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Seven years ago today I picked up a kettlebell for the first time. To say I was sceptical starting out would be understating it. At the time my sister and her husband had been running kettlebell classes  ( before they went full on Crossfit) for quite some time . I didn't know a whole lot about it other than the fact that it was mad Russian shit involving a weight with a handle and that they both looked great.  My very first workouts were in my sisters yard/ driveway. Body weight, a light dumbbell, a plate and a kettlebell .  I remember it being very sore, very sweaty and running in a way that was apparently so hilarious that my brother in law used to come and watch it. That driveway will forever be known as the lane of pain to me.  As I became less hilariously unfit I agreed to join in with some of the classes but I only participated in the ladies classes wearing loose t-shirts and tracksuit pants because i was too self conscious  ( and unsure of my commitment to fitness) to

I am a lover of chocolate. There was a time where I would have described myself as a complete chocaholic but sadly chocolate does not return my feelings. I have found after giving chocolate many chances to redeem itself that it keeps doing me wrong. Now part of the problem is I have Candida. I wont bore you with the details of what this is except to tell you that refined sugar, gluten and dairy play havoc with my digestive system and this can have a knock on effect on the rest of my life. The other thing is I have noticed when I eat refined sugar I see an immediate spike in my anxiety levels and worst of all I cant seem to eat refined sugar in moderation. I either eat no refined sugar or I go into a complete sugar eating frenzy in which there are no survivors.  As you can imagine I have had some pretty sad times. Loving chocolate but not being able to eat it is like a true unrequited love story. I remember eating carob chocolate as a child and it not being so bad and once in desper

I don't know if I've mentioned it but I've recently dipped my toes back into the murky pool of online dating. I'm not looking to be in a relationship right at this very moment in time so you could say it's an exploratory exercise. I have found in the past when Im very keen to be coupled up that it comes across in my exchanges and that quiet air of desperation is ever so off putting. So it seems smart in a way to see what's out there now when Im reasonably content in my own company. Now if this little adventure led to me meeting a guy who I felt had the possibility of more, I surely wouldn't run away but I'm not looking to rush the process. With all this in mind, today I received a message from a man that I've been in contact with a little while  but had yet to successfully arrange a date with. I opened a message from him to find he had sent me a lengthy diatribe. To be fair this in itself from a man I have spent no time with is a major red flag

I do hope you have not stumbled upon this blog post in a misguided attempt to seek advice on how to cope with night duty. If there's a secret to it then I surely haven't worked it out. I realised recently that I have been working in care just over 3 years now and getting ready for work tonight had me thinking back on my first ever night duty. I was naive in a way that makes me laugh now. I started out as an academic PA and gradually started to take on other clients and somehow managed to hide from the office staff how completely unprepared college had left me for the practical realities of the work. The client I was assigned to work nights with was one of my first ever clients and I had never worked night duty before. I was sent an email detailing the client needs and my role there as a carer. I was down to work 11pm to 7 am and I remember reading it and thinking there wasn't 8 hours of work there so in my bag I packed pyjamas just in case. I never told the other night

Snow is a funny thing. We as a nation (The Irish, that is) get terribly excited about its arrival but when it comes we could not be less prepared. It seems the idea of snow is much better than the reality. I on the otherhand was a bit more sceptical. I had previous run ins with snow that had not gone particularly well when living in Lausanne, Switzerland and in Edinburgh. I knew that snow while beautiful held its own pitfalls. Nothing like trekking home 3 hours in the snow (wearing penneys answer to the ugg boot) because all public transport had been cancelled that day(thanks Edinburgh). I couldn't yet afford proper weatherproof footwear (still waiting on my first paycheck at the time) and the fact that the only way I knew to get home was the bus route, left a sour taste in my mouth while other around me were getting excited about the promise of snow. I waited this snow storm they predicted with trepidation. Now I know the whole internet has been ablaze with our reaction to