'D'you like dates?'
'Man-dates or eating dates?'
'Eating, silly.'
'Love 'em.'
'Have a packet, someone gave them to Wily Coyote and we don't like them.'
'Thanks!'
Accepts packet, removes clip, reaches in without reading the label and picks out a....
'These aren't dates.'
'Oh? what are they then?'
'Figs.' (and yes, the packet clearly said 'figs'!!)
'Oh...apparently we don't like figs either.'
Saturday, 31 May 2014
Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Catch Up
I think we will have bullet points for efficacy in transfer of information:
(Youngest is doing a Career Skills course for six weeks and I am being dragged from Neanderthal to 21stC I'm told...the phrase 'nothing new under the sun' springs to mind, but I listen and hope to learn something new which will give me the edge in any interviews I might receive...apparently bullet points are 'in'!)
Funny story: in school yesterday after morning break I took all eight classes up to the Church to work out seating and manoeuvring for Friday week...as anyone working with children knows, the logistics of moving groups of children around in a confined space like a Church takes a bit of thought in order to avoid congestion or mishaps.
I thought I had cleared it with the Principal and everyone but as I took off out of school he called after me: 'I have visitors coming to see around the school and there's not a single child left in the place!'
The hilarity of it struck me later- how many of you when asked what you did today can answer, 'I walked off with two hundred children!'
Lots of love,
Pied Piper.
(Youngest is doing a Career Skills course for six weeks and I am being dragged from Neanderthal to 21stC I'm told...the phrase 'nothing new under the sun' springs to mind, but I listen and hope to learn something new which will give me the edge in any interviews I might receive...apparently bullet points are 'in'!)
- One calendar month left until Middlest's Wedding- (holy smoke-aagh) she finished her College Finals last Friday.
- Two bridesmaids dresses to alter and one wedding dress.
- guitar needs three new strings (glad someone else got the organ repaired!)
- I didn't get a place on the course in Dublin, over the disappointment now though.
- Haven't even got as far as an interview for any of the teaching jobs I've applied for, actually, not even a request for references, guess its really dung-heap time...
- Need a new music stand- why can't someone manufacture an unbreakable foldable music stand?
- Sheet music for seven pieces of music...then learn to play, two guitar, five organ.
- 130 tea cups and saucers needed, but hey! do I mind hanging out in Charity shops for the next month?
- Important School service on Friday week, grand opening for the new school, which we moved into Patrick's weekend a year ago! Hairy caniptions? not me, more the rest of the teachers having to deal with me...actually funny story later.
- general sewing (belated gifts!) to give to family members who will be at wedding, in order to save postage!!
Funny story: in school yesterday after morning break I took all eight classes up to the Church to work out seating and manoeuvring for Friday week...as anyone working with children knows, the logistics of moving groups of children around in a confined space like a Church takes a bit of thought in order to avoid congestion or mishaps.
I thought I had cleared it with the Principal and everyone but as I took off out of school he called after me: 'I have visitors coming to see around the school and there's not a single child left in the place!'
The hilarity of it struck me later- how many of you when asked what you did today can answer, 'I walked off with two hundred children!'
Lots of love,
Pied Piper.
Saturday, 17 May 2014
An Entertaining Evening of Entertainment
A few months ago some daft person had the grand idea that wouldn't it be a fab thing if the School Choir and Past Pupils did a musical fundraising evening...a.k.a. a Concert.
The School Choir is exceptionally good, has been going strong since 1986 and performs regularly.
No problem there so.
The Past Pupils?
Are ya mad?
Well, after a couple of months of hard work, it happened, was successful and was actually great fun.
The school Choir master undertook to train up the Past Pupils, and, as I have mentioned previously I fear we had not improved with age . Poor A. suffered for the cause, jollied us along without losing the rag, tried to avoid covering his ears too much of the time, and announced he had a ticket booked for a quick escape before the concert if we didn't get our act together!
When one has such a diversity of people involved in an evening the potential for unstructured disaster is huge. If too much time is wasted the audience become bored and the evening is judged a disaster whatever the quality of individual acts. Well, the school Choir has in the region of sixty teenagers, the Past Pupils about twenty five people, there were at least four solo singer or instrumental acts, the pianist had an exam in Dublin in the morning and couldn't arrive til 6pm, there were several small singing groups, the school Ceili band, a three generation family group, school and adult instrumentals, and others. Despite the adults' best attempt at sabotage by wandering out into the auditorium to see what was going on in between their songs, the stage Manager (one of the teachers) somehow managed to keep everything moving swiftly.
The atmosphere was more festival than Concert, to the extent that, after the interval the teacher/stage manager had to practically boss the audience back to their seats they were so busy catching up with each other, and at the end no one wanted to leave. Chairs being stacked and the hall cleared was just an invitation to move more freely and chat longer!
For me the experience was an eye-opener on several levels. The fact that every single performer was a pupil of the school- past, present, and one future, with a huge disparity in age all working together without personalities intruding, says a lot for the long-term school ethos: whether or not we knew each other at school we had no problems slotting into a working whole. I counted four participating members of staff who are past pupils and I know there are other past pupils on the staff too- what does it say when a school is prepared to hire its own past pupils? For myself it was a holiday from the demons in my own head because I was just myself. Call it regression, time out, unrealistic, but it was peaceful being with people I knew who just took me as I was in the present moment.
People complain about the lack of continuity these days, but in some ways we are privileged by where we live on the western edge of this western island. The school moved into its present premises mid 1700s but had been going since the mid 1600s elsewhere. Some families have the names of generation after generation carved into the brick wall out the side! Narrow- minded, small town country? Perhaps...but also a knowledge of place, self, and identity in the continuum...my grandfather knew your uncle who knows her aunt and now I teach your children...
...and was that your uncle's cousin's aunt's grandson playing the violin so beautifully?
The School Choir is exceptionally good, has been going strong since 1986 and performs regularly.
No problem there so.
The Past Pupils?
Are ya mad?
Well, after a couple of months of hard work, it happened, was successful and was actually great fun.
The school Choir master undertook to train up the Past Pupils, and, as I have mentioned previously I fear we had not improved with age . Poor A. suffered for the cause, jollied us along without losing the rag, tried to avoid covering his ears too much of the time, and announced he had a ticket booked for a quick escape before the concert if we didn't get our act together!
When one has such a diversity of people involved in an evening the potential for unstructured disaster is huge. If too much time is wasted the audience become bored and the evening is judged a disaster whatever the quality of individual acts. Well, the school Choir has in the region of sixty teenagers, the Past Pupils about twenty five people, there were at least four solo singer or instrumental acts, the pianist had an exam in Dublin in the morning and couldn't arrive til 6pm, there were several small singing groups, the school Ceili band, a three generation family group, school and adult instrumentals, and others. Despite the adults' best attempt at sabotage by wandering out into the auditorium to see what was going on in between their songs, the stage Manager (one of the teachers) somehow managed to keep everything moving swiftly.
The atmosphere was more festival than Concert, to the extent that, after the interval the teacher/stage manager had to practically boss the audience back to their seats they were so busy catching up with each other, and at the end no one wanted to leave. Chairs being stacked and the hall cleared was just an invitation to move more freely and chat longer!
For me the experience was an eye-opener on several levels. The fact that every single performer was a pupil of the school- past, present, and one future, with a huge disparity in age all working together without personalities intruding, says a lot for the long-term school ethos: whether or not we knew each other at school we had no problems slotting into a working whole. I counted four participating members of staff who are past pupils and I know there are other past pupils on the staff too- what does it say when a school is prepared to hire its own past pupils? For myself it was a holiday from the demons in my own head because I was just myself. Call it regression, time out, unrealistic, but it was peaceful being with people I knew who just took me as I was in the present moment.
People complain about the lack of continuity these days, but in some ways we are privileged by where we live on the western edge of this western island. The school moved into its present premises mid 1700s but had been going since the mid 1600s elsewhere. Some families have the names of generation after generation carved into the brick wall out the side! Narrow- minded, small town country? Perhaps...but also a knowledge of place, self, and identity in the continuum...my grandfather knew your uncle who knows her aunt and now I teach your children...
...and was that your uncle's cousin's aunt's grandson playing the violin so beautifully?
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Identity: Dr. Who?
Here's a question:
What defines you? What makes you exactly who you are and different to everyone else?
How do you think of yourself? How would you introduce yourself to someone new?
What words would another person use to describe you? Someone who knows you well and someone who was a casual friend?
What aspects of your personality shine through for all to see, and are they the aspects for which you would like to be remembered?
When people think of you do they consider your integrity? your kindness? your creativity in whatever medium you like to use? are you the sort of person other people turn to when they want a job done and done well? are you a prop or the propped?
When they leave you do people feel encouraged? uplifted? exhausted with laughing? or worn tho a thread from your neediness? do they enjoy your company and remember you with thanksgiving? do they feel they matter to you- do they want to matter to you?
Are you the sum of your life experiences? Are you marching to an off-beat or going against the flow? Are you a Quilter? an Evangelist? an Accountant? a Teacher? a Musician? Or is what you do for a living not actually who you consider yourself to be?
Do people actually see you when they are with you or do you fade behind titles such as 'wife', 'mother', 'gran' 'secretary', 'teacher', 'so'n'so's friend', or (worst of all) 'well-meaning...but'? Do people look at you and not actually see you at all, or see a reflection of themselves which they think you complement?
And then, if you were stripped of your labels, titles, job, destination, possessions, all the things which, intentionally or otherwise, have come to define you- what would be left? Would you like the naked soul you met in the deep dark night of despair? or would you be horrified to discover you had become something unpleasant whilst you were looking the other way and getting on with your life?
When you stop and look do you see someone you actually like? or do you see someone who has fallen so far short of their own dreams, ideals, hopes, ethics, beliefs, aspirations, that it feels as though you are meeting a stranger, and not one you really wish to spend much time with?
Does it matter that you have arrived somewhere you never intended to go? Does it matter that people look at you and see someone you never intended to be? Does it matter that you have lost who you thought you were and are having to start over again?
Which is more important- that you try to live rightly by the light of your choice? or keep others happy at the loss of yourself? is there a mid-way?
Everyone wrestles with themselves at some time, or at many times, is it a waste of energy or do we learn from such times of self-doubt?
So when you look to yourself in a quiet moment do you recognise yourself?
PS. And does it matter?
What defines you? What makes you exactly who you are and different to everyone else?
How do you think of yourself? How would you introduce yourself to someone new?
What words would another person use to describe you? Someone who knows you well and someone who was a casual friend?
What aspects of your personality shine through for all to see, and are they the aspects for which you would like to be remembered?
When people think of you do they consider your integrity? your kindness? your creativity in whatever medium you like to use? are you the sort of person other people turn to when they want a job done and done well? are you a prop or the propped?
When they leave you do people feel encouraged? uplifted? exhausted with laughing? or worn tho a thread from your neediness? do they enjoy your company and remember you with thanksgiving? do they feel they matter to you- do they want to matter to you?
Are you the sum of your life experiences? Are you marching to an off-beat or going against the flow? Are you a Quilter? an Evangelist? an Accountant? a Teacher? a Musician? Or is what you do for a living not actually who you consider yourself to be?
Do people actually see you when they are with you or do you fade behind titles such as 'wife', 'mother', 'gran' 'secretary', 'teacher', 'so'n'so's friend', or (worst of all) 'well-meaning...but'? Do people look at you and not actually see you at all, or see a reflection of themselves which they think you complement?
And then, if you were stripped of your labels, titles, job, destination, possessions, all the things which, intentionally or otherwise, have come to define you- what would be left? Would you like the naked soul you met in the deep dark night of despair? or would you be horrified to discover you had become something unpleasant whilst you were looking the other way and getting on with your life?
When you stop and look do you see someone you actually like? or do you see someone who has fallen so far short of their own dreams, ideals, hopes, ethics, beliefs, aspirations, that it feels as though you are meeting a stranger, and not one you really wish to spend much time with?
Does it matter that you have arrived somewhere you never intended to go? Does it matter that people look at you and see someone you never intended to be? Does it matter that you have lost who you thought you were and are having to start over again?
Which is more important- that you try to live rightly by the light of your choice? or keep others happy at the loss of yourself? is there a mid-way?
Everyone wrestles with themselves at some time, or at many times, is it a waste of energy or do we learn from such times of self-doubt?
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
So when you look to yourself in a quiet moment do you recognise yourself?
PS. And does it matter?
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
CD Splurge- Rackhouse Pilfer
 |
| Love and Havoc- Rackhouse Pilfer's new album! |
Rackhouse Pilfer's new album is ace!
Yes I was very bold and bought it for myself...
Yes, I still need shoes but until someone wants to interview me for a job what do shoes matter?
Yes, I've been playing it so loudly that the people in the office across the landing haven't needed to buy their own copy because they can listen to mine 24/7...or even 27/4...
WHAT?! You haven't heard of Rackhouse Pilfer? VERY famous bluegrass country band who hang out in a pub two streets across?
Well, the only thing better than being a fan already is having that treat in store for you!!
Hey! Did ya get the message that I like Rackhouse Pilfer's music- A LOT?
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Escape v. Perspective
Life never runs either smoothly or according to plan, does it? Neither physical life nor inward life. Often the two do not even run in tandem, and when outsiders think one is sailing through a calm, organised, 'together' patch, one's mind can be an utter battlefield of indecision, insecurity, demons, problem wrestling and the like, or vice versa. I suppose that is just as well as a calm outer shell gives one time to think, but would it not be just wonderful if outer calm matched inner certainty of purpose a bit more often?
And then there are the times when outer and inner lives are equally chaotic and it is difficult to keep hold of reality at all. Such has been my last few months, so naturally I ground to a halting heap of bleating ineptitude. Now I am wrestling a new bull having decided to apply to do a year's course in Dublin, applied, mark you, nothing definite...also no funding and nowhere to live- minor inconveniences, hmm?
One friend has several times pointed out that going to Dublin will not solve any problems, leaving all the mess of the marriage in one town whilst moving to another will not make it go away, or fix it, or end it: running does not help.
Another friend showed me an article by Oliver Burkeman which advocates distance and perspective as a means of getting to grips with problems. Well that's the gist of it. Her theory is the use of mental holiday mode in that getting away can make you see more clearly changes which need making, or worries which are unimportant, or even that maybe things are just fine as they are.
Which returns me to taking a year out to do a course in Dublin. I know that I need to sort things legally but I have to wait for other events to pass; I know that one piddly little course won't change my life; I know that finding somewhere I can afford to live in Dublin (rents are rocketing) is going to be a bother; funding for the course will also be a bother as will living expenses; and that solutions are worked at rather than arriving in blinding flashes.
But the alternative?
I have no job and no likelihood of a job as I have nothing to offer that a hundred young folk can't offer better and more cheaply (recessions voiding the attribute of experience over cheapness), I am well used to living on the smell of an oil rag, to say nothing of the wing and prayer method, and is it so bad to want to escape the judgement and censure of people here for leaving my marriage? I would like to be able to walk down a street unafraid to lift my eyes for fear of meeting someone who is not speaking to me and not afraid to cut me dead or make nasty comments to me. You think separation and divorce are acceptable in 21C modern world? Think again, my friends, they are not, well they are for men, but not for women it would seem...figure that at your leisure...
So is distancing oneself to gain perspective a different concept to running away? I suppose it depends upon whether one returns to act on any insight one may have gained and for that only time may tell. Is running away from unpleasantness any way to solve a problem? They who judge have made their attitudes my problem, I never asked them to take sides and indeed they know nothing of my situation since I am not prepared to demean myself by broadcasting details. Being a 'nobody' in a large city for a while would surely be a mental holiday from being a 'wicked female' in a small town and give me headspace to decide what is important and what is not.
Although Ireland being what it is, no one is ever a 'nobody' for more than five minutes! Island life, I ask ya!
So, sorry about the bitchfest, I do generally attempt to keep posts bitch-free but I get so tired of being the wicked one and trying to hold my head up. I think I need a break from living, pity one can't do that...
And then there are the times when outer and inner lives are equally chaotic and it is difficult to keep hold of reality at all. Such has been my last few months, so naturally I ground to a halting heap of bleating ineptitude. Now I am wrestling a new bull having decided to apply to do a year's course in Dublin, applied, mark you, nothing definite...also no funding and nowhere to live- minor inconveniences, hmm?
One friend has several times pointed out that going to Dublin will not solve any problems, leaving all the mess of the marriage in one town whilst moving to another will not make it go away, or fix it, or end it: running does not help.
Another friend showed me an article by Oliver Burkeman which advocates distance and perspective as a means of getting to grips with problems. Well that's the gist of it. Her theory is the use of mental holiday mode in that getting away can make you see more clearly changes which need making, or worries which are unimportant, or even that maybe things are just fine as they are.
Which returns me to taking a year out to do a course in Dublin. I know that I need to sort things legally but I have to wait for other events to pass; I know that one piddly little course won't change my life; I know that finding somewhere I can afford to live in Dublin (rents are rocketing) is going to be a bother; funding for the course will also be a bother as will living expenses; and that solutions are worked at rather than arriving in blinding flashes.
But the alternative?
I have no job and no likelihood of a job as I have nothing to offer that a hundred young folk can't offer better and more cheaply (recessions voiding the attribute of experience over cheapness), I am well used to living on the smell of an oil rag, to say nothing of the wing and prayer method, and is it so bad to want to escape the judgement and censure of people here for leaving my marriage? I would like to be able to walk down a street unafraid to lift my eyes for fear of meeting someone who is not speaking to me and not afraid to cut me dead or make nasty comments to me. You think separation and divorce are acceptable in 21C modern world? Think again, my friends, they are not, well they are for men, but not for women it would seem...figure that at your leisure...
So is distancing oneself to gain perspective a different concept to running away? I suppose it depends upon whether one returns to act on any insight one may have gained and for that only time may tell. Is running away from unpleasantness any way to solve a problem? They who judge have made their attitudes my problem, I never asked them to take sides and indeed they know nothing of my situation since I am not prepared to demean myself by broadcasting details. Being a 'nobody' in a large city for a while would surely be a mental holiday from being a 'wicked female' in a small town and give me headspace to decide what is important and what is not.
Although Ireland being what it is, no one is ever a 'nobody' for more than five minutes! Island life, I ask ya!
So, sorry about the bitchfest, I do generally attempt to keep posts bitch-free but I get so tired of being the wicked one and trying to hold my head up. I think I need a break from living, pity one can't do that...
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Just An Observation
How many of us get up in the night and use the bathroom without switching on the light?
I do.
How many of us are silly enough to do the same in a friend's place?
I am...
Not only is it quite disorienting to shut the door and find oneself in pitch blackness with no notion of the location of the loo, but it is even more unsettling when one thinks one knows where to rest one's naked backside only to either fall off the edge of the seat due to miscalculation, or to miss it entirely and hit cold tiles...
Yes well.
I'm staying at a friend's place just now as you can probably tell...
I do.
How many of us are silly enough to do the same in a friend's place?
I am...
Not only is it quite disorienting to shut the door and find oneself in pitch blackness with no notion of the location of the loo, but it is even more unsettling when one thinks one knows where to rest one's naked backside only to either fall off the edge of the seat due to miscalculation, or to miss it entirely and hit cold tiles...
Yes well.
I'm staying at a friend's place just now as you can probably tell...
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