Last Friday we decided to have a Staff Night Out. Its a week and a bit until the end of term but it seems that people have plans already for next weekend. There was a scramble to book a table for thirteen (unlucky for nobody this time) and, despite extreme weariness all round, out we went.
One minor problem arose though when I went to get dressed: its so long since I last needed the oul' Glad Rags that they appear to have disappeared...evaporated...rotted away?
Smart jeans? Check (luckily I have the largest arse in the West, so no competition for my jeans).
Black tee-shirt? (after a long search, and discovery of crumpled remains) check.
Good sandals????? Nowhere to be found, so wore school shoes.
Old plum-coloured jacket which I made for a cousin's wedding? Check (home made, no temptation)
Funky necklaces? Gone.
Dangly earrings? One old pair I wore in College discovered, any others....c'est disparu...
Good black handbag? Gone.
Black pashmina? Gone.
Eventually I found an old leather bag, which was actually the treat to myself on receiving my first teacher's paycheck! I scrubbed the mould off on the bedspread!!
I'd be the first to admit that clothes aren't really my thing. If its comfortable, clean and has most of its buttons its just fine. Shoes ditto- coupla €4 footwear from Penny's, one good pair for winter, (communal) gumboots, flip-flops and ye olde sheepskin slippers make me happy. I don't like having loads of stuff, besides which I only ever wear flats.
Jewellery? The good stuff I've inherited, a €1.50 pearl string, some couple of nice earrings I've collected over the years, some lovely malachite from Kenya when it was still affordable...oh and dozens of jangly cheapo Indian bangles from Nairobi, all please me very much.
Like most mothers I guess I've spent anything extra on the girls and taken my pleasure in having them dressed well. I think they're gorgeous and I love seeing what they make of themselves now, although in years past I used to dress make for them and loved doing that too.
So no sour grapes girls...BUT I REALLY WANT MY THINGS BACK!
Having said all that, I had a great evening...and morning! It was nearly 1am by the time I'd delivered friends home after a lengthy, rowdy and hilarious meal at the French Restaurant in town. (As the non-drinking driver the Noddy car is regularly called into taxi service, the only time anyone is ever polite to him!!!)
Which all goes to prove that...'Its not what you do, its the way that you do it!' which counts....and ...clothes maketh not the woman!!!!
P.S. If my things don't come back soon I jolly well going to go and spend the girls' next months' pocket on myself at Vicki's shop 'Glass River Jewellry' and tough cookies to the lot of 'em!
Showing posts with label daughters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daughters. Show all posts
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Tropical Leitrim!
It’s been another warm day, decidedly muggy in town. This morning I wanted to finish putting up the photos in School (attaching brackets to the frames, then screwing them to the walls), so the Hub came with me to speed things up. The heat in the classrooms, even with windows open and doors propped to catch the breeze, was amazing. The children were doing class tests too, poor things. We failed to finish the pictures, but hopefully an hour tomorrow will do it. They look so good in their neat rows and so much safer attached permamently to the walls.
After lunch we sat out in the folk's garden for tea. It was just lovely to sit out and do nothing. Except for Mum who kept leaping up to chop bits off bushes and dead-head flowers, and then went off to fetch the plant books in order to identify a yellow shrub. She’s decided that it is hypericum, not genestra, although there was a bit of a barney because she wanted it to be potentilla, and I knew it wasn’t that. Dad pretended to doze, occasionally opening one eye to do ‘Paddington stares’ at me! (Note to self- argue respectfully with one’s mother when one’s father is sitting by…)
Thinking of plants, the spathyphillum in our bathroom are flowering beautifully at present. Although tropical, this muggy weather suits them very well, and they are such luscious plants with the shiny green leaves and pristine white flowers or bracts or whajemies.
Another thing this warm weather is good for is rotting down the compost. I was just talking to a field mouse whilst emptying the vegetable peelings into the outside compost bin and she said it’s quite delightful in the bins at present, and the fruit peelings add delicious variety to her diet.
My amaryllis bulb flowered at least two months ago, probably more, and I’ve been watching the seed pods grow fatter and fatter. On Sunday they burst open so yesterday I collected all the seeds, except for the few which fell into the printer, and then looked up books to see how best to germinate the seeds. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have lots of amaryllis plants flowering all at once? Mum says they grow wild in Hong Kong and are lovely to see. Granny’s ‘Gardening in East Africa’ book says to spread the seeds on a sandy loam with very light covering of soil, and then keep them in a light warm place under glass until they germinate. If I planted out the tomato seedlings I could use that tray for the amaryllis, but perhaps a rummage in the re-cycling place on the Quays would turn up another seed tray- I find amazingly useful items there, and the man who works there is great at helping me load up my car with other people’s rubbish! I fould a big old tim tea caddy on Saturday, very useful for planting a petunia in. Anyhow, planting the seeds is my next job…time and tide may wait for no man, but the ironing is generally quite patient!
Yesterday I spent most of the day with a friend: we sat in the sun drinking tea and setting the Irish education system to rights. If only the Minister for Education, O’Keeffe, had had time to stop by he would have learned so much to help him!
Middle daughter, Sos, spent this morning in town going round shops to see if there were any summer jobs going. She is a bit late starting since she’s only just finished sitting her Leaving Cert, but not surprisingly, the outlook isn’t good. A friend suggested an idea for a small business so perhaps she will set that up. She would like to learn to drive this summer, before going to College. She isn’t one to let the grass grow under her, so when she returns from next week in Madrid she will have time to get on with something. Its certainly a summer of firsts. This evening B returns from France- she’ll either collapse straight into bed, or she will talk all night, there’s no guessing which it’ll be.
And lastly, when I have figured how to download, upload, sideload, or whatever, I will start putting photos in. So far, no good!
After lunch we sat out in the folk's garden for tea. It was just lovely to sit out and do nothing. Except for Mum who kept leaping up to chop bits off bushes and dead-head flowers, and then went off to fetch the plant books in order to identify a yellow shrub. She’s decided that it is hypericum, not genestra, although there was a bit of a barney because she wanted it to be potentilla, and I knew it wasn’t that. Dad pretended to doze, occasionally opening one eye to do ‘Paddington stares’ at me! (Note to self- argue respectfully with one’s mother when one’s father is sitting by…)
Thinking of plants, the spathyphillum in our bathroom are flowering beautifully at present. Although tropical, this muggy weather suits them very well, and they are such luscious plants with the shiny green leaves and pristine white flowers or bracts or whajemies.
Another thing this warm weather is good for is rotting down the compost. I was just talking to a field mouse whilst emptying the vegetable peelings into the outside compost bin and she said it’s quite delightful in the bins at present, and the fruit peelings add delicious variety to her diet.
My amaryllis bulb flowered at least two months ago, probably more, and I’ve been watching the seed pods grow fatter and fatter. On Sunday they burst open so yesterday I collected all the seeds, except for the few which fell into the printer, and then looked up books to see how best to germinate the seeds. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have lots of amaryllis plants flowering all at once? Mum says they grow wild in Hong Kong and are lovely to see. Granny’s ‘Gardening in East Africa’ book says to spread the seeds on a sandy loam with very light covering of soil, and then keep them in a light warm place under glass until they germinate. If I planted out the tomato seedlings I could use that tray for the amaryllis, but perhaps a rummage in the re-cycling place on the Quays would turn up another seed tray- I find amazingly useful items there, and the man who works there is great at helping me load up my car with other people’s rubbish! I fould a big old tim tea caddy on Saturday, very useful for planting a petunia in. Anyhow, planting the seeds is my next job…time and tide may wait for no man, but the ironing is generally quite patient!
Yesterday I spent most of the day with a friend: we sat in the sun drinking tea and setting the Irish education system to rights. If only the Minister for Education, O’Keeffe, had had time to stop by he would have learned so much to help him!
Middle daughter, Sos, spent this morning in town going round shops to see if there were any summer jobs going. She is a bit late starting since she’s only just finished sitting her Leaving Cert, but not surprisingly, the outlook isn’t good. A friend suggested an idea for a small business so perhaps she will set that up. She would like to learn to drive this summer, before going to College. She isn’t one to let the grass grow under her, so when she returns from next week in Madrid she will have time to get on with something. Its certainly a summer of firsts. This evening B returns from France- she’ll either collapse straight into bed, or she will talk all night, there’s no guessing which it’ll be.
And lastly, when I have figured how to download, upload, sideload, or whatever, I will start putting photos in. So far, no good!
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