Lesson no. 12: How to use a smartphone

The last few days have been stressful as I get used to my first ever smartphone - a dinky little Galaxy Mini. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a major technophobe. So this has been a major journey. haha. And here's the next step: a blog from my smartphone. And a uploaded photo. I have to say I am quite proud of myself.

Lesson No.11: How to plant an Asiatic Lily

Brace yourselves Ladies and Gentlemen.....

I have just planted my first ever plant.

B & Q is the new River Island.....

Well not quite, but it's a start for me at least.

Here's my new 'baby' - a little orange Asiatic Lily. Oh and there's a little mini conifer tree thing stuck in there behind it (threw out the label so not sure what it's called). 

And check out the little pot (labels still attached, give me time, I'll get there).

I even took the hands on approach. No trowel for me, oh no, I used my hands to dig a little hole in the compost. I'm soooo at one with nature now.  

Luckily no creepy crawlies dared cross my path!

And the weather has been hugely beneficial, I haven't even needed to water the plant. ;)

This gardening melarchy is all very straight forward....for now anyway!!

Me and World War 1

I've always been a bit of History nerd....with a particular interest in social history....

During my degree, I did my thesis on the role of women in World War II in Britain. The interest had come about because my Granny had been a Nurse in Southampton during the war. Over the years, I have been enthralled by books and films set during that era.

However, recently I attended a talk in Cork on the involvement of Irish men, specifically Cork men in the Great War or World War I 1914-1919.

After a chat with some family members, we established that my Great Grandfather had actually served in the British Army during World War I. This was somewhat of a taboo subject in Irish society down through the years - involvement of Irish men in the British army would not have been looked upon favourably. Yet in some cases, needs must, and men were compelled to this because of the wage being offered; others were enticed by the argument that the British government might be more likely to give Ireland its much desired Home Rule if they assisted in the war effort.

We have yet to discover WHY my great-grandad joined the British army??? It's something that I really want to know and may never find out. I do know that he served in the Royal Army Service Corps as a driver and that he went to France after 1916 but that's as far as I've gotten.

Below are some of the posters that Irish people would have seen from 1914 onwards and perhaps it was one of these posters that inspired my great-grandad to sign up.

 

Propoganda much???

Good old stereotyping. All Irish people obviously had a wolfhound at that time

I liked this one alot...

Print is difficult to read in it. But undoubtedly the line where it offers a place in the RIC when the soldier returned from the Front would have been a motivation for some men

Battery dying in camera....hence bad quality

The Frames.....I waited 8 years for this night

The Frames  - Live @ The Marquee, Cork - Saturday 11th June 2011

the final hurrah

really really special moment....trust me



I'm a Virgin......

A colour virgin that is....

For my whole life, I have been a brunette.....a solid mahogony shade of brown....slightly lighter in the summer...but largely just brown....

My poor tortured hairdresser.

I say tortured because this colour debate has been ongoing for at least 3 years.... I've been patch tested....and then patch tested again....and the colour books have been put out and then put out....the magazines have been strategically laid out and styles and designs picked and then shied away from.....need I go on.....my poor hairdresser (the best I've ever had by the way....pardon the pun).

At the grand old age of 26, I finally made the leap of faith and granted my beloved tortured hairdresser the permission to add a splash of colour to my locks.

The confidence had been building in the lead up...some of you may have seen that about a month ago I had opted for my first ever full fringe. That settled well with me, and the compliments from friends and workmates had boosted my confidence. And lets face it flattery does wonder for a girl's ego....

I always knew I never wanted to go lighter. Ofen the times passed when some poor naieve hairdresser would dare suggest blonde highlights only to get the head bitten off her.

I wanted red. Always knew that was what I wanted eventually. But as the decision came closer, I was wary of the Rihanna red.....due to the nature of my job. I wasn't too sure what my employer might make of it either. Then I saw THIS in the window of Peter Marks. It was love at first sight....

This was my ambition.....

Who knew that my hair wasn't to be so compliant!!! 

I was a reluctant first-timer so the colourist suggested not going for a permanent colour, rather to opt for a quazi...which apparently is a strong version of a semi. But what do I know. 

When I emerged from under my towel, I was a radiant shade of foxy copper....

4 days later.....I was pretty much a brunette again....

This pic shows evidence of my fading foxiness.....

I was so disappointed....

In a random turn of events, less than a week after "my first time", I was back in the hot seat again!!!

I had gone from colour virgin to colour expert.

Apparently as a first timer the colour hadn't really taken.....understandable...so I got a second FREE dye job!!! And by god was I red....

I'm in love but I've no pictures to prove my ...ahem..."beauty"....

Imagine my face when I realised while watching Eastenders last night....I had the same colour hair as Mercy!!!!hahahahaha. Ok so you've got to picture my Caucasian little face under Mercy's hair and minus the under layer of black in hers. Photos of yours truly will  follow.

But save to say, I am addicted to hair colouring!!!!!! And totally in love my new look if it's not too egotistical to say!!!!!

Back with a bang......or at least a slow jog....

I'm back....


A bit of normality is gradually being restored...  I  am making a come back from a month of assignments, end of year presentations, group projects, starting an internship, finishing up my in place of work for the last year...not to mention a few personal bits and pieces.

I decided to start back by documenting my second attempt at "From Couch to 5k".

6 weeks ago, I had never even heard of "From Couch to 5k". In fact the whole concept of 5 kilometres in itself was pretty foreign to me. Basically it is a programme which should take you from being an immobile, puffed out, stiff laydee, to someone who can jog for the distance of 5 kilometre. Do not underestimate the extent of this challenge!!!!!!

Moving faster than my usual brisk jaunting pace was something I had aspired to for weeks. An early attempt at this proved that I had no clue of even how to run, as ridiuclous as that may seem. I needed a plan.

After a wander through the world wide web, I came across this website http://runningintoshape.com/ which documents "Carli's" attempt to move from a couch potato to being able to run/jog 5km without stopping. This seemed like something I could do. I needed guidance and Carli provided that.  Success is achieved through building up gradually the length of time for which you jog/run; for example in week 1 you run for 60 seconds followed by a walk for 1 min 30 secs and so on. I think those in the sporting way call this interval training.

So off I jogged....or half walked/ran/hopped.

Disaster struck 2 weeks in.....as bizarre as this may seem, an arm injury interfered and I was forced to stop running. I know what you're thinking.....what a cop out...what has an arm injury got to do with one's legs. But it was medic's orders. Who was I to argue.

So a few weeks on and I'm now 'back' to week 2 again.

The world of "walk/running" as my friend affectionately calls this process of interval training is a whole new one to me.

Sports bra's, slimline running pants, 'running' runners, impact injury, shin pain.... who knew there was so much to exercise.

So far I'm going to highly recommend this website. It's podcasts are the single reason why I've kept going at this. The music is motivational and upbeat as well as current. And Carli literally talks you through your jog, telling you when to walk, when to cool down, when to jog.

Who knew that the world of jogging was directly correlated to the world of fashion.

I am currently the owner of a far prettier version of the Asics runners below.

I have learned NOT to run in my sorta ugly Reetones which look like these ones:

 

Word of wisdom: Leggingss. Leggings all the way. Make you look and feel skinnier than the massive fat man pants that only an amateur like me would start out in........

That leaves the god-damn bra. I have absolutely no experience in this field. What in the name of god is with the price of these things, how much padding exactly is necessary, and surely 1 bra is not enough when one will be running 3 times a week!!!! Oh the dilemma. All suggestions on this dilemma are welcomed!!!!

Week 3 here I come....

My celebration of the Wedding of the Year

Some Irish people tried to claim that the British Royal Wedding in the last week meant nothing to them. That a wedding like that was none of the business of the average Irish person. Some people felt that they should go out of their way to air their anger at such an ostentacious show of pagentry and even gaudiness. In fact some spoke in the foulest terms about this ceremony that our supposed aged old enemies were holding.

Ha!!!!!!!

I guarantee that at least 1 person in every Irish household was sitting, awestruck and gripped by the spectacle that was the wedding of Kate and William on Friday morning.

And to be fair it is very few women that can resist a true romantic fairytale.

Right after the wedding ceremony and before they arrived back at Buckingham Palace I dashed out to a physio appointment. The physiotherapist who had been at work since 7.00 that morning, could tell ME every detail of the ceremony and the events leading up to it, down to the comment that Harry whispered to William as Kate arrived at the bottom of the aisle. All this despite not being next nor near a tv or radio all morning. Every person who had attended her clinic that morning, males included, had brought some nugget of information with them. This alone demonstrated to me that Irish people were no less interested than people of other nations in this wedding of the century so far.

I have absolute no qualms in saying that I had been awaiting eagerly this day since the engagement was announced!!!!! I was brought up in a house where the 'Hello' magazine (for those of you who don't know they take great pride in their documenting of royal affairs) was a weekly purchase. My Granny, who spent a few years in England as a nurse during World War II, appears to almost consider herself a subject of the royal establishment and has been known to sing God Save the Queen at the top of her voice with the windows open!!!!! I can't say that I would go that far however nonetheless, I would say I was suitably well armed with facts and figures about the upcoming nuptials by the time Friday morning came. My Mom shares this royal interest and so we planned a morning in front of the tv.

My preparations began on Thursday. On a shopping trip I came across this cake stand that reminded of the regal nature of a royal wedding and had to buy it!!!!!

And I had to get these cute little napkins...which aren't so regal but still sweet (pardon the pun).

Now all I was short of was the sweet treats that Mom and myself could enjoy while we 'attended' wedding.

So I cooked up these beauties - Queen cakes with Royal Icing and Raspberry Scones (not sure of the Royal link with the scones!!!!).

In homage to wedding, I conjured up my own nail art interpretation and let me add, pretty messy, to don on the day.

I chose purple, a colour associated with royalty and my own version of the royal engagement ring on my ring finger. I was minus the necessary sapphire stone or any blue equivalent. I had to make do with a purple stone.....Well I did say it was an interpretation....

The Real Thing





We thoroughly enjoyed our morning as guests of the biggest wedding of the year.

And no matter what your opinion is on the concept of the monarchy or the role of royalty in our modern society, how can one not hope the best for any new couple embarking of the major challenge that is any marriage. I, for one, hope that this fairytale really does have its happy ending.



I'm in love...with a bag

I saw this mentioned at http://thelicentiate.blogspot.com/ today and I fell in love instantly!

I think the conservative in me however may not stretch to this luminousity however. Should my savings allow, how fabulously vintage and equally sophisticated would this one be:



These beauties can be viewed @ http://www.cambridgesatchel.co.uk/index.asp .

You can even emboss them with your initials! They come in various sizes or in "batchel" form.

A girl can dream......

N.O.T.D.

Ok this isn't exactly summery and if I'm honest it's not even my N.O.T.D.....more like N.O.L.W. (last week that is) !!!!!! But I've had my bottle of Isadora Graffiti Nail Top for only forever (I'm talking months) to the point where it's gone gloopy....oops so I decided that it was about time I gave it a proper go.

Underneath is a random bottle of purple nail varnish I bought in H and M many moons ago.

(Apologies for the camera quality...I'm working on it)

Lesson No.9: Getting my curl on

I have THE straightest hair in the world (a bit of creative license there but you get the picture).

Now bizzarely I also straighten my hair every day with my beloved hair straightener. Life without my GHD is a scary one. It is undoubtedly an obsession but I suffer from the odd kink, and these simply cannot be ignored!!! A bit of O.C.D. going on I'd say!! In fact just see the picture below to see the long-suffering GHD in question. My poor Dad has had to save it's life more than once!!!

Note: the large crack where it's snapped in half TWICE due to me standing on it (as you do).

Anyway back to the curls.... I have tried everything: mousse, velcro rollers, rags, plaits, curling tongs, my straightener, I could go on. I have never ever been able to achieve the curl. Furthermore, when on the odd occasion something does emerge from my efforts, it rarely lasts longer than a half hour.

So last Sunday evening, with a random night out planned, I put myself  in the hands of one of best friends, THE makeup queen but has also been known to do a mean hairstyle. She has 'the touch', you know what I'm talking about laydees.

Equipped with her GHD, what is produced below took 15 mins at the most, and lasted ...let me emphasise this TWO WHOLE DAYS. Ok copious amounts of hair spray helped it along its way but this is nothing short of a miracle.

All I can say is by way of observation:

Hold at the root, pull and turn , pull and turn....

See even my directions are rubbish, not to mind actually trying to recreate this!!!!

Here are the results:

I was in love instantly.

Now to start practising myself....

 



Gone Spot Crazy: NOTD

Someone commented today that these looked like they were like little Easter eggs!!!!!! Now I've started doing the spots I can't stop!!!!

N.O.T.D.

Yummy. I love this nail polish...it looks good enough to eat!!! Courtesy of Barry M - Strawberry Icecream.