On the night Imelda looked amazing in a retro cut white dress with a rose pattern:

She looked amazing and wore sparkly red shoes and I wanted it – the whole outfit!! So imagine my delight one day last week when I spotted that exact dress on a dummy outside Retro in George’s Street Arcade! I went in, I asked was it the same dress (it was) and I checked that they had my size (they did). I’m not sure I can carry off white with red roses but they had the same dress in different patterns. I have made a dress-up date with a pal from work and tomorrow on our lunch break we are going to go and try on dresses. I will try on that dress.

For the first time in a long while, I have some money to spend on myself. This is a major treat for me and I can’t wait. If they have those sparkly red shoes too – sold!

“So, did anyone ever marry the wrong person back in your day?”

“Yes, ME” replies The Granny.

“Oh no, I meant a person that wasn’t approved of or who turned out to be a nasty piece of work?”

All said in hushed tones across the restaurant table.

“Or were there any arranged marriages?”

According the The Granny, yes one of her aunt’s marriages had been arranged. Rewind to 1940s Wexford where it was all about the land you had and the living you could make from it. There was a local bar, Murphy’s, where a certain bachelor farmer would go from time to time for a drink or two and a chat with Mr. Murphy behind the bar. He was a man in his forties and he made it known to Mr. Murphy – who surely knew every man in the surrounding area (with and without a daughter) – that he was on the lookout for a wife.

Mr. Murphy being a good neighbour and a bit of a matchmaker, told my great-grandfather that Pat was on the lookout for a wife – “You should introduce him to Vera”. Vera was one of his two daughters and at the age of 34, as yet unmarried. My great-grandfather knew of the man and was told by Mr. Murphy that not only did he have a very large farm, he also reared “the best pigs in Co. Wexford”. Hello romance!

And so it was arranged, via notes, that Pat would wait at a certain crossroads between Enniscorthy and Oilgate to meet Vera one day. He had to cycle there, as did she and she took my grandmother (her niece) along in case he didn’t show up and she’d be left there all alone. But he did show up, at which point my gran was sent home on her bicycle (she was 18 at the time). And so they met on the back roads and cross roads of Wexford for a few short months until an engagement was announced.

Clearly my sister and gran had gotten the term “arranged marriage” mixed up between them but as far as my gran was concerned, it had all been hashed out between the men and arranged before ever Vera clapped eyes on him. She did concede that if Vera hadn’t liked the look of him, she never would have had to marry him. They were married very soon after with my gran as the bridesmaid in, according to her, a hideous pink dress. They had a very happy marriage according to my gran, despite the odd interference from the local nuns. One of them went so far as to book Vera an appointment with a gynaecologist in Wexford and sent her word via another nun of the appointment. Apparently it was “in case she was too embarrassed to do it herself”. Clearly because no children were forthcoming and the nun felt a duty to sort it out for her.

Shocked and embarrassed by the whole thing, Vera asked one of her brothers, a Christian Brother himself, how she was going to get out of this without upsetting the nun or making an enemy of her. “Tell her you are willing to accept the will of God” he said. And she did.

Unfortunately Pat developed Parkinson’s Disease not long into the marriage (according to my dad) and Vera was left to look after a vast farm by herself. A strong woman, she had to become even stronger. “As strong as any man” says my dad. I remember her as a big towering woman when I was a child. My gran would bring myself and my brother (and possibly my sister) down to Oilgate to see the new lambs and chickens in the spring (I don’t remember any pigs) and she taught me how to make a proper St. Brigid’s Cross out of the reeds beside the farmhouse.

Another one of the strong lone female role models in my life, something I’ve just noticed recently. Maybe I’ll write about them another time

Now the ‘kinda’ good start is this. I was made permanent in this job that I like in a company that is defying current trends and growing bigger almost daily. My new contract started on the day of my birthday – perfect timing. So you can imagine the growing unease of finding out that one of my very best friends is due to have a meeting in work – also on her birthday – in which she will more than likely be made redundant or be told when she is being made redundant.

She is still delighted for me and so am I. Another friend told me today she has found herself a new job and handed in notice at her old place.

Swings and roundabouts. Ups and downs. Hopefully it’ll work out for the other friend soon.

Thanks to all who have been reading my blog despite the fact that I only posted 5 times in 2010 I have been thinking about this blog a bit recently, I miss it! And although I won’t be blogging very regularly, I think I’ll be trying to do a bit more than 5 this year. 2010 was a year of huge change and upheaval for me in good and bad ways. It started on a very low note personally but ended on a much higher one – hooray!

Happy New Year and all my best wishes for 2011

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2010. That’s about 31 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 5 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 114 posts. There were 16 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 6mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was February 14th with 96 views. The most popular post that day was Coolest. Beds. Ever. .

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were irishtimes.com, irishblogs.ie, culch.ie, search.aol.com, and search.conduit.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for my sister’s keeper, cool chairs, inside a wave, lace underwear, and my sisters keeper.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Coolest. Beds. Ever. October 2008
11 comments

My Sister’s Keeper July 2009
5 comments

Oooh wavey! March 2009
4 comments

Cool chairs January 2009
10 comments

Please help me go to the Halloween party! October 2009
3 comments

On her 75th birthday my uncle and his wife visited The Granny with card and present. From what The Granny tells us, she opened the card which had a huge 75 on the front and in disgust she tore it up and chucked it on the fire in front of them. In reality that didn’t happen because when we saw her a few days later the torn card was still in pieces in her living room. Lesson learned anyway – no numbers.

Poor youngest sis was only 13 then and had possibly forgotten that story a bit. Cue huge intake of breath when the offending hand written numbers were spied – disgusted face – closing of card. I spied them over her shoulder and made a joke out of it. Anything to stop her tearing up a card from the next grandchild who is teetering on the brink of not really giving a damn any more. Card was kept, or at least taken home. Disaster averted.

Earlier in the day, we paid a trip here…a country drive was a lovely way to celebrate the drive even if the place she actually wanted to see was closed. We’ll go back there another day.