bookshoplaura

I have recently started to listening to music a lot more and I'm really enjoying It. I have a new app on my phone called 8 track and it gives me a selection of playlists depending on what sort of music I have said  I'm in the mood to hear. So I'm discovering new songs and remembering old favourites. It has got me thinking about how evocative music is and how one song can bring back so many memories. A few years back, in my final year in college we had some Belgian students come over as part of an exchange programme I was part of and we had the  Responsibility of entertaining them for the week. One of the nights the college organised for us to bring them to hear some traditional Irish music and I remember we were all singing along to sonny ( you know the one ...sonny dont go away, I'm here all alone, your daddy is a sailor that never comes home ) if you're anything like me you'll be singing it in your head by now. And I remember the Belgians thought...

In less than 2 hours I will be back in work after a whole week off and 15 minutes after that I'll feel like I had never left. To say I am feeling unenthusiastic about the prospect would be understating it. I would like some more holidays please and thank you and this time I swear I will actually relax for some of it. I seem to have lost the ability to do nothing and now there's a very tired Laura who wishes that wasn't the case. The whole idea of my week off was that I had to move apartment and I knew looking at the state of my old place and the mountain of possessions I seem to have accumulated, despite my many moves over the last few years, that it would not be a one day job. Plus I'd already booked the weekend off to watch the wod warrior competition at the gym.  So it seemed I had a plan of sorts. Then I got it into my head that I didn't actually want to waste my week off just moving so I moved most of my stuff over the weekend and only had to spend...

It seems to me that every day the lines between men and women are becoming a little more blurred and if it continues in this direction then gender is going to become an altogether looser concept. This is something I have pretty mixed feeling about in general and by mixed I mean bad. I have bad feelings about this. Now I am not saying that we need to confine ourselves to the rigid lines we draw from birth with blue being for boys and pink for girls and each having their assigned toys and books. Everyone knows there place in a world like this and most will stay there or risk being ostracized. I don't think toy or clothing choices have any impact on a child's sexuality as they hit their teens and I'm certainly not trying to advocate that you don't allow a child to happily play with whatever toys take their fancy.  My issue is an altogether different one. I am speaking here as a straight woman who finds men attractive and is becoming somewhat worried that there will soo...

If you read yesterday's post then you might recall my excitement at the prospect of going to a vintage sale. My hopes were high. This sale was so good that it was all over twitter and Facebook and every fashionista and wannabe ( plus  me - neither of those) was going to be there and oh boy was I let down badly. The whole thing took place in a warehouse up in Dublin and I was all set to get there early. That much went well and we made it there in good time and found the place without much hassle. Well done us. on getting there it all looked promising. There was some non sale stuff available to view and a little area  Doing coffee and yummy looking cakes ( had I eaten any I'd have bloated up too much to eat anything ) we were actually there too early and had do a lot of waiting  Around which we mostly used to browse the non sale stock, all lovely stuff which got me pretty excited about the gems I was about to pick up once the real fun began.  As we starte...

The first thing I should tell you is it's not really an ode at all. Sorry I lured you here under false pretenses. I like a lot about Dublin city but I dislike just as many things and the first of which is that I am still too much of a scaredy cat to drive there (not just because it's illegal for a little ol learner driver like me) but the thoughts of trying to navigate my way around the big unfamiliar city has me breaking out in a cold sweat. This means I am forced to navigate public transport which always gets a bit more annoying when you have become accustomed to driving everywhere. With everything I need on my passenger seat and being able to sing completely out of tune to the music of my choice ( this is frowned upon on busses). Also you need to take into account that these days with my dietary restrictions I am an actual pain in the ass which means when I take a bus somewhere I am usually forced to lug around a bag of snacks I can actually eat. It does have advantages ...

Do you remember when Saturday night was all about getting dressed up and heading out on the town? I do, well sort of, vaguely. It seems those times are long behind me because it is unusual these days for me to even register a Saturday night as something other than that gap between finishing work on Saturday and heading back in for more of the same on a Sunday.  Take last night as a reasonably typical example. I finished work and headed home to climb into my pyjamas. It was one of those Saturdays where I just wanted to forget the world. My boyfriend was heading out to some social engagement and my flat mate was absent for the night, possibly working but I was glad to have the place to myself. I was feeling lousy as though my stomach was being tortured from the inside, Yes IBS is every bit as thrilling as  You'd think , and all because I'd eaten a rice cake With almond butter With my lunch. It seems the more I eliminate from my diet, even temporarily, the more fine tuned...

Okay so I know it was only the other night I started to collect recipes so that I can start baking again but I'm already feeling a little bit excited. I've ordered some rice syrup in the health food store and I can't wait to get my bake on this weekend.  I've already committed myself to making four different things   but it's opening up a world of possibilities. When I stopped eating sugar (including maple syrup, honey and coconut sugar) I just stopped baking. It was a sad time, well actually it still is a sad time. I said to myself, Laura, you cannot have nice things and made some sort of embittered peace with that. But this cookbook I am planning on dabbling with has suggested suitable alternatives for the flours and sweeteners I had been using so there's a possibility that I might be able to go back to making buns and pancakes and all sorts of yummy things. On the other hand there is the possibility that my swapping coconut sugar for powered stevia and...

I would not describe myself as a grammar nazi. Sure I'm pedantic but I prefer the word enthusiast. I am a grammar enthusiast, there I said it. There's no shame in it. I read a lot and do my best to spell correctly and it really irks me when people make a complete shambles of the English language . I believe if you're only going to be fluent in one language, the very least you can do is master it. I find on social networking sites like Facebook that my news feed is often awash with so many spelling mistakes that I often find myself wincing as i scroll down through my news feed. I find I'm a little baffled as to how people have managed to get through the school system without understanding the difference between your and you're or to, two and too.  That being said , there is one thing that irritates me more than any other grammar mistake. I'm certain that if you're not guilty of this then you at least know someone who is. The Mis use of word litera...

If you're not familiar with the wonder that is Pinterest then you're In luck because ( not to brag or anything ) I'm sort of an expert. I'm going to run with the assumption that if you're reading my blog then you're not completely technophobic  so my description of what Pinterest Is and does wont go completely over your head. If I am incorrect in this assumption then let me assure you i have my contrite face on. So back to Pinterest. It's essentially a virtual online pin board and you can browse loads of different categories and save your favourite pictures or links to different boards. To be fair despite it having some manly categories, it seems to be almost exclusively populated by women. Not that I use the site to interact with people. although I've been led to believe you can. People come to Pinterest for many different reasons, usually seeking some form of inspiration.  Some people go on looking for recipes, crafts or interior design tips, ...

This time last year I was running around the Bookshop in a Santa hat feeling very stressed indeed. I am not sure which is worse the pre-Christmas panic or the drearyness of the empty shop in January.  As stark a contrast as you could hope to get. Sometimes I need to take a moment and remind myself how far I've come in the last year because sometimes my progress gets lost in the fray. As New Years resolutions go, get a new job is right up there, even if I'd reached the point of no longer believing that was a resolution I was going to follow through on. Now I can't say care work is without its stresses.  Those of you who have worked in the field or done similar work will know and as for the rest of you just be glad you don't. I wouldn't really say that the work I'm doing over Christmas is any different from the work I did in October or will go on to do in the New Year, except for a few Christmas decorations and the soundtrack of Christmas songs. I'll still ...

It's getting to that point again where my next birthday looms and I quietly panic about getting another year older. In nine days (not that I am counting) I will be 34 (eeek) which is definitely a proper grown up age. Now I am wondering when I will actually feel like one. At my age many of my peers are hitting the usual milestones ; marriage, babies, mortgage etc and on some level I am aware that these are things I should probably be thinking about now. Well except the whole marriage thing which has never held any real appeal for me but I don't feel any urgency. Perhaps I will reach my mid forties and panic that I forgot to sort those things or perhaps I will have those things neatly tidied away by that point but regardless I worry about other more tangible things and leave those for an older Laura to handle. This year for my Birthday I would like to not feel permanently exhausted so if anyone hasn't got me a present yet that would be lovely. Failing that I would like so...

Many people suffer from anxiety in varying levels so I know having it doesn't make me special. Not that I am trying to be special, I am mostly just coping with the complication business of being me. I have had anxious thoughts as far back as I can remember and mostly it just simmers away in the background like a barely noticeable hum but occasionally it bubbles over and I can't hear myself over the whirring in my brain. it's a thing now, isn't it ? being honest about mental health issues. Mind you I have always been a little too open about mine, blurting it out to anyone who seems mildly interested and providing ammunition  should anyone care to use it.  I don't know that I will ever completely shake it, at this point it feels like an intricate part of personality, a trait as attractive as the rounded curve of my belly. Perhaps though it is a little less obvious to the outside world. There are times when I wish my brain had an off switch so I could take a day or...

I have always been a vegetarian, admittedly not by choice. What I mean by this is that I was rared vegetarian (my whole family is) but I did choose to remain one and I am both happy and comfortable with this choice. Up until about five years ago I was a rather unadventurous eater with a very limited range of foods and complete reluctance to widen my culinary horizons. I was in fact a vegetarian who ate surprisingly few vegetables. As I have mentioned before I discovered my gluten intolerance with dramatic flair ( ending up in hospital )and was forced to rethink my whole way of eating. While it was not exactly a pleasant experience, in many ways it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I got my diet in order, I stopped feeling so sick all of the time and I have discovered I like all sorts of food that I never thought I would. While I was quietly getting more experimental while eating out, I found that when it came to cooking at home I lacked imagination. I knew I wanted to ...