link here.

No! I am not writing a book or dishing the dirt on what happened on the couch with Twenty! We had witnesses and if I pay them enough they will say nuttin, right Conn? Steph?

I can report that there is an new addition to my family. The family of Toyboys that is. Another fine young man he is too. We met on that wonderful night of glitz & glam 1st March. He was so bowled over by me the enthusiasm of the bloggers that he raced home to take part in the fray. The result is AJ@Lecraic

Now Alan fell so deeply in love that night he wanted a permanent reminder, and the result of his labours can be found here:

http://www.lecraic.com/2008/04/27/irish-blog-awards-the-book/

It is an online book about the awards with a page for each of the winners. Alan wrote to all 21 of us, but you know how it is, people are busy and put things on the long finger. So this is called 1st edition and hopefully those winners unable to find their page can get in touch with Alan and the page will be added.

If you are feeling lazy Grandad has it on his site so you can flick through the pages quickly.

Today the letterbox did not clatter, but the doorbell rang!

Postman Pat had a package for me! I love packages. It was all neatly wrapped and it came from way down south. I opened it slowly and carefully…

Would you like to see what it was?

Ok, ok.. be careful or it might break

Well I had to take the picture myself and if I was not in the picture you might not believe me!

Now I can christen it and open the Bubbly. Cheers!

Again, thank you King Damien and all those who helped me achieve this accolade.

No, I am not making another speech!

Remember this?

You will remember my Post about it and the follow up Apology Huh! I know you eagerly await the outcome so let me recap.

I emailed a letter to the Editor of the Irish Independent because I took exception to the photograph of Grandad & I with Martha Rotter of Microsoft at the Irish Blog Awards 2008, appearing directly under a heading ‘WEIRD WIDE WEB’. I copied my email to my daughter Elly. What is so weird about blogging or the fact that I a sixty-one year old woman and Grandad, who is in fact, a few years younger in age and by a month in blogging time, pass our time with this hobby? Both of us for our pains are rewarded regularly with comments. The wonderful faithful readers range in age from over 80 up to 18!

Yesterday afternoon as I worked about the house I heard the ping announcing an email. It is like the phone ringing, you want to know the details right away. This is what I received minus the email addresses and phone numbers which I removed:

From Marie Boran - Siliconrepublic.com

To
date Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 3:01 PM

subject FW: eThursday

Hi Grannymar,

I have read your blog post ‘Apology huh!’ and to answer you: I didn’t email you because your daughter, who alerted me to your letter requesting an apology from the Independent in the first place, said she would pass on the email directly to you and that you might be in touch.

As I said in the email, I didn’t create the caption ‘Weird Wide Web’, it is a pre-existing section for non-business related technology headlines. In the spirit of openness feel free to publish the email which I sent your daughter on your blog because as I have already said, I am not ageist in the slightest not would I ever wish to cause offence.

To clarify, the letter requesting an apology that you sent to the Independent would never have reached me because Silicon Republic is a separate entity that provides the independent with its technology news.

Yours sincerely,

Marie Boran
Journalist
Siliconrepublic.com
Tel: +353 (0)1 XXX XXXX
Mobile: 0XX XXXXXXX
Email: xxx@xxx.com

‘I didn’t email you because your daughter, who alerted me to your letter requesting an apology from the Independent in the first place, said she would pass on the email directly to you and that you might be in touch.’

Why would I be in touch? I did not know, and from the layout of the page it is not clear that Siliconrepublic.com is responsible for the content on the page. In fact there is a thick blue line under our photo separating it from the large advert and the article ‘Why don’t we do digital dinner?’ written by Marie Boran.

‘I didn’t create the caption ‘Weird Wide Web’, it is a pre-existing section for non-business related technology headlines.’

If the offending heading with the word WEIRD was pre Ms Boran, then I was correct in the first place addressing my correspondence to the Editor of the Irish Independent.

The second e-mail was sent to Elly (coincidently on my sixty-first Birthday) and not to me, therefore it was not mine to print here on the blog without permission.

Last week I phoned the Irish Independent and asked to speak to the Editor. I was informed that he was away and asked if I would like to speak to his deputy. She was not interested in hearing what I had to say she sounded condescending and her manner was almost rude. She informed me that it could take THREE weeks for the Editor to read an email???? Yes I did say three weeks!

On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 9:58 AM, Marie Boran - Siliconrepublic.com wrote:

Hi Elly,

Sorry for any offence caused by the heading ‘Weird Wide Web’ - that’s the section where eThursday does anything different ie not business related, but I can see how this caused offence to your mother. Tell her that I apologize sincerely and that I find nothing ‘weird’ about older bloggers and I am not ageist in the slightest.

Just to reiterate again, I didn’t write the caption ‘weird wide web’ - it is a standard label that is part of the eThur layout and was there before I even worked there but in order to get the blog awards and the fact that your mother won, into eThursday, I had to work around the standards that already exist.

I did write the text ‘Senior citizen bloggers known as Grannymar and Grandad tied for the award of the best personal blog at the Irish Blog Awards 2008′ but I do not see how this is offensive.

I will let the editor of eThursday know that your mother found it offensive to have her picture and name in the ‘weird wide web’ section and wants an apology printed.

Regards,
Marie Boran.

I replied to Marie Boran’s email to me saying that my anger was not with her as a person, but with the use of the heading above our picture. I noticed there was no picture the following week under the heading and the nuns she mentioned and pictured in the main article were well away from it! But then they were using mobile phones and nothing to do with blogging!

Did I get an Apology? I’m not Elly!

On one hand we are told that 60 is the new 40 and on the other we are past it and ready for the scrap heap! It is almost worse than being an adolescent!

I sat on my fury long enough.

You saw this picture and caption here on my blog the other day. I was annoyed not alone for myself, but also for Grandad and indeed for all older bloggers. If we were really weird, a major company like Microsoft would not have offered sponsorship for this category at the Irish Blog Awards.

Tonight I decided to deal with my fury and confront the Irish Independent with the email below.

Dear Editor,

On Thursday last I received a phone call encouraging me to read that day’s Irish Independent. On Page 18 of the Business section I discovered my photo. The surprise was not the photo, because it was taken at a public event.

The shock was the heading! ‘WEIRD WIDE WEB’ The caption was ‘Senior citizen bloggers known as Grannymar and Grandad tied for the award of the best personal blog at the Irish Blog Awards 2008’. Congratulations, you managed to get our names correct. Now before you make any more mistakes we are not married and met for the first time at the event.

I sat on my fury for a few days hoping that it would abate. It didn’t.

Please explain what is weird about older people blogging? Further down the page was a picture of two other Bloggers, young ladies half my age, I know that since one of them happens to be my daughter! You would not dare put a caption - ‘WEIRD WIDE WEB’ above them, I guarantee if you had, my daughter would have your guts for garters!

Am I wrong in assuming that the heading and caption were written by a young journalist? Why is that once silver threads begin to appear we are written off or thought to have lost our marbles? Let me tell you, neither Grandad nor I have lost our ability to use modern technology. We are both familiar with computers, email, blogging, Podcasting, Levelator, Skype and indeed Facebook!

I consider the term ‘WEIRD WIDE WEB’ an insult to all older Bloggers and hope that you will apologise to Grandad and I on page 18 of the business section next Thursday.

Sincerely

Grannymar

I arrived on Thursday

to a Red carpet welcome

and it was a pity I had to

arrive like this:

All because finally after 30 years in

Northern Ireland I became an

Orange woman!

Now you have all watched, listened and read while I complained about the endless dreary grey days over the past several months. Alas I spent most of it indoors. Indoors makes for pale people and ‘pale’ is certainly not my colour. My pride took over and after a lengthy debate (five minutes) drastic measures were needed. An appointment was quickly made at my local beauty salon. It had worked for Elly & George’s wedding back last June, everyone said how well I looked, so why not just repeat the performance once more!

I first had the now grey eyebrows and eyelashes dyed to add definition and then when all was dry I went to the spray paint shop! Now my instructions were as before: I wanted a healthy glow and not to look like I was marinated in carrot and orange juice for a month! She must have misheard the instruction, the difficulty was that the colour became stronger as it settled in. By morning Mr Robert Kilroy Silk was anaemic compared to me! Having arranged to meet Elly by lunchtime I decided to set out and she would come up with a solution for me. Little did I realise how punny that would turn out to be!

The eyelashes were the correct colour but alas the eyebrows looked as they were painted with an inch wide brush and the colour was completely wrong for me. If I was no picture, then Elly’s face sure made up for it! “OMG! What happened to you mum?” replaced the usual excited welcome and hug.

While I sipped coffee frantic calls were made to Elly’s good friend Ena at Isis Beauty Salon, and appointments were juggled about to accommodate me. Ena set to work and sorted the eyebrows. It was at this point we reached item No 3 from yesterdays list. You remember the ‘dipped, stripped and went a step further than Cleopatra!’ It is what you have waited a full day for. Using alcohol soaked pads she gently started to rub my face. “Yes its working”, squealed Elly, and I am not sure if it was encouragement for Ena or to appease me. Since I was lying down with my eyes closed I had no idea if I was now striped like a Zebra or spotted like a Leopard!

“VODKA!” said Ena. “Buy some on the way home and use it to bleach the skin”

Cleopatra bathed in Asses’ milk, so Grannymar would bathe in Vodka! I did and you all saw the result on Saturday! “This will make great posting material” I said to Elly. “Yes mum it will, but save it until next week or everyone will be walking up to you all night and giving you funny looks!” A couple of hours and I was ready for anything.

George arrived home with his work colleague Keith, our guest for dinner. Since he was going to the Irish Blog Awards and the Photo Walk organised by Red Mum with Elly early in the day it was natural for him to stay. We had great fun and we laughed about my disaster as we all prepared dinner. When you visit Elly it is all hands on deck and everyone plays a part in preparing the food. Wine was poured and the stories were told. It was a lovely beginning to a great weekend. So you see I was not kidding about having a Toyboy for dinner.

Once I entered the Alexander Hotel the Toyboys were surrounding me and falling to their knees.

Darren Byrne on his knees

Late in the evening I shared a couch with Twenty Major while being interviewed by Conn Ó Muíneacháin! Sworn to secrecy so there will be no pictures of Twenty! We finished with the story of the young gentleman who earlier shook my hand and told me I made his night, (now you don’t expect me to name him here, do you?). I told Conn that it was many a long year since I made any man’s night! With that the tape ran out and it was time for Cinderella to leave the Ball.

We had fun, we had laughter and met amazingly talented people, it was an honour to be there and the memories will linger for many a long year! Without you, my friends who read my blog and add the comments, none of this would happen>

Thank You!

I am home once more the case is unpacked, washing done, emails read and a good nights sleep later it is time to tell the ‘true’ story…..

Do you really want to know what happened in the week? But I told you already>

1. Finally after 30 years in Northern Ireland I became an Orange woman!

2. I was given a red carpet welcome to Dublin.

3. I was dipped, stripped and went a step further than Cleopatra!

4. I had a Toyboy for dinner.

5. I shared a stage with Grandad.

6. I had Toyboys falling to their knees and shared a couch with Twenty Major!

7. I won an arrangement of beautiful flowers

8. My computer doubled in size.

Now if it is details you want….. well, you have behaved well in my absence and I heard not one raised voice!

The VODKA can wait for the moment and I will begin at the end.

You will notice a new Irish Blog Awards logo over on the left. Thanks for it are due to Robin from ByteSurgery, a worthy winner of the Best Technology Award. Robin’s mum Steph from The Biopsy Report also a finalist for Best Personal Blog, was a real kindred spirit and we had a ball on the big night. A mention is also due to Robin’s sister who sat patiently while I introduced Steph to all my Toyboys!

Elly my beautiful one and only daughter who almost stayed in her top on Saturday night, entered a competition sponsored by Eamonn from Flowers Made Easy with a post entitled ‘My Mum’. Whether you believe the rubbish she wrote about me is your choice, I did not recognise ‘little old me’ in there at all! She has three mothers you know, so maybe it was about one of them! I’m keeping the Flowers!

The Flowers were beautiful and to prove it we have a picture taken by Elly with my camera. Since she is packing in readiness to move house it was difficult to find a space among the boxes to display them properly. She won the arrangement for blogging about her blogging mother so I thought on top of my computer hard drive would be ideal. Thank you George for the new thingy-whatsits you found time to add into it for me. The innards are now double the size they were before I went to Dublin. The only trouble now is, the ‘puter is working faster and I have no excuse for not doing things on it.

The Grand Reserve Brut, by Bubble Brothers and sponsored by Hosting 365 in the picture, was part of every Award Winners booty on the night, it is the only part of my prize that I have home with me. Every winner in each category received a Crystal Glass Award, the Bubbly and a DVD Player, the latter sponsored by moviestar.ie.

Since I was a joint winner with Grandad from Head Rambles for the Best Personal Blog sponsored by Microsoft and presented by Martha Rotter there was only one award and he has that, well he needed a paperweight for his bills! I have no TV (by choice) so I passed on the DVD to someone who did Trojan work on the day. That is why I am unable to show pictures. The recognition of my peers is more than enough for me. Trophies need cleaning and dusting and that might take me away from blogging, we wouldn’t want that now would we?

The photo with Martha is from Rymus the official photographer on the night and there are plenty more if you click on his name.

Now that is Nos 5, 7 & 8 covered, so the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

It is Tuesday morning in a cold but sunny Dublin suburb and I have a few minutes to play on my blog. So much has happened since this time last week. I at that point was still on the long, short list for The Irish Blog Awards!

So exactly what happened in the week?

1. Finally after 30 years in Northern Ireland I became an Orange woman!

2. I was given a red carpet welcome to Dublin.

3. I was dipped, stripped and went a step further than Cleopatra!

4. I had a Toyboy for dinner.

5. I shared a stage with Grandad.

6. I had Toyboys falling to their knees and shared a couch with Twenty Major!

7. I WON AN ARRANGEMENT OF BEAUTIFUL fLOWERS

Now if it is details you want you will have to wait for my return to home territory. And I plead with all of you not to mention VODKA!!!!!!!