Skip to main content

Today you must be Irish...

...even if you're a meerkat.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS GRUMPINESS

Green is one of my favourite colours, I enjoy the occasional pint of the black stuff and I love visiting Ireland, but to be told to celebrate these things on a specific day irks me.

I'm the same about Valentines Day and Parent's day. It's the manipulation of emotion by cynical marketing people that irritates me. For example take Mother's Day, I know I love my mum and I tell her that whenever I feel like it, not on a set calender date. (Don't worry dear reader, I do send her something for Mother's Day, I'm not so cynical that I neglect my mum out of my dislike of corporate induced guilt).

OK, that's my little grumble over. Despite my grumpy countenance I did find find these which put a smile on my face.


Photo borrowed from niftyknits

If you've been watching Harry Hill's TV Burp recently, especially the K-factor, these may be familiar. kniftyknits creates these endearing little creatures for sale in her Etsy shop. Unfortunately the pattern isn't for sale but I admire the attention to detail and character in those little twitchy faces. It's worth having a look at her shop for the sheer range of meerkat activity.

Tonight I won't be trawling the Irish pubs, wearing a daft Guinness hat (there are other brands of stout you know) or claiming any Irish heritage (no, not all redheads are Irish, not all Irish people are redheads - yes, another gripe of mine - stereotypes) but I will be reading Ravelry and maybe watch a few episodes of one of Ireland's finest comedies, Father Ted, which should put me in a better mood.

Labels:

Comments

claire montgomerie said…
ah yes, i do so agree with everything you say ginger. down with all commercial hols i say. also, while on the ginge thing, I am Irish in heritage, but my reddish tinge and fair colouring are from the scottish side. I know very few red headed irish. far more likely to be very dark or very blonde in my experience!
18 March 2010 at 21:50
Bionic Laura said…
I love you! No really I do. This post is fantastic. You even said there are other brands of stout...

I too dislike being told I must celebrate being Irish on a certain day with weird symbols of Irishness like leprechauns. Irish meerkats though, I can get behind that.

@Claire I must be lucky, I have a red headed Irish husband.
18 March 2010 at 23:15
Anonymous said…
I agree with you about commercial holidays. COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AND UTTERLY and btw valentines day is utter rubbish.
18 April 2010 at 01:42
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have a winner...

Check out my pea seedling, how intact and un-nibbled it is. My mysterious object, as correctly guessed by Madmurdock and Montyknits, is a gastropod guard. It seems to be working. I'd heard that slugs and snails don't like slithering over hair. I tried using hair clippings a few years ago as a barrier. It worked for a few days, til I found chewed, leafless stems and on further inspection a guilty slug covered in ginger hair. Hopefully the fleecy barrier will stay in place and mean I get a good late crop of peas. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who took part.
4 comments
Read more

Unravelling the NHS

If you follow me on twitter you'll already know I have a healthy interest in politics. Our current government is slowly and steadily dismantling our beloved NHS (National Health Service) from one with full public accountability to one which is more dependent on profit margins rather than evidence based medicine. THIS MAKES ME VERY ANGRY. There's a lot of despair at the moment, many of us feel our government is not listening to us, the people, or experts in the field such as the British Medical Association or the Royal College of Nurses. Yesterday our unelected second house, the house of Lords, voted through the government's ill-advised health reform bill. We all felt hopeless, then I read this blog post . You should read it too. Many of us are working out what to do. How can we reverse this disastrous decision when essentially the democratic process is failing us. "The NHS reforms did not appear in either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat manifestos. They w
4 comments
Read more

TOTOROOOOOOOO!

I finally handed over the Totoro hooded top to it's two year old recipient today. It also fits his four year old sister which is good as she likes Totoro too. They both looked very cute in it. We met up at the Wellcome Collection which has a lovely airy cafe and free exhibitions. The Totoro kids mum is a fellow scientist so we went round the Exquisite Bodies exhibition explaining why calves are sometimes born with two heads, how babies are made (the four year olds current interest) and lots of other science fun to the kids. If you visit the Wellcome centre with kids ask about their young investigators pack. It's really cool (I was disappointed I didn't get one) and it's free. Brilliant. The staff were really helpful and pleasantly surprised at seeing young kids enjoying a strange exhibition, rather than being freaked out by it. Personally, I did enough human dissection as part of my degree to make me not want to see another cadaver ever again, although the models wer
4 comments
Read more