Let me out

Head Rambles Posted on by

Once again, I’m under siege.

This happens every now and then and it is a mighty pain in the arse.

Some film crowd – I don’t know who – have taken over the place and the village residents are not only persona non grata but are actually banned from the village.

It is really annoying when the council [for they apparently are the guilty party] auction off the village as a film location with little or no consultation. Unless one has one’s ear to the ground the first notice will be little notices plastered around the place saying the village will be shut, with diversions in place. I doubt the businesses get much in the way of compensation either.

Naturally I have stuff I have to collect in the village today. Before that I have one of my many hospital appointments [Rapid Lung Section? What the fuck is that?] so have to find my way through the back roads to get there.

Worst of all there is a nasty rumour that Disney are back next month. The last time they were here they caused chaos and mayhem for weeks. The film – “Disenchanted” – bombed at the box office which has a nice touch of Karma about it.

i wonder if I’ll visit the coffee shop this afternoon?

Maybe I’ll just plough my way through their barriers and become an extra?

 

The Irish thing

Head Rambles Posted on by

I do not understand the Irish Phenomenon.

On a global scale, we are a tiny island stuck out in the Atlantic to the west of Europe. Coming in from outer space you’d be lucky to find us at all unless you had a damn good satnav The entire island would comfortably fit, multiple times in most other countries.

There are only a few million of us. The population of the entire island is less than that of many of the worlds cities. If they accidentally stuck our population into a table of the world’s major cities, we would be way down the list. I just did a check – there are 80 cities with a larger population than all Ireland. Tokyo alone has seven times the population of this small island!

So why does Ireland have such a massive influence on the planet? Saint Patrick is being celebrated right across the globe as I type. There are parades, green floodlights on world famous landmarks and Chicago is even turning its river green. I would imagine that a hell of a lot of the worlds revelers don’t even know where Ireland is, yet they still celebrate “Irishness”.

The remarkable thing about the whole phenomenon is that I don’t know of any other national holiday that gets worldwide attention. Does the world go mad on Bastille Day? Are there worldwide parades to celebrate American Independence? No. National holidays come and go and the world ignores them, but not Paddy’s Day. That has to be celebrated from New York to Sydney, from Dublin to Dubai. Just for one day, everyone seems to want to be Irish.

Even outside Paddy’s Day everyone seems to know the Irish. It always amused me that in France I would walk into a shop and stumble out my pidgin French. I would be greeted with mild hostility and a flood of the local dialect in return. I would slip in that I’m Irish not British and instantly I am best friends with the shopkeeper who suddenly speaks fluent English.

Don’t get me wrong. I am proud to be Irish. Amn’t I directly descended from one of the great High Kings of Ireland after all?! I am Irish first and foremost and then a citizen of the World. Under extreme torture I might even add being European.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir.

 

Running out

Head Rambles Posted on by

Yesterday was one of those days.

It started off badly [I can’t remember why] and went downhill from there.

The mood was bad and kept sinking into a morass of negative thoughts. It wasn’t so much depression, more anger for various familial reasons which I won’t go into. Herself occasionally has similar thoughts and I can talk her through it but somehow I’m not very good at talking myself out of such situations.

Then my laptop stopped working. It had run out of disk space. My previous machine had a 1Tb hard disk, but this one only has half that and I keep forgetting to clean it out. Bugger! Luckily my mood meant I wasn’t interested in ‘puters so that little job was put on the long finger.

I also discovered that our very good neighbours are on the move. It has been on the cards for a long time even to the point that we know that our new neighbour is apparently a very nice bloke, as is his husband. *cough*. I’ll really miss the old neighbours though.

Then last night I discovered I was out of medication. Actually I still have a very low stock but had completely run out of sleeping tablets. I don’t know why they should go first as I stick rigidly to medical routines but my Sleepers are listed amongst the vital ones.

So last night I went to bed in the sure and certain knowledge that I wouldn’t sleep. I even warned Herself that she was likely to hear me mooching around the house in the small hours.

I slept. And then I slept some more. And more. I woke finally at around eight, came out to my armchair and fell asleep again for another couple of hours. Wow!

So today I feel a hell of a lot better. The anger has evaporated and is now just a very sad acceptance of affairs. I’m having bets with myself that the new neighburs will have a dog and it won’t be of the Alsatian or Irish Wolfhound variety. I’m offloading about 257Gb of files onto a backup disk as I type. The kitchen sink is unblocked and Queen are playing on the radio.

Life is good again.

I wonder if I’ll sleep tonight?

 

Joining The Circle

Head Rambles Posted on by

Yes, I’m now a member of the Inner Circle.

Granted it’s a club no one ever wants to be a member of, but being in the Circle has it’s advantages.

I first discovered this on Tuesday. It was my Blood Test and Consultation day. I made my way through the miles of corridors in the hospital and was out of breath when I reached Reception. Without my saying a word, the wee lass on reception looks up – “Howya” says she, “I have you booked in”. I suppose I do have a somewhat memorable face? I sat down in the waiting area and in the course of the mandatory hour wait [actually it was a bit longer] I was greeted by a couple of nurses, my psychiatrist [they leave nothing to chance] and a consultant. They all know me now. I have arrived!

Wednesday was the same. I was placed in a nice quiet corner while they dripped various crap into me and again more specialists [another consultant and my personal dietician]. Word just seemed to spread that Grandad Has Arrived. I’m even getting chatty with some of the other regulars.

Their main concern this week seemed to be my weight. In the last couple of months my weight has dropped by a quarter with no signs of a slowdown. If I could bottle my secret I’d be up there with Musk [financially, not in any other way].

So I am now on a diet.

If it’s unhealthy, go for it. Anything that mentions Slim or Diet is to be avoided like the plague. Lots and lots of gunk. I laid in a stash of brownies yesterday from the coffee shop – slabs of chocolate that sink like a brick to the stomach and are delicious. Eat, eat, eat.

I’m back there again this afternoon.

It’s no fucking wonder everyone now knows me.