back from the wilds of Wales

We went on holiday for 7 days and she didn't burn the place to the ground. Well, she had sitters but still, we were well impressed. A week in Wales , its a beautiful country. I had spent a summer there when I was in college, working as a chambermaid. It hasn't changed much. A relaxing week spent in the company of Mammy2 , lots of sleeping, eating, reading and drinking. Mammy2 was adventerous when it came to trying out new beers, I wasn't bothered.

The place is so picturesque, when I've uploaded the holiday pics I can pop a few images in here of Tenby and Pembroke. The ferry trip was fun, I felt like I was on a episode of the Love Boat, without the buffon though and the bad storyline.

We arrived back on Saturday last, 12 hours travelling as we had to get the bus from Tenby to Pembroke Dock, the ferry to Rosslare, the train to Dublin and then the LUAS home. We got into our apartment for around 10.30. The place was tidy enough, she was at a house party that night so we had the night to adjust to being home before our ears started to bleed once she returned. It had been a whole week since she saw us, she was probably storing loads of information. We did ring on Thursday to see how she was. It would have been mam's birthday and I was worried she might have been upset or something. But no. We rang the house phone no answer, rang her mobile and she was in Supermacs with one of our mates, they worked out a rota of who had her on which night. Yes we are lucky we have such good mates. And that she gets along with them all so well.

The sunday was spent washing clothes and listening to her talk about what had happened to her in the 7 days we were away. The hair was commented on by the vice , but she is going to talk to her about it, because its so unfair that other people are allowed different hair, and so on and so forth. In the midst of the rant about how her chemsitry teacher hates her, and the vice is picking on her and her new best friend is a schizo, she slipped in the fact that P, a 'friend' has already booked the trip to Holland. Ages ago, she mentioned to us that this P character, who is not top of our list of mates for her, was thinking of organising a group of them to go to Amsterdam over the Halloween break and there would be adults going etc. We repsonded by saying that once she'd checked it out, as to where they would be staying and which adults were going we would CONSIDER it. Obviously the teenage definition of consider is a lot different to our definition, because she mentioned that P had booked it. And that one adult was going, P's dad.

Now, due an incident last year involving P, we are extremly wary of him. The rest of the gang people she knows from the Bank, also top of our list. So, whilst we indicated we were giving it some thought, it was never going to happen. What parent would let a bunch of teenagers loose on Amsterdam?
I broached the subject of her not going on Tuesday evening. The eyebrows were raised, the indignant face was pulled and the excuses began. I'm pretty sure she was casting some spell at the same time, judging from the contortions she was pulling.

For every reason we listed, she had an answer to. It ended as a stalemate. She thinks. She's not going, I just have to learn how to be firmer with her. If only there were a book to teach one how to do that.

One of her friends has 4 months to live. Apparently, because her white cell count is low or something like that. I find it very hard to take most things she says about her mates seriously, this girl has been dying for the last year, every time the kid meets up her? Whilst I didn't laugh outright at the
suggestion, she did accuse me of not taking her seriously. Her new friend S is apparently schizo, because she wanted to her lip pierced EXACTLY like the kid? Single , White, female eat your heart out, you've got nothing on this S girl!?!

We were warned to steer clear of the apartment on Tuesday evening whilst she praticed her 'singing'. I had to stop myself from dropping a leaflet under the doors of our neighbours apartments to warn them of the impending apocalypse. Her singing drowned out by god only knows what riff she has decided to play. She has been a full month at school and so far only one phone call. My guess is they are waiting until we have our 2 month review with them and then the head is going to let rip. I will be waiting for her, because whilst I have all the respect in the world for the vice, she is only doing her job, the head's job appears to be to make every girl who attends this school a living hell.

With the lack of lip-ring and makeup these days on the kid, she has taken to arguing about how far the tie should be up to her neck. I worry about how she spends her nights, rocking back and forth with a measuring tape next to her neck, watching herself go blue and thinking that maybe the tie is too tight that far up? She's a nutjob. I was intimidated by her last year and I think she knew it, this year, I will not be. I think there's some politics going on with her and the vice as she got passed over for the vice's job. Thank god, I shudder to think what the school would be like with her as vice.

I'm just back in work today, after a 3 day jave course. It was an excellent course and I hope to get the chance to use the skills I picked up over the next few weeks. Its true that your brain really is a muscle that needs regular exercise. After those 3 days I feel like I can take up games programming or something equally taxing. God bless my innocence.

The mornings really are starting to get darker as are the evenings, its a real sign christmas is approaching. She's been going on about christmas and being really excited about it coming. I think it might have to do with the large christmas list she has written up for us. I'm not that niave.