picasa 3.5 - great fun to be had

i downloaded the new version this eveningand of course had to try the face tagging. the pictures on my harddrive are mostly family photographs and it's great fun to see who's getting tagged as who! you get to confirm or decline. it's making me feel woozy, seeing so many versions of one person's face...

http://picasa.google.com/

a weekend with friends

two friends from college came to visit this weekend, we had a great time! there was less going out and less hiking than during previous trips, and a lot of emm entertaining! everything is so much easier with two friends around, to entertain the baby and help with the dishes or cooking... i wonder would communal living be like that. i was surprised how i had time to finish a cup of coffee or eat my dinner while it was hot!
we went to skerries and carlingford for walks, and food, and emm came with us. i didn't take many pictures, but the girls got a few nice ones!


we went into dublin without emm, but i didn't enjoy it as much as i had thought i might. i missed her, and i just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for shopping, it just seemed quite unimportant! i used to love trawling around the shoe shops, and buying clothes and accessories. i never bought very much, or very high fashion stuff, but i used to like hunting for the perfect cardigan at a good price, checking out what's on offer and buying when i saw what fit the bill. on this occasion i just couldn't be bothered with the 'checking out what's on offer' part, i didn't really want to look at all the runners in all the shoe shops to see if there was a pair to replace my worn to bits and recently thrown out green golas. i'm actually wearing an even older pair of cheapo dunnes stores runners, and i don't mind at all! it must be part of the mother hormones...
i had been hoping to maybe go to the art gallery, but we never got around to that, with no train running we had to rely on the buses they put on, so we had to leave quite early. maybe i'll go in with emm, and visit the art gallery.
i find time runs so fast, and i still haven't any proper structure to my week, with scheduled outings or fun things, i go with the flow and it works to an extent, i get the important things done, but i fear i might fritter away my career break without making the most of it!!

my friend took this picture of the clothes line, another mother gave me lots of girls' clothes, and i did a red and pink wash, to make sure none of the rest of our clothes get died pink!



my friend's lovely scarf, i admired it greatly,

as she only just got it in her town, and she said the shop had loads more, she left it for me! what a nice gesture, now i have a souvenier of their visit!

indian summer!

we've been granted another few days of summer, what a treat! we went to skerries, where the husband watched a football match while m and i went for a lovely walk.
there was a swimming competition on, i had contemplated a little dip myself, but then chickened out!

p joined us after the match (they lost) and we had another walk as the sun was setting, and then went for some pasta. m got little bits off our plates, she loved the tagliatelle and the peas. she's really good at sucking the tagliatelle in, it looks so cute... she behaved quite well, despite being a little noisy at times, but that's just her lively self! she always gets a very lively when she gets tired.


i had great hopes for this photo, the little flags were really brightly lit up by the sun, but i didn't catch it right.

baby going exploring

we went to the local soccer club's family fun day, a great way to enjoy the rare sunshine! my brave little baby went off exploring, without a look back! this is how far she got before she slowed down and then turned around...

swing night

My friend C and I went to a swing night in the Spiegel Tent, and it was great fun! it's such a lovely venue, i think it's 1920s style. lots of people dressed up in 1920s-1950s gear, i only had 2 hours notice and still had to cook dinner and look after the babe, so i just put on a dress and some danceable shoes, no strings of beads and feathered headbands for me... there were performances from The Harlem Hot Shots, Miss Dotty Pots, The Vaudeville Vamps, Dorothy Darker, The Hep Cat Strutters, and the 'Swinging Blue Cats' were playing (Here some more info). There were some great dancers on the floor, and even C and I got a few dances! I could hardly remember how to turn, it's been nearly two years since I went swing dancing!

Very few beginners and rusty ones like me dared to swing a leg,

but later on the dance floor was packed!


I love this picture i took just before we left, the abandoned rows of chairs in the coloured lights from the dancefloor! The roll of masking tape there is no coincidence, some dancers use tape to make their street shoes more slidy!
There's M waking up, gotta go! Will see can I find some youtube links to videos of the shenanigans later! Here's one from 2 years ago!

the time travellers wife

I went to this film tonight! I loved the book, but have to say it doesn't work as well as a film. Or maybe that's just if you've read the book? There were at least two girls sobbing their hearts out, in the cinema, so maybe if you don't know what's going to happen it makes more of an impact? They had lovely sets, beautiful furniture and lamps! I especially loved the round yellow lamps in Clare and Henry's apartment...

Oops. Half eleven. Busy day tomorrow, we're going for her check up at the local health centre. Apparently they test her hearing by standing behind her and making funny noises from two sides...