Does My Bum Look Big In This?

Last Sunday was a blast. It was one of those totally unplanned days that seemed to go on forever, without the knowledge of knowing what would happen next. It started out with McSmile announcing that we should go for brunch – eating out again and drinking during the day AGAIN was sure doing a lot for our plan not to spend the equivalent to the GNP of a small country per weekend.. for the ahem, second weekend in a row since we made the decision. We couldn’t decide where to eat as we strolled into town. The Mermaid Cafe ‘looked too busy’, there was ‘bound to be somewhere in Temple Bar, I ‘didn’t want to eat Mexican’ [Oh the thoughts! My stomach was still very delicate from the night before] and eventually McSmile had the brainwave of ‘Sure let’s just go to X and Y’s place!’, X and Y being friend’s of his that own a great cafe/restaurant in the city centre. Result!

X was there and within 2 minutes a window table was free and ours. As soon as we walked in I just knew it was going to be one of those giggly days that would go straight down the path to copious drinking and general ducking and diving. And maybe it was because we were really just topping up on the alcohol from the night before. X sat with us and started telling us about his recent trip to New Zealand which included getting stranded in the middle of nowhere after a cop took his hire car off him for speeding, a gorge swing from 109m, a ‘meet the parents’ couple of days, hardcore partying with a bunch of strippers and getting his hand bitten by a girl when he wouldn’t give her his drink [only one of these things happened when he was with his girlfriend, guess which one!]

‘Hey, do ye want to go to a fashion show?’ It’s like, I dunno, some kind of fashion show with clothes and girls and stuff. It’s an invite only thing, I’ve a couple of tickets. Says on the invite that there’ll be champagne’

Can you tell where this was going? I was lucky to be able to see at that point, having had a half bottle of vino and then a ‘Fuckit, order another one’ suggestion from McSmile, brought total alcohol up to a bottle of wine, by myselfand about 100 bottles of beer for McSmile. It was about 5pm. Yes, really.

We walked up the stairs, the guys having, of course, asked the poor guy on the door if there was any goody bags on offer and then promptly fell into glasses of champagne. There were rails of clothes and a makeshift catwalk boxed off by two straight lines of tea lights on the wooden floor.

‘So, like, is there going to be like a fashion show thing?, asked McSmile, ‘or do we just drink champagne and look at the clothes on the rails?’ as he walked across the makeshift catwalk, threatening to turn the tea lights  into skittles.

‘Eh hello! You’ve just walked across it!’

‘Oh. Right’.

We perused the clothes, X went off and came back with three more glasses of champagne, the place fell silent and the curtains came back, the show was starting.

The first guy that walked out looked completely morto as he strutted his stuff to a whole gaggle of girls that were obviously mates of his standing right beside us. The next time he came out he looked very reassured to have a ‘real’ model by his side! It was clearly a mix of real and not real models as guys and girls of various heights and weights kept the show on the road for about 20 minutes. Not long into the show, the two lads started getting a bit excited about some of the clothes.

‘Hey. what do you think of that? I think it’s ok, might suit me, right?’

‘Yeah, think it would man, are ye like thinking of getting it?’

After the show there was a general descending onto the clothes rails. McSmile disappeared from my left, X from my right and I was just standing there until one of them called me,

‘Hey Glitter.. what do you think of this shirt? Kinda nice, huh?’

‘Glitter, Glitter, would this go with, y’know the jeans I have, the ones, ye know…’

‘But Glitter, should I try the shirt on? Might as well, huh?’

I was a little shell shocked and decided to put down my empty glass of champagne and sure I could spot that there was still some on offer so feckit, I picked up another glass. I turned around to ask the guys if they wanted another glass. There was McSmile, now sporting a baseball cap, the price tag dangling on his shoulder, he was standing in front of the mirror seeing how it looked with his RayBans that had been pulled out of his pocket. There was a girl from one of the labels talking to him as he turned this way and that, then she handed him a shirt and the two of them were utterly engrossed in conversation.

‘Glitter, so, well, what do you think? I’m not sure. I think I’m too tall for them, they need to be baggier to suit my legs.’

X had now tried on the combats he’d been eyeing up.

‘Hey Glitter! Come over here!’, McSmile needed some reassurance. ‘What about this belt? [Belt! He now had a belt as well!] Is it me though? I’m not sure…’

‘Yes Darling, it’s you, you should get it, really nice… btw, how much stuff have you tried on by now?

‘So Glitter, I’m thinking I won’t get the combats’, X was getting a bit disheartened, ‘But hey! I kinda like this shirt!’

‘Oi! Gerroff! I’m buying that shirt X! And you’re not getting one as well, try on the white one, the collar is really nice, it’d suit you!’

OMG. I was really having to try hard in order to keep a straight face. I had to wander off, pretend to be interested in some of the clothes on the other side of the room, so I just left the drunk little fashion bitches to it for a bit. Now, I too was fairly drunk but I wasn’t causing mayhem, trying on everything in sight and hogging the mirrors so no one else could get near them, I was just walking around in my own champagne haze until I heard my name,

‘Glitter! There’s some jewellery over here!

‘OMG! how much are you actually buying?

‘Well, the shirt, the other shirt, the belt, I’m not sure about the jeans… I’m still deciding on the..’

‘Glitter, I decided to get the white shirt after all, McSmile reckoned I should…’

Oh god, I ended up roaring laughing at the two of them and they laughed as well. And then we celebrated a great afternoon by stumbling across the road to another pub. I’m a bit unsure about things after that.

Ding Dong the Witch is Gone!

Christian Slater is single again. That is all.

*skips away merrily*

Haircut NOT 100!

Bad hair days are the pits. Worse than that! They are just awful and nothing will so instantly put anyone [ok, ok, your average, style conscious girl!] in a bad mood as quickly as looking in the mirror first thing and realising that It’s A Bad Hair Day. I’d been having a bad fortnight and it really wasn’t pretty.

You know when you realise that you haven’t had your hair cut for a while? Even if you religiously get it cut on the dot of 8 weeks, there comes a time when it just becomes ‘meh’. And so you ignore this for a bit, say to your self that you’ll make time for an appointment maybe next week, sure the week after would do at a push. Then you can’t get an appointment that suits and then you realise that you’ll be totally broke cos you dont’ get paid til the following week. So you just say to yourself that that’ll have to do and resign yourself to having to make a bit more of an effort each day until then while ensuring you have a hat stuffed into your bag at all times.

And then you need to get your hair cut but if you get it cut today or tomorrow, it’ll be too long before the big evint that you’re going to and because you don’t want it to be even near straggly by then you decide to hold out for another week or two.

And then there’s the situation I found myself in – a dreaded combination of both. With the added bonus of not really living where my hairdresser is anymore.Complete disaster. And, and I think a lot of you know how hard it is to find a good hairdresser…

I rang my hairdresser. No answer. No answer the third time either. Bet they don’t work Mondays. 9.05am Tues – ‘Hi, can I speak to GK? This is your hairdresser, you rang yesterday but we’re not open on Mondays.. how can I help you?’ And so on the conversation went, me getting more annoyed that not only could I not get an appointment for this weekend, but that my hairdresser was on holiday until mid next week. I ended up making an appointment that really didn’t suit.. for like 9 days time.

‘Would ye not just get a hairdresser here or where your parents live, Glitter?’ It’d be much handier for you. Jeez, I hate giving up my Saturday morning to go to the bloody hairdresser’.

‘Yeah, I really should. Sure I’m in McSmile’s at weekends at this stage. And I don’t want to have to schlep back to mine just to schlep around the corner to the hairdresser as well. But I don’t know any hairdressers here or whe… hang on! The place you go to. What’s it like?

‘It’s grand, No, it’s good. It’s been there years and they’ve very good’.

‘Sure fuckit. I might just book an appointment for tomorrow lunchtime or Friday even’.

‘Why don’t you go now? It’s only around the corner. It’s just the two of us in the office. And sure ye don’t need an appointment! Just walk in!’

‘Right. Fuckit. I’ll go now so. How do I get there?’

After the inevitable phone calls that delayed me leaving the office for half an hour, I seized the opportunity to leg it out the door with the distinct probability of coming back with fabulous hair. And after a short walk around the corner, I found my potential new hairdresser.

I was waiting all of 5 minutes, whereby my coat was hung up and there was an apology that I had to wait at all. While my hair was being washed I asked the girl’s name. We had a chat about what I wanted – which was essentially a trim, but I’m a bit particular about my hair and anyone nearby wielding scissors needs to be told of kinks and how my hair generally behaves out of the salon. My hair was cut, there was chat of the haircutting type during, and there was pleasant and not at all annoying smalltalk about non haircutting type things. When my hair was dry I was asked how it looked. I was asked if I wanted a bit more of a graduation at the sides. There was slight tidying up. And that was it! I was done! My hair looked fabulous and I was really pleased! And I was only there for maybe 45 minutes but there was no scrimping, the girl knew what she was doing and well, it only took that long!

I swished my way back to work. I swished my way home and I admired my own now lovely locks in the mirror.

‘Oh! Your hair is gorgeous!’ exclaimed my Mom. ‘It’s really lovely.. oh, that’s a lovely cut! Who did you go to?’

And after I regaled the ins and outs of my determined decision to get my hair cut that day….

‘€40? €40? That’s for nothing! And you normally pay €70 in that other place?!’

Yep. I’m very happy with my new swishy locks.

Creme That Egg!

Have you seen this? It’s absolute genius! Now! Talk about complicated though.. and, this guys credits his ‘very patient flatmates’ – I’ll say! I can only imagine how many times bare feet stamped on a plastic cup, the loud smash rattling their hungover brains even more.. the amount of times getting from one side of the room to the other was akin to a Kyrpton Factor assault course, the amount of times fingers that reached for a coffee cup found that they were stuck to the remote control.. and how many times the word ‘Fuckit!’ was spat out from someone’s mouth! But just think how good it would’ve been to see this whole maze like, pathway to splat work for the first time! Do you think they celebrated with a Creme Egg?!

Molly is 1!

A year ago the cutest little thing, that can also be the most darned terror we’ve ever met was born – our lives would never be the same again. You think I’m joking or exaggerating? Eh, no way!

Let me take you back. After a long illness our elderly lady died. No one would ever replace her and her character lives on in many a story. The time came to think about making everyone happy again. Fizzy was lonely and we were just plain sad.

‘What about getting a kitten?’, I said to my sister. ‘A kitttteeennnn! Just think! A brand new kitten!’

‘Oooohhh, I’d love a new kitten. But it wouldn’t be the same.’

‘I know but.. everyone’s sad. Not to replace the elderly lady, just a happy new addition to the family?’

‘Ok, let’s get one’

The Pet Shop had kittens and Parents were on holiday. Two things that were going in our favour. And all of a sudden, the little girl kitten was ‘on hold’ until my sister could collect her the following day. I would be stuck in work for the week, only able to get properly in on the act at the weekend.

‘What about ‘Molly’? Molly is a dotey name!’

‘We’ll see’.

‘OMG! O.M.G. I’ve just seen the picture of her. O.M.G. She is gorgeous!

‘WHHAAATTT? You’re on speaker, driving. We have her! Oh Jesus! Oh Jesus! Sorry, Oh Jesus. Is she ok? I’ll slow down at the next.. Whhaattt? Yeah! Whhaaat. Hang On’

‘Hi GK. Yep. No. She’s fine. Ooohh sshhhii.. Hang on little one! Are ye ok? Sorry, another corner and every time cos she’s standing up in the box, well, when there’s a corner she kind of topples back into the box! Oh it’s hilarious!’

‘But what do you think? Like, what do you think about ‘Molly’?’

‘Well! Do you know what? We were just saying, weren’t we? We were just saying that she soo is a ‘Molly’. Really. Suits her perfectly!’

Molly spent a fantastic few days with her foster parents, my sis  and her boyf. She had food, attention and toys galore! Pictures were taken, videos were recorded…

Excitement doesn’t describe me before I got to finally meet this furry little thing that I’d heard so much about. When I arrived to my sis’ place, Molly was asleep. On their bed. In like the middle of this huge double bed that seemed to swallow her up. I poked her awake – well, you have to! Well, ok, I had to! I wanted to see her eyes, I wanted her to see me. And when she woke with a bit of a start, I picked her up and cuddled her, told her I loved her and told her that I was so glad to meet her.

There were tears before, during and after the official exchange. Kudos to Molly’s foster parents tho, she knew she was onto a winner – and sure they’re round in my parents all the time. She knows that they’re part of the gang.

There was fascination, intrepidation, hissing, spitting and plain out WTF when it came for Molly to meet her Auntie Fizzy. But the law was laid down and Molly took her place as the cheeky one who underneath it knows who’s boss. 

There was the shock of the introduction when my parents came back from hols – but this is too nice a story to spoil it with the screaming, shouting, surprise and war cries of ‘I wasn’t expecting to come home to a kitten! Kittens are hard work!’, so let’s move on.

To what tho? Perhaps the truth and the fact that at this stage, Molly is no longer ‘little’ [her absolute dedication to eating as much as possible is testament to this!] but she’s a big part of this family. The fact that we know her ways so well that she’s almost predictable – but being a feline, this is never taken for granted and the element of surprise is something she thrives on. The fact that she has the biggest eyes you’ll ever see on a cat. That she is the nosiest parker you’ll ever meet – if it exists, our Moll needs to know what it is. The way we all laugh when she insists on diving onto Dad’s paper when he’s trying to read, yet she couldn’t care less when he’s ‘just’ watching telly.

The way that she’s soo vocal! She chatters and chirps away as she plods around the house, becoming louder to let you know she’d like some more food, confirming that she knows there’s some around. The way that even when she catches and eats a fly or a spider, she manages to look super cute. Her absolute need to be in the thick of things, which can include standing on a worktop and peering over a chopping board, just to make sure she knows what’s going on. Maybe it’s the way that upon opening the front door, she’ll appear, announce that she has ’stuff to do’ and after a quick spot check she’d like you to open the back door for her to resume her outdoor pottering and checking, thank you very much! Like the time she couldn’t find anything better so brought in a swatch of beige carpet, dropped it beside her bed and off out again she went. She loves getting brushed – she’ll even ‘turn around’ herself when one side is done enough. Don’t stand in her way if there’s a prawn on offer but she’ll hang back when it comes to mushrooms or melted chocolate ice cream [she prefers vanilla]. When she achieves world domination, she’ll acknowledge the part that ‘Go-Cat’ had to play. Her friends the Fish-on-a-String, the yokes with the bells and her mouse friend full of catnip will get prime positions. And when she’s tie tie and needs her sleep, she knows where she’ll always have a bed and most likely saved bits of chicken from that day’s roast dinner. And she’ll purr. And she’ll let us know that she loves being in our house. And when she falls asleep, we’ll remind her of how great she is.

Apologies for the total cr*p quality on the video – I don’t know why it slowed down by like 100 times when I put it up. And just to say, we, or my sister found Molly’s doppelganger – on a greetings card! Much smaller eyes than our Moll and less black fur around the mouth, but with the same grumpy face that every little kid is prone to from time to time!

Here We Go A’REN

I am officially in love with REN products. And a little embarrassed that I’m such a recent convert to the brand [like hello! fabulous products that do exact what they say they will, have no nasty chemicals and are very competitively priced.. a complete no brainer].

So, what am I using now? Well, I’ve my day moisturiser sorted and I’ve since bought this little beauty to aid repair of any damage during waking hours. A bit of a mouthful, but most of the products are and perhaps just a little show-y off-y re. exactly what’s in each product, but really don’t let that put you off. I’m really liking the Omega 3 Overnight Lipid Renewal Serum. It’s very much an oil rather than a cream but it definitely isn’t oily on the skin and as with most REN products you only need a small amount. I found this very hydrating and refreshing on my skin. It will take a little bit to sink in but doesn’t just sit on the surface like a lot of night balms or oils. REN say this about it; ‘…this serum will boost the skin with essential bio active nutrients that stimulate its natural process of renewal and regeneration helping to restore suppleness and elasticity. In addition it stimulates the skin’s natural protection mechanism helping fight moisture loss and free radical attack. Vegetal Plankton Extract and Gold Of Pleasure Oil both rich in Omega 3 promote cell membrane development while Rosehip Seed Oil and Wheat Germ Oil intensively nourish and protect.’ And who am I to argue! This will set you back approx €55 in stores, a bit less online but will last a long time and is well worth the purchase.

 

Now, when I spoke to ‘the REN girl’ at a recent store promotion, she explained to me that the night serum above is quite potent, so really only needs to be used 3-4 times a week and you can use another night cream on other nights. Interesting. Although the REN website will tell you to use the serum in conjunction with a night cream, I was very impressed with the SA pointing this out to me.

I managed to get a few samples of the Frankincense & Boswellia Serrata Revitalising Repair Cream [why the big long names?!] and so have been making my way through these when not using my serum. The sample sizes are quite generous and you get at least 2 goes out of each one.

This is a gorgeous night cream. I’m really so impressed by the texture of every REN product. There’s something about the way they glide across skin, like no effort is required and your skin is reaching out to grab some. REN say that this is ‘A cream high in bio actives that is formulated to moisturise, nourish and help rejuvenate the skin, particularly at night. Boswellic acid from Boswellia Serrata Bark works in harmony with resinoid from Frankincense to relax facial muscles and ease micro-contractions, helping to reduce and prevent the appearance of expression lines and wrinkles. In addition, vitamin C and citroflavonoids from Calabrian Oranges and vitamins A and E boost collagen formation and cell renewal to firm and repair the skin.’ And although I haven’t bought this yet, I’m fairly certain I will be pretty soon! I don’t know the exact price in Eurobucks, but bargain for €45-50.

Lastly, I’ve a couple of samples of this, the Revivo Lift Day Serum. It’s a while since I’ve bothered using a serum under my moisturiser. Perhaps it was just what I was using at the time, but I wondered if I really needed one.  I’m sounding like a broken record now but this is gorgeous to put on. Not oily, very silky in texture and I very much noticed increased hydration when I used it under my moisturiser. The REN guys say this is; ‘A light bio active day serum designed to instantly lift, smooth & brighten the complexion. High molecular weight protein and native peptides firm and smooth, ginsengoside and trace elements (Zinc, Copper, Magnesium) boost radiance. Vitamin C and alpha-linoleic acid brighten the complexion while hyaluronic acid boosts hydration.’ And it did brighten up my skin, evened out the tone as well. Again, bargain for around the €45-50 mark, judging by the sterling price on the REN website. This is going straight to the top of my ‘Treat List’.

Green Rage

Last Thursday I was on the phone to McSmile. We were just chatting, catching up, deciding what we’d do for the weekend [apart from watch the rugby], when I mentioned that I’d like to go out to Brunch on Saturday. ‘Brunch, is it? On Saturday? Ok then!’ was the response. See, I’d heard good things about this place, both in newspaper reviews and from a few people I know that had been there, so I really wanted to go!

‘I’m not queueing up! No way! I’m not bloody well waiting half an hour to eat anywhere’ – a most definite response from McSmile after I asked him if he was as excited as me about Brunch before we left [I tend to get a bit carried away eating at new places]. I just ignored him, I reckoned we’d be waiting a few minutes but sure all I had to do was get him there and it’d be fine. We arrived after a 10 minute stroll from his place, it was a nice day and we were really looking forward to the rugby. We just about got in the door as there was a group of maybe 4 or 5 people blocking the entrance.

So, we just stood there as the waiter said something to them, disappeared, arrived back, said something else and then disappeared again. ‘Well, I’m having a beer’, ‘I think I’ll just have a coffee’, ‘No way! Sure the rest of us are having a drink! God! You’d think that they make some effort to just put two tables together, seeing as I told him we’d be here for a while and there’s a crowd of us’.

Myself and McSmile started eyeballing each other. A guy was ‘busying himself’ behind McSmile and then brought a coffee over to a guy at a nearby table. Then did a return trip straight away with just a muffin in his hand. then returned to staring at the cash register. The group in front of us started to get a bit agitated. The door opened behind me but the two ladies realised that there wasn’t room for them to step inside. I stuck my hands even deeper into my pockets. I tried to assess the situation, gauge McSmile’s patience levels. Mind you, mine were wearing very thin. See, we’d been standing there for ages by now and not one single person working there had acknowledged our presence. The group in front were sitting down and flopped all over a table for two just inside the door, still waiting to be seated. The place really didn’t seem that busy. There wasn’t any big air of hustle and bustle about the place.

‘Do you want to just go over and grab that guy behind the cash register? This is getting ridiculous’. McSmile turned around and Mr Busy at the till leapt out and was at a table within 2 seconds, clearing the 2 plates that suddenly were making the place look untidy.

‘For Fu…’ I just took a deep breath. McSmile was clearly agitated and I really didn’t feel like defending the place. ‘Right’, I said, ‘I wanted to eat here cos the food is meant to be good but they’ve already lost any hope of a tip from me’.

The waiter came back and after all that, it was time for the group to be seated but he continued to faff around in front of us. A waitress came down the stairs and us shuffling from one foot to the other, clearly trying to get someone’s attention were being totally ignored.

Simply the Best!

Lads, ye were fantastic. Beyond fantastic! The blame for my loss of breath and subsequent spending an hour looking for my heart after it jumped out of my chest lies squarely with you lot. But, d’ye know what? I’ll forgive you… next time tho, just box it off in the first half, ok?

Freaky Friday Song Comparison

I LOOOVE this Ting Tings song! There is no way it’s humanly possible notto react with a bit of toe tappin’, a bit of head bobbin’ and sure while you’re at it, chances are you’ll actually end up cheerleading across the sitting room in McSmile’s, like I do. Ok, you don’t have the address to McSmile’s place, so we may not actually vie for space in that particular sitting room, but you know what I mean! I’m allowing myself to say that its it’s very Gwen Stefani/ Hollaback-edness that is the crucial bit. And apologies if I’ve ever stamped on your foot while marching and swinging my arms around to that particular tune. Ahem.

So there I was, earlier this week.. asking no one in particular what my name was.. and another song came to mind and I found myself singing the Ting Tings words yet with the guitar from this song! Have I gone mad? Is there not quite a similarity in places? Maybe there is, but just in my head? See what you think…

* BTW, I’m taking no responsibility for the fact that numerous people might be too young to know what the hell I’m talking about.

It’s Daffodil Day!

It’s Friday, it’s a beautiful Spring day in this part of the country and it’s also Daffodil Day!

Daffodil Day is Ireland’s biggest and most popular charity event and there’s a lovely tradition of many, many people sporting badges of daffodils on this day each year. Run by the Irish Cancer Society, you will see volunteers throughout every town rattling boxes and asking you to donate money – but this is such a light hearted day that chances are, you’ll stumble across more chats about how lovely the flowers are, that’s it’s such a good cause and that really, now that people think of it, they should treat themselves to flowers more often as they really do brighten up the place!

My Aunt was involved with Daffodil Day and she raised a lot of money for the Cancer Society. There came a time though when her deteriorating health meant that she couldn’t help out the way she wanted to anymore. Her name comes up in many conversations, she was so much fun, a fabulous lady that was so, so popular. On days like this, with the sun shining, the light breeze.. perhaps it’s Nature’s way of telling us that she’s thinking of us and that she really isn’t very far away.