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Tag Archives: family life

Speechless

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speechless
Turning 50 and speechless.

I have heard it all.

Today is the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you will ever be again!

Age is an issue of mind over matter and if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter!

It’s not the years in your life that matter but the life in the years.

It has finally happened and I was left speechless the other night as I walk into a room full of  friends for my surprise 50th birthday party. I think that was first time in my 50 years on this planet that I was  left speechless.

I scanned the room and saw my four sisters remembering all the good time we had growing up in the sunny south East. I remember the memories and support only sister can give and thank my lucky stars for my family. I see some of my oldest friends that I went to primary school with, then on to secondary school and finally college. We laughed at my sister Louise who took her usual turn cooking Sunday dinner in that grotty flat in Dublin and forgot to remove the innards of the chicken. It nearly killed us but not as deadly as the home brew we made to wash it down. As I walked around the table my life flashed before me. I see my new friends who have become part and parcel of my everyday life here in Thomastown. I see my neighbour who would go to the ends of the earth to help in time of need. I see my latest neighbour who moved in a year ago and finally called round last week to say hello. There she was for the evening getting a crash course on the life and times of Mag Kirwan.

I look back on it today on the eve of my 50th. The girls were premature last Friday but I did not want to burst their bubble. I feel like a young person in an ever aging body. Unfortunately age is like an airplane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do. As long as I can keep old age in my minds and prevent it form creeping down my body I will survive.

Thanks to all my friends for a wonderful evening.

Now here’s to another great 50 years !
50

Variety is the Spice in Mag Kirwin’s Life!

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A day in the life of Mag Kirwin

A Day In The Life of Mag Kirwin, Goatsbridge Trout Farm

 

They say love what you do and you will never work a day in your life. Well I never work. Never ever.

They also say that variety is the spice of life and I am certain my life is full of spice!

Take today for example:

8 am: I set the kids off on the bus at 8.50 making sure Pauric has his jumper on; Orlaith has eaten her breakfast having checked herself in the mirror about 10 times to make sure she was still perfect and Aine has her gear bag and knows which one of her many activities is taking place today after school . It is always a hectic few minutes.

9 am: I then head off to Graiguenamanagh to pick up the student who is coming to Goatsbridge Trout Farm to work for a few weeks. What a lovely young man, full of enthusiasm as he talks about his regret not studying for his leaving certificate a few years before. He talks about his interest in business and believes it can be a very important tool for life as well as the foundation for a good job. I am impressed already.

I drop him back to the office and give him two jobs.  Firstly to look for software for timetable scheduling for The Town Of Food project and secondly to look up as many cookery courses in the UK to add to our many ideas for the project which will be under way early next year . That will keep him busy for the day and it will also give me a chance to test his ability to work independently.

10.30 am: I head to Piltown to meet my web designer Ger Foster from Box Creative. He spends the next couple of hours showing me how to edit our new WordPress website, how to resize and crop photographs, to edit text and how useful keywords are for maximising the search engine. As I drive away I cannot wait to get back to the office to make all the changes necessary to satisfy my desire to showcase our business to the best of our ability.

2.15 pm: I arrive home just in time to meet Liam who has come to reprogram our print labelling scales with our new EAT TROUT labels. I haven’t eaten yet but that will have to wait. I decide to shadow Liam as I really need to understand how this program works. Nothing worse than ignorance when it comes to something as simple as labelling a product when everyone else has gone home.

3.20 pm: Time for lunch. Ella has cooked my favourite! Trout of course. Honestly I have not had a trout for months. Ella is a Godsend and the kids adore her. She is dating our farm manager so God forbid they fall out of love as I could not bear to loose either of them.

3.40 pm: I want to review the week’s factory costings with our supervisor Liam. We map 3 KPIs each day:

1. Yield

2. Giveaway

3. Cost / kg for labour.

We have to get this right as we make decisions based on these figures as we drive on with our new contract for Perch in Switzerland, where Irish perch commands the highest price on the fresh fish counter. A good yield can make a difference between profit and loss especially when dealing with fillets as small as 10 Gms. It is very easy to be a busy fool.

4.50 pm: I review the contracts for the new operatives in the factory before they head home. Cannot say I love HR but it is an important part of my responsibility.

5.30 pm: I sneak up for my daily walk in Mount Juliet. It’s my Valium and always a good time to catch up on phone calls. I decide to ring Francis Nesbitt to catch up on a fantastic event we are organising for the Kilkenny Savour Food Festival called A Night of 1000 Feasts. We are hoping every household in Kilkenny will host a Feast on 26th October as a Fundraiser for The Town of Food project. Always hard to get people to commit to do anything and at this stage in my life I feel you can take the horse to water but you cannot make him drink it .

6.40 pm: I arrive back in the office in time to see my husband take the four kids off in the car to the Greyhounds in Waterford where we have a dog running. Funny that but I thought our last greyhound was sold last year !  Ned informed me that  Daddy’s greyhound buddy had a new litter of pups a year earlier and they has decided  they were going to give me a surprise and produce a Derby winner. Oh I wish I was a greyhound all the loving and rubbing I would get.

At least I had the place to myself and into the office I went to update our new website and and contemplate yet another crazy but fulfilling day.

A Day in the Life!