Rainy Days, Shame-filled Reads and Laughs about the Change: My Monthly Little Loves

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts – over a month infact! Life has just been super busy so it’s probably a good idea to get some reflecting on what we’ve been up to lately, and as per usual, the #mylittleloves linky from coffeesleepworkrepeat is a fab format which really does help to sum up the whole lot in one neat package!

Without further ado; it’s probably best to jump right in and let you see what makes up my little loves this month!

Read

I’ve been doing quite a bit of non fiction reading lately, you can read my recommendations for must-read Irish non fiction here. In addition to that, I’ve also finally gotten around to reading the fabulous So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. I’d not read any of his stuff before but I heard people raving about his stuff, including Ryan Tubridy every five seconds on his radio show, so I decided to give it a try, and I was hooked. I read the whole lot in two days – it really did get me thinking about the ways that our mentality for calling things out on social media can have a wider effect than us just “expressing our opinion” – often times it seems that people can forget that there are real people behind the twitter handles and the celebrity names which we are commenting on and scrutinising. There is also two sides to every story, something we don’t seem to take into account as we press “Tweet” after our 140 characters are out of our system. While I’d heard of some of the case studies (Justine Sacco and Max Moseley being the main names), there were others which had completely gone under my radar and were fascinating – the book made me look at how I myself view the rights and wrongs of the individuals at both ends of the shaming, and definitely made me think about the things I put out there on the internet – as we know, what goes online stays online forever. Great read, I’d really recommend it to anyone.

 

Watched

In the last month I’ve been to the theatre TWICE. This shouldn’t be as much of a novelty as it is, but hey, I’ve got a toddler who doesn’t sleep the night, so my cherished nights off tend to get reserved for things like meals out, sleep, maybe some dancing. However, with babysitting on hand in the form of family (yay), Theatre Royal in Waterford was graced with my presence. The first of my trips was to see Les Mis, which was presented by the South Eastern Theatre Group, with my grandparents and my lovely auntie. Powerful voices and acting, the songs are still stuck in my head three weeks later – ashamed to say I’d never seen Les Mis before but now I am mad to watch the film! My second foray into the theatre was to see Menopause the Musical, starring Niamh Kavanagh (yes, her of Eurovision fame), Sue Collins of the Nualas, Mary Byrne (X Factor) and Linda Nolan, with my mother and some of her friends including a past teacher of mine – not something I would have seen ten years ago looking ahead, but hey, it was a fantastic night out. Niamh Kavanagh has the most incredible voice and looks like she would be great craic on a night out – there was definitely pure devilment going on between her and Mary Byrne on stage, which was great to see – a show for women, performed by women who clearly have fun together doing it is never a bad thing! My chest hurt from laughing at some parts – if you’re able to check it out in the final stop of the tour in my very own Cork (Everyman Theatre) next week, I’d highly recommend it!

TV wise, I’ve been getting stuck into The Apprentice, Criminal Minds, Law and Order SVU (all my usual haunts really), as well as re-watching How To Get Away With Murder with my Mammy (not the only person this month who I’m converting to the way of the Keating Five – if you’ve not been converted yet, what have you been doing?)

Heard

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you can’t have missed Adele’s comeback single “Hello”, which has been stuck in my head since first listen. Beautiful, beautiful song with such feeling like only she can. It seems I may be one of the only ones who wasn’t tempted to call her ex after listening though, if this story is anything to go by…

Made

This is always my difficult category as I’m not exactly a Pinterest Mammy, however I did make peanut butter banana chocolate chip cookies about a week ago, which turned out quite nice, even if they didn’t look particularly beautiful! Peanut butter will always be high on my little loves list so mix chocolate chips and a banana-bread type mix into the equation and success can’t be far away…

Wore

Lots of rain gear! Unfortunately, the sky has started falling quite a bit lately – and I’ve discovered my “waterproof” raincoat is no longer rain resistant (having to buy a new top because when you open your coat in a cafe to find your top is soaked is likely a good indicator) so I’ve been in between coats and vowing to get another waterproof jacket like my lovely Target Dry one which did me for the last few years.

In the meantime though, we’ve had to get E sorted out with rain gear as he’s mad to be outdoors all the time but the weather isn’t exactly agreeable. Despite the stormy weather over the weekend, in the calmer parts (when the wind wasn’t lifting people off the ground), he enjoyed running around in the back yard of Nanny’s house, splashing in puddles and stomping in the wet grass. He was kept perfectly dry with a Regatta all in one splash suit, generously sent to us by the lovely Sinead at Bumbles of Rice, paired with his Minion wellies which we picked up in Tesco a few weeks ago. Happy out!

And Lastly…

With all the horrible things that have been going on in the world in the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to keep a lighter tone to life, if for nothing else to keep my own mental health okay and my head above water. I appeared in the October edition of Cork’s Like Magazine talking about my experiences with mental health, and was thrilled to be considered alongside the others in the article. I also made the most of the child-free day granted to me last week and spent an afternoon dawdling around a craft fair and sipping coffee with friends, carefree – absolute bliss.

What have you been up to lately? Got any reading recommendations or shows I simply have to watch? Let me know in the comments below.