...But driving from Wantage to Sligo is also a sizeable journey (about 900 miles on road for the round trip), even when the bit between Fishguard and Rosslare involves sitting on a boat drinking coffee and we stop at Athlone for a couple of nights before doing the rest of the distance. One of <3's cousins was getting married in, so we drove over with the Youngling (who was suffering from a nasty cold) and the necessary paraphernalia to stay with the in-laws and go with them to the wedding. It made for a good trip and driving almost from corner to corner of Ireland helped me appreciate what a beautiful country it is.
Amongst other things...
- It would appear that playing "I Used to Love Her" by the Saw Doctors at an Irish wedding has a similar affect to playing "Delilah" at a Welsh do.
- There was a small swing band playing at the wedding reception (billed as "The Irish Rat Pack", which made the female singer and the Abba covers seem a bit incongruous), which provided a great opportunity for <3 and I to dust off our half-forgotten jive moves. Great fun even when we are so out of practice.
- We spotted a poster in a shopping centre in Portlaoise calling for help in finding Madeleine McCann. Well, you never know, do you?
- At the same shopping centre, we rolled up at a café just in time to get first dibs on a freshly made batch of scones to have with our tea while we fed the Youngling. Sometimes it all just works out. I am now more convinced than ever of the righteousness of my long-term ambition to run a little tea shop where scones are baked fresh throughout the day/
- Dosing the Youngling up with Calpol and/or Tixylix isn't easy, though we are starting to get the hang of it with a technique that probably has more in common with drenching sheep than holding out a spoon for a child to obediently drink from.
- There is something comical about a bunch of early-teenagers playing "Killing in the Name Of" at a charity fundraiser in Strandhill, near Sligo, particularly when the singer's voice hasn't broken.
- The coffee on the Stena Europe ferry was better than that on the Stena Express, which we took on the return journey. However, the latter was, true to its name, an hour and a half quicker, so there was less time to ponder beverage inadequacies. Plus we had fresh Wexford strawberries to eat, picked up at the side of the N11 on the way to the ferry. You pays your money and takes your choice.
3 comments:
Calpol tip from one who's been there. Use a syringe. (Not to inject it, obviously!)
:-)
Cheers,
RIch.
On your ambitions for a little shop with hot scones I thought you would like this!
The Lake Isle
Ezra Pound
O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Give me in due time, I beseech you, a little tobacco-shop,
With the little bright boxes
piled up neatly upon the shelves
And the loose fragrant cavendish
and the shag,
And the bright Virginia
loose under the bright glass cases,
And a pair of scales not too greasy,
And the whores dropping in for a word or two in passing,
For a flip word, and to tidy their hair a bit.
O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Lend me a little tobacco-shop,
or install me in any profession
Save this damn’d profession of writing,
where one needs one’s brains all the time.
Online text © 1998-2007 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Lustra | 1913
Thanks for the advice, Rich, we now have a syringe thanks to our friendly local pharmacist. Though dosing up the youngling seems even more like sheep drenching now... :o)
And Carigeen, Yup, I can identify with that poem alright, though perhaps I'll steer away from the tobacco. That said, there really is something special about the smell from jars of loose baccy...
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