Fun Monday

I've not done this before, I saw it on Judy's blog and thought it looked like fun, but then never managed to remember it was Monday in time to take part!

The hostess for this week’s exercise is Gattina at Writer Cramps and she wants to see photos of blogging places. You'd have thought I'd have tidied mine up before I took the picture. I reckoned that would have defeated the purpose though!

I have been asked to say could you please note my daughter's lovely sunflower, and if you can spot the red sticker at the bottom of my monitor, the story behind it is here

Now, that was a nice easy one for me to start with, thanks Gattina. I can't guarantee I will ever participate in Fun Monday again. It depends if I can remember what day of the week it is ...

Absolutely superb!

Last night at Ravenhill

From the Kukri Allstarzz blurb:

'The team is the only professional sports dance team in the UK and is made up of 24 of the finest dancers hand picked from nationwide auditions'

So when a bevy of beauties pranced out onto the pitch to do their stuff at half time, accompanied by a fat ginger bloke in shorts, you can see how I thought the bloke was a spoof, an infiltrating clown from the Ulster faithful having a laugh or some plant picked from the spectators.

Sadly no. He dropped his girl, fell on his ass and danced like he'd just had 6 pints of the best Magners have to offer.

'The Kukri Allstarzz - accept nothing less because second best is never good enough.'

What were you doing when?

Thanks to Steve (I think!) for nominating me for this wee meme. Five events and the opportunity to record the impact they had on you:

Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997

I was at home in Belfast, woke up on the Sunday morning and turned on the radio beside the bed. Unusually for a weekend, even in Belfast at that stage before 'the peace', the Rev Ian Paisley was sermonising, so I snuggled back down under the covers, not paying too much attention. Slowly however, the reality that something REALLY big had happened started to dawn, so I paid more attention, but was unable to establish exactly what (at one stage I actually thought the Queen was dead). It took me to get up and turn on the TV to find out that Diana had been killed in an accident.

Margaret Thatcher's resignation - 22 November 1990

I am not, and never have been, a political being. Therefore, although I do remember Margaret Thatcher leaving No.10, in the political cauldron that was Northern Ireland at the time, it really didn't mean much to me. Just a new face on a new leader with new ideas on how to solve our age old problem. We'd still be shooting and bombing each other, ruining our economy, our image and our country, and driving our young people away no matter who held the reins.

Attack on the twin towers - 11 September 2001

I was at a meeting in work when a colleague literally burst in and told us the world trade centres had been blown up. Naturally, we didn't believe him, until we huddled round a TV set in the office and saw it all for ourselves. That's when another colleague suddenly realised that her daughter was in New York at the time. Scary, very scary. At home, we had to turn the coverage off because my then 2 year old thought every rerun of the footage was a new plane crashing. We thought 30 odd years of terrorism had hardened us. It hadn't.

England's World Cup semi final v Germany - 4 July 1990

Really, I don't know because really, I wouldn't have cared. Football? England?? However, I can tell you EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing when Ireland beat England in the rugby Six Nations, Saturday 6th March 2004 :-)

President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963

Not to put too fine a point on it, I was a little ovum in a little ovary. I wasn't even a twinkle in anybody's eye, because it would be another year before my parents were even married. Having said that, I love a good conspiracy theory, and the release in 1991 of the film JFK starring Kevin Costner started me on an extended period of reading everything and anything to do with the assassination. The earliest 'celebrity' death I remember was Elvis, August 16 1977. I was 10. I cried.

I now nominate:

Wils
Cosmo
Judy
Dana
Pluto

Shoe Day

This is the day, generally in August, when we buy the new shoes required by the children for the incoming years activities. This includes:

1. school shoes x2
2. gym shoes x2
3. rugby boots x2
4. Irish dance shoes x1

Today was shoe day. The total bill for shoes this year came to £209.97. Or two days work.

FINALLY, there was enough sun for me to get the top off

On my car of course;-)

(It still rained a bit though)

Where's my ark?

Just in case any of you didn't believe me about the amount of rain we have been having this summer ... watch this clip to see the effect of Saturday's rain alone!

Apparently there were at least six cars trapped in this underpass, and police divers had to go in to ensure it was only cars and not their occupants.

And guess what ... it's raining again today ... and theres more forecast for tomorrow ... and the next day ...

Well, if it's not going to stop .....

Standing Up for the Ulstermen at Ravenhill!

Ready for the new rugby season

End of a Facebook era

My good friend Pluto contacted me yesterday (having been released from his incarceration in Siberia for being an International terrorist) to tell me he was deactivating his Facebook account.

He sited boredom as his reason, although I think it has more to do with the fact that he's been on Facebook for ten months now and has not managed to get any friends. Not one. Except me.

So I was instructed that I would just have to call round to his place of work if I wanted to poke him or write on his wall.

Well now, don't tempt me buddy - you know I might just do that!

Could you please remove your belt

Yesterday I had opportunity to fly to Glasgow for the day. I love flying, but I have to say I find the hoops I increasingly have to jump through for security reasons quite irksome. Especially as there does not appear to be consistency between airports or even between visits to the same airport!

For example, yesterday on my return journey from Glasgow nobody anywhere near security asked me did I have any liquids in my handbag, checked to see if I had any liquids in my handbag or offered me a clear plastic ziplock bag to put any liquids I might have had in my handbag into!

Whereas in Belfast on the way out a couple of passengers were removed from the security queue because they were putting their liquids into said clear ziplock plastic bag whist waiting in the queue. Indeed, great show was made of the fact that this had to be done before you got anywhere near the back of the security queue.

Also, at security in Belfast I had to take my shoes off and put them through the x-ray machine. It's not three weeks since I last passed through the same airport enroute to Crete, and nobody had to remove as much as a shoe on that occasion. Explain?

The defining moment came, however, when I was asked to remove the belt from my trousers. I was wearing a pair of baggy style jeans which fitted perfectly when I bought them about a year ago, but something has happened to me in that year and I have become narrower. (This I am actually able to prove through another experience I had in John Lewis yesterday where I discovered I had lost 2 inches off the width of my back)

As soon as I removed the belt, the jeans started to slip. So I'm manfully holding onto a handful of waistband with one hand whilst putting my stuff on the x-ray machine with the other and sliding about in sock soles. And then I have to walk through the x-ray machine and of course be searched, which required me to put my arms out. Both of them at once.

Now, I know it's trendy for boarders to wear their waistbands halfway down their arse, but I'm a 'something' year old woman, and I don't believe the staff and passengers at Belfast International deserved to see such a dazzling display of my M&S (bought before the tit tax) undies so early on a Saturday morning.

Though there's a part of me that says serves them right!

Last night I died and went to chocolate heaven

Wils, I think you need to fill us all in ... and post a recipe!

Yum yum yum :-)

Last Choir Standing

For those of you who live abroad, or who don't watch the BBC show, have a look at this link and see the excellent choir from Belfast taking part in the competition.

22:00 hrs update. Actually, they've just been put out of the competition, but they're still excellent and worth a listen.