lámha suas - if you recognise this!

 I've started clearing out my "office" to make way for my dressing room.

And in answer to lots of questions....yes, I am retiring later this year. After 37 years I have decided to hang up my teaching aids and start the next chapter of my life.

I ordered a skip and started decluttering. I didn't figure on it being quite so emotional. It's not easy throwing away a huge part of ones life.

Anyway, when I came across this....the curriculum I started off with back in 1985 I got a little shiver of horror down my spine and it reinforced the fact that I am so doing the right thing!

Week 15: One year, no new gear

 Summer is flying by. Sunshine clothes ( that fit me! ) are in short supply. So I took myself to a local second-hand/ previously owned/ previously loved shop to look for something I could wear. I figure I'm not cheating as 

1) I'm not buying anything NEW

2) I'm actually preventing it being sent to land fill

After racking through the rails I came to the conclusion that I had as good at home, so I just bought one skirt for  4 euro. See below

    

                                                                                       

                                                                                 This is my £4 skirt

Fiona texted to go for a walk so I had to do a quick change!

A sign of the times

 I was in Red Earth reading an article in a book about the ancient Roman custom of Augury, basically when embarking on a new phase of your life you interpreted omens from the birds.

NOT FOR ME!

Thankfully they also said that if you are undertaking a new project and are looking for guidance you just give yourself an Augury Day, where you give the day over to God/the universe /karma or whatever it is you believe in and look out for omens or signs, maybe you see or hear the same words or numbers over and over again, or you may get advice from a very unlikely source,

That's sounds a lot better than the birds, so I decided that I would give it a try. As part of the new chapter of my life I was considering turning my "office" into a dressing room. 

Firstly I would like to clarify that "office" is a very loose term, as recently it has become more of a dump room, full of boxes, old school books and "fearas"*

*primary teachers will understand what I'm talking about!

Secondly, with my recent goal of not buying any new clothes for a year and wearing what I've got, I've discovered that there are bits of me all over the house and I'd love to have it all together in one place. It would make life much easier.

I wasn't sure if that was the way to go. Maybe I'm just being too pretentious having a "dressing room", who do I think I am, a Kardashian???

Anyway I popped into Mullingar Furniture World as they were having a sale.

Just inside the door I met a lovely, older lady who was coming out, aided by a walking stick.

She immediately started talking to me, saying how lovely all the furniture was and how she'd love to win the lotto! I don't know why, but I found myself telling her what I was thinking of doing.

She looked at me and said,

" When I was younger I thought that I had to save all my money for when I was older and not spend any of it frivolously. Now that I am older, I find that I haven't the interest or energy to do the thing that I thought I would. That's my one regret. Do it now while you can."  

I took that as my omen and here is the first purchase for my new dressing room!

As I was paying for it, I told the salesman what had happened. It then struck me.

"Was that your mother that you had planted to get people to spend more money?"

He laughed and replied,

"NO, but what a great idea. I'm going to get her on the payroll straight away!"

And he then proceeded to take a further E25 off the price.

Happy Augury Day to you all !

 

* 

Week 14: One year, no new gear

 This week was hard, I was definitely tempted to shop. With the promise of a heatwave, something we rarely get in Ireland, feck it,  we rarely get three consecutive days of sunshine, we were all excited. The shops are filled with bright, summery wisps of material, calling out "Buy me, buy me".

Okay, that might have been the hallucinations due to me not drinking enough water!"

Any way, for the first time I felt deprived as I went through my "summer" wardrobe looking for something suitable* to wear

* replace with "still fits"

Never fear, I found something. As as we all know, no matter how many outfits we pack for a sun holiday we end up wearing the same few favourite teeshirts and shorts during the day anyway.

Seeing as I couldn't buy new clothes, I bought new hair!

Stay safe in the sun!

I'm a firestarter!

 I met Emer and Veronica at the Olympia Theater last night to go to see the phenomenal show 

 Girl from the North Country.

I wouldn't call it a musical. It's more of a drama that happens to have the music of Bob Dylan interspersed through it.

At the interval we decided to go out to the front foyer for a while as we were finding it a bit stuffy, a combination of an old theater, an approaching heatwave and our age!

As we were making our way down the stairs towards the foyer the front-of-house manager asked us

"Are you looking for something Ladies?"

We all replied in unison

"Yes, AIR!"

He then proceeded to tell us that the reason the front doors were closed was because the sign on the nearby Eddie Rockette's had gone on fire and the fire brigade was there to put it out. The doors were closed because of the fumes/ water. If we wanted we could go out the side door until the show resumed.

Emer then pointed out

"Hey Noeleen, didn't something happen the last time you went to a show?"

I then proceeded to tell them about my last outing to The Addams Family a few weeks ago in the Gaeity Theatre, when we were all evacuated as the fire alarm went off. It later turned out to have been caused by a prop on stage....or so they told us.

The manager looked at me dubiously and said.

"Ah here. Would you ever give us a ring the next time you're coming in, so that we can be prepared for you!"

Maybe it's not just a coincidence that I was there on both occasions.

Anyway we went back to take our seats for the second act which was equally as brilliant.

When we were heading home we had to pass by Eddie Rockettes and boy, did we get a shock. Far from just the sign going on fire, the whole building was gutted!

Maybe we should have been evacuated.

Anyway I'll let you all know when I am going to a show again....and you can avoid it, to be on the safe side.

I only went out for a pint of milk!

 

Yesterday evening I was about to make my umpteenth cup of tea that day when I realised to my horror that I had run out of milk. I jumped in my car and raced down to Weir's shop in Raharney before it closed.

On my way in I met Julie on her way out, who said,

"Are you going to the meeting? It's starting in 5 minutes?"

"What meeting?"

"We're hoping to set up a Women's Shed group. The more the merrier. It's on in the Third Place beside the church. It won't take long."

I do think that community is very important so I decided to pop in ....after I got my pint of milk for my night time cups of tea.

Julie was right, it didn't take long. Within an hour I was assistant treasurer of the newly named Step Together Ladies Shed!!!

We've already started on our first project. Our next meeting is on 16th August in the Third Place. All are welcome for a chat to make new friends and learn new skills!

Week 13: One Year , no new gear

13 is supposed to be an unlucky number but not for me. I had a great week and still managed to resist the urge to shop!

Bitta garden work and then hit the couch for Week 2 of Wimbledon.

Ladies who lunch

Don't know what I did but I know it involved Wimbledon!

Must have been the day I got my spray tan, hence the flip flops!

Kilbeggan Races: It was a Ladies Day...but with a difference. It was all about sustainability, you had to have recycled, borrowed or made your outfit......nothing new to be worn. Well of course that was right up my street. The dress I had from B.C....before Covid. I got it made for when we did A Night at the Oscars. I had to change my shoes at the last minute as the ones I originally wore with it were too painful with my ingrown toenail (!. TMI ) so I remembered I had these from my days in Abu Dhabi, 20 years ago...and they were perfect.Everything else I had. And I wore Mam's engagement ring as she would love an auld Ladies Day!  Judges were very interested in my back story...but I still didn't win!  But who cares, we had a brilliant time.

Sat night out in Mullingar where we found ourselves slap back in the middle of the homecoming celebrations for the victorious Westmeath footballers.I was obviously in the wrong colour!

How to get your Louis Vuitton back from your 18 month old grandniece

 I loaned my hot pink Louis Vuitton to my niece for a wedding she was attending. her daughter Sadie clapped her eyes on it and the rest is history!

So I headed to Claire's accessories and bought a lovely shiny, sparkly hot pink child-friendly purse. It was sure to grab her attention....or so I thought!

As Finian rightly pointed out

"Sadie doesn't do fakes!"

Thankfully it worked in the end and I managed to bring Louis home. When I opened him up I saw that he had brought a friend with him!

 

Week 12: One year, no new gear!

 Woo hoo, I'm quarter of the way the-ere

to paraphrase Bon Jovi

It was the first week of my summer holidays and I'm actually finding it more difficult to dress!!! I have lots of school skirts, tops and dresses but my leisure wear mainly consists of worn out track suits bottoms and faded sports tops. and god help me if we get this heat wave that we've been promised. All my "nice" summery gear I bought after Operation Transformation and I'm afraid to even take it out of storage and try it on.

Anyway, one day at a time, sweet Jesus!

Lookin' as if I'm going to do some serious exercise!

Still in the athleisure gear!

Night out            

The day I almost skipped the pool and hopped onto the bus to Longitude!

Youth is wasted on the young

 

I pulled up outside Mullingar Park Hotel to go for my morning swim. I was met by the hum of high pitched excitement and the smell of fake tan and vaping wafting through the air.

Ah yes, that time of year again. When teenagers go through their rite of passage and attend Longitude . They were congregated outside the door of the leisure centre, awaiting their bus.

As I made my way through them I got a thought

Maybe I'll ditch my swim and hop on their bus instead. A music festival sounds like much more fun.

Then of course reality set it. I didn't have proper festival clothing with me. As I looked around at the acres of bare flesh that lay before me, I realised that I could wear my swimsuit and I wouldn't look frumpy.

In fact there was probably enough fabric in my swimsuit to make TWO outfits for myself, judging by what all the girlies were "almost" wearing.

I continued on into the pool and left the young ones to have a great time!

Time flies!

 So there I was Friday night, curled up on my couch, totally wiped out after this year in school. Luckily I had some lovely gifts from my pupils to savour, namely flowers, chocolate and wine!

Then today, less than 24 hours later I was accosted by this sign in Mullingar

WHERE DID THOSE TWO MONTHS GO TO???