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Archives for January 2020

Out and About

28 January, 2020
Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Michael, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Reading etc.

The Alliance Française had a games night and, even though it was a school night, I insisted on bringing the boys and Mr. Waffle. I felt that the boys might enjoy it and that it would be good for their French. In my mind’s eye, I saw them sitting down and bonding with another group of board game-loving teenagers, ideally Francophone board game-loving teenagers, and having a great time while myself and Mr. Waffle went off Bewley’s and had a nice cup of tea. This did not happen. They did not enjoy it, it was not good for their French. It was all grown-ups who came with their own gangs of friends. There were no other teenagers. What was agonising for Michael, in particular, was that these were his people playing his kind of games but with no room for him. We sat in a corner, the four of us and tried to muster enthusiasm for playing in French games which we could equally readily have played at home and despite the enthusiasm and helpfulness of the librarian doling out games, it could not really be called anything but an abysmal failure. Alas.

We went to see Knives Out in the cinema and, unlike everyone else in Ireland, I thought it was only alright. The others enjoyed it though. We also went to see JoJo Rabbit which I enjoyed in a mild way but found myself distracted by the woman in the row in front who kept her phone on throughout: messaging, whatsapping, posting to instagram. It was spectacularly annoying but I was too craven to tap her on the shoulder and say something in case she was cross with me and I had to sit behind her for the rest of the film which would ruin it for me. So I sat there stewing in bitterness.

Herself bought us theatre tickets for Christmas which was a bit over-generous given her very limited budget, poor mite, but anyway they were for Drama at Inish at the Abbey which I found surprisingly enjoyable. I had thought it was going to be something like The Playboy of the Western World or the Beauty Queen of Leenane – all a bit West of Ireland gloom – but it’s not. It’s by Lennox Robinson (who was from Douglas in Cork, I mean, who knew?). It was written in the 30s and it’s about a group of actors who go to a seaside resort in East Cork (clearly Youghal) and put on works by Chekhov, Ibsen and Strindberg. The residents take the plays to heart and start acting like characters in the plays. I feel I would have got more out of it had I been a bit more familiar with the source material but still not bad at all. Annoyingly, the man in the row behind me seemed to find it knee-slappingly funny and I felt a bit short-changed when I considered his hilarity compared to my mild amusement but there you go. Inevitably, at the end there was a standing ovation. I can’t remember the last time I went to a play in Dublin when there hasn’t been a standing ovation. I feel it’s a slightly devalued currency at this stage.

Mr. Waffle and I were invited to a Burns night supper by friends. His mother was Scottish so I suppose this was why they got into this in the first place. It was in the Royal Saint George yacht club in Dun Laoghaire organised by the Dublin Scottish Benevolent Society of St. Andrew. In advance we regarded it with some trepidation as we both had head colds but we were sufficiently recovered on the night to have a good time. The Burns night supper was completely unknown to me as a thing in advance and I had never tasted haggis in my life. My friend helpfully described it as being a bit like a wedding with speeches after dinner and some singing. An early highlight was the “Ode to a Haggis” which was delivered with great verve. Also, I found that I really like haggis – it’s delicious. The speeches, I understand, follow an unwavering pattern with a speech on Robert Burns “The Immortal Memory”; “A Toast to the Lassies” and “A Toast to the Laddies”. I found myself sitting right in front of the speakers which was fine until the singer sang one of Burns’s numbers (A Man’s a Man for A’That) unaccompanied and very loudly, eyes closed, face puce and about two feet from me. It was a little overwhelming. He sang a couple of later numbers accompanying himself on the guitar and I found these less stressful. We toasted the President and the Queen of England. I don’t remember doing the latter before in this jurisdiction. Since the yacht club still has the Union Jack engraved in the top of its gilt edged mirror it all felt a little odd. But Dun Laoghaire is a bit odd that way.

The speech on Burns was fine – continuing the Abbey Theatre theme it was delivered by one of co-directors of the Abbey, a Scot, Graham McLaren. I wonder how much he is enjoying that role as the Abbey always seems to have a couple of controversies on the boil. Anyway, to Burns, I have to say, I knew he was an important Scottish poet but hadn’t quite realised his role in the Scottish national psyche (I should have guessed from earlier when Mr. Waffle showed me a picture from a Scottish friend of his who is married to an Austrian – it showed her slightly grumpy, Austrian teenage son, decked out in his kilt for Burns night in Vienna). The “Immortal Toast” man gave lots of Robert Burns and his influence on me and Scotland stories.

The highlight of the toast to the lassies was a rather drunken heckler sitting at the table behind me who roared at the speaker that it was “RAbbie Burns, not RObbie Burns!” There was some communal singing which I enjoyed very much and which felt oddly like mass. And we sang “Auld Lang Syne”.

Our friends who invited us are members of the organising society and they were allowed to bring up to four people. In advance they explained that we would be joined by four other people at our table of ten. Our friends said that last year they had worried about what old fogies they might be put beside only to find themselves beside four people in their 20s and realising that they were the old fogies.

There were quite a few people there whom I knew from other contexts including a good friend of mine (who is also, coincidentally a colleague of our host, yes, Ireland is tiny and we all know each other) who was there with her Scottish husband (appropriately attired in kilt) and who was actually put at our table but tragically between our group of 6 and her and her husband there was a couple (lovely people I am sure etc.) unknown to any of us so that was a little unfortunate.

Overall though, a rather thrilling and exciting new experience to have at my vast age. Recommended.

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2019 Retrospective

27 January, 2020
Posted in: Reading etc.

2020 is the first year that I haven’t had a paper diary. The end of days is upon us, I’d say. Let us rely on my blog for a review of 2019 notwithstanding the paper diary.

January

Oh God, January 2019 when we all got flu and the builders moved in. The memory is still horribly vivid. January 19 would have been my father-in-law’s birthday. The extended family met in his local pub in his honour. He would have liked that.

February

The misery, building works continuing, my wretched course assignment due.

March

The builders finally left. I turned 50. We went skiing. All in all, a far better month than those that preceded it.

April

We went to Tours and explored the Princess’s haunts from her time there. She turned 16. I gave up on Twitter and restored hours of every day to myself. I continue to be smug and twitter-free. I started another course, simultaneously with the one I began in October 2018. I experienced definite regret.

May

Blog entries are thin and in consequence I have no idea what happened. If it wasn’t blogged, did it even happen? I finished off course one. It nearly killed me.

June

My mother died. 2019 will always be, for me, the year my mother died. Looking back over blog entries, I see that her last coherent words to me may have been in March when she said, “Your hair is lovely.” She had been sick for such a long time but it was a shock. I still think about her all the time; my sister gave me an opened bottle of her perfume and I think of her every time I wear it; for months I couldn’t reread a Georgette Heyer as they reminded me too much of her, I don’t know whether I’ll ever reread “The Nonsuch” much of which I read aloud to her when I visited her in the nursing home; and I think of how she was my greatest supporter in all things. I regularly visit her best friend from college a delightful and entertaining woman of whom I am now very fond although I found her a bit terrifying when I was a child. When I visited her recently, I said in passing, “My mother adored me.” “I wouldn’t get carried away,” she said. Tart but appealing.

July

Even flicking back through July entries makes me feel slightly exhausted. The range of activities which we arranged to entertain our children over the summer holidays was extensive. We also made a lot of jam. Daniel told me the other night that he has a playlist that reminds him of things and he has a song that reminds him of cutting up plums with me. He also has one that reminds him of the day we moved house – when he was 7 – and he and his brother stayed with his grandparents and in the morning they were wrapped in blankets, let watch television and eat toast and honey. It seems a particularly fond memory.

August

Triumphantly successful holiday in Estonia and Finland except for missing our flight to Estonia.

September

The boys turned 14. They took it in their stride. I finished course 2. I am never getting another qualification as long as I live.*

October

This is when Daniel got the tooth injury that eventually led to root canal the following January. Mr. Waffle’s sister and her husband and little girl moved back to England. I was sad. They were a joy to have in Dublin and their little girl a constant source of delight and entertainment. Maybe we should visit them in London. Herself is standing ready to be babysitter in swinging London should she be called upon to serve.

November

National blog posting month: exhausting but no particular theme emerges.

December

“Blazing fire and Christmas treat” No sleet though.

*Possibly not true but definitely felt true in 2019.

Matters Mouth Related

26 January, 2020
Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Hodge, Michael, Princess

The cat somehow managed to hurt her nose. She may have got into a fight. Unclear. Mr. Waffle took her to the vet (which she did not enjoy) and the vet pronounced her to be basically fine and we should just wait and let her get better. €60 we will never see again. Sigh. Anyhow to skip to the finish, she did recover, but in the intervening fortnight she was unable to lick herself clean. Who knew a cat could become so revoltingly smelly. That licking behind the ears regime is startlingly effective.

Meanwhile, herself had another appointment with the medieval torturer who is passing himself off as an orthodontist. Honestly, if I had known at the start how much prolonged misery it would involve, I would never have started. I mean all she had was one little snaggle tooth (as our American cousins say) and it was actually quite cute and characterful. The orthodontist has now applied those dreadful elastic bands which are attached by hooks on the inside of her mouth. The pain, the poor child. She told me that the dental nurse said to her that she couldn’t go until she had put on the bands herself. It took her about 2 attempts. The dental nurse sighed and said, “It’s always the same, girls can do it straight away but boys take about 14 tries.” She speculated that it might be because girls look at themselves in the mirror more. It’s possible, I suppose. When she returned home, bloody, battered and elasticated, her brothers’ words of comfort were uncomforting. Daniel offered, “Now there is no food that you can’t readily turn into a catapult.” Michael said, “Isn’t it a good thing that I have perfect teeth?”

And in final tooth news, Daniel’s front tooth was declared dead by the dentist and he had his root canal treatment (€450 but cheap compared to the braces). Daniel said the procedure wasn’t too bad and he was quite cheerful during and after even though he had to lie there for a good hour with his mouth open. I took him for a bun afterwards and he ate it up with every appearance of enthusiasm.

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He then took himself off to GAA training that evening without a bother. All in all it appears to have been far less painful than his sister’s brace tightening which is something, I suppose. I have to go to the dentist for my regular check up next month. I’m not sure I can face any more mouth related trauma, so let’s hope it passes off peacefully.

An Exchange giving an Insight into the Personality of each Family Member

25 January, 2020
Posted in: Boys, Daniel, Michael, Mr. Waffle, Princess
Untitled Untitled Untitled

Where is Michael, you might be wondering. Yeah, he’s ignoring our petty earthly concerns.

Meta

14 January, 2020
Posted in: Siblings

My sister: You haven’t posted on the blog in a while.

Me: But you know what I’m doing, I talk to you all the time.

Her: I like to see the spin you put on it.

Adventures in Philology

7 January, 2020
Posted in: Cork, Ireland

I watched the Christmas Bake Off the other day.

Someone made a Battenberg. It was what I understod to be Battenberg in my youth: namely a triangular cake with chocolate on the outside and yellow and brown stripes on the inside as may be viewed at this link. I was aware of the rectangular marzipan coated pink and yellow offering as an alternative and, frankly, inferior Battenberg.

I was very surprised to hear that the triangular Battenberg was a Cork-only thing. I mean, who knew? Related, does every body know that a tory top is a pine cone? If not, why not?

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