I love Sunday’s…… the one day in the week that is chill out, family time and me time!

Today I am mending what I believe might be day 2 of a hangover of some sort….. and what better way to mend it but writing a new blog post from the comfort of the couch. So here we go!

DOING THINGS WITH ME, FOR ME, TO KEEP MY SMILE

I know I have mentioned it before but I think it worth mentioning again! When I am not feeling like myself, for whatever reason, there is one main thing that I work on to ensure that I can re-build my confidence and my own inner strength.

I work on being a loner, a comfortable loner.

The past two weekends brought this to light again as I had last Sunday all to myself followed by a 4 hour stint in Killarney yesterday as my daughter and friends was attending a Chasing Abbey concert in the INEC.

Starting with last weekend I woke up my normal early time (god be with the days when one would have decent sleep ins) and I got some of the early morning chores out of the way. Sitting at the kitchen table doing some work I realised, with a serious dose of frustration, that working on a Sunday was the last thing I needed, especially when home alone and with the autumn sun splitting the rocks outside the window.

So I packed a bag, got the hiking boots on an headed for the 12 O’Clock Hills in Crag outside Kilkishen. Starting out I still felt frustrated within but after the first 15 minutes of the hike I started to take in my surroundings and by the time I got to the top you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face! What a view and a warm recommendation to anyone who hasn’t completed this trail!! After the 360 degree view at the top, blood (tore my lip) (don’t ask), sweat (it is 900 metres up) and tears from that wind I reached the bottom with my hair smelling of autumn and I was once more ready to take on the world.

Then yesterday afternoon I took my near 17 year old daughter and her two friends to Killarney!! This one a bit tougher to face into alone….  But proud to say I did it and that not only because I couldn’t get out of bed until about 2pm after losing count of the whiskeys the night before. Proud because on a Saturday night I walked into Killarney town (taking in some more stunning scenery) and sat into a restaurant for a three course meal followed by another walk around the hustling and bustling Kerry town.

It may have looked odd that I was on my own but what must have really completed the slightly sympathetic looks I was getting was my inability to stop giggling to myself as I took on the first few chapters of Emer McLysaght’s and Sarah Breen’s book Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling.

Not being Irish but having succumbed to the Irish ways this book captures Irishness in way that would make you cry of laughter. Already on page 18 my first “laugh out loud” moment occurred. Just listen to this;

“And no sooner is she back from the honeymoon than she’s off planning a hen party for her cousin Suzanne. I heard her on the phone the other day organising a cocktail class and describing the Fifty Shades theme to the poor craythur on the other end. I mean, a hen isn’t a hen without willy straws and L-plates but I’ve read all three books out of interest and I wouldn’t want Donna draping anal beads around my neck.”

Absolutely weak at so many components of those few sentences…..

Read it!!!

PRAYING FOR A RAPID UPDATE TO THE FASHION SCENE

So although I managed to survive my own company in Killarney I just about survived the fashion sense of three girls I brought with me.

It is not often that I pray but here it is an official prayer to the fashion gods and the celebs that makes these clothes fashionable to change the pattern (no pun intended) as soon as possible.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, left to the imagination in the little bits of material they wear….. and trying to be a cool sophisticated mum in all of it is not doable….. It is either let them wear it and know it, or tell them no way and they hide it! For Killarney I put the sunglasses on until darkness fell and sat low in the seat of the car anytime they decided to be in my close proximity!!!!

Let’s just say that myself and my daughter won’t be swopping tops anytime soon….

AUTUMN VIBES & 28 MORE DAYS

Finishing this post with a small hello to autumn which has officially arrived! So far so good as it has proven itself to bring many golden moments between sunshine, rain, wind and gorgeous scenery! So many beautiful moments  I stopped the car a few times this week to capture its magnificence.

There are now just 28 days to go until the Dublin City Marathon is on and the one I had earmarked to be my first…. Although back chewing road and still living in hope I am beginning to own up to the reality that it will have to be another one that becomes my first…. But I will still keep it up for 28 more days to see where it brings me.

Leaving you with this quote and all well wishes for a fantalastic October!!!!

“When nothing goes right….. take a left”

It really is as simple as that.