Busy Week-End

I'm not sure what it is but although everything Christmasy is happening around me, I just don't feel like it's Christmas, maybe it's because I still need to put our tree up and I don't want to do that till I have cleaned the house, and I haven't done any Christmas shopping either.  However yesterday Em's school had their Christmas fair, so I guess I should start getting into the spirit of things!

Forever Charlie ...

I don't know how many of you remember the song "Charlie" by Rabbitt, but this song will always hold a special place in my heart and I will tell you why.

When I started High School at 12 years of age, I had come from a very disciplined primary school which had high expectations of all it's pupils.  The High School I attended took in pupils from about 7 or 8 different primary schools, so it turned out there were 11 classes of Standard 6's with 40 pupils in each class and I landed up in the naughtiest class of them all.  The age group on my class ranged from 12 to 16 (some of the guys had failed 3 times and kept back).

Anyway to cut a long story short, I had a few friends in my class but used to hang around with Jenny and Jo-Anne, Jo-Anne started dating a guy in our class called Luis.  Luis was lovely he was Spanish, and lived in Regents park.  Luis had a special musical talent, he could sing, play guitar and the drums and in 1977 Rabbitt was on top of the charts and all the girls would go mad for them, so of course Luis would play cover versions of Rabbitts songs, he would often bring his guitar to school and then after school he would play for us, I always thought his version of Charlie was just so much nicer than the original and I even taped him singing.

After standard 6 Jo-Anne went to a different class, but Luis and I were in the same class for standard 7.  After standard 7 we had to choose what subjects you were doing up to matric and Luis went to a different class, we also didn't really hang out anymore, Luis & Jo-Anne split up but still remained friends.  Then one fateful night in 1979 Jo-Anne, her sister, another girl from our school Antoinette, Luis and another friend of his all went off to a nightclub.  On the way home they the driver somehow hit a lamp post in La Rochelle and Luis who was sitting in the front passenger seat and Jo-Anne sitting behind him were killed instantly.

Such a waste of two beautiful people and beautiful talents.  So every time I listen to Rabbitt and especially the song Charlie, I think of Jo-Anne and Luis.

I knew Luis had a little sister and because she was quite a bit younger than us, I never really thought about her.  Well I had some photos of Luis posted on Facebook under The Hill High School and Christina, Luis sister got hold of me on facebook and also Rui who is in this photo and was friends with Luis.

News Update

Wow, we have been home 4 weeks tomorrow and it really has flown, I managed to have 3 of those weeks at home just catching up and getting life back to Normal. Emily started school on the 31st of August and is really coming along fine, it's almost as if she is a new child at school - she seems to be listening and behaving. Her day now is from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. so it is rather long and the days they have swimming they only finish at 3:15.

I decided to get straight back into the job thing and with the recession in Ireland I was a bit worried, I sent my CV out and of course there was nothing out there for me, so luckily I contacted someone I knew and within a week, I had an interview and an offer of a contract. I started there on Friday and I must say I am so happy, it is a company that I really like, I like the way they do business and the directors are just so nice. The location is really nice as well albeit it a bit far, I climb on the M50 at about 8:40 (after spending 10 - 15 minutes in traffic on a journey that is only about 2 km's from our house to the M50), then by 8:55 I am taking the Bray / Greystones exit to the company, 15 minutes to do about 15 km's. The company is located in Co. Wicklow which is South of Dublin, so I am travelling away from the city passing rolling green hills with sheep and cows and towards the Irish Sugar loaf mountain.

My hours are from 9:00 to 14:00 so I leave there at 14:00 to pick up Emily from school and we only get home at about 15:30 - 16:00 depending on traffic, so it has been pretty hectic, but I am enjoying it so far - I might sound very different in a month’s time.

Other than that we are concentrating on getting the house and garden sorted, so no holidays for a little while although I was looking at Cyprus today and wondering when we could squeeze a trip in, so who knows ... watch this space!

Other than that we are all well, Derrick got right back into the swing of things and is working really hard, we just can't believe that it is only 3 months to Christmas now, which means that the social life will be hectic over the next few months.  Will keep you updated.

New Year at School

Emily went back to school today for the new year, it was a miserable rainy day but she was so looking forward to seeing all her friends ....

Impromptu Play date

The last couple of months just seem to have been a roller coaster, so many things have happened it is just so difficult to comprehend it all. Usually all my afternoons are planned right down to the Milli-second, so on Friday when I was waiting for Em after school and one of her class mates asked me "Rose, would you and Em like to come home with us and see my moms newly decorated kitchen." My first thought would have been to say No, and rush off home, but I said why not, they only lived round the corner from the school.

So Em and her friend got on her mom's bicycle and she pushed them home, and I met them there. The house is on a road that I travel practically every day of my life, opposite office buildings and pubs, a place you would not really expect to see houses. The front of the house was quite small and insignificant a really old cottage type house, which was probably built over a hundred years ago.

The inside of the house has obviously been modernised and has a huge open plan lounge, dining room and kitchen, but the nicest thing about the house is that the back porch, backs right onto the Royal Canal. It's almost like a holiday home - wow!!!

Proud Parents ...

What a week, it just seems to have flown past. I had 2 presentations to prepare for, which were cancelled at the last minute, homework that I managed to do before I went to college on Wednesday, and for the life of me I can't really tell you what else happened I just know it was busy!

Friday was our first parent / teacher meeting, and they do it in an interview style, the teacher sits behind a desk and their are 2 chairs for the parents and you basically get a slot of 15 minutes where you can ask questions and she tells you what is going on. I was rather nervous as the teacher has already spoken to me 2 or 3 times about Em when I have gone to pick her up, so I was really expecting the worst.

I had arranged a play date for Em at Mandy's house with Aran and Mandy told us to come for supper after the school meeting, we really had a nice time but I will leave that for another post.

Her teacher is absolutely stunning she looks like a barbie doll, with blond hair, really nice figure, she is young and not intimidating at all. She spent most of the time raving about Em and how good she is with helping, she also said she is such a brilliant speaker and if she did not know better, Em could be a politician when she grows up. She said that sometimes she needs help explaining things to the other kids and Em is the best person to do it. She said her English and vocabulary were excellent and her "Irish" was very very good!

The only down things she said about Em were her stubbornness, now we all know where she gets that from and her temper, so I guess it is things we are just going to have to work on. I walked out feeling really proud of my little Angel!