Category: Diary

Moving on and moving out

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It feels much later in the week than Thursday – to me anyway. Just a few things to tell you. Sligo Hub is going really well so if you happen to land on this site looking for things to do in Sligo head over to the hub for the most up to date information. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

It’s been a busy few days, the boomerang child has moved again. I swear I spend more time moving her stuff to various places than I do anything else. I actually quite like packing the car up, it’s like real life Tetris trying to utilise every inch of space in a small car. Not great for my back though. At least this place only has one flight of stairs and not three. Her new place is wonderful, there’s a big window overlooking a huge field and I would probably just look out the window all day if I lived there.

I’ve been trying to make phone calls to get things sorted for Jono but no one is picking up a phone and it’s difficult to find email addresses. I think I’ll have to take a pen and paper out.

I hosted my last coffee morning this week, they won’t finish as another lady has volunteered to host them. I’ve been asked why I’ve stopped a few times, and I feel that people are disappointed with me,  to be honest there are a number of reasons. The main one with Jono getting worse I really need to be available for him, another reason is that for me personally although they were lovely it didn’t really have the effect I hoped it would. I still don’t have that many people I can go for coffee with – apart from the friends I had already. I would see people exchanging numbers and that’s fantastic but for me it didn’t happen. It’s OK though because as I’m more relaxed being in my own company and these days I’m fine to sit on my own somewhere.

Apart from all that it’s been a busy week with art classes (that I loved), Andy’s birthday and our wedding anniversary – we went to Bundoran for a few hours – we even met an actress from Fair City 🙂 I went to a tourism conference which was very interesting – although another reminder to me that I talk too much 🙂 I’ve also  decided Ballaghaderren is my new favourite place – more about that in another blog.

 

 

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Tight trousers, John Travolta and more….

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It’s been a mixed bag of a day. The first dilemma was trying to get my trousers on this morning, I needed to lie on a bed to do the button up….I sort of forgot about that fact when I was out and about…so the slabs of cake have to stop.

We went swimming and I took Jono for a lovely reiki treatment with Gently Drift that he really enjoyed. While he was there I had to go to the library to print out my bank statements. I’m not kidding it was like War and Peace all over again – over 60 odd pages for just 3 months! It makes for quite depressing reading too. I was sitting next to a John Travolta fan in the library who was also on a computer and doing his own live version of Grease, I must say between him singing and the online banking website my nerves were as frayed as the button hole on my trousers.

Lucy made me feel better by buying me a gorgeous purse covered in dogs. It’s so cute! I can’t wait to start using it….hopefully it’ll be a lucky purse too. There’s a big sale in the Essential Seconds MS charity shop in Sligo town so well worth checking out.

This afternoon I went to a local garden centre and I was quite sad to see plants dying. Beautiful poppies all withering away, at the back of the centre. I asked if they were for sale and was told they were a euro each I only bought two of them because I’m not sure if I will be able to revive them and I couldn’t afford 30 odd quid on half dead plants but I’m sad that the rest are going to die. 😦 I hope plants go to heaven.

Brownies and banter in Ballyshannon and Belleek

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Yesterday was a brilliant day, I enjoyed every minute of it. I met up with three lovely ladies and we had a great time. The first stop was to the Abbey Centre in Ballyshannon to see Aspects of the West, a beautiful exhibition of photographs by Eithne, Avril and Andrea and paintings by Michelle – Camlake Canvas. Eithne and Michelle were with us and I loved looking at the work by all the artists, these ladies are very talented and if you get a chance the exhibition is on until Tuesday so do visit.

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Bloom 2018

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I was finally lucky enough to win tickets to Bloom, thank you so much to gra-produce – I love you – see what I did there – possibly something only Irish people will get. Anyway I was so excited the night before I couldn’t sleep…..sounds familiar. I was half-tempted to get the 1am bus but I’d have arrived in Dublin at 4.30am and didn’t fancy hanging around until Bloom opened.

I ended up on the 5.45am train and got into Dublin just before 9am. (Why isn’t there a 4 or 5am bus or train?) There is a free shuttle bus running to Bloom from just around the corner of Hueston Station so I hopped on that.

Before I went into Bloom I went searching for deer. I was told they hang out near the papal cross but I’m a culchie and didn’t know where that was. I asked the bus driver, I’d have been better talking to the bus, I asked the guards who had to google it, I asked google maps – who wasn’t talking to me, so I followed my nose – literally. I went off in the direction of trees, spotted some deer shite and followed that, soon enough I got the whiff of deer and lo and behold there they were. I was so magical, I didn’t get too close to them, just sat and watched. As I was changing a lens on my camera I could feel something near me, I looked up and saw this beautiful deer so close that I could have touched it – wow.

After my magic moment I headed to Bloom. I thought by getting there early I’d miss some of the crowds, I was wrong, they all had the same idea as I did. The sun was beating down and I really enjoyed looking at all the beautiful show gardens.

I also loved the postcard gardens, my favourite one was the garden made out of all recycled material. I also loved the postcard garden above, I’d love something like this for my garden.

There was so much to see and do and it was perfect weather with the sun beating down. I do feel quite sorry for some of the exhibitors though as it was absolutely sweltering in some of the tents. At least there is a water station for people to fill up their water bottles and keep dehydrated.

The little ones were entertained too, with science shows and fun and games. Even better that kids go in free too.

 

As always Bloom was a delight, a feast for the senses. I had a lovely day although if I went again I’d love to go the day before it opens to the public so that I could really get a proper look at the gardens, or stay the night and be in very early – I wonder if Michael D. Higgins has a spare room??? There’s nothing as scary as an elderly lady on a mission to look at a rose garden! Walking sticks at dawn!

You can see the rest of my photos here.

 

The Hobby Workshop – Sligo Leader

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Yesterday I went to a Hobby Workshop hosted by Sligo Leader. It was a very informative couple of hours. We heard from people involved in different hobbies and how it enhances their lives, we also heard how certain hobbies can help with finding a job. What stayed with me though was the personal stories.

Before the event I got chatting to a lovely lady who I would have known briefly. She told me she quit the day job and is now running courses exploring hobbies – there is a lot more to it than that. This got me very excited because it’s only recently I’ve discovered art and this lady was telling me we are never to old to try something new. That’s exactly right. I’ve signed up for her course 🙂

Two other speakers told similar stories. Both quit their day jobs and turned their hobbies into a business. One man was in IT and got burnt out. He said from a financial point of view he was doing really well but not from a mental health point of view. So he quit, retrained and now combines his love of music, history and tourism into running tours for visitors.

A lady told us how she trained in social care and spent years working in that sector but in her spare time she was always in the garden. She had people telling her she should set up a gardening business.

“When one person tells you something you don’t really pay any heed but when all your friends tell you there must be something in it. I did what I call the Rocking Chair, I imagine myself as an 80 year old and look back on my life thinking of the things I’d regret if I didn’t try things. So I quit the health service and set up my own gardening business. I’ve never looked back.”

Listening to these people reinforced my theory that when you are working at something you love it’s never a chore. This is why I started Sligo Hub. For many years my passion has been promoting Sligo. One day Kate from Refreshing.ie not only listened to me but she teamed up with me. To have the support of one other person makes a tremendous difference and even though Sligo Hub is very new to have the support of sponsors who also believe in me makes it all worth while.

One day I hope that Sligo Hub will provide a wage so that at least I can buy petrol and carry on exploring the county I love so much and telling the world about it. One day I hope I will be the person standing up in front of a room telling them my story. For now it’s just a dream but one day it might be a reality.