Me. Writing. Stuff.
Betty Draper, her off Mad Men. Well, she really annoys me.
she’s uptight, conservative and has no personality to speak of and her incessant smoking of fags and drinking of wine irks me.
The biggest thing that gets to me is the way she treats her daughter, Sally.
Watch this space, I predict hard times ahead as Sally will become a naughty teenager.
Go watch Mad Men, you know you wanna.
Eventually, all this mess will be a fabulous area for Carlow (and anyone) people to saunter across.
At last, a reason to wreck the town.
It’s beoming like game to me.
How many roadworks can I spot in one day in the town of Carlow?
Here’s another one in the Dinn Ri car park.
I asked them what they were doing.
“just scitting” they replied immediately.
Or maybe, I made that last bit up.
The Ploughing Championships have returned to Athy for the 2nd year in a row. They cause great excitement for farmers indeed. The traffic is chaotic and all accommodation is booked out.
Carlow Town is being dug up at the minute. Everywhere you look, there’s a roadwork, builder scratching his head or a JCB. I hate the way they dig the road up, do what they have to do and leave the road in a general bad state of repair.The area by the Bus stops is being pulled apart to make way for some sort of mezzanine. The old Town Hall at the bottom of Dublin street is being demolished. The Green Road has a big pit going right through it. The River Barrow is being moved to prevent future flooding though the papers reckon it won’t help at all.
The council should have left all this roadworks until after the Ploughing. I wonder how long Carlow is going to look a mess for.
Here’s a photo of the Blackbog Road yesterday, there is usually never any traffic on this road.
It’s faster walking!
A fine picture of Mr Crotty today in the Irish Independent. (30/8/10)
Crotty’s Bakery was and is again a Carlow institution. We’ve lived in Carlow for about 7 years and about a year ago, Crotty’s Bakery reopened in a brand new location on Potato Market. Everyone I had spoken to was nostalgic about it, I was almost excited as I love home baked produce, as you may know from my blog!
To be honest, I have only ever bought something from there once. Cream cakes for my Mum! Crotty’s is an old fashioned bakery, old fashioned in the sense that it produce factory made tasting produce Now, maybe it isn’t factory made but the difference in look and taste between the home baked produce from Hennessey’s of Carlow or the Farmers’ Market is huge. But who am I to judge? They seem to be doing really well and the co-owner Tom Crotty is working really hard on bringing some foot fall into the centre of the town so all praise to him.
Carlow Town could be bigger, could be better, could be more special. I blame whoever makes the decisions for the town, I am presuming this is the Carlow Town Council.
The biggest mistake for the town of Carlow was building the Fairgreen Shopping Centre in the location it is now. The Fairgreen Shopping Centre is a good shopping centre as shopping centres go. The problem is that it is located just off the town centre, the area of Tullow Street. Carlow already had a shopping centre, built in the old Carlow Jail with a bit of character and a great feel to it. There was plenty room to put some good shops in this building or possibly expand. It is also right in the middle of the town centre. Perfect, you’d think. What is happening is that most shoppers or visitors are drawn to the magnet of the Fairgreen and avoid the Town Centre unless they have to. The Fairgreen should have been built way out of the town or placed in the existing Carlow Shopping Centre.
Tullow Street has a Kilkenny City vibe to it. If I had full creative control in the Council, I’d open up Tullow Street and get some really good shops like local bakeries(okay, Crotty’s can come in!), cafes, delis and Irish boutiques. There are some pubs and restaurants on Tullow Street but they are of the student variety. My beautician( the Sanctuary on Tullow Street) tells me that be Town Council charge every business for putting tables and chairs out on the street. Very foolish of the Town Council.
Recently, with the opening of Visual Theatre and Arts Centre a funky little area has started to develop just off Tullow Street. Cathedral bookshop, Mimosa Wine bar, St Patrick’s College and Lennon’s cafe bar are what the Town Council need to encourage and support financially and any other way they can. I know the Council has put huge investment into Visual and it has paid off. It’s pretty amazing.
However, I totally agree with Carlow developer Johnny Harmon(of Harmon’s Pub), he recently had renovated his bar and it is looking rather fab. He blames the council saying that “the local authorities are not listening to businesses and charge very high rates…a building next to my bar(sic)is empty…the council wanted €187,000 to develop it.” Harmon is not just being pie in the sky, he comes up with some nuggets of advice for the Council. “The banks need to back off…abolish the parking fees in Carlow…our politicians should have more business experience.”
Ohhh, parking in Carlow Town, I’m ready to rant! The parking situation in Carlow is just horrific. You can park for free in the Fairgreen(another reason to be drawn to it’s magnet) for 3 hours but you have to pay for parking everywhere else in the town. The main car park in the town is Dinn Ri. Recently, they increased their prices to €1. I refuse to park here on principle as I’ve been clamped here twice. €40 a pop for the fine. On those two occasions, it’s been an innocent forgetfulness-shopping or coffee took over and when I returned to my car, a nice, shiny ticket was hanging in my windscreen. I park in the nearby Superquinn for one reason only. You can pay on exit.
On a recent stop off in Roscommon Town, I searched for a parking meter. There were none to be seen. I’d been caught out before so I asked a passerby. She informed me that parking is free in Roscommon. Brilliant. Every time we travel to Mayo(where I’m originally from), we stop in Roscommon and eat and drink for as long as we like. Well done, Roscommon Town Council. Could you speak to ours, please?
Carlow Town Council need to get real. They really have one aim. To bring business and people who spend money back into the Town. They also need to admit that the Fairgreen with it’s increasing empty units was a mistake for the Town Centre. They need to start listening to people like Tom Crotty and Johnny Harmon.
Of course, they won’t though. They’re too busy building an obsessive amount of pedestrian crossings and flashing lights so McDonalds can stay in business.
Rant over…until tomorrow.
I knew it was going to happen.
One day.
I hate wasps. I hate the look of them. Their thinness. Their pokey little stinger at the end of their body. The colour of them, bright yellow and black, the noise they make, the way they zoom in and out and interrupt a vey nice soirée outside, I hate them.
You might notice that I am not scared of their sting or the pain that comes with it.
Today, we were locking up and I had forgotten my keys. I went to go back in and Simon brought in the bin. There was a wasp hovering around the bin and I tried to ignore it. Next minute, I felt a tiny pinch of my skin on my shoulder. I knew it was a wasp straightaway, I have spent my life running from them so I knew.
I flicked it and felt it’s horrid little body, I squealed and stripped off my blouse and shoes. I don’t know why I took my shoes off! Simon immediately checked out my shoulder. There was nothing there but I could feel a slight pain. He went to google stings and what to do. Within minutes, the sting had grown into a small white lump with a little hole, like an empty black head. Simon applied white wine vinegar and then an ice cube wrapped up. The Internet is great! For a bee, you have to take the sting out but for a wasp, you just need to apply some form of acid, like vinegar, lemon or even tomato will do!
The pain was numbed but I was freaking out. The idea of it crawling on my shoulder and hurting me for no reason was playing on my mind. Simon looked after me while I reverted back to being a 7 year old and pouted with teary eyes.
A quick visit to the chemist was needed, just in case I was dying. The sting had totally gone down thanks to the ice and lemon but the pharmacist sold me a wasp eeze spray and an antihistamine tablet, in case I was dying.
I rang my Mum, I knew she’d understand. She hates wasps more than me and advised me not to wear any nice smelly perfumes or creams until the wasps die off.
This morning, I had used an almond scrub, almond shower gel and almond moisturising cream. The wasp thought I was a big almond flower of some sort. Happy days for him. He was still lurking on my bag when we got back in the car!
The moral of the story is simple and you may even learn something from this.
Do not apply smelly anything to your body. Do not go outside until October. If an evil wasp does sting you, apply acid and then ice cubes. If you feel funny, visit pharmacist.
I bet a bee would never it.
I occasionally write reviews for the teachers’ union magazine and this summer i received a package with a book for me to review..It was a novel( and I use the term novel loosely) written by a very successful author for little girlie girls..unlike me obviously.
I wrote my scathing 200 word review and sent it to Simon, my husband to check it for grammar and other mad mistakes I am liable to make when I type fast and dislike a book.
He sent me back the following reply.
Dear Mrs. Lewis
Thanks your for sending your review of “Bonjour Alice” to our offices. Unfortunately, we are far too busy killing our French competitors in a secret, underground publishing company war which has been going on for 400 years. We believe that books like “Bonjour Alice” are ultimate weapons in our plot to make women dumb. We have already infiltrated many formerly clever women’s brains so they read our books and excuse it as “light” or “swimming-pool” or “holiday” reading. We have also introduced other books which other supposedly intelligent women would consider “yeah, it’s chick-lit but it’s a bit more high-brow, like”. We are now infiltrating younger female brains in order that when they reach the age of 18, they will be ready to read our ultimate weapon of mass destruction – well WOMD to our French competitors… this weapon will be so fierce that no French author will ever write a novel again. Gone will be the days of “Chocolat” or “Amelie” and everyone will be reading “Where Rainbows End” and “Tara Hill”. This book will be co-written by Cecilia Ahern, Maeve Binchy, Pamela Flood, Amanda Brunker (our latest soldier in the destruction of women’s brains and French authors) and “that girl that used to be in Fair City who used to be really ugly and wore thick framed glasses but they’ve done the best they could do with her now”.
Our company wishes to offer you ONE tip in improving your review…. Judi Dench did NOT write the book. (See below!)
Kindest regards
Judi Curtin
PS if you could kill a few Frnech people on your way out, that would really help us out.
CONCLUSION: My husband is rather funny.
Well,my big sis had a little baby boy today by planned caesarian…she sent me a photo of him by mobile and he looked plump and contented!they have called him Ciarán Michael which is nice and Irish.
Mairead, his big sister of 5 years of age was shocked at first, she wanted her Mum to have a baby girl but I think she got over it quickly when I mentioned presents and surprises.
A child in my class today told me that her Mum is having a baby, she is convinced that it will be a girl adn if it isn’t then her Mum has promised to buy her a baby girl..don’t laugh, the way children and moreso Parents are, I wouldn’t be surprised if a parent bought their child a baby of the correct sex to stop them crying..
I overheard a parent saying to her child to day, he was bout 3 or 4..
“No.”
“no.”
“no”
and so on
and then
“No, John, i won’t negotiate with you.”
John proceeded to “negotiate” in his own way by shouting, screaming and generally doing what ever he pleased, Mum proceeded not to be able to “negotiate”
big words…i blame Supernanny..
