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Archives for November 2008

Everywhere I have ever lived – 1991


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Travel

It is distressing but I am a little hazy about the details of when I moved to Dublin to study.  I was only there for a couple of months and I thought it was cold, gloomy and dull.

This impression may have been reinforced by my accommodation.  My friend and I had inveigled our way into a short term let by assuring the landlord that we were nurses (a profession which he appeared to regard as entirely trustworthy).  The place where we were living had been inexpertly divided into flats.  We had a main room which boasted a calor heater as its sole source of heat and a carpet as old as time.

We shared a bedroom which had no source of heating at all.  It gets quite cold in Dublin in winter.  We bought a portable heater.  Despite the fact that it got quite warm (I accidentally melted my doc martin’s on it), the room remained arctic.

Our friendship was brought under severe strain by my friend’s chronic lateness.  She was not an early riser and she could not get out of bed.  We were on the same course and, the organisers, having made a very accurate assessment of the enthusiasm levels of trainee solicitors, kept an attendance register and, if you were late or did not attend, your master would be told and, worse, you would have to travel to Dublin to repeat the day.  This made me extremely keen to get there on time.  Every morning, F. would get up late as I paced up and down.  Then while I stood whining in the doorway, she would painstakingly lace up her 18 hole doc’s.  Then we would cycle like the wind and arrive, panting, just in time.

After those months together, I think we might both have liked a break but, unfortunately, we had already bought tickets to go interrailing together for a month which we did with almost no sulking except for that time when we were looking for the pantheon and I took us outside the city walls in Rome based on my expert powers of navigation.

Nel mezzo del camin di nostra vita


Posted in: Family

Walking down the street in Dublin the other day, I was stopped by a respectably dressed older woman.

Her: Do you know where Boots is?

Me: I’m terribly sorry, I’m afraid I don’t.

Her: Never mind, it’s just that you looked like you would know, not like some other people.

I will be 40 next year.

My hair is like Hilary Clinton’s.

Are all of these things unrelated?  I think not.

Everywhere I have ever lived – 1992


Posted in: Ireland

I spent a couple of months in a small town a long way from Cork at the request of the managing partner.  I wouldn’t say I regret it precisely but I would say that a) there is not a lot to do in small Irish towns in winter and b) however pleasant he and his family may be, it’s probably not a good idea to live with your boss.

Tomorrow – Rome.

Everywhere I have ever lived – 1993


Posted in: Dublin, Travel

Once I qualified, I passed over the opportunity to work in an Irish country town and moved to Rome.

I shared a rather nice ground floor flat in Trastevere with two Danish girls and I thought that they were extremely exotic.  I was disappointed when they moved out and a Dutch girl moved in – so much less thrilling.  However, I had my ancient moped and enjoyed whizzing round Rome on it.  I thought that I was fabulous circling the Colosseum – you know, Roman Holiday and all that.

In other news at mass this morning we had this reading from the book of proverbs.  Note to self, get busy with wool and flax.  Then the gospel was the one about the talents which is the Bible’s clearest endorsement of capitalism.  Not, perhaps, a particularly uplifting set of readings though I was glad to be reminded of where one of my favourite lines comes from: the servant who makes nothing gets thrown “out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”.  I was also delighted to see, from my internet research, that verses 10-31 of the proverbs reading are “an acrostic, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.”  I knew you would like to know.

Everywhere I have ever lived – 1993-1995


Posted in: Belgium, Family, Middle Child

Brussels 1

I arrived in Brussels in October 1993 and didn’t leave again until the summer of 1995.  I lived in a lovely house in a distant suburb with two French women and a half-Belgian Norwegian.  It is to this period that I ascribe any fluency which I now have in French.  Parisiennes do not hesitate to correct you when you make a mistake; it’s part of their charm.   After a year in the lovely house, the owner wanted it back.  So one of the French girls and I moved into another house together and then another flat.  All delightful.  Brussels is heaven for tenants with really wonderful places to rent.  I always think of this as my “Vile Bodies” period.  So many parties, so many people from all sorts of nooks and crannies of Europe.  I was full of energy and joie de vivre; particularly surprising since I never seemed to get to bed before 2.  This, I think, is the energy that nature intended me to use for night feeds for small children.

My mother had, meanwhile, been scanning the papers for jobs in Ireland for her daughter and, eventually, she found one and I was, with some regret, lured to Dublin.

In other news, would you say that this dialogue is positive?

Me: Grandma and ?

Daniel: Grandad.

Me: Nana and ?

Daniel: Cork Grandad.

Me: Uncle G and ?

Daniel: Aunty S.

Me: Mummy and ?

Daniel: Aunty Helen?

Everywhere I have ever lived – 1995-1998


Posted in: Dublin, Princess

With some trepidation, I moved back to Dublin.  I needn’t have worried, I found it a much more welcoming town than I had done when I was a poor student.  It was much better being a poor young professional.  God, I was so skint.  I can remember going for coffee and only having water because it was two days to payday.

I lived with (just with, not with) a lovely man who was immensely house proud.  We were happy together for two years but when he upbraided me for chopping a tomato on his draining board, I knew our ways had to part despite his very beautiful and conveniently located house.  I then moved into a colleague’s old house and had a scarlet bedroom and a bracing cycle to work along the sea front.

After a couple of years, the office wanted to second someone to Brussels and a colleague and partner in poverty (we drank tap water together two days before pay day) encouraged me to apply with the words “you have to – look at the pay”.  This turned out to be unfortunate for him in the short term as I got the job and he did not but now he has a very important job so all is well in a cosmic karmic way.

Tomorrow – Brussels II

Today – some confusion

Princess (looking at a map): What does NL stand for?

Me: The Netherlands where the Dutch Mama and her family live.

Princess: And where Peter Pan took Wendy so that she would never grow up.