Marching on with Spring

                                                     


With Spring comes that dillemma of Mother's day. I usually hate holidays like Mother's day, as I never know what to get for my Mother, as she is slightly fussy. She doesnt wear jewellery, she thinks flowers are a waste of money as they dont last long, she thinks chocolates are overpriced, and I couldnt just get her a bottle of wine, not personal enough. Luckily enough, my lovely Mummy understood my dilemma. So when out shopping the other day, she solved my lil problem.

Mom - 'I am going to give you a hint for what I want for Mother's day'

Me - 'fantastic, go on'

Mom - 'there is a small greenhouse for sale in town, I want that'

Me - ' subtle mom, real subtle'

I have no idea how I didnt think of it before! Its perfect for her. It also means lovely tomatoes and strawberries for us to enjoy later on in the year .... mmmmm.....

At the moment both her any my dad are executing the mission impossible of rotivating the vegetable patch, nightmare! But it does mean that we are on our way to lovely potatoes and beans again, plus there are plans to extend the patch. We will be veggie mad by the end of the season :-)

Also, it appears we have a broody hen. Roy (our rooster) has discovered his libido in the past month, and he now has his pick of the 12 hens around him. It does appear that he has a lil girlfriend who devotedly follows him from morning to night, from one scratching spot to another, and she stands and adores him as he views his vast estate of half an acre from the top of his pile of woodchips, now that's love!! ;-) We have noticed that  his lil girlfriend is refusing to leave her eggs these days without a good fight. Of course we are thrilled with the prospect of lil chicks running around, but with it comes pressure from my Mom to get my Dad to build the maternity wing, another addition to the ever growing list of tasks for the poor man to complete ha.

Plus the weather lately is stunning, and more and more people are taking to the green areas of college, sitting on the grass with cups of tea and ice creams, basking in the sunshine. I always thought that if Ireland had better weather, if it had more sunshine, no person would ever want ot leave here. It would be a pretty perfect country .... minus the R word of course, we will just pretend its not happening .... lalalalalala.

Paddy's Day Traditions

Hey all!!

So, its that time of year again, where we Irish wear our green with pride, and gather on the streets of our hometown as we watch the magnificant display of the local talent, content in the knowledge that our country is one to be proud of, and the day is one of celebration of our emerald isle.....

Ok so maybe the green resembles the colour of the faces of all the alcoholics taking advantage of the pub's drink promos, and we actually freeze on the streets as it is Ireland and March, and maybe the local talent consists of an overweight Elvis impressionist and the local first class and their tin whistles, but its still a tradition, so why not enjoy it a lil?

I have to say I have fond memories of Paddy's day. As a kid the day consisted of travelling with my mom and sis into town, parking in Trinity College where my dad works, and watching the students (who always seemed so mysterious and intelligent.... HA) as they walked through the college. We then all made our way onto the streets of the city, which were filled with people dressed in green plastic banners and face-paint. There were so many talented musicians lining the streets, all battling for your pound coin, and they all sang songs that I only ever head at country weddings. When we finally made out way to the main street, we were stood beside the railing, told to hang on and not let go, and before the numerous marching bands passed and art students showed their talents, we munched on sandwiches produced from my mother's Mary Poppins bag.

Funny enough, every year we froze, every year we got squished against barriers and didnt see the entire parade, and evey year the huge dragon float scared the crap out of me, despite the knowledge that it was made of plastic and pushed by hard working art students. Yet despite all this, every year we went, and every year I loved the music and the atmosphere, and it was such a massive part of my famiy tradition.

Lately though, the streets also play host to numerous drunken louts who had nothing better to do or spend their money on, and the Gardai play a much bigger role is keeping the day innocent for the children. Its such a pity really. I would love to have one more year of strolling around the gates of St Stephen's green with my dad looking at all the excited children and adults getting ready with their floats, and having my face painted on Grafton Street, and watching the young lads singing 'The Fields of Athenry' standing beside their hat on the gound. Now my Paddy's day is spent in work, but ah well, thats life. I must say, I really look forward to doing it all with my children, making new Paddy's Day traditions.

Feminist.... I dont think so

Yes I know its been a while, I do sincerely apologise. I should have some fantastic explanation such as I am writing a deep and perfect thesis, or I have been working 14 hour days, but I'm afraid that is simply not true. Im just plain lazy.

Well I must admit I have been busy with college. I am pleased to announce that I have well passed all my exams, so YAY!! Went out on a nice celebration night out on Wednesday. The college was smack in the middle of SHAG week (Sexual Healh Awareness and Guidence), and on Wednesday the Bio Soc held an extremely successful quiz in the student union bar. The success of this quiz was not down to good publicity or the promise of fantastic prizes, it was simply down to its subject ; sex. Must admit though, it was very scientific, so I have to say as an english student I was quite lost. But the image of the unsuspecting and extremely awkward biology professor who was unwittingly dragged into a tuix to present the whole shabang was definately the highlight of the evening.

Well, onto my above topic..... As regards my college course at the moment, I must say I found it hard to decide which one thing to talk to you about, as there are numerous interesting topics that I am studying at the moment. But yesterday I finsihed studying 'The Second Sex' by Simone De Beauvoir, so I decided to chat to you about that. It is esentially an anti-male, anti-patriarchial society, and extreme feminist piece of writing, yet interestingly I couldnt put it down. She talks constantly and repeatedly about how women are trained from birth to heed to oppression and societal attitudes and expectations of women. Basically, from start to end, she makes numerous arguements about men and how they oppress women in society in various ways, and how men live a life thats soooo much easier based on arguements that range from they have more societal freedom to earn a living for themselves and realise their ambition, to they can play with their ...... Ye you know what Im getting at ha. At the start of the set of lectures the lecturer asked the women to stand up if they considered themselves feminists, and I think he hoped that at the end of the lectures he would have more women saying that they were feminists. I highly doubt that was the case, for even though the book was only written in the 40's, it appears to me to be a show of one woman's complete obsession with her hatred of men and she decides to write down every possible reason that one could have for hating men. (even though ironically enough she had relations with men, mustn't have hated them that much lol) A lil overboard if you ask me, but interesting read if even just for the curiousity of her paranoia. Check it out if you want a thought provoking read.