CHATTER

What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?

Living in Northern Ireland I am a citizen of both the United Kingdom and Ireland.

I actually like to see myself as Northern Irish having a foot in both camps.

My ancestry also shows up some Scottish and some Sardinian dna 🧬. The Sardinian was quite a surprise.

I must confess to be more influenced by British culture such as TV programmes, way of life etc but I also enjoy a lot of Irish culture, the music, the poetry and the famous writers who hailed from Ireland.

Before partition Gaelic was spoken by a large section of the population and many place names in and around NI reflect the language.

The town-land where I live is called. Ballycloghan, which comes from the Irish, ‘Baile Clocháin’ meaning “townland of the ford/row of stepping stones” I speak a little Irish and it is coming back to the area with many schools teaching Irish as their first language.

This doesn’t go down well with many of the Unionist ( British) population who believe that is a political gesture that is trying to weaken the union with the UK. All very complicated.

Same with the GAA.

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is Ireland’s largest sporting organisation. It is celebrated as one of the great amateur sporting associations in the world.

It is part of the Irish consciousness and plays an influential role in Irish society that extends far beyond the basic aim of promoting Gaelic games. This is Irish culture and is rejected by many of those with a British affinity.

Everyone has heard of St.Patrick and all over the world St.Patrick’s Day is celebrated. Nowadays more for the drinking and parades than the religious aspect.

It should be possible to celebrate the diversity of both cultures as long as there is harmony but unfortunately we haven’t quite reached that stage in NI and I don’t expect it will happen in my lifetime, although things are changing slowly.

What brands do you associate with?

For communication it has to be Apple. I’ve had an iPhone for many, many years, back in the day when there were no or very few apps. You couldn’t FaceTime and I think getting on to the internet was hit and miss.

Still have an Apple desktop computer and have had many iPads, on my third Apple Watch, and have bought over the years many Apple appliances as presents for family. I dread to think how much I’ve spent. Apple should really be giving me discount now.

I don’t care about fashion, I never buy brands. But I do like Marks and Spencer’s for the occasional item ( which usually hangs in my wardrobe with the other outdated outfits which I hope will come back into fashion.)

However I do make several visits a week to the food hall. Usually I buy too much and end up putting it in the food bin.

I find most brands are over priced and when shopping with the grandchildren I am horrified at the price of a tee shirt with a brand name. But the little darlings won’t wear anything else. OK they are 17, 20, 23, and 24. Hopefully they will realise soon that they can survive without brand names, unlike their granny 👵 lol

What could you do more of?

Probably sleeping. I’m a very poor sleeper. I’m a night person and don’t go to bed until well after midnight.

I read for a while but can’t resist scrolling through Twitter just one last time before sleep. Of course once I start I get diverted and a quick scroll could be anything up to an hour.

By that time the brain activity is in overdrive and I find it impossible to sleep. 💤

Memories from the past come flooding in, things that I’ve read on Twitter and absolute rubbish keeps me from getting into a deep sleep.

Result the sun is rising as I am dozing off.

Definitely could do with more sleep.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

I’ve tried to think of any advice I got, never mind the best piece of advice, and I’m finding it hard to come up with anything.

Maybe it’s because I’ve never listened to advice, preferring to make my own decisions whether right or wrong.

I didn’t have grandparents growing up, unlike my 4 grandchildren, whom I am constantly giving advice. A bit ironic.

I left home at 16. One reason being that my father advised me that going out with a Protestant was a bad decision. Definitely glad I didn’t take that advice as I married that Protestant 54 years ago.

I was quite feisty in my youth and being independent at an early age meant that I could fend for myself.

As I’m writing I’m still trying to think of a piece of the best piece of advice I’ve received.

The only thing I can come up with is that a lecturer on one of the many courses I have attended said ‘ Prioritise your tasks, work through them and you’ll get there feeling calm and relaxed.’

What would your life be like without music?

If I’m being honest and I try to be, I’m not sure I would miss music.

I know that makes me sound like a philistine. Don’t get me wrong when I actually listen to music, which isn’t that often, I thoroughly enjoy it but I can’t say if there was no music in my life I would miss it.

I’m going to end it there or else I would end up discussing actual genres of music and that’s not the question.

The answer is yes I could survive without music.

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

Well there were actually two that stick out and I still feel some guilt and some embarrassment.

Guilt you may ask?

Well you see my husband is a golfer and every couple of months four of his friends would get together to play golf and afterwards the wives would take turns to cook them a meal.

I had two weans. ( an Ulster Scots word for little children) and trying to cook dinner and watch them was trying to say the least.

The main course was fine but the apple crumble for dessert didn’t work out as well. As I lifted the crumble mixture to put on top of the apples, one of the kids started crying….

In my haste to see what the problem was I dropped the crumble mix on the floor. Sorted the kids out and came back and with little time to make another mix, I gathered the crumble from the floor ( which was clean) put it on top of the apples, baked it, served it to my guests and said nothing.

The other incident that caused acute embarrassment was on New Years Day when as a newly wed I decided to cook duck for my in-laws and my brother and his wife.

Now I’d never cooked a duck before and I don’t remember a duck ever being cooked when I lived at home

So I didn’t realise that there is very little meat on a duck and it certainly doesn’t serve 6, no matter how big it looked..

As a result there was only a tiny sliver of duck and quite big servings of roast potatoes and vegetables. No one said anything and I sat at the table mortified. I still think of it after all these years but now I can laugh about it and I did tell the husband about the crumble but only after he had eaten it.

Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

None of us get through life without some regrets. It’s only when we get older that we realise we could have done things differently but we were influenced by others.

I wish I hadn’t worried so much about what people thought about me. I spent a lot of my life trying to please others and being influenced on what direction my life should go.

I could have been more assertive in my younger days. Being young doesn’t mean you can’t think for yourself and make the right decisions. But I was influenced by family members when I tried to do something I wanted but for whatever reason they didn’t agree. I was influenced by them and I suspect that there was a certain amount of ‘ well if I wasn’t able to do it, then you shouldn’t either’ Not all family and friends have your genuine interest at heart

I try to bite my tongue when talking to grandchildren and try not to impose my view on what I think is best for them.

As young adults they are entitled to make their own decisions and learn by their mistakes. A lot better than being denied the choice due to not standing up to others.

How often do you walk or run?

Unless I’m being chased by a man with a machete I don’t run anywhere.

I do however walk most days and usually for about 2 miles.

I’m lucky to live near lots of lovely walks, both by the sea 🌊 and in the mountains. ⛰️

Weather here is unpredictable so sometimes it’s like having all four seasons in the one day. At the moment it’s very autumnal and yesterday I walked along an old railway line near my home and collected blackberries. They made a delicious crumble.

As we’ve been looking after Luna, my son’s 🐶 over the last two weeks I’ve had a little four legged companion.

I find walking relaxing and the brisk wind along the Lough certainly blows away the cobwebs. Where else can you walk along by the sea 🌊 while a plane ✈️ is landing right above your head and a ferry ⛴️ is heading out to Scotland?🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Taking photos is also a hobby and I spent a lot of time taking photos as I walk. You never know what you’ll come across.

Picking blackberries

Do you see yourself as a leader?

Well if there was a situation that needed someone to take control I would be in there being proactive.

When I worked I was always the one who took a lead in organising outings, lunches to raise money for charities etc.

I did have a chance in the far distant past to stand for a public office ( a councillor) but other things got in the way and the moment passed. I was for a few years a director on the board of Open Government NI and I’d like to think I made a difference.

Not sure I’d like to be a leader of a country. The weight of having the future of a country in my hands would be much too daunting.

So I’ll stick to deciding what’s for dinner, how to spend the day and hope that the hubby wants to follow.

What are you doing this evening ?

For me evening starts about 6 pm. So tonight at 6 pm I was cooking dinner. A roast chicken 🐓 with roast potatoes, 🥔 vegetables, stuffing and gravy.

My daughter FaceTimed after dinner and we had a chat. Mostly about the grandchildren.

My granddaughter who is in Rhodes sent me photos of her visit to the island of Symi. Beautiful. Reminded me so much of Mama Mia.

Grandson No 2 sent me a video of the log cabin he is staying in. He is in the Scottish Highlands.

I wrote my diary for Facebook. I do one every evening.

I then settled down to watch the soaps with my phone in my hand trawling through Twitter (X). I also played Words with Friends and arranged an outing with 3 of my friends in October.

Headed off to bed to read my book just after midnight and will probably check Twitter before going to sleep.

And I wrote this.

Very boring I know but you did ask. I’ve added a couple of the photos my granddaughter sent.