But I'm getting ahead of myself. Again.
Let's have some poetry by well-known Irish penjockey James Joyce:
Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.
There’s music along the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.
All softly playing,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying
Upon an instrument.
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying
Upon an instrument.
For some reason, among the stereotypical Irish, poetry is almost the only form of expression valid. I mean, where else would one say: Strangers are friends, you haven't met, yet instead of: Come on, give that guy a chance!!!
But today's activities: after getting most of the main ingridients needed for my farewell dinner tomorrow, it was time to head out to meet up with Stephen and Molly- Sophie to have our "thank you for moving the trees"- picnic.
We went to St. Anne's park and had on company- expenses a really good time. The French girls had baguette and cheese with Stephen and I opted for a Burger with fries. Adventurous me, I know. Molly decided to pitch in some "organic cherries from Spain" (how they are any better than regularly grown domestic cherries, I don't know. I'd have to ask her.) and, living up to our age, we had a cherry-pit spitting contest. The criterion to be the King of Cherries was distance and precission. The latter was determined by hitting a sign, which none of us read. It probably rsaid something like "No spitting cherry pits" or so...But, we were working for a Tree planting charity and decided to do our active part in St. Anne's and start planting some cherry trees. Unfortunately, coming from Spain, they can't qualify to be autochthonous. But hey, they were organic.
After goofing around for a while, we went to explore the park for a little. Instead of wandering around, we did some geocaching. And, lo and behold, we even found some!!!
Here are some impressions:
After the above pic, the camera was out of my hands and see what happens:
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| from left: me, Stephen and Laetitia (don't know, how much she likes "Humphrey") |
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The goofing continues (actually, I didn't do any pull-ups, I just hung there for the better part of an hour :) )         |
As nice as St. Anne's Park Rose Garden is, I have to say it can't compete with the Rosengarten in the town, I live in. Come see for yourself.
Well, after St. Anne's Park, Laetitia and I went to Bull Island to do some more geocaching, while Molly- Sophie and Stephen had to head back to Dublin.I didn't have to, but I did promise Stephen to come back, if they needed my help.He was trying to overplay it, but I think, Stephen had a hard time not being too emotional. Me, you know, I can turn it off like a lightbulb- NOT!!! Sometimes, you just meet people, you would like to keep in your life forever. Like they guys, my oldest son was named after.
Okay, moving on.
Geocaching on Bull Island. VERY successful. Proof? Here are the pics, unedited, unphotoshopped, unexciting:
But geocaches weren't the only things, we found on the Island!
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| In case you're wondering: my first-ever shark. A little dead, but still a shark. |
Want some more scenery? Here we go:
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| Some people might rememeber something similar: this, in the 1920's, was some sort of women's changing room |
Was a really nice day out on the beach and walking and such. Didn't wanna miss this.
Coming back to Dunblin, I was reminded, this weekend is homosexual "appreciation" time. Politically incorrect and outspoken as I most the time am, at home, they can do whatever they want, even be married. But please don't teach my kids by your public example it is okay to be attracted by the same gender. As far as I know, this being a blog about environment and such, there aren't any gay or lesbian animals. Just because nature often is used as an example.
In Dublin, I took some pictures of objects, I wanted to capture for a while:
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| Part of Dublin city wall- really nice: they have lights in the street to show where the wall used to be to illustrate the outline of Olde Towne Dublin |
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| This is how I imagine Dublin in the late 1800s, early 1900s looked like, of course minus the cars and asphalt |
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| "Just" another church |
Jumping back:
I don't know what it is about beaches, but they inspire to contemplate the importance of things.
To me, it made clear, why I feel a little blue about leaving, when I can finally see my family, the most important people in my life, again:
apart from wanting to keep some folks in my life, it kind of feels like going to a dance: you know, this is not real life, but you are enjoying your time. And after the music died down and the lights are on again, you return to your save home and hope, the memories won't fade over time.
Anyone knowing me will raise an eyebrow referring to dancing, simply because I have, when it comes to dancing, perma-concrete shoes on.
BUT, when I was a little younger than today (let's say about 10 years), and went to a dance or two, it was possible to just enjoy the time without thinking about what other people might think of me goofing around.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not struck by mid-life crisis, trying to re-live my youth. By no means. It was just, after two years of constant scrutiny by so-called colleagues, possible to be at work and just to be myself. You know, maybe singing quietly with the music on the computer, trying to make colleagues to join me in the chorus, bring cake and make them eat it, whether they wanted or not...just innocent stuff like that. Simple mind? I BET YA!!! But, hey, some people are in dire need of a break from life, too! My suggestion: don't use the European Union as a sponsor :)
All this sounds unfair towards my awesome wife, bringing three kids up on her own because I'm gone so much. And believe me, I feel terrible about it. We both agree, though, in the long run, it will be better, career wise, to be separated for some time instead of me being home and trying, with various degrees of success, different ways of making money.
To wrap it up for today, I should probably offer to drop me a line if you want any of the pics on the blog.
I will write one last time tomorrow and bring this to an end for now.
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