13 November 2007
I was at the opening night of THE LAST DAYS OF THE CELTIC TIGER at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin last night and it’s fantastic. More laughs per minute than any other show I know of. The acting is super and it’s great to finally see Ross O’Carroll Kelly in the flesh. Hats off to Paul Howard, the writer, and all involved – great night out.
11 November 2007
Had splendid time in Tallaght yesterday where the annual library big day out took place in the Plaza Hotel. It’s the 6th year it’s been held and really wonderful tomeet and hear other writers talk about their work, and read from it, and also to meet the readers. Of course, I stayed too long chatting and supping wine with the lovely librarians afterwards and was late home and am in the dog house now…sorry, Richard. (These are the times when, I can assure you, the Imaginary Hubby is all too real…)
9 November 2007
It may be sad, and I know it’s Friday and all that, but I have had a quiet and entirely sober night in and loved it. The television wasn’t up to much but I could read and watch it which is a neat enough trick. I’m afraid the days and nights of going on even a slight razz are probably somewhat numbered from now on as there is so much writing to be done. It’s going well but I can’t give myself any excuse to duke out of it – I can lead myself astray with very little effort. Tomorrow, time will be in short supply as I am off to Tallaght to do a talk for the library day out there, and I am really looking forward to that. It’s at 2.15. I like hearing from the readers and it makes all the difference to talk to the flesh and blood version. I find it very encouraging and I know that will send me back to the laptop with a spring in my step. Also I’ll be seeing Dermot Bolger and Deirdre Purcell, amongst others of ‘my kind’, and that’s also always encouraging and, perhaps even better, fun. Hey, it ain’t all banging your head against the keyboard till it bleeds…though that is, admittedly, a lot of it…
8 November 2007
I know this may seem mad to devotees out there but I have only just seen the movie Breakfast At Tiffanys – all part of Richard’s Classics Season which is still in full swing and featured Marty and North by Northwest the other day. Anyhow, whatever about the actors, isn’t the cat in Breakfast At Tiffanys only magnificent? I have never seen such a good performance by a creature. Orangey is that cat’s name and apparently he won lots of awards in his day. I’m not surprised, he’s REALLY good. Even Mrs G agrees and she is very tough and hard to please. I am in love again (though whisper it as neither Rich nor G would be too pleased to hear that).
7 November 2007
Right, you don’t think all of the cliches are just that BUT I really did wait in all day for The Gas Man to come and replace the meter in the, er, RENTED soho flat. Happily, I got some writing work done BUT what a potential waste of time AND although I had laid in food, cos I really didn’t think it’d happen but I was damned if I was going to be blamed for taking 5 minutes out to goto Pret for a wrap, I still got through that and really hungry. Anyway, never again. And tradesmen wonder why they have a bad name…
6 November 2007
And just when I thought I was back on an even keel I fecked up…I finished reading a book I was enjoying and followed it with a great spell of writing and, just as I was contemplating a shower and ringing Himself, I got a text wondering why I was not at the recording studio to do the voiceover I was due to record three quarters of an hour before AAAARRRRRRGH I have never moved so quickly. I got there an hour late for the session and twenty years older. Awful. I really can’t abide being late for things anymore so that’s a nightmare come true, but also to have totally forgotten (though a complement to the writing work) is a worry. No wonder I have to write everything down now – I had made a note of the voiceover, by the way, but in the wrong place and even when I went looking for the original booking note it was so small it took me a while to locate it. Lesson learned. Who would have thought I still had SO much to learn in my life?
5 November 2007
Fruit flies – like, WHY? Well, the why on one level is that some fruit and veg has been quietly moldering in a bowl since I was last here and there is now a colony of the awful flying THINGS hovering about as a result. I suppose I mean why do they exist at all? Surely mould alone would do to illustrate a decrepit state of food? I am quite adept at killing them but often frighten the cat who thinks I am trying to stop her doing whatever it is she is doing whenever I slap my hands together. Makes you wonder if she isn’t up to all sorts of badness I cannot even imagine, but nothing new there. I have removed offending soft tomatoes, squashed the bigger, slower yokes, et cetera, but a few smaller, spryer flyers persist and I refuse to use a spray. I am hoping my dexterity and, somewhat, superior brain will lead to ultimate triumph. And then, no doubt, I will feel stupid as they are so little and I am monstrous by comparison. It also means I am a violent killer, I guess. I learn new things about myself every day, or a new thing every few days, perhaps…and not all of it good. Still hate those flies, though, and cannot feel guilty about the slaughter.
4 November 2007
I was at a cousin’s wedding in Sligo yesterday and it was odd to be back there. Both sides of my family hail from the town and we spent most childhood summer holidays there, though I grew up in Galway. I often meet people on the street who tell me I am related to them and I have no reason to doubt them. It’s strange to pass by the houses my grandparetns lived in but which are now no longer in the family. The mountains, Ben Bulben and Knocknorea define the place and were looking exceptional. But the oddest thing is that the last time I was there on family business it was my Dad’s funeral. So the memories and nuances of the place are now both happy and very sad. He’s still where we left him. And there are a few more he knew in there with him too now, according to my Mum. It’s odd to have such extended connections with the place yet rarely visit anymore. I guess I bring a bit of it around with me all the time. It’s a very beautiful place. And happy-sad.
2 November 2007
Richard has started to rent classic films, many of which we may have seen in our youth but which are harder to locate now (on tv certainly) than they used to be, if memory serves, and often it doesn’t these days. I suppose if either of us watched more daytime television we might catch one or two, but then again perhaps not. A friend gave us a book last Christmas entitled ‘The 1000 Greatest Films Ever Made’ and it goes right back to the 20s (last century for the pups out there) and I reckon we could do worse than to try to see all of the ones it rates – well, you have to start somewhere. Actually the lad who gave it to us is an actor and delivered the gift saying ‘these are the thousand greatest films ever made…and I’m not in any of them.’ I have news – I am not in any of them either. Ah well…
1 November 2007
The red wine stain on the lips is a strange and unpredictable fellow. sometimes you get it sometimes not. Last night I got it and no one mentioned it to me so I was home by the time I saw it. ARGH. Now, there are a few things at work here. First is I would always tell someone if they were getting the dread thing. (Richard, my imaginary husband, once got into terrible trouble for not mentioning it to me of a night out – and he compounded this mistake by laughing when I got all uptight about it but he’ll not make either error again I’ll venture). My sister in law, Rebecca, is inclined to get a bit of a Salvador Dali like moustache from time to time and likes, quite rightly, to be told when she does. Secondly, why last night? I have been enjoying a few glasses of red on and off for the last few weeks and this is the first time in an age I got the stain. I have tried to work out why it appears a number of times and it doesn’t usually seem to depend on whether the wine is good, bad or indifferent. I read somewhere that it is a sign of an iron deficiency and perhaps it is. But after the article in this week’s Guardian saying we should be having three glasses of red wine a day because it’s so good for us I think I am just going to have to put up with the occasional stain. But I would ask any of you who see me with one to TELL me.