Pantomime time

Sleeping Beauty, originally uploaded by magnum_lady.

Jono was given tickets for the Sligo pantomime which is performed by the Coolera Dramatic society and takes place in the Hawks Well theatre.

This is the 3rd year we have seen the pantomime. This years one was Sleeping Beauty. The actors are very good and there is lots of singing and dancing. Also some jokes about Mary Harney and the gang which made Jono laugh.

The star of the show for me was Dame Goodbody. Who was a typical pantomime dame (as in a man dressed as a woman!) We especially liked his Pokemon dress and also his version of Queens ‘Don’t stop me now’……especially the pink inflatable guitar.

It was a great night out although it’s on for roughly two and a half hours which I think is a long time especially for little ones, there were quite a lot of tears at the end due to tiredness. Also at 17 euro each ticket (adults and children) I think it’s very expensive. We were lucky to be given our tickets.

All I want for Christmas….

Well it’s been a day and a half today. Jono saw an article in the Irish Daily Mail last week of a lad that had a similar back problem to him. This lad had his surgery and his back was so straight, so Jono emailed the letters page of the Daily Mail to say how great it was but how he was still waiting for surgery.

I was phoned on Friday by the Mail and asked lots of questions. So an article went in today (most of the things quoted I didn’t say….and I’ve also become a Miss!)

Anyway I was so cheesed off today that I decided to go to the Citizens Information in Sligo to see if they could suggest anything about getting surgery for Jono. They did suggest that I went to a local TD which I did and his office took details from me and said they would get back to us.

In the meantime I was speaking to a lovely lady who has offered advice before and has a good knowledge of the health service and she suggested I get legal advice.

After I got off the phone a message had been left…….from Crumlin. I phoned back and was told a date for Jonos surgery has been agreed for December 15th…..as it’s not in writing yet I’m not getting too excited. Jono is thrilled although I told him not to get his hopes up, after all we have been here before.

Floods and fog

Floods and fog, originally uploaded by magnum_lady.

I took Lucy to Dublin yesterday to see Little Boots in concert. She was brilliant (I’ll do a blog about that tomorrow).
Jono was meant to be coming as well, but his back is too bad to stand for any length of time. So he stayed with Andy.

We went on the train and because of the floods the train line between Carrick on Shannon and Longford is under between 3-5 feet of water. So we had to get a bus from Carrick to Longford and the same on the way back. So it took around 4 hours each way Sligo-Dublin instead of the usual 3.

This photo is of Carrick on Shannon, it’s hard to see the floods because of the fog. The yellow building you can see a tiny bit of is the Landmark Hotel.

The main N4 road towards Tesco and the retail park is completely flooded so there is a detour up through the town of Carrick on Shannon and down by the MBNA building. There were big tailbacks of traffic and the bus driver was telling us that the traffic was so bad the other day it took almost two hours for him to get from Carrick on Shannon to Longford.
I have to share this link of photos of the floods….some amazing photos there.
So if you are travelling in that direction be prepared for delays.

Thanks so much for the good wishes for C. So far so good.

A special blog

Get well soon C

I know I haven’t done a blog for a while and I’ll catch up soon.

This is a blog for a very special little boy and his family. We met them when we were in Dublin for the Daily Mail. C was waiting for heart surgery and because of the cutbacks in Crumlin he was one of many on the waiting list.

He had his surgery today. We are keeping everything crossed for him that he makes a full recovery. Jono and C were ‘dinner buddys’ on our day at the hotel.

C is only three years old. Thinking of them all and sending love and prayers. xxx

Shiny

Shiny, originally uploaded by magnum_lady.

The weather hasn’t improved since the other day. The roads are flooded. I’ve heard of some schools in other parts of the country being closed and some roads in Sligo were impossible to get through. It doesn’t help that half the muppets don’t reduce their speed or put their headlights on.

Lucy went back to school today and I went into town. I wanted to go into Lidl because they had a heat pad that would have been good for Jono’s back. I bought it but when I got it home I realised that it isn’t rechargeable and has to be plugged in all the time. So that’s no good.

While I was in town I managed to get some Christmas presents….so I’m pleased about that. I also got drenched in the process lugging my bags back to the car and ended up standing in a pothole and drenching my feet….oh well that’s life.

Oh yes I phoned Crumlin (again) and spoke to a really helpful lady who said she would try and find out what she could and phone me back.
She did phone me back and said they couldn’t track down the consultant and there was no news of a date She said for me to phone again next week.

November Rain

November Rain, originally uploaded by magnum_lady.

Well just a quick blog.

The weather continues to be lousy. The photo is Berties bonnet (the car). It looks blue but he’s actually silver.

I took Lucy back to the doctors today for a blood test. We had to wait ages. Den TV was on the tv. For those of you that don’t live in Ireland it’s an Irish kids tv channel. Kids songs these days are mad, there was one about a Hot diggidy dog. Then the presenter of the channel started singing all about balls (ooer missus!) and all the things you can do with them!

Lucy got on OK having her blood test although it was a bit touch and go her leg was hovering towards the nurse…luckily it didn’t turn into a kick.

It seems to be all about balls today as Golden Balls was on this afternoon. Is it just me or is that the most pointless programme on the tv?

Talking of tv I’m enjoying ‘I’m a celebrity’ although I wish they didn’t put Jordan back in there. She’s had her chance she should let others have a turn. I really like Kim, she’s great for her age and seems like a laugh. I also like Sam, Colin and Justin, although it’s early days yet.

Manic Monday

Well it’s been a while since I have done a ‘proper’ blog. So I’ve got a bit of catching up to do.

The photo above was taken at the Science Fair which is held at the Sligo IT every year. There are all sorts of things to do and it’s a great day out.
This year as well as all the experiments there was a mobile planetarium, sea creatures from Exploris, RLNI and Eagles Flying. Alaska above is a female bald eagle. She is ten years old and is one of the many birds that can be seen in the flying display at Eagles Flying. If you are anywhere near Ballymote go and visit it’s a great place.

I was a bit surprised to see this fella at the science fair:

So it seems that Elvis isn’t dead after all! Jono thought it was actually Elvis and was going to ask for his autograph!

Lucy hasn’t been too well over the last week. She seems to pick up every bug going so I took her to the doctors today and she has a throat infection. She’s going back for a blood test tomorrow and is on anti biotics now.
While we were in the doctors the child from hell was sitting beside me…..typical I seem to be a magnet for them!
He wouldn’t sit still and was almost on top of me. Then he started pulling at the leaflets that were above our heads one of them landed on me. I suppose it’s just lucky it was only a leaflet and not the shelf that they were on.

Still no news about Jono’s operation. There was an article in the newspaper last Monday. I didn’t scan it in because it doesn’t say anything new. Just that we had a date and it got cancelled.

We were having dinner this evening and listening to the Heart radio station (Chiltern radio) on the internet radio and I was gobsmacked to hear them play ‘Step into Christmas’ by Elton John…..it’s the 16th of November!!!

The War of The Worlds alive on stage

Our household are massive fans of Jeff Waynes musical version of The War of The Worlds.
We got to see the live show at the O2 in Dublin in June and to our delight the show is returning again in November 2010.

Today the tickets were on pre-sale to the fans and I am trying to buy them….but failing. Either because we weren’t given a password or the ticketmaster site isn’t working. Anyway I will keep trying.

We were lucky enough to be staying in the same hotel as the cast and got to meet some of them. Jeff Wayne is a lovely man and spent a long time talking to us.

We were disappointed to hear that Alexis James is no longer the artillery man, he was fantastic in the role and really made it his own. This time Jason Donovan will be playing the part. He certainly looks the part anyway. My mother in law loved Jason, she had all his records.

Liz McClarnon is taking the part of Beth. Beth has been played by several different ladies including Jennifer Ellison (who we also met in June), Sinead Quinn and Tara Blaise. Liz has a lovely voice so should be well suited to the part.

Sorry for the small photos, I couldn’t work out the right way to insert them into the post. The full size ones are on PicApp.

Justin Hayward is returning in his role as the 'sung thoughts of the journalist'. The rest of the cast has yet to be announced.

Hopefully I'll get to book tickets soon! For more info have a look at the official site

Just an update. I finally got the password and have booked our tickets so very pleased about that. I also saw this video on youtube, thanks to Artilleryman2009 for letting me post it.

The National Wax Museum Plus

So after the toys 4 big boys show we had a while to wait until the train back to Sligo.

As Jono and I aren’t into shopping (well not much), we decided to go to the National Wax Museum it’s been closed for quite a while undergoing refurbishment so we were expecting to see up to date wax works……we were wrong. Luckily most of them had names or I wouldn’t have known who they were.

There was Madonna (as she looked in the 80’s). Also Boy George and David Bowie (very up to date!) Also waxworks about the 1916 rising and a room devoted to Irish writers.

The chamber of horrors consisted of two small rooms. One featuring the Silence of the lambs, the other with Dracula and Frankinstein.

A childrens room had a ‘cinema’ showing the first Harry Potter film. There was also a waxwork of Santa in his log cabin.

There was a ‘wax factor’ were you could make a youtube video, but it wasn’t working when we were there. A room all about science was there too (which was OK for younger kids….but really nothing to do with waxworks).

All in all it was very outdated and I wouldn’t imagine that young children would know many of the waxworks. I have to say I thought it was quite amusing. More pics here.

Madame Tussauds it ain’t.

Toys 4 Big Boys

So myself and Jono got up at 6am yesterday to get the train to Dublin. Luckily they re-opened the track between Sligo and Dromod so we didn’t have to get a bus this time.

We got to the RDS just after 10am and our tickets that we won from boards.ie were waiting for us.
As we walked in we had a close encounter with several Stormtroopers! Later in the day Darth Vader (David Prowse) was there signing autographs but at twenty euro a go we gave it a miss.

There was loads to see including Militery Vehicles, a ‘Dream pad’ kitted out with designer furniture, robots (including a dalek), cars, bikes, boats, disco lights and all kinds of things. What was missing were games consoles, computers and mobile phones.

Upstairs was a ‘pamper zone’ for the girls with different stalls selling anything from nail art to palm reading. There was also a fashion show. If I was organising it I would have had a wine bar for the girls, with soft lighting, girly films and chocolates so they could really relax.

The best part of the exhibition for us was the ‘Smoke ‘n’ Rubber show in the Live action arena. This featured:
•Abseilers
•Dancers
•Chain gang
•Quad Bike Stunt Show featuring Niall O’Hanlon
•Trialstar Motorcycle Trials featuring Andy Perry
•Rallycars
•Autotest
•Drifting
•Mini Motos
•Opposite Lock Live Action Display Team
I’ve done a short bit of video of the show.
The smell of burning rubber was mad. I’m so glad I don’t have to buy tyres for their cars.

Outside the main halls there was a wall of death (which we didn’t try!), a rally car simulator and a big inflatable ball which you got into and ran along a bit like a hamster. Jono had a go in this but he forgot to stand up and landed on his head! He was OK though and actually enjoyed it.

All in all it was a great day out and we really enjoyed it. I took loads of photos which I’m am going though and will put up on flickr and pix.ie