Sean's Space

Friday 18 September 2009

Up 4.30 but took no shower. Dressed as last night – underpants, black 44" slacks, black FootJoy socks, tan John Evan Chelsea boots, navy and blue vertically striped Polish shirt open-necked, grey small check Kartel 42" sports coat. Ate a packed breakfast in my room. Very sweet fruit juice, a croissant, two pieces of toasted biscuity bread with honey. Spilt some honey on the surface of the small table on which my case rested this past five days. Had washed face and finished packing. Doubts and paranoia in my mind when I went down into the lobby. Surely I had forgotten something? But I hardened my heart and did not return to look. Malachy Doyle had left the room before me so I had not the benefit of a second opinion! That kind of haunted worried feeling stayed with me all day until I opened my case at home around 17.00. The coach left San Vincenzo at 5.30. The usual panic over my passport. I lost it? I didn’t. But I panicked at least once. I booked in along with Canon Crawley. "If we hand in the passports together then we will be sitting together on the plane," he suggested at check-in. The female official asked the question, "Which bag is Michael’s?" and in reply I tapped Canon Crawley’s case quietly with my left hand. The flight was smooth and taking off after 12.00 Roman time we reached Dublin around 14.10 Irish time. The coach pulled out of the airport around 15.15 and reached The Lisdoo around 16.20. I had text’d Rosanna twice and finally phoned her saying we would reach The Lisdoo at 16.15. Everything worked out as smoothly as the flight itself. I had been worried about my case at check-in. Was it over the 20 kg limit? There was no problem. I was worried about it as I waited at the carousel No 3 in Dublin Airport. Again it turned up. I discovered tomorrow that a support wire for standing the case seems to have disappeared from the body of the case. I did not notice that today and don’t know where it happened. It could have been when the case was loaded on to the coach at Dublin Airport. The driver treated my case roughly. I saw him do it and thought he may have damaged the handle of the case. But the handle was alright when I examined it outside The Lisdoo after it came off the coach. Rosanna made a dinner of turnip, sausages, and microwaved potato. Not as piquant as Italian food. A good dinner nevertheless. I unpacked the case and put most of my stuff in the laundry basket in the bathroom beside my bedroom. As far as I could see I forgot nothing and left nothing behind me. I gave Rosanna her present of a pair of rose-scented rosary beads. I later heard her boasting quietly to Maeve on the phone about it. Good atmosphere in the house. Eamonn away home to Cootehall. Although I had been nodding off on the way to Rome from San Vincenzo my energy held up quite well throughout the day. I was a bit too warm in Italy today but I took off my jacket in the plane and was comfortable during the flight. (I also put my coat in the luggage rack on the coach to Dundalk. Canon Crawley on my right in the back seat and Johnnie O’Sullivan on his right hand side.) An odd stab of pain behind my right eye. Head a bit light. Ears sore on the descent. Canon Crawley treated me to a ham and mozzarella panini (€5) and a can of Coke (€2) on the plane. He also to read gave me The Irish Independent which he bought off the flight attendant. He himself concentrated on reading the divine office. I was sitting in 13 F just over the right wing of the plane beside the wing exit and Canon Crawley sat beside me on my left. I went to the toilet for a piss towards the end of the flight but generally speaking my bladder behaved today. I drank nothing in the early part of the day except the small bottle of peach juice for my breakfast. The only other liquid I drank before I got home was the can of Coke that Canon Crawley bought me. I think I checked my credit card account and my bank account. Everything in order. And there was no commission or anything charged on the €100 I withdrew in Il Campo, Siena, on Wednesday. Scanned my accumulated mail. UB credit card came with a €1400 limit! House insurance from UB also came. Both these items seem to have been delivered soon after I left for Rome on the 6th. The house insurance policy takes effect from 8 September although I pointed out to Karen that my existing policy with RSA covers the property until 28 September? I pondered what, if anything, I might do to resolve the issue which definitely does not favour me as it stands. My mistake. When I checked the policy tomorrow I found that cover dated from 29 September exactly in line with what I asked for in the beginning. I turned the insurance over to Rosanna whose name is included in the title of the policy. Dessie has been elected chairperson of Louth County Community and Voluntary Forum. He phoned me around 19.00 and we had a great chat as I sat on my Parker Knoll opposite Rosanna in The White Elephant Lounge. Things are looking up and the portents are good? I was surprised to read my weight (fully dressed) up around 14.07 on the bathroom scales. I took the blankets off my bed and put on a duvet. Could I get the odour of goose feathers in the night? Anyway I retired before 20.00 and got up a few times to drink water during the night. I was too tired to wash my teeth before bed. Had a conversation with Og in the evening sounding a bit slurred on the phone. He had been in Blackrock and the swimming pool with Gavin earlier in the day. Waiting for the coach in Dublin Airport I took Joe Treanor’s details down with my golf pencil and promised to try to locate for him a copy of Aisling’s film "Art/Conflict; 2 x Zones." Chat with Micheal Savage sporting a Mohician as we pulled out of The Lisdoo. We flew Aer Lingus.