Ireland

St Patrick’s Weekend Round Up

18 March, 2024
Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Ireland, Michael

Saturday, March 16

I was up with the lark. Mr. Waffle and I went into town for breakfast. We got absolutely soaked on our bikes as it was lashing. However, we dried over breakfast.

At 11 we went to Temple Bar to begin yet another Dublin Decoded walking tour. Honestly, I cannot recommend these highly enough, if you’re from Ireland. I sort of feel tourists from abroad might struggle with the level of knowledge assumed but perhaps not. There were some happy Americans on our tour as well as the locals. Which was impressive given that it was quite damp.

When we went to collect our bikes

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, I slipped on the wet pavement and had my fall broken by a Sheffield stand. It caught me right in the ribs. I have never fallen on a rib before – quite hard to do – but it was sore. However, I cycled home and went straight to play a tennis match.

Although I won in straight sets (just saying), this may have been a mistake as my ribs were quite sore afterwards.

That evening the four of us went out to dinner and then on to a comedian promoting Irish (funnier than it sounds). All reasonably satisfactory but after training during the week, I think Daniel is concussed again. So probably, he would have been better off recuperating at home than out and about.

Sunday, March 17

They sang “Hail glorious St Patrick” at mass which is really all I ask of St. Patrick’s Day mass. I discovered this year that the woman who wrote it is a Mercy nun from Cork. Small world and all that – I went to the Mercy nuns for school myself.

Mr Waffle and I went off to Altamount Gardens which I recommend if you are in your 50s and would like a mild day out. I was made aware of it because there is a lovely flowering plant in our front garden which our predecessor in title – now deceased – grew from a plant illicitly snipped from the garden (or so her friend from across the road told us).

The daughter plant:

The mother plant, still living her best life in Carlow:

I found the gardens absolutely charming.

The house is closed pending the OPW restoring it to its former glory (the OPW move in geological time but they do – eventually – do an excellent job).

And I bought myself a gooseberry bush. Stay posted for updates on that front. It looks a bit spindly and sorry for itself at the moment but I have great hopes.

I then watched the round up of parades from around Ireland on the news – a heartwarming story of a nation battling against inclement weather that never fails to appeal.

Monday, March 18

My tennis match was cancelled. Probably for the best as my ribs were still pretty sore (in fact still a bit painful as I type – is this the beginning of the end etc?). Mr. Waffle offered to take me out for breakfast (twice in the one weekend, we live like oligarchs etc.) instead and, eschewing our usual haunts in pursuit of change, we went to a place called Lemon Jelly in town. We had to queue to get in and we were the oldest people there by a good 20 years but not bad. I find it exciting to behave like a tourist in my own town, Mr Waffle not so much.

Tomorrow, tragically, will see me return to work. Alas.

Out and About

25 February, 2024
Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Dublin, Ireland

Last weekend I agreed to play a tennis match at 9 on Sunday morning. I definitely regretted it at 8 but at 11 I felt amazing, delighted with myself.

When we had some people around for dinner a couple of weeks ago, one of them brought us a miniature jigsaw in a tube which is something Spanish people do after dinner. Because they are psychotic.

I spent ages doing it doubtless ruining my eyesight and this was the unsatisfactory result.

But then while I was out at tennis, Daniel texted me this.

And what a treat.

Mr. Waffle and I went out to Howth taking our bikes on the DART (suburban train). We had a lovely lunch and we went for a walk. I was living my best life, I can tell you.

And this is where hubris caught up with me. I suggested that we cycle home which is somewhere between 15 and 20kms. God, I nearly died. We cycled around by the bay and the wind was vigorously against us the whole way. We had to stop half way for me to have a restorative cup of tea and when I got home all I could do was sit on the sofa for the evening whining about exhaustion.

I had another tennis match at 9 this morning (again the regret/satisfaction cycle) but all I had planned for the rest of the day was my Sunday afternoon bookclub which was altogether less physically demanding than last weekend’s adventure.

In cultural news

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, yes, of course that’s why you’re here, I saw “Zone of Interest” with a friend during the week (Mr. Waffle having refused to come). I thought it was really excellent. It’s a new angle on the holocaust which I would have thought impossible. It is truly chilling while showing no violence at all but set to a horrifying soundscape that I will remember for a long time.

I also took myself to the new exhibition in the Gallery which is lots of Dutch head studies – lots of Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck etc. I found it reasonably enjoyable but the stand-out find for me was an artist called Michael Sweerts who was born in Brussels in 1618. Here are a couple of his head studies which I found startlingly modern.

And how was your own weekend? Not too exhausting, I trust.

O Canada

10 February, 2024
Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Dublin, Ireland, Michael, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Reading etc.

Due to the extremely generous citizenship policy of the Canadian government, four of the members of our family are dual Irish/Canadian citizens. You might think this is only upside but the guys’ certificates of citizenship arrived in the post recently and there’s an oath of loyalty to King Charles on the back which was a bit of a surprise for them. Mr. Waffle was born in Canada and lived there until he was 2 so not only is he a Canadian citizen but so are all his children. Pretty good, eh? I don’t know what will happen to me, if they all move to Canada though.

I am currently in hiding from my local library staff (perhaps I would be safe in Canada?) as I recently brought back one of the popular 10 day loan items in less good condition than I borrowed it. I am sorry. But not as sorry as I was when the woman on the desk took it off the returns trolley (it’s all automated now) and sniffed loudly and then said

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, “Well that’s a shame.” As I took out my next book I distinctly heard sounds of tearing and a thud in the wastepaper basket. I fled without turning around but if she did tear it up and throw it out that strikes me as excessive. So there.

Out and About

9 February, 2024
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.

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

29 January, 2024
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.