THE REST
Otherwise known as Miscellaneous
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK! (Challenge #6)
New York City, USA is the place I would like to see most of all for a number of good reasons and here they are (in no particular order). I’m a shopaholic and would love to roam through the department stores and shopping thoroughfares of the Big Apple (preferably with someone else’s credit card!). I was raised on TV cop shows based in New York, like Kojak and Cagney & Lacey and now Bluebloods. So I kinda feel I already know the place! The sights to see – Lady Liberty alone would be worth the trip. The bars and the restaurants- pastrami on rye, please. The people – it’s THE melting pot of cultures. no surprise the UN is based there. The fact you can be your ‘authentic’ self there and it wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.…
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CHRISTMAS (CHALLENGE #5)
Christmas is all about tradition, but not really. I think Christmas as a concept may be traditional in itself but what Christmas means to people can be very different depending on the individual and will inevitably evolve as time goes by. There are elements that remain constant; the exchange of gifts, the religious aspect, the decorations and of course the increased awareness of the bond between family and friends. In my experience all of these change with time and even though on the surface these elements remain in one form or another, often the meaning of them alters to take account of the circumstances and the journey we’ve taken along life’s road. Now that I’m a Golden Boy (don’t get too excited I just meant I’m in my fifties) my take on Christmas presents has changed considerably. Mainly…
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THE SONG REMEMBERS WHEN (CHALLENGE #3)
My mother died on October 14th, 1997, two days after the singer John Denver (although we all thought he died on the 13th because 5.28pm in Monterey was 1.28 am the next day in Ireland). When I heard of Denver’s death I was distracted with concern for my friend who was a huge fan all his life and introduced me to the country singers serious back catalogue (I would later name my dog ‘Denver‘ in remembrance of the late singer). It was while I was caught up in worry for my friend that my mother finally passed away after a long illness. The weird juxtaposition between both of these deaths would have led me to latch onto a song that was rolling around in my head over those few days and I suppose it would have made sense to select that…
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DINNER WITH MY HERO (CHALLENGE #2)
It will come as no shock to anyone who knows me that my hero is HH The 14th Dalai Lama. My respect and even fondness for him doesn’t stem from idol worship of a reincarnated Buddha, but for a man who has endured serious hardship and still manages to promote compassion and mindfulness; while maintaining a curiosity as sharp as an infant’s and a sense of humour that is wildly contagious. He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and has been commended far and wide as an environmentalist (before being Green meant anything more than changing colour or having a jealous streak). Thanks to a surprise gift from my Ban Chéile I had the great pleasure of sitting in the audience when the Dalai Lama visited Ireland in 2011 (see the pic above). All of the characteristics of…
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DANCE AT YOUR WEDDING
My niece got married the other day. It was a relatively small wedding by todays standards with about 120 guests in attendance. The church ceremony went well – except for that one occasion when the priest got the grooms name wrong…oops!- and even the weather turned back into a glorious summers day with sunshine and unseasonably high temperatures. You know how it goes, the women dress up and the men dream about when the bar will open. A million photographs are taken, but only a small percentage of them will be worth keeping, and the Happy Couple will get a literal pain in the face before the cake is even cut from responding to the command “smile”. I long ago gave up taking my SLR to weddings because I tended to forget the reason for being there…
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THE WRITER’S BLOCK
Way back in 2001 my Ban Chéile gave me a present of a little book by Joan Rekulak called The Writer’s Block. The blurb on the cover announced ” 786 Ideas to Jump-start Your Imagination”. Now I wasn’t sure if she was dropping a hint or lending me a helping hand, but either way that little book has been good company ever since. The idea is you can either work your way from cover to cover using each item on each page as a stimulus for your writing or you can randomly flick open a page and Viola!, inspiration guaranteed. Some of the things you will be treated to might be an image or a word or a downright challenge with directions to follow. Such as: “Visit a nearby cemetery – the older the better. Sit down…
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GETTING AROUND TO PROCRASTINATION
Now there’s procrastination and then there’s my brand of procrastination. Here’s what I mean: my Dad died almost two years ago and shortly after the funeral my two siblings and I spent a brief and miserable evening sorting out his ‘things’. He was monklike in his approach to possessions and so there was very little to distribute and dispose of really (a seriously large and diverse collection of rosary beads being the exception). After carefully selecting some ‘keepsakes’ to be distributed to his grandchildren (a decision made by parents whether said grandchildren want the keepsakes or not), most of what he carefully gathered and guarded over his 91 years on planet Earth was, not to put too fine a point on it, rubbish. So where’s the procrastionation in that? I hear you ask, although I didn’t mean…
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THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET
Little did I know when I suggested a Blogging Challenge from September to December that returning to work after the summer break would mean my brain would work to rule and refuse to let a single thought solidify enough to write a meme never mind a blog post. My “Things to Do After Work” list has apparently reduced to just one item – vegetate in front of the TV before sliding into fitful sleep. Okay so it’s only one week and anyone can find themselves too busy to write over a single week, but this is Sunday and my brain still feels like it’s been playing with the switch on the Novocaine machine( so please excuse the mental drooling). Despite that I still feel the urge to throw down the gauntlet and challenge anyone who wishes to…
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LIFE IS…
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ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY
We are very lucky to be working in education and therefore able to take quite a few weeks off during the summer months. All of our annual leave is greedily stored up and we divide our holiday (vacation) time between a trip abroad for a few weeks and a few weeks in our little country hideaway. This combination is perfect for us because we get to chase the sun to help us de-stress and wind down, and then I chill out in the country cottage while the Ban Chéile, completes a continuous pilgrimage catching up with family and friends. Today is the final day of a little over two weeks in Cork and amidst the packing and the squeezing in the final visits for this summer, the mixed emotions of seeing another summer wind down and the…
