belgianwaffle

Archives for November 2024

Season of Mists etc.


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

We had another bumper apple harvest this year. Falling fruit came and stripped the trees and took away 75kgs. But still, I have made enough apple jelly to sink a battle ship. I have also made apple sauce and apple tart.

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And I still have loads in the shed. And I put a box at the gate in which the children going to the school at the bottom of the road showed a rather tepid interest. They were free but they were apples. There are still loads of windfalls rolling around the back garden as well waiting to be swept up when I am feeling strong.

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This is on top of my jam production from earlier in the summer. Sadly the rhubarb and ginger was not a success. The rhubarb came from my mother’s friend’s garden in the suburbs and by the time I got my mitts on it, it was a bit past its best. I never really thought that I would be a jam and jelly maker but circumstances alter cases I guess.

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The Boat to England


Posted in: Mr. Waffle, Princess, Travel

Mr. Waffle and I drove herself to England at the start of October. Having finished a degree in foreign parts you would think she might come home but no, she is doing a master’s as well. The whole thing was rendered a great deal more stressful than it might have been by having the car booked in for a service the day before departure. It was going to be ready, then it wasn’t, then they were waiting for a part. It was a roller coaster during which we looked up hire cars (not actually very easy to find car hire people who will let you take the car out of the jurisdiction) and investigated how to change the ferry booking. There was a great deal of trauma which is frankly being skimmed over in this paragraph.

This was the first time Mr. Waffle had done this trip and he kept commenting on how onerous it was. “It’s even worse when you have to do all the driving yourself,” I kept saying grumpily.

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Proustian


Posted in: Cork, Ireland, Siblings

I’m in Cork for the weekend for my sister’s birthday. I haven’t been down since the summer. I went to inspect my parents’ gravestone; newly inscribed. It was a bit damp and gloomy, perfect cemetery weather.

And I inspected the work my sister has done in her attic. It’s all thrills.

I went for a walk around the Honan Chapel and thought about how my family history intersected with this Celtic revival church.

Because I don’t live here or even visit very often now, Cork has become a place of memory and reminders of the past for me. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Home Again, Home Again


Posted in: Cork, Ireland, Siblings, Travel

And I’m back from the fleshpots of Cork.

I had an exciting day. I went to the Glucksman for my breakfast (a gallery cafe – not bad but not at all as good as the old Crawford Gallery cafe for which I will probably grieve forever). They only had seats outside where I went with some trepidation but despite slight drizzle towards the end of breakfast, it was actually fine even though there were no outdoor heaters.

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Thrillingly, the Christmas craft fair was on in the Glucksman. I mean, I love any old craft fair but this one is really good. All the people manning the stalls had made the stuff themselves, which I really enjoy. I bought a Christmas decoration from a potter and a tea towel from a lovely man who draws lighthouses. We had a little chat, he’s originally from Antwerp. Not so many lighthouses in that neck of the woods. Honestly, I could have stayed for hours but I did not because I was already running late for my next event.

My sister had a spare ticket to an interview with some director from Cork I’d never heard of and I agreed to go with her. It was in the Triskel, Cork’s premier arts venue once a church and, still boasting the slightly uncomfortable benches which are part of any church experience. There were about 50 people there.

The director appeared, a guy called John Crowley. He was really interesting, a genuinely fascinating man; he was about the same age as me and a year behind me in college (I learn from Wikipedia but this is not quite how it describes his college career) and a stalwart of the Dramat but I can’t say I remember any productions in which he was involved. He talked about the films he had made (loads) and then I realised he was the director of Brooklyn and the Goldfinch (as he said, “one of those much more successful than the other, kind of you not to mention it”) and Life After Life and the second season of True Detective and tons and tons of stuff. He was super-understated and just very pleasant as well as knowledgeable. It was a revelation, he has a new film out which screened as part of the Cork film festival (We Live in Time) which I will definitely be going to see when it comes out. It struck me that if he were from Dublin I would definitely have read about him in the Irish Times and indeed this event but the Irish Times does have a tendency to gloss over people who don’t live in or come from Dublin. Is it any wonder Cork people are, I don’t want to say bitter, but bitter adjacent.

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And one final, thing as Columbo would say, a very famous chipper in Cork called Jackie Lennox’s closed down. It was such big news that it was even covered in the Irish Times. My brother queued for about three hours for fish and chips on its last day of operation.

Anyhow, when I was visiting my parents’ cemetery on Tory Top road (Cork word for a pine cone, unknown anywhere else), I passed the establishment in the photograph below. It has (you will have to take my word for it) the same lettering as the closed down chipper. It has obviously been here for some time. What is going on? A real mystery.

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Post Script


Posted in: Family, Ireland, Princess

I began my working life in 1991. That is a long time ago.

One day, I remember a male colleague asking whether I had a stamp. People used to borrow stamps, it was a thing. I did not. He was disappointed. He went off to look elsewhere. “Married women always have stamps,” he said firmly as he set off on his quest.

I am not sure whether he succeeded in finding a stamp but I remember the line. And now that I am a married woman I do, in fact, always have stamps. I can’t remember the last time someone asked to borrow a stamp though.

When I was in my 20s I wrote many, many letters but now my only correspondents are my daughter in England and my friend in America. I think they both regard letter writing as a quirky – though not unwelcome – habit on my part.

I was slightly horrified to find, after she died, that my mother had preserved all my letters to her. You might think I would welcome an insight into my thoughts in my 20s but this is not the case. I did enjoy some of the letters between her and her mother which also came my way as well as a couple of letters my grandmother had written home from America while she lived there.

I do miss letters.

An Evening of Contrasts


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

When the children were small, the parish priest asked me to be on the baptism preparation group. I was extremely reluctant (do you think I’m a fool?) but agreed in the end and 15 years later here I am with my children all grown up and still on the baptism preparation group. One of the other members is a grandmother so I am basically doomed to stay there for all time.

It’s quite straightforward there’s a rota and we are sent out in pairs (biblical). We meet in one of the rooms behind the church. The parents who are getting their children baptised that month come in and we go through the service and also talk about the practicalities (when to arrive on the day of the baptism, who does readings etc.) and make sure they have their paperwork (church bureaucracy is surprisingly efficient). We also do some very light proselyting (you might think that this would be unnecessary with people who are bringing their children for baptism but you might be surprised) and try not to scare them.

I had baptism group last night and we had 6 families with first babies for baptism. Mostly people don’t tend to bring the babies but one couple did and she was adorable. They were all lovely and agreeable and the whole thing was grand and as speedy as we could make it.

The speediness was necessary as Mr. Waffle and I were going to the cinema (booked when I had forgotten that I was on the rota for the baptism prep for November and did not know that he would spend the day driving to and from Limerick for a funeral). We saw Anora which has got rave reviews. It’s about an escort who has a relationship with a young rich Russian guy. The first part is very graphic (thank God I hadn’t gone with the children) and I found myself frequently wondering what you have to do to get an 18s cert in this country (it was 16s). Then the middle part when the Armenian henchmen become involved is played for laughs (and is very funny). When the Russian’s parents (who are excellent) fly in on their private jet towards the end it’s still funny but it’s also a bit sad.

Overall, it just seemed sad to me and I could have done without a lot of the graphic detail; I found it a bit exploitative and did not love it. I thought that the cast were outstanding though. In fairness, it was laugh out loud funny in parts and it definitely did not drag. There was lots of Russian which I enjoyed (coming as it did with subtitles). Many, perhaps most, of the actors were Russian and I wonder how this works with the sanctions on Russia at the moment. It’s set in 2019; is that supposed to be a solution to this particular problem?