Sean's space

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.