money money money 7 May 2008
I had one of those days where I felt simultaneously a bit flush yet very, very poor. It came about because of a meeting first thing about the extension we are proposing to build onto the house. It will be a thing of great beauty, no doubt about that, though actually just plain and classic too. And it will be exciting to have it attached. But it’s going to cost, what doesn’t? And strictly speaking we probably don’t NEED it. Anyhow, I had a great time choosing things to do with it and I want the building work to start tomorrow because the weather is good and the world is a more hopeful place when the sun shines (generally). BUT the friggin thing is going to take 23 weeks. Yes, you read correctly…it will be/should be done by Christmas. Bloody hell. I tried to go into denial about that bit but that fact doesn’t change no matter how I will it to. It’s not even THAT complicated a thing…at least I don’t think it is – all I heard was ‘pretty door handles’ and then the architect’s voice went all blah blah blah lovely sinks to choose from blah blah paint colours blah blah shower units. Let’s hope the sun continues to shine…till Christmas – I’ll need the vitamin D to keep my spirits up – haven’‘t broken the news to the Husband yet and I don’t think the cat’s going to be too thrilled either (I blame Richard as this was all/mostly* his idea) *in wifespeak this means all his fault, of course
la la la 6 May 2008
A lot of you know that I am simply a gay man trapped in a woman’s body – it’s a great place to be and you won’t catch me complaining about it (or not often at any rate). Sort of apropos of which, one of the events I look forward to every year is Eurovision, so it was with great interest that I read and heard about the story of Franco possibly rigging the contest one year and ROBBING Sir Cliff of his (rightful?) prize. Now, here’s the thing – La La La, the Spanish entry (funnily enough – see Franco, above) that year is a very Eurovision song and I have a great fondness for it and can see it as a worthwhile winner (in a peculiarly Eurovision way) and although Cliff’s song, the mighty Congratulations, is the better song, no one has ever accused Eurovision of always choosing those as winners. It would be great (and maybe even plausible) to say Franco ‘did for’ Le Royal Unis on the night but let’s think hatred of nations here (still in evidence) or simple, almost gentle, partisan voting…that’s Eurovision’s lifeblood – e.g. why do the Irish never win anymore (notwithstanding shite songs) – we are not of the Eastern Bloc so nah nah nah nah nah (possible entry right there, douze points and none of yer auld turkeys, merci bien). We may never know, but i do LOVE that politics of a particularly ‘right’ nature has entered the frame and isn’t great for Cliff to be able to introduce his song now at live gigs as the winner that never was.
He was robbed another year too, wasn’t he? Oh hang on now, that was Waterloo and NO ONE can say the right song didn’t win that time…
beds 5 May 2008
As you all know The Mammy went to Tenerife for 5 weeks and is now just back. She returns bringing us great weather and therefore we are threatening to send her away more often…
My favourite of her adventures is the free bus trip she took around the island. These are regular and one of the reasons they exist is that you are brought not only to beauty spots but also to commercial premises in the hope that you’ll buy something. When we were in Egypt together this meant the guides brought us to pottery/textile/perfume places and the like to purchase goodies to remind us of our travels and as gifts for friends and family. In Tenerife, Herself was taken to a mattress warehouse…in the hope she’d buy, em, mattresses…as perfect souvenir of her trip?? New one on me…
mobile challenge 4 May 2008
If The Kingdom, aka County Kerry, has a drawback at all it is that my mobile broadband thingummy got a signal so poor I couldn’t access the site to do a blog yesterday. In almost all other respects it was a total joy this weekend. I met up with my sis in law, the wonderful painter Rebecca McLynn whose exhibition opened last night at the Greenlane Gallery in Dingle (greenlanegallery.com will get you a look at the gorgeous work if you cannot visit any other way). We had flown in from our respective cities and were there very early so, after a lovely latte, much splendid shopping was done (new pink bag, ‘nuff said), and a great seafood lunch had at Out of the Blue on the quay. The rain lashed down, which seemed to reinforce that this was indeed an Irish Bank Holiday weekend, but we did not let that get to us. A plan was even hatched to go by boat to the Great Blasket island this morning and we actually followed it through. It was simply glorious and the sun, as if to applaud our efforts, shone happily down on us. We saw hundreds of seals on the beach there, the four island donkeys and many sheep and lambs. It was paradise, really. No one lives on the island anymore and it was interesting to learn that for all big events the islanders went to the mainland, including to be buried. The only burials that took place on the island were the stillborns. So sad to see the little patch allocated to them by the old schoolhouse. I had written a piece about such a place in The Woman On The Bus so I am always very affected to hear such stories. On the way back I saw my first ever puffin in real life, flying. Splendid.
As was the complimentary cup of tea on the plane. Sometimes my past as a tea lady has its rewards…
At the airport a helicopter landed and as it did made lots of fancy helicopter-ish manoeuvres – it was as if it was doing helicopter dressage.
Home to more sunshine and a sit-out in the garden admiring the dandelions with the returned Mammy who has been wrestled out of Tenerife after a 5 week break. I sat there thinking of my fab mini-break this weekend and longing for a proper holiday. In lieu of same I got out the latest Marian Keyes, which is brilliant, and gorged myself some more on it, and that felt enough like a holiday to keep me going.
Tomorrow I intend to lie down a lot and sleep a lot too. And there’s still the small (!) matter of a novel to finish…
oops i did it again 2 May 2008
see above…and below…
i guess repetition is the soul of emphasis
learning 2 May 2008
So, here are a few things I have learned, heard or might like to believe from my week of travel.
Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages to learn because there are over 20 tenses…I can’t believe a person could have so many intentions let alone need that many tenses to go with them.
A Dublin taxi driver, who lived in Barcelona for ages, told me that the Spanish think you are being sarcastic if you say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ to them. (I stress that I heard that from a TAXI man and as we know they THINK they know everything but a lot of the time do not)
Quick point about the above point – my sis in law and brother have both taxied and we have many nice taxi people friends in Galway so I am now a dead woman.
As I have told you, Richard chose to learn Russian for many reasons but a lot of it was to do with history. When I asked him more the other day, he told me that 1 in 7 people in Russia died in WW2 – mind boggling.
This morning he texted me from Stratford-Upon-Avon saying he was having green tea and studying his Russian then added ‘tinkin ken=toast’ and I thought it was one of my two words for the day (like to add to my own Russian vocabulary daily) so I spent an hour thinking the Russian for toast was ‘tink ken’ which seemed unnecessarily elaborate, but that’s language for you. Then, as I whizzed through London in a lovely car to go record some dinner party scenes for Bremner Bird and Fortune, I copped that he meant that Ken Livingstone was in trouble in the mayoral election!
The Russian for toast is ‘toast’…
learning 2 May 2008
So, here are a few things I have learned, heard or might like to believe from my week of travel.
Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages to learn because there are over 20 tenses…I can’t believe a person could have so many intentions let alone need that many tenses to go with them.
A Dublin taxi driver, who lived in Barcelona for ages, told me that the Spanish think you are being sarcastic if you say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ to them. (I stress that I heard that from a TAXI man and as we know they THINK they know everything but a lot of the time do not)
Quick point about the above point – my sis in law and brother have both taxied and we have many nice taxi people friends in Galway so I am now a dead woman.
As I have told you, Richard chose to learn Russian for many reasons but a lot of it was to do with history. When I asked him more the other day, he told me that 1 in 7 people in Russia died in WW2 – mind boggling.
This morning he texted me from Stratford-Upon-Avon saying he was having green tea and studying his Russian then added ‘tinkin ken=toast’ and I thought it was one of my two words for the day (like to add to my own Russian vocabulary daily) so I spent an hour thinking the Russian for toast was ‘tink ken’ which seemed unnecessarily elaborate, but that’s language for you. Then, as I whizzed through London in a lovely car to go record some dinner party scenes for Bremner Bird and Fortune, I copped that he meant that Ken Livingstone was in trouble in the mayoral election!
The Russian for toast is ‘toast’…
kansas 1 May 2008
or should that be that we are right back down to earth in Kansas again?
home 1 May 2008
I have got the student home. It was weird to see the change in the poor fella the closer we got to Dublin. He started to answer work calls more and more. He began to frown. At least we continued to exchange a few words of Russian along the way – I like to add a bit of vocabulary every day to my meagre stash. He had a great chat with the taxi man who left us to Odessa airport and I was very very impressed. Also, because of that and the fact that we knew how to go about getting a cab properly now, we didn’t get ripped off. If only the same could be said of airports in general. In Budapest we had enough time to get indulge in a refreshment and as I didn’t have any local currency I offered euros and funnily enough it came to a round 10 – I checked the receipt and it said i should have got the guts of a euro back in the local coin but that was never offered and I just knew I wasn’t getting it either. Then I booked a flight from Dublin to Kerry on the internet, as I am opening a fine exhibition of paintings (Rebecca McLynn) and sculpture (Fidelma Massey) on Saturday night at the Greenlane Gallery in Dingle (CHECK IT OUT _ WONDERFUL WORK) and the Aer Arann site would not let me take the, unwanted and automatically added, travel insurance off the price of the ticket. MADDENING.
Home now and the duvet cover, which was green when it went on, is a mohair grey from Herself, who has colonised the bed over the last week. She is complaining loudly at her harsh treatment in general. And the Student is stuck into a football match on the telly. I am off first thing to London to record some Bremner, Bird and Fortune in London tomorrow and Himself is an agent again and off to Stratford-upon-Avon first thing. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
odessa 30 April 2008
No, I have not located the File, since some of you have asked…but the search goes on.
Given that Ukraine was once part of the Soviet Union/behind the Iron Curtain, I guess there’s a gag in me saying I am akin to Davina saying ‘Big Brother House, I’m coming to get you’.
So, here’s the thing – you know how there’s Stockholm Syndrome when a captive falls in love with the jailer – well, I am about to rename it Odessa Syndrome. The Boy is putting up a fierce resistance to going home…
He had his last lesson today at the school and got a certificate to say he has completed grades 1 and 2 in basic Russian and HE GOT AN A!!!! So pleased for him as he has worked really hard at it. I breezed in to collect him and in PERFECT Russian (he taught me it a while back to say to a Russian photographer who did my latest headshots – Sacha Gusov – v v good, based in London, can be checked out on web) said ‘My name is Pauline. My husband Richard is learning the Russian language’ for which I got a big smile from the receptionist and was gestured to a chair to wait. I was THRILLED with myself and wish he’d been there to witness said event.
Total success all around, barring the fact that I’ll have to drug him to get him onto the plane tomorrow and home.
Tonight we shall stroll along the tree-lined boulevards (they really are that) of Odessa to the opera house where we will see Katarina – a Ukranian opera…in UKRANIAN, so we won’t understand a WORD. But tis music and so we might get something off it. Then dinner with one of his teachers then off to see the second half of the Liverpool V Chelsea match at the sportsbar.
No, not got a lot of writing done today but had some great ideas and did jot those down before they vanished so it’s ‘simply’ a matter of writing em up now and ‘hey presto’ a novel!!
Life is good.