Mia: An extraordinary young lady.

A few weeks back, my friend told me "Keep Friday 25th May free, we're going to an amazing evening in the National Convention Centre".
Amazing just about describes it...

Mia was born in Hunan province in China.
In her own words: "I came to live with my Irish family in March of 2002. I live with my dad Clem, my Mom Sally, my sister Meghan, my two brothers Jordan and Brett and my dog Harry.
When I was tiny in China, I had an accident where I was very badly burned. I needed a lot of treatment and operations so I have been going to Crumlin Children's Hospital ever since I arrived in Ireland." Isn't she just beautiful?

Mia had been doing fashion sketches to pass the time in hospital

and her friend sent some to John Rocha, designer. He was very impressed and he and some other Irish designers decided to make up some of Mia's designs.

Together with many others in the fashion/showbiz world, and some family friends, they organised this night "Thank you Crumlin, love Mia".

It was the best night's entertainment I've had in a long time.

Mia's designs were stunning, and she had loads of them! Some were modelled by family and friends, some by professional models. I really hope that some store decides to make them for sale, because I would love to buy some! Here she is being interviewed by a TV3 presenter, and her outfit is one of her own designs. I loved it!

Mia was recovering from her latest round of surgery, so she was on crutches, but that did not dampen her spirits at all. She smiled from ear to ear all night, gave loads of interviews, and just enjoyed herself.
There was other entertainment, The Nualas (below) performed (they were hilarious!)

and Brian Kennedy too. Here he is interviewing Mia just before he sang.

I was completely bowled over by Mia. She was so natural, so unassuming, she even said it was easy to do the designs, "it only takes about 4 minutes"!! She turned a tragic event around, and has now brought so much joy into so many lives, and will continue to do so with the funds raised to refurbish the orthapaedic unit in Crumlin. Wow! Inspirational!

The Grad!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the last post.
The parents got together and in just 3 days, a committee planned and put together a most wonderful Graduation Day.

It kicked off with breakfast at one house, followed by a Barbeque at another house. Up until this week, the weather here was as cold as winter and we had the heating on. But Mr. Sun showed up this week, and it has been glorious! Perfect BBQ weather.

Hubby volunteered to cook hot dogs and to help out, and he took a few photos.

For Wednesday night, the committee booked a hotel ballroom, and we had  a really beautiful celebration of/for these young adults. They were all dressed up and looked fantastic! They were very well-behaved, there were some great speeches and musical performances by the students. Here she is making a speech about the Head Boy and Girl! No notes, just talked ad lib! I was one proud Mama!

 Each student was presented with a Dublin Crystal keyring with the school logo engraved on it.
Another highlight was the arrival of the Heineken Cup, but that was lost on me, I didn't recognise it!! All the fathers were queuing up to have their photo taken with it after the formal proceedings.

It all worked out very well, and it was a lovely experience to see how a group of parents worked together and put their kids ahead of everything else. It restored my faith in humanity.
I'm still not sure where things stand as regards the school, but the memories from Graduation Day and night will stay with us for a long time.
I forgot to bring my camera with me, and this was the best of the pictures of the 3 of us we could get. I've tried to enhance it a bit with Photoshop, but the best I can say about it is that She looks well in it!

Blowing in the Wind

I've been trying to do a post for almost 2 weeks now, with these few pictures I snapped with my phone, during the long walks I've taken to clear my mind.

It's been a really tough couple of weeks.
There has been a lot of trouble at the school where my 2 younger kids attend, and it's been difficult to get my head around a post. Or anything else, as a matter of fact.

First the 6th years (this is their final year) held a "rave" in their common room, barricaded the door, played loud music for an hour (and missed class) and danced. As "end of school" pranks here go, it seems fairly harmless, but they did expect the common room would be taken from them as a punishment.

Then other goings-on emerged, of fruit peel being thrown in the direction of the deputy principal, and name-calling, then some "social media" posts.

The situation quickly escalated, some students were expelled, some suspended, and last night we got a TEXT telling us that classes have now been terminated for all of them, and their Graduation ceremony (planned for next Wednesday) has been cancelled. The actions of a few have had huge repercussions on many.

Needless to say, they are upset, we're upset and worried. They sit their Leaving Cert in 2 and a half week's. Many of them are too wrapped up in it all to do any work, spending their time checking the latest news. They're a bit like the kites in these pictures, being blown around by the wind!

So, this morning I woke with a splitting headache. I never get headaches, and couldn't tell you the last time I had to take paracetamol. But today I did, then I went for a long walk in the park. That somewhat cleared my head, but I came home to a list of emails from parents planning a "Graduation Ceremony"- they're having a meeting tomorrow for all parents of 6th years, but to be honest, I don't think I'll go, because I can't take much more of this. In any case, I have neither the time nor the energy to help in organising such a ceremony.

I haven't decided yet whether I will go to the Grad, assuming that it takes place. That will be up to my daughter. Other than being in the Common Room during the "rave", she has done nothing wrong, yet she has lost her last day at school.
She has always got on extremely well with all her teachers, yet she won't have the opportunity to say goodbye and "thank you"  to them.  Through her 6 years at the school, she always said "Thank you " to the teacher at the end of every class; in her own words "I treat them like human beings". That makes me feel so proud!

Now I feel lost, sad.  As a teacher, some of my instinct is that there must be stuff that we don't know, that a head wouldn't terminate classes without good reason. But then who would terminate classes for an entire year, by text, at 8.00 on a Friday night? And why are the entire year being punished for the actions of a few? I hoped they would find a way that didn't involve such a sad ending.

                                              (the start of the "Wicklow Way" in Marlay Park)
Any thoughts?

a lazy post

I'm really, really tired this week.

Been thinking about a new post, but just couldn't come up with anything, then Kerri had a beautiful photo with a cute quote and , hey ho! here's a post!

This fridge magnet was given to me by my dear friend Cee, who lives in Brussels. I think of her every time I open my fridge! It says "there is nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend who brings chocolate", and she always brings the most delicious Belgian chocolates, but even if she didn't, I would be delighted to see her. She's been living in Brussels for 10 years, I see her about 4 times a year, we talk and email every couple of weeks, but I still miss her very much, and look forward to when they come home, whenever that is!
The first photo is edited, in sepia with camerawesome. I really like that app a lot!

 I do not like the new blogger, how do other people feel about it?
I had already turned the bottom photo in my files, but for some reason blogger has decided to post it in the original form?????

Settling down

Life is settling down after the huge challenge (musically and timewise!) of playing in the Band Championships.
Of course, no sooner is one event over, than another sidles up to take its place, and we are very busy in school with an open day coming up.

I did manage to get a lovely long walk in at the weekend, and this tree brightened my spirits! Wouldn't mind that car either! And the blue sky is, of course, a delight!I love when people plant flowers on the grass verge outside their house. Must try to do that next spring! Pretty!


This road very close by has these beautiful cherry blossom trees lining both sides, and it is just gorgeous for these few weeks, like driving under a canopy of blossoms, so I was thrilled to snap a few shots with my phone. It was hard to get one without a car blocking a bitof the view.
I was playing around with the Cameraawsome app, and got this stormy effect from CleanX, though a rain shower was just beginning as I took the photo. I like how the phone lines make it even more fierce looking! The sweeping clouds are not an edit item though, they really were there and they opened just as I reached home again.

Have a lovely week everyone!

Championships!

What a weekend! It was fantastic!

Thank you all so much for your supportive comments, and you were right, I had nothing to worry about. The playing went very well I played a lot more than I expected to be able to, and I was very happy with that. I had a terrible sleep on Thursday night, very anxious and worried about the whole thing, and when I went on stage (leading in the French Horns!! Thrill for me as 4th Horn!) , all my nerves had been worked through! I enjoyed the experience more than I ever thought possible; the only thought in my head was "this is something new and wonderful, so enjoy the moment" and I did!

But moreso, I got to know the people in the band a lot better, and we had so much fun! It was a great bonding weekend, and I think we'll be laughing and reminiscing for many a long time to come.
I brought a camera but never got a chance to take it out of the bag (good sign!), so these 2 photos are from my iPhone with the CameraAwesome app. The first is through the window of the B&B where I stayed (look at that blue sky! it was raining by the time I got back to Dublin), and the 2nd is Early Morning on the streets of Cork, as I walked back to the train station.

Oh, I almost forgot to say...we got 1st place in our section, and also our Tubas got best section cup too! So, a great weekend all round!

Happy Easter! with egg platter

I hope everyone who celebrates it is having a lovely Easter, lots of eggs etc!
I'm one week into Easter holidays and it's just bliss! Had lunch with friends, went to visit my sister, and caught up with her, my brother, niece and a few friends over a lovely dinner.
And today we met Hubby's sister for lunch. It's their first Easter without their Mum, and we thought it would be nice to get together. We had a lovely meal, in "The Purple Onion", half-way between us, so not too long a journey for anyone.
2nd Daughter came with us, which was fun. The Purple Onion is close to my home town, so I gave Daughter a guided tour of my childhood home town; she was not very interested!

Last night, I made a couple of Easter treats for Eldest (vegan) Daughter.

These truffles are so easy, and quite healthy too! You just match the weight of chocolate with a little less in mls of this oat cream. I used 30g chocolate to about 20ml cream, which made a few truffles to go around the egg, pictured above.
Heat the cream, break the chocolate into little pieces and add into the cream, mix& refridgerate for half an hour.
Then make into little balls - I used a melon baller I've had from about 25 years ago when melon balls in Creme de Menthe was a fashionable starter. Does anyone remember this starter?Then you roll the chocolate truffle balls in the coating of your choice- icing sugar, cocoa powder, chopped nuts. Easy! Delicious!

Finished platter:I'm practising a lot now for next weekend's Band Championships, trying to improve my play and reach a stage where I'm playing most of the part. I was supposed to have someone else playing the part with me, but now I'm on my own on 4th horn, agh! at one point I'm the only horn playing, so I have to get that bit right.
I have planned to upload an audio or video of the music from The Sound of Music, in the next few days. Just need a few minutes to get it in the right format!