UNCRPD – The Right on Participation in Political and Public Life
It has been a great, uplifting two weeks. Busy, yes, but it was also about self-analysis and giving back. If I remember well – as you know my memories have a short lifespan – it was all about life with MS. I finally received meds for trigeminal neuralgia, aka the ‘suicide disease’ last week. As trigeminal goes, it is one of the most painful conditions according to medical staff. Over the past three to four months, many a thought went into on finding ways of eradicating the pain. It went as far as referring to it as ‘trigeminal blah blah blah’ because I started hating the word and all it stood for. Not often do I lose hope when I am in a lot of pain, and with a pain…
Irish: A Manner of Speaking
Once again I am finding myself in WordPress-Blog-space. It’s a happy space if you ask me. Slowly I am learning about blogging and about writing and I am finding my own voice. When I received the WordPress Weekly Writing Challenge email about slang and phrases that are unique to where bloggers live, I need not have looked or thought too hard about what I was going to write about: “For this week’s writing challenge, showcase your slang. It can be a display of regional pride, a contemplation on new words you’ve heard, but still don’t quiet understand, or a practice in dialogue that mimics our regular speaking patterns. Need a few ideas to get you going? Pick a word or phrase that is unique to where you live or your…
Back with a bang!
I am. In Dublin once again after a short stay with my mum. She moved houses last week but instead of having me pack boxes with her with lots of… well… you know yourself when you move houses and how much you gather in the space of about 60 years or so. I stayed in her new apartment by the marina, 5 minutes from the beach and 3 minutes from the main shopping street – my mum knows how to pick her favourite spots – so she chose wisely. And while I stayed by the marina for a week before her moving in, my mum was slaving over packing boxes in her old place, doing admin related to the move and so on. For a week I had no internet…
Think different…
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. (Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc.) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2013. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this…
Very Inspiring Blogger Award
Yesterday I found out that I received a ‘Very Inspiring Blogger Award’ on a blog post of early February (MS: a social disconnect) and the award comes from ExperiencedTutors on WordPress.com. Needless to say it was quite a pleasant surprise because as a blogger I actually wondered if anyone found it interesting enough what I was writing. I suppose doubting yourself is a trait a lot of people who write have, and I am certainly no stranger to feeling that way. Either way, the blogger who gave the award always has very good posts and I find the ExperiencedTutors blog to be a very interesting, because as I grow older, I realize how important learning and studying is, and their blog speaks to me because the bloggers contributing to it…
Changing Ireland
I’m well into my 10th year of living in Ireland, and I often wonder about what changed during those years. A long list builds itself in my mind on people, mentality, culture, politics, nature, life… Writing about everything would result into one very long blog post that will eventually bore everyone, so I will try to keep it rather short. After all, I’m here to be entertained myself. During my first weeks in Dublin I was house hunting and it’s fair to say that I saw serious differences in what was up for grabs. Apartments with bright blue carpets, surely there to blind its tenants and with hallways like a maze. Now how should I find my way out here? I can’t even find my way out of a cereal…
Christmas Day, and every day after
Christmas Day, and it’s a great one so far. Family brings out the best in you, especially if you only see each other a few times a year. This makes Christmas even more special, knowing that whatever happens, your family remains your backbone and your oxygen. My family had many struggles throughout the years; they’ve seen hardship no family should ever go through. They survived and came out shining like a star. It did make me wonder though why we were going through so much. At the time I thought we were jinxed, it looked like we were, it felt like we were. It placed a question mark after each time something happened and in the end, it left my faith in tatters. My religion – although already more non-existent…