belgianwaffle

Archives for November 2022

Culinary Adventures


Posted in: Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Twins, Youngest Child

A quiet day here at the ranch. I am crippled from my wretched knee which is sore standing up and sore sitting down.

The boys went to a college open day under their own steam which they pronounced as fine but a bit dull. They are open day veterans now.

Poor Mr. Waffle has the last two days of this wretched course he’s doing this weekend so he was out at that all day today and will be at it all day tomorrow as well. And he has to turn something around for work on Monday. Grim.

Meanwhile your domestic goddess made a curry recipe from today’s Irish Times for dinner. It was easy and pretty tasty. Score. The accompanying flat bread recipe led to a result for me that was…well not flat anyway.

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Home


Posted in: Cork, Family, Ireland, Siblings

Regular readers will be aware that I am from Cork and although I have now lived for longer out of Cork than I did in it, it will probably always be home to me. When my father died in December 2020, I remember thinking that for the first time I had no home in Cork. Your parents’ house is your house, it is, as my mother-in-law used to say, “where they always have to take you in”. A slightly grudging formulation I always felt, I mean surely home is where they always want to take you in?

I was delighted when my sister said that she wanted to buy my parents’ house. It was the best possible option for me. The house would stay in the family and someone else would, realistically, have to go through the lifetime’s worth of stuff accumulated by my parents. Probate took a while and so did the conveyancing process but now the house is finally my sister’s. The sale closed in early November. I am pretty sure I will always be welcome to stay with my sister but, of course, it’s no longer my parents’ house. She has lots of plans for renovations (very much needed) and changes. It is lovely to think of the house being looked after again as it was when my mother was well. She was the most competent person I ever met, she took upholstery lessons and re-upholstered the sofa, she painted, she moved furniture with abandon. She really had endless confidence that she could do anything and mostly she could. So this is completely a good news story but still I feel a bit sad. Another door closed, the end of an era.

Running from Billy to Jack


Posted in: Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Siblings, Twins, Youngest Child

This morning it lashed rain. In view of climactic conditions, Mr. Waffle drove the boys to school. My brother was staying over and surfaced about 9.30. He looked dolefully at the weather and hopefully at me. “I am going to take the car for a service,” I said firmly so he went off gloomily into the rain to get to his meeting by public transport. I drove the car to the garage. They said it would be ready at 2 which was handy as it meant I could collect the boys from school. I emailed the boys with the glad tidings. I had put my bike in the boot to cycle home. I mean cunning but damp notwithstanding rain gear etc.

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Then I cycled into town to meet a friend for lunch. Then I cycled home again and out to pick up the car. The garage telephoned to say that it wouldn’t be ready until 3.30. I emailed Michael (Dan was in after-school study) to say I’d be a bit late to pick him up. Then as I was nearing the garage they called to say sorry, it wouldn’t be ready until 4.30. I cycled to the school to tell Michael the bad news and offered to take his bag on the bike while he took the bus. At least it was no longer raining. I cycled to the garage with Michael’s school bag in my carrier basket. I picked up the car and drove home. After a quick cup of tea, I was off into traffic again to pick up Daniel at 5.45. I’m exhausted. I think I cycled about 20kms which is a lot for me (although I know there are those who do 50 at the drop of a hat this is, I cannot emphasise this enough, not me).

In entirely unrelated news, Dan’s GAA team ended their championship campaign yesterday. And not in a good way. They had pizza in the club house at 6 that evening. At about 8, Dan rang me to say they were going to the pub and was it ok if he went too. After some humming and hawing we said yes. He seems to have had a great time and, though some of the older boys were drinking, mostly it seems to have been a sober affair and I picked him up from the pub about 9.30 in great form. Apparently he had nothing at all to drink alcoholic or otherwise as he had very little money on him. It doesn’t seem to have bothered him, in fairness. I suppose nightclubs are only round the corner.

Alas, alack


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

I went to the physio this morning. She used to be up the road but is now miles away. I cycled 20kms again today to get there and back. I am exhausted.

Anyhow, she poked at my knee and pronounced that I had a tear in my meniscus. It used to be called a “wear and tear” injury apparently. She didn’t seem too perturbed. She gave me some very mild exercises to do and said that my quads are particularly feeble. Great, thanks. “Do I regularly do squats and lunges?” I mean, obviously not, we both know this. Do I have leg weights that I can attach to my ankles? Of course I don’t. I will be taping bags of rice to myself as a practical alternative.

She thinks it will be better in 6-8 weeks and I am to go back to her in a fortnight. Dr. Google is much less sanguine but I am ignoring him as much as I can.

She says to keep cycling and walking so that’s something, I suppose.

Galway


Posted in: Ireland

I am in the West staying with a friend. I took my bike and it hailed on me as I cycled from the station to her house. As I pulled up the zip of my coat over my face to shield myself from stinging hail I caught it in my lip. And then I got a puncture in my back tyre.

The pictures don’t really convey the driving wind and hail. But look at that palm tree in the distance regretting its choices.

So far I’ve been impressed by the slower pace and friendliness of Galway after my time in the big smoke. I rang a bike repair shop to see when I could book in for a repair and the (Polish, I think) man said to drop in whenever. This compares favourably with my local bike shop in Dublin where you will be laughed at if you even try to drop in without appointment. On the minus side I appeared to be the only person on a bike in Galway. The weather was terrifying though.

I spent the afternoon cowering in my friend’s apartment looking at the rain and the waves. Then, after she finished work, we took a taxi into town. The Christmas lights were very pretty and somehow more romantic in the lashing rain with the wind from the sea blowing hard. Like defiance against the elements.

We went into a restaurant in a stone cottage right beside Spanish Arch and the sea spat beside us. Galway city is right on the sea in a way that Cork and Dublin aren’t. When we finished our (delicious) dinner, there were gangs of teenagers out and about celebrating their junior cert results in the rain. I couldn’t help worrying that some of them might fall in to the water as they partied at the unprotected quayside. Living on the edge here.

More Galway tomorrow.

More Galway


Posted in: Ireland, Travel

I went into town to get my bike fixed. It was very windy but beautiful on my cycle in (I know I should have walked with my back tyre as flat as a pancake but who among us is perfect?)

However, no sooner had I turned away from the coast road than it started to hail again. I mean I was a bit less exposed than yesterday at least. I had nearly left the house without my waterproof trousers but, happily, had not taken that reckless choice.

After dropping off my bike I found a cafe in town that looked like the pain quotidien. In I ducked – out of the hail – and ordered a pain au chocolat. All the staff were French. The inside was v close to the PQ possibly franchise breachingly close. But how was my pain au chocolat? Poor I fear.

I trekked out to the university in the rain – of course – to meet my friend for lunch. I passed this school.

They seem to like abbreviations in Galway. The Jesuit school is known universally as the Jes but I hadn’t realised that it extended to other establishments.

They were having conferrings at the university.

This is literally the only blue sky I saw all day. V exciting.

After lunch I was back into town for a wander around (lashing rain again).

I went to the local museum. It did not disappoint. A good local offering. With the added benefit of being indoors. There was quite a lot about the War of Independence and Civil War locally which was interesting. There’s a lot of Irish in Galway. I only heard the expression Cogadh na gCarad recently as the Irish for civil war (literally- the war of the friends) but there it was all over the place. A bit tougher for commemoration than the War of Independence.

I looked out the window at 4.30 and the rain was bouncing off the stones.

Here is the view from under Spanish Arch as I am screwing up my courage to walk to the bike shop.

And then I had to cycle back to the house. I got wet notwithstanding my rain gear (when it’s v wet it always seems to leak at the joints). I deeply regret only bringing one pair of trousers and one pair of shoes. Oh well, I am drip drying as I type and I can only hope that the theatre this evening will be so amazing that it will take my mind off the dampness.