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.

Fins Graduation

I was never big into the idea of college. I liked it and I always knew I’d give it a go but deep down from the age of 5 my greatest desire was to own and run my own business.   So after a year at UCD that’s exactly what I did, took a “year out” and setup Damson, best thing I ever did. Education didn’t seem important until one day when we decided to go on a training course “Growing Your Business” run by Dublin County Enterprise Board.  It was 8 weeks long and told us all we needed to know about business, finance, marketing, sales etc.

The course had two affects, the first was for us to rethink the strategy and plan for our business.  It gave us the knowledge we needed to bring about the changes necessary to move our business to the next level.  The second affect it had was on ourselves.  We realised that education was key to our success and as they say knowledge is power.  So a new area of the Damson business plan was born, education.

So what has happened since then, well we have done alot more training:  from business training to Business Analysis to technology.  All have benefited ourselves and our organisation. Donal has been studying hard through Open University to complete a degree.  I went to the National College of Ireland and completed my Diploma in Business Analysis and Consultancy.

So now almost a year later we attended my Graduation, it was exciting to finally have a piece of paper to my name and the sense of achievement was great.

I think overall this year has been eventful between finishing my diploma and getting used to being a parent it has been tough but rewarding.

I really enjoyed my short time at the National College of Ireland, the facilities were world class and the staff go above and beyond to ensure you have the best educational experience possible. I would recommend the NCI to anyone considering further education.

I now believe in life long learning and although this is my first academic achievement at third level I can say without hesitation it will not be my last

I recall a friend once saying as we were growing up, that we were running out of firsts. By that he meant everything from your first step as a baby to your first kiss as a teenager.  At the time I thought he was probably right as I left my teenage years behind and we were becoming adults I thought yeah soon we’ll have just done everything…right?

I know what your thinking, of course he wasn’t right but we were young.  I guess it all depends on what you do with your life whether you stop experiencing firsts.  If you get one job, never go on holidays, have kids or possibly leave your house then your unlikely to experiencing anything new but not only is that unlikely it is almost impossible.

I think the most amazing firsts happen when we are kids.  There is something wonderful about discovery, the first time you see an amazing view or watch a fireworks display.  As I watch my son experience all of his firsts (which happen almost everyday) I think to myself it must be amazing to see such wonder in the simplest things. Whether its the taste of broccoli (yuck) or seeing a dog for the first time.  To him everything is an experience to be immersed in.  However, he is not the only one having first times, because its my first time being a parent.  So I get to see him experience all these amazing little adventures for the first time too.

It does something else too, it pushes me to do more, to experience all there is out there.  Whether its being a parent or going parachuting it doesn’t matter, if its a first then its exciting.

I suppose the truth is no matter how old, wise or worldly we get there is always something we haven’t done. Something that will be a first for us. So this is just a thanks to Ruairi for not letting me forget about how amazing and terrifying it can feel to do something you’ve never done before.

You only get one life, live it!

I am a huge supporter of Educate Together having gone through their education system and come out the other side a better person for it.  Educate Together offers a real alternative to parents who do not wish to send their children to a religious school.  My days at ET were spent learning about many religions, cultures and ethical backgrounds.  My classmates were Christians, protestants, Quakers, Hindus, humanists and much more.  It was here I learnt to accept people for who they were.  It was a school where bullying didn’t happen, parents were actively involved and we called all the teachers by their first name. In short it was a school that respected you even though you were a kid and because of that simple fact I respected my school.

So this is to all past pupils of ANY Educate Together School, any ET supporters, please give generously to these brave women who will be fighting the cold hard tarmac of Dublin for their cause.

All Proceeds go towards the “Learn Together” Ethical Curriculum Training.

http://short.ie/floramini

http://short.ie/learntogether
—”Learn together to live together” Educate Together—

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 -

So I was hoping to do a few posts leading up to the birth of my son, however, having a kid is time consuming…who would have thought.

Plus he came on his due date! My son, insane. I honestly thought I had another week at least. In my defence so did the Dr.

His exact words were, “arrive today no, I reckon next week at some stage”. My son promptly arrived less than 12 hours after the Dr uttered those words.

So now its 13 weeks on and we are adjusting well to our new role as parental units.  tough my friends but extremely rewarding. I find myself watching less tv, I have forgotten what a pub looks like and sleep is something I read about only in books (and as most of you know, I don’t read books).   I must point out at this juncture that tho I am involved, of late by darling partner Lesley has been kind enough to do the majority of night feeds.

When people found out about my impending parenthood they would always proceed to say congratulations. This was promptly followed by so are you ready for all the sleepless nights, feeding, vomiting…etc etc.

I would smile and say as ready as I’ll ever be. As if there was some way I could travel forward in time to get some practise! The truth is, nothing on this earth can prepare you for the turmoil this one little person will reek upon your calm world. All that said there is some sort of in built instict that activates upon his arrival. Something you were only aware of when you hear a fight somewhere off in the distance and a small part of you gets ready…just in case.

Its that dormant gene that suddenly activates and makes you become more aware of your surroundings. You now have this family to protect and people who drive fast are now idiots, not cool. Yes my friends you have become your parents. It was at that moment I realised why my father always worried when I was out, even when I’m 26.  It was at that moment that I understood why my mother could not sleep until I was home from a night out and it was at that moment that I realised that all that lay ahead of me too.

The road ahead is tough my friends and I fear what I do not know, but I also revel in it. Its sends shivers down my spine to think of all the things he may accomplish and all the adventures we are yet to have. The sleepless nights and crazyiness of the last few months mean nothing to the first time we will stand on the sugar loaf together, climb Caroontoohil or maybe even Mount Kilimanjaro.