Urrrgh!

You know when you're away from home and you haven't enough clean clothes with you and you can't do laundry and you have to rush out and buy cheap underwears and jeans to tide you over and nothing fits properly and you feel URRRGH?

That's how it is.

GRRRRR.......

And so to...

...Mothers' Day...

I hope all you Mothers have been having a lovely day?

Here in Dublin it is a sunny day, but cold. Middlest and Youngest texted me their good wishes this morning and mid-afternoon Eldest suddenly remembered, which was quite funny considering I'd been with her all day!

Actually I have spent the day working with Eldest in the Theater, or painting and gluing things together in the Design room. I'd forgotten how much fun it is rigging for a Show. When Eldest was born I was in the middle of making all the Chorus costumes for a large production of 'Camelot' in Nairobi. The nurses nearly went spare with the number of people and clothes who passed through the Maternity Ward that week!

When Eldest was a week old she was bundled into a basket and stowed under the counter of a Dressing Room backstage, as I had so much work to do. If she cried, whoever wasn't on stage picked her up and rocked her...and then passed her to someone else when they had to go on! The Hub was playing 'Mordred', and I seem to remember there were a couple of close calls with crew grabbing the baby from him as he was walking on stage!!

In retrospect it wasn't terribly responsible of us, but we were young and we hadn't the first notion of how much a baby would change everything! We took her camping, on up-country safaris, to game parks, and reckoned that as long as she was regularly fed and changed she'd be fine!


Today, as I've hauled furniture, wielded spray cans, climbed up and down endless flights of stairs, groped through the dark Black Box and laughed at Eldest acting the eejit, I'm just so thankful that I am a Mother. Not everyone gets that opportunity, or has the choice.

Soooo...a Happy Mothers' Day to you!

And.... make that a Thankful For My Children Day too!

Of Crockery and Tridents?

I'm getting old, no really, I am.

Last week I just had to take myself back home for several days and let Middlest go to Dublin with Eldest...for why?

I missed my kitchen!
How sad is that?

Not the size, or the crockery, or the pans, but being able to have it clean! Living with a bunch of students is no problem, they are lovely and very chatty...but the dirty kitchen pushed me beyond my limits!

I'm back in Dublin now though, and this morning wrote her notes for her Set Design presentation, before heading out into town to do her stage prop shopping for the next play!
I ask you!
Do I look like a personal shopper?
And if you did but know my haphazard shopping methods, its certainly not me you'd be sending out to do the job!

3 blue cushion covers
2 blue and white dinner plates
2 matching mugs
12 assorted picture frames

...couldn't find a cheap blue floor rug...

...and a small toy tiger for Youngest.

There was a great trident in one of the 'pound shops', but Eldest insisted I left it there...sure couldn't the script be changed just a teeney bit to include a trident? I would've!

Her Presentation went alright, she thinks, she's passed the Module anyhow. Now, after the play that she's setting up this weekend, there's the Dissertation for the 8th, and Play Writing piece for the 19th. Then Viva Voces and exams, various.

She's out to a quick lunch now, before setting in to write for the afternoon, and I got a text to say there was potato salad she'd left for me...raided from my kitchen earlier in the week, I'll have you know!! I opened the box...not just potato salad, but lovely furry potato salad...thanks, kiddo!!
Your generosity knows no bounds, I see!

So gradually getting there...and I so want to thank you for all the prayers and positive thoughts yous are sending to us! Despite the kitchen moan, I do feel very much that we are being 'bourne up' through this time- so:
Go Raibh Míle Maith Agaibh!!

A Thousand Thanks to Yez!