So we were planning on a nice cheap lino floor for the little fella’s room.  Lets face it he is probably just going to paint it or colour it in at some stage.  So why do I have a picture of a lovely new laminate wood flooring that is clearly in his room, I am glad you asked.
It was New Years Day…we were a little worse for wear from all the DIYing during the week (and we got home at 5am!).  All that said we were determined to finish his room.  So I went in search of lino.  Not surprisingly everywhere was shit except Woodies DIY, which don’t sell lino but I went in anyway.  The nice salesman convinced me to look at lino flooring somehow!  I was muttering to myself, why am I wasting my time I am not going to spend a load of money on flooring that is just going to get wrecked.

“They are on sale” he said

“How much?” I asked with a sigh, expecting the usual 10% discount.

” 1 euro” he replied smuggley, knowing full well I was uninterested.

“What! 1 euro a piece!?” I exclaimed

“No a box” he said calmly.

I made some quick calculations based on the square footage quoted on the side of the box, I would only need three or at the most four boxes!  Well the rest as they say is history.  In the end it took less than three boxes.  The cheapest floor in the house!

First came the frame which laid out the main structure and support for the walls and doors which were MDF.

Once we had the frame in place, which took longer than anticipated and several trips to the attic we began fitting the side walls.  It was finally beginning to look like something.

The doors were probably the hardest to get right and we left those til day two.  It took skill, a chair, a box and a piece of wood to dangerously balance the doors on while fitting them.  They’re not perfect, but I don’t think Ruairi will notice.

While we were busily constructing our waredrobe Les and Ru were out purchasing nice things in IKEA to fit inside.  And boy did they fit.  The IKEA shelving unit was exactly 80CM across and we had exactly 80 CM of space…it just fit inside.  Lets hope we never have to remove it because it won’t be coming out without a fight.

Finally we got the shelves in, walls up, doors on (and working) and the whole thing painted.  All in all it took 2+ days but it was well worth it and I really enjoyed building something with my Dad, for my son.  There was something nice about the shift from one generation to another.  When I was a kid I remember my Dad building stuff in our house and being his little helper.  Now he was helping me build something for my son.  For a short moment a strange thought past through my mind, I saw myself helping Ruairi make something in his home 20 or 30 years from now.  Life as they say has a habit of repeating itself.

It was our first real Halloween with Ruairi this year. Last year he was in a little Pumpkin outfit and had absolutely no idea what was going on. This year we attempted to put him into a spider costume but that ended in tears. So he joined his Daddy as a gangster (see below).

Daddy lookin gangster!

The Crew

Its our first proper family holiday since the little fella graced us with his presence.  We have decided to stay within Irish territory.  Mainly so we can bring the other members of our little family namely Cooper n Mojo…see below. They have been enjoying the beach, mountains and sun.

It was a long journey down…6 hours!  But we all took turns, Ruairi even drove for a little while.

We had an exciting first day, we found a cafe with a Enchanted Garden, a diver at the Bell tower, drove up a mountain to admire the Valentia views (car almost didn’t make it).   We even found a secluded little beach where Ruairi discovered sand and the cold sea for the first time.  Exciting times and more to come this holiday.

The Enchanted Garden

The first adventure into the sea…not too happy

Sand…interesting substance

Dave the Diver…random

The Blue Lagoon

Lesleys Birthday Cake

So this weekend was Lesleys 25th birthday.  The quarter century club.  Myself and Sarah Jane took it upon ourselves to organise a surprise birthday party.  These are alot more stressful than one might think.  Organising an event is hard enough without having to keep it a secret from someone.  Problems arouse right from the beginning when Lesley asked ” Who are you texting”  to which I replied “Eh,emmm…eh…Sarah?!”  Got away with that one by saying we were discussing her birthday present.  Score!  During the week there was  closed party shops,  people telling her about the party while at another party tho Les has no recollection of this and on the day in question I actually bump into her at Tesco’s while I was buying party supplies!! FUCK!  Talked my way out of that one with “Bread, we needed bread!”

Alas none of this lead Lesley to believe there was indeed a surprise party in her honor being schemed right under her nose.  No she was oblivious to it all, oblivious that is until I moved the clothes horse!  That my friends was a step too far.  It was not the cleaning of the house, the power-hosing of the back yard hours before we had to go out, no I tidied away the clothes horse.  Mistake numbero uno!  Why did he do that Lesley thought to herself.  She settled on “He must really hate those clothes horse”.

At 7pm on Friday I took her out for our meal and she was still blissfully unaware of the many people no doubt en route to our house.  The meal went on a bit longer than we had planned, Sarah had a few minor mishaps (eg Fin left money lying around the house and couldn’t remember where) but in the end we pulled it off.

As we rounded the corner of Lealand Grove Lesley was greeted with great Surprise to all of her friends standing outside our house with a large banner wishing her a Happy Birthday.

She was very surprised and we all had an amazing night.  I am very grateful to everyone who came and especially to Sarah Jane, my partner in crime who helped organise everyone.  Despite the trauma of keeping secrets from the wonderful Lesley for a  few weeks it was all worth it just to see the smile on her face when she saw everyone was there just for her.

With all the bad surprises Ireland has had in 2009 I think 2010 should be the year of surprise parties, celebrating all that is awesome in our lives.  If you can think of a reason to party then go right ahead and if your friend doesn’t want one…well that’s a surprise waiting to happen isn’t it!

We had amongst our arsenal an actual toboggan (thanks to Cillian), black sacks (thanks to Dan) and several types of surfing/boogie boards.  I provided the camera and below is some of our mishaps, adventures and near misses.  We started out rather un-adventurous but by the end we were piling people on, breaking distances records and even surfing down (well some of the way).

First we have Cillian and Colm attempting a duo, they manage to hit some children along the way too.

As my courage grew from each attempt I finally decided to try Surfing…while standing.  It did not go quite according to plan

Next up we have the ladies who attempted 3 on a board (impressive).

Finally the lads tried to top that with 4 on board and in case you miss me saying it in the video…I wasn’t ready!

In conclusion although the snow has probably cost the country millions, made us sit in traffic for many many many hours and caused damage to our cars and homes, don’t worry about it.  Every cloud has a silver lining and this one you can slide down!  So grab the shiniest tea tray you can find…and join in the fun!

On our recent trip to Leitrim Ruairi discovered oranges and more importantly that they roll.  As with everything however it does end up in the mouth at some stage.  I find this journey of discovery so extraordinary.  I think it is this that parents are trying to get across when they describe how wonderful it is to be a parent.  It is being apart of this discovery almost every single day.

Sure there are times when you don’t get any sleep and you wish you could remember what a lie in on a Sunday morning even felt like or your romantic dinner is interrupted by screaming (the baby that is).  All of these things and more simply disappear when you are witness to your childs first time doing or finding something new in the world.

Its 11:30 on Sunday morning and I can hear our little man chatting away to himself upstairs so it must be almost Wheatabix time.  For many of my friends this might not sound like a fun way to spend your Sunday morning but you never know we might just discover something new today.

We were heading back from Cork, having had a brilliant weekend (see previous post). We had to stop off in Mountmellick on our way back to collect Ruairi as he was staying with his grandparents. As we came into town past the hospital the car lost grip on a bend. The back of the jeep began to rotate, so I slowed down.   Suddenly the vehicle regained grip and jolted to the right. Now we were still skidding towards the opposite side of the road with the ditch getting closer. To correct this I rotated the wheels back towards the left and the whipped around in a slingshot motion slamming us into a wall on the opposite side of the road with a tremendous BANG!

We had stopped there was silence. “Is everyone ok I asked” Tho a little shaken, no one was hurt. We all got out of the Jeep, I was forced to climb out my window as the vehicle was pressed up against what was once a wall. I hugged Lesley just to know she was safe and reassure both of us that we were ok. A few people gathered and a man appeared from a nearby house offering us tea and somewhere to recover. We gladly accepted. I decided to move the jeep and also see if she was still working.

I turned the key not expecting much but I had under estimated this little jeep. She roared into action not bothered by the fact that she had just brought down a wall and managed to sustain only minor structural damage considering the impact.

So now that my family is safely home and I can look back on this quite traumatic event there are two things to consider, what have I learnt and what am I thankful for.

Well starting with the latter, I am thankful for my son Ruairi not being with us at the time, this thought has been in my mind since the accident and will probably stay there for some time.  I am also thankful that no one was in the garden or walking past at the time of the accident as it scares me to think of what could have happened. A far worse aftermath then just a banged up jeep.

Finally, we were discussing it afterwards and reckoned that the impact would not have been sustained by a car so easily. The height of the wall would have meant a car would have been impacted at a higher point, perhaps smashing windows, crushing doors and possibly sending debris into the car itself. The Jeep on the other hand made contact below the level of its door handles and simply took the wall out from its foundations with one feld swoop, saving us in the process.

This leads onto my conclusion, why I will always have an SUV. We discovered from the nice folk that shared their home and looked after us that this was not the first time a car had crashed here.  No, infact as far as he could remember I was the sixth accident in recent years and that the wall I had destroyed had been rebuilt more than 5 times!   They have been asking the council for years to but up a sign or a ramp to avoid this but their cries have gone un-answered.  I will always have an SUV for one reason and one reason alone, cars can be repaired, walls can be re-built but families…these are the most precious things of all.

We cannot be responsible for other drivers on the road, for the lack of initiative by our government and local councils, nor the simple act of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  You only get one chance to do it right. we must do everything in my power to keep our friends & families safe.

- Drive safley folks -