Ikea

Ikea is pretty good at what it does.

It's not as cheap as you think it is though. It does have some really cheap stuff. But given that N & I have gone beyond really cheap stuff (cos of it not being great quality, looking a bit shoddy, and my being a big snob), it's not that cheap.

It's still good value, like.

And today we bought fun Xmas decorations (Yay!) and some excellent CD / DVD storage, and some other stuff too.

It was fun.

But it's BIG (& therefore tiring).

AND they don't have any decent signposts coming out of the carpark so you don't know which road to take, so it was a bit scenic getting home.

That's today's thoughts on today's trip to Ikea so.

A new day

Every day is a new day. Blah Blah.

But when I hear "new day", I think of a really beautiful song which I sang with Glória - some time ago now, called "Born on a new day". I think that it was King Singers arranged / written. It's lovely. If you're hooked up to YouTube (and I'm not currently, so can't test this out for you), search for "Born on a New Day" and see what comes up - an unusual, but wonderful Christmas piece.

I mightn't get to watch Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve this year. But am excited about the new things I'll get to experience over Christmas instead.....

Drugs - the prescribed kind

I know some people don't like to take headache tablets etc. I don't really understand why - in the normal scheme of things. If someone has had a drug addiction problem, or is having a lot of headaches and is worried about the effects of taking so many pills, then fair enough. Otherwise, take a damn aspirin.

Which is why it's odd that while the above is what I think, what I do is wait to see if it goes away on it's own, or if it gets really bad.

Stoopid.

But a cheerful "Hurrah" for the office shop downstairs which now sells basic pharmacy supplies!

Our House

Our house is coming along.

The Kitchen is probably my favourite room. We have three really big, really beautiful old farmhouse style pieces of furniture from Bernie and Ann - a big two door cuboard, a stunning dresser on top of a sideboard, and a lovely big table.
True, the table has really low sides so it's hard to get your legs under the table on any regular size chairs. But it looks amazing.
And the dresser is rather attractively styled with items from our life which we think look good, and also say things about us. (The right things, we hope!) There may be a picture of the dresser etc. in the Irish Times property section before too long as part of an article Jo Roberts pitched and was commissioned to write on alternatives to furnishing your house with Ikea! The photographer came over and the copy was a few weeks ago, but nothing yet. It might be nice to be in the paper for something other than being gay. But still exciting / embarrassing!
The other side of the kitchen is the fitted kitchen which came with the house, which is actually quite nice. We still need to get our extractor hood fitted over the hob (which finally "works"!). We've also a comfy chair and a little side table.
It's a lovely room.

My next favourite room is our bedroom. Floor sealed by N on Saturday, so all the dust of a new house dealt with. We also unpacked our Wedding List duvet, pillows & linen this weekend. It's amazing. Really fluffy and light and warm and beautiful.
We need to take the dressing table (again, courtesy of Bern and Ann) up into the bedroom, now that the floor's done, and start to work out what other furniture there'll be in there. At the moment it's just the bed in there. And that bed is fairly small. It will be the guest bed, once we get the super huge sleighbed (again, courtesy of B & A!) cleaned up and mattressed.
Next urgent thing for the bedroom, though, is curtains. Although that will require decisions about the colour scheme and room that I don't know if we're ready for yet...... I suppose that the dark mornings aren't all bad in that they let us sleep on .... (until our alarms anyway!)

After that, all the other rooms (which are many) are v.much "in progress" - i.e. alternately functioning as storage (front room and guest room) or drying room ("lounge"). Although, the office is coming along - the bureau is set up. Am looking forward to an Ikea trip for CD / DVD storage. (No matter what you think / say about Ikea, I know 2 things:
1) Ikea is perfect for things like CD / DVD storage; and
2) The Dime Bar Cake is both worth trying and not what you think it will be like).

So - a lot done, a lot more to do. Are we there yet? No, but we're getting there. And, most of all -
I like our house!

Planning, Planting, Cupboards, Stuff

The house stuff is coming along. There are so many aspects and elements that need to be progressed.

I thought the other day of road maintenance - it would be easier if they could just shut the road down and do the whole lot, but - usually - they've to keep one half of the road useable at any time. It's like that with our house - because we're living in it, there's some stuff out in the rooms, which makes getting further, either with putting things away, or with improvements (I'm thinking of sealing the floor) harder work.

Grrrr. but Yay, what a positive problem....?

Long day. Short day.

Today is a long day in the office. But short on daylight.

It was pitch dark at 5.30.

I'm still in studying (can't you tell). Even the end of study doesn't feel like a treat, though: The prospect of heading up the quays to Heuston on the bike is singularly unappealling. 40 mins of focus left to find from somewhere.

My considered opinion on the matter: Blurgh!

Friends with Furniture

At the weekend, Niamh & I were joined by Seanie, Pauline & Grainne at Bernie and Ann's barn / shed / location on their Clane land to liberate lots of lovely furniture. I had been very excited about the impending extravagance of the scheduled steal all week and some work friends christened Bernie and Ann my "friends with furniture".

I should mention that even with the many lovely things which we acquired from them (Cupboard, dresser, 2 comfy chairs, 2 folding chairs, another dresser, a dressing table, 2 regular tables and a huge sleigh bed) they do still have a lot of furniture in their barn / shed / location.

So far we have washed down the comfy chairs and watched Grey's and Glee episodes online on the bank holiday.

The rest is there, waiting.

With many thanks to our friends with rather less furniture than before. And our mutual friends and family with lifting skills and (in Grainne's case in particular, packing the van skills!)

Tiredness....

.....isn't really something that Webbleys are programmed to notice.
There's things to do / time to do things in / a list unfinished / a list to be made (everyone's favourite). So we do things. (Or write lists). ("We" as in Webbleys, and royalty!)
But I do get tired. And, sometimes, I even notice that I am tired!
Like today. I do have work to do. But it's all dull / small / nothing major (I think/hope!). So no energy to be drummed up there.
I'm tired. Even traipsing downstairs for a coffee / chocolate boost is a bit of a faff. (Pretending to work at the auld desk is okay, though, so thank heavens I wasn't too tired to type this post, eh?).
Irony? Well, Webbleys notice irony all the time. It's much more helpful.

October 2009

October 2009 is better than October 2008. This is mainly as work is simply not as bad. I think there's less to do. I also think (&hope) that there's an element of my coping better with the pressure of the work / environment etc.

However, I have still not got myself into studying yet. Tonight is the 3rd scheduled Tuesday, and I am fairly determined in relation to same.

I'm also pretty shattered and having had an odd food day, a little all over the place there.

The plan, though, is to change into my tracksuit (!!) that I travel in and out of to symbolise no longer being at work (at this time of year, there will be plenty of people about still working to mistake being at my desk as being available for work!), a cup of tea and, perhaps, a bowl of cereal and then some study.

Blurgh!

when your life matches up

to your idea of what you think that it might / could / should be like, it's really great.

This morning I slept, woke up, snoozed, watched N sleep for a while, slipped out of bed, hung out the washing and organised the hot press before having extra snuggles with N (who was awake), ate yummy Jordan's cereal breakfast, baked cakes / biscuits with radio background and N doing bits and pieces.

Now I'm about to sign some thank you cards (Thank you Niamh!), try and find N a new/old phone cos hers is broken, before jumping in the shower, and then our new car.

Oh - and did I mention that it's sunny.....?!

;-)

Jess has joined Sandford Parish Church Choir

Going to Choir Practice again this evening.
I'm really enjoying singing hymns and the like again - it feels very natural in my voice. I guess most of what I sung for a really long time, and certainly a formative time in my voice development, was hymns etc.
Got to run, though, so as not to be late (again!)

Wish me luck.

AITI Part 3 lectures - the first weekend

About 4 weeks ago, the AITI announced that the 2009/2010 lectures would no longer run on evenings during the week, but instead would be weekends only - albeit double the number of previous homestudy weekends.

I was pissed off:

1. as I would have chosen to do the lectures during the week;
2. I felt it was very short notice;
3. I would have to miss the planned celebrations for Isaac's 1st birthday.

So, the prospect for this weekend was an unappealing 9am-6pm Saturday and Sunday full of lectures.

Saturday was alright til mid-afternoon. Then he lost himself getting bogged down in a small section. And I pretty much lost the will and ability to listen and take it in. However, plans in town for after the lectures (+ a big bag and no pennies to spend killing time in cafe / shops) kept me in the room - all 8 evil hours of the day.

Sunday was actually better - better lecturers and also a change morning and afternoon. Plus, enjoyable lunch in Milano with a mix of people (HRS, intake, friend, friend's friend from another firm, and friend's friend's friend from a whole other other firm!) and last day of two for €12 pizzas, so a yummy, sociable feast for €7 all in!

Other highlights of the weekend include Leinster totally playing Munster off the park in their first meeting of the season in Magners League at RDS (30 - 0!), as well as good fun group to watch with in Ron Blacks. And 500 days of Summer at cinema this evening with the Sunday cinema crowd.

Right now I'm watching French rugby highlights and waiting for N to come home from weekend galavanting with Liam and Eoghan in London. And to go to bed.

I haven't been to the zoo lately

I think that that's the kind of thing which I'll miss over the next bit of time.

Living further out of town, it'd be an expedition in itself, not just up the road so. Plus, financially, not a priority.

Which is a shame as there are baby tiger cubs - super cute baby tiger cubs judging by the photos in the Zoo Matters magazine we got forwarded to our new abode yesterday.

So, life is a journey; and the next part for me will have less safari than before.

slow progress...

.... is still progress.

As I type this, the first wash is on in our new house. Still no cooker, hob, fridge (or carpets, curtains, bed, furniture), but it feels good.

Not just cos I'll have clean work trousers for next week. Because it's progress. And it feels good.

Plans are out there. They're fun to make, and great when they come off. But progress right here right now is tangible and good.

Mind you, perhaps I should translate some of that feeling good into either 1) working out where / how to dry the washing and b) to get to work now that the fitter has been and gone....?

Mrs and Mrs Webbley O'Gorman have a house!

So, we got married. And we went to Alaska. And today we got the keys for our new house.

Hope you'll excuse the absence of detailed updates - have been too busy having lots of fun!

But there should be some markers of events like these. Done!

Countdown. Deadline. Eeek. Yay.

1 week to go.

I'm knackered. And excited.

I can only imagine that these will both grow over the next week.

If there's time - I'm not sure that, if they're not already on the list (or, at least, one of the lists!), there's time for anything new etc!

One week to go. Eeek. Yay.

(Had my last dress fitting today and it was good fun strolling about the shop in the gown & veil. Who knew!?).

My life is like a big long list

It's not quite "a red, red rose", but it is wedding related!

It's another day, and another bit of time crossing things off the list. Well, mostly crossing things off anyway.

It's fun, this whole wedding planning thing. But there are some things that we basically don't know how to organise, and we're - quite frankly - avoiding; which may not be a successful long-term strategy in terms of pulling the whole wedding thing off.

Like a P.A. system for the ceremony if it's outside. And a way to play music / piano outside. And a way to play music outside. And for the afters after the band.

DE.NI.AL.

Oooops.

Encounters on the way to work

This morning, cycling to work, I passed a big truck being booked by a Garda for being on a road that there's a max axel ban on, and also a small kitten by the side of the road, which was being looked at / after by a couple of passers by. I hope the kitten is okay. It was really small and fluffly and black.

A more unusual journey to work than usual.

(Which reminds me of another recent and much more remarkable encounter with small animals:

We came back to apartments on Sunday afternoon and passed a femal mallard (duck) and one duckling. I thought they were agitated because of the car passing them & didn't think more of it. But when I went back down to the car a little later, they were still there - and also some people. Now I assumed that the people were crowding the ducks - they had a push-chair! However, they had actually noticed that the rest of the mallard's ducklings had fallen through the grate on a drain and were piping away at her, but unable to get out. So they had got a hammer to open the drain and picked 6 ducklings out by hand. A story with a happy ending - but still so sad).

Distraction

I tend to only blogs when the things I should be doing don't grab my attention. Distraction.

Today's thing I should be doing is work. But, quite frankly, it will be there for me when I get back to it, so I doubt I'm missing much!

I'm distracted mostly cos there's so much else on.
Lots of it is "out there" and much more fun than work / chores.
There's also a lot of work and chores - re work, wedding & house.

But I'm glad there's so much out there for me too. I think, in fact, I'm going to add to it with a little coffee to get me through the rest of the afternoon......

Masquerade Saborage

Parties, it seems, are like buses. And this weekend was a party weekend.

Friday night, Anthony's fabulouso 30th birthday party Masquerade Ball. Early invitations issued, and we weren't sure how much other people were going to do for it, but in ball gowns, tux + masks, we were practically under-dressed - no wigs, no face make up! It was great.

Saturday, though, has to be tbe highlight - we were part of a (successful) world record attempt at simultaneous saborage (opening bottles of champagne with a sword/knife). Mary Lee's 50th was the occaision, and Ray's fabulous Woodbrook was the location. There was loads of people there, which was great fun. The rain didn't dampen anything - the disco was in the rain, we queued for ice-cream from the ice-cream van in the rain, we sat (under trees & umbrellas) and drank champage in the rain, there was bouncing on bouncy castles (by the adults too) very much in the rain. Luckily we were dry for the attempt (you don't need no slippy bottles for this game, sport!) and also for the clear up the next morning (several Glóriaites stayed - including myself and Niamh - slept on the library floor having wimped out of camping in the rain!).

167 attempts. 152 successes (including me & Niamh!).

= one world record and one fucking fabulous party!

Planning a Wedding

is an odd thing.

So much determined by availability / price. So much feeling like all the decisions are really important influences on the day and of what kind of person you're saying you are.

So much to do!

So much fun. So much to talk about - it's so lovely that people ask; although N & I swore we'd not be the people that talk about the wedding the whole time, it's hard not to (not even without people being lovely and asking!)

It is a BIG day. Everyone in one room. And witnessing a big day in your life. And wearing the most expensive outfit, for most of us, of our lives. (Though I do dream of being super uber rich one day and simply having fabulously tailored suits etc - though even then I doubt I'd get to the height of wedding dress prices!)

But it's also "just" a day - and what comes after it is the really important thing. (& I don't just mean the honeymoon!)

What they say about "if you can get through the wedding planning, you'll be fine with marriage" is true. At least, I hope so: N & I are doing okay. So I'm going to take that as a blessing on our future too.

Anyway, that's all (for now). Planning a wedding is an ODD thing!

In the/a mood

Used to be really busy at work. Now, not so much. And it's tough to make yourself knuckle down.
Continuing issues with remote managers etc. but, I have to admit, mostly I'm not in the mood. Or maybe I'm in a mood.
Certainly lots to legitimately distract me - wedding, house, trips, stuff. But also, just not feeling, well, the fear? the drive? Blurgh on this Friday.
Blurgh.

Doing things...

...is sometimes really easy. And other times it's really tough.

Probably there's more to the cycle / dichotomy than tired or not. Probably mood matters. Potentially hormones too (damn the biology of it all!).

Today is a tough day. But I also think that's partly to do with not having a lot on - no external drive / verve - it's a very ploddy day.

It's probably important to get the best out of the ploddy days/moods/moments too eh? Is that why I'm not a world-leader yet, I wonder - too prepared to cosy up when the fancy doesn't really take me to do, well, anything else?

While I think about that, I'm going to cycle across town and run an errand.

Ha!

Blogger. Twitter. Facebook.

I used to blog most days.
Now I'd tend to facebook - more interactive and less narcissistic?
But work has blocked facebook - which is, in my opinion, wise.

I don't think that not blogging so much is subsequent to facebook as much as too working too much & too hard over the last year or so.

These days my foot is off the work pedal very much. (Hopefully not too obviously too much!)

But there is a LOT else taking up my time and my mind:

• The House
• The Wedding

Okay - only two categories, but a LOT of sub-lists, let me tell you.

In the midst of all of which, I wonder, from time to time, whether Twitter is better than facebook, or just newer, and how do I want to use available applications to share / record (the narcissism is still there - and, probably, still spelled wrong!) my life.

In the mean time, it's 5.03pm on a Monday afternoon and I am SO done with this work day. 27 unproductive minutess to go.

26....

Lots of Lists

My life is a lot of lists at the moment. And not enough-ness.

Not enough things ticked off the lists;
Not enough to do dates on the lists;
And some things I'm sure have so far eluded being on lists, meaning there's not enough things on the lists, and / or not enough lists.

But every day is a day of progress, however limited.

And, eventually, all the things will be on lists, and ticked off lists, and done. Or won't have been that important anyway.....!?

A Very Varied Day

Yesterday was full of variety:

• tax (work);
• wedding dress (1st fitting);
• sailing (Thursday regular); and
• drag show (All Hail, Panti - Queen of Ireland!)

Today I am not in the mood for this work malarkey! But there are cinema plans in the evening, and that's always a positive prospect.

Grand Sunny Bank Holiday Weekend

Grand not just because it was sunny. But it was VERY sunny. And it did help; it enabled!

It was great to make sure there was sun cream, a long sleved light top to cover up and a bottle of water in the bag and then be able just to head. No wondering will it rain later, so do you need to take a coat, and what about carrying it for now, so perhaps a bigger bag etc etc. None of that rubbish. Just get up and go.

Though forgetting the sun-cream would have been BAD. And I saw many people who had either forgotten the sun-cream or (worse) made bad decisions about exposure to the sun (over time, and over their body). And - alarmingly - many of them were STILL out in the sun, exposed, even after resembling lobsters already!

Now, I am not the best at slapping on sun-cream. Being ridiculously proud of not having got sunburned this weekend tells you that. So it is a very shallow high ground that I occupy on this issue. But, sure, isn't that the hardest fought and most vaunted kind?

I also cycled a lot and spent some lovely time with lovely people.

A Grand Sunny Bank Holiday Weekend.

Erm...

So

• Revision - tiring
• Exams - exhausting & scary
• Back to work - fair enough
• Wedding planning - stepping up a step, but still so much to do
• Seeing people again - really jolly
• Flying to the UK a LOT in a short time - manageable
• Leinster winning the Heineken Cup - cracking
• Other stuff - there

Hoping you're all well....

Cinema Splendid

We went to the cinema last night. For the first time in ages.

We saw "Flash of Genius" and "Vicky Christina Barcelona". Both worth watching.

Had forgotten how much I enjoy going to the cinema. Yes there's great TV drama available in the house (TV / DVD / internet). And a sofa. But we had a great evening.

Plus, although this is not an unmitigatedly good thing, the cinema has Ben and Jerries....

(Both films worth seeing, by the way, even not in a cinema).

Useless!

Ireland won the grand slam at the weekend. Cracking stuff.

I had two full days of revision lectures in uncomfortable seats out in UCD. Then my computer died (literally - all gone hard drive!) on Sunday night and I "lost" Monday morning to getting a replacement. Then I ran a handy and exciting errand buying stamps for and posting wedding invitation; but not very conducive to work. Spent the afternoon valueably enough on the Income Tax Book 2009 Appendices I committed to updating. But still no work.

And today, I'm just not in the space. My sit there and read and write notes and take it in and get on with it head is, well, missing.

Argghhhh.

Cos my "when I think about the exams, I'm really scared - especially about CAT" head is definately not. Not a good half of the coin.

Must get into it before panic induces the standard webbleyjess response of denial....

Wish me luck.

Excited

about the Honeymoon.

However, must study first to maximise chances of passing exams. Not passing them doesn't bear consideration.

So, must go study not play with google images. Boo.

Nature's Great Events

Watched an episode in BBC's Nature's Great Events programme last night. On the plankton bloom in North Pacific - the Great Feast. It was incredible.

Thoroughly recommended.

Plus, I really enjoy the 10 minutes at the end of the hour on how they filmed preceding programme. Really interesting and informative.

I got Planet Earth for my birthday, and am really looking forward to getting stuck into that.

If only I didn't have to concentrate on Corporation Tax today. Yawn.