Grannymar

We had that chat.

You know the one about the effects of passing time…..

Who else but my Elly?  You know how it goes….

“Mum, I think you need updating!”

There are days when I am glad that I had only one daughter.  What must it be like to have an army of young ladies surrounding you like a gaggle of geese pointing out all those little faults.  Too fat, too thin, well the first never applied to me so that is something I suppose.   Then there is the “Take that off it makes you look….. look… look OLD!”

So I had a long think about this face lift.  People wonder why I seldom sleep!  So what options are open to me: a do-it-myself jobbie or let the professionals run riot all over the shop?

What exactly would I like them to do?

• A little Resurfacing to smooth the faded and tired layers.  A chemical peel or laser resurfacing.
• Pulsed light therapy to stimulate the middle layer.
• Creams & pastels to enhance and soften.
• Tissue augmentation to plump out deep wrinkles with injections of collagen or other types of filler.
• Botulinum toxin injections?

Are you joking?  I certainly do not want to last two.  I want a clean healthy make-over.

Facelift surgery is common in springtime.  However, in order to make an informed decision and give my consent, I need to be aware of the possible side-effects and the risk of complications.

• Staying under wraps while the work is executed.
• Being out of reach or contact for a couple of days.
• Acceptance of the new look

Right, I think I need to go over those photographs again.

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WARNING

The facelift I am talking about is for my blog and not me.  It will not happen today and I will give you plenty of warning before we have a break in transmission.

I like old buildings and hate to see them fall into disrepair.   I have blogged about a few of them in the past:

• Kirkpatricks Flax Mill
• Mossley Mill
• St John’s Church, Donegore
• Ulster Hall Belfast

As with all old buildings I like to stand and visualize them in their heyday with large groups of people working away.  I see in my minds eye the machinery and hear the clangs and clatters as it is used.  I hear the voices of instruction, correction, encouragement, banter and also the laughter.  I feel the heat, the cold or the dampness.  I remember that children of a young age, often only into double figures, worked long hours for a pittance.

Life back then was very ‘local’.  Without our modern means of transport and communication, life revolved around the mill or factory.  Romances blossomed over or behind the machinery.  One generation followed another into the factory.

I think of the offices with the high desks where the clerks sat on high stools or chairs.  These staff dressed and indeed addressed  each other formally.  There was no going to work in sports wear or looking like you had slept in your clothes for a week and forgotten to brush your hair!

The furniture was heavy and there were no castors to aid with moving it.  Decoration and paintwork were dark and the windows were high and small.  Lighting was poor, and coffee machines unheard of.  In fact eating at work would be frowned on.

All records of the work were hand written into large ledgers using dip pens.  Any mistake, misspelling or ink blot was permanent.  The accounts involved long and cross tots; mental arithmetic, a pencil and eraser the only aids.  Orders, invoices and receipts were hand written ready to be delivered by messenger boys.  Wages were paid weekly by cash counted into the hand of each employee.  The cost of breakages or for time lost was often deducted.  Holidays were few.  In these parts the annual holiday was a day out to Portrush on 13th July.

So today on Ada Lovelace Day* an international celebration of women in technology that centres around the use of blogs.  I am pleased the workplace has advanced to the stage that it is, wherever we are, user friendly bright and warm.

Three cheers to our women in Technology today.  On behalf of future generations we thank you!

* Ada Lovelace was born in 1815, and is recognised as one of the first computer programmers. She wrote programs for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, along with the very first description of a computer and software.

I finally reached home late yesterday afternoon with Tobias for company.

My little car served me well and I drove over 300 miles in the ten days. That did not count the extra mileage covered on the journey to Cork, or the hour not traveling anywhere just sitting on board an aircraft on the tarmac playing hunt the non existent passenger 166!

The evening passed in connecting my docking station, broadband & installing  Skype, Twitter & MSN Messenger.  My camera is not yet connected so the few photos I have from my trip are still in my camera.  I also seem to have mislaid my folder of pictures.

Perhaps the George fella was expecting me to have problems.  He kept my PC hard drive saying it had a problem.  The only problem that I can see is I might have slipped back to using it… Well I don’t have it so must persist with Tobias.  It was a cunning plan.

Later today I will try to locate my photographs and connect my camera.  I also need to sort out user names and passwords, I seem to have oodles!  I am hoping to make a good attempt at clearing my RSS Reader, I am so far behind with blog reading, so put the kettle on and I will pay a visit.

Normal service will resume on Monday.

The house is quiet, the young folk are away to their good warm work.  I am sitting up in bed with Tobias.

Henry seems to have completed his mornings work and all I need to do is make the pancake batter for this evening.  Yesterday passed in a hazy blur.  I spent the day recovering from a very full and busy few days,I re-lived in my mind all the conversations from the weekend and lost count of the number of new friends I made.  If I am quiet, worry not I might be exploring new blogs.

I also need to develop my relationship with Tobias, he needs to know that I will be in charge….!  We are getting to know each other slowly.  A tender touch is all he needs!  Like all toyboys he has many little quirks and we need to iron them out to suit me if he is to be my constant companion.

So who is Tobias?

Why, Tobias is my new laptop.

When George adds all my information and programmes from my PC there will be no holding me back. At the moment I am finding my way with Chrome (is that what you call it?) and it is a little different to Firefox.  I don’t miss the mouse so far and I enjoy the warmth for my hovering cold hands.  A new barstool for my kitchen is now top of my list and in the winter months I may never leave the kitchen!

When the summer comes I am looking forward to sitting outside in the garden and working away with Tobias.

Do you think I can teach him to cut the grass?

Follow all the people who follow me on Twitter but….

There are only so many hours in a day.

I have a real life.

I need to cook and clean

I need to move, take exercise and rest my eyes from the computer screen

I have a blog to maintain and feed

So my solution is: If I don’t already know you, or your blog, or at least three people on your list of followers, then sorry not this time!

Learn about Facebook…

Again it is time consuming. I think had I realised what it was like at the beginning I might never have joined in the first place.

It is one thing to accept somebody as a friend, but when every single request requires opening yet another application – not my thing at all. I am not being rude but Facebook BORES me!

Be a Judge for the Irish Blog Awards…

I thought about it last year. I thought about it again this year but…

If on the off chance I am nominated, and there are practically no categories that I would fit neatly into, then it would rule me out of judging those. I have to admit that some of the categories I know little or nothing about, for example, technology, business and music, so they are out.

Then we have colour – that was the final straw for my decision to stay away. The blogs themselves are the problem. Black and some coloured backgrounds are a major problem for me to read. Today I opened a blog for the first time and I am sure the content was fascinating, but I was straining my eyes and the print was ghosting! I was unable to find where to comment to even inform the author of my difficulty because the print was so feint.

What is the point in going to the trouble of setting up and running a blog if people cannot read it?

I want to play my part, I owe it for all the fun I have had these past couple of years, but I would have Damien’s head turned, saying I cant’t see this one, or I know nothing about that subject…

OK I am no longer a youngling, and I do have a cataract forming in one eye, but I can still see and my eyes were tested recently and my glasses are fine!

I suppose I could offer an hour on the desk on the big night!

Comment early and often –well before 5pm today. At that stage my blog will go for a short holiday for a few hours, some background moving and shaking needs to be done.

I can just imagine Michele & co from Blacknight my friendly Hosting Co; all decked out with rubber gloves and feather dusters flicking about in the bowels of my blog. Thanks guys!

Grannymar will return all bright and effervescent without the help of liver salts!

Years ago my father told me that it was a sign you were getting old when the policemen looked like school boys! Alas, the police have looked like schoolboys and schoolgirls to me for many a year now.

Sigh!

When I began this blogging lark most of my early contacts were Elly’s age group, yes I saw them as children. Well they were for the most part half my age. Over time the age groups widened. There were 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and a few 60s and now they go way up to the 80s.

It was the ageing downward that took me by surprise….

At Podcamp Ireland in Kilkenny 2007, I met Ian Healy a fine young school going lad who was very interested in all that went on. Alas, computer access with Dial-up internet prevents him from blogging and joining in the fun as much as he would like. He was back with us once more for Podcamp Kilkenny 2008. As soon as he saw me he shook hands and we picked up the conversation from the previous year.

Again at Podcamp this year, I met and spoke to Cian MacMahon a fifth year student who podcasts as a hobby and so far has succeeded in finding two sponsors to cover his hosting expenses. Cian is a handsome young man with a crystal clear voice and excellent diction and I predict he will go places in the not to distant future.

I first became aware of him at a talk led by Darragh Doyle, and like Darragh he is not afraid to approach and engage with people. Our paths crossed again later in the day when he attended my conversation about blogging and podcasting for the elderly. He stayed chatting long after the talk ended and kindly asked if I would consent to being interviewed for one of his podcasts. Email addresses were exchanged arrangements made and the recording took place some weeks ago via Skype, with Cian in Dublin and me with my feet up in Co Antrim! I think that episode will be available this weekend and there are plenty more examples of Cian’s work at View from the Quad.

The third young man I want to bring to your attention is Tommy Collison, a 14 year old student from Castletroy College in Limerick. His blogging home is to be found at Trust Tommy.com and once homework is out of the road Tommy joins the conversation on Twitter, where his short bio of 160 characters describes him as “Irish drummer, blogger, student, mischief-maker and maker of killer pancakes”.

So this keen drummer, and his work can be found on YouTube. Among his favourite bands are Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Dresden Dolls, Coldplay, Muse and Jamie Cullum. An avid reader he enjoys the words of Authors like Philip Pullman, Ian Fleming, Robert Muchamore and Stephen King.

Now I wonder what I have to do to get one of Tommy’s pancakes?

Now hold on a minute! I never said anything about killing folk. That is not in my nature. I am talking about health here and keeping everything soft and supple.

A chair that does all this:

Real massage chair mechanism

Shiatsu and Rolling massage: 4 independent rollers travel up and down back

Targeted relief of any back area

6 programs: full, lower or upper back in either massage style

Spot Shiatsu massage: massage action just where you need it!

Adjustable roller width to comfortably fit your body

Vivid LED illuminates massage mechanism

I saw one of these last week and just had to try it. It was wonderful. Elly was with me and of course she had to have a go as well. It was good that there were two chairs in operation at the time because I was not about to stand and watch her have all the fun!

Apparently I was moaning and groaning with pleasure! My daughter kept telling me to be quiet. In fact the words she used were ” Mammy, please! Anyone would think you were having sex!” What a thing for a young lady to say to her dear old mother! Chance would be a fine thing!

Well you know what’s coming…

“Well, it is the nearest thing to sex that I have had in a long time” says I.

There was only one solution for it. I bought one and took it home. I have it here on my chair by the computer and twice a day when I need to think and rest I sit back and switch it on.

Pure heaven.

Just like a Toyboy dancing up and down my back!

Is it any wonder I have a smile on my face.

So you want to know what I did.

I attended

I did, and it was fun!

Andy puts us on the list!

Apart from the Tekkie Presentations I learned….

The story of Good Coffee

How to shave by

How to improve my life

Conference Essentials: Water, Internet, Coffee, Electricity,Signs and I will add Loos.

How Mogulus.com works the system used by Richard Jolly to Live Stream the events of the day.

Phil & Davy check the light.

I had the chance to network (did I get that right?) with new people and made new friends, now I have new Blogs to follow.

In the afternoon Darragh Doyle and I led a conversation on Blogging:

What it’s about, how you should (and shouldn’t), how to enjoy it, sharing your stories, selling your brand and ideas, building your audience. Using blogs and social networking together, for your benefit

Quotes from the day:

I really enjoyed your conversation technique. I wouldn’t have said anything otherwise… ~ Phil O’Kane to Darragh.

Barcamp Belfast was great fun yesterday, the event, the presentation, but most of all almost everyone engaging at the event is what made it ~ Davy Mc

Andy, Phil and others put tremendous effort into the preparation for and all during the day. I know that we attendees appreciated their efforts. Many thanks

I came home with booty:

A new T-shirt (Elly have we swapped lives?), a laptop bag, badges and money!

Thanks Andy for the bag it will be put to good use. I found the four ‘AU’ badges and the penny inside one of the pockets, no tenners I promise! I will keep them until the next photo walk.

Darragh I will wear my ‘Hugged’ badge with pride.

P.S. Darragh suggests that all the Toyboys who received ‘A Grannymar Toyboy’ badge should have a photo taken wearing it and post it on their blog and link to me… That boy has some funny ideas I still have a few to pass on.

I look forward to the next BarCamp and hope to see you there.

Twitter is not twittering properly.

Amazon is not amazing.

Google Mail is acting up.

Since the unmanned Phoenix space probe made its successful landing on Mars on 25th May, the Interweb has wobbled

Image courtesy of BBC News

Until it settles you need something to think about!

Have a nice Weekend!