Spicy kidneys

Hate: Kidney infections
Like: Painkillers and anti-biotics
Complaint of the day: see hate

Was out sick yesterday with the blasted infection of the kidney that I have become accustomed to. Never had pain quite like this one though - I don't know why someone (God) is trying to punish me. Maybe it's a hint to curb my intake of alcohol or summat, but I'm hardly an alcoholic. I dunno. All I know is that I always get sick towards a weekend and then can't drink cos I may go mad on antbiotics.


See the Spice Girls are getting back together. Yay! I don't know why it excites me, but it's way more fun than Take That's reunion. I guess it's cos we'll get to look at their style and bitch about them and then copy some of their looks the next weekend. Let's hope they don't bring those disgusting platform trainer yokes back though. Was having a think about it yesterday and thought about the new names we could rename each spice girl.



Posh Spice would have to be 'rexic' spice or 'ana' spice

Scary Spice could be 'murphy' spice for obvious reasons

Baby Spice coudl be 'preggers' spice for other obvious reasons

Ginger Spice I would like to rename 'mingin' spice but that's probably mean

Sporty Spice I think could be 'non' spice because she dosen't seem to have done much in past while. No baby or body scandals that I can think of.

It's only six years since they broke up. Seems waaaay longer that that.

Was watching Baby on Board last night on RTE. (what can I say, kidney infection means no going out, so TV it has to be) I got really teary when the new family brought the little babog back home to meet the grandparents for the first time (the mammy involved was spanish). There's something about new babies that really gets to me. It's embarrassing really.

All I can deduct is that historically, I would have at least four kids now, so biologically my body is behaving perfectly normal. In our modern world however I should be waiting another six years before the time is right to be even thinking in the family way. So what does that mean for the mental state of mind?

Lots of tears at baby programmes and reassurances to the boy (as he bolts out the door) that yes I want one, but no, not yet. Next month maybe. :)

Following Baby on Board, was my favourite I'm an adult get me outta here. Apart from the presenter being hot (he is) I love watching nearly-30 year olds living it up in their parent's pads trying to find a shoebox to fit their budget. They're always so narky and set in their ways and unwilling to compromise. It makes me proud that I am not living at home.

And good news on the writing front. Very easily found a writer's group (the Irish Writer's Centre, first google that comes up) so I've signed myself up for a thursday night session for ten weeks. Let the creative juices flow....

(Broody - just a little bit) Ladysinger

New day for comedy

Hate: Forgetting things
Like: Spending money
Complaint of the day: I bought my lovely danish in a tea-shop this morning and when I got to the office I realised I'd left it on the counter. D'oh!

Myself and the boy headed to the International Bar last night for their comedy show. Took a lot of persuasion to actually get him there, I must admit, but it was worth it in the end.

We had only been there once in our college 'when everything was fun' days and I did feel a little old being back there. Everyone was in hoodies and grungy gear and I'd say we were the only two actually out earning in 'proper' jobs there. Well, proper in that we were finished college and had nothing else to do except work.

Last time we were there, Des Bishop was hosting. He spent the whole show trying to extract a heroin addict with old slash marks all up her arms from the toilets. He struggled to make jokes having come face to face with living sadness, but sure isn't that what comedy is all about? Taking the piss out of the unfortunate?

Aaaaaanyway, things were a lot different this time round. If anything the whole thing has become slightly more amateur, but not necessarily less fun. Gone are the Des Bishops and Joe Rooneys and stand ups in general; in their place are creative college kids, with laptops and projectors and soundbites. New media comedy I guess.

We had a presentation, a girl who acted over a soundclip, numerous clips from you tube and an interactive piano playing session. It was loadsa fun, very entertaining and really really new. They had biscuits at the interval. Better than a poke in the arse at the bar.

The International is a place where comedians go to try out new material (so I've been told anyway). If anything I think we were witness to a whole flurry of new television programmes.
Some of them are already in the making (check out http://www.idareya.ie/) while others are bound to make themselves onto shows somewhere. Bit like a live Naked Camera really.

If you're interested check out http://www.myspace.com/dietofworms who were there last night. The ATM sketch is class.

(Amused) Ladysinger

Body found, bee (7months)

Hate: Nothing today
Like: My wooly scarf that's keeping me warm (yes in June)
Complaint of the day: I'm cold

I found him! The bee! Only he's not a bee. He's a wasp! And best of all... he's dead. I emptied the handbag I had out on Saturday night this morning and the first thing to fall out onto the bed, was the body of the stinging murderer. Well he could have murdered me, if I had been allergic.

Damian made the rather amusing comment today that he probably died from alcohol poisoning after sticking his little sharp todger (that appropriate) into my leg. Well I don't care. I'm glad.

Have goosepimples all over me today. All jokes about the Irish weather aside, this is getting scary. Check out here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6239828.stm People are dying in England!

And on another dismal message, there was a man found dead in Drogheda last night. This follows from a death in Carlingford at the weekend and a grisly attack on a holidaying couple up near the border a few weeks ago. Vicious times.

(Scared) Ladysinger

Bzzzzzzzz

Hate: fighting
Like: parties
Complaint of the day: See below

Had the very unusal experience of getting stung by a BEE in a TAXI at 3AM on the way to a very enjoyable party on Saturday night. Wtf? What's more, it crawled up my dress to do the nasty deed. Clever bugger.

Still sore today and apparently it can take a week to go away. So I'm not doing any exercise in case I disturb the venom still lodged in my leg and pass it round the blood supply. I love coming up with valid excuses not to exercise. Most recent one has been the monsoon season and luckily that looks set to continue.

Feeling a bit lonely in the house at the mo, what with the girls doing their various holiday things, so Im gonna search the web for info on Italy to cheer myself up!

(Stingingly) Ladysinger

Sexy Mama

Opened up a girl's magazine recently (i think it was aimed at the age 8 and up) and it had the lyrics of Pussy Cat Girls written out on the back page for little girls to sing along with. The song? Loosen up my buttons.

Chorus: I'm tellin ya ta loosen up my buttons babe (uh huh) But you keep frontin (uh) Say what you gon' do to me (uh huh) But i see nothin' (uh) Im telling ya ta loosin up my buttons babe (uh huh) But you keep frontin (uh) Say what you gon' do to me (uh huh) But i see nothin' (nothin')

Verse: I like when the physical, dont leave me askin for more Im a sexy mama, Who knows just how to get what I wanna

What i wanna do is bring this on ya. Baby can't you see How these clothes are fittin on me And the heat comin from this beat Im about to blow

You say you're a big boy, but I cant agree 'cause the love you said you had ain't been put on me I wonder if im just too much for you Wonder, if my kiss dont make you just... Wonder, what i got next for you What you wanna do

Open up my buttons? I'm a sexy mama. You're a big boy, i'm about to blow? What were the magazine's editors thinking?! Anyway just thought of that after I read the article below, taken from today's times. I had Debbie as a lecturer in first year and she got me really interested in feminist studies. I think this piece hits the nail on the head. I am so uneased by sexual dolls being given to kids.... what was wrong with Sindy???!

Society is complicit in turning girls into sex objects

We are outraged by child pornography, but the sexualisation of children is all around us, from bra tops to Bratz dolls, and we say nothing, writes Debbie Ging.

This week's news about the break-up of an international paedophile ring revealed some facts which are literally too horrific to contemplate: men videoing themselves raping their own children, some as young as five. Naturally enough, most people want to see these individuals put behind bars for life; others advocate more severe punishments, from chemical castration to public hanging.

The sense of anger and outrage people feel is justified, and there is no doubt that tracking down and imprisoning the perpetrators will save many children from a fate arguably worse than death. It is not, however, going to solve the problem - because sexualised images of children are not just the stuff of covert internet porn rings. They are all around us, and we have failed to be shocked by them.

High-heeled shoes and boots are available in Irish shoe shops for children aged five and upwards. T-shirts with "porn star" written across the chest are widely available for the same age group. Major chain-stores sell g-string and bra sets for girls ranging from five to 10 years of age. Bratz dolls, now far exceeding sales of Barbie, combine pre-pubescent, wide-eyed innocence with the clothing and make-up of the prostitute or dominatrix. Bratz Babies, which wear make-up and earrings but carry babies' milk bottles, represent an even more perturbing mix of adult sexuality and infancy.

Irish parents seem to have put up little resistance against the tide of gender-stereotyped and sexualised products and images which have recently flooded the children's media, toy and clothing industries.

The spectre of little girls wearing bra tops, shaking their bootie and singing suggestive lyrics does not appal us, at least not sufficiently to make us call for a ban on advertising during children's programming or to reject the alleged inevitability of these developments.
Increasingly we hear reports of eight-year-old girls about to make their Holy Communion availing of highlights, tanning and leg-waxing. Parents roll their eyes and say "girls will be girls".

It is time to get real. Girls, if they continue to be treated like this, will be sexual objects: in their own eyes and those of others. For all its rhetoric about a society of free choice that engenders liberal, open debate, post-Celtic Tiger Ireland has not yet had an honest public discussion on this topic.

The Irish media has routinely constructed paedophiles as anti-social "outsiders" or strangers, (homo)sexually-repressed priests or disturbed celebrities, while playing down or ignoring the fact that most child abuse takes place within the family. Statistics from the Rape Crisis Centre in Dublin show that, in 2005, 19.6 per cent of reported child sexual abuse cases were perpetrated by fathers, 16.2 per cent by brothers, 26.8 per cent by another male relative and 30.2 per cent by another known person. Only 3.4 per cent of cases were perpetrated by strangers.

It is time to face up to the realities of child abuse - to acknowledge that raunch culture for the under-12s has become acceptable in the current mediascape; to face the fact that paedophilia is not restricted to small circles of anti-social sex monsters but is more commonplace than most people would like to think; and to take responsibility for the messages we are sending out to children by condoning and conspiring, albeit inadvertently, in their sexualisation.

Many of these realities are hard to stomach, but there is a real need, now more than ever, to think about them and to talk about them honestly and openly if the problem is ever to be successfully tackled.

Dr Debbie Ging is a lecturer and researcher on gender in the media at the School of Communications, Dublin City University.

Hungover but happy

Hate: hangovers
Like: drink
Complaint of the day: my tummy hurts

Staff do was lots of fun last night. My depression is gone. It had already started to evaporate yesterday anyway thanks to a bit more security in the job situation and the boy saying we could book a holiday next week. And he mentioned Italy. Tres exciting!

It's funny at work today, because EVERYBODY is hungover. It's like theres a cloud of alcohol fumes hanging over everyone's head and we can barely look up with the weight of it. Don't really remember much at the end of last night except larding everyone out of the kebab shop and into a taxi for no good reason. Can't a drunk person enjoy their kebab at the end of the night without having to do it in transit? Woke up this morning to a very suspect orange stain on the bedsheets. Fake tan? Make-up? Blood? No. Kebab sauce.

I entered the opening lines competition yesterday on radio one and it's suffice to say my entry was... shit. I thought I was more talented that that, but I'm not. However it's got me thinking about creative writing again and I'm thinking of tracking down a course or writer's group or something where you're forced to write creatively once a week. I wonder is there anything like that out there? Course I don't want to be stuck with a bunch of annoying hippies but I might look into it and see what's out there.

Not putting my entry up cos I'm embarrassed.

(Headachey) Ladysinger

Depression

Hate: My new fringe. It's all over the gaff, not sexy, just gappy
Like: My colleagues' straighteners
Complaint of the day: It's still raining

Had a severe bout of depression there all day yesterday. Not sure if it's lifted yet today, will have to wait and see. I can see three reasons for this. One; the monsoon season that has hit Ireland and is battering the bejaysus out of us, two; the uncertain world of the working girl, three; i have no holidays planned yet, and it's the end of June! Truly depressing.

I think once the weather lifts, so too will my spirits, along with the rest of the country.

Have decided to enter the writing competition on Ryan Tubridy's radio one show - you have to write the start of a novel, in less than thirty words, and if it's good enough, you can win a trip to new york. That might help the depression.

So I will blog my entry ideas here. For the craic.

Ladysinger

I'm back!

Hate: Not knowing what the future holds
Like: Pasta with melted mozzarella
Complaint of the day: It's raining


Forgot I was a blogger for a while.

Only put those last two entries in cos I had my computer home with me at the time. And that was three months ago. I think I'd be a much better blogger if I had my laptop home with me all the time, but because I use it at work, it's difficult and I'm too lazy to cart it home. Who wants to look up a blogger who posts every three months??!!

Plus I haven't quite worked out how to upload images yet, but I will!

Things bit up in the air after the elections at the mo. Not sure where we will all end up, but at least there's a staff party tomorrow night, so that's something definite on the itinerary. I'm off to try and make this page more alive.

(Unsettled) Ladysinger