The Irish Gal's Blog

I forgot! I do have something to look forward to...

2010-03-19T14:50:00Z

I'm going wedding dress shopping with my little sister tomorrow morning and our mum is coming too! 3 shops in 4 hours is the plan and I'm quite excited!! No idea what kind of dress she'll pick or even what shape would suit her...

And tomorrow afternoon is rugby-fest!! The last day of the international Northern Hemisphere annual competition... Ireland v Scotland followed by Wales v Italy and then France v England... There is an outside chance that Ireland could win the championship, though it is unlikely! We'd have to win by 50 and France would have to lose... not likely... but the matches should be good. But we'll be second and win a different trophy if we win tomorrow. (we won all 5 matches last year and won the Grand Slam for the first time in 61 years... )

They start at 2.30pm, 5pm and 8pm...

And then painting on Sunday... with DH's hangover...

Not a great week...

2010-03-19T14:07:00Z

So, Tuesday I ended up going home at 11.30am cos of my cold/blocked sinuses. One of the other managers happend to call into our office and told me I should go home... and then he apologised to my boss if he'd overstepped the mark. My boss agreed and I went home and crashed on the sofa watching programmes I'd dvr'd - Greys, DH, Good Wife... and then fell asleep. DH came home at lunch and made sure I was ok - I was feeling miserable and even took the duvet to the sofa.

Later we had to go out and buy paint. Yes, paint. €147 of it to be exact. For the living room and kitchen - walls, ceilings & woodwork. Luckily the traffic was lighter than we anticipated and i found a voucher in my purse that the shop accepted! So like half price (not really, just the whole lot didn't come out of our account)

Wednesday was St Patrick's Day here in Dublin. So what did we do? Parade? Party? Meet friends? No... painted... the ceilings got 2 coats and the kitchen walls got one coat. And I still felt awful with my cold - really bunged up sinuses and chesty cough... kept waking up that night from the coughing and woke DH up too.

Yesterday, I came to work and had hardly a minute to think. Still wasn't thinking straight but had to do a report for my boss (for him to present!) and it took me forever. You know one of those days that you just can't kick up a gear? That was me yesterday. And I had 2 meetings to interupt me. And then home to do some more painting - second coat on kitchen, started on the living room.

So tired... I think I only got 4 hrs sleep max last night with my cough. But I seem to be pulling it off. The manager who thought I should go home on Tuesday commented that I looked much better today.

And now it is Friday afternoon, my boss has gone home, our IT guy has gone home and given me his pager (he'll get me chocolate in return!!) and all I have to look forward to is more painting this evening and weekend...... with my cold that won't go away...

Roll on Monday...

Daylight robbery...

2010-03-16T08:58:00Z

Well almost. It was starting to get dark...

On Friday evening, we were on our way out of our apartment (door opens directly onto the street, 2 lanes of traffic outstide the door - ie a busy city centre street! Bear this in mind...) and locking the door when we saw this guy looking really suspicious and trying to look into the window of our neighbour (vacant apt we think) and he saw us leaving. DH looked behind us after we had turned the corner and the guy had followed us to the corner to check where we were, which DH spotted. So DH decided to walk the circumference of our block and do a "walk by". I continued to get the car.

When I got back with the car (5 min walk to our space) DH said it was really really dodgy - the guy was sitting up on the railing outside the other apartment but DH couldn't go into our apt and put on the alarm cos he had been spotted and DH didn't want to draw attention to our apartment. We had to drive past the front on our way to our friends at which point we saw the guy with one leg in the window of next door and the other one going in!!!!! i pulled in where I could and DH went back to alarm our place and call the police... who wanted a description of the guy... yeah, he's the one climbing out the window and running up the street...

We went out to our friends and when we got there I called the management company so that the owner could be informed. The apartment is empty and the guy got nothing but we wouldn't want people to able to get free access to the place and it turning into a squat or drug den. The police called DH twice to ask which way the guy ran in and for another description... Guess they never caught him then...

We just couldn't get over the audacity of the guy - it was 6.45pm and a lot of traffic on the street and people were still walking past on their way home from work...

And then I developed a sore throat, blocked sinuses and a bit of temperature... but I have month end stuff to do so I'm here at my desk...

You reckon that's clean?

2010-03-12T14:57:00Z

A friend of ours (M) and my SIL came over for dinner last night (the chicken & ham pie and lemon cheesecake from the other day) and DH had his chores to do beforehand, which I had wanted him to do on Wednesday evening, but he said don't worry they'll be done in time.

What were the "chores"? Clean the bathroom fully and he decided the apartment needed a full vacuuming too. OK, so he knows what needs to be done and he knows the deadline.

I got home yesterday evening from work to find M already there. He'd been there since 5 and I got home at 6.15 but no worries, the guys chatted "boy stuff" - M is getting married the beginning of June. We chatted and I started to put the finishing touches to the pie and put it in the oven. DH comes into the kitchen and says he got his chores done. Nice one.

A couple hours later I went to the bathroom and am mortified! The bath isn't clean and neither is the toilet or the mirror!!!! I can't believe it...

So later, when M and my SIL are gone home, I ask him exactly what he did for his "chores"... the vacuuming of the entire apt (inc bedrooms which noone would see!), cleaned the bathroom floor, cleaned the top of the toilet cistern (I had mentioned that specifically the previous day) but then he ran out of time cos M turned up earlier than he thought. I asked about the bath and inside the toilet and he said "Inside the toilet?" ... never occured to him!!! Until I lifted the seat and showed him what it looked like... he rarely lifts the seat...

I know next time that he has to do it the night before for me to check it... AM I YOUR MOTHER?!?!?!?

I really was mortified...

Domestic godess? (and easy cheesecake recipe)

2010-03-10T13:51:00Z

Well, certainly a contender for wife of the week!

We have DH's best man coming over for dinner tomorrow evening and this evening I have my pilates class. So last night, I picked up a few groceries on the way home from work.

I got our evening meal made really quickly (tortellinni with a spicy tomato sauce (jar which I added chorizo, onion, pepper and courgette to) with some garlic bread. 15 mins and all done. Sat down and ate this while we watched a soap. Then got DH his normal mug of tea to wash it down, with a biscuit.

Then on to preparations for tomorrow. I got the chicken and ham pie started - the chicken and veg cooking anyway. And then my friend who lives in Australia called me on Skype (pre arranged) and we chatted for half an hour. The great thing about my phone (other than taking great photos) is that it has skype so I can wander around the apartment when I'm talking to her. Good thing seeing as I left the pot on the cooker. It was good to chat to her and her son was wandering around while we chatted. I couldn't see him as I've no webcam but could hear him loud and clear. We don't chat often enough...

So back to the kitchen and I finished off the pie filling - the ham and then the sauce and mixed it all up. Turns out there was more than I had anticipated so DH suggested he might ask 2 of his sisters over tomorrow too! I'll put the pie lid on tomorrow and do it in the oven then. The filling takes a while to prepare and I didn't want to be in the kitchen all night tomorrow.

Then dessert for tomorrow! Lemon cheesecake! Yum... and so quick and simple... 8oz crushed biscuits mixed with 3 oz melted butter for the base and then chilled in the cake tin. The topping is 8oz cream cheese (at room temp), 12oz sweetened condensed milk and 5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice... mix them all til smooth and creamy and then pour over the base. Chill for 3 hours or overnight... and that is it!! No, it is not baked and yes, it is much lighter in texture and yes, it is set. So I made one and it is sitting in the fridge.

But I know DH... he'd like to try some... so I made 2 mini ones that we can have this evening and that will protect the main one!

Another mug of tea and biscuit for DH and a mug of Sleepy Times for me and then bed time!

Tidying up the apartment is tonight's task though it might be delegated to himself (seeing as it is his friend and sisters... and I have pilates)

Does that qualify for Wife of the Week?

We chatted...

2010-03-08T11:15:00Z

... about TTC. It was Saturday evening as we were waiting for our dinner and we were just chilling. I was trying to find the right moment cos I didn't want to make it a HUGE issue, if you know what I mean. He mentioned that he'd like us to take an overnight trip during the summer to get out hiking early in the day before crowds got out. I agreed and then said that hopefully we'll have another "passenger" by then too... Nice opening I thought (we'd been out walking Saturday morning, pictures below).

Anyway, we joked that we'd have to "try harder" this month. He suggested that I should expect it not to happen each month so that I wouldn't be disappointed and upset each month when it didn't happen. If I'm not pregnant by the summer we should consider what we should do next. So now he knows that it has been preying on my mind and that it does mean a lot to me.

We'd a lovely weekend away and really chilled out. Had a hike on Saturday and the views were stunning! Lovely clear day and it was a shame we didn't make it to the top of the mountain but it was good enough for us to make it that far and the snow would have made the rest of the walk up a bit too much - other walkers said it got worse and we'd be slipping and sliding up and down (and I've a dodgy knee that would have been in agony with the jerking of the sliping). But here's some photos for you:

The view looking down, the sea is just around the corner to the right. We could see for miles!

A view from halfway up: we made it just short of the middle ridge... snow got bad for walking

View from the front of our hotel: the snowy peak to the left was our aim, the ridge we nearly got to is just where the cloud starts, so not bad

Update on yesterday and knitting pic

2010-03-05T12:48:00Z

Thanks for your really nice words of support yesterday... it really helped me. Still feeling awful today but just in a physical sense now.

Didn't get a chance to talk to DH last night - after he opened the oven without stepping back to let the hot air escape first wasn't a good time... he got the full blast of hot air straight in the face! I know I should have sympathy, but what did he expect? Hot air comes out every time the door is opened! Of course, he blames our kitchen for this (the kitchen is annoying and very cramped, but not to blame on this occasion). We're heading away this afternoon for the weekend (I'm leaving here in half an hour) and we'll talk over the weekend. He wasn't in great form all evening after that...

Here's a pic of the baby cardigan I was knitting for my friends' daughter. Just one side seam to sew up and then all done. I'm quite proud of getting it done, first time I've tried something like that.

But I've just noticed in the photo that the second to bottom button is too far up... that buttonhole didn't work properly and I thought I had the right place for it! D'oh!

Thanks again for all the support - it really is appreciated. Just can't talk about this stuff to people in RL

Feeling quite down...

2010-03-04T12:26:00Z

You know, I've spent the past 15 odd years of my life on the pill to avoid getting pregnant at all costs. Now, today AF arrives and I am feeling really down about it. How things change...

For some reason I got my hopes up a little bit this month even though I was trying not to. I've been charting my temps since Nov and now seems to be a 30 day cycle with a clear increase mid cycle. This month I even tried OPK and I got a positive when I thought I would and we had BMS a number of times. I tried not to think about it, but then the last few days my tummy has been a bit off and normally I don't even think about it - it actually turned one day when I smelt lunch in the canteen... But I told myself that I wasn't to POAS until at least Friday and then my temp this morning had dropped.

Why am I like this? Maybe its cos I feel like I'm running out of time... I know it can take a while to get pregnant especially at my age (I'm 36) but that doesn't make it any easier. I'll talk to DH this evening, though I don't know if I'll be able to do that without some tears. I'm not sure he realises how much this means to me but I would say he will tonight... we'll probably talk about it over the weekend too while we are away (a weekend away I won through work)

Sorry for moaning - I had to get this out before I burst into tears at my desk...