Edmonton in the summer

I do not usually have a lot of great things to say about Edmonton, but I will say that Edmonton in the summer is a pretty good place to be. We normally have pretty good weather, not overly hot, but definitely t-shirts and shorts weather. There does seem to be a tendency for thunderstorms, which are lovely in the evening, not so great when you are walking home from the mall and have left the stroller rain cover in the garage. Liam likes to think there is going to be a tornado, and is constantly looking for funnel clouds during any storm. Today is actually the 18th anniversary of Black Friday, a tornado in which 27 people in Edmonton died. I was in England and missed the whole thing.
Edmonton is called Festival City, and the name does fit at this time of the year. We have had the international street performers festival, Taste of Edmonton, Klondike Days, this long weekend is Heritage Days and in August there will be the Folk Fest, the Fringe, a Carribean festival, a blues festival, and a few others that frankly I have no interest in, but some people obviously do. What of these have I attended or will attend? Umm...just heritage days this year. And possibly the fringe because of the Scots. So while I may talk Edmonton up (and not very well) I very rarely do Edmonton things. So anti-social. Or poor. One of the two. Possibly both.

A few facts about Edmonton: -it is the largest city (in area) in North America.
-the river valley parks system is 22 times the size of New York's central park
-it is home to the world's largest mall, which includes the world's largest indoor amusement park and indoor water park (as well as the world's largest parking lot)
-it was the first city in North America to hold the Worlds.
-that is all I can think of off the top of my head.
-it's just my opinion but aside from the Liffey in Dublin the North Saskatchewan is the dirtiest river I've ever seen.

Heritage Days

This is the first time I remember the Irish Society changing their background. We'll be back to the same one next year, I imagine. Had a lovely day at Heritage Days...no English or Scottish pavillions though, so no Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles or Gums.

Damn these blogs

It seems that the world of blogging is much too big for me. I am fine and dandy with typing a post or two, I can even put up a picture but the rest of it is beyond me. I have noticed that a few people have linked me to their sites (and by a few, I literally mean a few) but I have no clue as to how I would do the same. I have seen talk about tracking the people visiting your blog on more than one site and I thought about installing it myself but besides the fact that is beyond my capabilities I'm not sure I want to know how many (well, let's face it, how few) people are viewing my blog, never mind how they are getting there. Does that mean my favourite blog to visit knows just how many times in a day I might pop on to his/her site? Might I get a reputation as a blog stalker? I tell you, this blogging is an awful lot like high school. Frightening.

If I could have lived in another time....

........I would have chosen Ireland (but of course) during the 1916-22 period. Foolish, I know. William says why would you want to have lived in a time of murder and war? I am sure if I had actually lived in that period I would have hated it (along with my tenament slum), but knowing what we know now, wouldn't it have been exciting? Of course, this could all stem from my adoration of Michael Collins. It is strange to have a crush on a dead person, but I do. There is something so lovely about him. Even if he was a bit of a player. The good looking ones always are. I thought about this because I was thinking if he was alive he probably would have been very pleased about the IRA's statement. Course, if he hadn't have been fucked over by them in the first place, a united Ireland would have happened long ago. That's just my opinion. May very well be wrong.

This murder and war thing isn't just an Ireland obsession thing, when I was little I wanted to live in England during World War II. Hmmm, I really am a tad strange I think!

Assimilation

I was thinking today how quickly children adjust to new cultures and places. When I talk to Taylor, who has been in England for all of a month, I am always laughing at the English accent she seems to have quickly developed. My neighbour had visitors from Ireland last month and they also were practicing their Canadian accents. I wonder if when William's niece arrives from Scotland in a few weeks if she will also pick up our non-accent.
The last time I was in England, my Nan was telling me that when she visited the summer after we had moved to Canada I corrected almost everything she said. 'No Nanny, it's not the sweet shop, it's the candy store'. The few Britishisms I have held on to are the titles of my grandparents (Nan and Grandad - with the Irish ones being Granny and Granda- instead of the more North American Grandma and Grandpa), my mum is not my mom, and for some reason I still say grip instead of bobby pin, along with a few others.
There is really no reason to this post but I am posting it anyways.

Today's the Day!

Less than 4 hours until William arrives. I managed to get the house clean, last night I was working on pure anger adrenlin. Liam brought 3 friends into the house while I was out yesterday and they used bottles of bubbles, soap, face cleanser, listerine, carpet cleaner and other assorted products to spray my entire house and themselves. They soaked the stairs going to the upper floor so badly that it went through to the basement and short circuited the light. I was none too pleased! Liam spent the night at his dad's as I honestly don't know what I would have done to him if I had had to talk to him anymore. No, I wouldn't have hit him, but I sure wanted to. So we are all ready to go, although Saoirse spilled tea all down her 'I love my daddy' tshirt. Hopefully, this is not a sign of the way the rest of my day is going to go. If there's a delay at the airport I will not handle it well. He should have just landed in Vancouver, I am going to call Air Canada and see.

Breaking News...Canadian Story Covered by American Media!

First, let me express my shock at the amazing turn of events...so often (well, every day) I am bombarded by American news stories. So when I turned on the American news program 60 Minutes I was suprised to see they were covering the story of a Canadian citizen being deported to Syria. But wait, who is it that is deporting this man? Oh, the Americans. Well that explains why it's being mentioned then. Though I have to say even last year the American media would have not done a story at all critical of the United States government. My, how things have changed.
This man, a Syrian born Canadian citizen, was on his way home from holidays. He had a stopover in the States, where he was detained and questioned. He ended up being deported to Syria. Why Syria and not Canada? Because Syria tortures prisoners. Which they did. Although when Canadian officials were granted permission to see him, he was told not to say a word. Eventually, he ended up back in Canada and today is suing former attorney general John Ashcroft, along with other American officials. And so he should.
By the way, even the Syrian government now says there ia absolutely no proof he was involved in any way with terrorism, the American government still has him on a terrorist watchlist. That's America for ya.

Liam and Taylor

This not a particularly good picture of either Taylor or Liam but I used it because a) Liam hardly ever lets me take his picture- and never with Taylor, b) Taylor's wearing a Celtic jersey, which she does exactly once a year on Jersey Day at school and c)it's the only picture I have of them on the computer.

100 Things About Me (since you're all dying to know)

1. I was born in Sutton Coldfield, England.
2. I have one brother, Thom. He's 13 months younger than me.
3. I couldn't stand him growing up.
4. But I love him like mad now. This could be becasue he is in B.C.
5. I have lived in Edmonton, Alberta since I was 3.
6.My first memory is of packing to move to Canada.
7.My father is a Catholic from Belfast.
8. My mother is a Protestant from Birmingham.
9. That is a terrible combination.
10. My partner is a Protestant from Belfast.
11. I am a Catholic from Birmingham.
12. That makes a good combination.
13. My parents split up when I was 21.
14. I was already married and 8 months pregnant.
15. I moved out at 19 to get away from the fighting.
16. My life would have been totally different if my mum had left my dad when we were young.
17. I would have had an English accent.
18.My father is an alcoholic.
19.I do not drink often.
20. When I do, I drink to get drunk.
21.My cousin says this makes me an alcoholic.
22. I said he is a mad alcoholic.
23.I have never taken a single drug in my life.
24. Except for what turned out to be fake E's in Amsterdam.
25.I have never smoked a cigarette.
26. I have 3 children.
27. Taylor, 10
28. I have a hard time with her.
29. Liam, 9
30. He has ADD, dyslexia and dysgraphia.
31. Saoirse, 8 months.
32. Her eyes are 2 shades of blue.
33. I have one tattoo.
34. It is a four leaf clover in a maple leaf.
35. I totally ignore my English Heritage.
36. My favourite place in the world is Belfast.
37. I felt more at home in the north of Ireland than I did in the south.
38. I was totally surprised by that.
39. My cousin, not the mad alcoholic, moved to Canada at 11 and back to Ireland at 30 something. He says the Irish love tourists, but hate immigrants, even ones born there.
40. I said maybe he shouldn't have gone to Cork.
41. My first serious boyfriend was German.
42. He was a bastard.
43. When I miscarried at 17 he told all his friends I had an abortion.
44. Two days before we broke up he slept with 3 girls. One in the morning, one in the evening and me, late at night.
45. I did not know that until months later.
46. The girl that he slept with in the morning told me. That was the day she lost her virginity.
47. I said it is a shame he ruined that day for you by sleeping with two other people.
48. She did abort his baby. A year after my miscarriage.
49. I am not yet divorced.
50. But am in love with another man.
51. And have his child.
52. I do not have my drivers license.
53. I failed 3 times between 16-18.
54. My all time favourite T.V show is Homefront (cancelled after 2 seasons.)
55. And then it would be Homicide.
56. I love the Amazing Race.
57. My favourite sport is football. (aka soocer as we Canadians call it)
58 My favourite teams are Celtic and Aston Villa.
59. I used to love hockey.
60. When I was young, I collected soap and pins.
61. I earned my Brownie collector badge by putting all my pins on a tea towel.
62. Brownies was my first experience in skipping things. I ended up quitting.
63. My daughter earned her Guide collector badge by collecting postcards from around the world.
64. I was a Brownie leader for 2 years.
65. My name was Snowy Owl.
66. Next year, I am moving up to Guides.
67.I took ballet when I was 4 and quit the day before the recital. ( I do like to quit things, apparently.)
68. My father wanted me to take Irish dancing and I refused.
69. I regret this immensely.
70. Scotland is the only country in the Bristish Isles I have never been to.
71. And yet we talk about possibly moving there.
72. I do not think I could move, as I would have to get rid of most of my stuff.
73. I am a pack rat.
74. Although I did manage to get rid of 10 boxes of books last year.
75. I wish I hadn't
76. Because some day I may actually get my dream house with a library.
77. But it is doubtful.
78. I have to go back to work in less than 2 months and I do not want to.
79. I hate working.
80. I have 2 jobs.
81. One as a hospital porter.
82. The other as a nursing attendant.
83. I much prefer portering, you get paid more and I don't have to wipe asses.
84. This is what happens to you when you think more about your boyfriend than your school work.
85. I never worried about it in high school, I knew I would rather be married with kids.
86. When William is able to work in Canada, I will not need to worry about working.
87. I will work only for spending money.
88. I love to spend money.
89. And manage to spend alot while still paying all my bills.
90. Except for the credit cards that are in collection.
91. I refuse to pay them because it is cheaper for me if they sue me.
92. Which they won't do, because it is not worth it for them.
93. I realize this is a very immature attitude to take.
94. I make more on EI, than I would working 4 days a week.
95. I hope no one from the Gov't of Canada reads that.
96. Or from a credit card agency.
97. I told someone from collections to never call me again.
98. And she hasn't, because if you say that they can not call.
99. Someone who worked in a collection agency told me that.
100. I spent way to much time talking about collection agencies.

Saoirse

Thanks to catpee for the instructions on how to upload!! I'm sure I must have better pics of her. The baby, I mean.

Disco Disco Duck

As I lay in bed last night, totally unable to sleep, I was thinking about music and about how my tastes have changed over the years. The first album I remember my mum buying me was a Michael Jackson one, it had the song Ben on it. Might have even been called Ben, actually. Couldn't be arsed to look online and find out. I loved Michael Jackson, and of course owned Thriller as well. By the time Bad came out, I thought the man was a total nut. And he was and still is. I did of course own albums before that, I remember listening to Sesame Street albums and Disney albums on my little Mickey Mouse record player. My favourite was Disco Duck. I found a cassette of it when my daughter was about 3 and bought it for her. I still loved that album. You can't beat 'It's a Small World.'

I always remember music in my house, though I imagine not to the extent that alot of other people did. My mother was a big Elvis fan and my dad loved the Beatles. If I got to pick the next record to go on, I always chose from 3... a Barbra Streisand one (the word Superman comes to mind...but again, couldn't be arsed to find out what it was really called), the Beatles love songs (I loved the Long and Winding Road) and a 70s album that had the song Last Kiss on it, rerecorded by Pearl Jam a few years ago.

The first album I bought myself was David Bowie, the one with Modern Love and Let's Dance. The cassette is still floating around, the cover long gone. It was a choice between that and Corey Hart's First Offense. My mum eventually bought me that one and to this day I still love Corey Hart (not that I'd admit that to anyone, mind you.)
He was, I think, my first actual crush. For Christmas when I was 11, I received a stero...v fancy for the day, a record player and 2 tape decks, I was the only one of my friends with the ability to record both tape and record and seemed to do alot of it for them.) That Christmas and every Christmas after, my brother and I each received about 4 albums. For some reason I remember the ones he received more than my own...U2's Joshua Tree, Matt Bianco, Scritti Politti, Love and Rockets. I remember getting the Police, the Stand by Me soundtrack and when I was 13 Madonna's True Blue. When I was 13 I also bought the Sex Pistols 'Never Mind the Bollocks'. God, I loved that album. At 13, I also went to England on my own and spent most of my holiday money on albums. Right now all I can only remember buying Curiosity Killed the Cat and Crowded House. Curiosity Killed the Cat never did make it over here. Wonder why. Oh, and I bought Jesus and Mary Chain 'Darklands'. To date, still the best album ever.

At 18 I went back to England, this was right when the Manchester scene was big. I came home with albums by the Stone Roses, James, Wonderstuff and the Levellers, among others. It was the Levellers that got me thinking about music, as for some reason I was quite in the mood to listen to 'A Weapon Called Word', went to put it on and the CD wasn't there. Don't know where it might have got to. I listened to Sons of Maxwell instead. I was listening to 'Live at Tim's House', which is very Irish sounding, which I guess it would as they are from Nova Scotia.

Today, I will listen to most anyting, including a genre I vowed never to like- country. In fact the last CD I bought for myself was a country album. I bought Johnny Reid and I think I like him purely because he is Scottish. And he does have a good voice. Very sexy. Most of my CD buying these days is for Taylor and Liam. Taylor owns way more than Liam (Liam's I can count on one hand...Guns'n'Roses, Eminem, Queen, Elvis.) Taylor loves Simple Plan and Avril Lavigne and such teen like bands. For party gifts at her last 3 birthdays, her dad has made mixed CDs of songs her friends like, they have been a big hit. Well, not the 9th bday one, as I picked the music. A sign of the times apparently. He did one for Liam this year as well. They both went over very well, with kids and parents alike saying how much they liked the CDs.

I suppose I should end this by saying what I was listening to while writing this. That would have been Wolfe Tones 25th Anniversary, disc# 1. Love that album.

No posting on a certain day

I purposely didn't post yesterday, as just in case William ever does see this, I didn't want him reminding me about the glorious twelth. Was bad enough he emailed me pics of the day. He was especially fond of the one of Gerry Adams with a policeman's shield up against him. So was I frankly, as I have never, ever liked Gerry Adams. There is something frighteningly scummy about him. Uck.

It's Almost Time

It is now 5 days until William gets here. Perhaps I should give a bit of a background for those of you who don't know me (and let's face it, that's pretty much everyone.) William and I have been together since January of 2003 but have only spent 11 months of that time together due to the unfortunate fact that he is in Australia and I am in Canada. We have a daughter together, the oft-mentioned Saoirse, who was almost 7 weeks old when William last left Edmonton. By the time he arrives back it will have been 6 months and 20 days since we last saw each other. Needless to say, when you haven't seen your partner in over half a year you tend to start to miss him. Just a tad. Or alot, as the case may be. And this is certainly the case.

I miss absolutely everything about him, the good and the bad...from the fact that he actually cooks (yet another domestic thing I hate) to the crumbs he leaves on my freshly scrubbed counter. I never thought I would miss the crumbs, but I do. I think I will never complain about a single thing he does ever again (although if the only complaint I can think of is toast crumbs, I'd say I have it pretty good.)

The best thing about William is how well my children took to him. Liam took no convincing, he loved William right away. It must have been something about the sick sense of humour...farts and stupid jokes. Taylor was slightly more wary, but feels the same way about him today as Liam. I worry about how William will feel if Saoirse cries around him alot at first, and no matter how much we both say we are expecting it, I don't think you can ever actually be emotionally prepared for it.

I am sure William will not be at all pleased when he discovers I have wrote about him but I think he thinks blogs are quite silly so chances are he might never see this. But he could be happy that I have said reasonably nice things about him, something I do not do enough in real life and have vowed to change, because in reality he has been fantastic to me since the day we met. Sometimes, you just don't appreciate what you've got.

A Countdown

It is one week until William arrives from Australia.

It is one week and one day until Taylor goes to London.

In 2 weeks she will go to Eurodisney and Paris.

In 4 weeks Taylor will arrive home (and so will my mum for that matter.)

In 4 weeks and 2 days, William's sister, brother in law, niece and nephew will arrive from Scotland. The question is where in my 3 bedroom house will I put 9 people?

In 4 weeks and 6 days, Saoirse will be baptised.

It is 7 weeks and 3 days until the first day of school. (There is not a day I love more than the first day of school.)

It is 8 weeks until I have to go back to work (which I really, really, really do not want to do.)

It is 15 weeks and 4 days until I go for a weekend away.

It is 16 weeks until Halloween.

It is 17 weeks and 4 days until Saoirse's first birthday.

It is 17 weeks and 4 days until Remembrance Day.

It is 22 weeks and 4 days until my 29th birthday (for the third time.)

It is 23 weeks and 6 days until Christmas.

It is 26 weeks and 1 day until William officially breaks the law by staying in Canada.

Oh, the state of my house

Well, William arrives in 8 days and my house is a total and complete disaster area. I thought with Taylor away it would suddenly become clean, but other than her room she doesn't make a mess in the rest of the house, just leaves the odd book or 2 or 5 lying around and doesn't put her shoes on the shelf provided. Why did I never realize this before? The fault must lie with Liam then, who has a mass of lego sitting in a basket on the stairs that he was supposed to take up last week. Perhaps I could blame Saoirse, who has done the three P's on both my sofas-puked, pooped and peed. And for a baby, she does seem to have an awful lot of stuff.

But I suppose the fault really does lie with me for two reasons: 1) I never properly taught my kids to do chores. Instead of helping Taylor clean her room, I'd get frustrated and tell her to go and just do it myself. And when Liam loved brooms at the age of 2 why did I not make that his chore there and then. I thought I would give them a few years of just being kids, and apparently left it to late, because now they are in a permanent state of revolt.
2) I bloody well hate cleaning. With a passion. More than I hate anything else in the world, including George Bush. In fact, I would rather sleep with Georgie than clean my house. Hmmm, let me take that back. No, I'd clean my house instead, I think.

I will use any reason known to man to not clean my house. In fact, I could be cleaning right now as Saoirse is finally asleep. But I'm on here! Complaining about the state of my house instead of actually doing anything about it. And I do use poor Saoirse as an excuse an awful lot. "But she doesn't let me put her down" I will cry. This is very true actually, if she is awake she is usually in my arms and you can't do much like that. Yes, I do realize women in China or wherever give birth while toiling in the fields, but hey I'm not in China.
What other excuses do I have? Something to do with reading, sometimes scrapping (which reminds me I must make a card tomorrow to put into the post for Monday...there goes an hour worth of cleaning time.) Mostly Saoirse though, she is a haven of excuses. God, I love that girl.

My house will be clean when he arrives, and will hopefully stay that way once he does. I might send Saoirse over to the neighbour's so I can get an afternoon of cleaning done (and I promise I won't go near the computer once) or I may have to let her cry it out for a change. But it will be done. I hope.