Monday 11 January 2010

This Stinking Cold… and I’m not talking about the weather!

I am now officially, completely and utterly done with being sick, that being said I am still sick. I have had a stuffed up head since before I left to come home, around December 28th. It’s bee too long to feel this crappy and there’s no end in sight, actually it’s getting worse as the cough started last night at bedtime.

The part I’m most looking forward to is the flight that I’m talking on Wednesday to Birmingham. Considering that my ears have yet to pop from my flight from Paris to Dublin I’m not too thrilled about the idea of getting back on a plane.

But I’m a true trooper and have dragged my ass into work every day regardless of the weather (see previous post) and how slow I feel in the morning! I can be proud of myself, but that being said I realized this morning that I have felt this way for the entirety of this year. 2010 isn’t going so good so far.

And on that note I would like to wish a fond farewell to old friend that passed away last week. Sweet darling Haplo, the snowpants queen of the fat cats, you will be missed. I know my sister is having a hard time loosing her beloved pet but I hope she has found her brother Hobbes that passed away 2 years ago and they can enjoy their time spending sunny days under that Hosta plants like they loved to do in my parent's back yard. Haplo, rest in Peace.

Friday 8 January 2010

Winter Ireland

It doesn’t matter how many years you have lived though a Canadian Winter… -40 below, digging out your car after a snowstorm, bundling up in all of the winter layers to go to the shop… you still never get used to the cold and you certainly don’t miss it.

Ireland is not supposed to have a harsh winter, sure the temperature gets low and there’s some frost warnings. At the very worst you get slushy snow that falls from the shy and hardly sticks to the roads but this year, I’m not sure what Ireland did wrong but we’re paying for something.

Some people have been stuck in their homes since Christmas due to the cold weather. We had a couple of wet snowfalls where the temperature was much colder than normal and the snow, and by snow I really mean ice pellets and slush, stuck and overnight it froze so that people are stranded. Commuters abandoned their cars on the side of the motorways and found alternative ways to get home, or simply walked up the steep hill that the car was unable to climb. Dublin Bus left around 100,000 people stranded in the city center when, right at the beginning of rush hour they called the buses off the roads because it was too dangerous.

For us it’s been different, tricky and especially cold. The very best thing I did was on Tuesday I went out and bought an electric mattress cover for the bed. It’s not that we have no heaters in the apartment but the thought of leaving them on for hours running up the electricity bill kinda deters me from heating the place. We have storage heaters and they make the apartment lovely and warm during the day but the heat doesn’t last into the evening and the cat in his fur coat – as much as we love him – doesn’t need a heater! So now, 30 minutes before I head off to bed we switch on the blanket to high and climb into what I can only describe as heaven!

Sleep has now become long, lovely and comfortable and makes getting up in the mornings even more unbearable! I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning when there’s no alarm and the apartment heaters will be on and I can stay in my PJs surrounded by lovely warmth all weekend! Hopefully that will kill the sickness that I’ve been fighting since I left Montreal… the sickness is a whole other blog vent.

Later!

Thursday 7 January 2010

New Year, New Decade, Another try

Well last year was crap, it was bad and then got worse.

The recession hit Ireland, and Derek and I were dragged in it head first. Derek lost his job in January and then struggled to find a new one only to be let down again and again. Our luxurious lifestyle took a hit when her went on claiming welfare and I took a 6 percent pay cut and got the regular ‘head down, work hard, be glad you have a job’ routine from the company.

To say the least blogging last year would have been one cry fest and I honestly didn’t want to put how bad things were going down in writing for all to see and for me to have to face.

Perhaps what I should have done was use this space to find three good things that happened each day and taken pleasure in the little things, the happy things, the positive things that I clearly needed. But hindsight is 20/20 and so now I can look back and say coulda shoulda, but more importantly woulda… going forward, start again, and try harder.

This year we have a lot to look forward to and what I need to do is think of these positive things and how we can only go up from 2009.

That being said, 2009 did have some good bits.

First, we have a much happier cat these days, after rather radical surgery in May. The poor devil’s ear infections were finally found to be caused by a tumor in his ear canal – not such good news – but I swear I saw the vet (whom we and the cat love) jump a little with joy when she saw the polyp, it was finally the solution to the problem that we had been dealing with since we brought him home.

I have become a huge advocate for Pet Insurance, something we continued paying the monthly cost when the three months free ran out, and for the first time I didn’t have to worry about costs of treatment or how I was going to afford to keep my little kitten. The deductible had already been paid so the surgery which was ugly wasn’t a worry except for the safely of the munchkin.

We collected him 2 days later and he looked like he got hit by a bus, face shaved, huge incision down the side of the face and paralysis of his eye and mouth. We were all worried about his recovery, Derek and me and the vet – and how was he going to manage with the cone but he bounced back after a few weeks and is now as good as new, no more pulling at his ears, drops or weekly visits to the vet – although I think he misses his Friday visits to see her!!

Another bit of good news last year is that Derek went back to school, and the government paid the fees for him to attend and continued paying his allowance while he continued to look for a job.

We went home in September and when we returned things were starting to look up, Derek started school and was hired at PC World in their customer care desk – somewhere I think compliments his school work in IT.

While we were in Montreal in September we took 1 week and planned a wedding, you name it is got done while we were there, dress bought, suits selected, cake tasted, reception approved and church taken care of! We were to most productive vacationers ever and returned with excitement for the big event taking place in June this year.

So what better excuse than a wedding to nominate 2010 as the year for change for the good. Derek and I – from the couch full of flu – said goodbye to 2009 and we weren’t going to miss it!

Hello 2010 and welcome! We home you’re as good as we hope!