Herald

Thursday, February 09 2012

Suzanne Power

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Suzanne Power: Minutes

I was stuck for a column this week. My brain was in deep freeze. My whole body hurt because I could only think of one thing: my son fell out of a tree and was knocked unconscious.

Suzanne Power: There are no winners in a two-for-one deal

My grandfather had awful sayings to illustrate truths. One was: you can't ride two horses with the one arse. This applies to everything from deepest relationships to what you're going to have for dinner.

Suzanne Power: Breaking through to the strong, silent type

A couple were giving each other the silent treatment. The husband realised the next day he would need his wife, the early riser in the relationship, to wake him at 5am for a business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence and lose, he wrote on a piece of paper: Please wake me at 5am.

Suzanne Power: A stranger’s kindness is the key to the past

I have a friend who had the saddest childhood: verbal abuse or silence was all he knew. He spent the past few decades recovering from his sense of worthlessness with the help of his wife, who refuses to give up on him when the pain overwhelms. He has remembered something he had forgotten.

Suzanne Power: Far more to coffee highs than caffeine

IF I could get a job drinking coffee with friends I'd be the most dedicated worker in Ireland.

Suzanne Power: Crisis counselling comes at a price

There's only so much breakdown assistance you can give before you start wearing a yellow jacket and sticking a flashing siren on your car roof.

Suzanne Power: If mum earns most who minds the baby?

A SCARY development of the current economic crisis is the number of women who have become sole breadwinners as well as procreators.

Suzanne Power: A tail-wagging stray taught me not to yell

Somehow, in families, when you're all under pressure and the clock is ticking fast, you take the pin out of the hand grenade and lob.

Suzanne Power: Final preparations for our virtual Christmas

At this time of year I tend to feel like a service provider: cards, presents, drinks, food, family, running like a hare before hounds.

Suzanne Power: Money problems make us all appreciate love

FORGET the IMF for half a second and think about this.

Suzanne Power: Dig the dirt elsewhere - I'm too busy living

I know recently I was talking about being a barbecue dunce. It doesn't stop me from going to other people's though. We spent Sunday being fed beautifully with a group of people I hadn't met socially before. The women among us are all writers and discovered we are not known for being domestic deities.

Suzanne Power: Full-time parenting is a shock to the system

Summer: long days of endless sunshine and play. Children laughing. Parents sitting with a glass of cool beer or wine. Beaches. Walks in nature. Road trips. Plane rides to the Med.

Suzanne Power: Those flying visits are no fun for the family

The combination of both recession and a globalised economy has led to a lot of families relying on Ryanair to see each other.

Suzanne Power: certificates and study can’t teach experience

I had lunch with my friend and colleague. His eight-year-old son has a toddler sibling doing his nut in. Nothing's sacred to his younger sister.

Suzanne Power: The best things come to those who wait

The blame game was invented in early civilisations to justify things like throwing Christians to lions and beheading people. It does the same today as it did then, causing heads to roll unnecessarily.

Suzanne Power: Life can be a picnic with a cool mother

I'm from a Gilmore Girls family, give or take a few years. My mother was married to my father, but only 20 when I was born. When we went on our first trip together, she looked like my big sister. I always thought Rory cramped her mother's style and I was much the same on that Greek holiday.

Suzanne Power: When sex with an ex can be a good thing...

Sex with your ex is a common conundrum. The 'against' camp says it reverses the letting go process and clouds the issues of separation. But this week I heard the best 'for' argument I've come across.

Suzanne Power: Those mad, maddening beautiful screamers

I call them Screamers.

Suzanne Power: Make loving yourself your own valentine

"Opinions are like belly buttons, everyone has them," my gorgeous hairdresser told me this week. Someone had given me their opinion that I was 15 years older than I am.

Suzanne Power: Davina's too revealing about her knickers

Today, Big Brother ends and I'm not a bit sad. I am one of the hypocrites who claims never to watch it and yet I know a good number of the ultimate cast list. Their strops are too well orchestrated for me. Looking at Nikki trying to rustle up a tantrum is boring at best. But there's something magical about watching people who should have remained anonymous clutching celebrity.

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