Hi Lorraine,
Even though you are completely out of your comfort zone, you seem to be coping very well. Maybe you were a saleswoman in a former life !!! It's great to have Laura to stay with until you get sorted.
I was supposed to go out for a meal with Shell, Sarah and Claire last night but it didn't suit everyone so we postponed it till next Thursday.
Jenny is in Cheltenham today. She had two good winners and three seconds so a good day all round.
I have 1st 4lbs off so hope Paddy's day doesn't upset things now. There are so many challenges between Mother's day, Paddy's day and then Easter !!! No real news. Looking forward to the long weekend. Willbe in touch soon again.

Congrats on the sale! Sounds like today wasn,t too bad. The heat musn,t have been bad either. Laura and her partner are really good to you. I can,t think of his name. You will
definitely owe them a few dinners!
I made it through the 1st day back at work anyway. A few coughs and sweats but got by. I was finished at four so that was good. I have a six tomorrow.
Presume you got my msg about our new non european Pope from Argentina. Pope Francis the 1st.
Cheltenham is on this week. Ruby had three winners on the first day so you would have had a good one! He had one yesterday and I didn,t hear yet about today.
Will you be able to watch St Thomas in the all ireland club hurling. There would be great excitement if they won. There is six Burke brothers on the team and their Dad is the manager. Imagine the poor mother in that house! There are a few other sets of two brothers so the whole team is just a few families. Very local stuff in Peterswell and Kilchreest.
T|ake care and keep safe. I hope the sales increase tomorrow!
Mam

Sounds like you will have a problem if you have to tell lies so you will have to change the sales pitch to suit yourself. Anyway be careful and mind yourself and whatever about the job try not to mislead people.
My cough is a bit better today so I should be able to go back to work on Thursday. We have Maria Morris wedding then on Saturday.

Well Lorraine, Wishing you the best of luck in the new job! It is so far removed from your usual work that it should be an interesting experience. Dad was just down at Seans and you will be glad to hear that Shanes parcel arrived. Great excitement! So have a good time going door to door. Give a big Irish smile and you will win them over!
Take care. Mam & Dad

Well Lorraine, Glad you are back on track with the blogs. I can just imagine the blogs after you start to meet the clientele in the new job! Hope they all sign over for the Irish colleen and that you make a fortune!
We will be settling back to some normality now. Noreen went back today so gradually things will settle down. lionas birthday tonight will be a bit of a distraction for everybody. I am still purple in the face coughing so I will have to sit quiet and might not be able to stay long. We will chat soon and give you all the goss about the party!

Thanks Mary and Margaret for the run down on the funeral. It's lovely to hear everything even though it brought some tears.
Chat ye soon!

Hi Lorraine,
I've been reading your blogs and understand how you would wish to have been here for Nana's funeral. Everything went off wonderfully well and she got a great send-off.
The Mass today was lovely. Fr.Mullins, Fr. Nohilly and Mary's priest in Athenry concelebrated. Michelle did one of the readings as well as other cousins. Fr. Mullins paid her a wonderful tribute, speaking about her faith, hard work and her involvement in the church. The usual choir participated and were really nice. Alva and Cliona did a slow air at the offertory and Jane did a commentary on the gifts: a family photo, Rosary Beads & Prayer Book, An Alb and crocheted cap which will be given to the missions, Bus/Travel Pass which opened up a world of opportunity for her, Bread & Wine.
When the Mass was finished and just before Mary did the Eulogy, Alva played Anach Cuain. It was lovely. Oh, I forgot to say her grandsons brought the coffin into the church the first evening and today her granddaughters wheeled her out: that was the first time I saw that happening and Nana would definitely have approved: She was a feminist before her time, I think. It was a dry sunny morning but bitterly cold and after the graveyard, we were all glad to retire to Raftery's for soup, sandwiches, tea, coffee etc. Nicholson's did the catering and it was very nice. But I have to say, Mary EXCELLED! She outlined Nana's life from when she was born, her dad getting killed, her responsibiltiy for the farm, meeting Paddy, raising 7 children and working hard to give them every opportunity and her involvement in all the different society's. She was so strong to be able to get up there after Fr. Mullins' talk and not show any emotion.
Overall, it was a happy funeral celebrating a wonderful life, well lived. We stayed on chatting in Raftery's until about 7pm and we left the Glynn's after us. Sean was down from Dundalk today as well as Mgt. & Aidan. He went in the afternoon and Michelle has another day. Cliona is going ahead with her birthday on Sat. Night, so I imagine, Michelle will have to come down again. Busy, Busy.
Eimhin is in Rosedale in the Bros.of Charity this week and seems to be getting on ok. He had to do 8 days in a special school. Muireann is finally rid of her flu- she was off school for over a week and was really sick. Fiachra is flat out in the labour ward with the sheep this weather. It is raining this evening and normally that would mean the will starting coming faster! I think that is all the news I have for now. I hope you get some work soon and today we were saying that we are all looking forward to you coming back in July and seeing you in the flesh.
Bye for now!

Hi Lorraine,
Aiden and myself were at Nana's funeral today. She got a great send off. The Mass was lovely and the priest gave her many glowing tributes which she richly deserved. You would have been very proud to be her grandaughter. Mary spoke at the end and gave us all a flavour of Nana. Everyone went to Rafterys afterwards where we were served soup and sandwiches which were lovely. Plenty of chat followed and we left around 4. The whole day was a lovely celebration of a wonderful woman who lived a long fruitful life and made good use of all her God given talents. Again, May Nana have eternal peace. Talk soon

Hi Lorraine,
Sorry to hear about poor Nana but I think her time had come and she needed to go. Thank God for the long healthy good living life she had. Like you said, she has her place in heaven well earned. Of course you would love to be home but sure, you will be there in spirit. The same happened Claire when Nana died. She was in New York and felt bad that she was the only grandchild absent on the day but c'est la vie. She was going to cut her trip short and stay where she was as Nana would think that was crazy and so did I. She just went to a church and said some prayers for her instead.
At least Shane is in the same boat.
Poor Mam had a very bad dose so hopefully she will remain standing until funeral is over.
Will be in touch very soon again. In time you will be able to enjoy the many happy memories you have of Nana. May she have eternal peace.

Hi Lorraine, Hope work was plentiful this week. I had two more lbs. off this week so thats the equivalent of 32 packets of Stork margarine. Hope I can keep it going now-it obviously gets tougher as time goes on. Mam and Dad seem to be in the zone as well which is great. Hope they have some success and it will motivate them to continue.
I haven't been talking to Shell since I wrote last but I believe Cliodhna and Alva are supposed to be coming up this weekend which will be nice for Shell. No great news as usual. Looking forward to a rest this weekend as there won't be any of the girls around. I think Jenny is due home from skiing late tomorrow night but won't be coming to Dundalk as she will have to catvh up on her jobs!! No more for now. Will be in touch again soon

My SW books are down the room if ye wanna go cooking! Glad ye enjoyed the cinema- I haven't seen that film yet. The cinema is the same price no matter how long the film is!!
Margaret- congratulations on the stone and best of luck this week! Ur doing mighty!

Mighty to get two in a row. I have everything crossed that you will get five days this week which should give you the rent deposit! I,m on holidays this week. Going in and out to the line is great excitement because we have nice weather for the last few days. Bright, really cold, but no rain. So getting clothes dry outside is a big thrill.
We went to the cinema last night to see 'A good day to Diehard'. Dad hadn,t been for about 35 years. We enjoyed it, Bruce is some man but I thought it was dear. The film was only 1Hr 40mins and it was €8.60 each. I will wait til the next one comes on the telly. Grand for a once off though.
We started healthy eating on Monday! Mary gave us her old slimming world book. Dad is having great fun with all the fruit and veg. He can,t get over all the syns in bread. We won,t even mention the 'Blueberry Muffin'. Hopefully we will stick to it now and get programmed like Margaret. She is doing mighty altogether.
So take care for now and I hope you get a call again in the morning.