To whine or not to whine..............

Been the youngest of 6 kids I was really good at whining!!!

My Mother was tormented by my constant whining, 'he did this to me..........' (always blamed the same brother easier that way didn't forget names!) "she said that to me" (only one sister so it was ALWAYS her fault) etc etc etc

My Mother did have the patience of a saint and then she would look lovingly at me and say
"would you ever stop whining" or "you'd whine to the Pope" (opps major reprimand if the Pope got dragged in!!)
That usually quietened me for at least five minutes and then I would start again.

After a certain time of living in France I actually thought that my French was fairly passable (how vain of moi!) but still everytime I opened my mouth I always got asked the question "where are you from?" not because of bad teeth but because of my accent when speaking French - it really annoyed me.  
I remember during a Doctor's visit and I was sick and miserable and whined "I am so sick of been an outsider in this country......................" and then mid-whine I looked at him, he was from Vietnam and moved to France 20 years previousily.  He just smiled at me and say "you just have to keep going and things will get better". He had the good grace in not belittling my little whine but he did tell me to move on and get over it.

There isn't anything wrong with having a good whine,it is healthy to get it off your chest once and for all but then you have to get on with it, don't let this litany of whines become your life. Or even better still whatever is making you whine, sort it out. 

Now after 20 years people still react to my accent and thats fine because it does not bother me anymore and at times I have used it to my advantage especially when the phone rings and it is those annoying call centres  "no Madame not here I am the au pair"  or better still "no Monsieur not here I am the cleaner!!!"

And for the other thousand things that make me whine I have learned to either ignore them or sort them out eventually.......................!! 

One good thing about whining to others is that you can always find someone worse off than yourself and well if nothing else at least that will cheer you up!!

Go out and have a good whine with a good glass of wine!!!!!

What happens next.........................

As a teenager I went through a phase of wanting to know 'what happens next........." and where can you find such answers? At your local fortune teller of course!!!  I went with my well earned babysitting money to a woman who lived in a dodgey area of Cork city in a caravan!!! Well it wasn't that dodgey but it was in the city and well the caravan was in a yard beside a house so methinks she lived in the house and used the caravan as her 'office'!

Never mind that I was going to get my fortune told, I will find out 'what happens next...' maybe I will find out that I don't need to study so hard because I would win the lottery or marry a rich husband - yep that shallow and that lazy for studying!!, or maybe I would do something great in my life - cure for acne? look at previous remark about my studying! Anyway never mind I was going to find out what a wonderful life I would be having.

I wrote down what she said to me and honestly nothing came about, when I say nothing I mean NOTHING!!! Am I disappointed? Not really because once I stopped waiting for these things to materialise and actually forgot about it and lived my life other things happened.
Did I win the lottery?  No
Did I marry a rich husband?  No
Did I find a cure for acne? No but I never got it either
Did I study really hard?   At times

Actually I had already foretold my fortune but did not realise it.

I remember going for a walk with my Mother and my big brother and telling them my big plans for the future - now been the old age of 5 years old and a deep thinker I even gave them a list and this is what I was going to be.......

a nurse for 3 years
a teacher for 2 years
a mother for 4 years
and the most important job of all
a Charlie's Angel for 3 years (for me that was the best job ever!!!)

I got most of it right, became a teacher and mother and well with those two jobs there is a nursing side too and now if I can get the Charlie's Angel job then well I am a happy camper and my 5 year old self who is deep inside of me can go "told ye so".

Do I want to know the future now? Not really unless George Clooney is going to call in for coffee and declare his undying love for me then certain parts of the body would need an overall beforehand but right now do not need to go to the dodgey area looking for a woman in a caravan..................not yet anyway!!!

In the beginning..............

When I was nine I wrote a very moving and profound story called "Mr Cold and his nine sons", the title says it all, there were other stories of course but unfortunately cannot remember the wonderful titles.

When I was thirteen I began a diary, in school we had just read the book "The Diary of Anne Frank" and thought how wonderful to start one too so I did, picked a really nice book which said 'Diary' on the front which was of great help to me in case I forgot what it was for and  tired to use it as a door stop, you know how silly we are at that age, anyway I knew that I was going to write down many wise and profound thoughts...................

But that was not what happened, reading my diary now makes me laugh, I wrote down what presents I got for my birthday & christmas ( shallow - me?), I described my room when the furniture got moved around (my mother did that often) and I even drew a mini map of the room to show where everything was!! I wrote about my friends I liked (that week, day or hour!!) and sometimes I had some really profound thought like 'I want to be happy!" yep making the film of my life as a thirteen year old would be a breeze!!!

So surely now at 30 & tax years of age it is evident that my blog will be filled with deep meaningful and profound thoughts............................don't bet on it, can't promise that I won't write a list of presents I got for my birthday or christmas but can promise that there will be no description of rooms when furniture gets moved (can't draw a mini map of that on a blog now can ya?) and as for my friends well once I am in the witness protection programme well all bets are off!

And why am I doing this?

Ms Jupin and Ms Jackson told me to write so here it goes..................