ice cream 7 January 2013
went to my first Panto in ages yesterday. i don’t really GET pantomime, possibly because i wasn’t brought up in a tradition of going to it at festive times? also, i’ve never been in one so i haven’t experienced it from that end either. SO yesterday i went at lunchtime to the show at the Olympia in Dublin starring Jedward and written by my great mate Fiona Looney – a version of ALADDIN (with Ryan Andrews who once played my son in another Fiona Looney play, GREENER, as Aladdin – i was a v proud mum to see him be so good = a handsome acting/singing/dancing guy: he’s got it all). Loved it, really, for many different reasons. The excitement of the audience, particularly the smaller members was just infectious. The numbers were great and i genuinely JUST LOVE Jedward so it was all good for me. I still don’t really GET it all, but i was entertained for 2 hours and left with a spring in my step. Also, having missed breakfast, i ate a magnum at the interval and was astonished at how fine a brunch that can be, only 238 calories and v v delicious. what was not to love about the whole experience, eh?
season finale 31 December 2012
hard to believe it is time to bid goodbye to 2012. it wasn’t the worst of them, all told. and the run up to it has been quite lovely for me – basically, after working all hours till xmas to finish and despatch the festive gifts GO ONs, i hid at the Dublin home for the rest of the ‘season’ and ate lovely things and watched a lot of football (while working on the new 2013 tea cozies). really, really lovely and peaceful and enjoyable.
i also deleted all of the emails in the inbox of my main account, by accident, and that has been strangely liberating – probably because everyone is on hols and so none of them truly mattered that much anyhow. nice bit of perspective dealt out to me and it means that i am having fun every so often looking through the virtual trash and choosing what to reinstate. letting go is v v cathartic and productive, though, and surely has a tinge of a life lesson there too?
i hope you will all have a very happy, peaceful and prosperous new year – if not a preposterous one!
so, farewell 2012 and welcome 2013…let’s see what you got…
dreams 16 December 2012
all of my dreams are craft-based at the moment. which means i spend the day doing craft-based things – knitting, finishing tea cozies etc (and now all manner of lavender sachet using the lavender grown in the garden this year – oops, have spoiled the ‘i wonder what she’s giving me for christmas’ speculation right there) then i dream all night about much the same – i am WRECKED with the exhaustion of the 24 hour sessions i am putting in and need to get back to simple 12 hour filming days…or simple 12-16 hour writing days…?
i did take time out to wander a department store a few days ago and passed the counter selling the molecule perfume that matches and compliments your own pheromones or whatever. i have admired the ‘smell’ of some types recently and they told me this is the stuff they are using and, i will admit, they all had different nice whiffs – my problem? well, what if it mixed and matched with your bodily essence and you turned out to smell AWFUL??? i daren’t try it as a result, particularly now: see, i hate this time of the year, things waning and ending, and if i had to face such a shattering event i would have to retire from polite society altogether! only to continue in solitude the haunting by crafts that is my present lot, both awake and asleep…
back for good! 29 November 2012
well, i’m back anyhow – whether that is for good on any level remains open as i cannot guarantee twill be for the good of humankind or for as long as forever or even that i will be ‘good’ (whatever that is when it’s at home).
i do return somewhat ‘upholstered’ – both in the extra pounds around those pesky body bits you wish were less well covered and also under a mountain of knitting, specifically the Festive Go On teacosies many of which are up on the site now (comedyshop.ie for anyone who can’t get there via here). there’ll be more to come, in larger sizes, in the next few days too. tiny word of advice to all who live in the Americas and what we seem to then call ‘the Rest of the World’ – posting dates for guaranteed delivery re the Seasonals are fast approaching (those closer to Ireland have a bit of breathing space) and if you want, nay need, a GO ON it’s best get your order/purchase in now.
SO
since last we collided i did move flat in London and, as predicted, being that it was just down the street i spent the day walking my gear up and down stairs and said street…rather than hire a van…at the time it seemed to make a whole bunch of sense to do it that way (!)…only trouble was that after a good 6 hours of me moving in this fashion Himself arrived to help and was cheerily doing the ‘let’s get this done as quickly as possible’ routine and by then i had slowed to a crawl, and a bit of a scowl if i’m honest. the remainder of the move happened without a killing = result. anyhow, i may never get the time to properly unpack at the rate i am going and although i do love the new place it is colder and the street noise is a lot louder at times..but there are no mice and that’s good (i know i never met any of the visiting ones at the last flat but i knew they were ‘around’ and i wasn’t mad about that as an arrangement).
finally got the rewrite of the second JENNY Q novel in and i feel i’ll be making at least another pass at it in the near future. it’s getting better all the time, though, so hooray for that.
and i am feeling up to writing another ‘adult’ book. i was a bit burned out on that front, exhausted after 8 novels in as many years, the ideas dried up a tad BUT i think i may be onto something now and it’s time to get it out of me and on paper.
Himself decided to run a subtitled film festival just now in Kilkenny…as you do in a small Irish city in cold and rainy November (!) – and it was great!!!. there was even an awards ceremony at the end of the week with lots of the toppest European filmmakers present and honored. all very bonkers and brilliant.
great news also that Jason Byrne’s sitcom FATHER FIGURE is now going to be made into a series by the BBC early next year. i play his Mum and he has lots of great things planned for all of his characters, not just me – though i am thrilled with what he’s told me i get to do.
speaking of matters television, i’ll be turning up in PRAMFACE, the opening hourlong special of the new series, and COMMON PEOPLE (new to Sky) soon so watch out for those.
Alice is much better since she had her back teeth out – though she’s still inclined to yelp and run about like she’s in a bit of pain every so often. Brenda is the rinkiest tinkiest kitten-cat still and even her yawning makes me laugh.
right, bedtime now and more announcements on the morrow when i remember what i forgot to tell you about…or maybe even a lie or two that i have just thought up…yup, i’m back…
autumn/winter 17 October 2012
the new GO ONs are going up right now – check them out through here or
comedyshop.ie – i hope you like them, i know i do! enjoy…
moving 13 September 2012
i will soon be moving within the london area…just down the street, in fact, which i have a dire feeling will be more hassle than uprooting and going across town. i am gazing at 5 years worth of accumulated nonsense and trying to be strong and throw things away/donate them to charity. worst of all are those handy little plastic bottles that i convince myself are so totally necessary for travel that i cannot move without them and i just KNOW that if i chuck them out i’ll be in Boots or Muji within days paying for similar things. at this rate i will have more rubbish to bring with me, not less, when the shift comes in a week’s time. a first world and modern problem, i know, but one which is uppermost for me right now! (it’s quite an impressive collection of plastic bottles…some of which contain unidentifiable unctions)
in better and happier news i got some fabulous sequined yarn in the post today and cannot wait to thread it into the sparkling GO ONs for the end of year festive season. all i have to do is look at it and it makes me smile.
paprika 6 September 2012
i seem to be addicted to smoked paprika. i realize it is an ingredient in many of the things i love, and i am also adding it to most things i cook right now and loving them all the more as a result too.
i know an addiction is one of those malaises we’re supposed to scupper, knock on the head, etc BUT how can something so good be so wrong?
as life goes on, i realize that stuff/shizz happens and maybe it’s how we deal with it that defines who we have become? (this is a loose, workinprogress theory so no dumping bile and ridicule upon me till i have had a chance to check it out through the rigors of scientific process i.e. FAILURE) SO in this instance how i am dealing with it is to embrace it…thoroughly…
slugs 4 September 2012
those of you who have followed my musings over the years know that there was a bleak (and FARR TOO lengthy) time when it seemed like a good idea to add a bit of an extension onto, and revamp, other areas of the house – i.e. BUILDING work (were we mad = YES). it passed, more than A YEAR after it should have, and i am still…a LONG time down the line…finding little reminders of it. ennyhoo, one of the casualties was my garden and only this summer did it get the fluff up it needed. at first i was smug and plucky because the clearing out meant i had no particular resident critters like slugs, weevils, beasties…everyone else was bemoaning the damage the wet weather had brought to their garden cos their resident colony of EATERS were in their element. well, cut to the smile wiped off my face. i have had SOME strawberries, and grateful for every single one i have to say. BUT clearly the sluggies have found me again and they HAVE A SWEET TOOTH?! i say this because, every time i pluck a ripe strawberry from my few plants i’ll find it half eaten, in a very circular way on the eaten side…i suspected it was the sluggeenies and i was right because yesterday there was a lil fellow still in the berry, drunk with his efforts and sated and resting -no, i did NOT kill him (couldn’t) so i threw him over the wall, so he’ll be back. am i the only one with this horticultural problem?
oh, and i refuse to use chemicals so if i have to share the strawberry with a slug i will…just would love it to myself is all (the strawberry)
wrecked 20 August 2012
i have slept a lot in the past week – a combination of the muggy weather and exhaustion (!) after the Olympics. i was GLUED to the tv and went to bed wrecked every evening having lived every stride, jump, twist, punch, throw, victory, defeat. the irish did very well and proof is that our boxing heroine and gold medal winner, Katie Taylor, was claimed as British by the Daily Telegraph. oddly, i didn’t cry when the athletes did well and i normally do – i just found the whole thing entirely joyous. though my heart did go out to Annalise Murphy, our wonderful young sailor, who came an agonizing 4th after performing brilliantly all throughout her competition. (my nephew tells me he has raced against her and she beat him)
the server for this site went down last week and although that was a pain, and people found it difficult to find the GO ONs as a result, i found it vaguely exotic that i was involved in such a technological event – even if it made sense that i was part of a broken bit of technology, given that i’m not ‘great’ with it…
while i’m at it, when i am in london my network sees fit to bar me from accessing this (erm, my own) site because of the threat of inappropriate content!
miss alice cat has had all of her cheek teeth out – her gum problems were proving insurmountable otherwise. she still has front fangs so she doesn’t look too gummy. it cost a FORTUNE, she has no insurance – insure your pets, my dears!
my GO ON tea cosies continue to wend their way off around these isles and beyond in the world. it’s odd to see them off, as i’ll never make another one exactly like any that have gone to new homes. bit like sending the kids off to college? i am working on autumn/winter and hope to post them up for sale at the beginning of september. stay tuned!
FREE PUSSY RIOT!
that is all
cuppa 24 July 2012
i played a dangerous game with a mug of tea this morning and it won. this was my second ‘fail’ in two days.
yesterday we had sunshine and i threw myself into enjoying every second of it, including a plucky amount of lying about in the nude (idiot). cut to later when i noticed just how angrily pink my skin was…the belly had a bit of a ridge from where i sat and some ‘folds’ had occurred (i am on a calorie controlled diet though it’s early days and there is still a bit of wobble going on). but the worst was the poor boobages – they are an angry pale red as they are never exposed to the elements outdoors. aloe vera is now my middle name. i am slathered in the stuff and tend to stick to whatever i stand close to as a result. so, self inflicted burns – i am a doofus (which term i take to mean a TOTAL eejit) great…
then this morning, having been gifted a lovely mug of tea in bed, i closed my eyes for the briefest of anons and when i opened them was in the process of pouring that tea all over myself and the mattress. lovely, two burns on the upper bod…and a complete waste of a classic cup of tea.
further proof that i am my own worst enemy…