That five things meme
Mar. 4th, 2009 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squeefulfishI asked ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
natural20 for five things, and here's what I got.
FAMILY LIFE
When I was living in the hovel I never missed my family. Going home to Drogheda was a tedious monthly affair. What was there in Drogheda for me? Family? Urg. Can't be having with that sort of thing!
Now, having been back in the family home for 5 years, I realise just how much I missed when I was away. I can't remember much of Martha's early years because I wasn't here. Now my days are filled with family and it's great. Every Sunday the horde descends and demands to be fed. Proper Sunday roast with all the trimmings. My middle sister, her two daughters and sometimes her partner arrive around 3 and leave round 8 or 9. The nieces head for the computer or the books or the colouring pencils while myself and Eva have a natter over a cup of coffee.
My grandmother has been living with us in the granny flat for 8 years now and her learned helplessness grates at times but at 84 I don't see her learning new tricks any time soon. Learning where the kettle is is apparently beyond her ken.
When I move out again I'm going to miss them, but here is home. This is my family. There's a lot more out there, but they're just of my blood, not of my heart.
My extended family is large enough, dad's brothers and sisters being good Catholics, mum's not so much with the baby making. Twice a year, both times in December, most of dad's side gathers in my uncle's house for tea and cake. It's enough catching up for me to last the year. There seems to be new babies every year, I've lost track of what child belongs to what cousin. I'm the eldest in the family who has not married or reproduced and the younger ones are well on that track.
But family goes a lot further than blood or clan.
It's not easy living with family, and this leads me on to the domestic faeries part.
DOMESTIC FAERIES
Apparently we have some, though my years of being in the guides thinks of them more as being brownies. They clean the bathroom in the middle of the night, they scrub the floors on their hands and knees when the family are out, they do at least 10 loads of laundry per week (but aren't very good with ironing, they don't like that), they do the dishes, they brush the dog so her coat doesn't mat, they change batteries that need changing, they dust, they clean windows, they do an awful lot. But never during the day when I'm in lectures, or on the long days when I'm on placement. It's quite strange. It's a thankless job and I'd like to think that what they do is good work, but they don't get much recognition. Sometimes they don't appear for a while and then I get a telling off, which is silly. Other times they follow me to Cork.
COMMUTING
Oh God, did I know what I was letting myself in for when I signed up for this? Obviously not. To get the boring bit out of the way, I need to get up 3 hours before I need to be in Dublin. This allows for 30-45 minutes of morning Things That Need Doing and 30 mins of walking to the bus. These days the hour walk a day is about the only exercise I get, so it's really not all bad. I can do the bus walk in 20 mins, but my calves hate me afterwards. Bus takes between 50 and 90 minutes depending on time of day and route, and often I'm hanging around waiting for either buses or classes, so I count that dead time as part of my commute just so it sounds longer.
It does mean that I get about 2 hours of study done a day, though or two hours napping. At this stage I'm used to it and am aware that others in my class have worse commutes.
SEX
Ahhh! If it wasn't for this one I'd have posted this days ago. My views and experiences here are difficult to articulate without sounding like a slapper. And I do not take kindly to being called that, or any other word that implies that my sex life is immoral or illegal.
Sex is fun, it's not dirty, it's not sinful, it can be a delightfully entertaining way to spend some time with someone who means a lot to me and without it I would have a much harder time finding a job as a midwife. Regardless of what certain people may think, I am more than a little picky when it comes to who I have sex with. (I'm somewhat reluctant to use the word "partner.") Yes, I've made some spectacularly bad decisions with some people, but there's always been something about everyone that has fascinated me and drawn me to them.
Sure, some people have been referred to as Bits on the Side, but they're bits on the side to work, not anything else. Other details are entirely private. (But I do like smoochies.)
Of course, the question of how many people I've had sex with is a) entirely my own business and b) difficult to count. Do I include cakes?
ROCK SOLID FRIENDSHIP
This one's almost as difficult to write about, not because I don't have any, but because my friendships are the way they are and, eh, yeah. I don't use the word "friend" when talking about someone I don't love; it's not a throwaway word just as friendships aren't throwaway things. When friendships die, as some have, I mourn and some have affected me quite deeply. When I see friends my little face lights up. I don't see my friends often, doesn't mean I don't think of them. Might live far from most of them, but nothing stops me getting to them when I'm needed.
I've had some tough times lately, but have had enormous support and consider myself incredibly lucky to have the friends I do.
And that's that. Wanna play along, ask and ye shall receive 5 things I associate with you and go write!
natural20 for five things, and here's what I got.FAMILY LIFE
When I was living in the hovel I never missed my family. Going home to Drogheda was a tedious monthly affair. What was there in Drogheda for me? Family? Urg. Can't be having with that sort of thing!
Now, having been back in the family home for 5 years, I realise just how much I missed when I was away. I can't remember much of Martha's early years because I wasn't here. Now my days are filled with family and it's great. Every Sunday the horde descends and demands to be fed. Proper Sunday roast with all the trimmings. My middle sister, her two daughters and sometimes her partner arrive around 3 and leave round 8 or 9. The nieces head for the computer or the books or the colouring pencils while myself and Eva have a natter over a cup of coffee.
My grandmother has been living with us in the granny flat for 8 years now and her learned helplessness grates at times but at 84 I don't see her learning new tricks any time soon. Learning where the kettle is is apparently beyond her ken.
When I move out again I'm going to miss them, but here is home. This is my family. There's a lot more out there, but they're just of my blood, not of my heart.
My extended family is large enough, dad's brothers and sisters being good Catholics, mum's not so much with the baby making. Twice a year, both times in December, most of dad's side gathers in my uncle's house for tea and cake. It's enough catching up for me to last the year. There seems to be new babies every year, I've lost track of what child belongs to what cousin. I'm the eldest in the family who has not married or reproduced and the younger ones are well on that track.
But family goes a lot further than blood or clan.
It's not easy living with family, and this leads me on to the domestic faeries part.
DOMESTIC FAERIES
Apparently we have some, though my years of being in the guides thinks of them more as being brownies. They clean the bathroom in the middle of the night, they scrub the floors on their hands and knees when the family are out, they do at least 10 loads of laundry per week (but aren't very good with ironing, they don't like that), they do the dishes, they brush the dog so her coat doesn't mat, they change batteries that need changing, they dust, they clean windows, they do an awful lot. But never during the day when I'm in lectures, or on the long days when I'm on placement. It's quite strange. It's a thankless job and I'd like to think that what they do is good work, but they don't get much recognition. Sometimes they don't appear for a while and then I get a telling off, which is silly. Other times they follow me to Cork.
COMMUTING
Oh God, did I know what I was letting myself in for when I signed up for this? Obviously not. To get the boring bit out of the way, I need to get up 3 hours before I need to be in Dublin. This allows for 30-45 minutes of morning Things That Need Doing and 30 mins of walking to the bus. These days the hour walk a day is about the only exercise I get, so it's really not all bad. I can do the bus walk in 20 mins, but my calves hate me afterwards. Bus takes between 50 and 90 minutes depending on time of day and route, and often I'm hanging around waiting for either buses or classes, so I count that dead time as part of my commute just so it sounds longer.
It does mean that I get about 2 hours of study done a day, though or two hours napping. At this stage I'm used to it and am aware that others in my class have worse commutes.
SEX
Ahhh! If it wasn't for this one I'd have posted this days ago. My views and experiences here are difficult to articulate without sounding like a slapper. And I do not take kindly to being called that, or any other word that implies that my sex life is immoral or illegal.
Sex is fun, it's not dirty, it's not sinful, it can be a delightfully entertaining way to spend some time with someone who means a lot to me and without it I would have a much harder time finding a job as a midwife. Regardless of what certain people may think, I am more than a little picky when it comes to who I have sex with. (I'm somewhat reluctant to use the word "partner.") Yes, I've made some spectacularly bad decisions with some people, but there's always been something about everyone that has fascinated me and drawn me to them.
Sure, some people have been referred to as Bits on the Side, but they're bits on the side to work, not anything else. Other details are entirely private. (But I do like smoochies.)
Of course, the question of how many people I've had sex with is a) entirely my own business and b) difficult to count. Do I include cakes?
ROCK SOLID FRIENDSHIP
This one's almost as difficult to write about, not because I don't have any, but because my friendships are the way they are and, eh, yeah. I don't use the word "friend" when talking about someone I don't love; it's not a throwaway word just as friendships aren't throwaway things. When friendships die, as some have, I mourn and some have affected me quite deeply. When I see friends my little face lights up. I don't see my friends often, doesn't mean I don't think of them. Might live far from most of them, but nothing stops me getting to them when I'm needed.
I've had some tough times lately, but have had enormous support and consider myself incredibly lucky to have the friends I do.
And that's that. Wanna play along, ask and ye shall receive 5 things I associate with you and go write!
