2014 - the literary highlights

Ummm, ok, so this year is a bit sparse from my end, but I still think it is only right that I should keep this list going, if only because next years will have to look amazingly good compared to this, so in no particular order, my literary highlights are

1.  Launch of Last Kiss - by Louise Phillips, which I was lucky enough to get to attend, it was a great read, and she deservedly made the popular short list for the Bord Gais book awards again!
2.  Listening to a story by Helen Kahn in my writers group in Midleton on the first of May - Monkey Boots was overdue by a week and a half, I was very uncomfortable what with her limbs pushing my organs all round the place for fun, but I forgot all about that for a half hour with a really well told tale of emigration in the 60's, what it meant then - how it felt.  Helen is a great writer, I don't think she half realises how good, and I found it very moving.
3.  So moving in fact that Monkey Boots was born the very next day.  I wrote an amazing wise and wonderful poem shortly after her arrival about the wonder of life, (probably and most possibly also containing the very meaning of life) on the inside of a brochure for baby jaundice, I safely stowed it in my bag of cotton wool for baby changing and then promptly lost it.
4. My fave literary aunt and fairy godmother came for a visit and we wrote a bit together.
5.  Other friends and me variously tried to kick start each other's creativity with supportive mails and texts.
6.  This year is a Davy Byrnes year, which means I have a full 5 years to come up with a story to win the 25K, should be a doddle if I start now.
7. The creative way - a book I started early this year with weekly exercises to help your creativity - I bailed the week that you had to stop watching tv - I might pick it up again next year
8. The good wife -I managed to watch all 4 seasons in about 4 weeks.  This was relaxation for my brain and eyes, which can only go to help me in future writing endeavours.
9. Niamh Boyce's book The Herbalist got nominated for an Impac award, it's a brilliant book, so I was very happy for her, but also her name is almost the same as mine so it almost feels like I won it.
10. This blog is still alive, though it's definitely an endangered specimen I'm happy to report the vital signals are still present if a bit weak.

XX 2015 can only get better (though maybe not)

How much Vitamin C in a chocolate orange?

I love how confectionary companies have made it so much easier to be healthy these days - what could be better than all the goodness of a real orange without any of the mess or fuss of opening the real deal - the wrapping on the chocolate version is beautiful to look at too, and recyclable - an eco bonus - I'm sure my sinussy flu will be right as rain in no time.
Also Fruit Pastilles!!  How easy is it now to get 5 a day (or if you live in a less lazy and healthier part of the world your 8 a day) - again no muss no fuss. (ok a tiny little bit of muss when the sugar gets everywhere but that's the price you gotta pay to be healthy)
As I ponder all the health benefits of xmas goodies - I am also beginning to understand why so many people have migrated to twitter and facebook, lands where you can just keep up the cleverness for 140 characters, you are not expected to keep going for several paragraphs like some kind of genius, and not some flu slain person.
I hope Terry's bring out Chocolate pomegranate next year, but if they do i also hope they leave out the seeds, which were the bane of my life twenty minutes ago, until they do I'll stick to natural confectionary remedies for my cold.
hope you all had a nice time for non IPYPIASM month, and wishing you all the best for next year if I'm not talking to you
x

Wilde and Silent

That's what I've been watching, instead of going back to TV land, I've been watching youtube classics, there was a good version of "The Importance of being Earnest" from the 60's, but others of his have been harder to find... well apart from the Am Dram versions.  So now I've moved on to Silent movies - it just occured to me, I've a lot of catching up to do on my "Silent Movies" front, so now I'm enjoying that particular artform, when time to myself rears its head.
I'm currently watching Russian 1930 film "Earth" on the split screen, I think they mean Earth in the kind of Fieldy sense, as opposed to the planet.  There's lots of angry looking farmers and a minute ago there was a very meaningful looking horse, plenty of slow eating too.  The worst thing about silent movies though is that if your attention meanders at the wrong split second you miss the dialogue... which can be crucial.  "Sunrise: a song of two humans" would've been pretty hard to figure out without the line "Maybe she could get drowned" as the mistress said to the husband, while they were talking about his wife.  There was loads of sky in Russia in 1930, did  you know that?  Continental style sky - everything's better on continents.
No other news here really, just thought I'd share my cultural meanderings with you for a minute.  hope the build up to the HAP HAPiest time is working well for you wherever you are.

So now I have time

I've concluded watching the last episode of the fourth series of the good wife.  I enjoyed it hugely.  Still no cleaning or cooking tips, but enjoyment was had.  So now I have informed Netflix that it's over again, the trial hasn't hooked me in, they only had a finite quantity of the Good Wife to offer, so now that I'm through that - I'm through with them.

Today was also productive in that, this morning we drove to a freezing cold car park to collect little stones.  We then went to a garden centre, where Danger located some spare bits of christmas tree that they didn't really need.  So now we've a pine scented house.  We built a bridge with the stones and some kitchen sealant.

And yes, there's a road we built to lead up to the bridge as well, what good would a bridge be without a road?

So now I have to do something else with my life, and I am actually tempted to swear off tv for a while - I've managed now almost a month without fair city - it might be time to make the move.

Will keep you posted on how that goes... I think for now slightly more sleep will be had and that won't be a terribly bad thing