Edinburgh

Its easily a city I would live in, if I wasn't so tied to wonderful Ireland. There's something about it and Scotland that makes you fall in love with the place. Its got a far nicer feel to it then Glasglow. I was only in Glasglow once and I'm not sure what it was about the place, but it didn't have the welcoming feel that Edinburgh has it. As my birthday pressie, Mammy2 booked a weekend there and so last weekend we set off for 3 days in the place. It was great,as
it was so close to Halloween and the city was buzzing. We did a couple of tours, poor Mammy2 got scared on the informative one, Mary King's close rather then the City of the Dead one which she didn't find too bad. She's scared of horror films at the best of times, I may have to pretend any scary film we want to watch tonight is actually a comedy. I reckon if I throw in a neck massage she might be persuaded.

With the hour going back now, the evenings are really starting to have a winter and dare I say it christmas feel. Myself and the girls in my work place have been working on booking our team night out for christmas. We finally managed to get a day that suited and managed to avoid clashing with the corporage parties. Its on the 20th so it should be a good laugh. The team are a good bunch and I've been out with them a few times. I won't mention the C work for another while at least.

Mammy2 is adjusting to full time work. She's actually adjusting to the full time part better then the whole lack of gay angle every story used to need. She's finding it difficult, although I'd be hard pushed to find a gay angle for a 75th birthday party and I'm pretty sure the guests at the birthday bash wouldn't appreciate it. Its very different from where she was but I think its a good thing. She's learning lots of new things and the people she work with are lovely. Her boss is the complete opposite to her boss in the old work place. From drama queen to laid back, it suits her.
I guess time will tell whether its the thing for her or not.

There have been a number of txtual exchanges and phone calls with the kid. Its good to know she knows where to reach us in the event of her needing the doctor or her and I quote " head pills and preggar pills" A Ring me polite txt was sent on Monday evening, I, being the good parent I am, rang her to hear her rant about her infection being back and SOMETHING needs to be done. I informed that I didn't really have an medical background and perhaps a trip to the doctor was in order. The cheeky pup thought I was going to make the booking. Because I obviously came down in the last shower. I told her to ring and book and we would cover it and add it to the lovely bill that's already building up. She seemed okay with that. Yesterday, another txt. I rang her.

"Forgot the doctor, I'm grand now and I need me pills, thanks. Depression and preggars"
"We don't buy your preggar pills, they are your responsibility...and why don't you need the doctor"
Big sigh "Because I'm grand now, duh. Fine, get my pills and I'll owe ya" The phrase I'll owe you along with "Can you do me a favour" are starting to scare me. People have asked if our financial situation has improved much with the kid gone. On one hand yes, on the other hand no. I suppose we won't really notice for a while.

We've been tackling her room and I don't think she will be too happy when she returns to stay. We need to repaint it as part of the terms and conditions of the lease are not to have the room in the state she had it in. Who knew you could fit so many posters and pictures into such a small area. So we are looking forward to a weekend of painting and getting some new bedclothes for the room. I had the fun task of logging on the fabulous Argos site and seeing what I could find. The excitement of it all.

The Tide is high

Work is beyond funny at the moment with tons do, although rumours are circulating of us being sold off and all our work being outsourced so who knows how long this busy period will last. I suppose I should enjoy it! As a complete opposite to the madness of work, homelife has been quiet and relaxing. Mammy2 started the first 3 days of her trial in her new work place. She got on great on Friday, but supposedly the place of work has had issues before with negative people and they want to make sure she fits in with the gang there. Understandable, I wish all offices were like that and didn't put up with other people's bshit. Some places just don't do anything and let these things fester. Office politics are rubbish as far as I am concerned and you shouldn't have to play a certain way to get something done.

The weekend was spent watching the rugby and some retail therapy. Out with the work crowd for a few socialable drinks and then we met up with one of the colleague's college mates. One of them had fabulous shoulders and I told him so. Needless to say for the rest of the night the poor bloke got such a slagging. We ended up in the Long Stone, which is a lovely bar. Some pubs in town can be lacking in atmosphere or whatnot, but this place is really nice, whether you are out for the night or just a quiet one. The rugby wasn't great at all, with a controversial try and all that. Its sad that its all over, but I have to say despite Ireland's early exit, it was a very good tournament. The early stages at any rate, with the likes of Fiji and Samoa doing so well. There were some terrefic games in those pools and I reckon Argentina will be looking to be taken seriously after an impressive World Cup tournament. South Africa
winning without being really tested as well was sad, I wonder what sort of final it would have been had the mighty All Blacks or the Aussies gotten there. That's it all over for another 4 years.

Speaking of sport, Katie Taylor retained her European Championship title this weekend and the only mention it got was a picture in the Metro on Monday. No mention of her fantastic achievement. Its incredibly frustrating as we have very few champions or people who take home medals on a regular basis in this country and here is this woman who has not only retained her title but also has the world lightweight title and she doesn't get a mention. I think the only reason her picture makes so many of the papers is because she's not exactly ugly. I'm not sure why women's boxing gets so overlooked. The book I am currently reading about it throws some light on it in that she questions the fact that women aren't supposed to want to fight, to box. The author, Leah Hager Cohen says 'Any girl who boxes, 'challenges, wittingly or not, the idea of what it means to be a girl in our culture. Through the prism of what she does with her fists, she brings a fiercely contrarian light to our most fundamental notions about femininity and power and appetite and shame and desire.'
Unlike Joyce Carol Oates, who has this to say:
"The female boxer violates this stereotype and cannot be taken seriously—she is parody, she is cartoon, she is monstrous. " in her book on boxing. Thanks for that Joyce. I'm pretty sure all the women who have taken up gloves and have fought for their place in the sport are taken seriously. Then again the book was written in 1987. I'll get off my soapbox now :)

The kid txted yesterday to share with us the lovely message "I know what causes that cystisis crap". I was going to txt back "You mean its not a sexually transmitted infection? Who knew!" but I refrained. God knows I didn't want to get into that conversation with her. Apparently coke causes it. Just so you know. Go easy on the black stuff. I love when I don't hear from her for nearly a week and when I do its to talk about the state of her lower regions? Parenting is such fun.

Return to normalcy

When you've been so stressed out and worried and things finally settle, you wonder what all the fuss was about.
Seriously, I think we spend so much time worrying and fretting, by the time we stopped we're 60 :) The last couple of days or so work and life as calmed down to a slow meander and I'm beginning to like it. For example yesterday evening I sat on the couch and read a book and then watched some telly with Mammy2. Terribly boring and terribly
domesticated and I was delighted with myself. I am usually always up and about, I tend not to sit or think about things for too long. I leave that to other people. Thinking and pondering over stuff doesn't make things any better, it just exagerattes things in your head.

We watched an old episode of the X Files. Scully has disappeared and Mulder hooks up with a vampire. Thankfully I didn't take this turn of events as bad as I did way back when I was a huge X-Files nerd. The books, the t-shirts, even the watch. I was THAT person :) When Mulder did get it on with the vampire all those years ago, I was indignant. I was writing strongly worded letters to Chris Carter. I suspect they were never posted, Mam in the mindset that she'd given birth to an idiot who was more concerned with the state of affairs with a couple on tv then looking after her baby sister. What can I say in my defence. I was obessed. And I was not alone. The x-files did have a huge following up until I think it was season 7 or 8 when things go so confusing I just wasn't bothered any more. Of course that is the time that they actually go and shag and produce a baby. Typical. I had 8 years of UST and the minute I develop an interest in something else, namely boys, Mulder and Scully get it on.

The kid rang yesterday in a bit of a tizzy. She had the doc's appointment and Mammy2 was to meet her with money for the doc. She was panicked as she couldn't get through to her. Her day had been the worse day ever, apparently. I think she was in the moment. 2 of the baby rabbits had drowned in a drain, the boyf's mam was having house troubles and she fell whilst on the way to the train, nearly broke her leg and broke her flip flop. When Mammy2 met her, she looked like a homeless person, so she gave her the doctor's money and some extra so she could buy a new flip flip. On the good news front, she handed her cv into a cafe near where they live and she may be getting a weekend job. I really hope she does, it would be so good for her. She was also meeting up with the mate K
to 'break up' with her so to speak. She was tired of all the crap that K has been going on about. I'm not sure what happened with them but I guess she knows best. We asked her if she wanted to come back to the apartment last night and hang but she wasn't bothered. As I said to the sister K, I remember the days when she wouldn't leave our side. I guess she's growing up.

We have to tackle the rest of her room this weekend, take down the rest of the posters, get a new pillow for the bed and then paint the whole thing so it looks like a normal room again. It still has her stuff in it but at least there won't be scary looking men with masks and chainsaws starring down at anyone who wants to sleep in it. I'm amazed more people didn't have night mares. Perhaps they did and were too scary.

Mammy2 starts a potential new job today depending on how she gets on, they may hire her. I am so chuffed for her, but also worried. I know she really wants to get started and bringing in some money, but I don't want her pushing herself into a full time job if she's not able. We shall see how she gets on today. Thankfully the friend C is doing okay. They flew her home on Monday and she is responding to the treatment. We can only wait and see how her rehabilition progresses. I think Mammy2 is going to try and get to visit her soon.

Life as a couple

The last few days have been spent in a flurry of work and parties. Sounds like a hard life eh?! There were two 30th birthday parties at the weekend. One was one of the chaps from my website, I had only planned to swing by for one but was having such a good night we stayed longer and mingled. It was really good fun. We caught up with some people who we hadn't seen in a while and also got to catch up with the mate A and her new gf, a lovely woman who's also on angrypotato. The two of them are so cute! Saturday was the mate A's bday and she had the shindig in the Morrison. Another party, more people from the website to mingle with and chat to. By the time Sunday arrived we were fit for the couch and not much else! The kid had dropped home on Friday to get CVs. She was none too impressed with the room. She rattled on about throwing her stuff out. For her stuff, please read petals from dead flowers and leaves. Don't ask, I have no idea what spell she was concocting. Once we explained that the stuff was starting to grow legs and walk out of there by itself, she seemed somewhat calmer.

We all got a txt from her the other night telling us she missed Mam and a sad smiley face. Famed as I am for chatting about these things and not really being in a position where I could make tea for her and pass it down the phone, I let Mammy2 deal with it. Apparently, by the end of the txting conversation, the kid was laughing and taking the piss. I suppose now that she's moved out and is living out in the sticks with so much free time on her hands, its bounds to bring up memories she'd long since forgotten. She was supposed to go to the doctor for the infamous doctor's appointment on Monday but rang me to say she wasn't coming into town and was it okay if she rescheduled. I think she has it tomorrow, I'll know more when I get a txt looking for money.

Mammy2 had a job interview this morning for a community newspaper. She thinks it went well and has to go in on Friday and do some sort of trial or something. It sounds promising and she's excited about it. We are also finally getting off our asses and making an appointment for Kilkenny. Unfortunately, the clinic is only open Mon to Fri so I will have to get a half day. The woman Mammy2 was talking to reckons it should't take too long to run the fertility tests, so at least one way or the other we'll know what the situation is and if we can proceed. It feels like ages since we were attempting, perhaps the break would have done the ovaries the world of good. Perhaps they are now born against christians, who knows. I haven't seen them around temple bar recently, so one can only hope for the best :)

Good news :)

They are flying the mate home as she is responding to the treatment. Its not much but its something. The boyf is over the moon and Mammy2 is delighted! Hopefully, from here she can recover. It feels like a weight has been lifted. At the moment due to work, I am like one of those zombies from Shaun of the Dead. Home, dinner, bed , up, work, home, dinner, bed. The big project goes live on Monday for its soft launch. Don't you love business spile? Apparently
the hard launch to the world is in November complete with a ton of advertising and marketing and a launch party. We
wait and see. Its been a lot of work but I have learned so much from it. Its been a challenge but enjoyable nonetheless. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

The kid rang me yesterday, or rather, msged me to ring her as she was out of credit. She was crying with the pain poor thing, another bladder infection. We made an appointment with the doctor, obviously she is incapable of making phonecalls due to her pain. Who knows. I rang her this morning to remind her of her appointment and she was a bag of moans. Luckily for her the doctor had to reschedule so she doesn't have to leave the comfort of her bed, where she is hard at work looking for a job. Apparently she has an rss feed from irish jobs scrolling across her ceiling.

The table quiz was a great success and we raised just over 1400 euros for the 2 lines which they were delighted with. A lot of work with into though and the team are exhausted. I was so impressed with them throughout the organising and on the night, everyone worked their asses off. I think a MOD celebration is long overdue. Time for wind down, dinner and drinks and a thank you to them for donating their free time to help me take care of angrypotato. They are a really good bunch. I need to get them their new shirts as well. Something to make them stand out from the average potato :)

Tonight is one of the guy's from my site is having a party in the Front Lounge and invited a few heads from the site. As he's a really nice guy, I will swing by and wish him a happy birthday and buy him a pint. As I am wrecked and haven't seen much of Mammy2 all week, I will only stay a while and I have a friend's 30th tomorrow which should be a good night. The rest of the weekend will be spent vegging although I have been asked by a mate to have a look at a potential project she needs developed. It sounds straight forward with the exception of it being written in cold fusion. She's also looking for a developer and sent me on the spec. It looks really good and if the salary was right, I might consider it. C# and Asp.net which I have only dabbled in. We shall see, I am happy enough here at the moment but there is more talk of out sourcing which would leave us basically in a maintence role and there is no way I would be happy to sit and maintain someone else's code.

The sister is coming home for a long weekend at the end of Nov :) Can't wait.

Life goes on...

They say that no news is good news so we play with the waiting game with regards the mate C and how she is doing. Mammy2 is making the phone call tomorrow to the boyf to see how things are. Between the mates, they have agreed to have one port of contact so the poor man isn't wrecked answering queries. We got most of the story of what happened from one of the ex-workmates on Monday night. C and the boyf had flown to America the day after Mammy2's work leaving do. Whilst in America she got a cough she couldn't shake off. They went to the doc, he put her anitbiotics and they continued with the holiday. She was having difficulty breathing on the flight home and went to the doctor again when they got back here. More antibiotics. I think it was 2 days later when she was rushed to hospital and from there transfered to ICU. The family flew in some specialists to see what the story was and apparently they recommended this full on treatement which she wouldn't get in Ireland. A flight was organised and she was flown to Stockholm where she is currently. In a children's hospital. Something about the care she needs. We're not getting the full story only bits and pieces.

On Monday, Mammy2 got a txt to say the test results came back and that C has Hodgkin's lymphoma. They started chemo yesterday. I was surprised to hear that they would try chemo given how sick she is. Her kidneys failed last week so her body must be in a very weakened state. The poor thing. According to the boyf, she is aware that she's sick and that she's in hospital but other then that nothing else. He asked that the mates send some letters so he can read them out to her and some pictures as well. The whole thing is just too sad. Mammy2 is doing okay, getting on with things. She wants to keep busy.

I had said there was no need for her to get involved in the quiz we are organising as the last thing she would probably want to be involved in is a night out. But she reckons it will take her mind off things. It is a handy distraction as there is so much to do and its on tonight. I guess she can't just sit around and think about C as that won't do herself or anyone else any good.

Not a word from the kid since she disappeared with most of her belongings on Sat morning. I was starting to get worried when I got a one of those the person at blah is out of credit and wants you to ring them. This was sent at 11.30 last night. She must think we would be having all night parties with her gone, god bless her. All we doing since she left is sleeping and trying to get room in some semblence of order. We tackled most of it on Sunday. I have never seen anyone store so much junk in my life. Every drawer, every available bit of space was taken up by something belonging to her. It now looks more like a bedroom but we still have to tackle the walls. All those lovely smiling men with masks and chainsaws its not a lovely way to wake up in the morning. How anyone slept in that room and didn't have nightmares I'll never know.

It makes no sense.

At this moment in time, one of Mammy2's good mates is lying in a hospital bed, on life support fighting the virus that's
attacking her body. Its surreal. We got the phone call yesterday and Mammy2 has been in somewhat of a daze since.
It doesn't make sense that this healthy, fit young woman would be on life support after getting pneumonia which grew into septicemia. I'm familir with septicemia from Mam's illness, but in Mam, she was a frail, less then six stone woman. I don't know much about viruses but this is just....I can't make sense of it.

Apparently, the treatment she was getting here in Ireland wasn't working, so her family have flown her to Sweden where she is now. Something about better medical equipment, which wouldn't surprise me. The boyf is keeping Mammy2 updated via txt but at the moment there's not much to tell. I'm just trying to be there for Mammy2 as she deals with the shock of it all. She's holding up okay at the moment, thank god. I suppose all we can do at this stage is pray for a miracle.

Forgive, sounds good. Forget, I'm not sure I could.

The dixie chicks have replaced Mika for the moment, mainly because I LOVE the Not Ready to Make Nice song. Less of the pop, more of the rant :) The last two days in work have been a tad hectic. The chairman, aka God, we were told was dropping by our building for a meeting. There was no mention of a walk around, normally we're given a lot of notice to have our desks semi decent and look like we are working all the hours he pays us for. So at 4.55 I am ready to leg it, I had to be in town for dinner with the in-laws at 6.30, when our boss tells us that the chairman is going to do a walk around and no-one was to move. He walks through the office, surrounded by people flitting here
there and everywhere. He chats with my boss and my boss's boss about the project I am currently working on. This project went from low profile to high profile as soon as he expressed an interest in it. He wants lots of media, a big launch party, big names etc. What this man wants he gets. We are due to go live next week and I am still developing. I have a feeling there will be a few late nights. Just not on the Wed I hope as I want to be out of here early for the quiz.

Speaking of the quiz, there's been a lot of interest in it. We've had loads of bookings, half the tables are gone already which is great! Prizes are looking good, and we are having a meeting on Saturday to run through the task list. The next few days are a bit maniac. Work wise there's big board meeting this evening, following by drinks. Tomorrow evening is one of my work mates's bday drinkies and he wants to hit Rogue for cocktails. Sat is the mate J's housewarming. Tis all go.

No word from the kid which I can only take to mean she is alive and well. I got copies of one of her Debs pictures reprinted a number of times and need to post it down to the family. The various aunts, uncles and the mother's best friend. Mammy2 has been out of sorts the last few weeks, not sure if its the depression or the lack of work or what it is. Her mood swings have been a tad eractic and she has come down with some sort of virus this week. Perhaps the change in season is affecting her depression. She is heading to see her counseller next week so maybe she can
shed some light on what's going on. Its been hard with her when she's like this and sometimes she tends to lash out at me, for no apparent reason. At least with PMT, I have some inkling what's going on and can throw chocolate bars at her :)

We have our apartment for another year, the wagon estate agent rang to say its only going up by a small amount which we are so relieved about. We really need another year to get some money together and for Mammy2 to get a job so that we can apply for a mortgage. Also, I want to get the ball rolling on going to the clinic and getting those tests done to see why my ovaries are such cows. The clock is ticking. Meanwhile I am getting postcards from the Costa Del Sol from my ovaries telling me what a great time they are having and how celibacy is really working out well for them. Bitches.

I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want

Yesterday, thanks to my work colleague I have 2 tickets to see the Spice Girls in London at christmas time. Ticketmaster don't take laser, feckers. To say I am excited would be putting it mildy :) Mammy2 is of course estactic as well. I've n ever been to London and at christmas time it will be so cool. Another workmate, a girl I am friends with got tickets for the same night! Very excited.

Now that the fury of Friday has passed, I get het up very quickly and then I calm down and all is well. I have decided
after taking numeruous opinions on board to not respond to the bait set for us on our site. I have too often had allegations, demands for answers, quotes like "the community deserves a response" to "you can't do that, its not fair"
type of jargon and for a while I did respond. Got caught into a vicious debate of which I have since learned, people
who demand answers and want to engage in debate such as the evil woman from yonder year on another website
I took care of, don't really want to 'engage in debate' unless such a terminology takes on a different meaning in the county she's from. Also the lack of response and their constant whining makes them look worse in the long run. So I have said feckit and chosen to not offer any kind of response. People can form their own opinions from that, lord knows they do often enough anyways. Sometimes running a website is a headache. But most of the time its fun. I wonder are the straight community as dramatic as the gays?

As a result of all this I was in 2 minds whether to even attend the quiz. But then we are down on numbers for the people who are working on the night and also my work crowd are going to be there so it should be fun.

The kid is no longer a kid. Well, she has her moments such as ringing us on Saturday night to tell us there was no food in the house, please for this read the munchie press was empty and she and the boyf were starving. Which is of course our responsiblity when you consider technically she's not meant to be living there AND she didn't let us know she was on her way over to stay. They had dropped over to get Mammy2 to give them a hand moving stuff. She's talking of paint and not of the arty kind. Its weird to hear her talk about fixing up their room, borrowing money for paint and moving stuff. Its like, she's suddenly an adult. There was no baby steps, its was a jump. I suppose moving out does that to you. Although shame she hasn't left her room in the same sort of order. I headed last night to see if I could find the Sat paper and promptly turned on my heel and left again. How it gets into that state I do not know.

After a maniac weekend of tragic rugby, this week is hopefully going to be quiet. I have a lot on work wise and extra work wise. I want to get my portfolio site out of the way so am starting work on that as well as working on the lovely content management system and familarising myself with how it all hangs together. I need to start learning PHP as well. Fun. We are bringing Mammy2's parents out for dinner tonight, its been a while since we had dinner with them and there's a lot to catch up on. They are now online and Mammy2's mam is often on gchat. Apparently she's having difficuly with the concept of how she can be chatting to Mammy2 whilst Mammy2 is in a different place. Its weird for me I suppose because I take so much of the internet for granted.