belgianwaffle

Your 50s Are Like Your 20s

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Posted in: Family

Ok, as they say, hear me out here. You know the way in your 20s, life is full of options and you’re not sure which way you’re going and what the impact will be on the rest of your life. Then you get into your 30s and 40s and it’s head down career, children, mortgage. I am speaking in generalisations here but I think it is broadly true for my generation.

By the end of this year (barring disaster in the Leaving Cert) all my children will be in college. I’m no longer worrying about elderly parents (because they’re dead, I’m not saying it’s all fun and games). I’ve taken time out of work which I know isn’t possible for everyone. But somehow for me and many of my friends (who knew all my friends were about the same age? Not me) all the cards are thrown up in the air again. I am finding it intriguing and rather exciting. Is it just me?

I Have Seen the Future and I Don’t Like it Much

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Posted in: Reading etc.

I love a printed newspaper. I hate reading my news online. I don’t mind that my news is, by definition, at least 12 hours out of date by the time I read it. I like being alerted to the news I don’t read, even if I just flick through the many pages dedicated to sport. I like reading things in hard copy. I like being able to see at a glance just how long I will be spending on an article.

I was kind of appalled by how hard it was to get any kind of paper in New York.

Recently, I went into a convenience shop in Temple Bar where I have frequently bought the paper in the past only to be told that they do not sell newspapers. The, presumably new, employee said that they never had. I mean, I suppose they didn’t sell a lot of newspapers there but still and all.

When I go abroad, I like to pick up a local newspaper and see what’s going on in my chosen holiday destination. Is all this to end?

Well, according to this article in the Irish Times (note how I have photographed it from the paper, rather than putting in a link, a nice touch, I think you will agree), yes. Oh alas.

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Succinct

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Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Mr. Waffle

Daniel sent a message into the family group chat the other morning after going through the back garden to get his bike from the shed. It read: Hodge vom garden

Mr. Waffle took a look and said, “Ah the well-known German count.” Honestly, I thought it was hilarious. This is the kind of content I married him for. Also, he cleaned up the cat vomit.

Cultural Outings

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

I have been to the Lavinia Fontana exhibition in the National Gallery and to a talk on her by an interesting English art historian.

Lavinia Fontana is not really a name to conjure with. She’s not particularly well known but the art historian argues that she should be. She’s a mannerist artist from Bologna and the first woman to do a lot of things. The exhibition is terrific and worth your time should you be in Dublin. Sadly, it does not include this picture which I would really like to see in the flesh. Fontana is brilliant at painting children. The art historian said that part of the reason Fontana is not better known is that museums leave her work in storage instead of displaying it and that this is a fate which befalls many female artists which is a depressing thought.

Speaking of unjustly neglected female artists, I also went to a talk by the novelist Mary Morrissy on Una Watters. I had never heard of Watters and her work is lovely. Mary Morrissy has been working to resurrect her from obscurity and has a website championing her work. Apparently one of Watters’s paintings – The People’s Gardens – is in storage in the Hugh Lane gallery and I, for one, will be heading in to see if I can get them to dig it out and let me have a look. You should too.

Mr. Waffle and I did another walking tour with Dublin decoded. These tours are so good – it is pretty unusual to get a tour in the city where you live and learn lots of new things. Did you know that for a while Heuston Station had the largest span of railway sheds in the world? That the crowns were taken off King’s Bridge when it was renamed Heuston bridge but you can still see the cast iron cushions where they used to sit? The tour is full of quirky layers of detail after detail and the guide full of ebullient enthusiasm for his subject. A delight.

Filled with Rage

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Posted in: Reading etc.

I’ve found the missing jigsaw piece:

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Too late, alas:

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I’ve put the missing piece back in the box, but I’m honestly not sure that I’ll ever have the strength to make it again.

Too Late, Alas

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Posted in: Boys, Michael

Michael tested negative for Covid about 11 this morning and was let out of captivity. I was surprised to see him turn up in his school uniform in the kitchen at 11.30. “I’m going in,” said he. Only 8 days of school left including today so, I suppose he felt it might be a good idea with the Leaving Cert coming up. I drove him in. “Can you give me a late note?” he asked. “I don’t think you’ll need it, we’ve already told them you’ll be out sick today,” I said. “Oh right, I didn’t know because I’ve never been late,” he said. “Never?” I asked. “Not since I’ve started secondary school and been in charge of getting in myself,” he clarified. That’s an impressive record, unfortunately, he appears to have fallen at almost the last possible hurdle. This didn’t come from my side.