Sean's Space

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Dressed and made my bed.  Performed no ablutions.  Met Kevin McGeough in Green-Life driving range at 11.00 a.m.  Forgot to ring Dr Malone’s for the result of my blood test and forgot to leave an open cheque for the coalman (it turned out he did not come anyway today).  Sean Og rang on my mobile at 9.00 a.m. before I got up from bed.  Gavin is vomiting and it would not be convenient for me to stay the night there.  So I laboured all day under the apprehension that I would be too tired to make my way safely back from Dublin tonight.  Kevin and I hit 50 balls each.  €4 for 50 balls.  I had 2 cups of tea buckshee from Gavin Byrne, the assistant pro, and Kevin had coffee.  We had a chat with Frank McDonnell, Kevin’s brother-in-law, who came into the driving range shortly after us.  I returned to the toilet and passed a large solid motion.  Visited the toilet in the nick of time in City North Hotel where I had a sort of anal spasm.  I had beef curry and boiled rice (€12.20).  Worry again because I had to pick some mushroom out of the sauce and about possible consequence filled any empty space in my mind with foreboding for a few hours.  Met in the hotel Seamus McQuaid and a business associate – a young (German?) woman – and wished them a happy new year.  Tooted the horn at them as I departed the car-park.  Parked at Regency Airport Hotel.  Had another spasm in the toilet and sat in the dim bar for a while until Teresa B turned up.  She had soup and coffee, I had cheesecake dessert and coffee.  Teresa paid the bill but, later, before she left I gave her €10 which more than covered what I had eaten.  Looked at the sports pages of The Irish Times.  Paid €4 to the machine in the foyer to "redeem" my car from the car-park of Regency.  Parked in Dawson car-park  Level 1 space 6.  It was not much after 5 p.m. when I reached the National Concert Hall and extracted my ticket from the machine in the foyer.  Exchanged texts with Aisling and she rolled up around 6.00 p.m.  We sat in the foyer for a while talking about money – she has €20 000 saved, her job – she hates it, Paul’s mother – who is sinking into a coma.  Then we moved into the John Field Room where I gave Aisling a €20 note and she bought a ham and egg brown bread sandwich and tea for me and a sort of Madeira pastry for herself and tea.  < €14.  She gave me more than half of the pastry to finish.  The tea was tasty not like the usual dish-water one is used to getting away from home.  Bought a program.  €5.  Good seat on the side balcony stage right.  Was looking down face-on at the clarinet player, Michael Collins, in Mozart’s clarinet quintet.  Finghin Collins played a late? Beethoven sonata.  Wolfgang Holzmair sang 9 Schubert melodies.  The second half was Schubert’s Trout Quintet.  The concert finished at 11.00 p.m.  I thought of death and Paul’s mother at one or two points during the performances particularly at the end.  Walked from the concert hall in my woolly Greenore helmet, my Thinsulate woollen gloves, and my Le Coq Sportif jacket carrying the program.  My step was loose and fit, I felt healthier than at any time during the day, my mood was good.  Parking cost me €9.40 which I paid with my credit card.  Negotiated my way successfully out of the car-park and got home around 1.00 a.m.  Fog from Dunleer on.  Ate two small pears as well as cornflakes and milk.  Washed my teeth before I went to bed.  The house cold when I came in and dead embers in the fire.  Golfing today with Jayne Savage Rosanna liked the lie of a Cobra 7 iron she got on trial from the pro shop.

Friday 3 October 2008

Rather stressed out and restless in the later morning and went to bed for an hour but this did not really help matters.  Left Eamonn in to DkIT for 8.30 a.m.  Wrote yesterday’s journal.  Rang Sorley in The Strand.  Pringle will be there on Sunday morning at 11.00 a.m.  I suggested to Sorley that Dessie and I would like a fried breakfast then.  "No problem!" Sorley replied rather expansively.  Dressed as yesterday except that I swapped my Manchester United grey tie for a rather loud yellow one with a psychedelic pattern in brown and blue.  Rosanna drove in to Clarke Station where we met Eamonn and she gave him the charger for his laptop.  He had left it behind him this morning.  The three of us traveled in the same carriage on the 3.20 p.m. Enterprise to Connolly.  Rosanna’s "social welfare" pass meant a free ticket for me too.  Rosanna and I traveled on the Luas to the Jervis stop.  Went in to Arnott’s on Henry Street and looked at shoes.  €200 is not the dearest for a pair of Barker shoes.  Could not find Lotts Café so we continued on to IFI where we sat down for a minute and I went to the toilet.  Walked on searching for Dublin Castle.  A girl rang the doorbell of the main hall and the caretaker emerged to confirm that that was the door to come to at 7.00 p.m. for the Irish Austrian Society reception.  When we returned at 7.00 p.m. he remembered us, "You’re back again."  In the interval I had a meal of chips and mussels ("Moules frites") and Rosanna a goat’s cheese and salad starter.  She had two glasses of house red.  Aisling who joined us around 6.15 p.m. had a latté and Paul a coffee.  I had also two small bottles of Perrier water and a coffee.  The total charged to my MBNA card was ~ €53 including a tip of €5.  The waiters were very different in personality.  French.  The blonde girl who approached us first got up Rosanna’s nose.  She was getting thick and wanted to leave.  In Chez Max you get the mussels in their shells with a white liquid cream sauce.  Rosanna’s mood mellowed as the meal wore on and she was delighted when Aisling and Paul turned up.  Paul told me he is able to play a few Beethoven Sonatas on the piano.  At the reception in Dublin Castle Rosanna and I sat at the side and did not get involved.  I had an interesting conversation with Kevin Farrelly a retired engineer living in North County Dublin.  He had spent most of his career abroad in different parts of the world including in "the white man’s grave" in Africa.  His wife – a French woman in bouffant hairstyle and long coat – was doing a little circulating with friends.  I had an orange juice and Rosanna had two glasses of sparkling wine.  At the interval in the concert I went out to the reception room and sourced a glass of red for her.  Hugh Tinney and Ensemble Wien played Dvorak Piano Quintet No 2 in the first half starting at 8.00 p.m.  The piano (a new Steinway?) was heard to good effect and also the viola.  The cello opened sweetly.  In the second half Tinney took a rest and sat down in the other end of the back row where we were sitting.  He is almost as good a clapper as I am!  Brahms Hungarian Dances 1, 4, 7.  Joseph Lanner Die Mozartisten and then five pieces by various members of the Strauss family including two encores.  In the second half I listened fairly intently to the lead violin.  A 1714 Stradivarius I thought it had a bright tone with a little "cry."  My impression of the Steinway was something the same – a bright forward tone with clarity and no huskiness.  Or maybe it was the key of the music or the way it was played?  I thought Hugh Tinney got on well with Ensemble Wien.  There was an appealing passage for the piano near the end of the Dvorak – a sort of hesitant, accompanied cadenza – and Tinney got the utmost support as he milked the passage quite beautifully.  In the second half the cello player was substituted by a double-bass player and, with a very light touch, he seemed to me to dominate the ensemble – and this is not just because he was standing up.  The optics were better in the second half.  I could see each performer clearly from the extreme back left corner of St. Patrick’s Hall whereas before the interval the first violin, the second violin, Hugh Tinney and his page-turner were all in a line from my point of view.  So I could see only the first of these and had a poor view of the rest particularly Hugh Tinney.  Rosanna had a glass of sparkling wine at her foot in the first half and added to this a glass of red for the second half.  We caught a taxi to Connolly.  €10 including a €1.50 tip.  The program cost me €5.  Hugh Tinney was celebrating his 50th birthday.  He was talking to a dark haired young woman as we walked towards the stairs so I did not approach him although I was longing to do so.  I was feeling starved with the hunger on the train which left Connolly at 11.20 p.m. and after a multitude of stops reached Clarke Station around 12.35 a.m.  Rosanna drove home without incident.  The house cold.  I ate corn-flakes and milk, washed my teeth, eschewed exercise and was delighted to get to bed.  I think Rosanna stayed up a little longer than me eating sausage rolls – I had one, too, before I got ready for bed.