(Quick – someone guess which book that “last line” is from!!)<\/p>\n
I been away a long time, indeed. I am still away. Too many stories to tell. I am CLOGGED with stories. It is inSANE how many stories I have. (Carrie, that one was for you.)<\/p>\n
I have finally met Carrie (of Broom of Anger <\/a>fame) … and her husband and scrumptiously cute little girl. They were all generous enough to put us up in Belfast. I still haven’t quite processed all of it … but I first must say: thank you thank you to Carrie et al for your generosity, your kindness, your awesome sight-seeing skills, your tremendous Bloody Marys (which, obviously, I had heard much about), and for – in general – having us into your home. It meant a great deal.<\/p>\n I’ll write a bit more about all of that when I have time. We went to Bobby Sands’ grave. In the Milltown Cemetery, a place I feel like I know, a place I have heard so much about it, seen pictures of … it’s a place that lives in my imagination, my psyche … and I finally got to go. It’s something else, I’ll tell you.<\/p>\n Carrie’s daughter, in her adorable little fleece kitten hat, and her fleece mittens, chattered up a storm as we walked up and down the aisle of hunger-strikers’ graves … her wee laugh chiming into the air. One of the famous Bobby Sands quotes is (and forgive me if I get it a bit wrong): “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.” Carrie mentioned to her husband and to us later (and it was quite a moving moment) that the laughter of the wee girl in the cemetery was Sands’ dream come true. His revenge. A small girl, in a fleece hat, standing by his grave, laughing. A happy girl.<\/p>\n Oh, and obviously – anyone who follows Irish politics will know that a hell of a lot is going on up in Belfast right now … everyone waiting for a deal. We went to Sinn Fein headquarters, just to take a look, and there was a BBC truck parked outside, just waiting. Hanging around waiting for a decision. Our taxi driver pointed out Gerry Adams’ car. “That’s his car – he must be in there right now.” Haven’t heard anything yet … I think a decision is still pending … but it’s very much on everyone’s minds here.<\/p>\n Not to mention the chaos in the Ukraine right now. That news is on everyone’s lips as well.<\/p>\n More to tell, obviously. Just wanted to get a quick note out there.<\/p>\n It’s a grey and chilly morning in Dublin … it’s my birthday … I’ve got a hot cup of coffee beside me. Last night I got together with a guy I met in Glendalough and we were out until all hours of the night, talking and drinking and laughing and making out in a hilarious night club with an amazing light show, pounding music which has rendered me half-deaf, and NO ONE dancing. It was a multi-million-pound light show for …. nobody. We had a blast.<\/p>\n The street I’m living on at the moment is lined with gorgeous old Georgian-type houses and black wrought-iron gates, very much The Dead<\/i> kind of atmosphere, if you get my drift. I love it.<\/p>\n I hope everyone in the States had a very happy Thanksgiving. What has been very sweet, and very nice, is the amount of people here who have wished Allison and I a happy Thanksgiving. The second they hear our accents, they know we are from America, and they say, “Oh, and a very happy Thanksgiving to you …” Why that touches me so much I can’t really say, but it does.<\/p>\n At midnight last night, when it became my birthday, I was in a wacko nightclub, sipping whiskey, with my temporary boyfriend, in Ranelagh. It couldn’t have been a better birthday, really. In an unfamiliar setting, but … feeling quite at home. Happy. That’s the word for how I felt. Takes me a while to identify it.<\/p>\n And we walked back to my The Dead<\/i> look-alike street, and the moon was so full, so white, so over-blown, that it took my breath away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Quick – someone guess which book that “last line” is from!!) I been away a long time, indeed. I am still away. Too many stories to tell. I am CLOGGED with stories. It is inSANE how many stories I have. … Continue reading