A Busy Week

It's been a busy week. Monday was a family meal day with a lot of worry leading up to it. Zoe had only heard about the Pig Invasion, she hadn't seen it and I was fretting that she'd be completely gutted about the damage done. But she took the pragmatic view and I was greatly relieved.

Tuesday was a funeral service. It was an unusual one as the person whose funeral it was had died 10 weeks previously in Australia. Her husband brought her ashes back to Ireland for funeral and burial. It was a really lovely service. Afterwards, I went on a shopping expedition and bumped into a cousin. We went for coffee (and tea) and caught up with each other. Heard a very interesting piece of gossip about our Westminster representative who is currently in the news for all the wrong reasons. I feel a bye-election coming on which he'll probably win if he has the brass neck to stand and he will.

Wednesday I was not looking forward to as we were going to do some financial planning and had someone coming round to discuss it with us. But that wasn't as awful as I'd expected. Time for a bit of gardening and then off to Portballintrae to see Swisser. We had been asked for supper but had declined and she'd made it anyway so that was two suppers. I did not take the main course (a healthy vegetable dish) but did not refuse wine.

Thursday - the girls. We had an exciting trip to Portglenone then they had an exciting jaunt on the quad with Bert then it was the exciting trampoline for the rest of the day.

Yesterday I went to Belfast with Jazzer (whose sister's funeral was Tuesday) for another jaunt. The train was packed but it was an interesting trip as I got talking with some of the musicians from The McLain Family Band, a bluegrass band from Kentucky who'd been playing two nights in Ballymena and were on their way to Dublin.

In Belfast, we shopped a lot although I just bought Birkenstocks.  Between shops, we had coffee and a snack in the Linenhall Library, a drink in Maddens, dinner in The Apartment and another drink in the Europa Hotel. The train home wasn't as busy but I ran into a Facebook friend and we chatted all the way to Antrim.

From Antrim to Ballymena I got out my book, The Way I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, and came across a passage so shockingly harsh that I gasped. Closed the book and finished it later in the privacy of my own home. that evening. Very good read though not to everyone's taste I imagine.

That evening I watched the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy and enjoyed it a great deal. Found myself grinning throughout. Hadley Freeman, my favourite columnist in the Guardian Weekend magazine, had raved about it and I get that. Not to everyone's taste, I imagine. For instance, Bert said he wouldn't like it as he doesn't like reality shows. This week he has sat through The Hateful Eight and Natural Born Killers. Not for me. I watched the tiniest bit of The Hateful Eight but the minute...

BEWARE

!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

...Samuel L. Jackson got his bollocks shot off, I was out of there.

The pigs have been in Piggy Jail all week but we're making it up to them with extra rations. They had carrot cake today and liked it very much. It's not allowed to give them food that has been in a kitchen but we had it in the fridge in Bert's room which definitely isn't a kitchen and the only other thing that is kept in there is alcohol. Which the pigs also like.

Today it rained and it blew and I worked in the tunnel clearing weeds from where we harvested onions and garlic. Outside the bay tree blew over and the sunflowers were bent but not broken. When it all died down I put stronger stakes on all the tallest plants.

One more thing.

Today was our mother's birthday. She would have been 92 years old. I always thought she'd make it to her nineties but she didn't. And although I don't believe in an afterlife I wish I did because then I'd know she'd be looking out for a special person that she never got to meet but if she had, she'd have loved her very much.

Tomorrow is a day of rest.

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

I'm going to write about Thursday Nights because Saturday Nights are not where it's at in Spring Hill. For instance last night... Oh God I forgot! I'm sworn to secrecy. All I can say is that it involved a late evening dash to the pharmacist, Swisser being silly and Ian being stoical.

But Thursday nights - they're much better for Thursday nights are music nights. At the moment the group consists of stalwarts Bert and Glen, usually Ploppy Pants, Billy and Johnny . Then there's Hannah and whichever of her chaps she brings along. Very occasionally Joe comes and things get serious when he's around. But Ian has moved on to a band that actually gets gigs. And that would be Banjo Man's band.

Now the Thursday night thing has been mainly bluegrass from the start although people have brought different things to it. Joe, for instance, can play anything. He used to be the saxaphonist in a showband many years ago. He is really into teaching music and currently coaches an Orange band and another class that is being funded by some of that cultural money that is floating around. He and his wife also teach ballroom dancing but there's none of that (yet) on Thursday evenings.

Bert's not so crazy about the bluegrass stuff. He likes traditional Irish as he finds it more intricate and challenging. Glen likes anything with a folky tinge. Well he does play the mandolin. Ploppy Pants, another banjo man, is a bluegrass fan. The rest of them (the guitarists) just seem to be happy to play anything thats going on. Just to get the practice in y'know.

Hannah doll told me on Thursday that she had asked one of her mates along. I says fine but kidded her a bit that if she keeps bringing mates along the next thing everybody will be sitting around learning Nirvana songs. She pooh-poohed this.

Several hours later I entered the room to a chorus of 'in the pines' in the pines' as they were going over the good old Leadbelly song (in Nirvanesque mode) and how I chuckled. Especially at the sight of Ploppy Pants (a hillbilly to his very soul) sitting there clutching his banjo and glowering. Fruitlessly I tried to explain to him that the songs Leadbelly performed formed part of the roots of the music that became bluegrass etc. but he was unmollified.

Maybe this from Bliss will cheer him up. I had a lot of trouble sorting out those links. There are other good ones that are aimed specifically at banjo players but unfortunately I may have to 'phone in stupid' today as inspired by Marc and some others.

If y'all do manage to get to the amusements on The Strait of Messia remember that a lot, an awful lot, of hillbillies came from around these Norn Iron and Scotland parts. That's your cousin you might be chortling at.