kryptyd

Hello?

kryptyd — Mon, 22 May 2023 08:07:34 GMT

Just wondering is anyone still here? Do you use this platform and does it still work? It looks different from the last time I was here.

I was thinking of starting to post here again. Since I stopped posting on here, social media has never recaptured the fun and community I used to feel on here. I suppose I am trying to recapture something that no longer exists. But if any of my lj friends are still on here, please leave a comment and tell me what you use the blog for now.

Follow up

kryptyd — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 11:07:30 GMT

Ok, to follow up from the last post that was cut short, what have I been up to? Settling in/getting paperwork sorted telling the system that I'm back and that Séamus exists, I went to one Spanish meetup where only one other guy showed up and we mostly talked (in English) about his involvement in a weird new rightwing political party (I'm hoping that meetup becomes more popular), I have been looking out for venues where I can try to host my boardgames night, but so far I haven't found one, I've been trying to figure out meals I can cook that can be adapted for the veggies and meat eaters in the house, I've started reading again after not having read anything in ages (I'm reading a book about Haiti and how the international aid effort after the last big earthquake was completely wrongheaded and also for escapism The Black Prism by Brent Weeks), I've started going to a swimming class with Séamus on Wednesdays, writing penpal letters and what else... hmm I had a dream the other night that I was Deadpool. I wasn't female Deadpool, I had my head on Deadpool's male body. It was pretty cool.

I'm planning on trying to grow a few herbs and vegetables once it gets a little warmer. We are still getting frost most nights here. It's a lot colder here than it was in London. What a difference a couple of hundred miles make.

Today I posted a letter, got a house key cut for Mickey, got registered with a doctor and on the way back from the library (where I am again now) I will pick up a bit of shopping.

So I feel generally productive. I have been starting to feel a bit useless having no job. All the other women (well, there's only two of them really) I know here with babies work. But they also have free childcare, which I don't/won't have. I have no intention of doing a job that pays less than what childcare costs. That would be pointless.

Now he's awake. Time to leave library!

kryptyd — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 10:34:49 GMT

Hello LJ! I am no longer in London. I am posting from Athlone library. Yep, I'm am so bereft of technology at the moment, I'm doing my internetting at the library! It's funny actually, I'm really like someone who has just started using the internet for the first time in the 90s. I set up a fake name facebook account to try to organise some semblance of a social life here, which necessitated a fake name email address. So now I have an FB with no friends, an email address that I check but no emails come to, and two boards where I have put up a thread looking for people to play nerd games with me (unanswered) that I check every day. Haha.

Athlone/living with the in-laws is not so bad so far. Ahtlone has a population of around 20,000. I haven't found any equivalent for the types of things I used to do during the day in London. I have just been doing a lot of walking around the town. Still, the river is very nice and the baby loves looking at the ducks and swans and boats.

M is moving over for good tomorrow.

Anyway, sorry for the short update. I was going to say more, but the baby has just woken up so I better get a move on before he started shouting in the library.

Talk soon.

kryptyd — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 10:19:47 GMT

Hey long time no see!

I'm sorry for being so crap for updating. It seems I say that in every update these days.

Anyway, my news: after 8 years in London, we are definitely going back to Ireland. I told my job I'm not coming back to them. Yay! Scary. Yay! Scary. We've already booked the van to bring back our stuff at the end of March. I'm not going with the van because it will be too long of a trip with the baby, but me and him will fly out either the day before or the day after Mickey goes with the van.

I owe work a bit over 4 grand. That's not so bad. I'm going to see if I can pay them back a tiny amount per month. They certainly can't have it from me in a lump sum anyway!

With my second last pay from work I managed to pay off my laser eye surgery, so that's one less thing to worry about.

I need to cancel my phone contract and go onto pay as you go, and then the only debt I need to worry about it what I owe work for leaving.

We're going to live with Mickey's parents for a while, while we find our feet. My new town is going to be Athlone. It's really small. I'm a bit nervous about moving to such a tiny place, but I'm excited too. It's going to be much nicer for the baby. There are some things going on there, for example there is a Spanish language meetup, which I'm planning on being the first social thing I do there. We also have some plans of things we are going to set up ourselves - Mickey is going to put on gigs, and I'm going to start a nerdy boardgames night. We're also going to try to get fit and do a lot more outdoors things, despite the horrible Irish weather. If you are a Brit reading this, yes, it IS worse there. It rains way more and many years there is not a single sunny day for the entire summer. That's just something we will have to put up with/buy serious boots and jackets for.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about a job when I get back to Ireland. I do want to get back to work eventually, but I don't think I can afford it at the moment. I'm not really qualified to do anything that pays more than what childcare costs an hour, and even though we are going to be living with the grandparents at first, I don't think I can expect regular free childcare from them. For one thing, nana has already agreed to do full time childcare for her other grandchild (and she's not even sure she'll be able to manage that at her age - I might be helping out with that).

I suppose I'll do some sort of course in the hope of finally having a useful, non-lawfirm job when I finally go back to work. Something in education I suppose (good hours, useful work, not as reviled as a profession in Ireland as it is here, chances of progression...). I know I'm ALWAYS saying I'm going to do this course or that course, but if I'm really not going to be working for a few years, then I'd better use that opportunity now, especially when there is going to be a lot of help in the same house.

So that's the news. The flat is more than half packed up already. I hate being surrounded by boxes! There is a lot of cleaning and tidying to do still so I suppose the move will come up really fast. I want it to happen as soon as possible though. Even though I love and will miss London, I feel in limbo right now and want to start my new life!

Oh, and Séamus's birthday is going to happen in the meantime too (7 March).

What else? Well, me and Mickey bought this and we're looking forward to listening to it*

Since being into swing dancing I've always liked a bit of jazz, but that was mainly fluffy sort of stuff you know, the popmusic of the 20s to 40s. This is the real deal "intellectual" jazz which I always considered a bit of a snore, but now I feel like it's time to give it a chance. That particular album there regularly ends up in the lists of best albums ever (in all types of music) so there's got to be something in it. Yes, a DiAgostini subscription is probably the most shameful way to get into jazz ever, and if I had a lifetime to do it, I would probably eventually pick up all the albums in this collection for next to nothing in the charity shop, but I like the idea of this particular collection.

Not that we're necessarily going to buy the whole collection. I think most DiAgostini things are a monstrous ripoff. But the price of a regular issue of this one is £15. I happily pay £20 for a new metal album on vinyl, so I consider that price ok. Just don't tell any real jazz guys that I'm trying to get into jazz via a magazine collection!

*The record player is broken and there's no point in fixing it until we move house.

Oh, I also watched the first ep of the New XFiles last night. I didn't watch the earlier series (I'm not sure why, I maybe saw 3 episodes, I was probably more interested in drinking vodka in graveyards than telly at the time) but Mickey was a huge fan. I hope it gets good. So far it's pretty cheesy. So there's a conspiracy of the rich to take over the world? Isn't that already happening openly?

Nerd night

kryptyd — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 10:13:28 GMT

I went out to a boardgames meetup for the first time last night. It was really good. It was a big group, but I only really got to meet the 3 other people I was in a game with. That's enough for me though, with my inability to remember people's names. 3 at a time I can manage. We played Pandemic for our long game (and we managed to beat the game and save the world) and played a couple of short games of Codenames before we finished up.

The guy in our group was the absolute image of Ed Milliband. My sister and boyfriend both said the same thing when I told them that: "maybe it was him". Haha.

It was good to get out. I nearly sabotaged myself with excuses - I have a cold, it's too far away, a weird guy followed my mate home around here when she was walking alone the other night, I'd rather just hang out at home - but in the end I made myself go and I'm glad I did. Mickey still does everything he used to do before we had a baby. In fact he goes boxing even more. And I genuinely don't mind that and I'm glad he does. But I could imagine that I might become resentful if I didn't make sure to keep up a social life of my own.

Codenames is really cool. I think even non-gamer people would like playing it. I might buy it, but I suppose it's going to be rare enough occasions when we have 4 people to play it. According to the box you can play it with just two players, but after playing it myself, I can't imagine how that would work. 4 was a good number for that game.

Did I mention I have a horrible cold? Bleeeehhhh snoooootttt sniffffff.

Uuuurgh

kryptyd — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 20:46:35 GMT

Lads, I have MASTITIS! As well being sore in the boob area, I've also been having bad nausea and a painkiller-resistant headache. Actually, it's starting to get better now. I think I've had it for about a week, but I was ignoring it because I thought it was something else (gross) that would go away on its own. I went to the doctor yesterday and she gave me antibiotics. I don't like taking them, but I will when I have to. Otherwise, who knows. My boob would fall off or something. This is another gross little thing about motherhood. I never even knew humans got mastitis. Previously I had only ever heard of it on ads aimed at cow farmers in Ireland. There would be some sporting star praising the virtues of their product in fending off mastitis, fluke AND liver fluke! Actually, I must be misremembering that ad. How would a product work on mastitis and some complaint* of the liver? It's horrible anyway. But I would like to see some old Irish farming ads, if I could find them.

Haha, googling around to see if I could find some ads about farmyard mastitis and liver fluke, on the first page I found a post from me on a forum talking about those ads, in November 2006! That version of me couldn't have imagined that future me would be looking back at her post whilst recovering from mastitis.

*parasite, it turns out.

Guess what happened to me...

kryptyd — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 12:00:25 GMT

You know I went to that open day for the art teacher franchise thing I was interested in last Saturday? I'm not going to detail everything that happened there, because that would be pointless as you will see. Basically it was about an equal mix of sounding like something good that I might be interested in, and then it all getting a bit corporate-speak and making me feel slightly queasy ("brand values" ugh!). I came out of it thinking it could be something I could revisit and consider properly in a few months, when I know where I'll be living and have access to a car and a decent computer (both of which would obviously be essential to taking up the franchise). However I got an email from the CEO two days later saying that even though they all thought I was "very nice", they felt that the "opportunity wouldn't be suitable for me"! I feel so weird about it. I feel offended and like a bit of a useless bum. Mickey said it was because I was asking non-gogetter questions (haha) but I actually didn't, even though I was thinking them - for example when the various franchisees who were there were talking about flogging art stuff to the mothers at the end of classes I did wonder how important shilling was to their entire income, but I didn't say anything. I did of course ask one of the staff on the phone whether or not it was actually a job or just a little hobby for women with rich husbands a few weeks back. Maybe they held that against me. I suspect what it was though, was when the CEO met me intially, I didn't make good enough eye contact with her. I have the distinct impression of her staring intently at me when we first met, and feeling a bit uncomfortable. I will have made eye contact with her (I always do) but my eyes probaby slid away (furtively, I'm imaging) when she continued to stare intently. Oh well. I suppose I shouldn't feel bad about it. I DON'T want to espouse brand values, or hard sell stuff to people. But I feel like something that could possibly have been an option for a flexible, family friendly career for me has been snatched away unfairly.

It's an odd thing. I was totally not expecting it to be some sort of interview-type affair. I thought I was interviewing them!

Another thing was the place was miles away from the train station, so on top of my train ticket, I had to pay 15 quid for a cab both ways! Actually that may have counted against me as well, not arriving in my own car.

I suppose I could ask the CEO person for detailed feedback on what was wrong, but I don't really want to have her tell me things that will probably make me feel bad about myself so I probably won't bother.

The only good thing about it was that I was out of the house from 6.45 to 16.00, and the baby was fine. It's good to know I can do that.

Siiiigh.

My latest annoying mother news

kryptyd — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 21:58:26 GMT

The latest from her is that she thinks because I'm worried about money I should finish up maternity leave early and go back to work. She backed this up by saying that she "had to" go back to work when I was a baby and it did me no harm.

1. I am not worried about money. I don't know where she got the impression that I'm worried. I have none, which is a different thing. I expected this. I am not worried.

2. She didn't "have to" to go back to work when I was born, she was ABLE TO because she had free childcare in the form of my grandmother.

3. There is no point in me returning to work because my wage will be entirely wiped out by childcare costs.

4. Gahhhh.

I really don't think she understands what things cost in London. She's really bugging me with her interference lately, but to be slightly charitable to her, I suppose it's possible that because she doesn't see that much of me and we don't chat as much as we would if we lived nearby each other, maybe she's saying things that are so "off" and offensive to me just because she's not really in tune with my life and my plans. She might be throwing out staying in London solutions to me when I don't actually want to stay here. And I suppose I can't blame her for that since I haven't told her we're definitely going back yet. Hmm.

I'm off to that franchise open day thing tomorrow. I'm leaving Séimi here with his da. I hope he's ok. I hope he will drink his bottle and not miss the boob too much. I wouldn't mind phasing out the boob at this stage and getting back into wearing attractive bras and maybe seeing my periods return! Sorry all, for the tmi.

Who wants this?

kryptyd — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:03:47 GMT

I'm decluttering. Does anyone want the game Animamundi Dark Alchemist? It's a game in the loose sense of the word, and it's also yaoi in the loose sense of the word. It one of those interactive novel type things. It's in Japanese with subtitles (and some very famous voice actors). I loved it, although I never managed to get to any of the good ends in it, despite having access to walk throughs. Don't ask me why that was! Who'd like it? It's pretty interesting, although I didn't really like the style of the artwork. My copy is in good condition, with slight sun-fading on the front cover, and the game should be in perfect condition. It's so old at this stage, I'm pretty sure it will run on any laptop or pc you have, no matter how old. I don't mind sending it anywhere. I liked it so much, I've kept it a long time and thought I would play it again some time, but I have very little time now, so I would like it to go a good home if anyone is interested.

kryptyd — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:33:56 GMT

A couple of months ago I did "the life-changing magic of tidying". It was great to declutter and I'm mostly glad I did it. I'm due another clearout now since even though I got rid of about 6 binbags of clothes and 5 shopping bags of books, I still don't appear to have any space. Anyway, the author promised me I wouldn't regret it, but I do regret one (big) thing. I got rid of pretty much all my art stuff. I thought I didn't need it anymore as I wasn't using it at the time. The only thing out of everything I got rid of that I don't regret was my sets of copics. I gave them to one of Mickey's mates who's into grafitti, and he uses them for planning his works. I'm glad they've gone to a good home. I regret the rest of it though. What an eejit I was to think I wouldn't need that stuff again! Well, now I have to rebuy it all. Today I'm going out to find a cheap sketchbook and some pens, which won't be cheap because there's no point in skimping on those. Gaaaahhh. Well, I suppose now that I'm superbroke I will be more careful in what I purchase, and make sure it's stuff I'll actully use. First thing on the agenda artwise is a collab with that grafitti guy I mentioned. He did the text and wants me to do the background on a piece. On paper I should mention! He stipulated that it should be "mad violent". I don't draw mad violent things, so he's going to have be content with a stupid/cute background with perhaps a hint of comedy violence. He draws enough gory stuff anyway; this will be a bit of a novelty for him.

I've also been shopping for party stuff this week. We're having a "welcome to the world" party for Séamus on Sunday. I know it's a bit late now that he's over 7 months, but better late than never. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do apart from not having a christening, but I did consider having a naming ceremony. In the end I've decided on just an informal party with food and drinks for our friends, and someone djing a few tunes. Maybe someone will make a short speech about godparents at some point. It will be fun!

The baby is asleep now so I better go and do some housework. Bye!

Dearie me

kryptyd — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 22:23:04 GMT

Gah, my family, gaaah. They are giving me a guilt trip about not going to my parents' house for xmas. Specifically my younger sister texted me that she was "devestated" that I wasn't coming until new years For flips sakes, they don't realise yet do they? I'm NEVER going to be in my childhood home on xmas day ever again. Now that I have me own kid I have every excuse not to go to my folks'.

I will of course visit them, but apparently that's not good enough now according to my little sis.

Do you know what I hate? Martyrs. My mother and sister love martyrdom. It vexes me.

kryptyd — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 20:42:15 GMT

We got our xmas flights back to Ireland booked. I had planned to do my duty and go back to my folk's place a week before xmas, but then we ended up getting tickets for that gig so I couldn't. Now we're going the evening before xmas eve straight to Mickey's folk's place. It shouldn't be a massive deal since my family don't care about the day itself or so they say. I do feel a little guilty though going to that house, since I'll be moving in there in a matter of months (of which I have informed my parents nothing yet because I'm being cowardly). It will be ok though. M will have to go back to London for work and I'll go to my folks' place for a week after xmas (maybe around new years eve or the first week in Jan). But I suffered enough at their place last year, pregnant and sober listening to their drunken nonsense. My mother has been saying all my life how she hates xmas. Now I'm excited about it with the kid so she can't blame me for not really wanting to be there. All this "whose house will we go to" competition shite should be over from next year anyway when we (hopefully) have our own place and we'll be having a delightful no god no meat xmas, haha.

I need to be less of a wuss though, and tell my mother my life plans this weekend. If she rings tonight, which is very possible, I will.

Me the baby and my sister went out to the huge shopping center yesterday to try and get ideas for gifts for the children. Ah, it's hard to buy for kids when you want to get them something meaningful. And I don't even mean something worthy and improving. Good if she likes something like that! My main concern is getting my godchild something she thinks is awesome (and I'd rather not promote either royalty or makeup to a 5 year old). Unfortunately I came out of the place none the wiser. There were good baby things, but to be honest I'm not really pushed about toys for my little fella yet. He is happy picking up any old thing he get his hands on (he particularly likes the wires from electronics and cutlery, gah) so he doesn't really need fancy toys yet. 5 year old girls are a hard bracket to buy for, aren't they? Particularly, entirely apart from my hatred of the whole princess thing pushed on that agegroup, she just doesn't like dolls at all. Her favourite things are her cuddly toys, particularly her dogs. She also likes those nasty things with the massive glittery eyes. Anyone know what I mean? I'm not sure who makes them. They have an eerie look to them. So far I've got her massive duplo sets which both gave her something she liked and satisfied my desire to get her something "decent", since she's my goddaughter. She's gone a bit beyond the age of duplo now, but I think she's too young for lego friends (plus I have misgivings about the fact that lego friends is a bit heavy on the pink beauty parlours). Hehh

GHOST!!!

kryptyd — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 22:28:06 GMT

I found out inadvertantly today that my birthday involves tickets to the Ghost gig. Hail Satan!

Now I've really got to teach the baby to accept the bottle. I don't want to miss this night out.

It was funny. I was saying oh, maybe I'll go home on the 18th, the tickets are cheap. And Mickey was saying what about Ghost, and I said ahh but sure I don't even know if I can go, the child needs breastfeeding, if he'd take the bottle it would be great but blah blah blah... And then he had to admit that he had bought me a ticket for my birthday. Hee!

So I'll probably go back to Ireland the day after that gig, on 21 December.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Ao4t_fe0I&index=3&list=PL6S77HDqA7pZfj0b3VZU4fS2rKuRkUTjC

kryptyd — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 19:43:19 GMT

Hey lads, does anyone have any opinions on this. I am vaguely , sort of, half considering becoming a franchisee in this thing when I get back to Ireland. I would love teaching kids' art classes and hosting a few crafty parties as a job. The question of course is whether I could make decent money at it. I can't afford to do this if it's a little hobby for women with rich husbands (sorry if that sounds a bit sneery, but I received their information pack in the post a few days ago, and even though I really like the look and sound of the company, there is a slight of hint of "hobby that you can make a bit of pocket money at" about it and I need a real job). I had a chat with someone from the company on the phone today and she assured me that it was a real job, and that people who put in hard work can make a good living at it.

I forgot to ask her who gets sued if a kid sticks a paint brush in their own or another kid's eye...

Anyway, this is probably pie in the sky stuff. I've never had any inclination to be my own boss before. I like leaving work at work and having all the running of the business stuff be someone else's pain the arse. But I wonder if that perception of myself needs updating. Perhaps I would like running a simple business. And it could be good for the buck to end with me in these uncertain times of no job security.

Another problem is the car thing. We have no car at the moment. We'll definitely need one when we go back to Ireland, but we were only planning on getting one. So if I have a car the running of that will need to be subtracted from whatever I made doing the art thing (whereas most people doing that job would presumably have their own car anyway and would not necessarily regard it as an extra expense).

The next problem - and this is a pretty massive one - is that someone from the company already has the territory of the town I'm planning to move to. That's how I found out about this company; I was looking at art venues there that I could potentially rent to teach classes in. But they assure me that there are other territories nearby that I could work in.

Next step is I'm going to their "discovery day" in a few weeks where I'll take part in a class and get to hear a lot more about what it's like to run a franchise. I figure it will be a nice day out even if I decide this is not for me. What I'm feeling at the moment is that although this all seems lovely and exciting, I think the odds are slightly stacked against me making it work in the short term. But we'll see.

Speaking of "short term", we're thinking we might be going back to Ireland as soon as March! So I need to figure out how to extricate mysef from my current job and hopefully get away with having to pay them back my maternity pay! If I have to pay it, I'll offer them a fiver a month. But I'd say I'll wriggle out of it.

We spoke to M's parents about staying at their place while we find our feet and they were delighted with the idea.

So it's all go. We'll be going back to Ireland really soon.

The only thing left to figure out is what we're both going to do for a living and how I'm going to tell my parents we're planning on moving to M's hometown and not mine without being branded a big traitor!

kryptyd — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 22:50:59 GMT

I'm off to Ireland in the morning. We're all going to my baby's cousin's christening. I hope no one dares to ask me about the state of of my child's soul. They will be dealt with politely but firmly if so.

On the cards is a conversation about moving back and crashing in parental's house. I'm sure they'll say yes, I'm not worried about that. But talking to them about it will make it real. We all want to go back but if there are no jobs what will we do?

We're having a party on the 1st of November to celebrate Séimi's arrival in the world. If you are reading this you're invited. All of you are far away, but if by any coincidence you were able to come to this party I'd be very happy.

Pilgrimage

kryptyd — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 19:31:41 GMT

Another obvious (lefty) tourist destination was visited today: Highgate Cemetry. It was very lovely. I love graveyards in general, and this was a nice one, with famous residents.

Here's an overgrown section of the graveyard I snapped through the fence. We had unseasonably nice weather today as you can see.

All the lads!

Sorry this one came out blurry, Adams fans. It was up a slope from me and I had to zoom. I would have had to stand in someone's grave to get a clearer photo!

Ivy coming through a broken headstone.

A tiny path through a wooded area leading to Marx's original, more modest stone.

Me and Marx. I forgot to bring him flowers.

Other famous graves we saw were lots of other famous commies, whose graves were clustered around Marx, Malcom McClaren, Jeremy Beadle (my sister told me off for not getting a picture of his glorious tomb), and some other politicians. I didn't find George Elliot's grave, which was a shame. I would have liked to pay my respects after reading Silas Marner at school. It wasn't a great novel by any means, but I have very fond memories of how much like a soap opera all of my class treated it, and the anticipation and reading ahead/spoilering that used to go on before English classes while we were working on that book.

We met and chatted with other lefties who were also there on pilgrimage. On the way home we stopped for a pasty in the cafe in Hamstead Heath. It was a nice day out.

V&A

kryptyd — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 08:36:28 GMT

It's one of the notorious things about living in a big city that you don't tend to go to all the touristy things unless you have people to show around. I go to lots of things, but I've still not bothered with a lot of the obvious ones. Yesterday I finally went with my sister and the baby to the V&A. I've suggested we go to it before when my parents were visiting, but after their first few visits they gave up the pretense of wanting to do cultural things and just went to the pub at 12.00 instead. Anyway, it was a great museum, full of lovely sculptures and casts of famous sculptures. I learned from the busts that were in there that Oliver Cromwell (the hated* figure from history) was the image of Bill Bailey (a very cool comedian)! There was also a bust that looked remarkably like Jeremy Clarkeson, but I neglected to look and see who it actually was of.

The place wasn't entirely accessible by buggy (or if it was, I didn't find the way) but there was still a lot of great stuff to see that I was able to get too. It's massive. We didn't see everything by any means, so I would like to go back again.

Me and Séamus and the cast of David. Look how big he is (either of them - S is getting big, and David is bigger than I thought, I always thought that work was just a bit larger than lifesize.

Here's me reflected in the case of David's figleaf. He used to wear it, but not anymore. The story goes that the figleaf was installed to spare Queen Victoria's blushes, but this is highly unlikely since she had a large collection of classical sculpture.

Here's a creepy lady whose nose has fallen off giving her a skulllike appearance.

And here's some Norwegian carving.

And the massive Chihuly work from the foyer. If this wouldn't get my mother to the the V&A (he is one of the very few artists she rates) then nothing would!

Despite my uncultured sniggering at the resemblance of some of the busts to various celebrities, I really enjoyed that. I want to try to get out to see more art. I've been thinking a lot about art lately. I would like to reconnect with it. And I might as well enjoy the free cultural stuff in London while I have the chance. Maternity leave will be over in a few months, and shortly after that I will hopefully be going back to Ireland.

Actually, I would like to get back into art (or if not fine art, then crafts) in a big way. This is more of my endless schemes about what to do with my life. I'll do an indepth post about it in the next few days.

I highly recommend the V&A.

*Not everyone hates him of course. He is regarded as a butcher by most Irish people, but Brits often like him for imperialistic reasons or for the more palatable reason of crediting him with breaking the power the monarchy in this country and ushering in their version of democracy.

kryptyd — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 22:16:14 GMT

Today was a festivals day. I went down to the Mitsuri fest in central London. No one would go with me. My fella was at a protest (and fair play to him, the only reason I didn't go with the baby was because the far right threatened it and I couldn't risk it) and my sister wouldn't come because she was working mad early and was grumpy about it. I don't usually go on the tube alone with a buggy because it's difficult, but I wanted to see that festival. I went down (taking the help of stangers all along the way to get up and down stairs). It was lovely. The weather was great. Unfortunately there were so many down there I couldn't get any noodles which I was looking forward to. It wad too crowded. It was cool though. I saw some drumming and gawked at lots of people in their finery - festival clothing and of course gothic lolitas and cosplayers. If I had someone else with me I might have availed of a manga portrait of the baby.

Then I came back towards home and met up with M and the three of us went out to our local Cricklewood festival. That was more about dubstep and curried goat, but that's cool by me too. There was also a stall by Friends of the local library. There is none yet, but apparently these people are going to open one, and they're looking for volunteers. I wonder what kind of help they need. I mean, you know me and you probably know that I have an ideological objection to the private sector having to do things such as open libraries. But I do love libraries and hate to hear of them closing so I would like to help. I'm not sure how much I can do with a baby in tow though. I'm going to think a bit longer before offering myself as a volunteer to see if I actually have good valuable time to offer them. I did buy a delightful book for Séimi from their stall today - Hairy McLairy. I love dogs and books about dogs.

Baby stuff

kryptyd — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 06:41:33 GMT

I forgot to post up the latest baby stuff/fish for advice yesterday when I was outling The Plan.

What's happening at the moment is I'm trying to get Séamus to take some of his milk feeds from a bottle. I want to be able to leave him with someone if I want to go out for the night at some point. Well, certainly by November because two of my favourite bands are playing (Judas Priest and Ghost) and I'll be wanting to go to at least one of those gigs.

It's weird, I used to give him an occasional bottle of expressed milk if we'd be out and about with no place suitable to breastfeed him, and he used to take it just fine. I let that fall by the wayside somewhat because I thought he had the hang of it. Now I've bought a box of formula (I was shocked and appalled at the price of the stuff!) and he is outright refusing the bottle (appropriate icon is appropriate). He refuses it whether there's formula or expressed milk in it, so I don't think the taste of formula is the problem. I give him a bit in a sippy cup sometimes and he'll take a tiny amount and doesn't seem to object to the taste, but not enough to be considered any kind of a feed. Maybe we'll skip bottles entirely and he'll just get used to the cup, but at the moment he's too small to be left in charge of the cup - he just ends up throwing milk around the place and pouring it down his neck!

I've read some things online such as the suggestion to get someone else to feed him or even to try feeding him in his sleep. I've tried both and neither have worked so far.

I really hope I get this sorted soon. I don't want to be not able to go out for an evening for the next six months. So does anyone have any experience of this and/or any advice for me?

The Plan

kryptyd — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 19:16:29 GMT

Plans for the future are being laid. At the moment we are thinking of trying to go back to Ireland next May. In the meantime, Mickey has started learning how to be a truck driver. It's not an amazingly well paid job, but there are very few jobs in Ireland, and that seems to be one industry that usually has jobs going. Before that, I will go back to my job in March around the baby's first birthday. I will tell them I can only do short hours, and that will hopefully prompt them to fire me (if they haven't been planning that already) thus ending my obligation to pay them back my maternity pay. When we move back to Ireland, we will move in with Mickey's parents while we find our feet, find jobs and then get our own place. Yes, living with my mother-in-law! Imagine the amount of fodder for bitchy lj updates I will have come May (I love her, but she is interfering at the best of times, and living under her roof, using her kitchen to cook my disgusting vegetarian food, will be special - But it's brilliant that we have the option of going there, so I am not complaining... yet). Mickey will get a job as a hgv or artic driver and I will then look for a parttime job. I don't care in what industry, the hours being short is what's important to me at the current time (and I secretly wouldn't mind saying goodbye to lawfirms at this stage in my life, even though they are one of the best ways of making decent money with my scant skillset). We will reintegrate with the Irish punk scene insofar as that's possible with a small baby. Maybe even join/start a band again. Get involved with politics - the anti-water bills stuff etc. I'll see if there's any swing dancing I can get involved in. That's unlikely in the small city Mickey is from, Athlone, but there will be SOMETHING the get involved in, knitting or crafts or whatever. And of course, I'll meet other mammies.

There are some holes in this plan, like where are we going to live when the lease is up in the current flat. I also haven't thought properly about childcare for when I go back to work yet. To be honest, I feel a bit sick about the thought of leaving him for hours during the day with strangers, but hopefully I'll be a bit more ready for that when the time comes.

This is exciting. I want Séamus to grow up around his family. I also think the educational system open to people like us with no money is infinitely superior in Ireland than here. Everyone gets the same education in Ireland. There isn't a class system like here. Of course, there is the problem of religion being all but compulsory in Irish education, but I'll take it to get a decent education for my boy. It did me no harm. No much anyway (low level Catholic guilt, but I suppose that's traditional). I will miss London. I have so many great friends here - more than I ever had back home really. But now that I am hampered with getting a buggy onto the mostly non-accessible tube, I don't see them as much. It's a great town, and if I had loads of money, it could be a good place to bring up a kid. The diversity and stuff to do would be amazing for him. There are two insurmountable problems though. We can't afford the rent of a bigger place with a bedroom for Séimi, and even if we could, there is the eventual problem that only rich people can do third level education in this country. Not that he necessarily has to do third level education. But I would like him to have the option (and I morally object to only rich people getting to do it).

Anyway, enough of my class war. Exciting plans are afoot. Well, not yet afoot, but just over the horizon. I hope this actually happens.

Here's me and Séimi yesterday. His first tooth popped out yesterday, incidentally.

Telly

kryptyd — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 21:09:54 GMT

I've no news really. I'm in on a Saturday night. Which I suppose is the new normal. The highlights of the night so far have been Daniel O'Donnell being announced as a contestant on Strictly! I swore I wouldn't be so sad as to watch either Strictly or XFactor tonight, but with Daniel being on it, I made an exception. In case you don't know, Daniel O'Donnell is a ridiculously inoffensive Irish crooner, with a legion of obsessive granny fans. People in Ireland like to sneer at him and speculate about his sexuality, but some of us are secretly fond of him. He's a good contestant for that show anyway. If I gave a damn, I'd be really annoyed with the amount of pop starlets who have obviously had a lot of dancing training on that show. Peter Andre springs to mind. They are supposed to be amatures. But as I said, I don't care (says I, haha).

Now I'm watching the Young Montalbano on BBC4 (which is a great channel that usually has something worth watching on). I don't quite get the point of "young" Montalbano though, sexing him up (well, I suppose sexing him up is the point in itself). In the books, the fact that he is a middle aged, slightly pudgy guy is essential to his charm. I suppose the character concievalbly had to have been young once, but I don't really get why they made this series. I suppose once they had filmed all the books, they wanted to get a bit more out of the character. That's fair enough. It's pretty good.

I must suggest my sister watch it. She's going out with an Italian woman now (that's still on, still secret - although a picture of them dancing together has appeared on their company internal website, so it's won't stay secret for long) and is trying to learn a bit of the language. The show would be good for that.

Here, have some Séimi (now six months old). You might have noticed, I have changed the way I spell his shortened name. Apparently (according to an Irish primiary school teacher, and they'd know) I was spelling it wrong, and that's the right way to spell it. Might as well nip bad spelling in the bud! Oh, it also should have a fada on the last i as well as the e, but I don't know how to do that on this accursed mac.

Here he is, playing with his crab.

And here/s me and him hanging out in the cool local Portugese/Brazillian cafe. That's where I buy my black beans. It's quite hard to find black beans. Even a lot of the big supermarkets don't have them.

That photo is from the hot weather a week or two ago. It has gotten decidedly autumnal here lately.

Visit to Ireland

kryptyd — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 07:47:47 GMT

I'm back from Ireland. Well, I'm back since Sunday, but I haven't had a chance to post until now.

It was good. Travelling with the baby was easier and less stressful than I expected. He was mostly calm on the plane and got compliments from the guys sitting beside us both ways. He didn't find it weird being in different houses and surrounded by new people, slept fine and was mostly lovely and charming to everyone. Me and M actually managed to get out on our own a couple of times which was very nice. It was good to have grown up chats, although we did end up talking about Séamus quite a bit of course.

M's sister was late having her baby, but he showed up in the end by ceasarian section. Then he lost a bit too much weight after the birth so they kept her in longer than normal. So that was stressful for her, but it all worked out fine in the end. She had a little boy (EVERYONE is having boys, where are all the little girl babies?). Now Séamie has a little cousin almost the same age as him.

So we ended up staying there in Athlone for a bit longer than we intended. That caused a bit of tension with my family since we didn't divide the two week visit equally. We got down to them eventually on the Wednesday of the second week. I thought perhaps with a small baby coming, and especially because my mother mentioned several times on the phone to me how she had been slaving to get the place ready, the house might be less of a kip than usual. It was not to be, unfortunately. It looked as filthy as ever. Things like layers of ash on tables, dirt and grease on everything in the kitchen, fluff and dirt (and the ubiquitous ash!) on the furniture - ugh. I'm embarassed that M's dad saw the place when he dropped us off. Their place is so neat it looks like a hotel. Well, S is fine anyway, so it obviously didn't do him any harm. Despite the dirty house, it was nice to see everyone.

We didn't get up to much over there. The first week an a half was spent waiting for M's sister to have the baby while getting visits from various members of his huge family who wanted to see S. Then we were only in Limerick briefly. We did walk around the town a bit, which seemed slightly less depressing than the last time I was there, and my dad took us, along with my little niece, on a drive out to a local lake one of the days (Lough Derg).

The whole visit made me want to move back to Ireland. Having people to help with the baby - even tiny things like holding him while I go to the bathroom - is so nice. Obviously the job situation is still not amazing there, and we'd need to find something before we planned a move, but things genuinely seem to be looking up there. People seem more confident and the towns all look reasonably busy. The one thing that doesn't make me want to rush back there in a hurry is the weather. It is SO SHITE there. Seriously, it was like late autumn over there. When we walked out of Heathrow the other day we felt like we were starting our holidays for a second, walking out in our heavy clothes into the heat!

Here's me walking in the woods near Garrykennedy with my niece...

...and Séamus strapped on.

A cool picture of one of the old bridges of Limerick. Baal's Bridge is still there, but it doesn't have houses built on it these days.

Some tradtional Limerick fare - skirts and kidneys. Bleeeeh. Don't ask me what the skirts are. I don't know and I don't want to know.

Me and the new baby. Ben is his name.

Ben and Séamie. Although S is bigger than this now. He grew out of that blue gro while we were over there.

Séamie was happy to find nice post for him when he got back to London.

Happy belated Birthday to derien !! Hope it was a good one.

Ireland!

kryptyd — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 16:37:19 GMT

We're all packed and ready to go for our two weeks in Ireland. We're leaving the house at about half 7 tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to have given the baby 2 or even better, 3 feeds by then so that will do him for a while then he can have the next one at take off. I hope he's ok in the carrier. I haven't had him in it in over a week so I hope he won't get annoyed at being in it for so long tomorrow. The good thing is he did a big poo today, so he probably won't do one tomorrow while he's travelling. Yes, I have turned into THAT person and am telling you about my kid's poo. It's important though. You will understand the importance of poo watching if you ever have a sprog.

M is down at an anti-ISIS protest. It was called by Turkish socialists in protest at that bunch of socialist kids killed the other day (depressing stuff, there are few enough of us without our comrades getting blown up by bloody Daesh). I hope everything is ok down there, that they got good numbers out and that there was no trouble. I was considering going with the baby in the carrier, but decided against it because it didn't really fit with his naptimes, plus I was a tiny bit nervous. I hope M is home soon.

Not that I actually think there are flocks of people lurking about the place with sympathies for ISIS, despite what David Cameron likes to suggest. It only takes one to cause trouble though.

I'll talk to you in a few days time, probably with moans about family meddling.

Lindyhop

kryptyd — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:33:46 GMT

The swing dancing class I used to go to in Queens Park - a location which was reasonably convenient to get to from my flat - as of last night has moved to Kilburn. Extremely handy for me (it's one stop on the tube or a half hour walk). I went to the class last night. As well being their first class in the new venue, it was the group's 4th birthday, so they were having a bit of a celebration there as well. It was good fun. I went down just to do the beginners class, but ended up staying for the second class as well. Completely unexpectedly I even had 3 social dances after class. I was really rusty but it didn't go too badly so I feel great about that. Particularly since the first guy who asked me was an elderly gentleman who had been telling me off for everything I was doing wrong during the class. I have a feeling he comes from an era which makes him despair of the lack of dance knowledge in today's young(er) people! But he obviously didn't hold my two left feet against me and we ended up having a nice dance. I could see myself getting into dancing again in a big way. I really need to lose my shyness about social dancing though. You're missing out on the most exciting and fun parts of the dance if you don't learn how to properly lead and/or follow. I don't know how many dances I might be able to get to these days, but I could surely manage once a month (if I don't just make an excuse that I need to be at home with the baby out of shyness). I'm going to try to go to the class every week.

My moles are alright by the way. At least that's what the doc says.

We have our underwater photoshoot with the baby tomorrow. Apparently they dunk them under nine times in order to get a decent shot! I don't think so! M said he will probably let them do no more than two. Hopefully we'll get a nice pic out of it, but we're not willing to stress the poor kid in the hope of getting a nice picture.

We'd better start packing for our trip to Ireland too. There has been no news with M's sister yet.

kryptyd — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 09:06:43 GMT

This morning I'm going to the doctor the get some moles checked out. I have a few, but I've never really bothered to get them looked at. Now one is sore, and another turned black and peeled off recently. Ugh! It didn't entirely peel off actually, and now looks normal again, but I am aware that you are not supposed to ignore things like that when they happen.

I was also having a look to see if we would qualify for a council house. We earn just above the threshold to apply for a two bedroom place. That's with my income remaining unchanged though. I don't think it is going to. Even if I do go back to work in the same place, I have no intention of doing the same hours, and I sincerely doubt they'll want to give me the same money for significantly reduced hours! I suppose come March I will see what the financial situation is and then see if we can apply then.

I don't think I'll ever really get a council house here. There is always going to be someone more deserving (people with disabilities etc.) who will go higher up the list, but I might as well try. If you're not in you can't win! Rent is the killer in this town. If I could manage somehow to get someplace with affordable rent, then staying here long term might be an option.

I'm only thinking out loud. I'm not sure if I even do want to stay here. Only rich people are allowed do third level education in this country now so I'm not sure if I want my kid in the school system here. That's one thing I will say for Ireland, everyone gets the same education regardless of how rich or poor they are.

Everyone tells me things are looking up economically in Ireland. I don't believe them though.

Sigh.