second thing 21 October 2008
I was at the Imisson and Tinniswood awards tonight – great writing gongs awarded to the best of the best on radio – there is no greater delight than to be in the company of writers AND to have a few awards and cheques to give out – totally fab cos it’s a jury of writers’ peers and the celebration is all the more – twas FAB – Viva Writers, ALWAYS x
harm 20 October 2008
The most that could be said for today is that I did not repeat the self stabbing incident. Aside from probably eating too many of the ‘wrong’ things, I may have done my body little enough damage. The left eye is itchy, but I put that down to the hairy creature liking to sleep on my chest and close to my face. But I take that kind of risk cos she is The G and the greatest creature on earth. It got me thinking about how carelessly damage can be inflicted. I once did a theatre show based around two couples’ ballroom dancing careers. I loved the dancing element, I have to say, and as a result am glued to Strictly Come Dancing whenever I get the chance. Anyhow, during the show one night I thought it would be hilarious to discharge my can of hairspray over one of the actors – a new and unrehearsed bit of business. The poor fellow was all but blinded and could barely get his lines out thereafter, let alone see where he was going. I just didn’t think of the consequences. It could have been so dangerous. In fact, I don’t think he ever truly forgave me for it, though I was beside myself with remorse. If a danger isn’t blatantly obvious I don’t think many of us really think ahead. And spare a thought for Sophie (a student and regular to the site) who has also been at the rum end of recycling gone wrong, as I was myself yesterday during the stabbing incident. – she cut her foot while decanting bottles into the bottle bank. She let one fall and it smashed, during the summer, while she was wearing flip flops – it ain’t easy saving the world, especially when you are a fallible human…
violence 20 October 2008
I stabbed myself today and I have to say it wasn’t worth doing. It was unintended which was a good start, if there can be one, for the old self-stabbing routine. I was twattishly using a VERY sharp knife (my favourite, of course) to try to prise the lids off from some very old bottles of vinegar that I might empty the contents down the sink and put the rest into recycling – yep, saving the planet is a dangerous occupation. Anyhow, there was no shifting these lids – many of which were well past their use-by date (YEARS) – so I had the bright idea of stabbing the lids so that air could get in and purchase be had within and without. Instead I got a wound in the soft webby bit that joins the thumb and next finger – ARGH. And sore, I can report. Some of the bottles have now simply gone to landfill…The knife is back in it’s rightful place in the cutlery drawer. Richard says I can’t play with it OR fire for at least a week.
The Birthday Book 18 October 2008
I used to write important birthdays in the pull-out year at a glance section of my filofax (ah, the 20th century) then I fell into using those great hardback diaries that could double as a notebook and had a handy year planner at the front or back. But with each year those got progressively smaller and it became very awkward to get all the birthday/anniversary/important date info onto the lines. So, I instigated a Birthday Book in a handmade notebook I was gifted one Christmas. A lovely thing it is too. BUT quite ineffectual, as I have never settled on a place to keep it and usually forget to look in it anyhow to be warned of imminent special days. With the result that I now rarely remember birthdays on time…not good, at all. I think I am going to have to figure out how to factor them onto the phone and have it beep at me when I should be showering friends and family with songs of greeting or just plain mocking them as they age (always a twisted pleasure). The only people who get accurate greetings are my friends on Facebook as it gives plenty of warning before the day and it’s a cinch to pass on a hola then. I envy people who have the capacity to just remember using their powers of recall alone. I do have a few dates embedded and they are the most important, I guess, but not all of them and I have many’s the godchild who has been horribly neglected down the years because of me being a bit crap at all of this. Goodness knows what’ll happen if any of them want the moral and spiritual guidance I signed up for too when I ‘stood for them’, as it’s called in Ireland. I’ll have to stop taking people on, friends or god children as I have neglected enough people in my time so far, and this must not be allowed to fester further…
birthday 17 October 2008
I am honoured to be Patron of World Vision Ireland, as you all know. Tonight there was a little birthday party to celebrate 25 years doing what the organisation does. We showed a tastrel of what we filmed in Kenya recently and I have to admit even I got a bit filled up toward the end of it. All heartfelt happiness that you CAN do some good in the world and we all can in our many ways. In these straitened times we will probably only think of our own world, but there is so much more we could be helping with for VERY little – e.g. you can sponsor a child in Africa for 83 cent a day – I defy you to find much in the shops for that – just saying…
Am wondering if my husband might be the only man/creature in the world/universe to use the word WHEREBY anymore? I heard the edge of a phone conversation he had with a client tonight where he said ‘you know how this is, all they have done…whereby…’ and as his voice sat high on the possibility and mutual understandability of that the other person obviously filled in the end of their sentence and he declared ‘absolutely’. Loving that shorthand, yet still struggling for a place to put ‘whereby’…it’s me, not him….
nope 17 October 2008
Nope, woke up and found it was NOT all a dream – and checked with Ruby who still has a photo of her, Gok and his handsome escort and Jennifer S as proof that we were there…oh, hang on, that only proves SHE was there…
funny 16 October 2008
Me and Ruby McLynn went to French and Saunders’ West End Debut tonight and loved it. Basically, 2 grown women able and willing to make total tits of themselves and BE THAT FUNNY is a joy to behold. They always also go with the serious end of things – the touching stories of the forgotten that fall through the cracks. I don’t think it would have been half the show if they had shirked that – and they never have – from schoolgirls abandoned in a boarding school to ex Pats abroad living on gin and memories, they have always wrung us out: they go with tragedy as much as comedy and ye all know I love that – I don’t actually think you can have one too far away from the other. The show delivers all that and more, in a quite surprising way – I clutched Miss Ruby so hard at the end through laughter that she had to beat me off – I didn’t see what was coming coming…
And thereafter we dribbled VERY BADLY over Gok Wan – YES! we met him and I am sure he is still slightly bewildered but he was TOTALLY charming and Ruby got a photo and we both got kissed and HE IS FABULOUS (did I mention that already?)
Graham Norton was also a total TOTAL delight – sheesh, I can’t believe the people I met or caught up with, never mind the Rube and who she was meeting for the first time (THINK she had a good time – hope so or I am so over as an aunt and godmother)…floating off to bed on the strength of it…‘twill surely end in tears when I wake up and realise it WAS ALL A DREAM….
speed 15 October 2008
There are times when you can just FEEL the earth move – eh, NO not like that (remember, I am an elderly married lady now, that’s not supposed to happen anymore, and I’m saying nothing on the subject therefore…) Perhaps it’s the time of the year, when the evenings, especially are ‘drawing in’ as the saying goes. but recently in both London and Dublin I have been struck by how quickly the light moves across a room, or fades for that matter. It’s not quite like being on holiday in, say, Barbados where myself and the Hubby went on half of our honeymoon – there, it’s bright then SUDDENLY it’s dark and you’re plunged into evening. But here, tracing the progress of sunshine along a ceiling, even in morning time as I was recently in London, I am struck by how the earth really is moving at a lick actually. Late this afternoon I returned to the abandoned tax return and while I was sorting receipts the attic descended into darkness, in a matter of no more than 12 – 15 minutes. Incredible. I felt the world hurtling through space, when you think about it. And with it another day done and consigned to history. Time ticking slowly on and out? Lots of perspective alongside that one.
Don’t worry, I’m not too depressed about it, just in awe of the universe.
budget 14 October 2008
The Irish budget happened today and it was fairly rubbish. We had been promised something hard and radical and what we got was a fudgy thing that takes money from everyone, thereby making everyone unhappy, and doesn’t address the substantive issues as to how we got into this mess and how we should properly get the country out of it. There is a new extra 1% ‘levy’, on top of income tax, on everyone’s earnings up to 100k – that’s a wide, wide margin and hurts those least able for it most ie the poorer paid. (it goes to 2% after that). Class sizes are to increase, for crying out loud. Public sector employees are largely untouched. But I guess the thing that has irked me most is that people over 70 years of age are to be means-tested for their medical card, even if they have been granted it already. Now, call me an old leftie, but I think that if you have worked and paid your taxes all your life you are entitled to your free travel and old age pension and medical card. And I don’t think you should be punished for having a few bob put aside. Also, given that the public health service is such a palaver to negotiate I think you’ll find that anyone with the wherewithal would opt to go private if they could anyhow and not use the medical card with all of the waiting, etc, that entails. This courtesy should be extended: that you automatically get it for your long years propping up the system and paying into it.
The Irish did not win the Booker this year.
Lashed rain all day, I have a cold and the roofing did not start as scheduled.
having to 13 October 2008
I have decided to learn a bit of Russian. It’s a case of having to, really. Richard has INFECTED both my laptops with sites and the language so much that even when I access stuff only I am interested in it’s in Russian…and he cannot seem to switch it back again…he says he has tried…I can see the day coming when I log on here and it’s all pa russki, in spite of the fact that you are all communicating with me in English, a language that’s hard enough at the best of times, let alone becoming half of some weird verbal currency that Himself has foisted upon me. I learned 19 letters of the cyrillic alphabet tonight, and at least they are very pretty if not utterly useful too.
We had a moment over dinner when an interesting idea was floated – I made the point about criticism that there’s a fine line between it being consistent and constant. One to watch out for.