It's only words.

Hello. Me again.

Glad you enjoyed my ode to the fly (again).  It was nice to hear that so many people missed me and were glad to see me back, even if it was a re-hash of an old post that I made my come back with.  I don't know why I stayed away.  Laziness I suppose.

Anyway, I read something today that made me think again of something else I had written about awhile ago.

Today, I read that the word 'adorkable' is now in the Collins dictionary.  As voted in by Twitter users.  (I'm a twitter user, and I don't remember being asked to vote!)  'Jorts' and 'twerk' have also been added to the Oxford dictionary, in case you're interested?!

I watched a television program about language changes recently, where a couple of 'boffins of the English language pointed out how our language has changed over the last few decades.  Fair enough, that makes sense, I have trouble with the stuff Shakespeare wrote all those year ago.  They, the boffins, also told me that in a hundred years nobody will understand what we have written today.

A hundred years??

At the rate we are adding new words to our vocabulary I don't think we will have to wait that long.  I already have trouble understanding the person of the younger generation that lives in this house with me.  When I disturb him by asking a simple question (for example:  "How are you?")  I get such responses as:  "Effort!!  You're wrecking the buzz Ma!!".

And don't get me started on the over use of the word 'like'.

With that in mind, and in case that, a hundred years from now, somebody is reading this post, I though I would write in the style of today.

So, like.  Bored, actually!  Squee, like! (emoji)  Bored cos I'm, like, on an enforced digital detox.  Effort!  Enforced detox cos the WiFi is down.  Did I tell you, like, that I was at a gig at the weekend with the folks, and my Dad was, like, srsly bad twerking to 1D, I was literally, like, morto,   (Unlike!!!)  So, going now for some retail therapy, like, with my hunz.  Might buy some flatforms or cake pops, oh ya, deffo cake pops, cos they are, like, buzzworthy.  Tho', like, if I do buy anything I wont' be able to selfie as my phablet is out of credit.  Effort!  It's enough to make you. like, vom! (emoji, emoji, emoji)  Deffo doing the streetfood while I'm out.  Like.  SERIOUSLY!!  Bored, (emoji, emoji...) xoxo

Imagine Shakespeare reading that!  Although he could probably turn it into a three act tragedy very quickly. And I wouldn't like to be an English teacher trying to correct it.

I read a quote on Twitter today from somebody who speaks English very well, the Queen of England!  She said "There are no 'Americanisms', there are just mistakes." Could she be considered adorkable?

Would love to stay and chat, but I have a dinner to make, a dog to walk and some twerking to practice...

Ode to a fly, revisited!

Hello!

I know I haven't been here for a while (did you miss me?) and I know what I am posting is not new (sorry!).  But!  Having spent the last hour reclaiming my window ledges from the hoards of flies that have decided to use them as their last resting place, I thought this 'poem' deserved another outing...

Ode to a fly!

Could somebody please tell me why,
at the end of the short life of a fly,
when they can go here or there
or in fact anywhere,
that they land on my window ledge when they die?

They really are such a pest,
when on my ledges they get laid to rest.
And they bring all their friends
the procession never ends,
and they really put my nerves to the test!

So a solution to this problem I must find.
And, I already have something in mind!
I'll try employing a spider,
to make my ledges tidier,
then my problem will be an eight legged kind....

A good read.

Anyone heard of Erdem Gunduz?  Yes?  No?

Well he was the guy who started the silent protest in Turkey.  He's a performing artist and not politically active, but he inspired lots of people to join him at Taksim Square last month, while he stood quietly in what the papers called passive defiance.  Thanks to the social media, his image quickly spread and he was joined in other cities around Turkey.

Inspirational indeed!

His inspiration has spread all the way to Dublin, Ireland, as today a silent protest, Erdem style, has been organised to be held outside our Government buildings from 3.30pm until (in typical Irish style) the last bus leaves town!

Two young Irish ladies have organised this protest after hearing the 'Anglo Tapes'.  They are encouraging protesters to bring along a book to reflect what they are feeling about what's happening in the country at the moment, and to stand in silence outside the gates of Leinster House to send a silent message to that lot inside!

A good idea.  All you need to go with the good idea, is a good read!

They are discussing this on the radio at the moment and are asking the listeners what book would they bring to reflect what they are feeling at the moment.

A sample of the suggestions so far:

The Idiots guide to Banking
Banking for Dummies
One flew over the Cuckoos Nest
Dracula (In reference to the bloodsucking Bankers)
The God Delusion
The Merchant of Venice (In reference to the 'pound of flesh')

Lots of callers suggested bringing their Anglo Irish bank books that show a zero balance!  One caller suggested bringing the dictionary and hold it open on a page with a word that starts with 'W' and rhymes with bankers....

I'm not going to go into town and protest, but I thought I might join them remotely and in the spirit of the protest, sit quietly at home and read a book.

I'm not sure I have a copy of Banking for Dummies to hand, so, any suggestions as to what I might read??

Warren Who??

As a very small nation, we don't have many great sporting achievements or sports personalities to shout about.  Having a very small population leads to a very small pool of highly trained athletes and sports people.  But I'm sure if you took the time and did a search on the big WWW, you would find a list of our greatest athletes and achievements over the last century or two.  But when we do get a good one, we really get behind him/her.

In case you haven't got time (or couldn't be bothered!) to do this, I'll give you a quick run through of the one's I can remember from recent years...

...Like when Ronnie Delaney won that gold medal in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics...   OK, I don't actually remember this as it was before my time, (yes, even I am not that old!) but it was great achievement for Ireland.  I don't think we won another Olympic medal until a little boxer from Dublin, Michael Carruth, got the gold in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

...Then there was the time when Ray Houghton put the ball in the English net...

We really loved him for that!

Of course, there are lots of others that should get a mention, so here are a few more that you can look up when you are doing your search.  (Ah go on, you know you will!!)

John Tracey
Roy Keane
Eamon Coughlan
Sonia O'Sullivan
Sean Kelly
George Best
Ray Houghton (He put the ball in the English net)


I just took those few off the top of my head and of course there are lots more, but you get the picture.  And each time one of these greats won something, this whole Island would be on a high for days!

Did I mention the time that Ray Houghton put the ball in the English net?  Ahhh....What a day that was.

There are no Olympics or World Cup for us to follow this summer, so instead we have been following the Olympics of the Rugby World.  The Lions tour in Australia.  

And for this tour, we certainly had something to shout about. The nations favorite Rugby player, Brian O'Driscoll (BOD or GOD as he is sometimes referred to!!), has been on tour with The Lions.  (And while he hasn't put the ball in the English net , he has put the ball over the English line, several times!)  BOD is one of those good ones that I have been talking about.  So, the last match of the tournament is being played this Saturday down under, and with BOD ready to retire we were all looking forward to watching him bask in it all, for one last great and glorious time.  It will be, as the papers were saying, a fairy tale ending to his outstanding career.

Well, you can imagine our shock and disbelief when we woke up this morning and were greeted with some terrible news!!

BOD has been dropped from the team.

And to make matters worse, he isn't even on the bench!!!  WTF???

He, like the rest of us, will have to watch from the side...  Warren Gatland, the Welsh Rugby Team coach, and also the coach of the Lions team, has picked a mostly Welsh team for the last game.  And he isn't even Welsh!!  (And while I think of it, the team plays in a red strip, and so do the Welsh!!)

Needless to say, the reaction here on the Emerald Isle has been one of great annoyance!  Mind you, our closest neighbors, the Welsh (!!) are not so annoyed.  Like me, there are lots of other very disappointed and disgruntled Rugby fans with long faces wandering the streets in despair, with no high to look forward to on Saturday....  no basking in the glory... no fairy tale ending...

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly summed it up for me in a tweet today, with his usual flair, and I quote, "With the greatest of respect, Warren Gatland can FRO"!!

Anyway...

Did I tell you about the time that Ray Houghton but the ball in the English net...

Bread and water!

I'm on a sun bed,  with the ocean on one side of me and a swimming pool on the other...

I'm sitting on a raised sun deck and when I look down, I can see a guy snorkeling in the clear blue sea below me, his flippers making little splashes and the yellow tip of his snorkel peeping in and out of the water as he bends his head down further to catch a glimpse of some interesting sea life.  And when I look up I can see a yacht perched just off the headland that's jutting out into the water, there are people jumping off the back of the yacht into the water.   I can also see a speed boat ripping through the water, leaving its white wake behind it,  and another smaller boat top heavy with people in diving gear on their way out to sea... Seriously, one of these days I am going to learn to swim, then I will be out in the speed boat (or the yacht) instead of sitting on the shore being envious...

Hello from sunny Malta!

I'm not going to give you a history (or geography) lesson on Malta, you can look it up for yourself if you are interested.  But even this little Island, that has been invaded by just about every empire over the course of its history, was not quite ready for the invasion of the Irish last Friday.  We immediately set up base camp at the pool and it was full steam ahead with our occupation.  A battalion of women from Dublin are not a force to be reckoned with, which the pool attendant learned very quickly and seemed resigned to his fate.  And the poor waiter at breakfast on Saturday morning surrendered almost as quickly under the barrage of requests for tea bags!  Can we Irish not go anywhere without a cup of tea?

I don't drink tea.

I don't eat rabbit either, but it was on every menu I read, and seems to be the local delicacy.  So, Instead of the rabbit  I tried the other local delight, ftira, bread made the Maltese way!  A bit like focaccia, but nicer!   I might have to eat more of that...

Over the last few days, to get my bearings and to see some of this Island, I took the bus down the coast.  Past the salt flats, past the look out towers dotted around the island, passed the imposing forts, as far as Salima and Viletta, where I got off the bus.  On each trip my hair got a sunshine blow dry and by the time I got off the bus I looked  like I had stuck my finger into a socket and got an electric shock!  Oh well, I'm on holidays so who cares.  It was pretty windy on the upper deck of the open top bus, but a treat to be able to sit up there, in the sunshine.  

I did all the touristy stuff, had the history lesson, took the harbour cruise, had a look in some of the 365 beautifully ornate churches that are all over these group of islands, and also checked out those lookout towers and forts that are as much a part of this island as the churches.  Religion and armies, they always seem to be intertwined in history!

I also, on the recommendation of a friend back home, took a ferry to the smaller island north of Malta, Gozo.  He told me it was like going back in time.  Well, he wasn't wrong...

The ferry trip was lovely, not long, only about 30 minutes.  I stood up front to look out at Gozo as it approached.  That was Ok and lasted for about five minutes until I was asked by a group of Turkish students to take their photograph.  That was also OK, until they all handed me their cameras and phones, only about thirty of them.  I didn't learn any Turkish, but they learned some Irish swear words!  We were at Gozo before I knew it.

My friend was right.  Initially the ferry terminal on the island looked like any modern ferry terminal, but a few minutes out into the country side and I could see what he meant.  

I could have been, except for the sunshine, in the west of Ireland.  It was like driving through Connemara.  Mountainous, rocky and tilled fields on either side of the road, all sectioned off by little dry stone walls.  The only thing missing were the sheep.  In fact I didn't see any animals at all.  Obviously I didn't expect to see any rabbits, but lamb is another item on every menu, so there must be some of them around somewhere? Hiding from the invasion of the Irish no doubt.  

Anyway despite the lack of grazing animals, I enjoyed my trip round the island, through the very narrow streets of the little towns where the new buildings have been built in the same architectural style as the old ones to keep the character of Gozo intact, all the way down to Xlandi Bay, where we had lunch.  We sat in a restaurant so close to the waters edge that I had to shield my ftira bread and goats (don't know where they were hiding either) cheese from the spray every time a wave hit the little wall beside us.  But I'm not complaining, it was glorious to be able to sit outside, in the sunshine, eating.  And again the water I was looking into was so clear that you could see right to the bottom...

As usual, I will be sorry to be going home leaving the sunshine behind.  I'll have to learn how to make ftira so I can relive the experience at home.

As i said, I didn't learn any Turkish, but I did learn some Maltese (from a German)!

So reluctantly,  it's 'sahha' from Malta, for now...

RIP?

So, the 'Iron Lady' is gone...

Well, what can I say?  Her relationship and dealings with the Irish people while she was in office are well documented, and as I was taught not to speak ill of the dead, I have nothing to add to history...

But I was very pleased to see my brothers and sisters reaction.

They, like me, didn't 'speak' ill of the dead.  No, instead they posted some tunes on Facebook!!  So far we have had:

Elvis Costello:  Tramp the Dirt Down
The Beat: Whine and grine - Stand down Margaret
Madness: Blue Skinned Beast

What rebels they are!!  They made me smile...

I'd like to add my contribution, it reminds me of, and sums up, the Maggie era, and it might make my family smile (for a different reason!!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhhSBgd3KI

Up Up and a-weigh!

Read this today...

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/airline-introduces-charges-based-on-people-s-weight-1.1346731

I like the bit that says that we are "bigger wider and taller than we were 50 years ago"... Well I certainly am!!

What next?

Will we have to stand beside one of those height restrict-er things that they have in all the fun parks that decides if you can go on the ride or not?

Or will they have a cage like thing that they will slot us into, like thy do with our bags, and if we don't fit then we don't fly?

So they are going to make you weigh in again at check in, to make sure you are the weight that you say on your ticket?  Hilarious!  That should make things run smoothly.  I wonder will it be like a weigh-in before a boxing match, where the boxers strip down to their boxers!!  Remember your mother always told you to wear clean underwear before you go anywhere, just in case... Well, if you are flying with Samoa airways then you will be glad that you listened to her!!

Diet starts Monday....