As we sit through these languid, warm and showery days of August 2013 realising there is work to do, putting a coat of varnish on the windows or clearing out the garage after a winter’s misuse, I wonder whether I am relaxing too much but sod it, I have had […]
Retirement
Volunteering For Pleasure.
The two main thing you have in spades in retirement is dwindling money resources and plenty of time. Dwindling money resources, what with bankers, government and markets all joining up to rob you of all your hard earned that you had put by for a rainy day and plenty of […]
From The Shannon To The Somme
Over the last week I have experienced some exhilarating highs but also some terrible bone shattering lows after helping to put on a play for the Gathering here in Boyle. I explained the play in a fair amount of detail in my posting of 30th April last under the heading […]
Anarchy Is The Only Way
I am 67 years and three months old and I have only just started to learn. The first 65 years of my life was spent in solid acceptance of everything the Church and State threw at me. I was ideal fodder for their evil ways, I was like 99% of […]
People Watching.
When I am relaxed with nothing pressing, one of my favourite pastimes is people watching. I watch them in bus queues, at railway stations, on trains, in shops, in fact anywhere there are people and I’m not busy, I’m watching. Not from any lascivious or sexual pleasure, just watching and […]
Political Priapism
It has taken me a couple of weeks to get over Dave McGarry’s death and judging by the amount of e-mails and comments received, I would guess his death has disturbed a great number of people and him a Catholic priest whose stock as a group of people has been […]
A Miracle In Dublin
Yesterday was a day to remember, we were off early to Dublin and caught the 6.17am train, fearing with the November budget being announced that afternoon, it was probably our last free travel trip under the old scheme. Still we, that is my first and long enduring wife, Helen, who […]
The Future And What It Holds.
Last Thursday was my youngest son’s 19th birthday and as he was painting Cork red, I thought I would celebrate it by going to Dublin, to a book launch in Hodges and Figgis’s commendable book store on Dawson Street. The book Dark Times, Decent Men by Neil Richardson is the […]
Empty Nesters.
After nearly 40 years of marriage, 39 years and six months to be precise, the last bird has flown the nest. They have been flying the nest gradually for the last 22 years and I have never given it much of a thought as each one took wing, but the […]
Time Flies
Doesn’t time fly? It only seems a couple of weeks ago when I was 40 and running around Manchester, at the height of my powers, worried about nothing and scared of no-one. Happily married with at that time four children and starting to realize that there was still a long […]