Grannymar

The day dawned with a covering of frost, but the sun worked her magic and won the battle of the day.  My Toyboy arrived on time, if anything he was a few minutes early.  We are both good time keepers so that was not a problem.  I had made several suggestions for multi-story parking, but lo and behold he found a ground level car park right on the corner of Arthur Street!  How lucky can you get?  Last time I was that direction it was a building.

So on to the Restaurant.  We chose Café Vaudeville.  I remember the days when it was headquarters for the First Trust Bank. The website tells us

Cafe Vaudeville is located in Belfast’s  Arthur Street it’s most recent alter ego was as a Bank but prior to this  back in 1825 it was the headquarters of  Dunville & Co. Originally engaged in a variety of merchant trading operations, Dunville abandoned his tea businees to make room for the growing demands for whiskey.

In time Dunville & Co became the region’s premier whiskey distillery exporting throughout the world.

So from a former whiskey house through banking Cafe Vaudeville has transformed  once again to a Luxe Bar. Once you step through our doors it’s possible to lose all sense of time, enter a world thats totally Vaudeville.

Later in the week I have a date with a Toyboy  A REAL one!  The very Toyboy who first christened me with the name Grannymar way back about 37 years ago!

This handsome young man was still at school when I met him and in essence he has not changed.  Having read Law and worked his way up the ranks, made his fortune - enough to have two homes - one at home in Ireland and another in warmer climes, he retired at 50 to turn his hand to writing full time.  Blessed with the gift for words, I predict he will do well.

All down the years he has never forgotten me, meeting up when possible, sending cards, making calls and now texting or emailing me with news of his life from whatever corner of the world he is in, or just to find out how I am doing.

He checked with me yesterday that there were no hitches to the arrangements and  asked me to pick the venue saying “ Lets hang the expense and go the best and nicest place! My treat.”

I have the feeling that I might be spoilt for the day!

Now I wonder where we should go?

I wonder what he did to earn this:

I saw this the other day on Dublin Taxi

Is it yours?

I am off to calm down…. See you this afternoon.

UPDATE:  LBC Post will go live at 15.00 GMT from today.

My Toyboy did well!

He jumped for a Granny & Carelocal.ie

Before:

Darragh in the centre geared up and ready to go, photo by Niamh

During:

Photo taken and tweeted from his mobile phone from the air as the parachute opened by Darragh .

Back on the ground shortly after 2pm:

Not sure he can believe he did it.  Photo by Niamh.

Congratulations Darragh!  You have put smiles on many faces today.

A wonderfully high note to end a very low week!

I wrote earlier about a Toyboy who will reach great heights before rushing back down to earth on 30th May in aid of CARELOCAL

#~#~##~#~#

Next I want to draw your attention to another one (yet to receive his badge) who will go the extra mile in Dublin on Monday 1^st June.

Paddy Anglican or perhaps I should say my alter ego Patricia Anglican is running the Flora Womens Mini Marathon in Dublin on Bank Holiday Monday 1^st June 2009. We are not sure yet what she will be wearing but below are a few of the possible looks we might go for.

He will not be alone; no he will be bringing part of Grannymar with him! Now I will say no more for now… You will just have to go along on the day to see how he does it!

Patricia Anglican will be running in aid of the parish school – Cloughjordan No.1 N.S. Any funds raised (after pantyhose allowance) will be used towards the purchase of Interactive White Boards for the school. In light of the worsening economic situation there is little prospect of state funding for the school ICT program in the next few years which will put our young people at a huge disadvantage when and if things get better in the world economy. The interactive white boards retail at around €4000.

With all the heart wrenching news of how children have been abused and defiled in schools in our land for most of the last century, we now have an opportunity to show in a small way that we care for the students of today. They are our future.

(())-(())-(())-(())

My third Toyboy in the news this week is a real High Flyer.  

Visitors to my blog may not be familiar with Robin Blandford, but you all know Steph his very proud mum. While Steph has struggled with her own health issues she has continued to support and encourage her son.

It was only a year ago that Robin an award-winning technology blogger, returned from Singapore where he was on placement with Thomson Reuters, to concentrate full time on his own project.

Robin was identified early in his graduate recruitment cycle at Thomson Reuters as ‘one to watch’ and was placed on an accelerated management programme with the company. Robin has worked professionally in digital media since leaving university, forming strong industry contacts in London, Dublin, and Singapore. Robin is a volunteer cliff rescue climber with the Irish Coast Guard. A proven innovator with strong technical ability and team leadership.

At just 25 years of age he has flown from Digital Media Engineer at Dublin City University through to ByteSurgery company founder. Well done Robin.

Further Reading:- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0522/1224247099748.html

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?

Coming home after a week chasing Toyboys visiting blogging friends, staying with Elly and seeing relations, leaves me with plenty of chores to do. I did a bit of this

Then I had to do a bit of that

Then I took a run down here…

And finally I have started to make a list…

You see the post arrived while I was out and I found a little package lying in the hall. Do you want to know what was in it?

Thanks to Will for the idea, for organising them and these last two images.

What do you think?

Yesterday I went to town. No, not my town but all the way to Belfast. It was a nice day and there were plenty of people about.

It started off like this:

Then this:

But I got restless and went in search of

Then I found a nice one and hi-jacked him into buying me a coffee. After some sweet talking I I took him for a ride drive. We nearly got lost because I took the wrong way went the picturesque route and we ended up here

But I couldn’t resist so I made him

After that there was only one thing for it…

But we got

Jefferson Davis it was an honour to meet you and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with you. Enjoy the remainder of your holiday and safe journey home to South Carolina.

With thanks to the man from Peru who offered to take this picture.

Here I am back at my own puter and the words are behaving like my singing voice does these days. I open my mouth to sing and nothing - zilch comes out. Now I was never in any doubt of my lack of singing talent, but I always enjoyed singing along with the crowd or the radio.

The left ear is getting worse so if you want to whisper sweet nothings into my shell like, make it the right one. When I answer the phone, I am not greeted with “Good morning Grannymar, how are you?” No I hear “Oh Grannymar that is a dreadful cold you have!” My voice is hoarse and my throat is sore in the mornings.

So before the Elly wan starts nagging, I have phoned the Health Centre. Would you believe it, my GP has no appointments left this year! YES, I did say no appointments left this year. They did offer to ask her to phone me and she did within half an hour. She said it would be a good idea to be seen today so she gave me an appointment to see someone else this afternoon.

I wonder if they can do head transplants yet? If not I might ask if the do shotguns on the NHS. I have to do something ’cause it is very waring having to remember to keep the Toy boy on my right side.

So when next you hear from me I might be topless. Now that would make an interesting picture me driving home topless with my head on the passenger seat. Do you think the head will need a seatbelt?

Sing among yourselves for now….

Do you really need TLC when you have a senior moment?