very pleased, and that is pleasing

 Standing at the door, a young woman waves and approaches on a bicycle. She says hello and there is no recognition, just that silly feeling that she has been seen before. She gives a reminder, seeing the blank face. She had been in the same place some months ago watching a demonstration of  people pass, all beating drums and claiming wrongdoing from society and state. Remember that it had taken some effort to convince her then that a Nazi salute would be an inappropriate reaction to the demonstrators behaviour, even when meant derisively or ironically. In Germany such gestures are always taken seriously. Talk to her , observe that these Monday demonstrations seem to have died down and that this is good. Wish each other a happy new year. 

The postman arrives, he has one small package. It is the little booklet of photographs from that Christmas Day party.

Later, show the photographs at the gallery and at the Saturday meeting in the Café. The radio reporter who was the host of the party receives his copy.

He is very pleased, and that is pleasing.

Wish everybody a happy new Year

old fashioned way

 For the first time in many years a camera with no electronic circuitry, just a glass lens, a mechanical stop, a clockwork shutter and a focussing system using a mirror and a ground glass screen. When everything is set up right a latent picture forms on the suspension of chemicals in gelatine. Later on, the tiny alterations to these chemicals will cause an image to form made of silver crystals which will be all that remains after the remainders of the chemicals have been washed away.

No batteries, no circuitry, no binary logic is in place, just the strength of a latent image awaiting amplification in a chemical bath.

Take pictures of the church, the market stalls and the river. And then the twelve pictures are gone. There is no more film on this reel. Take the film to a pharmacy, they have a service that will develop the films, let us see if the results are any good. It will take at least a week. And then it will be clear whether this fifty-five year old camera works or not. It would be nice to save the costs of further repairs.

It is pleasant to take pictures in this old fashioned way again.

midnight plus one

 The cold has gone in a long sleep. a sleep that finished twelve hours ago at midday. Go for a short walk and a quick feed and a cup of coffee.

An old lady barely able to walk comes into the café.

Offer to get her the things she wants to buy so that she does not have to stand in the self service queue with her rolling stand.

Get her the  cup of coffee and ask her for the money.

she does not want to pay for it.

Too bad, wish her luck

it is midnight now

car clean

 It is strange to live in a town for ten years and still manage to lose your way. Not badly, but just taking wrong turns out of habit. The car is dirty, it should be washed. The mechanics had left a few marks, but nothing that would not wash away. Also, the trees that it had been parked under had deposited their leaves and detritus all over it.

The first thought is to take it to an automatic car wash at a filling station. Think about this on the way there, and then consider that the hand wash centre with the pressure hoses would be both more suitable, and cheaper as well.

At the big junction at the end of town take the road to Regensburg and  continue slowly up that way, passing the junctions one by one and then passing one too many.

Lost again, take the next big junction and go left, and then left again, returning almost to the middle of town.

Another right, and then another and then a left and the self service car wash is right there . Park the car in a free bay and go to the change machine for change and tokens called Jetons. Following the instructions on the machinery spray down the car, then brush it and then use the pressure hose to remove the grubby dirt of the last months. Use the supplied brush to dislodge a few marks, and then finish the spraying. There is some kind of hot wax on offer, but - no idea.

The car is cleaner now, and return it to the parking places opposite to the police.

This is the first time for this particular self service with a car. The last time it had been a rented trailer.

Cars are a lot of work, and cost a great deal of time.

him having gone his own way.

 In the morning there is clear sight that the day is going nowhere. Stroke the cat and she rolls over onto her back. Pat her on the stomach, the immediate reaction is her attempt to eviscerate the hand on her tummy. Cats are like that, it is probably some inbuilt reflex over which they have no control.

Resolve that something must be done, something, anything constructive or even not. But what?

Sort the clothing make the bed, take down the used crockery to the dishwasher. Put on the coat and make sure that there is a cloth bag in the camera bag. A cloth bag for the shopping. Go out to the car which was left parked in the general parking spots before the Christmas and settle into it. Pleasantly enough, the engine starts smoothly, the whole machine runs well. The recent journey to Cologne and back did the car good, so it would seem. All the repairs seem well run in, even if that is a ridiculous statement.

Do the shopping, buy bread and eggs, salt and vinegar. Allow a cheap bar of chocolate and two tins of joghurt, not forgetting a package of pre-sliced cheese. Also, the various materials needed for the dishwasher, the water softening salt and the detergent. Take all that to the bakery, and sit down to have a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

This is luxury.

The coffee and the sandwich is the luxury, not the shopping.

Take it all home, the wife is up, and is happily sulking in the sitting room, a silent criticism of her husband for him having gone his own way.

slippery day

 This day slipped by.

There were the notes written for yesterday, this morning.

Then the work done on the pictures taken at the party

And the day is gone 

Left the house in the evening, the pub is badly crowded, the people seem to have gone thirsty over Christmas. Take one drink there and go for a walk, notic that most of the other places are closed. Take the circuit around the town, and visit the pizza place for a plate of spaghetti and oil and garlic. It is delicious, it really burns in the mouth. This place is slowly doing better, spend some time chatting with the owner.

And then return to the crowded pub for another glass of beer.

And then go home, and prepare for bed.

A slippery day has slipped its slimy way.

today

for Christmas Day, from the day after

 slow starting day with that which has become the usual strart in the morning. From the bed there was the sound of the thermostat in the electric heater clicking to try to maintain the temperature of fourteen degrees celsius in the bedroom.

The cat in the kitchen complain, cat levity for human slowness, then rubbing the bag against the legs of the man making breakfast, she fighting for attention and trying to convince that huge member of her family of her imminent starvation. Are pets aware that human beings are actually a different species?

The day accelerates wildly as the son gets ready to travel across Munich to visit his grandparents and to join his mother who is already there.

After he has gone on his way leave the house.

There is a Christmas dinner and a party at well known radio reporters residence. No time was mentioned, so assumed that two o'clock would be right.

It was not, it was too early for the host was standing around in his underwear cooking the geese in a tiny oven. Help him preparing his things, sweep up the kitchen, hold the pan as the birds are being turned. Arrange the knives and forks about the plates. The other guests start to arrive just as the host is drying his hair after showering, still in his underpants and singlet. Those arriving are good friends of his and they laugh at his attire, they send him off to get dressed.

It is a fine party, and by the time it was over it was midnight.

So this daily account is late

Maybe not too late for all of you

happy christmas

christmas eve

 It is the twenty fourth of December, and the only other beings encountered at this time are the cat and the neighbour. The cat al purring and head rubbing wanting food and then wanting nothing and the neighbour in his pale blue dressing gown out on the balcony smoking his first cigarette. The neighbour, realising that he had been seen, stubbed out his cigarette and retired.

And having enjoyed breakfast between these two events, settle down to see what the rest of Christmas eve will bring.

Two men have spent the night in a van parked in the street outside the window. They are both stiffly walking around their vehicle, and are trying to stop some machine making a regular beeping noise. It is all mysterious but uninteresting.

Thoughts of death and bereavement will not go away after the events of the previous days, and the awareness that the self will come to an end sticks in the mind too.

same as ever

 In Landshut, in the morning, make the breakfast, all is normal and sane. 

Unpack the two bags from the short journey to  Cologne, sort the clothes into clean dirty and unknown, pack the few clean things away and place the remainder in the plastic bin for the wash. 

Make a telephone call to the officials in the traffic control office of the town. As an exceptional dispensation it is possible to collect a parking pass for the coming year before they close completely for Christmas. The office is already unofficially closed. They are all celebrating Christmas.

Bring the fresh green ticket to the car, and then return home and start to sort the papers. Pay the dentists bill.

Then go down to the son with the bag that the brother had given him for Christmas. The son is involved with his machines, his computers, and can barely be drawn. But then he walks through his crowded room and collects the small paper bag with the message from his uncle.

A short walk through town and a visit to a café.

Ok.

The woman is unfriendly, she is new here. The coffee is the same as ever.

Ludwig, on the 23 December for the 22 of December

 The night was so bad, a blocked nose stopped the peace of sleep, the brother had to leave the room to avoid the choking noises and the heavy breathing.

In the morning much of the nasal trouble has gone.

Coffee and chat with the brother in the morning  was a fine thing. 

And a walk through the Ludwig museum in Cologne to admire the enormously beautiful collection of art from the last centuries. It is a beautiful collection in a fantastic building, the building in itself  a work of  art.

A further fruitless search for shoes in the lively crowds of late christmas shoppers around the vast body and towers of Cologne cathedral. The cathedral for once surrounded only by a minimal showing of scaffolding.

In the late afternoon drive out of Colognee, drive home, drive well into the night,

There is so much speeding traffic, driving unsteadily, speeding and then slowing, that it is hard to find peace in the work of steering the car during this journey.

patriarch, written for December 21 on December 23

 The journey was long and tiring, expensive coffee on a the motorway up repairing the ageing brain for  the remainder of the journey. The motorway stop was just like a reminder of the seventies with various meaty dishes in a display awaiting their final blast in the microwave oven before their being served. Arrival in Cologne and a mishap in a parking garage involving another car and a damage to the other's immaculate paintwork. By the time the police had finished with the case, the first part of the funeral in the church was nearly over. It was still possible to sign the condolence book and to hear the final hymn in the grand old church. Hug many of the closer relatives of the deceased from the standpoint of only being a nephew in the face of all this first order prominence, a family from the upper crust of the city. Here are all the older ladies and gents, all known from the sandpit. And the younger woman who was the uncle's friend and accompanied him intimately for the last ten years of his life.

Return to the car and take the short drive to the cemetery, pausing on the way to buy new shoes for the brother, to replace the dark shoes too small for him. But the shop that was found only stocked small sizes, so there was no success here.

The evening party was an event of some beauty, with all the now aged relatives witnessing the departure of the patriarch.

funeral journey

 The head is stuffed with a cold, there is no wish to get up. So return to the warm covers and sleep until it is past eight in the morning. Then downstairs to make the standard breakfast, enough to carry on for the day. The coffee is delicious, despite the cold. Upstairs again, there is a temptation to return to the sheets, but that will not do. 

But then lie down for another two hours anyway, then the cold is better.

The tailor from Kurdistan in the shopping centre has made the trousers smaller, now they seem to fit. Wander around the shops and buy tissues in a drug store. Later on take a walk to another shop and buy a loaf of bread and some toothpicks. Buy an umbrella too, it will rain tomorrow in Cologne. The cold returns again go back to the little upstairs room in the big house and lie down on the bed, cover up and sleep for a few hours.

All of this is not good, for tomorrow is the day of the uncles funeral, the one in Cologne. He died on the eighth of December, and he will be buried tomorrow. The son will not come to the funeral, that is sad. But then, he had never met the uncle.

And now he never will.

But never mind the cold, a few snivels at the funeral will probably be  in order. The journey to Cologne will start in a few hours, at four in the morning.

It is near midnight now, and it is time to get more rest.

seven Euro return

 There is a telepone call at half past seven in the morning. Go into the freezing room where the telephone is kept and pick up the ringing apparatus It is the management of the plumbers firm, she says that the plumbers will be at the house this morning to finish off repairing the heating unit for the house.  It is so cold in the room that the teeth begin to chatter and the feet are sore by the time the telephone call is finished. Return to the other room , the small heated one, and get dressed in day clothes, put on a fresh shirt.

Today is the day of the dentist's appointment. Downstairs, tell the wife that the plumbers are to be expected, and leave the building. It is a short walk to the dentist's practice and on the way meet the accountants assistant walking fast in the opposite direction. She passes so quickly that the sound of the "good morning" almost lowers due to the Doppler effect. On cold mornings people are in a hurry.

The young dentist is nervous, she is diminutive and dark haired. She is very earnest in her work, but due to the nervousness she drops an item into the patient's throat. Feel how she and her assistant retrieve the item with a tweezers. Luckily, it does not go down far enough to activate the swallowing reflex. Later on during the root canal job the suction pipe is dropped on the floor, the assistant picks it up, hear the sound of the tube being wiped clean again.

She is happy to be finished with the work and it all went with neither pain nor problems.

Upon reaching the street, realise that there is still an absorbent pad behind the lips and in front of the teeth. This is funny, it has never happened before. Remove the cylindrical pad and drop it into a drain.

Then it is time to attend to the car battery.

The mechanic spends half an hour removing the screw that has become stuck in the plastic.

His boss charges thirty five Euros for the service.

Return the old battery to the place it was bought in and receive seven Euros deposit. At least that visit was worthwhile.

A Sunday of nothingness

Cold today, cold and a general unwell feeling as if nothing is worthwhile at all. Leave the house for a walk through the town, but there is nothing happening. People are wandering around, everything looks cold and chilly. The regular cafe is closed, go to the bakery that is open and have a cup of coffee and a roll with a sliced hard boiled egg.

That was five Euros, and it was lucky that there was a seat at a small table free.

Go to the car to see if it is standing up to the colder weather. The battery has lost almost all of it's power, the machine can barely start. But it does, and let it run for a while. Examine the small holder for the mobile 'phone, and try to stick it  to the dashboard.

Spend the rest of the day at home, reading a novel.

A Sunday of nothingness

waste of time repairing the car

 Stop in front of the dead car, the car with the dead battery, then open the passenger door and pull the lever to raise the hood. Take a picture of the battery, just as a reference for the parts shop. Then close the car again and start walking. There are few people on the streets yet, the Christmas shopping has not started yet. It is freezing, at least minus four degrees centigrade. Continue walking down the market street and cross the river. The snow is mushy because of all the salt on it, but it still manages to be slippery in places.

Cross the overflow river and then walk through some dreary suburbs, houses packed close upon each other, all the different styles that the owners had imagined side by sided. Walk along the main road, the traffic is picking up. Germans are all going Christmas shopping.

The car shop has batteries and ice scrapers, but no jumper leads.

Take a furthere walk to a discount store that sells everything from canned fish to garden excavators and any amount of useless home electrical gadgets. And, of course, Christmas trees. Find the aisle devoted to car and bicycle products, and pick up a set of jumper leads in a handsome plastic case. Search for ice scrapers, but there are none to be found. They are sold out.

Return to the first place and buy a battery and an ice scraper. Take a bus back to the centre of town, the car battery is very heavy. It is worthwhile waiting fifteen minutes for the bus. Prepare the coins necessary to pay for the journey, two Euros and twenty cents.

The bus arrives, and the bus driver turns down the offer of payment. He says that all transport is free today.

Later, with the help of the new battery and the jump leads, start the car. Let the engine run and remove the ice from the windows. Allow the car to warm up sufficiently for all the doors to thaw. Repack the cables in their handsome carrier bag, and put the new battery into the passenger compartment of the car. It will be necessary to find a place to install it on Monday.

On Monday, after the dentist has done her work.

parkinson and car rust.

At midday in the butcher's shop, there is a an old lady at the counter in the queue, one ahead. She is shaking so badly, that can only be Parkinson's disease, her motor actions are all shot to hell. She drops her purse pick it up and return it to here, she has difficulties counting change. But in the end it works out, and she has counted exactly. She is bent and shaking, and the whole line of people wait silently and patiently for her to finish counting her money and packing her things. Such disease must be terrible for those in its grip, a grip that will never relent for them. The shop assistant says that everything is fine, Rome was not built in a day.

The battery on the car is flat, there is no power at all.

Resolve to remove the battery and take it to the repair shop, buy a new one and install it.

This does not work because although the two screws for the battery contacts work fine and can be removed easily, the screw holding in the battery itself has corroded solid and cannot be loosened hoat all. 

And trying everything just wastes time, the necessary tools are not available, the temperatures are cold and there is an icy wind with falling snow.

So give up, after listening to the smart phone repeat a melody and repeat a notification that the automobile club will reply as soon as possible. The automobile club is overloaded because of the cold and icy weather.

Return the tools back home, and go to the shops.

Nothing has changed here in the last two weeks, and shop for the things for tomorrow's breakfast.

All is sad and hopeless this Christmas.

There are so many errands to be arranged.

And the funeral of the dear uncle is on Wednesday next in Cologne..

entitled

 A pleasant chat to the brother and a short trip to Dublin Airport, despite the traffic, it was short. The flight leaves from Terminal two not Terminal one, but never mind, it is no insurmountable distance. The machines in Terminal one will not accept Lnufthansa luggage. 

Lufthansa do their luggage manually in Terminal tow.

Just across the road.

An endless queue in Front of the Lufthansa counter, long and heavily loaded. There are people flying to Africa with eight bags in their luggage.

The woman is grateful for the one bag only, all the necessary documents available and the suitable mutual language skills. Pass all the security checks, nobody wants to look at the sealed cameras unlike the German checks two weeks ago. Well, so be it.

Pass the shops, and find the gate.

The aircraft is late.

Wait, listen to Verdi's Requiem on the 'phone, look at all the people standing impatiently in front of the notice warning that the aircraft will be in at eleven at the earliest. Enjoy the music, enjoy observing the other people. Finally, they start calling up the passengers at a quarter past eleven. 

Touchdown in Munich late, and everyone jumps out of their seat and starts manhandling their baggage from the overhead bins into the overcrowded narrow aisle between the seats.

A man darts out from his seat and forces himself in front of this passenger, claiming entitlement. He tells others to mind their manners

There is no asshole greater than an Irishman who feels entitled.

the statue

 The museum is beautiful and quiet, walk through the halls, and be greeted by the women at the desk. The small piece is carefully contained in a carton specially made for it. The women would like to see it, just out of curiosity's sake. The one has a scissors, carefully open the tapes holding it shut.

The women are delighted, the small statue is an absolute beauty in their eyes, so small and thin and delicate.

It is a delight when even those at the door have a joy in the content of the museum

bus and train

 Train and bus, train into Dublin from Bray, there are more stations on the route than one would have imagined, all the nicer seaside places of Dublin and then into Pearse street station. Leave the train, take the tunnel under the rails to go to the lavatory, and then out onto the old street.

Walking past Trinity college think of all the times spent there, the early twenties and the lat teens. Walk past the end of Grafton street with its amplified buskers playing their songs for the tourists. It is chilly, the temperature is around zero degrees.

A bus driver explains that the bus will be at the castle, but it is not. The stop is at Westmoreland street. 

Wait for the bus, and then there is the long journey through the streets of  the city, rushing past the hundreds of shops and pubs and massage parlours and nail studios. The bus goes over the Portobello bridge and then the residential areas of Rathmines. At the traffic lights in Rathmines village wait, and then off through all the residences to the traffic lights in Rathgar, turn left there and then on to Bushy park road, head for Rathfarnham  and then tiredness sets in.

And the bus goes all over the place, after Ballyboden it follows it's route to Knocklyon and then down the road of the same name to finally make tracks up towards Woodtown, turning off Stocking Lane at Stocking Avenue.

Get off the bus and walk on up to Woodtown Park.

And then the journey is done.

lens cap

 Ask the young woman serving at Costas Coffee shop in the Vevay road whether a lens cap was handed in last night. There was not they were terribly sorry. The lens cap has been missing, this caused distress. It is not to be found in the bag, It is not in the pockets of the jacket, neither in the trouser pockets. Also it did not fall out into the car seat as a short inspection showed.

Spend the rest of the early afternoon walking up and down the seafront, take pictures of signposts and seagulls, talk to the friend, the man who used to be teacher of photography, an artist.

In the evening take a coffe in the Mermaid Bar in Bray. 

There is a pen in the camera bag, reach in to take it out. The hand comes out with a lens cap. This is the missing one.

The day is saved.

stirred not shaken

 The host in Enniskerry has gone to the shops to get eggs, insisting on walking through the snow despite his fear of the slippery ice. Inside, at the table, try to write this blog. There are sudden bird noises from the telephone left on the kitchen table. birdsong that does not stop.

Remembering the actions  of a young woman from Ghana some years back go over to the 'phone and shake the shiny little machine. Nothing happens. Remembering the girl again, make an irritated face and shake the 'phone again, harder this time.  The bird song ceases, and winter is back.

Decide that this may have been as a reminder to operate the french press on the coffee maker. Take the silver coffee maker and place it in the stainless steel sink and press carefully. This was not careful enough, and some of the coffee squirts up under the lid to flow down the sink's plughole. Then slowly, with less than the weight of the hand, let the plunger sink until it will sink no more. Place the coffee maker on the counter to wait for the return of the host and his wife.

The host returns, he is now coughing loudly and seems unwell. The party last night is blamed, and the gin and tonic so happily drunk then is at fault too.  He says that all is in order and starts to make breakfast for his son, his guest and himself. These are the original poached eggs on toast with a slice of bacon.

Then the bird song starts again, twittering and squawking and is then competently and proficiently silenced. 

Stirred, not shaken

 

Left hand drivers

The left and the right side and crossing the road here in this country of left hand side of the road driving vehicles is dangerous for those meanwhile accustomed to drivers using the right hand side of the road. Looking in the wrong direction and stepping into the path of an oncoming vehicle could easily be fatal. 

The busdriver gives an old fashioned look at the unsteady old pedestrian.

The yellow ochre double decker piece of public transport stops, board, sit. A few stops on the bus stops, open the doors and get out. Look right and step into the road, nearly dead again.

Good morning Enniskerry

 There is a clicking noise, a strange rhthym, then a steady thumping noise, not in time with the clicking. It is not music.

Then one of the dogs barks, it is the one wagging its tail while on the sofa, thumping said appendage against a leather covered cushion. The clicking noise increases in frequency as the other dog changes direction and speed,

It is early morning in a friends house in Enniskerry, and one of the dogs jumps up on to the sofa now serving as a bed and commences to lick the barely woken face. Hide under the bedclothes, this is a fast escape. Then the rubbery nose finds an opening.

Sit up.

Then there is the clicking sound of the dog nails on the floorboards as the other dog approaches.

Good morning Enniskerry

now he has gone too.

 clean up the house wash the dishes, put the bed into the plastic bag. Clean up the cottage in Galway, use that modern Dyson vacuum cleaner, it nearly sucks up the floor along with the dust. The last day in Galway. stand at the gate and wait.

Wait for the black car to pass with the brother and his wife, then close the gate, lifting it a bit so that the bolt will fit into the hole in the pose. Take the bit of blue rope and make a neat bow to tie the gate up, it is unclear as to why thete is a latch and a rope, never mind.

Get into the back of the car, the dog is not pleased, it would like the whole seat. But that is the way of things, the  dog is adjusted after a while and not discontent.

It is a one and a half hour journey to Galway town, the traffic is heavy, and a two hour journey down the motorway to Dublin.

In Dublin, the bad news, this being that the uncle has died. He was the favourite and the only real uncle.

And now he has gone too.

the bay be blue

 A clear day and a beautiful view out over the bay, the water is dead still and smooth like a mirror. The distant mountains reflect brown and the sky's blue colours the remainder of the surface. It is mercurial in two ways, for a short while later there is a regular stippling of wavelets over the surface. Now the water is all blue and grey. There are reefs of dark green seaweed showing up everywhere because of the low tide.

That is the view this morning.

There is to be a walk now.

Maybe more later, but probably and more likely tomorrow.

lobster and crab

 Say good morning to the brother, he is collating all the gear that he needs for fishing. He goes fishing with a professional fisherman who works an area of Clew bay, collecting shrimp and scampi and shellfish. He has a yellow oilskin and boots and a bright red lifejacket.

Coffee and porridge are good for the morning, and they will last all day.

Later, the brother is processing the catch, and there is a tiny lobster and  minute crab in a glass that he brings over to the table. They are too small to be worthwhile for human consumption. They are both alive. 

Take a short walk along an old road down to a tiny disused harbour, for there is no need for them to die. At the edge of the clear water tip them both into the sea, watch the little crab float to the bottom slowly and the young lobster moves off quickly to hide in a nearby clump of seaweed.

Walk back up to the house with the empty glass.

This was the good deed for the day, the lobster and the crab will never understand it

Delicious with coffee and cream.

 Watch the brother making Apfelstrudel, a speciality of his. Peel the apples and slice them into thin slices, he makes the dough. When the dough is done and the breadcrumbs are roasted the dough has stayed long enough in its oily bath to be thin and flexible.

He pulls the doug out over a cloth, it is like rubber or like gum. After all the careful stretching over the cloth it is thin and translucen, showing every ridge and bump in the cloth. The cut apples are spread out upon the thin stretched dough, and then another layer of breadcrumbs,

Then the delicate skin of pastry is wrapped around the mass of apples and crumbs by raising  the cloth and rolling the whole thing into an intestine-like sausage, 

With the greatest of care the whole ensemble is sealed with melted butter and placed onto the metal baking tray.

And then it is placed into the oven.

Apfeslstrudel.

Delicious with coffee and cream.

accident

 Porridge with joghurt laced with maple syrup. A strange mixture which tastes very good, accompanied by a cup of black coffee makes up todays breakfast. Today is the day planned for Lettermore, a half a days journey to the other side of the island of Ireland

After helping to collect all the supplies to stock the cottage with firewood, sit in the back of the car with the dog on the slow cruise through the rainy countryside. The old dog places its head on the warm human thigh and falls asleep.The journey is slow through heavy sunday traffic, there has been an accident on the road, and it takes quite a long time to clear it.

holiday.

 It seems unfair that despite the room the view and the comfortable bed that the night is sleepless and uncomfortable. There is the sound of the dog wandering about the flat at night. She is a quiet, lovable old lurcher, a long grey hound with shaggy hair. Disturb her on a nightly visit to the bathroom.

In the light of the morning hear the brother wandering around the flat making breakfast. Get up. and wait in front of the bathroom for him to come out wish him good morning. He is going to go shopping for groceries with his wife. They are going to leave the dog at home today, the dog is getting old and cannot cope with the excitement any more.

It is calm and restful here,

And apart from the noise of the defective computer fan in the corner of the room. there is no sound

The brother wants to go paragliding this afternoon.

And tomorrow there will be a journey to the west of the island.

old and shoddy

 Porridge with maple syrup, this is not the way the Scots enjoy theirs, but it tastes good anyway. The brother was up early today, and he left some porridge to be reheated. Porridge with yoghurt and maple syrup, a filling breakfast, accompanied by a cup of coffee.And then proceed to the plant nursery, and help out wheeling potted trees from Holland around the garden from the point where they had been unloaded from the trailer  to their place of storage in the securely walled garden.

A man visits the garden centre, and introduces and commences to talk. Nobody really wants to know what he is saying, but he tells it all to everybody anyway. He goes on and on,  nothing constructive, just anecdotes and his history and a general waste of time. He is friendly enough so that nobody takes a gag to silence him with. 

It is very trying indeed.

Later, visit one of the places in Dublin that are well known from childhood. It has changed, the things that have survived and were old then are still old and those buildings that were new then are old and shoddy now. There are schoolchildren everywhere from the nearby school, it is strange.

visitor from Germany

 A big room with a high cieling and a white bed. Look over the duvet at a large painting on the wall. It is nice here, in the brother's flat in Dublin. Go to the window and look out over the city and the bay, there is Poolbeg, there is Howth, and the end of the Liffey as it pours into Dublin bay.

A good view, one that few people who live in the city can enjoy.

The brother is up early, he has made his porridge and has taken his dog for a short walk. It is an old dog now, and has all the ailments of age. One of the eyes has a cataract. Still, it wags its tail in recognition of the visitor from Germany.