MoonBunny

Eurrgghhhh.... why are there no proper queasy faces on this site? Hotmail has them. I've just had a seriously queasy half hour. You know that dreadful moment when the nausea makes you genuinely crave the end? Honestly, black nothingness would be better than nausea. But the relief that comes when you realise the Devil's Session is properly over is utterly life-affirming! I feel like skipping through daisies in the summer sunshine! But I can't cos it's 9pm in winter, it's lashing outside and my bed is far too comfy to be getting out of.
The weird thing is - and no one ever believes me - except for when I was a baby I assume, I have never vomited once in my life, ever. I swear. All my er... issues occur in what my grandmother used to refer to as the netherlands. Now that could mean one of three places but I'll let you link nausea to the correct part of the anatomy using common sense. This is a polite blog, and subject matter of this post is already distasteful and distinctly non-Christmassy. Actually, it is rather seasonal what with all that delicious stodgy food packing us all up - everyone stocked up on Rennies?!
Anyway, I'm all alone and now I'm lonely cos I've no one to give me a comforting hug, so I thought I'd just share my revolting bodily issues with the world!
Hope you're all having a nice lead up to Christmas.

This one is from Bloglikeit's blog again. He's good at providing these!

1. Do you own a box of crayons?
No but I have a box of coloured pencils.

2. Have you ever seen a dead body?
Yes.

3. Do you always wear a seatbelt?
Always, always, always. And I give out to the matriarch who puts it on AS she is driving down our road - and the point of that is?

4. When do you shower most often?
In the evenings my dahlings.

5. What songs do you sing in the shower?
I don't sing in the shower and I don't sing unless I'm positive no one can hear me! Not that they could anyway cos I sing as loudly as a mouse (do mice sing?)

6. Do you own any diamonds?
No and I honestly cannot understand the fascination with them.

7. What was the last thing you purchased?
Fried noodles last night, yum

8. What makes you feel warm and safe?
Being wrapped up in bed and not having to get up for a long time.

9. How often do you remember your dreams?
Not that often and the memory is brief.

10. Did you go to public or private school?
I don't know which is which anymore cos they call private school public in Britain and it confuses me. We call it private school if you pay fees. And therefore everyone thinks I'm rich when they hear what school I went to and I am most certainly not. It irritates me cos my parents struggled and worked so hard to put me through secondary school. My primary school was comprehensive. (And yes there were logical reasons why I attended a private secondary school rather than a comprehensive, not due to snobbery! And quite frankly, I would probably have had just as good an education in a comprehensive if not better cos the teachers I had were quite literally useless. That makes it sounds like I'm saying comprehensive teachers are useless - I'm don't mean it that way!! Seriously though, my teachers were all eejits except for one)

11. Will you donate your organs after you pass?
Yes, I believe so which reminds me that I must pick up an organ donor card. You know, in case I get knocked over by a bus. How frustrating if I was to be knocked down on my WAY to picking it up! And what would happen with your blog friends? Would they think you hated them, or would they realise you were dead? Happy Christmas everyone!!!!

12. How do you vent your anger?
I don't, I bottle it all up and we all know what happens to earthquakes when they're overdue. Perhaps I should take up kickboxing before it explodes?!

13. What is your heritage?
Um, well nationality - Irish, and then family connections to Scotland and Wales, and possibly some connection with Portugal or Spain (in relation to our surname and after reading too much about research into the origin of Celts!), and France according to some amateur genealogical research!

14. What kind of watch do you wear?
I only wear it when going out of the house, but it's silver and clear frosted and rather pretty.

15. Did you ever go to camp?
I didn't see the word 'to' there and got confused. No I haven't gone to camp, and would have probably point blank refused being an anti-social little scamp.

16. Where were you on September 11, 2001?
Last year of school coming out of Games. I bounded up to some friends in a hyper manner then stopped dead when I saw the looks on their faces and heard an extremely serious conversation taking place about how a hijacked plane was heading towards the Pentagon. Actually, this was some misinformation they had heard somewhere because the plane had already hit the Pentagon. When I saw my mum I burst into tears because by that time there was hysterical talk around the school of this being the immediate beginning of World War 3 and 50,000 deaths in the Trade Centres. By the time I got home, I'm pretty sure the two towers had fallen but despite remembering almost every aspect of that day vividly, I honestly can't remember if they had fallen or not when I got home and if I saw it happen. I draw a complete blank on that. I remember mum buying chocolate for us and all of us sitting in front of the news the entire evening in the dark, and then lying in bed in the dark terrified because there was a helicopter flying over our house for ages.

17. Have you ever been to a gay bar?
No but I've heard some great stories of my friend's exploits in them!

18. What is your ringtone?
The Nokia ringtone I'm afraid because it was the least offensive choice and it is a fairly gentle version. And I like the original tune by Francisco Tárrega that it is taken from.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsp6dR-fL4A

19. What kind of milk do you drink?
Low fat. Sometimes skimmed. And only when the whim takes me. I need to up my calcium

20. Are you touchy-feely?
No not at all but I do go to the rents for a hug sometimes. And my cat is being quite accommodating to my head at the moment when I want a pillow. Despite being a grumpy wagon.

Having trouble - anyone know anything helpful about the different styles of narrative in Jekyll and Hyde and how it affects one's interpretation of the novel? Total blank here, any thoughts whatsoever appreciated.

First exam over. Not helped by the fact that one of the tutors supervising said I didn't need my coat on but it turned out to be FREEZING, Arrogant Boy from my tutorial was sitting beside me and had BAD breath and an incessantly whistling nose, the girl in front kept flinging herself back in her seat knocking my sheet back off my desk constantly and giving me an eye lashing with her over-'messified' hair that she seemed so fond of tossing (a tosser one might say), the wind was literally screeching through the room rattling the blackboard at the front, and my body decided to start developing a cold that very hour. But the exam itself did go a little better than expected. Hopefully passed anyway.
Another one tomorrow which haven't even had time to prepare for yet, so that's my day and night and small hours planned then! And then I'm doing NOTHING tomorrow night because my brain is now the size of a raisin, and I don't even want to think about the two 3000 word essays due for Tuesday that I haven't even chosen questions from because of the OTHER essays I barely got handed in on time in the middle of studying for exams
And I'm babysitting Saturday. And my friend's graduation is on Monday, but I'm going to have to give that a miss because quite frankly she wouldn't come to mine even if she had nothing on, and is one of those friends that likes to get what she's 'owed' whether that's texts or phonecalls etc. Which is not what friendship is about AND I went to her birthday dinner even though I had two essays due the next day so I think I've paid my dues enough to get away with skipping this *Faints from stress*

According to the ever knowledgeable media, this is now fat and unattractive, and according to one delightful male commenter 'unacceptable'. Opinions? And since you ask yes, I have indeed been procrastinating by getting outraged at sexist gossip sites.
http://thesuperficial.com/image.php?path=/2007/11/1128_jennifer_love_hewitt_bikini_01.jpg

I thought I'd start a mini series about women and what it's like to be one. I will try not to get on my feminist high horse but if I do, don't worry, I'm not one of those hysterical women who gets offended if a man holds a door open. I think it's healthy to accept that men and women ARE different, and yes we do tend to fall into certain roles which are always good to challenge, but the sexism comes from assuming that the woman is not capable of opening the door, not from a man showing simple old-fashioned chivalry. Hell we need a bit more Pride and Prejudice style behaviour. (Oh and any surly Darcy types feel free to contact me. NOW)
Anyway, I thought I'd start with a few of the most cliched questions. If any men have questions they'd like to see in the mini series (that phrase makes it sound much grander than it is!), then feel free to comment, or if any women disagree with my explanations, or wish to add to them, then please comment also.
Also, gender related topics can get people's dander up (or as I used to think - dandruff), so please remember this is just a bit of fun!

- When we go to the toilet in groups it is for the following reasons.

*We are shy walking past a whole bar/pub/restaurant full of people.
*We feel like Bambi in our heels and need subtle support disguised as arm linking.
*We need to ask an urgent question such as "Are there herbs in my teeth? Cos I haven't smiled in an hour", "Do I look fat? Honestly? No HONESTLY!!!" or "Do you have a spare pad" Sorry if that last one is too much info boys but it's true.
*We just feel like having a girly giggle and comparing our control pants.
*If social situation is tedious/tense/awkward, then it is to discuss best tactics for dealing with said situation.
*But usually it's the first reason - we're just a little shy and want our girlies, that's all.

- Why do women say "If you don't know what's wrong, then there's no point me telling you"?
Well to be fair, I don't ever say this and my friends don't seem to either, they're fairly straight up and don't expect boyfriends to be psychic (except about chocolate truffle needs.) But here is the logic behind it never the less. If you sense you have done something wrong then you should realise what it is you have done wrong, because you should be 1.sensitive enough to understand how something could have hurt them before you did it in the first place but as we all make mistakes you should 2. be intuitive and know your partner's character enough to at least make a good guess at what the general area is from which their upset is arising. The fact that you can't (or appear not to be able to) makes some women feel like you don't really know them deeply. It's just based on an insecurity. Though sometimes it might be due to genuine insensitivity on the man's part.

That'll do for today, I need some testosterone in my evening after that, so I'm off to drool over pictures of Alan Rickman
Tomorrow: PMS *all male readers suddenly run for cover* - get back here you cowards!

In my last post, I spoke about how little Irish most people have in Ireland. I had been hoping to show this by posting a video of a Carlsberg ad currently playing here that everyone finds hilarious, mostly because of the familiarity of the words the man uses - you could say they are 'default' words and phrases, learned off in order to scrape a pass in an exam. Finally, someone posted it on YouTube. Look out for the word 'cáca milis', a favourite of mine! Watch the video first before reading the translation in order to get the full effect of its funniness.

Here's what he says in order of when he says them.

An bhfuil cead agam go dtí an leithreas? - Can I go out to the toilet?
Agus madra rua, is maith liom. - And a fox, I like.
Cáca milis - Cake
Agus Sharon Ní Bheoláin - And Sharon Ní Bheoláin (an Irish news presenter, popular with the men!)
Tá geansaí orm - I am a jumper.
Tá scamaill sa spéir! - The clouds are in the sky.
Tabhair dom an cáca milis! - Give me the cake!
Ciúnas bóthar cailín bainne - Listen road girl milk

Classic ad!

Inspired by a post on bloglikeit's blog (not real name obviously ). I thought I might start a post on the Irish language. In Ireland, all students, except those who are exempt due to either being from somewhere outside the country or issues like dyslexia, learn Irish from Junior Infants right through to their final year of secondary school. That's 14 years. Yet the majority of students leave not even near fluent, save for those with a talent for languages, those who attended an Irish speaking school, or those who live in the Gaeltacht areas. The way it is taught turns students off. We don't use it in general conversation, though it is on all roadsigns and the news is given in Irish after the usual edition etc., yet it is given huge priority in our exams over languages we would use like French. The pressure caused by insisting on it being one of the core subjects we are examined on for our finals means we get no enjoyment, especially as they force the culture of it into the lessons, which, being Irish anyway, we don't need. However, having been out of school a good number of years now, I have noticed myself feeling more of a need to be even semi-fluent and a lot of my friends feel similar. It is no longer just a boring school subject, now it is a part of my heritage.
I think a lot of people feel let down when they get older by the way it is treated in schools.
Most people probably know more than they realise but just haven't enough practice using it to feel competent. There are several phrases which are almost like running jokes because they are pretty much guaranteed to turn up in any student's essay whether in first year or you final Leaving Cert exams. These include the use of phrases such as "I like...", "I prefer...", "I hate...", "I was sad" or "I was very sad" if you're feeling particularly clever. Then you will find some contrived way to include phrases such as "He ran like the wind" or "The clouds were in the sky". The majority of essays will be written in the past tense because that's the easiest one to remember, and at all costs students will avoid having a character say that they "would do" something.

Here are some of the standard phrases we learn when little.

“Rith mé ar nós na gaoithe” - I ran like the wind.
“Ta scamallach sa spéir” - The clouds are in the sky.
“Is maith liom cáca milis” - I like cake.
“Is fearr liom an sceallóga prátaí” - I prefer chips.
“Bhi an fearg orm” - I was very angry. Most essays end this way.

Most essays end up being about someone who went to school, saw clouds in the sky, liked cake all day, went home, had chips for dinner and then went to bed angry for no apparent reason.

It’s hard to explain how to pronounce Irish words. An important thing to understand is the ‘fada’. This is similar to the accents and graves in French. The word ‘fada’ means long, and it is a dash found over vowels, indicating that you should draw out the sound of the vowel. So the word ‘cáca’ without the fada would be pronounced “cah-cah” but as it does have a fada it is pronounced “cawcaw”. Sounds like a mad bird screaming basically.

Pronunciation also depends on the dialect (Munster, Ulster, Connacht, Leinster). Prepositional pronouns come at the end. This is the sort of thing that makes people completely unfamiliar with the language so confused - most of the sentences are constructed with the words out of order, by English standards anyway. For instance, if you want to say that someone possesses something you use one of the following - agam, agat, aige, aici, againn, agaibh, acu - I, you, he, she, we, you, they. To say "I have a book", you say "Tá leabhar agam" which translates directly as "There is a book at me". Now you know where people get that idea of the Irish being poetic. None of our sentences are constructed logically! A 'h' is also added after the first letter of many words if it's plural, or else there is an 'í' or and 'aí' at the end of the word.

Now for some basic phrases and that's the end of todays (and probably any other) lesson!

MoonBunny is ainm dom - MoonBunny is my name - MB is (hiss the 's', don't pronounce it like a 'z') annum dumb.

Dia duit - Hello (literally God be with you) - Dee-ah gwit (slur the t at the end of a word by pushing your tongue gently at the bottom of your front teeth)

Conas atá tú? - How are you? - Cun-us ataw too

Tá mé go maith - I am fine (literally I am doing well) - Taw may guh moh (or 'my' depending on dialect)

Go raibh maith agat - Thank you (literally Thanks be with you) - Guh rev moh a-gut (remember to slur the t!!)

Tá failte romhat - You are welcome - Taw faultcha row-at (slur the 'at')

Slan leat - Goodbye - slawn lat

Is breá leat - I love you - Is (hiss the s) braw lat

Maith thú - Well done - Mah who

Sláinte - Cheers - Slawncha

Sin sin - That's it - Shin shin

Le do thoile - Please - Leh duh hullay

Gabh mo leithscéal - Excuse me - Gah muh lehsch-gale

Más é do thoil é - Please - Maws (remember the s is always quite clipped)ay duh hull ay

Actually the last phrase reminds me of the most commonly used phrase by students - "Lig amach mé, más é do thoil é?" - "Can I go out please?" which means can you leave the classroom to go to the loo please!!! If it's urgent you will need to be able to call 'Múinteoir!!Múinteoir!!" - Mween-ture Mweenture - "Teacher, teacher!!"