Wednesday 27 October 2009

Up soon after 7.00. Ate weetabix and milk and gave JJ a breakfast the same as mine. He drew and played in the White Elephant Lounge until the rest got up. I went back to bed for an hour or two. Got up before 10.00, made my bed, washed, dressed. Black shirt, black 44" slacks, black Calvin Klein socks, turquoise 3 Irish Open sleeveless pullover, black patent Clarks. Packed for golf. Leah, Kate and JJ went to Town. Rosanna went to golf. She scored 20 points for 12 holes playing in the Winter League. Alan Ratcliffe and I starting at 13.15 played the back 6, then 1, 2, 11, 12. He scored 60 i.e. 48 nett. I finished 4, 7, 6, 6 and scored 52 i.e. 43 nett. We let Shane Leathem and his friend through on 14/15. Alan bought coffee. I sweated even though I took off my cap and my sleeveless pullover. After Alan left I went out to the car for my bag and came back in and took a shower and changed my clothes before I set out for home. Put on clean underclothes, grey Calvin Klein socks, navy 42" golf slacks, Calvin Klein T-shirt, Regatta fleece. Talked to Eric Hynes as I left the locker-room. Called on Dessie. Some of the English bishops were with him yesterday. Rosanna gave me a dinner of boiled ham, white sauce, a large microwaved potato. I also ate two small microwaved Irish potatoes with salt and lots of real butter. Leah, Kate and JJ went in to Dundalk to pick up Eamonn from DkIT around 18.00. They were all to stay in No 13 Oaklawns for the night. Rosanna went to bed early: I spent the evening in the sittingroom. Paid my MBNA bill €581.36 on-line. Booked a ticket for Frederica Von Stade on November 12th in NCH. €54 concession. Rang Aisling before I went to golf asking her to meet me at 17.00 on Friday in Og’s with my cameras. Although it was an exceedingly mild day the heat was on in the morning and also later in the day. Tiring? Text from Kevin McGeough "28 every day" in the Canaries. Replied. Leah left Eamonn in to DkIT this morning. Carried out a virus check on my computer. Washed my teeth and exercised before bed. Grass very green on the golf course.

Saturday 3 October 2009

Dessie called for me at 8.30 and we were in time for morning prayer at the RE Congress in The Fairways. It involved a lot of singing. Peter McVerry SJ lectured a Jeremiad on economics. Anti-Capital? Round table at lunch on the connection between parish and RE in the school. Tall dark-haired woman from Cork with a happy face facilitated. There was a woman from Ballinhassig in the group at our table. She knew who I was talking about when I mentioned Liam P Deasy. I consumed soup and sandwiches and drank coffee and a glass of red for which I paid all the change in my purse ~ €5.40. Attended Tom Hamill’s workshop after lunch. Tom managed to annoy Dessie who was totally dismissive of Hamill throughout the day afterwards. Hamill had made a speech and a presentation to Cardinal Daly before lunch. The Cardinal’s 92nd birthday. Hamill headlined the year 2012 for some reason but his workshop from an ideological point of view was a sort of biblical rehash of Peter McVerry’s testimony. A very happy and uplifting workshop followed on classroom strategy. Faith and Food: Recipes for the RE Classroom. Given by Patricia Kieran and Catherine McNally. One tall dark and very Irish, the other the very stereotype of an English milkmaid. We spread a cloth on the floor and put out a spread. I ate delicious purple seedless grapes, nuts, cheese and drank a little grape juice. I also proclaimed the grace and read from the Acts the passage about sharing everything in common in the early church. Paddy Whyte’s brother led the song "This Is the Day the Lord Has Made." Dessie and I had a chat with Brother Whyte in the corridor later. He too was enthusiastic about the workshop. They made a Swiss roll St. Brigid’s cross, butter icing, Christmas log, chocolate icing. Small "coconut" marshmallows in paper "cups." Sweetness = Love of God. Hamill conducted the Passover meal after a 2 hour break. It was long - he was a bit ill-tempered - but the food was lovely especially the mashed potato and the lamb. I took a second helping of lamb and my system struggled to cope later in the night and morning. I drank a few ceremonial glasses of red. During the break before this meal I took off my shoes and walked the labyrinth in the sacred space talking all the while to Dessie. We overlooked the fact that there was supposed to be silence. I also wove my two threads into the hessian cloth with a big-eyed needle. On impulse I bought a crib with my credit card off the Veritas stand. It was marked €150 but the assistant accepted my bid of €130. A Christmas pressie for Lisa (& Og). Wrote too in the "Journal." I sat for the meal at the very end of the table nearest the door. Sr. Rosita opposite proved an excellent conversationalist. The waitresses were friendly and they looked well, made eye-contact and smiled quite often. The manageress said "Goodnight" to me as I exited the hotel. I read through some of the texts for tomorrow’s liturgy when the conversation flagged at the table.

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.

Friday 17 July 2009

Felt in very good fettle this morning. Watered the flowers, exercised, dressed in grey check 44" trousers, blue barred Kartel short-sleeved shirt, blue Argyle socks, tan John Evan Chelsea boots. Wrote a letter to Sinead Lally in Louth County Council and enclosed a completed form to register Greenore-Cooley Fisherman’s Association with the county forum. Filled out the Toyota questionnaire which came in the post the other day. Posted both of these items driving Aisling’s Toyota Corolla 1999 down to the shop and around the block. "I drove that car to the shop. It did not cut out," I told Gary Morgan on the phone after lunch. I had rung him in the morning. When I was taking my siesta I missed calls from Aisling and also one from the Archbishop - I had tried to contact him this morning about the mistake in Anne’s telephone number in the IMPERO and CEHG registration forms which we handed in on Wednesday night. Aisling wants to me to bring her car up to the airport because she has to pick someone up in RTE at 9.00 tomorrow and go to Cavan. I agreed. She is due to arrive from Madrid at 22.00. Rang Lisa for back-up in case I had to stay the night in Dublin. She was agreeable and Sean Og rang later. "Why don’t you make up your mind now to stay here tonight and tell us now," he suggested/instructed. "Your mother will be on her own and I may be able to catch the 23.20 train? So I don’t know," I explained. In the event I was in loads of time for the train. Aisling dropped me near Bus Aras around 22.25. I withdrew €100 from the service till in Bellurgan Service Station and got €20 of petrol at 19.55 on my way to Dublin. Paul left the keys under a smooth stone at the bottom of a lamp post inside the gate of Warrenmount Convent. That arrangement worried me all evening but when I rang Aisling at 23.10 as I sat down in the train she assured me she had been able "to get in" without any undue difficulty. "Take it easy tomorrow," I counselled. She has to use equipment tomorrow that she does not know how to use. "Aisling seems to be in very bad form," Rosanna remarked at 00.45 as she drove me home from the station. "She’s looking well, anyway," I commented. She wore a black flared dress and her shoulders were deeply tanned wheeling a smallish bag behind her when I shouted "Aisling" at her as she came round the bend in Arrivals. I ate weetabix and milk when I got home and unsatisfied went on to make a processed cheese and chutney white bread sandwich which I ate with a mug of tea. Rosanna finished off a small bottle of red. My head was not painful today - at least it was a lot better than it has been. I got the feeling on the motorway up near Drogheda the same as I used to get waiting for my Father to come home from work so that I could glide on his bike down to Mary Rose’s house. A sort of mild and happy summer elation. It cost €3 to park the Corolla at level 2 in Block C. The young official at the checkout in Connolly wrote out a €10 ticket for me. He said the return ticket which I purchased for €10 last Friday and which I had with me had "expired." I felt like writing a letter to CIE to see if they would make any kind of restitution to me. I washed my teeth and got to bed before 2.00. Aisling had a dual reason for coming home. Evelyn’s father is at death’s door, and the work she was offered yesterday for tomorrow should pay her ticket. But she has a room in Madrid booked until the end of August and she intends to go back later on for the rest of the summer. Two baked pork chops, baked parsnip, baked onion, fried/baked potato, large microwaved old potato with salt and lots of "butter," for lunch.

Sunday 5 July 2009

Up around 8.30, ate muesli and milk, watered the flowers, made my bed, washed, applied 1 Million, dressed the same as yesterday. Got a few coins off Rosanna and put €5 in the envelope for the priest. Attended 11.30 mass in Ravensdale sitting in the inside corner of the back seat in the Jenkinstown aisle. No choir. A recording of Be Still was played at communion. Second anniversary for Paula Connor. Joe Carroll in attendance. Went in to the vestry after mass and gave Fr. Padraig Murphy PP the book by Ben Barnes, Plays and Controversies. "I meant to bring you up something the last night when I was in your house," I explained. He asked me about photos of the mission for some Redemptorist publication. "I have one presentable photo!" I told him. He promised to ring me tomorrow with the e-mail address to send the photo to. A happy, mobile atmosphere in the vestry. Prepared lunch for myself - the remnants of some salad, two smallish soft apples, a piece of Wensleydale. Visited Jimmy O’Neill. Had bought for €4.95 a small container of Cadbury’s Roses in Bellurgan Service Station. "Is there a girl called Markey working in this shop?" I asked. "Carol," the young assistant replied. "Karl Marx." Jimmy was awake. "I’m all gummed up!" he remarked as he lounged in his chair. His eyes, too, were gooey. He did not know me and I think, really, he was a bit paranoid about me and was relieved when I got up to go. "He did not know me? Is he on medication or what?" I asked as I left. The young assistant (a Latvian?) withheld her opinion and gestured towards a short dark Irish charge hand. "It’s his condition," the other one said confidently, "Some days he knows people - some days he doesn’t." "He’s better than the last day I was here," I continued, "He was asleep that day and wouldn’t waken up." "If you had come a few minutes later he would be asleep today too," the short one elaborated. "The spuds!" she remarked with knowing certitude. Travelled without error to and from Ashgrove Nursing Home via the M1 and the by-pass in my black 2007 Toyota Yaris Strata. Followed some of the Wimbledon men’s final on Yahoo. Eventually retired for a long siesta - my head beginning to act up again. It turned out Federer beat Roddick 16 - 14 in the fifth set - his record 15th grand slam victory. I was pleased because I like Fed. Got up at 21.10 and ate muesli and milk and wrote up the last two days of this journal in my New York Yankees leisure-wear, black robe, Lotus slippers. Downloaded in the afternoon some of the pictures I took yesterday in Og’s in Greenore from my Fuji FinePix 9500 S onto the computer and uploaded a few pics onto Sean’s space. Rosanna went in to No 13 Oaklawns in the afternoon and did a little shopping. I ate before my siesta some of the apple-tart she brought home with her.

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.

Thursday 30 April 2009

My stars on Yahoo predicted I would win a sporting contest today. "Your opponent will underestimate your ability, etc." Not knowing what to think in a match that started at 16.50 I ran out a 4&3 winner over Peter McEneaney in the first round of the gold medal. I did not lose my ball and won all the par three holes. Most of the other holes were exchanged - we halved only one hole, the 9th. Martin McGrath dormie 2 playing Frank McKay failed to get a par on either of the last two holes and lost his match on the 20th. Frank chipped in on that hole. I walked in from the 15th and took a shower. Ate chicken goujons, chips, coleslaw, salad: profiteroles: coffee. Doreen in very pleasant mood charged me €13.90 which I paid with my prepayment card. I drank a pint of iced water before my meal. Rosanna and Mary McGoey won at home 4&2 in their Miele 4xball match v Ardglass and Greenore turned out overall winners of the tie. David Dunne exclaimed, "You just beat me to it, Sean!" as I pissed in the toilet behind Ravensdale Church after his mother’s funeral mass. I took so long and he was so short taken that he found another facility - inside somewhere? Fr. Larkin the celebrant did a solid job. The music from Catherine Elmore and Olivia Finnegan was a bit slow and maudlin. Catherine stood up at the microphone on the lectern to sing. Olivia sang some harmony (without amplification) from the organ. Jim McCartan in a fairly heavy overcoat sat conspicuously in the front seat of the side aisle where Joe Carroll, I, Rosanna, Fidelis, were situated in the back seat. Jim McCartan, 51, told me in Greenore later in the day that his more famous namesake had not been that well and had a bypass operation done recently. I parked at the graveyard at 10.40 and Rosanna walked ahead of me as I strolled with my umbrella in leisurely fashion down to St. Mary’s Church. I piddled at 10.45 and barely "lasted" until the end of mass. Well I had drunk, as is my wont, two mugs of coffee and a half litre of milk this morning. "Is it working?" I enquired from Breege Treanor when she mentioned the pen I gave her, "I forgot to check that out myself." "It is working," she reassured me. "You could do a lot of damage with that," I advised her, "Did you ever hear the saying, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’?" Tom Goslin as we walked slowly behind the hearse up to the graveyard enquired how the "young girl" who built the house beside me was getting on? I ate two boiled eggs for lunch and a few slices of brown bread and butter. Later ate the last of the Moroccan oranges I bought in Tesco the other day. As I was lining up my long putt on the Pig’s Back Brendan Halpenny, playing the 11th, shouted at me. He has arranged our 4xball match for 7.40 on Saturday. "Is that all right?" I sent at 23.00 a text to Og about it. No reply? Did my exercises before bed having washed my six remaining teeth and flossed. Rosanna and I talked a bit about golf earlier and sat on either side of the fire with the heat on. The fire was never cleaned out today at all - the first time that happened in living memory?