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Family

Christmas Round-Up


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland, Princess

On Christmas Eve, we went to midnight mass which starts at 9. Baffling, I know. The Princess had to sing a solo and carry the baby Jesus to the crib. Before doing the latter she had to hold him up for the congregation to view and part of me was very afraid that the porcelain baby Jesus would tumble on to the steps of the altar and break but, mercifully, no.

Christmas Day itself passed off peacefully, you will be pleased to hear. We had various in-laws for dinner and it was all very pleasant. We played some games after dinner with varying degrees of success. Least successful was “Articulate” where due to a lack of attention during team formation, the three adult men in the room were put playing together and wiped the floor with the rest of us. The object of the game is to describe a word which your team mates try to guess. My own personal triumph was when Michael, who was playing with me, said, “They used to oppress us!” “England!” I shouted triumphantly pointing at my sister-in-law’s husband who is English but is not personally responsible for 800 years of oppression etc and is, on the contrary, a charming dinner guest. The answer turned out to be “Europe”. Clearly, the anti-troika rhetoric has had an impact on Michael. After the less than happy “Articulate” experience, we played a charades type game which involved holding the Princess’s Christmas phone up to your forehead. Oh yes, she got a phone from Santa and is very pleased.

Finally we passed to playing cards where the London contingent cleaned up and between them won pretty much everything – they had complementary skills. They made up for this by inspecting several Minecraft worlds which the children had created with every appearance of interest.

Today we went for our now traditional St. Stephen’s Day orienteering trip in the Dublin mountains. Although Christmas Day was beautiful, even when we set out this morning it was overcast and shortly after leaving home it began to rain and expanding on that theme it rained more and more heavily. We got there and we ran through the mud. The children were pretty cheerful considering that they got their feet wet and were frozen.

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I think we have had pretty bad luck with the weather at this event given that it almost never rains in Dublin. Really. Cork, now in Cork, it rains. Speaking of which, we are off to Cork tomorrow so fine weather beckons. I wonder whether they might like left over turkey.

And how was your own Christmas?

Christmas Disasters


Posted in: Family, Princess

The other day the Princess and I were working on the composition of a poem about the Titanic [do they learn anything in school but information about the Titanic? All three of my children have far more information about it than might be thought necessary for a generalist] when an unpleasant smell assaulted my nostrils and I was off to the kitchen like a coursing hare leaving the Titanic to fend for itself (insert your own joke here).

Not only had the pot in which I was gently steaming my plum pudding boiled dry but the metal steamer on which the pudding bowl was sitting had lost a leg and the plastic at the bottom of the bowl had melted through the holes in the steamer rendering pot, steamer and pudding a lost cause.

I made cranberry and orange sauce and gave my sister a jar to take back to Cork. She packed it carefully with a camel coloured coat. Do I need to say that the jar lost its lid? I think not.

On the plus side, the teacher was taken with the Princess’s poem on the Titanic and stuck it up on the wall of the classroom.

Share your own mild Christmas disasters. Please.

Party On


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland

Yesterday we had a Christmas party from 4-7 for friends and neighbours. The invitation specified that children were welcome. We discovered that not only does everyone we know now have children but they are also quite big – 5-10 age range. Babies were few on the ground which was very odd.

We paid two local teenagers to help out and although that definitely helped, I was still a shadow of my former self at the end. Of course, no one arrived until 4.15 and between 3.45 when the teenagers arrived and 4.15 we all sat looking at each other and feeling excruciatingly awkward, as well as friendless (us, not the teenagers). However, people more than made up for it and vast numbers came and it was actually quite pleasant, if busy. As a bonus, we now have enough chocolate and alcohol to take us through the Christmas season in exchange for some tepid mulled wine and a soggy mince pie for everyone in the audience, so, a win all round, I guess.

Memento Mori


Posted in: Family

Before I brought my table back to Dublin, my father was reminiscing about having breakfast at it with an English friend many years ago.   This man used to say, I understand without irony, “I’m not conservative, but I’ve never had it and I’m quite sure I shouldn’t like it.”  This became a catch phrase in our house when I was growing up (something of a dangerous game on my parents’ part, I realise in retrospect but usefully deployed in relation to the introduction of new foods) so even though I last saw this man when I was a child, I hadn’t forgotten about him and when my father mentioned him, I knew who he meant.

We talked for a bit about this man, his family and his habits.  “Where is he now?” I asked.   My father didn’t know; they had lost touch over the years.  I found his obituary after two seconds on the internet.  As I read it out, my father he nodded sagely there was a lot he knew already but there were also all kinds of facts my father hadn’t known at all, including that this man’s first wife died tragically.  He never spoke of it.  I’m not quite sure what point I’m making here; the amazing qualities of the internet which can tell you facts about old friends that you never knew when they were alive; the end of privacy; or the fact that when you are very old (my father is 89), if someone has slipped off your radar, odds on he or she is likely to be dead.  It’s all a bit depressing.  On the plus side, I was at the dentist the other day and he tells me that his mother (also 89) who was in college with my father is very well thanks for asking.

All Drama


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland

Did I tell you about when my sister-in-law came to visit last month?

She got the bus and it took ages. It turned out that she had been caught up in an unannounced Ebola test run: closed streets, guards, hazmat suits. She said it was very exciting and mildly alarming as nobody told the bus passengers that it was only a trial.

Today is, of course, Thanksgiving, in far off America. I was thinking of doing one of those winsome “I’m thankful” posts that Americans go for but although I am thankful for many things, I don’t have the energy to be winsome. I’m thankful that no one in Ireland has Ebola. Really, I am. That will have to do.

This whole NaBloPoMo thing is killing me. How are you finding it?

Stairway to Heaven


Posted in: Cork, Dublin, Family, Ireland

My father remarked when I was in Cork recently that I had become “very houseproud”. These words were not uttered in an approving tone; not a disapproving tone either, more mildly startled.

As regular readers will know, I love my house. Over the summer we got the hall floor re-varnished and my sister gave me a present of a rug that she bought in India for me. Is it not beautiful?

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And we got the front door painted as well. And, then, I felt that it would be a good idea to polish the door furniture [yes, that’s what it’s called, who knew?] which was a much more challenging undertaking than you might imagine but surprisingly pleasing.

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I then had the bit between my teeth and decided that I would polish the stair rods, a task which I had previously scorned as something that you would want to be insane to tackle [you may draw your own conclusions at this point]. I did them at a steady rate of about one per evening. They took an hour or so each and there were 30 in total. The effort. But the effect is so pleasing for me and I hope that when I need to do them again, the grime of ages will not have set in and it will not take me so long. Note in the picture below the shiny brassiness of the lower rods while the upper rods are very tarnished. It’s very hard to take a good picture of the whole staircase so you will just have to trust me that they are now all done.

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I picked up a pitch black coal bucket in my parents attic [speculation that it came from my paternal grandparents’ house but really nobody knows] and spent ages attacking it with flour salt and vinegar which confirmed that it was copper but I failed at making it the shiny, beautiful copper in the internet instructions. It’s just very hard to get a coal bucket in the kitchen sink.

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You will note from the picture above that I have not yet turned my brass polishing attention to the fender. I think it may just be too big a job for me. The best is the enemy of the good and all that.

Then I turned my attention to the family silver.

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Polishing silver is so much easier than copper and brass. And it is so shiny.

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Here is our entire family silver collection. Maybe didn’t take hours to polish now. Those with larger collections may find it more challenging.

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Also, I love my wedding presents – those coasters? Wedding presents. Two Georgian silver serving spoons [out of shot]? Wedding presents. How delightful it is to be conventional in middle age.