Table quiz mania

It says a lot about the the exciting life I lead that I have managed to attend 3 table quizzes in the space of 2 months.....still, I suppose I need to put all those hours of watching The Weakest Link and University Challenge to some use....

it's not that I am actually any good at quizzes, I don't know what the collective name for a group of butterflies is, for example, or what year some obscure footballer from Accrington Stanley scored 3 consecutive hat tricks, but the nerd in me seems to enjoy trying to answer these kinds of questions that I have absolutely no idea about whatsoever.

Four long months...

...have passed since I bothered to digitally scrawl about my life on this blog....so I thought I'd better update all 2 (and that's being optimistic!) of my regular blog readers, who by now no doubt have given up on ever having me write anything again.

So here we go, in no particular order of importance this is what's been happening over the past four months...

I'm going to be an aunt! Little Aussie niece on her way....ETA January 2009.
Wedding outfit and hat required for 2010 as my sister Ruth is getting married. I'm going to have a new brother in-law....ETW* 2010...

Celebrated with friends who became parents for the first time

I have knife skills, and not the 'SAS, slit your throat at 20 paces' ones. K and I did a course in the Cooks Academy which was really great and free of sliced digits. I can now chop an onion in several exciting ways...

Got all horsey. Pam and I signed up for horse-riding lessons this summer. While we're not quite Eddie Macken or Paul Darragh yet, those knee high jumps are quite challenging though! Have resisted wearing the jodpurs so far, instead opting for the cowgirl look. 'Whip, crack, away!' and all that....

The Irish summer was yet again a pile of soggy crap - wettest August ever by all accounts, I should have signed up for a boat building course instead of the knife skills thing but hindsight is a great thing....

Visited my dearest American friend in July; laughed, cried, walked her dogs, spilled wine on her expensive rug, watched an entire run of 'So I Survived a Japanese Game Show' and finally visited the Chocolate Barn. Spent 18 hours in JFK airport in not so hilarious 'flight cancellation' episode.

Got to a cup semi-final and third in the league in my 4th (!) season with Whitehall Ladies. Banjaxed achilles (again!) - hockey on hold for now, though I still got stung to umpire!



*ETW (Estimated time of wedding)

Twenty-four years..

Yesterday I started a new job and later that day at 7pm stood in the May evening sunshine in a country churchyard to mourn a schoolfriend who had passed away after a 20-year battle with cancer. We had been to primary school together, a small rural primary school so small that there were only six of us in 6th class. I hadn't seen my classmates for at least 20 years so naturally one's conversation turns to reminiscences, of piles of stones for goalposts, dancing to Abba, copying maths homework, comparing lunches and all the other memories that resurrect themselves to make you smile and shed a tear or two.

I hadn't seen Marc for 24 years, but I often heard about how he was doing and one time I heard of a story he had told of a time when he was in a bar in Trinity. He had spotted me in the throng and was going to wander over to say hello and buy me a pint, but when he turned around to look for me again I was gone. I never knew he was there until I heard that story, and standing in the churchyard last night, I wished I had seen him and had that pint.

You get it back

A couple of weeks ago, in an incredible fit of stupidity, I managed to lose a rather large bunch of keys on my way into work. I had no idea that I had managed to lose said keys en route and it wasn't until I returned to my car at 5.30pm that I realised my predicament...

Thankfully, my lovely sister Pamela was able to collect me on her way home from work and my other lovely sister Ruth was able to bring a spare car key up from home. Had this happened before Christmas I would most probably have still been sitting beside my car as my sisters were out of the country :)

And even better, the following day as I was wondering if I needed to change my locks, I got a call from yougetitback.com to tell me that my keys had been found and were awaiting my collection in the local garda station*. A very kind person had found my keys replete with realistic-but-actually-fake chocolate squares, plastic pink pig and yougetitback keyfob, and instead of pitying my naff taste in key chains decided instead to hand in said keys, thus saving me a world of worry and self beration at being such an idiot for losing them in the first place.

Thank you kind stranger and thank you yougetitback.com - I am a total fan, all you forgetful types check them out now!


*Garda station=cop shop (for US readers)

Sylvia and Dave's wedding

So from hen party antics to a black tie wedding in the glorious splendour of the Ritz Carlton, Powerscourt last week. Dave and Sylvia tied the knot in Cabinteely and were then whisked away to Eniskerry by the wedding photographer in a bid to defy the changeable weather conditions. The bride looked absolutely stunning and the style of the wedding party was fantastic - everyone looked great.

A salsa band and champagne reception kicked off the festivities before dinner and the party mood continued during the speeches which were very good and a lot longer than the 47 minutes I had predicted (boo!). The wine and champagne flowed all night which inevitably led to fantastic displays of dancing prowess on the dancefloor. The happy couple kicked off proceedings with a classy foxtrot - lessons for which had been alluded to in the best man's speech.

The whole atmosphere was brilliant, the large wedding party all had a great time until the wee small hours.

Susan's hen

Truly one of the best hen parties I've ever been on took place a fortnight ago in Dublin. We began the afternoon with a civilised champagne reception before being divided into teams and sent on a Luas* treasure hunt. Each team was given a red balloon which they would get bonus points for if they got it home safely. Teams encountering each other could burst balloons and generally cause mayhem.

So off we went....I lost my balloon in the first 5 minutes while running for the Luas, and the other 4 girls lost them in the Dawson lounge when Paidi's sister Ciara went 'postal'. What the German and Spanish tourists enjoying a quiet drink in Dublin's smallest pub thought of the whole episode we'll never know. The general public at Balally luas stop where somewhat traumatised by a scene reminiscent of a David Attenborough nature programme, you know, the one where the lions are hiding in the long grass and sneak attack unsuspecting gazelles - well that was us in Balally.

So back home to a sumptuous dinner cooked for us by Claire's boyfriend and the usual hen antics, until the arrival of the stripper. It is no exaggeration to say that Susan's reaction was priceless...the joy on her face was similar to that on Munster winning the Heineken Cup...she was delighted. Banana eating and baby oil applications done with, off we went to finish the evening in Club 92 - The Club of Love. One of the best hen parties ever!




*Luas - a tram system that operates in Dublin. Often called the 'Daniel-Day'

Soll, Part Deux

So we returned to Soll at the beginning of March in the hope that the snow would be good and the apres ski would be excellent...and so it proved. We travelled as a smaller group this time - the Whitehall soccer girls, Jen, Amy, Louise and myself - and stayed in a very nice catered chalet about a 6 minute walk from the village. This was Louise's first ski holiday, while the rest of us had been a couple of times before, and we wondered if her decision to snowboard would prove to be off-putting. We needn't have worried, she was falling over with the rest us in no time :)

The week that followed was one of great fun, banter, nursing battered bodies and enjoying one too many apres ski beers: 'sure we'll go for one...' The snow wasn't as good as our previous visit, but the company was great and we returned home with enough holiday catchphrases to keep us going through the soccer season. Particular favourites being 'I won't lie to youse...I'm absolutely fu&*ed' and placing the suffixes '-ski' and '-age' at the end of a sentence, e.g. 'another beerski?'

When I got home I decided to invest in a snowboard, so next year I'll be hurtling downhill on a go-faster red board......