Sean's Space

Thursday 18 June 2009

Tom Daly’s letter arrived including a £25 cheque for IMPERO which I later lodged with Pat Greene in Ulster Bank. I withdrew €50 from the IMPERO account to pay for expenses associated with last Saturday’s meeting. Dressed as yesterday except for tan John Evan Chelsea boots and navy cardy. Bought 2 litres of milk, €1.49; 2 boxes of firelighters, 2 x €1.35; 6 baguettes, €2; in Tesco Long Walk Shopping Centre. Bought 4 large oranges in the vegetable shop in LWSC for €2. Later bought ham in Conlon’s Food Hall. "Do you want boiled ham or baked ham? The baked was done with honey and cloves," the young assistant discussed my options with me. "I’ll take the baked ham," I concluded, "six slices." It cost a little over €5 which I thought was a cheaper rate than ham costs in McCrystal’s. The first thing I bought in LWSC was a cream hot-water bottle for Rosanna – in Leavy’s chemist. It cost a little over €6 and was smaller than a cheaper blue one. "I’ll probably get down-the-glen when I go home!" I warned the petite assistant. "You can change it if it is not suitable," she said handing me my receipt. "That’s a good bargain," I concluded. Fire lit all day. Blow downs go fluirseach. Fidelis Rice in the White Elephant Lounge talking to Rosanna on one occasion when I came "up" out of the sittingroom. I said "Hello" but did not tarry and returned to the sittingroom and got on with my business. Gerard Crawley serviced Rosanna’s 2004 Hyundai Accent replacing a broken plug lead and two bulbs – the back brake light on the right and the front parking light on the right. "Someone told me the bulb was not working," Rosanna volunteered to Gerard when he returned with her car, "But I forgot about it." €130. I found my small golf pencil in a plastic bag in the boot of my Yaris. I missed it since yesterday evening but tracked it down only today. I taxed on-line my 2007 Black Toyota Yaris Strata (998 cc) for a year for €172 and was agreeably surprised to get the tax disc in the post first thing tomorrow morning. I ate a "ham-roll" for my lunch made from a sliced baguette well buttered with two slices of baked ham inserted and a mug of tea. I had the same again in the evening and I think I also ate an orange. I think I ate corn flakes sliced banana and milk for my breakfast and I think I ate muesli and milk later in the evening. Unusually I did all my eating in the livingroom – maybe because the chimney was smoking in the White Elephant Lounge? I exercised this morning fully but only swung my arms and revolved my wrists at bedtime at 00.00. However I washed my six remaining teeth and flossed. Brushed my dentures which, again, have become a little sore on the back top right. Rang Dessie and then the COC about the "free" breakfast on 1 July 2009. Catherine told me Brenda or Fiona would ring me tomorrow. I was agreeably surprised when Brenda rang me on my mobile as I was getting up out of bed and going to the toilet tomorrow morning. "You can go if you want to." I gave her two names – my own and "Archbishop Hynes." Rosanna gave me two €5 notes going to Town this morning. I brought her home no change. I think she liked the hot-water bottle.

Friday 6 March 2009

Slept fairly well last night but not for long.  Dressed as yesterday.  Rosanna gave me an early lunch of baked beans and three small beefburgers and some microwaved Roosters with butter.  Left the house at 4.00 p.m.  Rain and mist on the drive to Dublin.  Windscreen wipers squeaking a little?  Reached The National Concert Hall at 6.00 p.m. having walked from Hume Street where I parked on the same side near the front door of the old cancer hospital.  Text from Aisling "doin somehtin" so she could not join me for coffee as I requested in an earlier text.  Sean Og had rung me before I left the house and he pleaded that he was going out for a pint with the people in his office after work – so he could not meet me either.  Anyway I went in to The Terrace Cafe and had salmon and baked winter vegetables and boiled new potatoes with a little lemon oil.  Very tasty and not too "filling."  I drank a pot of tea and a glass of iced water.  Baked Salmon fillet €21.95, Tea and a glass of water €2.75, gratuity €3.53, i.e. €28.23 total.  Teresa B, a little out of puff, arrived around 7.30 p.m. and went in to the ladies’ to comb her hair.  We sat in seats 43 and 44 on the balcony Red Side.  Conductor Arild Remmereit, Johannes Moser cello.  Haydn Symphony No 103 and Cello Concerto.  Schumann Symphony No 3 (Rhenish).  Sparse attendance.  Excellent concert throughout.  Moser gave an encore solo.  JS Bach sarabande from the first suite.  Chat with a girl from Greystones at the interval.  Walked left at St Stephen’s Green down past the end where Teresa had her car parked.  She drove me back round the green to the mouth of Hume Street.  I was worried about my Yaris but it was ok.  A homeless man with a long dark beard in a doorway nearby said something to me which I did not catch clearly.  Had paid €3 and some change at 5.45 p.m. to parking machine for a ticket.  The Yaris touched 125 kph on the way home without any sign of distress and I got in to the livingroom before 12.00 a.m.  Ate weetabix and milk, an apple, and some cold noodles.  Exchanged a few texts with Teresa B.  Washed my teeth, exercised and got to bed before 1.00 a.m.  Have passed no motion in the toilet since last Saturday?  I felt far more stressed on the way up to Dublin than on the way home.  Is it necessary to feel tension on an expedition like this (with different things to think about) or, with practice, could one do it while at the same time feeling relaxed?

Friday 26 December 2008

Rosanna and I talked in bed for an hour last night in the downstairs bedroom in Leah’s aunt’s house (Marie Doherty).  I did not get to sleep until after the wee small hours – the pillows were a bit too steep for me although the bed was comfortable.  We had breakfast of milk and weetabix – Leah gave us a bag of stuff last night including coffee and rashers.  Rosanna and I walked up to the lake from Leah’s house and I took two snaps of her there – one of them beside "her" cabin cruiser.  We walked back down as far as the bridge.  In the afternoon after another Christmas dinner I succumbed to tiredness and, on my own, retreated "round the corner" to Leah’s aunt’s house where I had a good 2 ½ hour sleep and a cup of coffee.  Returned in the dark to Leah’s house.  Later Leah, Eamonn, I, Rosanna, Evelyn, Aisling (who had arrived at 3.00 p.m.), Kate, JJ went by the light of JJ’s lamp on a pub crawl of the two pubs in Cootehall.  We met Leah’s uncle-in-law and aunts in Henry’s and Maura.  In Paddy’s I played 2 games of pool against Kate and watched her cousin the comedian Catherine Lynch on RTE2.  JJ slightly aggressive and antagonistic toward Kate when we got home?  Rosanna and I walked by the light of JJ’s lamp to "our" house and got to bed without much delay.  Rosanna tired.  My energy was good – due to my siesta?

Played 18 holes – starting at 13 at 11.00 a.m. with Alan Ratcliff.  Pulled a hired cart.  €3.  Scored approximately 90 for the round and did not lose my ball.  Shanked a bunker shot on 1 and shanked a chip on 12 – my last hole.  Annoying.  Lost my green and white umbrella on 13 and prayed to St. Anthony but it had not been handed in by evening.  Ulster girls’ team going out to practice.  They had the first tee booked until 11.30 a.m.  Alan played better than usual and won a few holes.  Rang Tom Hamill x2 in the morning and arranged for myself, Alan and his wife Briege to attend in Mount Oliver the celebration of "Passover."  I took no shower and sat in my golf clothes at the ritual between Ann Kieran and Alan Ratcliff.  Grape juice, bitter herbs, roast lamb and vegetables including potato.  About 80 attended including a party from the NW.  The ritual lasted from 7.30 p.m. until around 11.00 p.m.  I enjoyed it and got on well with Ann Kieran, I thought, although I was rather too warm in my moss green Greenore jersey and black shirt.