belgianwaffle

Dublin

Small World or Surprisingly Heartwarming

4 Comments
Posted in: Dublin, Ireland, Work

One of my younger colleagues was run over by a bike recently. As she described it, no one was really at fault (some poor bus stop positioning). The cyclist was injured, she was injured. She actually had to go to A&E to check nothing was broken. But in the end, all was well though she was a bit battered and bruised. As a cyclist, I always feel responsible for the actions of all cyclists so I was pleased to hear that the cyclist was very nice and no hard feelings on either side.

Actually she and the cyclist stayed in touch to check on each’s recovery and the other day over coffee she showed the rest of the team their whatsapp correspondence. Looking at the profile picture another young colleague said, “Wait a minute, I know him, he is really nice he’s in my dance class!”

Atmosphere

2 Comments
Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

Last October I was cycling up Capel Street when I saw a line of men walking towards me. They stretched right across the road so I got off my bike and went to the side of the road. A young woman started filming them and one of the men took her phone and threw it on the ground. It was all pretty intimidating. I learned later that they were Schalke 04 fans. When they’d passed I saw that the Guards were following them in a van. I can’t say that I found it very reassuring.

Other People’s Content is Still Content


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

A friend was telling me about her adorable 6 year old nephew. He put hair spray on the mirror at home and his mother was pardonably annoyed. “What did you do that for?” she asked. No answer. “You know who’s going to have to clean that up? Muggins here,” she said grumpily. Her little boy looked puzzled and then said, “I thought Muggins was Dad?”

Month’s Mind


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

Herself came home very briefly in March to come to her great uncle’s funeral. He was a lovely, lovely man. She was a prime favourite with him as he was a teacher and you know how a teacher loves a clever child. He was also absolutely hilarious and we all found him great company. The Christmas before last we were all together and, honestly, he was the star of the show.

This Christmas he came to our house just before Christmas and he seemed absolutely fine. His son was home from Spain for Christmas with his young family and the great uncle picked up a camp bed from us while he was here. I mean, just to show. And though he was 85, he was sharp as a tack and, just…well. But apparently not. He got sick after Christmas and went into hospital in late February and died in March.

His poor son in Australia flew home (36 hours as the Middle East was closed) and just missed seeing him before he died which was very sad but they were very close and spoke regularly so not so bad, I guess.

My sister-in-law came back from England as well and it was very nice to see her and the extended family. Poor old youngest child wasn’t able to get home from his Erasmus exile but watched the live stream from his student bedroom; I wouldn’t call it ideal.

The last surviving sibling in that family – my husband’s uncle was there as well. He’s really like his brothers and reminded me so much of my late father-in-law – just a very funny, charming person. It made me sad but he also made me laugh. He is almost 90 and seems very hale and hearty. Let us hope Mr. Waffle has these genes. The funeral was in the chapel attached to the school where the deceased uncle had attended himself, taught, and where his sons had also gone to school so he was very well known to the (pretty good) turn out of priests who were there for the service which was a good one. A clatter of young men from the school attended also which was a nice touch and came and dutifully shook hands with the relatives afterwards.

Outside the crematorium, keen eyed Mr. Waffle saw a memorial to Oscar Wilde’s father. Small world, eh?

We went for lunch with the mourners after and said goodbye to everyone. I really felt for the immediate family, they all seemed a bit shell-shocked. It’s definitely better for everyone when someone is well (and old obviously) and dies quickly but it’s such a shock for relatives in the moment; alas.

Not Oiling the Wheels


Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

The centre of Dublin and many of the main roads around the country have been closed by protesting truckers and agricultural contractors (they are annoyed about the price of petrol and diesel, aren’t we all? I await my next electricity bill with some unease). They are also blocking some of the access to oil from the refineries/ports and we are beginning to run out of oil on the forecourts. As you know, I am a cyclist and I have been able to whizz around the city with less traffic than usual but this is all a bit weird. It reminds me a little bit of Covid; especially with the difficulties people are starting to have getting to hospital appointments; getting home help visits and so on; mercifully the schools are still off for the Easter holidays. I’ll tell you what, I’m not sure we’ve reached peak oil in this jurisdiction; a lot of things seem to need petrol to run. Here are some photos live from the front lines (commute to work).

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Turbulent Times


Posted in: Dublin, Family, Ireland, Middle Child, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

Mr. Waffle and I climbed the Sugar Loaf on Good Friday. It was extremely windy and we were nearly blown away. I have never before experienced such strong wind on that mountain which, despite the excellent views and impressive appearance, is generally an extremely straightforward climb. I once met a pre-school class on the top and one of the little girls had brought her bag on wheels (just to give you the picture).

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Still, despite the wind, it was a very satisfactory day out, all the more so as when we left Dublin it was absolutely lashing and we nearly didn’t go at all. In the end we brought our rain gear and didn’t even need it.

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I bought some linen napkins in Enniskerry afterwards. Middle aged thrills.

You might have thought that as my youngest child had returned to these shores (briefly, for Easter) from his Erasmus placement abroad, I would be spending all my time with him but you would have reckoned without his extremely full social calendar. He came back on Wednesday morning (April 1) and immediately plunged into a social whirl.

I was delighted with myself on Wednesday morning when I sent a message to the family group chat saying “Aaargh, youngest child’s flight is diverted to Heathrow, first born can you help?” Herself rang straight away with many questions and I revealed it was an April fool. Mr. Waffle was using the flight tracker and utterly baffled. Middle child sent a message saying, “You infidels have no need to blow up my phone before 8 in the morning” so not everyone was fooled. It was my greatest April fool ever and no one was even cross with me (which can be a risk).

Herself was due to come home on Saturday evening and I was dutifully waiting at the airport when looking at the flight tracker I saw her plane doing pretty elaborate loops. It was extremely windy and, alas, they took her back to London without landing. I was so relieved that she was alive that I resigned myself to her not being here for Easter. It was all pretty hairy she told us afterwards: “I’ve never been on a flight before where everyone screamed at the same time.”

She spent the night in the Radisson in Heathrow airport (congratulations to Hamish and Nishal on their wedding which was going really well judging by the background noises). And, thrills and delight got in to Dublin the next morning. Middle child and I had an extremely elaborate breakfast waiting for her (youngest child still in bed, note social life comments earlier) – see those new napkins getting their first outing.

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Weird aside, there were about 30 young men from an American school from Ohio at mass in their blazers and the priest said that they were here to play rugby. I have many questions.

We went to the in-laws for lunch (oh happy day) and spent the day with the extended family. It was really nice to see everyone and even though the children played monopoly together which, in my experience, is generally not a recipe for a good time, I think everyone did, in fact, have a good time.

On Monday we saw Mr. Waffle’s sister and her family for lunch; went for a walk; and then dropped herself to the airport. This was not without its alarms as BA had cancelled the return leg of her flight for their own obscure reasons but all was well in the end.

Today, Mr. Waffle and I cycled to Howth and although it was pretty pleasant it is quite far away and I am exhausted from my efforts.

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Our beloved youngest child is joining us for dinner tonight before he flies back to his Erasmus exile at the crack of dawn. It’s my last day off work and I guess the Easter excitement is nearly over.

How was your own Easter?