Ah.... Love Is In The Air

Im sure many of you just clicked this thinking that you were about to get some juicy gossip regarding my love life or the life of some other unsespecting induvidual. I am sorry to disappoint you.

I am in fact making reference to the month that is arriving, for it is traditionally the month of love. Although I have a slightly different approach, for I feel it is more the month of retail's severe need to recover from the January slump in sales following the over-indulgent christmas period, and so they feel the need to create another expensive public holiday, one which people feel obliged to participate in. I know that you are thinkin, 19 and so pessimistic. Wrong! I am simply proposing that romance be inexpensive and not just allocated to one random day in the year. Forget about the cheesy overpriced flowers boys, a nice homemade dinner (scrap that if you're friendly with your kitchen extinguisher, takeaway will do in that case) or a bottle of wine (I recommend Mateus Rose, or Lidl's Lambrusco if your not a big wine drinker, its sooooo nice and equally as cheap, only €2.70 a bottle!!) and that with a nice soppy movie will do just fine. Its the thought that counts really.

Oh that brings me nicely onto my next train of thought, which is naturally linked to the above ; Romeo and Juliet was on Film 4 tonight. Now i know as an English student I am obliged to say that it is a good play (not one of Bill's best in my opinion, I am partial to Hamlet) but Leo in that film, girls you know what I mean..... hubba hubba..... [she coughs pulling herself out of dream world] Ok i know its as soppy as it gets, but isnt escapism and illogical love just nice sometimes. Why would we want to look at real life all the time, we have enough of that with the X factor and Dancing On Ice!

So to conclude, I have found a few nice ideas for Valentines Day if you're feeling a lil bit romantic and (like any other person these days) a lil bit broke.There is loads more if you just google "inexpensive valentines day ideas".  Here is the link to a few pages on the subject
http://weddings.about.com/cs/gifts/a/valentinesgift4.htm

http://ezinearticles.com/?Ten-Romantic-Yet-Inexpensive-Valentines-Day-Ideas&id=1911269

http://www.creativehomemaking.com/inexpensive-valentines-day-ideas.shtml

Dont be put off by the wedding thing, and I particularly like the stuff on the creative homemaking page.

If you want to get an actual present, I recommend somthing they would actually like, for example I think if you make up a lil voucher/card thing that allows them to have one day where you wait in them hand and foot, or make one for a pamer day and include a few lil home pamper treatments (you can get them real cheap in pharmacies). Like I said, dump the flowers and chocolates, be original, it will mean a whole lot more.

Christmas Holidays Take Two

Exams finally finished on Monday morning at approx 11.05am, and I wont mention how I think they went cause if I tell a lie it will either jinx them and they will end up bad, or I will tell the truth and I will just look really bad and unstudious (yes I am aware that isnt a word)..... anyway moving on......

I felt completely like I didnt get an xmas holiday this year what with all the silly studying for cruel after-xmas-exams and just general havoc of life, so it was really good to be able to get out to bask in the bliss of the last bit of January sales today. So armed with two friends and a baby (by best mate's beautiful son) we headed off to the nearest shopping centre to raid the place, and I have to say it was raided. I found lovely tops in Bershka and Pull and Bear (on sale of course) and Penneys was sufficiently trawled through and some lovely jewellery was found.

Oh and I forgot how nice it was just to sit for a day and do nothing. Yes I have to admit I would go completely stir crazy if I did it all the time, but I had the chance to do it on Tuesday, ahhhhh, twas lovely :-) A day filled with watching pointless movies and eating jellies was just what I needed. No doubt there will be a few more of those between now and when I go back to college in two weeks (it is good to be a college bum).

Also Im in the process of choosing another recipe for my second attempt at domestic goddessness next week sometime, any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

On a slight side note (simply because my life is slightly boring and uneventful at the moment and I am simply too tired to talk about college books for next semester [will be in next blog] or try to think of something else more interesting to say) I just want to point out to anyone who is interested how incredibly annoying those Activia TLC ads are with whats her name, who simply looks too smily to be real, and how amazing "Without A Paddle" is, a great movie for a night when you dont wanna think about anything serious.

That is all.

Passed the point of no return

"We've passed the point of no return" ..... grrr i will be singing that song for the rest of the day now.

But it had to be said. Now this morning when i was thinking of what to write for today's blog, that sentence only really applied to me. You see I have my final exam of the current semester at half 9 tomorrow morning, and needless to say that taking in the fact that my course spans 350 years of history and the entire continent of Europe, along with the slight problem of the absense of a single hint from our cruel lecturer, that I am well and truly schizzled (well it is a family friendly blog). But funny enough, I dont care. I should care, god kows my precious life plan is slighty schizzzled too if I fail, but I think at this point I have stressed so much, and worried so much, that I have created a worry and stress free Amy, one that is past the point of saving. Magnificent.

Along with the fact that my head cannot hold any more dates of treaties or names of Popes, that explains why I am wasting my time on this anyway. Now onto why this "point of no return " thing not only applies to me.

Well I try keep this blog absent of any major political or generally disasterous or distressing realities, but whats about to come next I dont believe falls into that catagory, for it is simply too pathetic and comical to be taken seriously. If we took this seriously, I think we would all die of depression and loss of hope in society, and thats not good now is it. So here it is ; Brian Cowen is not stepping down as leader of this fine country, and will confidently hold a vote of confidence on his applicability to the position of Taoiseach in light of the unaviodable actions which he took in the best interest of the country while in a situation of high responsibility and stress (which he relieved with the odd game of golf as we all now know, big shock there) . ........... It is impossible not to find that comical. Ah we may as well laugh at it, all we can do at this point.

So Cowen has passed the point of of seriousness and has plunged head first into comedy (Micheal McIntyre watch your back), and I have passed the point of redemption. Overall a successful Sunday.

Thanks to Eoin Kelleher for the brilliant drawing.

The Sweet Taste Of Success

In my last post, I told you about my New Years Resolution of becoming domestic goddess ... well attempting to become one.... by means of acquiring a decent cooking skill. Well today was the day, and I must say it went pretty well. Now i have to admit that my lovely Mother did help with the occasional fliip of the chicken in the pan and the odd chopping of vegetables (she took the stingy onion, ah what a mother does for her child) but overall I did all the cooking myself. I didnt sat fire to anything, I didnt burn anything, and even my fussy lil sister said it tasted nice :-) To summarise, GO ME!

I made breaded chicken in Lime sauce, and stir fried ginger and garlic vegetables with noodles. Here are the links to the veg and the chicken, its lovely and pretty easy.

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/food/recipes/recipe/9082

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/chicken-breasts-with-lime-sauce/Detail.aspx

I did say that I was going to put up pics of the food I made, but in the slight busyness of cooking I sorta forgot, but I remembered before I cleared all my stuff up so I took a pic of the washing up as some proof that I actually did cook something. The only way you know if it actually was me cooking and not my mom, is that in her years of experience, she has learnt how not to use so many cooking utensils for something that should only take 2 frying pans and a pot. I am not blessed with such experience.

Also I have a lovely bit of news. We added a new member to our ever extending family last weekend. I came home from my exam on Saturday morning and Sis was all excited telling me that she had found this lovely kitten on the internet that morning. The add was on donedeal.ie and had only been posted 5 hours before. Now we had been trying with all our might and research skills to find a kitten for Mom since our lovely cat Belle died on New Years Eve, but they kept going so fast we couldnt find one.

So I rang this random number, and to make a long story short we travelled to Galway (which is a looooonnnngggg way away) to get this kitten while Mom thought we were going to the cinema. She wasnt too pleased, kept saying we should be studying and it was a waste of our time, but she was happy enough when we came home with the lil fella. She decided to name him Jasper, and he has been providing non stop entertainment since we got him. He doesnt get along as well with the others as we had hoped, as Belle and our dog Bradley loved each other, but they tolerate each other, and they getting better each day.

New Year, Maybe Not So New Me

oh we always have good new years resolutions dont we, but lets be honest, we dont exactly keep them.

I decided to be realistic this year, and not say ridiculous things such as "I will not spend ridiculous amounts in Penneys (primark to you British dudes) on endless amounts of t-shirts and little black dresses" and "I will study more and become English Literary genius". Instead I made one semi realistic resolution, and I have decided as I am turning 20 soon, it is time to shed the teenage bum living off mum look, and become domestic goddess (bridget jones eat your heart out!). I am going to lean how to cook!!

Now Im not talking potatoes and veg in a steamer, Im not completely useless. For example, my first attempt is taking place this day next week (had to work around Dad's work schedule and my exam schedule). I plan on cooking breaded chicken fillets in lime sauce, with ginger stir fried mixed veg, and basic mashed potatoes (but of course will make them look fancy). Really looking forward to it actually, will take pics and post them up and let you know how it goes.

I understand it has been a long time since i wrote last, twas christmas day as far as I remember. Since then I have done a good bit of partying (probably a bit too much, but ah sure why not live life while I can) and worked a lot.

Oh, just on a side note, I HATE SALES!!! Bloody shop is packed constantly, and some people's attitudes are just so crap. If you enter a shop and see some poor girl running around like a lunatic trying to deal with 4 customers at one time, please dont tap your foot, huff, sigh or roll your eyes. She is trying her best, no need to be rude. Some people, and I know this is bad but its mostly the people with LOTS of money, are incredibly rude. No need for it people, no need.

So now exams start tomorrow, Irish studies (which composes of Joyce's Portrait and Yeats' Cathleen Ni Houlihan and both's relationship with the Irish Literary revival..... well I hope it does anyway..... ok keep calm Amy, calm blue ocean). Anyway thats the first one in the morning, I feel confident enough. Well confident enough to go to a friend's 21st tonight. Oooooo i do love getting all dressed up!! No drink though, im driving, plan to be home early enough, no 3am fallin in the door for me..... well not for a while anyway ;-).