Category: Uncategorized

 

Today was my first sea swim for 2 weeks since my hypothermia episode.  It was 13.5 degrees in Dublin today, a difference of 11 degrees from two days ago. The sea was cold, but it was still blissful.

A giant dead seal was washed up on Portmarnock the other day which caused a lot of disturbance. The birds were circling and dogs were also attracted to it.  I can only guess that it must have been hit against the rocks throughout the course of the storm last week.

At least 2 feet of sand has been eroded from velvet strand in Portmarnock. It is now more ‘rocky’ and ‘stone’ strand.  Let’s hope the coming weather will bring the lovely sand back.

I believe that Katherine Hepburn swam in the sea every day up until she was in her 80’s. She claimed that ‘the bitterer the medicine, the better it was for you’. I tend to agree.

Although I gather that non sea swimmers are getting fed up with the popularity of people hurtling themselves into ice cold sea water. (WPA-Woeful pun alert) There has been something of a back splash with non-swimmers hurling waves of witty remarks towards sea swimmers.

The pier pressure has not gone unnoticed. However, my favorite response to the naysayers would have to be ‘Please excuse my resting beach face as I go about my day swimmingly’.

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

 

 

Love My Valentine

You add the sparkles to my soul

You let me grow and let me be

You cheer me up when I am low

You are my safe harbor my sanctuary

You are my consciousness you are my bliss

You are my guide through strife and woe

My heart melts with your embrace and kiss

Where you go, I will follow

You add rhythm to my day

You left me fail you let me succeed

You do it all in your own way

I love our union our personal odyssey

By Adele Leahy

 

Here are a couple of valentine’s stories that tickled me.

They are from

www.readersdigest.ca

My boyfriend and I met online and we’d been dating for over a year. I introduced Hans to my uncle, who was fascinated by the fact that we met over the Internet. He asked Hans what kind of line he had used to pick me up. Ever the geek, Hans naively replied, ‘I just used a regular 56K modem.’” —Contributed by Anne McConnell

 

My friend Mark and I work in a lawn-mower-parts warehouse. Somehow Mark got the idea that his wife did not want a card on Valentine’s Day, but when he spoke to her on the phone, he discovered she was expecting one. Not having time to buy a card on his way home, Mark was in a quandary.

Then he looked at the lawn-mower trade magazines scattered around the office—and got an idea. Using scissors and glue, he created a card with pictures of mowers, next to which he wrote: ‘I lawn for you mower and mower each day.’ Mark’s wife loved it. The card immediately graced their refrigerator door.” — Contributed by Gene Hyde

Wishing you a day filled with love, laughs and friendship.

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

 

News and social media appear to have lit up regarding a judge’s decision to deny Britney Spear’s father increased power over her affairs. The original conservator-ship was ruled in 2008 following a very public mental breakdown.

Britney is not the first and certainly will not be the last celebrity to have mental health issues as a result of her tumultuous rise to fame. I am rather baffled as to why this is news. Considering everything else that is going on in the world.

Young stars immediately become a meal ticket and a puppet for the agency that they represent. Rarely is their welfare of paramount importance. The young star music machine must continue to provide for its crew lest it gets eaten alive. This is often the case.

WPA (Woeful pun alert- I am sure that you saw this coming…. ) Britney became the epicenter of a Toxic management team that eventually drove her Crazy.

Not just Sometimes, but it appears, Everytime.  She wasn’t a Girl or yet a Woman when all of this transpired and yet her family and management team claimed that their interests were entirely meant to Protect her.

She rightly claimed that they all wanted a Piece of her (me) and had to stand by and witness the Circus enfold. Besides the dreadful puns I do wish her well, as she is a mother and someone who has suffered greatly at the hand of fame.

 

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

https://youtu.be/B8ISzf2pryI

This gorgeous Labrador is hilariously guilty and reminds me somewhat of Buzz and Finn when they are up to their antics. Buzz has always been a bit anxious and barks at people when they pass by my apartment.

I am not sure if he has taken a dislike to the color of their socks, trainers or just their general attire. He is definitely nowhere near as bad as he used to be. I put it down to when my father died as I had to leave him with someone for the weekend whilst I attended the funeral. I had him for 6 weeks when this happened and I can only imagine that it may have contributed somewhat to his anxiety.

He has taught Finn his tricks. Great training on my part, I know. I am really proud of myself, NOT.  Now when someone passes by and Buzz has not clocked it, Finn is his look out.

I then begin my admonishment which results in them curling up on the sofa, wrapped around each other and gazing at me with their ‘we are far too cute for you to be mad at us for any considerable length of time’ eyes.

Which actually does of course transpire as I seem to be incapable of maintaining any sort of strident discipline where they are concerned. I will work on a better ‘game face’ for tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

 

https://youtu.be/ZAfmM06pVUw

Carrying on from the ‘Ab Fab’ theme of a few days ago I had to remind myself of its brilliance on YouTube.  I cannot believe that this series is 27 years old and I still find it hilarious.

Patsy played by Joanna Lumley was 46 years of age when she took the role.   Edina played by Jennifer Saunders was 35 years old. They were both amazing in it and looked fab.  Maybe hence the name?

The expression ‘Bottle of Bolly’, aka ‘Bollinger, was a well-worn phrase at the time. As was dressing up as Edina and Patsy for fancy dress parties complete with white powder all over one’s nose and top lip to emulate Patsy’s propensity for coke.

One of my favorite fancy dress costumes that I can recall was a duo I witnessed when I was working in the Gaeltacht in the 1980’s. The two girls went dressed as ‘the night before’ and ‘the morning after’.

Obviously, the girl dressed as the night before was resplendent in perfect make up and an immaculately sexy attire. In contrast ‘the morning after’ girl had mascara down to her neck, laddered tights, hair that looked like she had been dragged through a bush backwards and brandishing a large glass of soluble aspirin for a woeful hangover.

Needless to say, they won the prize for the ‘best fancy dress’ end of season party.  They had great fun recreating the ‘morning after’ look for the rest of the night.

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

Here is one of my favorite clips. ‘Joey ‘from Friends and his ‘smell the fart acting’.

https://youtu.be/8c4YhwpiaKU

I knew that acting was no walk in the park but where there was once method acting, now there is eyebrow acting, mouth acting and smell the fart acting.  I wonder if Daniel Day Lewis has ever employed these alternative acting techniques?  He is one of my all-time favorite actors- besides Anthony Hopkins.  Whilst writing this I wondered if there were any outtakes of his acting?  And look what I found.

https://youtu.be/yjNw3pNsSmM

A rare moment of Daniel breaking character. I remember hearing many years ago that someone met Daniel Day Lewis in Belfast Airport whilst he was filming ‘In the Name of the Father’.  Apparently, he was still in character and was conversing with the ground staff in a perfect northern Irish accent whilst checking in.

Besides his exemplary acting one of my favorite Daniel Day Lewis moments was when he accepted his Oscar for ‘My Left Foot’. He said – to the Academy- ‘that you have just provided me with the makings of one helluva weekend in Dublin’.

The look of excitement and admiration of all his peers in the audience warms my heart.  I believe that he works as a cobbler now somewhere in Italy.  What a man.

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

Buzz let one rip in the car today. It was an SBD- silent but deadly. I thought that I was going to sustain chemical burns to my lungs. The car windows were all swiftly opened to allow the gale force Baltic winds to clear the car of the putrid fumes. Buzz looked as though butter wouldn’t melt. Not even a nod towards any degree of embarrassment.

Finn went to the back seat to hide under the blanket. I began to wonder about what I was feeding him and realized that it was nothing different from the usual. I wanted to react in a similar fashion to the cat in this video.

It reminded me of a time when I worked in Dubai and a few of us were taking a taxi with a lovely Indian driver. The only problem being that the lovely Indian driver had a rather severe BO problem that made all of our eye’s water collectively.

One of the girls took a notion to remove her travel size Chanel bottle of perfume from her handbag and spray the back of the man’s neck. We all watched in disbelief and started to giggle.

She reminded us of the fabulously eccentric character ‘Edina’ from ‘Absolutely fabulous’.   I apologized to the driver as he was unsure as to what was going on. I explained that she sprayed it in the air to see if it was working properly.    Our friend was stuck with the nickname ‘Edina’ for quite some time thereafter.

 

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

It later transpired that the owner of the villa who was a well-known banker had sacked his accountant that morning for embezzling. Subsequently the embittered accountant trotted off to the Mutawa to grass up his former employer by informing them that he was having a party that night.

It was the norm back then for the Mutawa to perform a raid on a villa or a compound once every six months or so to remind us of our privileges and their customs. However, they had never performed an operation of this scale.

When the majority of us did not turn up for work the next morning hospital staff began to get suspicious. In total we were from 5 different countries, UK, Ireland, Canada, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Consequently, all the embassies got involved. We were held for 36 hours and our bloods were taken in the evening. The tea was drugged. I did not drink it as it was too sweet and those that did were out for the count for 12 hours.

The other prisoners were offering us their crackers that they had been saving.  They could not have been kinder or nicer.  Most were from the Philippines.

I will never forget that one of the girls could barely walk with two crutches.  She said that she was brought over from the Philippines to work as a maid. It transpired that she was to be the sex slave of the married man in the house.

When she refused, he suspended her from the ceiling light fitting and broke every bone in her body by beating her with a bat.  She was then jailed for allegedly stealing from the man who had assaulted her.

I believe our incarceration was reported on Canadian CNN as there were so many different nationalities involved. We were released the following afternoon and within 2 months received a letter of apology from the Saudi government. As our bloods were clear of alcohol. Needless to say, our contracts were not renewed and we could not leave quick enough.

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

In 1992 I signed a nursing contract to work in King Faisal Hospital in Riyadh in Intensive Care for 2 years. From the moment I got onto the plane I met fellow Irish nurses. I shared a house with two Irish girls also.

We had the life of Reilly. Even though alcohol was banned, everyone made their own. The supermarkets had an aisle devoted to red and white grape juice, kilos of sugar, industrial packs of yeast and ‘near beer’- alcohol free beer.

It didn’t take a genius to work out that the Saudi’s knew what we were doing but their other (silent) law was that what went on behind compound walls must stay behind compound walls. In other words, we needed to have respect for their culture and their religion which in my book was fair enough.

It generally bodes well not to flout the laws when you are a guest in another country. Myself and a few friends had planned to visit a friend of a friend’s villa.  It was risky as it was outside and not in a compound but the man was well connected and we had been there once before. We ate, drank, were merry and left relatively early enough as some of us were working the next morning.

What we were not prepared for was the ambush that was planned by the Mutawa (the religious Muslim police) across three different roads. Twelve of us went to jail that night. Six females to the female jail and six males to the male jail.

Part 2 tomorrow.

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele

 

I got into the car and blasted on the heat. When I got home, I ran a really hot bath and stayed in it for 2 hours, constantly topping it up with hot water.  When I got out, I was still shivering.

Buzz and Finn are my two lovely dogs and I couldn’t remember Finn’s name.  I was calling him Fizz. I put on my electric blanket and crawled into bed.  Buzz and Finn needed to be let out for the loo.  When I got up my vision was blurred and I was dizzy.

Apparently the two things that you are not supposed to do with hypothermia are getting into hot water or use warming electrical appliances. Who knew?   I have never cared for anyone with hypothermia so was clueless.   It wasn’t until I could focus enough after 18 hours sleep the next day that I checked the symptoms and the treatment on my phone.

The final physical insult was in getting out of bed I needed to fart.  Then I wasn’t so sure that it was a fart.  It was touch and go, but the sheets were saved.  I could not eat for 2 days.  Lost 3kgs throughout the week, we hey.

And I still want to get back into the sea once this icy cold snap dispels.  As I like to say the sea is my frequensea.

 

That’s all for now

Stay fab

Adele