Sean's Space

Tuesday 31 May 2011.

Made my bed, washed my teeth (did not wash them last night), exercised (with some difficulty), ablutions. Dressed the same as yesterday. Seán Óg rang on my mobile as I drove towards Ravensdale around 09.40 and I missed the turn down to the dispensary. Óg in good form booking a slot for golf on Monday. He is walking 2 miles a day he told me and swinging a club out the back on the mat. Dr. Rolf administered an injection of 1000 units of hydroxocobaloamine into my left flank. Yesterday’s injection was painless but this morning’s was sore and congested. “That’s an efficient doctor!” I remarked to Alice Roddy paying her the €10 she settled for. Rolf talked a little condescendingly in classic doctor/patient mode but his attitude was man-to-man and non-judgemental. “I know them all up there!” he remarked when I asked him if he knew Monica Doyle. Good chat with Vincie Tuite in the waiting area beforehand. Also made the acquaintance of Hilda Woods ex-postmistress, 74, of Ravensdale PO, a small talkative friendly human woman who now lives “in town.” Rosanna brought me out to Finnegan’s Nursery, Silverbridge. After lunch. Bought a red erect Begonia, £1.75, paid in cash. 5 seed trays, £3.49; 2 packs of prick out pots, 2 x £1.99: total £7.47 = €8.69, paid with MBNA Visa credit card. Picked up a booklet Living Lawns. “That’s free,” the woman at checkout informed me. It seemed to me to be more valuable than the pieces of black plastic I paid for. Concocted a salad; for lunch. Washed: lettuce, 7 cherry tomatoes, celery. White cheddar; 2 slices of package ham; a sliced cold hard-boiled egg; 8 pickled onions; chopped 2 big scallions; vinaigrette; light mayonnaise; 4 slices of brown buttered; mug of tea. Scoffed all in my red apron. “If I had a camera?” Rosanna remarked derisively as she passed me tucking in at the table in the living room. Watered plants. Dead-headed violets, red daisies, and a small compact plant sprouting white flowers. Scalped the latter using the gold Toledo scissors I purchased and carried home from Madrid years ago. Used the small green watering can I bought in Boyd’s yesterday to dampen the Alyssum seedlings. Worked a treat. Got the tip of using the rosette upside down from a picture in Living Lawns. Cleaned out and lit the fire in the White Elephant Lounge after 21.00. Earlier sent out by e-mail notice of the IMPERO meeting on 12 June in The Strand. Error in the agenda I discovered to my chagrin later. Date of the ENUSP/MHE conference wrong. 2010 instead of 2011. Listened to the debate 22.00 to 23.00 on RTE 1 Radio. Politics. 2^nd bailout? Corn flakes, sliced banana, milk; for breakfast. Coffee, banana sandwich; for tea. Malt wheat, milk, sliced banana; for supper. 23.55 (note of time in my reporter’s notebook). Going to put on pyjamas and wash 5 ½ remaining teeth and brush my dentures. Did all that and got to bed. My energy much better today than yesterday? I just wanted to tell my journal that I sent a commentary to Mary Nettle yesterday on the terminology, “people with psycho-social problems.” Used extensively in Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) report which is in preparation. No reply from Mary.

Twilight in Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth, Ireland