2005: That was the year that was

With just under eleven hours left of 2005, I thought I'd share a few of my highlights (I've already forgotten my lowlights).

January

• 9HE, my lowest ability class giving me a hand made card. I was teaching my last class in Larne High and they managed to wangle themselves out of their own class to present it to me. Chancers. But it was very sweet to have them all standing there in the corridor.

February

• Emailing David R to say that if anyone dropped out of the Brazil team I’d like to go and twenty minutes later him emailing me back to say that somebody dropped out that morning. God is good.
• Being back at Queen’s and appreciating the student life once again.

March

• Nicky and Heidi’s wedding. Probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding.
• Easter holidays. I was so so glad to get to Easter, I didn’t do anything exciting, I was just glad not to be going to school!

April

• Really can’t think of anything to put here, was I conscious during April? Oh no that’s right I was on my second placement!

May

• Finishing my second placement. It was hard, hard work and I was just relieved to get to the end.
• Getting nice little cards and presents from my classes. They alone nearly made it all worthwhile.

June

• Finishing the Moodle (strange computer part of PGCE) and getting it right first time round. Ya ho!
• Kirsty’s game night. Fun times!

July

• Ruth and Mark’s wedding. A lovely day made even better by London winning the Olympic bid. [I heard the news on the way to the church and excitedly went into the church where I met one of Ruth’s friends. I said ‘it’s so exciting’. She kind of cut me off and said ‘I know! Can you believe Ruth’s getting married?!’. Unfortunately I was too excited to stop myself from saying ‘No London won the Olympics!!’ Oops.]
• Brazil. I was the first in my family to South America but it was brilliant for so many more reasons than that. In fact some would say it was brazilliant!

August

• Castlewellan. Best CHW I’ve ever been at. I was a 15+ leader and I loved it! Despite having 16 girls in my ‘small’ group. I’m ashamed to say there were still a few names I didn’t know at the end of week. Sorry!
• Getting a job offer I couldn’t refuse. Watch out if Kathryn H ever tells you she wants a ‘wee word’!

September

• Spending my days watching cricket.
• Getting my visa quicker than I should have. Who said Americans are slow?

October

• Finally making to North Carolina and having some of the nicest people I’ve ever met to look after me
• NY.

November

• Going to stay with Jose and Davina. International friends do indeed equal good times.

December

• Surprising my parents. The moment now lives in family legend.
• Being back home.

Films – Million Dollar Baby, Meet the Fockers, Hotel Rwanda, Downfall, Walk the Line.
TV programmes – Desperate Housewives, Celebrity Fame Academy, Jamie’s School Dinners, The West Wing (as always!), One Tree Hill.
Sporting Events – Andrew Murray at Wimbledon, The Ashes (especially the Trent Bridge Test – I was actually nervous), Paula Radcliffe winning gold in the Athletics World Championships, NI beating England.
Songs – Suddenly I See (KT Tunstall), City of Blinding Lights (U2), Til Kingdom Come (Coldplay), Two More Years (Bloc Party), Rocket (Braund Reynolds).
Holy moments – CHW, Tre Sheppard doing the mobile thing at SM, YF praying for me before I left.
Times with friends – hanging out with Lynsey and Julie (loads of times), the surprise dinner with Kari et al, staying with the Duke and Duchess of Finaghy, going round to Karen Next Door's for wee chats.
Laughs – being with Jud, Spence and Beattie in Newtownards. Why we were there, we have no idea but after 10 nights of entertaining the masses we had to laugh! Chris B laughing til he cried and had to leave the room 4 times in Brazil, contra dancing in SC.

So I wonder what I’ll be saying about 2006?

That was the week that was

Well what a busy old time I’ve been having. I’ll summarise the highlights of the past week for you.

Christmas Eve
Carol Singing with YF. The best craic you could ever have singing, outside, in the cold, to people you don’t really know.

Christmas Day
Opening family presents with the parents. Santa doesn’t bring me as much as he used to, well there are other children now that need the space in his sleigh. I’ll take what I can get. My bestest present was probably one of those cool cushion things for the plane.

Boxing Day
Playing NI Monopoly with Dad, David and Karen. Although the game had to be abandoned due to some dubious play. I don’t think me calling the party a cheating bugger for the rest of the game helped the situation.

Tuesday
Getting many a bargain at the Next sale. I will definitely be the most stylish person in Hicksville now.

Wednesday
Going to the cinema with Jennie, Lynsey and Ruth. Although we didn’t actually make it to the film. Unfortunately it was full so we tried to go to Dublin Road for another show. But Jennie’s Stoplock on her car broke. Nothing we did made any difference, the key just wouldn’t go in the lock. Jennie called her dad and he came up with another key. While we waited for him we went into the Sportsbowl! Ha! I have not been there since I was about 14! When Ronnie arrived we were all a little relieved when he couldn’t do it either, we weren’t just being weak girls. Two passing Policemen had a go. Evidently they missed the class in Police Academy on stoplock breaking and gave up after 15 minutes. Eventually Ronnie got it off with a bit of brut force and ignorance and an hour and a half after we arrived at the cinema we left. I once watched a TV programme about those stoplock things. Car thieves can get them off in seconds, so if any of us had been brave enough we should have just asked a few of the spids hanging around outside the cinema, no doubt one of them would know the trick (only from watching the TV programme too obviously). But despite not actually seeing the film, it was a funny night!

Thursday
Meeting up with Ruth for lunch and yet more shopping.

Still to come this week

• Meeting Brian for tea tonight. I don’t see him often but when I do it’s always a good night.
• Meeting my TOM girls for lunch tomorrow. That’ll definitely be great craic. I was their favourite DYCW staff member (I gave them the money!)
• Meeting Joanne and Marie from the PGCE. No doubt I’ll hear all their teaching disasters and triumphs so far.
• New Year’s Eve – officially the biggest anti-climax ever but sure.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve

It seems that a lot of the things we do at Christmas are traditions. We are creatures of habit, we like things that are familiar and things that remind us of good times past. So here are some of our family’s Christmas traditions:

-David and I go Christmas shopping separately with Dad in Belfast. This started when we were little. My mum would put us on the train in Whitehead and Dad would meet us in Belfast. Although when we were teenagers we’d walk down to his office and sit there while he tried to get things cleared up.
-The Christmas tree goes up on a Sunday afternoon (usually the Sunday before Christmas). If there’s nothing good on TV a film is put on and Dad and I decorate. Mum is in charge of covering the wooden box thing it sits in and tinsel. In the days when David used to live here he’d lie on the sofa only putting on the occasional decoration.
-Our decorations box is full of stuff we don’t put up, decorations made at school and the like – although plenty of these do make it up. Each time one is discovered Dad asks whether David or me made it. It’s usually me, I more crafty than David. Except he made the ‘bell’ which is actually part of an egg box wrapped in tin foil and the plane made of felt. I think he was sucking up to my dad.
-When we are taking the decorations out of the box we come across a wooden axe. This always causes us much amusement as we have no idea where it came from let alone why it is in the decorations box.
-The Christmas tree is called Cecil. I named it years ago. I think it was the funniest name I could think of.
-The turkey is called Seamus. Mum must take full responsibility for this one. I have no idea why the turkey is called Seamus.
-We get a big tin of Roses that cannot be opened until the Queen is on.
-Silence must be observed during the Queen’s speech.
-Chocolate coins must be Cadbury.
-My presents sit on the right of the tree, David’s on the left.
-I used to have a brussels sprout with my Christmas dinner, until a few years ago when I realised I didn’t need to anymore. I now have exactly no brussels sprouts during the year.
-The selection pack we get must have Santa on it, otherwise how do you know it’s from him? Again, this is from my mum.
-Mum makes me a Pavlova on Christmas morning because I don’t like Christmas pudding.
-Everyone else eats my Pavlova.
-Meals from Christmas night to New Year’s Day are on an ad hoc basis and usually consist of ‘picky bits’ (cold turkey and ham, cheeses, crackers, crisps, dip, cocktail sausages etc).


Spot the ones I made. In my defence David was older than me. I especially like the detailed eyes on the Robin.


There are no decorations too sad for our tree, bald tinsel even has its place. The trumpet thing is from Central Station in the good old NIR days. They were going to be thrown out - I can't imagine why. Everytime my dad sees them (oh yes, we have more than one) he cries 'ah a relic of auld dacency'.

The wooden axe that is now as much a part of Christmas as turkey.

Available for hire to rid to you of your vampire problem

Last night, as arranged from the moment my tickets home were booked, Kari and I went for Chinese. Little did I know she had planned for all my friends to be there. Surprise! I was eternally grateful for having been bothered to put make up on. It was a great night, with many a laugh. The Chinese has unofficially the worst service in the history of restaurants worldwide. Traditionally Kari and I get the table in the hallway amongst all the people in for takeaways, although last night we got moved up to be sitting in the restaurant proper. I felt like I’d got bumped up to first class on a plane! Lynsey was sick and so couldn’t make it, but her seat was left out and therefore thirty minutes after we’d all arrived, looked at and closed our menus we still were waiting to order. Ruth tried to order a jug of water for the table and was met with, perhaps the blankest look I have ever seen in a person. She had no clue what was just asked of her. Eventually through all of us miming drinking and saying ‘water’ very slowly and loudly the message was understood. However when a jug arrived with only three glasses we felt it best just to leave it.

I had the Crispy Fried Smoked Chicken, my favourite starter. It is lovely but as someone pointed out last night it doesn’t have garlic in the title which may come as a surprise to someone who'd never had it because it has more garlic than France. That's why I'm up so early this morning, because the smell of garlic off myself woke me.

Dr. Daddy

Yesterday was the graduation, the reason I wanted to be home and I wasn’t sorry I had made the trip. Although David and I were talking before the ceremony, saying that normally you build up to these sort of things, you know you start out going to Nativity plays, Sports Day, School concerts and Prize Days. Then hopefully you see your children graduate from University. Seeing our dad graduate yesterday came out of order and we were at a Graduation ceremony about twenty years too soon with no time to build up our stamina.

Still it was a good day. I think we were all a little relieved that the Honorary Grad was Melvyn Bragg and not some man from the field of psychology in railway accidents, although no doubt Father would have been delighted. Melvyn Bragg however comes nowhere close to beating the best Honorary Grad I’ve ever heard of, James Nesbitt. Genius! (He was at my graduation. I was sitting right behind him! ‘Raaachel’)

It was a funny day, I'd tell you stories but they’re probably only funny if you were there, or if you are in our family so I’ll not. But it was a lot to do with laughing at some of the boffins that were graduating (of which my dad is not).


The good doctor and me (with new improved hair, not that any of you will notice because you haven't seen me in months!)

Things I love about NI (in no particular order)

1. I don’t need to repeat myself for people to understand me
2. Belfast streets
3. The craic
4. We call a spade a spade
5. The accents sound normal
6. Advert breaks are short and few and far between (relatively speaking)
7. My friends
8. You always bump into someone you know in town
9. It’s green
10. Spelga toffee yoghurts
11. You don’t have to go too far before you reach the sea
12. Telephone numbers make sense
13. Methodist Youth things
14. People are real and brutally honest
15. We don’t talk about trunks, trash and candy
16. I understand how life works here
17. We have proper, definable seasons
18. I can talk at normal speed
19. It is breath takingly beautiful
20. The rain
21. Carrickfergus Castle
22. We don't need to see the sun to know it's there
23. The Yuky makes the best Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice this side of the Yangtze
24. We laugh at ourselves
25. I know my way around
26. You can play six degrees of separation when you meet a complete stranger (and usually do it in 3)
27. The bread
28. There is a discernable pattern to number plates
29. School students wear uniforms
30. Sarcasm is a recognised form of humour
31. Humour, colour and odour are spelt with a ‘u’
32. Maud’s Ice Cream
33. You could not buy a Christmas jumper with reindeers skiing for love nor money
34. Footpaths
35. The City Hall
36. We know that bigger is not always better
37. A trip to the doctor does not mean filling out a ream’s worth of paper in forms
38. The beach
39. Shops for the most part remain closed on Sunday mornings
40. Blackhead lighthouse
41. Tipping is choice not a requirement
42. We don’t need to finish every town name with the corresponding county
43. Bay windows
44. You can see Scotland on a clear day from my house
45. We know that Lisburn and Newry aren’t proper cities
46. 'Recognise' and indeed all words ending in –ise end in –ise
47. Our phrases
48. We believe that trousers that don’t trail the ground are just too short
49. And the word is trousers, pants are something else entirely
50. We believe in modest sized cars
51. Tollymore Forest Park
52. We don’t say ‘persons’, we say ‘people’
53. ‘Power’ only has one syllable
54. Sheep
55. Having to go to the ‘hole in the wall’ has meaning
56. Cheddar cheese is yellow, not orange
57. Public transport is an option
58. Puddles
59. The BBC
60. ‘Z’ is said as 'zed', it does not rhyme with ‘c’
61. We know that root beer is evil
62. It’s part of me
63. Botanic Gardens
64. Red on traffic lights means stop, no exceptions
65. ‘Happy Holidays’ isn’t a recognised phrase
66. Castlewellan
67. Semi detached houses
68. Texting is not a strange concept and recipients don’t pay
69. Football is football and uses feet
70. The Lisburn Road
71. It’s ok that everything is ‘wee’
72. We can hide our shame of May McFetridge, s/he is not a national star
73. We fully expect it to rain every day
74. ‘Harry’ is not pronounced the same as ‘hairy’
75. Town centres still exist
76. Glenoe waterfall
77. Our bank notes are all different colours
78. James Nesbitt
79. Christmas lights outside a house are not de rigueur
80. Rugby
81. Mussenden Temple and Downhill beach
82. We’re proud the Titanic was built here
83. Moviehouse popcorn
84. We can take the bits of Britain and Ireland we like and ignore the bits we don’t like
85. The Big Fish
86. We all cringe when we hear a NI accent on TV
87. You can see the Mournes from Belfast
88. Ulster fries
89. The Waterfront area
90. The National Trust owns the Crown Bar
91. Three cubes of ice in a drink is sufficient
92. Windies are a recognised feature of a house
93. Anyone who makes it from NI gets our overwhelming support. Forever
94. History is all around us
95. We know to change our bank notes before going to England. We have all been told they’re not Sterling
96. Samson and Goliath
97. It’s diverse and contrasting
98. Day trips to Newcastle and Portrush
99. Pretty towns names like Gracehill and Katesbridge
100. It’s my home

Kill the fattened calf

Yes, that’s right, the prodigal daughter has returned.

I’m sorry if I have lied to you over the past few weeks but I wanted to surprise my mum and dad. I know how NI works and that word would somehow reach home before I did if I told too many people.

Father is graduating tomorrow and Jud gave me the idea to surprise him before I even left home. So thanks to David and Karen, Kari and Nicky for helping me pull it off. The parents had absolutely no idea! It was fantastic. I had spun a web of lies over the past few weeks including:
-Telling my dad my fake dates and flight numbers
-Telling my mum my phone was broken so that when it was switched off on the plane and I didn’t reply she wouldn’t be suspicious
-Telling them that I had meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Asheville so if they phoned they’d not be surprised if I wasn’t at my desk

If either of them could have seen my face they would have known in an instant that I was lying and special credit must go to David whose ‘guilty face’ has given him away more times than enough. He excelled himself and may now be able to start playing poker.

David picked me up from Nicky’s and we drove out home deciding how exactly I should make my entrance. David went in first, got them sitting in the living room telling them he had a present from Sweden for them but they had to close their eyes. He then came outside and got me. I crept into the living room and told them they could open their eyes.


I think it’s fair to say they had no clue.

Self confessed daddy's girl

I love this. Love it! It could be because it’s Christmas or because I’m a long way from home. Or more likely it's because I am my Daddy’s little girl. But even though I’ve never ridden on a JCB with my dad (but those are his initials!) or told my friends he’s Bruce Lee I love this song because it reminds me of him.

Christmas trees sing?!

This weekend has increased my Christmas spirit even more - I went to that concert. It was brilliant. It was a ‘singing Christmas tree’ apparently which despite what you might think was not an actual singing tree (I’d pay good money to see that!) but rather the choir were arranged in a Christmas tree structure. That makes it sound really rubbish but I took a picture of it for you. The concert was amazing. There was a full orchestra and everything! It was really professional for a church concert. They sang really well and even sang ‘Before the Throne of God Above’ which I wouldn’t necessarily class as a Christmas song, but I love it so I’ll make an exception.


The Singing Christmas Tree. There were 9 tiers of people and about 50 odd in the whole choir. The highest person was just slightly higher than me and I was sitting in the balcony.

My favourite thing about the whole night though was Cassidy, a six year old girl with our group. She was brilliant, just enough confidence to talk to strangers with ease and yet not come over totally precocious.

She had obviously been told about me coming here to work on the conference but somewhere down the line it all got confused. After dinner she looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said ‘there’s a girl in my class in school from Korea!’. I thought I did well resisting the temptation to ask did I look anything like her. Instead I managed ‘Really? Do you know where I’m from?’ This obviously confused her somewhat and she said she didn’t so I helped her out by giving a clue about leprechauns. She of course knew the right answer immediately, I blame the Lucky Charms.

The best moment of the night came when we talking before the concert began. She asked me in all seriousness ‘what have you asked Santa for?’ Bless.

I can't believe I nearly forgot this!

When we were at the Biltmore last weekend we saw this boy. It’s unfair to mock, jeer and laugh. But it’s so hard not to because this boy had the worst haircut I have ever seen. He went a few stages beyond an average mullet and had it plaited at the back.


I’m sorry I couldn’t capture the full glory of the hair but hopefully this will give you an idea.

Holidays-a-coming, holidays-a-coming!

First of all, a point of note with regard to me saying ‘Happy Holidays’. I don’t actually wish anyone ‘Happy Holidays’. I would never say something so American. I have tried really hard to retain my NI brogue and sayings so ‘Happy Holidays’ just isn’t going to happen. But people in shops here say it with such intent and meaning (unlike at home when they say ‘Happy Christmas' with all the sincerity of…I don’t know…something really insincere - I always get the feeling they’re only saying it because their supervisor is watching) that I actually do believe they want me to have a good Christmas, so I usually say back to them ‘you too’.

Anyway as mentioned yesterday, since Jose’s Christmas party I have been more in the mood for Christmas. I now quite like seeing decorations up around the place. Our house though, remains like Scrooge’s. The Lake is like the town that Christmas built, a veritable Winter Wonderland with lights around windows, those funny lighted animal sculptures things and trees all lit up. We have nothing. Not even so much as a fake candle in a window (very popular here). It makes it look like no one even lives there. But there is absolutely no point in me buying any decorations, I won’t even be here for the big day and what would I do with them come January. I spend enough money on crap I don’t need thank you very much.

But my change in mood has meant I can even listen to at least a few songs on The Light before having to change to a CD. There is a Christmas song they play and I am telling you if that’s not Mark Owen singing then he should enter ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ and sing ‘Babe’. They wouldn’t even need to have the live final, he’d win from round one. He sounds exactly like him, exactly like him.

I felt a little at home when I heard ‘Saviour’s Day’. But I was gutted when I realised it wasn’t Cliff singing. Gutted I tell you. Cliff is as much a part of Christmas as eating until you need to carry your belly, overcrowded shops and stress as to what exactly you should buy your nearest and dearest. But I’ve yet to hear my all time favourite Cliff song (and probably my all time favourite Christmas song) his version of ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ on the radio. I love it, especially the instrumental bit and the very end bit when he goes into ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. Thank goodness I downloaded it off Napster last year. No really, I did.

The official middle of the week

Ah Wednesday, and the middle of the week already. To celebrate I thought I’d tell you what I got up to at the weekend and what I plan to get up to this weekend (subject to change).

This past weekend:

- I saw Rick Warren on Larry King Live (Larry King = a more showbiz Jeremy Paxman). I never actually made it to the end of ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ but I do feel a wee bit more inspired to finish now. I really liked Rick Warren and he made some very strong arguments to Larry King’s questions (although they were nowhere near Paxman’s standard).

- I went into Asheville with Maggie on Friday night. We went to a bar somewhere. We both got IDed on the way in which is a weird concept for me when I’ve been legal back home for 7 years. Not that I use the privilege much…actually, ever.

- I went to Jose’s in SC for his Christmas party. Ah fun times. I feel a mite more Christmassy now. Some of his friends from the last weekend were there but there were millions that I’d no clue about. But the partay was great craic anyway. Jose made some sort of Pork dish that is a traditional Costa Rican Christmas dinner. I ate it and was not sick. Result!

- we visited Biltmore House on Sunday. It’s America’s largest home apparently. It’s definitely not small. It’s kind of like a National Trust house with rooms on display and all that. Every room we went into had a Christmas tree and garlands hanging. Although Doris (Jose’s friend) discovered that most were fake.

- I went shopping with Maggie after the Biltmore. I know, I know, I don’t go shopping on Sundays but there was a good explanation that for reasons that are too long and dull I won’t go into.

This weekend coming:

- I am going to some Christmas concert thing with Virginia’s small group. No doubt this will add to my ever increasing Christmas mood.

- I may well have to tidy. Last night I was lucky I was able to find the sofa. I imagine the situation will only worsen over the next few days.

- Maggie and I are going to go ice skating. I cannot wait! I haven’t been in ages. It’s just pure fun!

- I am sleeping in on Saturday morning. Heaven help my next door neighbour should he decide that the perfect time to start his leaf blowing yoke is 8.30am like he did at Thanksgiving. He was very lucky I was stubborn then and refused to be awoken by his rudeness.

- I am going to go back to the Welcome Pack Giving Church. It’s been a while since I was there. I don’t think they’ll let me take another pack though.



Doris, Jose, and the Biltmore (hewge!)

I’m not a complete girl you know

I got pictures printed from NY and have wanted them up for ages. Last week I got the frames, on Friday I took the toolkit from work and finally last night I got round to actually doing it. Well, there was no real rush!

I may not have the knowledge or inclination to change a flat tyre but I can put up pictures all by myself. Actually, it’s pretty hard to put it up by yourself, you need someone to hold it to see what it looks like, but I persevered on my own. I was adventurous and used the drill (a power tool no less!). I decided that I had watched my dad use the drill enough times I could have a go. And besides, if I messed up I wouldn’t be living here forever.

But I did not mess up at all! Ha! I was brilliant in fact. I think I may have missed my calling as a DIY and home décor specialist. I even knew to consider the wiring in the walls when choosing each spot, then I measured, made little tiny marks, drilled a hole using a drill bit that was the perfect size, put in the raw plug (credit please for not only knowing what a raw plug is, but that I had to use one) and put in the screw.

I’m pretty pleased with the results.


Cleverly put beside my map of the USA. There's another one up too, but in an effort not to bore you (too late?) I'll just show you this one.

Seeing as I managed to put them up with relative ease, you’ve really got to wonder who did this to the kitchen wall in my house.


I mean honestly! A blind one armed child could have hit that mark better. Goodness knows it was big enough.

Ways you know I'm out of my grump

1. I can go to Wal Mart or indeed any other busy big shop and not get stressed and swear under my breath at slow walkers that block the entire aisle and at not being able to find what I need.
2. In shops I wish the cashier ‘Happy Holidays’ back.
3. I can appreciate the beauty of the lake again.
4. When I drop my lunch on the floor I don’t swear, I smile.
5. When the glitter glue explodes covering my hair, clothes, table, fruit bowl and what I’m glittering I laugh for ten minutes straight.

So yes the glitter explosion of Friday worked a treat to get me out of it. Thanks for respecting my wishes and not contacting me during the grump.

One red car wheel please

No blog yesterday. There were a couple of reasons for this that in the spirit of honesty I’ll share with you.

1. I was much too grumpy
2. Grumpiness leads to laziness
3. Ergo I could not be assed

(Actually you can tell I’m still in a mood because I only use two exclamation marks in this blog. Well below average. Although my love of brackets remains intact)

Who would have thought a half mile trip to work could be so exciting, what with fallen trees and yesterday I noticed a funny noise. When I got out of the car I discovered a flat tyre. Arse!

It turns out it was a big rubber piercing nail.

But thankfully Roma has AAA membership so they fixed it for free, meaning I did not have to go out my skirt, heels and nice coat to try and work out what to do (David showed me once and I’m sure given 3 hours or so I could have done it if absolutely necessary) But if I’m honest (and I am - see my earlier spirit) I would probably have exhausted every possible avenue before me going out to put the spare wheel on would become a reality.

Despite my car-fixing father and brother I know nothing about cars. Once David needed new tyres and I made the comment about ‘red car wheels’. You see, I did not know that a wheel and a tyre were different things. I’d like to say that I was 8 or something but I was in university.

I know the important thing, how to drive one and I’m happy enough with that. My brain has far more interest in retaining useless facts and knowing the day of the week things happened on than to have the understanding of what a carburettor actually is or how to change the oil. (Although I think I should receive some credit for knowing the word ‘carburettor’ and that oil needs to be changed)

But the thing is I’m not the least bit sorry about my lack of knowledge of cars. If that’s what you are into then great. I’m not. But maybe I’ll come to when I need help. And maybe you will come to me when you want to know the capital of Nevada* or somewhere.

I went back to my favourite place to feel like a fish out of water to get the proper tyre fixed, the service and parts department of the car place. Everyone who works there, no wait everyone – employee and customer alike, is middle aged, male and of course, has a mullet. Me, stick out like a sore thumb?! Even the man who helped me when I broke my petrol door remembered me and said hello.

While they were fixing it I was reading the local free newspaper. I saw this advert (it’s really just one for the Irish Methodists – sorry everyone else):

Hopefully I’ll be out of my piss awful mood in time for the festivities at Jose’s tomorrow night, otherwise I’ll be known as that grumpy Irish girl. I’m sure by Monday I will be out of it. But if I don’t write you’ll know why.

Oh, and if you know me at all you will know not to try and coax me out of my grump by posting a comment or sending me an email telling me to cheer up or asking what’s wrong. And definitely do not call me pointy. I hate that and may never acknowledge your existence again and/or cause you harm. Leave me to wallow in my grumpiness. I will get out of it myself in my own good time. Thank you.

*Carson City