Up c 06:00. Relaxed until 08:30 having breakfasted, made my bed, washed, exercised, dressed. Navy Lahinch golf jumper, navy slacks, polka dot navy Pringle socks, Hush Puppie rubber-soled brogues, blue Pierre Cardin shirt with thin red stripe, boxers and vest. Then set out for the clinic. An injection of 25mg of Risperdal Consta in the right “side” from Pakie around 09:15. “I left it out,” he told me beforehand. “I don’t think it makes any difference?” I replied lugubriously. Filled my tank, pumped my wheels, piddled, withdrew €100 from the ATM, shopped: in Tesco Extra. No-one else in the barber’s except the blond senior Lithuanian boss when I went in. Good haircut and beard trim from her. €10. Bought a round roast, “half-price,” for around €7.50. Also 2 smoked coli fillets for €1.50 total, half price because they were on their use-by date. Teagan played and rollicked around. She seems to be in good fettle. Teagan and Aisling left for Cabra in the early afternoon. Rosanna went out in the late evening to meet Niamh McBrearty. I bought a shorthand notebook in the shop for €1.20. Tom McCrystal friendly and the assistant helpful with my change. Forgot to buy a bulb inTesco for the bathroom off the White Elephant Lounge. The light gone in the fridge as well. Justin Thomas won the Dell Technologies by 3 from Spieth. I cooked my dinner and washed up thoroughly after including the pot I poached the fish in and the steamer I cooked the small potatoes in. Washed face in cold water and put on pyjamas. Did not light the fire nor put on the heat. Warm humid overcast weather today. Watered the flowers which are a sorry sight. 23:31. Kate’s 21st tomorrow I discovered today reading my journal for 2007. I visited Cootehall then when Kate was 11. Sent a message to Eamonn. He said he would pass on my good wishes. Niamh Crudden’s birthday today. Sent her greetings on Messenger. Received in reply news of the birth of her daughter Fiadh 3 weeks ago. Eamonn also let me know that he will be returning to Dundalk tomorrow.
·Weetabix, milk
·Corn flakes, milk
·250g of smoked coli poached in milk, steamed small potatoes, a tin of baked beans heated in a bowl in the microwave; some seedless black grapes; a single finger of KitKat
Right hip sore. Bowels inactive except for “wind.” Aisling ate some of the French bread long roll that I bought for €1 in Tesco a.m. Before she left for Dublin. Bladder trouble free. 88.7kg on Pakie’s scales this morning. Watched some of the England-v-Slovakia match. 2 – 1. Rashford scored the winner.
Robert Duffy using a cherry picker hired for the day topped some of the big green trees at the back of the house and felled most of the ivy clad silver birch which had grown to a great height over the past 47 years. Aisling returned from her break in Sligo and Clare with Teagan. A Marist small of stature with a flowing white beard and white locks celebrated 19:30 mass and finished off with Hail Queen of Heaven which the congregation joined in on with gusto. He is a slow deliberate speaker with very correct enunciation. His sermon was good but the pace of his speech and his voice pattern became boring in the end. I gave €5 “to the priest.” Received the sign of peace from Paddy O’Toole but forgot to sympathise with him on the death of his brother in Enistymon a place Aisling stayed in for the past few days. Activated my new UB Mastercard in Ballymascanlon service station after mass buying milk, bread, chocolate biscuits. Withdrew €50 from the ATM there as well. Journalled a.m. Wales defeated Ireland 10 – 16. A challenge match in preparation for the World Cup. Paul O’Connell’s last match in the Aviva. Eleanor sat in my Parker Knoll in the early afternoon and watched the tree “trimming.” I went to bed before 23:00 feeling tired and sluggish and apprehensive about golf tomorrow. I drove over to mass this evening. I forget what I ate today. Much the same as yesterday, I think, with chicken and ham instead of mackeral.
Exercise, shower. White T-shirt, black Bruhl 42” slacks, black/red/green braces, grey Rival sports socks, heavy Connolly walking boots. 3 weetabix, sliced banana, millk; for breakfast. Mowed the front lawn. Weeded around the Sweet William and trimmed the hanging shoots of the cotoneaster. Later took a few snaps with the Canon. Trimmed the currant hedge. Salmon salad, Panini bread, orange; for lunch. Rosanna drove us in my iQ in to Oaklawns. Bought McVities’ shortcake in the shop on St. Alphonsus’ Road. Saluted Paddy Donnelly as we turned the corner in to Oaklawns. He was walking in a suit on the footpath on my side of the car. Made tea and ate 3 shortcake. Rosanna quickly and carelessly mowed the grass front and back. I trimmed the hedge with the Bosch hedge cutter and used the Bosch strimmer to tidy up at the front. Rosanna played 6 in the morning and 12 in the evening; in Greenore. Text’d Aisling in Uganda. She replied. Africa wet and interesting she asserted. In a text Eamonn told me he is returning to Dundalk late tonight. Watered the boxes, baskets, trays, pots. Dead headed the purple trailing plant in the white pot hanging on the right as one enters the back door. I spent a long while at it using the golden Toledo scissors. E-mailed Erik, Gabriela, Tina. Uploaded on the Acer some photos of myself, the iQ, the Sweet William; from the Canon’s memory card. Bought a mid-sized black 4 wheeled case in the Leather shop on the way home from Oaklawns. €99 – €9 concession = €90. I paid €1 parking for 45 minutes outside Partnership Court. Lit fire c 19.30. Worked on the computers until bedtime. Soaked my dentures in Steradent. Brushed my 5 ½ remaining teeth. Read some of my journal for June before I went to sleep under my duvet with one ventilator open in my bedroom.
Exercised. No shower. Made bed. Weetabix and milk. Put on old £20 Michael Lynch black slacks with blue braces, heavy boots, black FootJoy golf socks, white Tom McNulty T-shirt, no vest, glasses. A clear indication that I intended to do some gardening. All I got done was to weed around the cotoneaster opposite the front door and transplant there in the spaces around the Sweet William plants a small tray of white Alyssum. The Sweet William has not yet fully matured. Used the edging tool to tidy the flower bed around the cotoneaster. Ate 2 full rounds of nutty bread ham-and-cheese sandwiches with a mug of tea. One sandwich with fat and the other with lean from the ham remnant I found in the oven of the cooker. Real butter. Siesta 14.00 – 16.00. Rosanna away playing 12 with the lady captain, Jayne Savage. A tin of tuna in oil, 2 sliced tomatoes, 2 buttered slices of nutty brown bread. First of all I ate a double helping of Flahavan’s Oatlets with 3 teaspoonfuls of honey. Boiled the porridge properly without any difficulty. Did not water the transplanted Alyssum waiting for the rain. It was hot this morning and I squashed 2 clegs one on either arm as I weeded and planted this morning. This evening a light shower came around 19.00. Aisling arrived from The Big Smoke soon after the shower to attend Sheila McCrystal’s (87) wake. I went down after Aisling and Rosanna at 20.30. Met Joe Carolan who complimented me on doing well at the golf. Saw Nobby coming out as I pulled my iQ in beside Tom’s black Mercedes following a signal from the bearded Kirk who works for the County Council. The battery was low in the hedge trimmer but I levelled the top and one side of the currant hedge at the side of the house. Surfed. A lot of hits on Sean’s Space yesterday. None at all today. Aisling washed and dried 2 pairs of jeans and promptly left for Dublin. She is not working on Friday the day of my parents’ anniversary mass? 23.40. Ate weetabix and milk. Washed teeth and dentures. Left the radio on sleep mode to hear the forecast and the 00.00 news. Slept the sleep of the just. Blessed myself twice with the small one-decade wooden Italian rosary standing looking at Mrs. McCrystal in frozen pose in the open coffin in the room on the left inside the front door. Pulled with some regrets a lot of small shamrock plants from the flower bed at the front door this morning. Weeds?
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. 2nd 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
Sean's Space 
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