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Mr. Waffle

Out and About


Posted in: Ireland, Mr. Waffle, Reading etc.

Mr. Waffle and I went for a day out in Carlingford over the bank holiday weekend. We have been going there for the guts of 20 years and there are only so many walks around the mountain yet almost every time we get lost and most times we get wet. This time was no different. Enjoyable all the same. And we had a lovely lunch afterwards in this cafe which I really recommend if you find yourself in this neck of the woods. And why wouldn’t you when it is so very pretty even when you are lost in the rain? All the same, I was glad we were not accompanied by three small children.

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My new year’s resolution to go to the cinema more often has been working out really well. I’m delighted with myself. Mr Waffle is my, broadly willing, accomplice but he says that I’ll have to find someone else to go to “Zone of Interest” with. We went to see “American Fiction” last week which we both really enjoyed. It’s clever and funny. It’s a companion piece to “Yellowface” in some ways. This was a point made in a long article in the FT a couple of weeks ago but I noticed it too. Honest. Would recommend the film in any event. Our film of 2024 so far.

We were supposed to be going to the theatre tonight to see a play called the President with Olwen Fouré and Hugo Weaving. I booked it last September. Am I in fact at the theatre? I am not. I have come down with (yet another) dreadful cold and am planning to spend the evening wheezing and coughing in the comfort of my own home. Alas. I gave my tickets to a colleague who was feeling gloomy. Hope this won’t make him worse.

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January Round Up


Posted in: Cork, Daniel, Family, Ireland, Michael, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Reading etc., Siblings

Herself went back to England. Alas alack. We will not see her until Easter at the earliest. She is a bit preoccupied about her post-college employment/study plans and fears that she may have to move back home. She’s appalled. I’m delighted but I feel that one of the many irons she has in the fire will mean that her worst fears will not be realised.

Here she is the day she got back to college dutifully preparing not to remove her nose from the grindstone for many months.

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I went to Cork and had a January Christmas dinner with my siblings. Honestly, not as satisfactory as an actual Christmas dinner but not too bad. We went to the River Lee hotel which used to be Jury’s where we went for post communion and confirmation lunches but has now gone upmarket. It was grand. Busy. A bit pricey for what it was, I thought.

I went for a walk in the Lee Fields (very unusually not underwater) with my sister and her partner.

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I totally lost track of time meaning that I had to cycle to the station at epic speeds weaving through Sunday strollers like a middle aged man in lycra trying to set a new personal best time. I made it with minutes to spare. It took a lot out of me.

Michael had his play. It wasn’t too bad and he was on stage a lot. But whatever way you slice it, Hamlet is a long, long play and I was exhausted by the time it was over. Obviously worse for Michael but he got to be on stage which I think he rather enjoyed. A couple of his friends turned up with a sign saying we love gravedigger number 2 and I was charmed.

Over the holidays, while Mr. Waffle and I were at work and Michael was at endless Hamlet rehearsals, Daniel stepped up to the plate and cooked dinner a number of times. It was absolutely delicious. These talents did not come from me. He also has a new haircut. The young people; would you be up to them etc.? He has also been concussed by the GAA – the bane of my life. He’s recovering but it’s taking the best part of a week. First his tooth, now his head. He’s mostly been exhausted for days and days but he went back to college today and is feeling a bit perkier after doing some theoretical physics.

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We had some friends around to dinner which was great but also exhausting. Timing meant that we were supposed to have Mr. Waffle’s aunt (home from Australia) and the cousins over for dinner the following night but happily the aunt cancelled – I mean sorry not to see her and sorry she was not feeling up to it but pleased not to be doing a second large catering event on the trot. I skipped out to my Sunday afternoon bookclub with, well, a skip in my step.

Speaking of book clubs, my Monday night book club has had a change in its operating model for the first time in 25 years; there are 12 of us and this year we all got to pick a book a month for the next year; two people were happy not to suggest and so December is still open – honestly, possibly a relief. Normally it’s a bit of chat on the night and a consensus. I felt very much the weight of responsibility in picking my one book for the year. Herself says that it is unfair on me as under the old system, due to my domineering ways, I got to pick way more than one book a year. The jury is currently out for obvious reasons but the 2024 selection does look quite worthy. That said, very much enjoying “Yellowface”. You may guess which was my suggestion.

  • February: Yellowface
  • March: The Saint of Lost Things
  • April: The Bee Sting
  • May: Demon Copperhead
  • June: The Vulnerables
  • July & August: Life in the Balance and A Place of Greater Safety
  • September: Harlem Shuffle
  • October: Enlightenment
  • November: A Tale of Love and Darkness

As part of my new year’s resolution , Mr. Waffle and I have been to the cinema twice this month. We saw “Poor Things” (really still not the better of it) and “The Holdovers” (quite sweet but would have been definitely a better viewing experience in the run up to Christmas rather than after it). More scintillating cinema reviews as we get them.

In tooth related news, my electric toothbrush disappeared for 24 hours and I carried out extensive inquiries, even texting my cleaner. It turned out to be on the stairs hidden by a banister. It was on the stairs because I had put it there to go back upstairs after its little adventure at the charging station which, for reasons I will not bore you with, is downstairs (see I do hold some things back). Oh great was the rejoicing among my children whom I am constantly upbraiding for their inability to see things sitting on the steps waiting to go upstairs.

And, in further tooth related news, my dentist has decreed that I need another crown. This is my third in as many years. What is it about my 50s? Are my teeth all going to crumble and fall out of my mouth having worked perfectly for all these years? Apparently yes. And today as I sat at my desk eating a sandwich, my temporary crown (installed following a, frankly unpleasant, session in the dentist’s chair) fell out. Back to the dentist this evening. Reinstalling was fine really but I look forward to the moment at the end of February when my permanent crown is installed. Sigh.

This weekend, we went to a Burns night supper with our friends. We went for the first time in 2020 and little though I knew it then, it was to be our last big night out before the pandemic. It was weird to be back but in a good way. I felt like a veteran this time and was ready for the “Address to a Haggis“. We had such a nice evening – I do hope we make the cut again!

I went to IMMA for the first time in ages on Saturday. I am always a bit ambivalent about modern art and indeed I found the RDS audiovisual winners in general not to my taste. However, there is also an exhibition called “self-determination” about the new nation states (including Ireland) that were established in the wake of WWI and that was really fascinating. It runs until April so if you’re local, you have plenty of time to go and see it. If that doesn’t float your boat, you can also inspect nightmare bunny (may not be the name chosen by the artist) who is outside the main entrance.

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I went for a walk with friends in the park and despite the fact that rain threatened, it did not rain and we had our walk, a scone after and a chance to inspect the millions of deer with which the park is overrun.

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At mass last Sunday we had to fill in a survey about which mass time suits us best; the beginning of the end for some masses I’d say. It’s inevitable with all the priests getting so old. Next weekend is our new post-Covid bank holiday weekend in celebration of St Bridget whose feast day is on February 1 so the priest referred to her and quoted the opening lines of that lovely poem “Anois teacht an Earraigh“. This made me think of my mother whose birthday was on February 1 and who always quoted that poem at this time of year. She always really enjoyed celebrating her birthday and it makes me really happy that it now has a bank holiday devoted to it which she would really have liked. But somehow, as the priest said the poem, I found myself just feeling sad and missing her. That’s the way it goes, I guess.

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Goodbye to All That


Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Michael, Mr. Waffle, Siblings

Michael drove myself and Mr. Waffle to the Botanic Gardens this afternoon. An unnerving trip but really only because I am lily livered, Michael’s driving was fine.

The Botanic Gardens currently have a light installation (available only after dark) and the overall effect is…peculiar even by daylight

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It was the first really cold day this winter and the pond in the Gardens was frozen to the unholy delight of a number of small children. Having had a restorative cup of tea, Michael drove us home again without incident.

Nobody was delighted but everybody helped to take down the the Christmas decorations when we got home. Always a slightly melancholy duty but then the house looks so much bigger without all the extra stuff. I considered throwing out the Holly Bough (Cork’s finest Christmas publication) but will preserve it in the hope of getting into its photograph pages next year. I had thought they put in every photograph they got (Cork people in different places, the more exotic the better, holding a copy of the Holly Bough). This appears not to be the case as a – beautifully composed etc. – photo of myself, my brother and sister in front of Lake Annecy did not qualify for publication. You can only imagine my disappointment when , hands trembling, I made my way to the photos page and we were not there. I wish I’d remembered to take it to Argentina. Oh well, we’ll try again next year, I suppose. Stay tuned for better news next December.

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Epiphany


Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Michael, Mr. Waffle, Princess

Today is called Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas in this part of the world and the idea is that the women who spent so much work on all of the main Christmas celebrations would get a day off.

I have enjoyed a day off other than wrestling with hanging a picture for Michael. These Christmas presents can present their own challenges, can’t they? A moment of diversion was caused by Michael knowing the names for all the tools in Irish – one year of woodwork in school – but not in English – no DIY experience at home then.

Meanwhile poor Mr. Waffle has just returned from a Saturday of toil at the office. Understandably he is unfilled with seasonal joy but he has just had a cup of tea and a mince pie so surely things are improving?

Tonight we’re out to dinner for my sister-in-law’s 50th birthday, let us hope that this will cheer us all up, including the children who will get pizza. Well, in fact, who knows what herself will have as she is, once more, back in England to spend the weekend with friends (a carbon footprint as big as the Ritz). She’s back on Sunday night for a meeting in Dublin on Tuesday and then she is definitively back to England until April where she will be studying like a demon for her finals. Would she welcome a visit during that time? Possibly not. Might I visit anyway? Well, I’m not totally ruling it out.

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A Grand Day Out


Posted in: Mr. Waffle

It stopped raining today for, honestly, what feels like the first time since the Christmas holidays started. Today is my last day of holidays and I am so glad that I was not at my desk. Mr. Waffle and I climbed the Sugar Loaf. Back to the grindstone tomorrow.

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Epic or Tips for the Tourist


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Mr. Waffle

Mr Waffle and I went the Irish museum of emigration today. No real things and all audiovisual interactive stuff. Fine, I suppose and we’re probably not the target audience – there were a lot of things we knew already – but I thought €23 a head was pretty pricey to get in. The man on the desk said it gives you re-entry any time over the next ten days but I really feel no one is likely to do that.

I imagine if you are from abroad and have Irish roots, it might be interesting. But really, I would recommend saving your money and going to check out the national art collections in Dublin to which admission is free.

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