Marlife's new domain

First of all, I would like to say a marHUGE thank you! to you for supporting my blog in any shape or form. As a blogger and writer, I am very grateful for every click, every comment, every interaction and every anything. Your support is the reason why I keep going and doing what I am doing.

I am not lying when I say you guys are my biggest inspiration! So Thank you!

Because I love what I do, I am always on the look-out to find ways to improve - even if it's a tiny bit - what I have to offer as a social media aficionado. I am always trying to find  ways to keep my work appealing so that you, my people can appreciate and value my craft, and come back to it.

This is one of the reasons why I recently obtained a new domain for marlife - www.marlifeblog.com

I am all about being me, being real and unique and having a domain will help me to keep my credibility and as a result to enhance my uniqueness - which I think it's very important.

I wanted a short, sharp and easy-to-remember name, that's why I chose marlifeblog.com - which I already love because it gives me the feeling I am part of the digital revolution. In adition, with this domain marlife will be more easily found.

I would like to finish this post by inviting you to check and follow my written material on my LinkedIn Author's Wall - where I have written posts which are more 'serious' and business orientated.

Again, Thank you very much!

Marlon/Marlife

Sebastian's Satire #endhatdiscrimination

               

Recently, a co-worker - Sebastian - kindly asked me to participate in his project "End Hat Discrimination" - which is a short video he recorded for his YouTube channel.

I was, and still am, honored by his request because even though I didn't have a clear idea of what he was going to do - he just asked me to act my part - I am impressed by final result. And I am proud to be part of it.

In his satire - that's exactly what it is - his character suffers for being misunderstood over the fact that he always wears a hat. He feels discriminated, outcast, rejected and isolated by some members of the society who can not understand why a hat is so indispensable in Sebastian's character's well-being.

Watch the video for yourself - and you will understand his plight better...


                       


You are more than welcome to watch more of Sebastian on his YouTube channel and please subscribe. He will appreciate it and will no longer feel misunderstood  ; )

Marlon/Marlife

Her Name Is Siobhan

Siobhan helping to set up the BBQ - picture by me in our garden

There are not enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe how honest,translucent and affable she is. Her personality encompasses a genuine sense of herself that is enchanting, alluring and without her knowing it, it actually embraces you. 

There is nothing about her you would consider is elusive. All on the contrary, she sometimes projects some sort of innocence - which I personally find endearing. It has not taken me a long time to love her, because in her what you see it's what you get. And I love that quality in people.

Her name is Siobhan O'Connor and I would like to publicly say she has not only conquered my heart, but also my friendship. This blog is a written testimony of why I know I can honestly call her "my friend".

In the car with Dermot, Dave and Siobhan

A few years ago, when I was working in the city center, I would usually get the lift to work of my hubby, John, who at the time had Compton Model Agency, and his office was in town. He would put the radio on, and there she was, a very distinctive voice with a melodic laughter, delivering some celeb news, telling jokes and having the craic with the two boys. Their chemistry was vibrant and I could sense that.

 Listening to 98FM was like ritual in our way into work. She made our journey into town less tedious, less monotonous and more so if it was raining and we were stuck in traffic.

So it is fair to say, I know her or of her a long time ago.

 One of the magical things radio has, it's that as you don't see the face of who's talking, you picture in your head the best version of what your imagination dictates you. My version was less pretty than what she really is and I confirmed this when I met her in person only around two and a half years ago.

Image from the independant.ie

From listening to her in the car to having her in my kitchen.

Around the time she started going out with her current partner and father of her beautiful daughter, Erin, John Norton, who is a friend of ours, John invited us to record a pilot for the Irish version of the program goggle box. So some members of the Production company Straywave media - which John is one of the directors - came to our house to set the equipment to record the pilot.

Siobhan came with the team, and in was right there, in my kitchen when I told her with such excitement that she was part  my going to work journey as we would listen to her. She humbly took the compliment and thanked me and showed no signs of "diva" - so I found her very approachable.

Since then we just clicked and have built up a friendship based on who we are: two extremely honest people - who live to love and love to live 

Siobhan O'Connor - The broadcaster 

She has a prolific career in the media. She has done Radio, TV, she has interviewed many national and international celebrities and personalities. She is a journalist and an incredible writer - in this particular area, I can honestly say I am her number one fan.

I find her writing very heart-felt. Engaging. Once you start reading her work, you get hooked to it straight away. Even though she is very professional, she keeps her writing real, honest with a good, sharp sense of humour. She speaks about topics that are relevant to people - both women and men. In her writing you can see she is true to herself, and this is a characteristic hard to find in a industry which is full of insincerity.

For example, I had a good laugh when she wrote in the Irish Mirror - 'My pregnancy reveal on the BBC's Nolan Live". Or when she openly and candidly wrote her struggles as a pregnant woman in her article "In the club...on the perils of an Irish pregnancy" or when she most recently spoke about exposing her boobs to breast-feed and "laughs off public breastfeeding jibes" 

And...

My favourite article she's written is "I'm a celeb on the dole - get me out of here" where she hilariously describes her transition from being a "celebrity, Dj, radio personality" to the queue of the dole office when she was made redundant from a job where her title was "The gossip girl."

Image by Kip Carrol

I am always "giving out to her", and this is why...

We have spent time together, and even though I respect, admire and love her, I think she is way too unassuming, way too humble. There is not a pick of arrogance in her at all. She does not expose the amazing work she has done - and still doing - as a broadcaster, journalist, personality, celebrity or whatever you want to call it. I have said to her that in this country some people who go to an opening of a packet of crisps become 'well-known'. The reason they become well-known (celebrities) is because of the way they promote themselves.

She does not seem to realise that what she does is such a big deal.

With just under two thousand "friends" on Facebook and over seven thousand real followers on Twitter @Sibhi2000 - she has the right amount of 'friends', 'followers' to become a social media sensation, and  she has a huge amount of content/material to expose, to show, to share and be proud of. But she does not get that she is fecking bloody Siobhan O'Connor.

Having said that, I will never give out about the person and human being

Putting business aside, I have to admit that the reason I love her the most is exactly the reason I give out to her. She is so humble. She is unique. Maybe that's her "selling point" as a person and a human being. As a person, she is so available. She is honest, sincere and has the ability to make you laugh every time she has the chance to interact with you.

To finish, it is important to say that she might not have time to invest in her social media, but she has all the time in the world  for her two biggest human investments yet, her partner, John and her angelical baby daughter, Erin. Now the reasons of her being her.

Siobhan, in John's (my hubby) and my own name, we salute you and love you!!!

Marlon/Marlife 

On a date and he farted

When I first arrived in Dublin, I felt like in a candy shop with the vast selection of men . I allowed the novelty to embrace me in every possible way, and more so when it came to being openly gay.

At the time, technology was not as advanced as it is now, therefore there were no iPhones or Grindr. We had and still have - two websites gay.com and gaydar.com. I was an avid user of Gaydar because it was the most popular one for cruising purposes here in Dublin.

One afternoon, I was online, as you do when you are single and have certain biological needs - I was up for it, and I came across a profile of a hot guy. His face was nice, but his body, OMG, exactly what I needed to...you get the picture.

Long story short, we got chatting and arranged to meet in his apartment in city centre. After exchanging a few pictures, I asked him that I would make it all the way from Blackrock to his place with the only one "condition" if he opened the door for me, topless and just wearing jeans. So he did.

I got there and he opened the door, I went in my mind "WOW". We sat down and started the flirting foreplay. At some point, I noticed he got very comfortable on the sofa we were sitting on and lift up one of his legs and all of a sudden, this big, loud fart comes out.

I could not believe it and I asked "Did you just fart"? He goes, very normal, "Yes, why, is that OK" and as I am about to answer, the smell was so eggy, that I nearly puked, and I said "No, of course, it's not OK". To make things worse, even more worst than the smell, he says "In Venezuela, people don't fart?" and I went "I beg your pardon! of course we do, but we don't do it in front of people and if by any chance we had to do it, we would use the toilet, hoping that is not as eggy as the one you just had"


He laughed and I said "I don't think it's funny" and I left.

In my defense, in this occasion it was me the victim of cultural barriers. It took me a while to understand that in some countries farting is as normal as mmmmm...imagine the sound and the smell.

Looking back now it is funny, but it was not funny at the time, and more so considering how smelly it was.

Moral of the story: On a date, not matter which country you are from, never fart. OK!

Marlon/Marlife