Marriage Equality -

My partner and I have been together for almost seven years.  In May2011 we had a civil partnership.  One hundred of our family and friends travelled to Spain and celebrated the love we share for each other.

In the past six and a half years we have loved and supported each other every day.  We have shared births and deaths in our families.  We have celebrated christening a, birthdays and weddings.  Wework, we pay our bills.  We go shopping,go for dinner and socialise at our local bar.

  We have supported each other in sickness and in health.  We have been in the richer but lately a bit more at the poorer end of the scale.  We plan to be together until death us do part. We are happy.  We are in love.  I don’t think I could love or respect anyone more than I do my partner.  We listen to each other.  I hear her and she hears me.

We are a couple, a team, and a partnership.  Does the fact that we are two women make us any less of a couple than a married heterosexual couple?

Does our relationship impact on our neighbours? If it does we have never been made aware that it does. We leave the house to go to work and wave and smile at them as we get into the car.  We mow our lawn and wash our cars in the drive on a Saturday and chit chat with the local kids playing on the street.  We have bbq’s in the summer and shovel the snow in the winter.  We call into our neighbors and they call into us if they are short a hammer or some sugar.

Does our sexuality impact mycolleagues? I can’t imagine why it would, I go to work.  I arrive on time and I am there to assist my colleagues at every turn as they are to assist me.  We laugh, we joke, and we work very hard for the money we earn.  We listen to eachother.  We go for lunch and we go home.

When I get home, my partner is there.  She has cooked me dinner.  We eat and share our day’s adventures.  We sit, sometimes we chat and sometimes we are quite happy to sit in silence.  Welaugh.  We watch T.V. and joke about how crappy Eastenders is getting, but we never fail to miss it.  We go to bed.

What I’m trying to say is that we do what every other married couple does. We are a normal healthy loving couple who just want to be together.  What is so wrong with that?  What we ‘do’ does not impact on anyone but my partner and I.  I was raised by two heterosexual parents and have two heterosexual siblings who love me and who I love more than the air that I breathe. They have provided me with a beautiful niece and two handsome nephews who do not have a problem with their aunts. 

We are lucky to be supported by our family and friends.  I can’t imagine what it might be like for someone who is so terrified to ‘come out’ to people who are important to them.  Everyoneneeds support.  Gay couples, heterosexual couples, co-habiting couples, single people all need to feel supported.  Gay couples need to know that society supports them.  Many gay couples are holding out for their right to marry.  I couldn’t wait.  I wanted my family to know what my relationship with my partner meant to me.  If we could have gotten married, we would have.  But that option wasn’t open to us.  I am of the opinion that marriage will one day be accessible to gay couples. It’s inevitable.  Why not sooner rather than later.  What difference does it make to you?  How does it affect you?  It doesn’t really.

The constitutional convention will discuss the issue of marriage equality on the weekend of the 13th and 14th of April. 

If you believe in marriage equality and would like to help then please email a submission to the convention at https://www.constitution.ie/SubmissionCaptcha.aspx.

Motivation

Why in the name of Jesus can I not motivate myself to exercise.  I keep coming up with the crappiest excuses, like:

1.     It's too cold.
2.     It's too rainy.
3.     It's too cold and rainy (It is Ireland after all)
4.     The couch is comfortable.
5.     The house is warm.
6.     I have to get dressed.(This  excuse I use to get out of many things, not just the Gym)
7.     My bike is in the shed, it will take me ages to get it out.
8.     I have to root for gym gear.(by root I mean open the bottom drawer)
9.     I'm too tired.
10.   I'm too full.
11.   I'm too tired and full.(because you get very tired and hungry trying to motivate yourself)
12.   It's too dark.(This is a valid excuse, I could die on those country roads)
13.   The Gym's too far away.
14.   I'd go before work but I couldn't be arsed.
15.   I'd go after work but I'm so tired from all the work I couldn't be arsed.

My lazyness knows no bounds.  I could go on and on.  If I spent as much time at the Gym as thinking about ways to avoid the Gym I would be a fit as a fiddle.

Its the new year...well it's more than two weeks into the new year and the most I managed to do was attend my local weight watchers....the mortification of it.  I must have joined about six times in the last two years and each time I go back my starting weight is heavier.  What is it going to take?

I know its a bit late but I'm going to add to my new years resoloution.  My new years resolution was to give up the smokes and cut down on the booze......Now I'm not saying I was a drunk but this one time, after a couple of Captain and Cokes, I stood into the toilet and tried to flush myself into the Ministery of Magic. True Story.

Anyway, I gave up the smokes on the 2nd of January and have managed to stay off them.  I have tried and failed and tried and failed to get myself in shape...I have tried every exercise class under the sun and gone crazy doing them, then miss a couple of classes and never go back...

These are the classes I've tried:

Bickram (hot yoga) - should actually be called Sickram, I totally got sick after that one.
Boxfit - I actualy loved this, bar the fight at the end of it, mortifying.
Spinning - Merciful hour....the instructer can tell when your only pretending to up your gears.
Step Classes - If I could co-ordinate myself I might have actually enjoyed this.
TRX - Love this, this might be another option to go back to.
Kettlebells - These look nothing like kettles, or bells for that matter....
Swimming - I like swimming, but its so much effort to get changed and dried etc.
Circuts - not bad but more suitable to Gladiators
Running - YAWN

Again, I could go on and on! Am I destined to be a blimp....I dont want to be....so it's motivation...how does one motivate themself.  Motivation has been quoted as being "literally the desire to do things"..... Have I enough desire to get in shape..... Only time will tell, but I'll tell you this, if I dont get up of my ass and do something I will be so dissapointed in myself.

So as this is my first blog of the year I am going to set myself a challange.  I'm going to stick to my weight watchers, weigh my foods, cut down on the booze and take up a class or two...If anyone is interested in joining me I would be delighted..after all maybe we can motivate each other.

The home stretch - Porto to Leon

After a lovely morning doing the cultural stuff in Porto while surrounded by bums we decided to skip town and hit the road! We figured our best rote was inland towards Leon in Spain!

Sheila our trusty sat nav estimated a time of 4.30pm arrival in Leon approx 4.45 mins.. Grand we left Porto and headed for the hills, quite literally we climbed and climbed and climbed!

When we reached the top all you could see for miles was Christmas trees! It was quite surreal, there we were with air con on in shorts and T-shirts and tit deep in Christmas trees!

Trish and I had a great time for about ten minutes singing Christmas songs but when after two and a half hours later we were still immersed in the land of St Nick it wasn't quite as fun. It was boring, you could see nothing only varying sizes of Christmas trees! When we eventually got out of crimbo land the place was barren!

There was so little to see I thought we were in a safari somewhere! I was convinced we were going to see an aul lion or giraffe strolling along the barren land! It was miles and miles of sandy soil with a random tree in the middle of it! Not a house, not a petrol station, nothing, nada! Barren!

When we saw a sign for Leon saying 20k but Sheila told us we still had an hour and a half drive we broke into a debate about how reliable Sheila actually was.

It turns out that Sheila was in fact right, we had forgotten about the hours time difference so we were only delighted to arrive in Leon 20 mins later!

We checked into a great hotel in the centre of Leon! Very easy... Just pulled up and booked a room! Great...we showered got changed and hit the old town!

Leon is beautiful, real old Spain. The people are friendly the buildings are beautiful and the beer is ridiculously cheep... €1 a pint and they give you a pincho with every drink! Food so delicious we didn't even bother with dinner! We had sardines in a tomato sauces and various meats and wings and roasted peppers..delicious!

Afterwards I found out that pincho's came about in old Spain where their king decided that people were getting too drunk in the taverns and made it law that taverns provided their patrons with food to stop the drunkenness! Brilliant if you ask me, they should do it everywhere!

Caution though....if in Leon, there is a fabulous square up near the cathedral where you can sit and have a glass of wine and some food! The waiter may bring you nuts! If you are brave enough to accept them the local pigeon gang will most likely attack you!

I fell victim to a pack of rabid pigeons! Much to the delight of several locals I became hysterical when at least 20 birds came to land on top of me and fight amongst themselves over the nuts! They practically used me as a cage as they fought to the death over the bowl of nuts! They were oblivious to my flapping and screaming... Video will be posted to my page if enough interest!!

After our fill of drink and food we sauntered back to the hotel through the lovely streets of Leon!

It's amazing how no matter where you go, what you see or what you do, you can spot the local drug users... They all look the same, they all have that same stare, at your hand bag!

After a short stalk on our way back and a detour into a local biker bar to avoid being mugged ( being a little dramatic ) we eventually made it into the hotel and collapsed with full stomachs into bed to plan the trip home!

I highly recommend Leon, defo worth a visit a definite high point of the trip!

Day (unsure) location Porto

Lads, it's been a busy few days! Last time I posted I was in Malaga after driving for 13 hours and nearly getting mangled in madrid!

We ended up in San Pedro after paying a visit to fungeroula, belamadina, Porto banus and benihavis! Costa del sol was brilliant! Skip got so much sun I thought that Madonna was going to surprise us by trying to adopt her...she's as my granny used to say "as brown as a berry" I actually think she's so dark she's almost navy.

I should have known from the day we arrived.... She was wearing a bikini that resembled a laughing cow cheese triangle and was smeared with factor 2 oil and I sported a burka like outfit with matching hat and factor 50!

After a couple of days of that skip resembled a scalded Micky and I was a glowing golden healthy bronze.. In your face factor 2!

Between the jigs and the reels and the mojitos and the margaritas I had a ball! ...that was until I got locked and had to walk barefoot home from joeys... But I wasn't the only one! Poor joe, skips nephew in law lost one flip flop and then stood on something that bit him - instead of sympathy we decided more drink and midnight swimming was the only cure!

The next morning it was back to fungeroula and off to Portugal !!

Well we travelled onto Portugal after that, soaking in the sights! Stunning! 4.5 hours later, Passing over bridges the size of small countries and into petrol stations that charges €1.77 a litre! I thought we had it bad.... When we reached albufeira my dad was standing on the road Wearing a white Linen shirt (unopened) and looking totally relaxed!

When we arrived at the house he was only too delighted to inform us his neighbor is .... Drum roll please ..... Annie Lennox.... Imagine my excitement ...I could feel a stalking situation coming on!

After days of stalking All I got to see was her blacked out jeep scuttling out the gate one afternoon! Oh and her dogs wouldn't shut up one afternoon disturbing my burka esk sun session!

We left albufeira today... We drove through the pissings of rain through the cork tree district !!! Yes cork comes from forests of trees. They are shaved every six years... Kind of like myself ..

If your looking for 5 glasses of wine for €4.40 it's the place to be... I had to call the waitress to assure her the check was wrong! She amended it to €4 ... I was mortified..

Then made a show of myself ordering breakfast and assuring the waitress that I wanted eggs .... She said Ova (Ova means eggs in Portuguese ) I said yes Ova Easy... Then there were weird words and jokes between her and skip and I realized I was the butt of the joke again ....

We drove north to Porto.... We left wearing shorts vests and flip flops and arrived in Porto at our 4* hotel where we were surrounded by a gang of hobos drenched in rain and thunder! I felt so at home!

After a row with the hotel staff over parking, an altercation with the lical homeless dudes, a change of hotel later we were settled at a nice hotel right in the centre of the city!

As myself and skip sat out having a glass of the local wine dressed in summer gear in the rain watching the elderly go into church dressed in wollen scarves and gortex jackets we realized something...... We must look like tools....

The hobos followed us around all night... I started feeling sorry for them,but as we still haven't received our visa cards we can't be to easy with the flow of cash.... That's why I can't pass a gallery and purchase another painting..

We retire to our room having paid €9.20 for four glasses of wine and a bottle for the room...#guilt

Day 3 & 4 - Bordeaux and on the road again!

I would have posted yesterday only we were driving...all day!

We woke in Bordeaux and did a cultural walk of all Bordeaux has to see, fountains, churches, cathedrals and the like! By 12pm I was wiped! That teaches us for getting up at seven.

Bordeaux is beautiful.. The architecture is stunning, there is lots to see but there is an awful bang of piss of it that wasn't in the tour books. Every five steps you get the waft, men must literally piss everywhere, it's an awful pity. Also skip got two whopper bites! Huge! I recon they sniffed all the pee of her and wanted a chew!

Not a lot of people speak English and with language skills as great as mine one can be quite confused. Especially when everything starts with Bo Le vo se swe something or other!

After a bit of this I felt the only thing to do was hit the bar for an afternoon beverage which ended up as several. All of a sudden we were starving and hit a restaurant which was on the recommended list in our tour book .

The waiter was lovely and gave us a menu in English ... Delighted... That is until I read it... It was either calfs head, eyes and all or pigs trotters! Then the topping on the cake Mr Ed... Now I refuse to eat horse. Sure you might as well fry my little Flow (my dog) up and serve her! Horses are like pets, not meant for consumption!

We had a wine and politely made our exit and searched for another restaurant... Everywhere we went there were skinny women walking about eating full on baguettes! Chomping down on the bread, no butter no mayo, nothing... Obviously the French didn't get the newsletter on 'bread is the devil'.

We arrived at this kabab place.. At this point we were starving! We hadnt eaten since 7am and were full of drink! A kabab seemed like the only rational food group we wanted! We ordered by pointing at pictures and were a great laugh for the staff... We sat down and they brought us our food!

The kabab was more like a fat crepe. The meat wasn't lamb I assumed it was pork! Dreadful when your biting down into a delicious meal and you can't tell what it is we were eating... We eventually found out... It was Bambi... I ate Bambi ! Poor owl deer! What do they do on anyone!

Off we went to drink a toast to all the Bambi's and Mr Ed's that would be lost to consumption !

We wandered back to the hotel later that night wobbling with a bottle of French champagne under our arm talking about how we were conned into eating Bambi! Bonjouring to everyone we passed!

The next morning we got up bright and early to make our way through the Pyrenees and into Spain!

Just a note on French drivers-

When they indicate right it means left or go straight!

If they indicate left it could mean anything!

If they don't indicate it means they haven't yet decided and chances are they will just do as they please!

At red lights it obviously means drive on ... Especially when it's unsafe to do so!

Oh and not forgetting beeping! This seems to be a way of passing time in traffic! They just love beeping! Beep in traffic beep when moving, they love the sound of the horn!

Once we get out of Bordeaux the roads are great and the beeping stopped and when you get your first glimpse of the Pyrenees you may need to catch your breath.. I did !

This was by far the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. Huge mountains as far as the eye could see! Defo worth the drive and by far the highlight (visually) of the trip!

Then down through San Sebastian which is going to be a stop off on the way back, it is totally picturesque and I'm dying to stay there. After a couple more hours of mountain driving we hid midland Spain! The roads are brilliant traffic flows steadily and bar the odd crazy Moran who refuses to indicate and cuts you off the driving was uneventful!

When we hit Madrid we said ok! We will stop in five minutes! Now another Five...just five more! Madrid is huge...massive, gigantic !!

Put off by the traffic and sheer size of Madrid we drove on and promised each other we would stop soon ! Thirteen hours later, a couple of stops and a cop checking out our car at a restaurant we hit Malaga !

Oh how I nearly kissed the ground!! Well when I fell out of the jeep with a cramp and hit the deck thus kissing the ground ! We unpacked and fell into bed after downing a bottle of San Miguel!

Day 2 - Cherbourg to Bordeaux

Well people, we awoke on board The Oscar Wilde and off I was sent to forage for some food! I had a shower which surprised me! Not that I had a shower of course but the fact that it was surprisingly powerful.

Back I came to the cabin laden with apple juice, orange juice, coffee and cappuccino...oh and not forgetting a bacon sandwich, god only knew when we would be fed again.

After that we realized the hour goes forward and it was nearly time to disembark the boat! Captain Gorden announced that our pilot had arrived, which caused me major confusion until realized that that the pilot guides the ship into port.

After that we were told to make our way to our respective vehicles which was basically everyone bailing their way to their cars with no consideration for anyone else.

We got to the car, we're told not to turn on our engines...of course everyone does...50 minutes later I'm dying of carbon monoxide poising and we get off.. It's first on last off I'm afraid. Not to forget the gobshite who sleeps in and comes running to their vehicle because nobody can move until everyone is in their cars.

Once we hit air we cheer as we pass our passports over to French police who barely look at them before saying Aurivor ... Skip slags me as I respond with hasta mañana

To the open road we head and drive...and drive....and drive.... And nearly run out of petrol!

Sheila our untrustworthy sat nav keeps telling us there are petrol stations everywhere... Tip: every 50k there is a petrol station motorway do not and I repeat do not go looking for one of a Sunday ... Everything closes on Sunday in France ... It's like a Christmas morning in old ireland.

After that I decided I was hungry again and needed a sambo! Due to my total inability to speak French I spoke three languages in one sentence to try purchase one, it went like this:

Ta bron orm, nein sprechen die French, dos (I pointed to said sandwich) por favor .... Skip was only mortified! But laughed it off as she made a fairly decent effort at it!

When we got to the car we found out the petrol station sandwich was chibata, with brie stuffed with goats cheese and topped with lettuce and walnuts! Whatever happened to ham and cheese! To my surprise it was the tastiest sandwich I ever had. Delicious.

Then I needed to pee! I forced skip into a rest stop where the toilet resembled a Thai mountain toilet, I managed successfully but skip wasn't as lucky and complained of smelling piss of herself for about 20 miles as I laughed until I needed to stop again!

You hit one toll just as you enter Bordeaux and its €27... And I moan about the €3 on the M50.

Eight hours later, 870 kilometers of driving from dublin, a couple of recalculations later, we arrive in Bordeaux where the drivers are like the Schumachers on speed. After ten minutes of horn honking and bad drivers I got into the swing of things and was "merde"ing out of me to beat the band!

We arrived at the hotel and were pleasantly surprised by the room, although the shower would be more designed for a person more vertically challenged than myself! The staff were
lovely and check in was as easy as pie!

Off we ventured to the square which was literally 2 mins from the hotel and had a couple of beers before dinner! We went to the only restaurant doing food on a Sunday and I had a very average salmon and scallop tagliatelle with a delicious white wine and skip had a vile chicken and mushroom thing that was freezing! Again I laughed at her misfortune.

We ended off the night in a little bar called Victoria where the staff were lovely and really made the effort! I wasn't into the wine skip chose, it was too sweet and I felt like I was getting brain freeze from it!

We returned to the hotel delighted with the days events and hit the sack... All in all a lovely day was had by all!

Rosslare to Cherbourg - day 1

May I just start by paying my last respects to blacky, our trusted friend who passed on while on route ...without you and your unreliable speed I will not be able to blog everyday! I couldn't be dealing with the iPhone !!! Ps; never buy a hp...pants

We set of from Dublin at 10.30am on a beautiful sunny day....rare in ireland...many friends sent goodbye texts with warnings not to take the weather with us!

Our freshly waxed jeep laden with useless crap that you can't take on a Ryanair flight (just because we could....up yours Ryanair) contained many liquid items over a hundred mills also stuffed in there....what I'll need with a peach sented foot scrub I'll never know, but it was there....just cause I could,

Anyway it got us there in a respectable two hours...panic set in when we realized we forgot the visa just outside rosslare but that passed when we suggested someone posting it out!

We made sure we had our alco meters, hi viz, little magnetic ireland sign all ready for our departure on The Oscar Wilde...a big boat! We went to check in! Got in the shortest que, a similar incident to previous blog about Queing!

It was actually really civilized, I was very surprised! The check in lady was lovely! There was none of the
Awful airport pressure! They loaded the boat in a first come first served manner which is always good and we were directed to our cabin!

The cabin was small, but clean and we had our own loo and shower, all
One needs on an overnight! We headed to the bar at the front of the ship so we could see where we were going and be on view of the horizon line so as to avoid sea sickness. Skippy was also placed in sea sickness bands and filled pockets with motillium...the excitement was building!

An elderly couple came and sat near
Us and decided to share that the exact seat he was sitting on was where he had been sick the last time! Lovely it was!

The ship left on time with a lovely message from the captain about if we here six long blasts followed by a short one.. Run for your life, or maybe it was short blasts and a long one..either way if I hear a blast I'm beating my way to the life boat! I could see the panic in skips eyes! I could almost here her thinking ... 6 blasts : what if I only hear five!

After ten minutes we realized this was boring and headed for the deck where we were blown out of it and I lost my wallet and room key to the breeze! Thankfully after running off like a crazy person and a very agile skip both items were returned to the bag with a note to self message regarding the items not been taken out again!

We retreated to the back of the boat where there was no breeze and the sun was shining, marvelous! We were taking the weather with us, sorry lads!

There I was sitting down relaxing with a beer when I saw dolphins! Dolphins I tell you! I nearly jumped out the window. Skippy thought I had some sort of early onset sea blindness but then people ran from the other end to see them and I shoved it in her face!

After that there was a barrage of questions about dolphins thrown at slip and when I was very politely told that she was not a dolphin encyclopedia I stopped! I asked another question and was informed I was like the squirrel dog from "Up"! Time for another beer!

Eventually we got hungry... I heard awful things about the food on board but because we didn't bring any with us we had no choice! I had a steak pie which was delicious and skip had chicken and chips with honey mustard sauce! I couldn't fault it! Staff again were lovely!

We returned to the front if the ship to watch Leinster beat the dragons and the sky turn a beautiful purple colour.

The day was very relaxing! We were knackered by nine! Retired to the room to watch a DVD on blackie!!! That was when I realized we would have to read! I was like the national library with the amount of books I brought, but I didn't want them so I went to duty free and bought another!

There is such a diverse array of people that are on board the Oscar Wilde, from the gentleman driving the uk registered Maserati to the family of Romanian gypsies who fleeced the perfume section and when I mentioned it to staff they were more interested in their tills!

When I returned to the room I opened the first page of the book i bought and went unconscious ... I woke at 1.58 am not knowing where I was or why my bed was vibrating when I realized I went back to sleep!