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President Obama’s Irish Visit

Barrack Obama

© Davi Sales | Dreamstime.com

Barack Obama is coming to Ireland. I have been a fan for ages so I am more excited about this visit than I am about the impending visit of the Queen of England. Indeed, I am more excited about it than I am about the impending marriage of William and Kate Middleton. On the excitement scale of one to ten, Obama has pushed me right up there to say a three or a four.

I have been watching President Obama’s career with interest since the early days. It all began with an overheard conversation that led me to place a small wager on him winning the Democratic nomination. I have Paddy Power to thank for adding a few euro to my bank balance on that one. I’m not a huge gambler, you understand. In fact, it was only a 50 cent bet – but still, a euro is a euro as we have learned to our cost in Ireland this past year.

Let me add that as a fully paid up member of the Irish Obama fan club, I am the proud owner of a Barack Obama mug and I nearly had a Barack Obama chia pet except something went wrong at the last minute. That’s okay, though. I probably wouldn’t have felt right about trimming the grass – to be honest, it would have been kind of disturbing. Sadly, I also missed out on the statuettes with the button that plays excerpts of the inauguration address. Still, I’m sure the impending visit will produce a range of new memorabilia so I look forward to adding to my collection. I wonder should I put 50 cent on Michelle having a pint of Guinness in Moneygall while she’s here?
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Should children attend funerals?

Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 is one of my favourite podcast downloads. Recently I caught part of a discussion about whether children should be allowed to attend funerals. Having not been allowed to attend funerals as a child myself, and having vivid memories of my feelings at the time, it is a subject on which I have quite stong views.

I think it is important to allow children the opportunity to say goodbye and to include them in the grief. It helps to take the mystery and fear away and is comforting and reassuring even if the sadness must be felt. But, interestingly, on the Woman’s Hour show, views were mixed. One man who, as a child, was made to attend his father’s funeral has never quite forgiven his mother for making him go. Other callers had experiences similar to my own. What they all have in common is the vivid recall of how they felt as a child, and even 40 or 50 years later, they still have regrets.

Woman’s Hour is a very good show and well worth checking out on iTunes if you’re passing.

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Reasons to be happy about 2011 being the Year of the Rabbit

Rabbit on Grass

© Sascha Burkard | Dreamstime.com

What do Frank Sinatra, Germaine Greer, Jane Seymour and George Michael have in common?

Give up? Apparently they were all born in the Year of the Rabbit.

And, in case you didn’t know, a Year of the Rabbit  begins on February 3, 2011 and ends on January 22, 2012. 

The good news is that a Rabbit year is supposed to be good for calming the nerves and, Izzy Muses for one could do with a bit of nerve calming.  

Being a Year of the Pig girl myself, apparently I’m compatible with the Rabbits  so I hope to run into a few fun bunnies in 2011. I’ll also be making lots of wishes this year as apparently it’s a good year for getting what you want. 

By all accounts, it’s going to be a great year for Rabbits and Pigs and indeed Sheep but sadly the omens are not quite so promising for Roosters.

 Did you know that a happy rabbit purrs just like a cat? Or that the ten most famous rabbits of all time were allegedly:

• The White Rabbit – featured in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865)
• Peter Rabbit – created by Beatrix Potter (1902)
• Simply known as ‘Rabbit’ inWinnie the Pooh (1926)
• Thumper – featured in the Disney classic Bambi (1942)
• Bugs Bunny – made famous by Loony Toons (1944)
• Miffy – created by Dutch author & illustrator Dick Bruna (1955)
• Dillon – character from The Magic Roundabout (1963)
• Watership Down – a book and animated film about a herd of rabbits (1972)
• Roger Rabbit – from the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
• Energise Rabbit – created as part of the battery manufacturers advertising campaign (1989)

I bet you’re dying to know what your Chinese Zodiac sign is by now. There’s loads of places online to check it out. Here’s one, just to make it easy http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/new-idea/article/-/5989479/chinese-horoscopes-what-sign-am-i/

And let me be the first to wish you Happy Year of the Rabbit.

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