July, 2005

Well things took a bit of a turn over the weekend. On Friday evening I managed to pull or hurt something in my back, making it almost unbearable to walk, and going up and down stairs had to be done on my bum (not a nice sight I can assure you!)

I gave the maternity unit a ring on Saturday evening and they asked me to come in and see a doctor asap. As expected there was little they could do, other than give tell me it was all SPD related, offer me stronger pain relief and some advice. The advice was a bit unrealistic … ‘lie down as much as possible’ and ‘take as much bedrest as you can’, with two children under four this just didn’t seem possible. So I hobbled home on my crutches and contemplated just how I was going to manage over the next four weeks until the baby is born.

The surprise came early this morning. My mother rang and offered to come out to my house tomorrow, help with some housework and the children and then on Tuesday and Wednesday take the children to her house while Mr L is at work. On top of that her and my sister are going to take the kids to my mums caravan from Monday to Friday next week in order to give me some respite.

I was flabbergasted! To say we receive little help with the kids is an understatement. To be fair I must now give credit to my sister who lives nearby and is an absolute saint! She is always the person we rely upon to look after the kids if anything crops up and just about the only person who ever offers a helping hand without expecting 1000 favours in return. But we have learned in recent years not to expect too much help from anyone else. Our parents love the kids, but generally on their own terms, and if we are present to look after them. The best they can usually be relied upon to do is feed them full of sweets and to read them the odd story.

I have of course accepted this latest offer of help, and I am really really grateful for it as I had become worried about how I was actually going to manage day to day tasks with the children. Its nice to know that people can be relied upon in times of trouble and I am much happier knowing that I didn’t even have to ask.

Sunday, July 31st, 2005 // Family Life

Was it good for you too, honey?

Not especially. Like a couple making love in the last days of a dying relationship, every manoeuvre between Nationalists and Unionists was predictable from the offset. At the start of the week the media foreplay looked promising: there was much teasing, yet Sinn Fein were uncharacteristically tight-lipped throughout.

But just when it looked like we were getting somewhere, someone went and released Sean Kelly. Darn. Libido lost. PR blitz flattened.

Then ?the statement? was released. On one side of the bed, the Republicans had a self congratulatory climax at the day?s history-making while on the other Unionists grumped along, feeling left out.

An Historic Announcement?

Historic in the sense that similar announcements have been made before, in 1994 and 1997. Only this time I didn?t notice too many cheering hoards on the streets of West Belfast as I drove home on Thursday.

I?m not denouncing this as an empty gesture, though. It may well provide the framework for a lasting settlement provided that the Unionist communities (in time) accept it. Of course, Nationalists need to accept that variations of this statement have been released before and not upheld. It will take time to gain Unionist trust.

The View From The Entrenched Benches

Even when the announcement was just a rumour, our illustrious politicians had reverted to type, trotting out standard rhetoric from their respective rulebooks. I don?t think there was an imaginative statement from any of them.

• Sinn Fein: Historic announcement, courageous/brave decision by the IRA, we?ve raised the bar for Unionists to follow?Chucky Ar Wa?
• DUP: Fire and brimstone. Republican lies/deception. Actions not words. Some wrath of God for good measure (optional)
• SDLP: Erm?.can?t suppose to speak for the IRA?.statement seems sound enough?let?s wait and see?
• UUP: Outraged at release of Sean Kelly?..government treachery?.sop to republicans?.no trust?..actions not words?.what did Ian say?aye, that too.

I lost interest after a while. Even the blog boards were filled with unimaginative party-line comments.

What Mr. Levee Thinks….

My view? Accept it for what it is. It?s a statement. It may lead to a more positive situation, or it may not. Everyone in Northern Ireland will have to give it the benefit of the doubt, and see what actions it is backed up with.

My hope is that it will influence other groups to ?down tools? and adopt a more peaceable approach. My hope is that it buys time for the memories of conflict to recede, to die off with older generations. My desperate hope is that over time, more people will come to see Nationalism and Unionism as unsuccessful and unhelpful ideologies and start to question their prejudices.

We need new thinking in Northern Ireland. Maybe if the terrorists bow out for a while we?ll eventually be able to change our mindsets. Maybe a political party will emerge with clear policies affecting how we live, not wasting years on redundant arguments.

And maybe, just maybe, this statement will start this process. That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

Friday, July 29th, 2005 // Northern Ireland: Politics

I was thinking about the Loyalist feud earlier today. Imagine if the feud between the UVF and the LVF was actually about which group was most loyal to Queen and country?

“Whad’ya mean Billy? Sure I’m the Queen’s biggest fan! I’ve got all her Christmas speeches on DVD!”

“No way Billy, my Union Jack tattoo’s bigger than yours. Sure you’ve only got one flag outside your house - you’re practically a Taig!”

You can see how such dedicated alegiance might develop into…er….a more heated debate….(apologies for the stereotyping of the name Billy!)

Friday, July 29th, 2005 // Northern Ireland: Politics

Jay (aka Wee Man) must be the most accident prone kid ever! A while ago, he got locked inside the car. Today, after his afternoon nap, he took a spectacular tumble down the stairs.

Mrs L. had woken both kiddies up and was headed downstairs with them both. Wee Man was lumbering downstairs having refused to hold hands. The rest of the event isn’t entirely clear, but he slipped about halfway down, took a tumble and smacked head first into the stair gate at the bottom.

Not a nice scenario. Add to that Mrs L is suffering from a particularly painful pregnancy condition called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD) which makes walking excruciating for her. She couldn’t get to him immediately, which was frustrating for her.

I got back from work shortly after this happened. Jay was still shocked and crying hard. He normally takes a fall quite well - gets straight back to mischief afterward. We managed to settle him with a couple of dolly mixtures, but later on his forehead came up a nasty shade of purple where he’d hit the bar of the stair gate.

Still, he seems to have gotten over his initial trauma. But what a shock!

Friday, July 29th, 2005 // Family Life

I had a wee meeting with my GP recently, to see what could be done about the year-long waiting list for a vasectomy consultation. Depressing news from the snip front - they cannot influence the timing except possibly in extreme cases.

Alright, so we’re starting to panic here - baby #3 is due in 4-5 weeks and I’m just a ticking spermbomb waiting to go off….

“So, Doctor, how can we move this along?” I asked, considering bribery among my options.

“Er, well you could try phoning around some of the local hospital’s surgical departments. If their waiting lists are shorter, we could consider writing a referral to those instead.” was the reply. “Alternatively, you could consider having it done privately.”

So, on Wednesday I began Operation Get A Quick Snip in the hope of getting a vasectomy sooner!

Option #1: Join The NHS Vasectomy Queue

I phoned the Royal Victoria Hospital and Lagan Valley Hospital to enquire about waiting lists for vasectomy procedures. The staff in surgical at The Royal were unavailable, so I called Lagan Valley. A very helpful lady there explained that they had two consultants and another one starting shortly. They were working to clear a backlog from 2003 at a rate of 2-3 patients per week. The receptionist was reluctant to predict whether the wait would be less than a year, and said it was uncertain how long the consultants would be staying for.

Basic result: You’re welcome to submit a referral, but don’t hold your breath. . .

Option #2: Pay For Your Own Snip

How refreshing speaking to a private hospital. The staff are so much less indifferent to your plight. After drawing a blank with the NHS, I called the Ulster Independent Clinic. After initially explaining my circumstances, I was put through to a nice lady who talked me through the options for the consultancy, the procedure and the aftercare.

Of course, all this polite attention comes at a price: The initial consultation would be approximately ?150.00. The operation would be either ?500.00 using a local anasthetic or ?1000+ with a general anasthetic. There was also an additional charge for a check-up afterward to determine if the operation has been successful.

Basic result: Will that be credit card or cheque, sir?

Option #3: The Home Improvement Method

With so much information and technical diagrams available on the Internet today, might have a stab (ouch) at DIY surgery! Only joking!

Friday, July 29th, 2005 // Family Life

The following is a modified version of a comment I recently posted at A Tangled Web. Looking back at the comment, I realised that it pretty much sums up my approach to the political situation in Northern Ireland.

It’s a shame that people lack the discipline to tear themselves away from the age old arguments of Nationalism and Unionism.

At it’s most simple, our ‘conflict’ is a turf war, but whose turf? Not yours or mine. Few of us will ever own more than the four walls we live in.

This is your challenge: forget the past, enjoy your life. Your country (UK or Eire) only knows your name whenever it comes to tax and the law. Your nationality is only an accident of birth.

What do you think?

Thursday, July 28th, 2005 // Northern Ireland: Politics

Well I have decided that I am going to sell a load of my cloth nappies on ebay next week. As I said in my last post I started off using a two part system consisting of absorbant nappy ( like tot bots, little lambs, popolini, Ellas House or earthwise babies) and a waterproof wrap (I mostly used mother ease or nature babies) . But to be honest since I have stocked up on Fuzzi Bunz I have hardly used the others at all.

About a month ago I bought some extra fuzzis with some prefolds and terry towelling square nappies to stuff them with, they are just fab. They don’t leak, the fleece inner means that my son never gets nappy rash with them and they look so cute. I have enough Fuzzi Bunz now to do me for about 3 days without washing and when I do wash them they dry much faster than the other nappies as the stuffing can be unfolded and dried flat.

So the plan is now to sell all my XL and toddler nappies and wraps and I will keep any money I make for cloth nappies for the new baby when he is born. I am so chuffed that this is all working out, I’m starting to feel like a bit of an earth mother!

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 // Family Life

….but not this hard! Well, all the stress of living near Ardoyne must have an effect on the libido, like.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 // Northern Ireland: Politics

We’ve been watching the political situation in Northern Ireland very closely since reports of movement in the Sinn Fein/IRA camp at the weekend. Slugger O’Toole reports that the mainstream news sites are starting to pick up on the story and speculation and analysis have intensified amid claims that the announcement will be delivered later this week.

It’s probably fair to say that the recent bombings in London have made the republicans sharpen their pencils: these fundamentalists give terrorism a bad name! Couple that with the fallout from the Northern Bank raid and the murder of Robert McCartney and you have an organisation that cannot credibly claim a “protection of the people” mandate ever again! As all our terror organisations slip into their retirement years, they begin to resemble gangsters - organised criminals - even more.

I won’t speculate on the form of any statement the IRA make. I don’t really care. I will wait and see how things pan out on the ground.

As regular readers here will know, I don’t subscribe to either a Unionist or Nationalist ethos, I simply like Northern Ireland as it is. Perhaps if their statement is followed with affirmative action, then criminals will become accountable for their actions. Not hiding behind a terrorist banner. Not spreading intimidation and fear in their neighbourhoods. Not raising their young in the prejudices they grew up with.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 // Northern Ireland: Politics

The BBC website has posted a reasonably good summary of the last few days political activity surrounding the impending IRA statement.

In fairness, there’s been a lot of movement since the weekend and the top people at Sinn Fein have been meeting with both the British and Irish prime ministers. Apparently now Martin McGuinness is jetting off Stateside to brief supporters on the future direction of the IRA.

Hilariously, Michael McDowell, the Irish Justice Minister has weighed in by deducing that this proves there was a structural link between the two groups. Great work Einstein, glad to have you on the team!

Finally, the view from the Unionist bench (courtesy of Sir Reginald Empey) is that everyone’s bored with IRA statements and - rightly - their actions following any statement will be the deciding factor. Apparently he and the rest of the Unionist community will not be losing any sleep over the forthcoming announcement….

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 // Northern Ireland: Politics