belgianwaffle

Dublin

30 Days hath September, April, June and, Mercifully, November


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland

I’m always completely out of ideas by the end of November. Usually on the 25th I say something about my much adored Nana. November 25 was her birthday and I often think of her around then. I remember the happiest news when I was a child was that Nana was coming to stay for a couple of days. She lived over the border in County Limerick and that was a lot further away in the 1970s than it is today. She was a fantastic grandmother: kind, clever, competent, indulgent, adoring. I still miss her.

And in completely unrelated news, I was walking along the road with two colleagues and an elderly lady wearing earmuffs marched up to us and waved at us shouting, “Social distancing, social distancing, haven’t you heard of social distancing?” We were all a bit baffled. Had we wandered too close to her without noticing? In any event, she seemed well able to protect herself from unwanted advances by the general populace. It was a weirdly unnerving encounter. I don’t think she was mad but she was certainly very angry and forceful.

Cycling home this evening, I ran into a friend and we stayed half an hour at the side of the road on a cold, damp evening chatting. God, we were delighted to see each other. We are sick of Covid.

And on that Covid-related note, I will draw November’s blogging to an end.

Maybe some December blogging will follow but for now, a pause may be warranted.

Weekends Rounded-Up


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

With the 5 km limit on travel and everything closed, weekends have been a bit similar. Last Saturday (i.e. November 21 not November 28, Mr. Waffle keeps saying that the way I say last Saturday is very confusing but I fail to see where the difficulty lies, if I meant Saturday November 28, I would have said yesterday), I went off to explore Chapelizod on my own without children saying it was very dull to be hanging around while I looked at buildings. I found a new way there through the park staying off the main road. That’s as exciting as it got. Some local history: Sheridan Le Fanu wrote a short story about the house on the right in the picture below and Lord Northcliffe was born up the road. His mother was Irish, who knew?

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I came home via the Lutyens designed war memorial gardens which, in fairness, were looking pretty good.

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An email arrived from the school threatening dire consequences if students didn’t have face masks. A follow up email some time afterwards apologised for giving out all the parents’ email addresses in violation of GDPR rules.

On the Sunday morning, herself and myself went to the Botanic Gardens.

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Her Christmas jumper got an outing.

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For added excitement we saw the actual last rose of summer left blooming alone.

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Then, in the afternoon, back out on the bike to Chapelizod with Mr. Waffle and the boys. There are only so many options.

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Then on to the weekend just past. I have absolutely no recollection of what happened yesterday, we went out for a mild walk, I think. We did not watch the “Late Late Toy Show“. My family are the only people in Ireland not into this. Mr. Waffle and I never watched it as children and our own children never had the faintest interest. My little niece in London watched it and loved it too. Look, I took in five minutes of the highlights: I liked the bit with the singer; the child from Cork and the hospital porter and the follow up; also the bit where the presenter was surprised by a hard to open bottle of Fanta. My cold heart was warmed but it appears we are never going to be a family in Christmas pjs watching this with a hamper of Christmas goodies. Too boring say my loving family. There you have it.

And then today, another trip to the Botanic Gardens also taking in the excitement of Glasnevin cemetery where, it transpires Gerard Manley Hopkins is buried. Fancy that. November is, of course, the month of the dead but I didn’t get to visit my mother’s grave. I might take all the children on a visit if we ever get to Cork en masse again.

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Very much looking forward to moving out of lockdown level 5 and back to level 3 from next week. Maybe my weekends won’t change a great deal but the possibility of change is very exciting.

Local Concerns


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Mr. Waffle

For ages, there has been talk about putting up gates to the lane at the back of the houses on our side of the road. Progress on this has been glacial. The right of way in the lane was extinguished after years of painstaking discussions.

Then someone insisted that they had to be electric gates so she didn’t have to get out of her car to open them. I am saying nothing but I will let you imagine, gentle reader, my feelings about this car and electric gate enthusiast. Electric gates are a lot more expensive. And they need a power source and more maintenance. More humming and hawing. And most people don’t keep cars in the sheds/garages at the back of the garden and some people who live on the road don’t have cars at all.

Agreement was hammered out that the B&B at the top of the road and student accommodation at the end would provide electricity to power the gates. Another lengthy and painstaking process and though definitely a good outcome, there was still a hefty sum to be paid per household for the actual installation of the gates. I assumed getting agreement on this would take a long time.

So did our neighbour up the road. He is an impatient man and he has tired of waiting. He has taken matters into his own hands. He’s ordered the gates. He’s going to pay €10,000 for them and people will have to give him money to get the fobs. It’s slightly high-handed and I see shoals ahead but, on the whole, I am pleased. As I said to Mr. Waffle, the important thing is that nobody must ever know that we knew in advance.

Will I keep you posted on Gategate lads?

A Judgement on me or the Cycling Advocate’s Comeuppance


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Siblings

Last night, I ordered takeaway from the local gastropub. It’s only a 5 minute cycle away. A 10 minute cycle back as we live up a hill. But I was tired and took the car. I had to go the long way round because of the bollards at the end of the road. When I got on to gastropub road, the traffic was backed up for roadworks. I turned off the main road and went by a sneaky rat run but at the end of my rat run, the traffic was backed up forever. I was talking to my sister via the phone on the radio (is that bluetooth?) and after about 15 minutes with the engine switched off, I hopped out of the car to walk up the road to see what was happening. I took my sister off the radio and walked up holding the phone to my ear. Surprise result: the roadworks were holding everyone up at this junction too. As I got back to my car, the traffic finally started moving, I hurriedly said to my sister, before tossing the phone on to the passenger seat “Stay on the line, I’ll put you back on bluetooth in a sec,” and turned on the engine. There was a Guard passing and she looked at me, smiled and wagged a finger. I was fit to be tied and tried unsuccessfully to gesture that I was not talking on the phone while driving one handed. I suppose, really, it was a fair cop though.

Anyhow, I picked up my take away eventually and carried it home triumphantly. I had the “buttermilk crispy chicken” and I had a different vision from what I got which was basically chicken nuggets.

In short, the whole thing was not my finest hour.

Lads, even Homer nods.

Saturday, November 14, 2020


Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Dublin, Ireland, Michael

Daniel and Michael went on a scavenger hunt around town with school yesterday which they both enjoyed. Michael could not find Leinster House, the seat of the Irish parliament which I have been pointing out to him for a lifetime. Who’s sorry now, eh?

We had take away from the local gastropub (parents) and Domino’s pizza (children) for dinner last night. Satisfactory though possibly not healthy.

I worked yesterday afternoon instead of taking my half day but the advantage of this is that I have hardly taken any work home this weekend which is an absolutely massive improvement over the last two weekends.

I slept until midday today. I am really a champion sleeper (we take our achievements where we can) and after a leisurely brunch faced into my day. I had bought Michael two pairs of new trousers online. Right in the leg but too wide on the waist we discovered. Daniel took one pair but the other are too small for him and too big for Michael. Alas. Perhaps he will grow into them. Herself pointed out that I have bought my teenage sons trousers that would be perfect for retired British army officers and I realise that is true. She has started calling Daniel “Major Major” which did not add to the already limited enthusiasm he was showing for brown corduroy trousers. In my defence I offer that they looked less late middle-aged online and there weren’t a huge heap of choices on the website.

Mr. Waffle and I went off to the bathroom shop as part of our very slowly progressing plan to redo the upstairs bathroom. In exciting Irish celebrity news on our way there we saw Conor Pope consumer correspondent of the Irish Times heading into Lidl and when we got there design legend Hugh Wallace (so described in every episode of “Home of the Year”) was ahead of us in the bathroom shop and spent ages talking to the shop assistant. A thrill a minute, lads.

Basically, all quiet on the Western Front and tonight is cinema night. Hurrah!

Wednesday, November 11, 2020


Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Dublin, Ireland

I am indebted to the school Twitter account for the information that Daniel and some class mates won a school science competition and for sight of the video that accompanied it. They tell me nothing. I cross-questioned Daniel looking for further information on his school life. “I applied for the Green school committee, but I didn’t get on,” he told me. I was outraged. As herself explained on her siblings’ behalf, “This is why we can’t tell you things.” I see.

In other news, I got absolutely soaked on the way home from work. I see new rain gear coming up on my exciting Christmas present list. My waterproof trousers let in water at the back of the knee. How does that even work from a physics perspective?