Coffee & TV

So what have I been doing in New York? Forming new bad habits, that’s what!

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a hardcore tea drinker. And none of this fancy blackcurrant mint tea! My poison of choice is the regular Lyons/Barrys variety, strong-ish with plenty of milk. At first I was a two sugars girl. Then this was brought down to one sugar and earlier this year I got rid of the sugar all together. I figured if I was going to drink five or six cups a day, this was necessary to preserve my teeth. See what I mean? Hardcore.

It got to the point of obsession actually and during my masters I produced a radio documentary called What Would You Say to a Cup? Coffee vs. Tea. The piece included a round table discussion with some fellow tea addicts on where the practice came from and why drinking tea is so amazing. It’s hilarious listening because the conversation is so serious and the topic is utterly ridiculous!

Americans like tea. Hell, they even launched a fairly historic protest about the price of it back in the 1700s! But here in the US tea totally takes a back seat to the proclaimed king of the cup – Coffee. Pss! Friends wasn’t lying. It’s really like that.

Yesterday I gave in to the societal pressure and reluctantly entered Starbucks. Now, I’m well aware that Starbucks isn’t the “best” cup out there but it’s by far the most accessible. It’s also always packed – even though there are TWO outlets on the same level in Penn Station. So that has to count for something right?!

Anytime I’ve tried coffee, I’ve had to load it up with sugar to disguise the taste, but that’s got to be cheating right? So I made a mental note to take the drink like a man. 

I looked up at the menu and my initial thoughts were: “Crap crap! I can’t remember what all these things mean! Do I want a mocha? A macchiato? A frappachino? What the hell is a Venti? Oh god, there are the calorie counts. I bet there aren’t as many calories in tea!” 

Then I started thinking about this: 

And this: 

The nice Starbucks employee interrupted my manic stream of consciousness and youtube references and said “M’am? What can I get you today?” FROZEN. “Um…m’am?” STILL FROZEN. “Are you still looking at the menu?” One word came from my lips. “Mocha” I squeaked. “Tall?” I half asked. And the coffee making process began.

I couldn’t help thinking that I was about to waste almost five dollars on some sort of coffee concoction that I was not going to like. And then I noticed the chocolate. They were putting chocolate in with the coffee! So THATS what a Mocha is. So THATS why there were so many calories!

I left Starbucks sipping my chocolatey caffeinated hot drink definitely a satisfied customer.

I couldn’t help but think that the Mocha is obviously a gateway drink to future hard coffee usage. I guess I’m doomed.

Here’s a hilarious and informative little guide courtesy of The Oatmeal:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/coffee

Hello, Friend.

It used to be relatively simple. You asked, Can I borrow your crayons? They said Yes or No and you knew where you stood, within the first five minutes of starting a conversation.

If you were athletic, there were your teammates – all those practices together had to count for something right? Plus, there’s bonding over a championship win or commiserating over a catastrophic defeat.

Making a new friend is just not as straight forward when you’re an adult. In fact it’s a whole lot more frightening. But maybe it doesn’t have to be.  

I was always the “new kid” in school because we moved around as a family, a lot. Being new lent itself to curious stares and questions from classmates. They asked who I was and where I had come from – which at least got the friendship ball rolling. I was pretty much just a welcome disruption to the status quo of the school day but being new is actually a great way to pick up some new friends. This is especially true if you’ve travelled from a different country and have a strange accent – both of which I can claim.

When I was seven, we moved to Brooklyn from Ireland. I was so new and different that my Mum was amused to hear American parents whisper in the school yard, Look at the little Irish girl. Isn’t she so pale? One day, the curiosity of one of my classmates got the better of her and she convinced her grandmother to follow me home so she could see which house I lived in. That little girl is still one of my best friends to this day. See what I mean about making friends as a kid? Imagine if someone did that as an adult?! Stalker.

The procedure in college is relatively easy too. You bond during orientation and everyone is fresh, new and ready to embark on this three or four year adventure. If you live on campus, your fellow students become like your family; friends for life, surely. At DCU, I was heavily involved in societies and was an active DCU Drama member. Doing an extra curricular activity is another great way to meet new people – and my Drama friends are still close.

But what happens when University finishes? Do people still continue to make new friends? Or do you just keep the old ones and hope that their new busy lives will allow them to cross paths on a regular basis?

Some claim that social networks are making keeping up with old friends easier and making the world a smaller place, but I’m not entirely convinced. I have some six hundred friends on facebook. SIX HUNDRED! How many do I engage in conversations with? Roughly twenty. How many do I just facebook perv on? Maybe fifty. How many do I never hear from? Oh too many to count. And even worse, how many of my facebook friends would I stop to talk to in the street? Embarrassingly, too few.

Facebook doesn’t necessarily cement a friendship; it just gives you lots of information about people. Sometimes so much information that you no longer need to ask your friends about their holiday because you’ve already seen the photos and read the status updates. Done job. 

I suppose there are new friends to made when you eventually grow up and get a job. But with so many of us unemployed, how do we fare on that front? When you are temping or working freelance, this can be just as tough. Just when you join a team – you’re moving on to a whole new role. Good thing you’ve added the first team on facebook and can now perv on their photos to your heart’s content!  

Even though I’m giving social networks a hard time here, I do have to admit that the internet has a role to play in facilitating new friendships. For example, the small community of Irish bloggers – people from different places and walks of life – come together online in mutual appreciation of each other’s work.

I experienced something like this recently. A few years back someone left a nice comment here and it turned out we had mutual friends from college but never met. Now we work in similar circles and interact through twitter and facebook all the time. All that was left to do was meet for lunch! And that’s how I met the lovely Aisling over at Think What You Like.

Later that night I told my house mates that I had made a few friend today. They looked at me like I had six heads.

As much as I love my long time friends and believe me, they are scatted across the globe and are great at keeping in touch, I really believe it’s important to engage (in real life) with new humans.

Now there’s a new summer goal for me: make one new friend before September. Any takers?

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it

Do you ever get the feeling you were born at the wrong time in history? Sure, you like the 80′s or 90′s but you long to be part of something in the past.

The title of this post is a quote from John F. Kennedy by the way…

I should definitely have been born in the late 1940′s or early 1950′s – that way I could have spent my formative years in the swinging sixties. My longing is not just from watching Mad Men, although that has added fuel to fire. It’s the music, the clothes, the hair, the makeup, the cars, the whole feeling of human revolution. I love all that stuff! So, while I work on my writer’s block, here are some reminders of the decade I dig the most. Scroll all the way down for some of my own photos!

So, I started wondering what I would look like in the 1960s….

My mum is the woman above and my Dad is the last man on the right! He’s with his band “The Thunderbirds”! 

PS. My Mum won’t see this unless she’s pointed in that direction…shhh she’ll kill me! 

What decade do you belong to?

The Last Four Years of My Life

Love this idea from Pummelvision! They take all your facebook photos (and I have a heap!) and put them into a rapid action slide show. It’s a little like seeing your life flash before your eyes…but a much happier experience!

Behold:

Reverb10

I was browsing Jon Beckett’s blog and came across this online initiative called Reverb 10. The idea is that you use your blog to reflect on the year that’s been and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. Each day in December, a different author posts a question or a prompt and as a participant, you reflect on it in writing. Some of the posts associated with it are amazing and my mind is already swimming with new, gorgeous blogs to visit and comment on! I think it’s a lovely way to get some inspiration and maybe inspire others too – plus, I always find it really hard to reflect on a year and this seems like a productive and creative way to do so! So here goes….

I realise I’m a little late off the mark – but here’s Dec. 6th’s prompt from author Gretchen Rubin:

What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

Technically the last thing I made was a bowl of porridge (which I’m eating while typing this..check me out multi-tasking!) but I have a feeling that the question is much more broad than that.

I love making things from scratch. It probably comes from my Dad, who’s really handy around the house. Since I was a little girl he’s been making book shelves, picture frames, desks and various other space saving creations. He’s the first person I’d go to with something that needs fixing as well. The man has fixed my GHD twice – including rewiring it and saving it with some super glue!

My love of making things is far less DIY and much more homemade cards. A few years ago, when I started going out with Conor, I thought it was really personal to make a handmade card for every occasion. Then I realised I had started a trend – and now I can’t stop! I’ve actually started a next to impossible task because as each occasion (birthdays, valentines day, Christmas) approaches, I need a new and more quirky idea for a card than the last! ….Sooner or later I will run out of cute things to do here!

The last card I made was slightly desperate. I had just moved into a new apartment and had very few materials – so much to the amusement of my housemates, I grabbed all the left over Goodfellas pizza boxes and set to work. I covered them with paper so they looked acceptable and wracked my brain for ways to make it personal. A poem? Sappy. A drawing? It would look like a stick figure. Hmmm..? Aha! I had an idea. I had a ton of ridiculous photos of us taken on my mac Photo Booth. I printed them off and there were so many I covered FOUR SIDES OF THE CARD! See exhibit A:

Exhibit A

Attractive eh?

Anywho, the card was a big success and he spent so much time laughing at the photos that he didn’t even notice the pizza boxes!

Something I want to make but need to clear time for it? Definitely. I’ve always wanted to make a Vision Board. The concept of a Vision Board has been around for years, but it became really popular recently through the book, The Secret (which I’ve never actually read! whoops!). The idea is that you create a board of visual goals for yourself. The goals include who you want to be, where you want to travel and what you want from life. It can be really specific or more general. It’s supposed to be placed in a prominent place, that way, when you see it, you remember the goals and they eventually become a reality. It’s all to do with the Law of Attraction or something like that…I just think its a good reminder of where you’re headed. Here’s an example of one I found online:

I’ve been toying with this idea for a while now and have started cutting out ideas from magazines. I even bought a lovely piece of cardboard to use (…but there was an incident with a bird that foiled that plan. More on that later!). I think I really need some more headspace and time to decide exactly what should go on the board…so for now, I’ll hoard all my ideas and hope that it comes to fruition. It could be a good project for the new year!

I really am a believer in making things. It’s so easy now to type something out and print it off, to send an email instead of an actual card and to look at photos on a screen instead of on a wall – why not get out the glue, scissors and some coloured paper for Christmas…even if it’s not the most artistic creation – it’ll give your friends a pretty good laugh!

the ‘i love your blog’ interview

So this little interview-yoke is doing the rounds at the moment and the gorgeous Kelle Belle tagged me to have a whack at it! So below are my answers and hopefully a little more insight into me!

Why did you create your blog?

It’s hard to believe, but I started this blog almost three years ago! In that time I’ve dipped in and out a lot – depending on how much free time I have and how much free head space I have for creative writing. Originally the blog was called “Desperately Seeking Susan” but last year, once I had finished college and was surviving on my own for the first time it evolved into its current form, “Suddenly Susan”!

What kind of blogs do you follow?

I follow a whole spread of different blogs! I love catching up on my friends’ personal blogs – and more recently I’ve been into fashion blogs. I love food blogs for ideas and I’m a total political junkie!

Favourite make-up brand?

I love makeup! Almost love it more than clothes…gasp! I’m a MAC girl all the way and use MAC studio fix liquid foundation, studio finish concealer, mineralize powder and mac  blush too. I can’t get enough of Urban Decay eye shadows and am currently navigating my way around the Book of Shadows II palette. Mascara wise, I’m a Bad Gal Lash (benefit) girl and I use MAC fluid line liner in Blacktrack.

Your indespesible make-up product?

Smashbox primer – nothing like it for keeping my makeup where it should be! I also love MAC Mineralize Skin Finish powder – it can be worn with foundation or without to matte-ify your face!

Your favourite colour?

Red, red, red. It’s actually getting a little ridiculous! One day I realised I was sitting on the bus in a red rain mac, red backpack, red iPhone case – sucking on a red lollipop! Anyone who knows me – knows I’m in LOVE with it.

Your perfume?

This changes – currently I like Lola by Marc Jacobs and Premier Jour by Nina Ricci. It just depends on my mood I guess.

Your favourite film?

Wow, this is a toughie. Hercules (the Disney version), Bridget Jones Diary, You’ve Got Mail and The Patriot. I think this list is pretty varied. I know them all word for word!

What country would you like to visit and why?

Hmm..I’d love to go to Peru or Brazil. My boyfriend was in South America this year and according to him – these are places I need to see before I die.

If we’re talking about a place I’ve already been – then its New York. Always New York. My sister was home visiting last week and I miss her already…

Write a question yourself and answer it: Who’s your bizarre celeb crush?

….Louis Theroux. Hands down. Love the geeky glasses and the cute English accent. Love him.

Hey you! You’re next…

Lovely Disco

All Me Me Me

Journalist on the Run

Keeping me busy…

If you follow this blog in any capacity, you know I’m a dipper. I dip in and dip out depending on life and what’s going on.

Here’s a quick post to sum up life right now:

Work: Doing some freelance work on the Breakfast show

Improvement: Working on my public speaking and leadership skills three times a month

Culture: Trying my best to sample the best that Dublin has to offer!

Exercise: I’ve put my dancing shoes back on

Television: How on earth have I never discovered this before?! Devouring the box sets!

Writing: New project on the cards!

And to your left we have…

Before I worked in media I had a number of different jobs. The best by far was managing tour groups with a travel company in New York. The groups were made up of mainly over-65′s with a love of casinos, shows and the racetrack. Simply put, these auld ones and auld lads were brilliant fun.

They are certainly an interesting bunch, not subdued and definitely not passed their prime. They love a dance (good for keeping the hips going you know?) and have no problem telling you to feck right off.

Being a tour manager is great for a number of reasons. For starters, you’re not in an office looking at a computer screen all day and if you love travel and sightseeing, you can really learn a lot while on the job. But also, it is absolutely hilarious. I have so many stories from my days with the company (too many to recount here!) and every time I left to return home to Ireland, I went armed with a new cast of crazy elderly New York characters!

One of my favourite tours to take (and some say my speciality) was into Manhattan for a trip on the Water Taxi. The day involved me getting a train into Manhattan and meeting one, two or sometimes three buses of people at the South Street Seaport. I had to greet them, make sure they knew where they were going and then give them a time to meet the boat for the tour. Once they were all on board the boat, I got to sit up on the top deck in the sunshine and look at the most beautiful city in the world from out on the Hudson River. After the tour we all got back on our buses and went to Little Italy where we were served a gorgeous Italian lunch (another perk of the job) and after that I bid them farewell and got back on my train home. Blissful or what?

Not so blissful when you run into some roadblocks.

One day, a group of particularly rambunctious grannies decided not to come back to the boat, but to go shopping in the mall instead. I knew I was three people short, but the boat had to sail on time and subsequently without them. You know the feeling when you’re minding a child and they get lost? It was like that, except with someone’s Nana. Well actually three of them.

When the boat came back, the three ladies in question were laden with shopping bags and waving to us from the dock! They had a great afternoon shopping and didn’t even want to take the boat tour – yet still demanded a trip on the house in the future. Cheeky cheeky grannies!

I’ve had my fair share of injuries as well. One lady was on her way to the restaurant and tripped on a crack in the sidewalk, which resulted in her breaking a front tooth. That was the first and only time I’ve ever had to call 911 for someone. Another time, in the same restaurant, a lady fell in the bathroom and bashed her head on the toilet bowl. No call to the emergency services, but she was pretty shaken up.

One summer I was managing a group of rich kids from Upstate New York. They were enrolled in a “Travel Summer Camp” (a what now?!) and went on a different trip each day. I got to take them to the United Nations (which I was so unbelievably excited about – snort snort politics nerd!) and it was pretty disastrous. First, our tour guide was Asian and spoke with an accent, which they ridiculed him about for the entire tour. Then, anytime he asked them a question, they just stared at each other and laughed. Which meant I had to answer it. Eventually the guide launched into a big speech about how there are thousands of children all over the world who are not privileged enough to be receiving an education and that they should be grateful for the chance to see the UN. The rich kids sneered and giggled. Some made phone calls on their cell phones. Others put head phones in. Embarrassment city.

Another day, we went on a tour of Rockefeller Centre and NBC Studios (both of which excited me, obviously!) but most the tours were timed for elderly people, who are slow to do everything. Not energetic pre-teens who do everything at the speed of light. So we were left with a giant chunk of time in the middle of the most humid day imaginable.

What would I do? Where could I take forty twelve-year olds at such short notice?

I headed for the biggest and coldest place I could think of nearby: St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

There were several issues with this. Firstly, I knew very little about the Cathedral, other than it was the venue for several high-profile NY weddings.Secondly, unbeknownst to me, most of the group were Jewish.

In the end, the kids were so confused by my choice of venue that they sat quietly in the pews staring up at the place. Some even lit candles. Mission accomplished, I say.

24 Hours

If you had exactly 24 hours in London, what would you do?

Myself and Conor asked ourselves that very question a few weeks ago – with hilarious results.

Our trip to Croatia had been booked for months. The accommodation and flights were paid for. But then someone threw a spanner in the works: Stevie Wonder.

He was scheduled to play in Dublin while we were away and there was NO WAY we were missing out on him. But then there was NO WAY we were cutting our trip short! So we compromised and booked a trip to London on the tail end of the trip to Dubrovnik. However, that meant getting to Dublin, and heading back out again within six hours of arriving home.

Observe:

The Susan and Conor London Timeline:

00:15 – Arrive Dublin airport from Dubrovnik – pretty tired but excited
00:40 – Arrive at Conor’s house in Lusk – make sandwiches for London (broke from Croatia)
1:30 – Sleep
3:30 – Wake Up (wah?! Where are we?! What time is it?! Sandwiches?!!?!)
4:15 – Taxi BACK to Dublin airport
5:00 – McDonalds Breakfast (broke from Croatia)
6:30 – Plane leaves for London Stanstead
7:20 – Plane arrives in London Stanstead
8:30 – Cheap as chips bus into London town
10:00 – Arrive in London with bag of sandwiches ready for fun!
10:15 – McDonalds Breakfast (ahem! the first one didn’t count)

Luckily McDonalds had wifi and we were able to roughly plan our day on our iPhones (god we’re such a geeky couple).

By the way, did I forget to mention that our flight home was at 6:30am the next day – and that we had decided not to book a hotel or hostel??

First we went to the changing of the guards. Conor had never seen it before and hey! its free! While watching Conor asked lots and lots of questions about the guards. None of which I could answer. He also asked a very English police man..and he couldn’t answer them either (I didn’t feel so bad!)

Luckily the weather was amazing that day because we literally travelled with the clothes on our backs and some sandwiches (which we ate in a park while sitting on the grass!)

After the changing of the guards we headed for the West End because I couldn’t be in London and not see a show! We decided to buy the cheapest tickets we could get and see a matinee. The show was drumroll please BILLY ELLIOT! I’ve been dying to see this show in NY for years – and finally here I was in the back row, for £20! It blew my mind! I laughed, I cried, I was in awe! Watch out top 5 broadway shows, there’s a new kid on the block and he’s dancing!

I think Conor enjoyed it too.

After the show, it was time for the gig in Hyde Park. We had been walking around all day, so we decided to navigate the tube. That’s when something crazy happened:

When we were in Croatia, we took a day trip to Mostar (in Bosnia Herzegovina) with a whole bus of other tourists. One couple were noticeable because they had a little baby, which they carried in a contraption on their back. I think they were Australian.

So we’re standing on a random tube platform when Conor gasps “OH MY GOD” and I think “agh! What celebrity has he seen!?” and there they are! The Australian couple and the baby walking by us – when we’d seen them two days before that in BOSNIA! It was such a surreal feeling. They said “hi”, we said “hi” and we came to the conclusion that they are spies and the baby is actually some sort of recording device. Simple.

We finally got to Hyde Park, which was absolutely buzzing with people who had been there in the sunshine all day. We grabbed beers and nuzzled our way gently towards the front grabbing a good spot (next to some Eastenders type characters who sort of scared us…but were really amusing!).

So how was Stevie?

Best gig I’ve ever been to: hands down!

He came onstage and there was this incredible energy from him which must be because he’s a complete legend! He played hit after hit after hit and it all sounded like I was listening to a CD – except better! He also played Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”, a small bit of Alicia Keys “New York”, and The Beatles “We Can Work it Out”. My favourite song was “Living for the City” where I sang my lungs out and danced my bum off!

“Sorry auld lad next to me…but you only get to dance at Stevie Wonder once in a lifetime!”

So far so good with the 24 hours in London plan. However, we assumed the concert would finish around 11:30 and our bus to the airport was at 3:10am and ACTUALLY the concert finished around 10:30 leaving us with an extra hour. We assumed that we would want to go to a cosy pub somewhere but we looked a bit of a wreck (well Conor did, I looked immaculate obviously…) and we were well, wrecked.

Then I had a legendary idea: THE CINEMA.

In Dublin, cinemas close around midnight. In London, they stay open pretty much all night! So we booked two tickets to the new Russel Brand film, “Get Him to the Greek” for the midnight show.

How was the film?

Conor seemed to like it. I could hear him laughing in between deep and not so deep sleep. FYI: the cinema is a great place to catch some shut eye.

I felt like we were homeless.

We had to walk to catch our 3:10 bus and decided to take a route past Buckingham Palace for the craic, like. There wasn’t a soul around and we could see a light on – so we assumed the Queen was chillin’ out watching The Hills or what have you. We creeped around the palace gates whispering and Conor remarked “wow, we’re the only ones here” and I replied “yea, but I’d say there are about 100 cameras on us and Mi5 agents ready to take out the paddys at the front gates”.

The bus and plane journeys back to Dublin were full of sleep. In fact, I don’t even remember take off or landing on our 6:30am flight from London to Dublin.

Although we were exhausted, slightly sunburnt and full of sandwiches, it was one unforgettable day!

Things to do instead of watching the World Cup

It’s that time again…World Cup Fever is sweeping the globe. Drunken, hairy men screaming at large televisions will take over the world. Lots and lots of women internationally will be come “football widows” as their other halves devote all their waking hours to the sport.

Need a break from all the madness? Here are a few ideas!

1. Write the next great novel

It seems to be an Irish thing – but apparently everyone has a novel in them and while the footie fanatics are surgically attached to the telly and the remote, allow yourself the time to grab a cup of tea, and your favourite writing utensil.

You will have 1 month, on your marks, get set GO!

2.Detox and have a sober month

Since everyone you know will be down in a pub, downing pints and shouting “GOAAAAAAAALLLL!” why not cleanse your temple and lay off the drink for the month? You’ll feel good and it’ll save a few pennies!

3. Do the opposite and travel to Norway!

So how can you visit the opposite of South Africa? Well it really depends on how you define “opposite”. By an official office poll – the opposite of South Africa is somewhere North…and where’s directly North of SA? NORWAY. Instead of watching football matches in crowed stadiums while getting heat stroke, why not experience the magnificent fjords in the comfort of a light jacket?

4. Pick a brand new sport to watch

So soccer isn’t your cup of tea…why not pick something no one is following and stand out from the drunken, cheering crowds.
Suggestions include:
- Wife Carrying
- Shin Kicking
- Chess Boxing
- World Gurning Championships – ugliest face wins

5. 48 things

So there are 48 World Cup Matches…the ideal way of combating this is to select 48 films (preferably Chick Flicks if you want to really counteract this whole sport thing…) and plan a film for every match.

Football Fan: Are you going to watch the England v. USA match?
You: Why no, I’ll be watching Pretty Woman thanks.

Alternatively, you could watch 48 episodes of that programme that you’ve always wanted to watch but never got round to…my choice is “The Wire”.

6. Get a makeover

Think about it…48 matches and a month is plenty of time to experiment with your style (whether you’re a guy or a girl) – cut your hair, dye it blue, get a piercing. After the World Cup ends and people come out of their football trances they’ll have trouble recognising you! “Susan..who?” FUN!

7. Get Cultural

All joking aside, there are loads of events going on around Ireland over the next month!
- Taste of Dublin – this weekend
- Cork Midsummer Festival June 12-27
- Bloomsday Festival – 12-16th of June
- Cork welcomes the Clipper Around the World Yacht race for 8 days from the 1st of July
- Street Performance Championships in Dublin and Cork
- Galway Sessions – June 14-21
- Galway Film Fleadh – July 6-11
- Oxegen – July 9-11

If all else fails…there’s always Big Brother….. as a complete last resort.