Mr. Waffle and I like many, many Dublin residents went up to the Dublin mountains to have a look at the snow today. Was the traffic awful? Yes. Was it worth it? Also yes. We went up to the Military Road which was closed and walked along it. Some cars also came along and slid around. Added thrills. Still, worth it.
My neighbour from up the road just texted to see whether she could drop into me about something. Mysterious, what could it be? Anyway, she’s coming at 8 during time set aside for blogging so tonight’s entry is well, entry level. Am I phoning it in? It is possible. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow on what she could have wanted.
For the first time this year, the weather is cold and there is, in fact, a light dusting of snow in the mountains which are visible from most places in Dublin.
Everywhere looks lovely in the bright frosty weather we are having at the moment. However, I worked from home today and will be working from home tomorrow (normally I tend not to for a range of dull reasons). I can tell you that the dining room where I live and have my being when working from home is baltic, central heating at full blast notwithstanding. I spent the day with a hot water bottle at my feet. My poor aloe vera plant (my companion when working from the dining room) looks like it’s having a nervous breakdown.
I am just about to leave the house for dinner with friends and I believe it may be somewhat warmer outside than in.
More exciting content tomorrow.
Saturday
Mr. Waffle and I went out for breakfast together and then he went into the office and worked all day. Sigh. I did various underwhelming things: I went to the dry cleaner, the library, the cobbler and the greengrocer. I attempted to get through some part of the mountain of newsprint which I brought into the house.
Sunday
I went to mass and we had a reading that I always enjoy. I’m really not seeing that turn the other cheek spin which emanates from the New Testament.
Since Mr. Waffle was not working for the afternoon we had a mild outing to the Botanic Gardens. It lashed rain.
We ran from greenhouse to greenhouse and looked at the plants.
I imagine Wittgenstein had a similarly gloomy experience in November 1948.
There was an AI exhibition in the space upstairs from the cafe which was mildly interesting. I mean, I’ve had worse outings but I’ve had better also.
And then home to the fire to make a determined effort to finish off the papers. And how was your own weekend?
I think I have said before that I’m finding it a bit logistically challenging to be the parent of three adults.
While I was really glad to have them all on the summer holidays with us this year; the organisation of this was complex.
For day to day matters, herself is in England so this is not really an issue. For her Dublin based sibings, however, logistics are a daily pain. When I was in college, my memory is that my mother cooked dinner every evening (always my mother, sign of the times) and if I was in, I had dinner and if not, I skipped it. But it just seems wasteful to cook for four when only two of us are going to be there. Whatsapp is full of “Who is home for dinner tonight?” messages.
Often the house is empty when I leave for work and when I come home which is not entirely unwelcome but just different. We’re a bit more atomised, I guess.
As you know, Mr. Waffle is Lord of Laundry but one morning he had to go to a meeting and asked me to put out the clothes. I went out to the back garden. Mr. Waffle was gone to his meeting, Daniel was already in a lecture and I was unsure of Michael’s whereabouts. I became surer when I tried to get back into the house after completing my labour of love and found the back door dutifully locked by Michael before he had left for college. Fortunately I had my phone and I rang him, “Where are you?”. “On the bus,” said he. He had to get off the bus, come home and let me in again. He was very apologetic but as he pointed out, he knew his father had gone out and who would have thought that I would be out putting out the washing? I can’t feel this would ever have happened back when they were all at school. Sometimes it’s more like four adults living together. Other times definitely not, I suppose.
Unrelated: I saw a giant chameleon on the street.
I deleted my Twitter account a while back. For the past number of years I have really only been using it to push out blog posts. There were a couple of readers who came across from Twitter and believe me every reader is precious. But yet, this blog is a hobby not a job and the idea of sharing my content (such as it is) regularly on Twitter was becoming increasingly unappealing.
I am an early adopter and started my time on Twitter in 2007. Early tweets had sadly disappeared by the time I deleted my account so 6,073 is a very conservative estimate of the number of beautifully crafted tweets I put out into the world; my 200 or so followers were doubtless grateful. I did enjoy Twitter for a while but ultimately, it just made me a bit cross and it took up so much time. Overall, I am glad to be gone.
I see the Guardian has given up on Twitter as well. Two big beasts going at once, Elon Musk must be terrified.
Just in under the wire tonight as I was out for dinner with a school friend in Skerries in North Dublin. Apparently the best place in the world to live but quite the drive from the city, I can tell you.
