Weekend plans July 5th to 8th.

I am on the bus heading home. Tonight I shall pack a few clothes, my camera and check I have enough cash to visit a three day charity book sale. :-)

Tomorrow I shall head north west to Donegal and stay there until Sunday. I have taken Friday and Monday off so I can relax for the weekend. :-)

Now you know why I was quick to start the weekend thread.

I will probably not spend three days in the book dale. Probably.

We are having a Birthday celebration for our country today. I am staying home, caring for mom, catching up on my computer stuff, cooking a little. My son is coming home for a visit, and I have four days off. Isn't it funny, I should be motivated to get a lot done, but all I want to do is drift.

>1 pgmcc: Have a lovely weekend spree!

The car is going in for a pre-MoT service tomorrow. Assuming all goes well, we'll be into Cambridge on Saturday for the monthly board games meet. Sunday will be spent relaxing round the house & garden. I may pop up to the tip and the garden centre; I want some leeks to plant out (when I was up there last, the leeks were like green button thread).

Friday we have tickets to go see the new Spidey movie, and Saturday will start with fika at my parents', and then instead of going home we're going to visit my sister and her family. The weather is extraordinarily crappy at the moment, 13 deg C and rain, and more rain, and then some more. My sister had planned a barbecue, but we all expect to dine indoors.
Sunday I'm hoping for some peace and quiet, preferably reading.

>1 pgmcc: Three days in Donegal and a book sale. Oh my, mega envy. Have a wonderful time!

>3 Maddz: And we've just been notified of an Extinction Rebellion protest that's going to be blocking street access to the games day (including access to the private car park we use). Along with the Big Weekend also in town, it's going to be gridlocked in Cambridge.

Unless we use the park and ride service and walk from the city centre, I guess we won't be going. Paul has a bus ticket that covers him for the Stagecoach services, but not the Whippet service - and that's the one that stops close to the venue.

>6 Maddz: what is an Extinction Rebellion?

>4 Busifer: what is "fika?"

Today was a kick back day celebrating the Fourth. My town does a pet parade in the morning. It's pretty cute. Hundreds of people show up with their pets and parade through downtown. There are dogs, chickens, pigs, snakes, lizards, horses, donkeys, etc. They haven't allowed cats for a few years. Not sure why. The people are dressed in red, white, and blue as are the bikes, wagons, and animals. We then have an "old fashioned celebration" in the park. Lots of food carts, crafty vendors, and games for families to play.

We then spent the rest of the day just relaxing. For me, that means reading in the backyard. For The Husband, that's watching tv and working on a model. I have baby back ribs marinating in the fridge and we will grill them in a little while.

Kayaking tomorrow with a friend.

Saturday is our neighborhood celebration. It starts with a neighborhood fun run (5K) and then a party from 2:30 until whenever. We will probably stay till around 6 or so.

Sunday will be the usual of grocery shopping and cleaning.

We're having older son and his girlfriend over for dinner on Saturday, as a belated celebration of his 30th birthday. Will probably invite the grandparents, too. Hard to believe my baby is 30!

Other than that, I don't think there's anything on except the Running Room's Run Club on Sunday morning, which I have to attend as I'm doing one of their clinics to train for a 10K in August. Sunday runs are the Long Slow Distance runs, and they're easier in a group because you can chat while you run. Very tedious otherwise.

Oh, and a massage on Saturday morning.

>7 catzteach: https://rebellion.earth/

Busy weekend. Friday is my friend Marl Brown's 87th birthday. He is our museum curator and a real character. We're having a big picnic for him at the museum, and lots of friends and family will be there. Saturday the museum board is having a meeting with the architect about the addition we are planning. Hope to get it started this fall or next spring. I'm doing my usual Saturday run on Sunday, because of the meeting.

>7 catzteach: "baby back ribs" Not of human origin, one presumes.

>10 NorthernStar: "started this fall ..." Is building still possible in winter where you live?

I am reminded that tomorrow is the Durban July, South Africa's most expensive horse race and fashion extravaganza. All sensible readers (self included) will make a point of giving the city center -- Greyville area the widest possible berth.

We're just hanging around the house. It's very busy and loud on the water. I think this is the most popular weekend for people who have camps/rentals/weekend houses on this part of the river.

I've been obsessing over my new stage of jewelry making - soldering. Almost everything I need to get started has arrived, just waiting on a few more things. In the mean time I've been reading and watching videos - some with techniques that will take me years to master, but it's fun seeing real studios and artists at work.

Sunday the main pilot who flies my husband around will join us for dinner, he may stay overnight, but we don't know yet. He has to be at the airport early to get the plane out, do inspections, file flight plans, etc, so not sure, but it's all good.

Oh and on a bad note. My dad is in the hospital again. Mass General this time. He had some violent seizures two nights ago and he has no history of this kind of thing. He broke his shoulder during one of them. My mom, brother and his family are visiting him today. He's awake and stable, but they still have no idea what caused the seizures. Oy vey. Getting old isn't for the weak.

>13 Bookmarque: Oh no, sorry to hear about your dad. Sending you all good wishes.

I'm going to be singing in the chapel at Hampton Court Palace tomorrow for an Evensong service. That should be pretty special. Sunday is our vicar's Ruby wedding anniversary, so I will be ringing a quarter peal on the church bells with the rest of the band, then going along to the celebration which she and her husband are hosting. In the evening a friend and I are going to see the ballet version of Noel Streatfeild's story Ballet shoes. So lots of good things!

I'm at work today but it should be quiet. We might go to a minor league baseball game tonight because we missed the fireworks yesterday and they are shooting some off after the game (well, and we love our Baby Giants). Tomorrow I have a party to go to that includes helping with gardening work (which I enjoy). Sunday I hope to just relax. Monday I have off, but I have to go to the dentist. :-(

Well, THAT was expensive. Today's trip to the garage cost me nearly £900 - all 4 tyres needed replacing as well as the service and work on the suspension and brakes. At least I don't have to take it back for the MoT in 2 weeks - they had a slot free today and put it through post-dating the new expiry date to match the existing expiry date.

It's still got to go to the local dealer next Friday to have the airbag replaced, and I decided to book the day off (too much fiddling around with 30 mins-1.5 hours each way depending on traffic in Cambridge). The fun thing about next week is that I'll only be going into the office 2 days - we got notified that the gas engineers want access on Wednesday & Thursday because the gas main is being replaced on the street.

And I may have to go back to the dentist as well - the tooth I broke 2 months ago has sheared again.

>13 Bookmarque: I am very sorry to hear the news about your father. I hope the results come through quickly. Uncertainty is horrible.

>14 Sakerfalcon: I am jealous; that does sound rather wonderful. Where else do you sing?

>11 hfglen: I doubt they would be able to get it to the point where they could do much actual building, but might be able to get site prep and some foundation work done. Building in tbe winter here is possible, but expensive, and NOT nice.

>13 Bookmarque: sorry to hear about your dad, I hope they get things figured out and that he is on the mend.

>13 Bookmarque: oh dear, not good. Best wishes.

>14 Sakerfalcon: What a weekend full of lovelies!

>16 Maddz: Not so lovely for you though. Again best wishes for your immediate (no doubt) dentist visit.

Thanks peeps. No change in dad , but they can’t give him a pain block treatment because of the myesthenia gravis although I don’t know why. So frustrating. But he hasn’t seized since he’s been hospitalized.

Loud day on the water. I know they’re fun but jet skis and ski boats just suck. I seriously feared for two momma ducks and their tiny babies.

My wife and I went to a music store today. I looked at some djembe drums but they were out of the only one that I really liked. She found a keyboard that she liked, so we brought it home and set it up. She played piano many years ago and is looking forward to getting back into it.

Sunday I'll be hurrying home from meeting to watch the final of the women's soccer world cup.

>13 Bookmarque: hoping for good news for you and your dad.

>20 Bookmarque: sending healing thoughts to your dad.

>9 Maddz: thanks for the link

>11 hfglen: hahaha, piggy origin

>20 Bookmarque: I don’t like the noisy toys on lakes. When I’m on a lake, I like it quiet. I went kayaking today and it was so peaceful! The lake I was on doesn’t allow motors.

>1 pgmcc: Enjoy the weekend - book sale... just imagine... do you need a moving truck for the trip home?

>4 Busifer: Hope you enjoyed the movie (we went on Thursday night and were very pleased - there's always so much for them to live up to now)

>13 Bookmarque: Sending good wishes for your Dad.

>14 Sakerfalcon: Enjoy your singing and the trip to the ballet.

To all who are having weekends with family/friends - enjoy, may you find time to relax and have fun together, a bit of time for reading and books too.

As for me, I'm meeting with my sister and nephew this morning for a couple of 'jobs that need doing' and then we're off to meet my Dad for a coastal walk. All being well Mum is meeting us at the other end where there is a nice wee pub for a spot of lunch.

Apart from that my weekend will probably consist of a bit of housework and hopefully some reading (maybe a bit of a chance to catch up on some DVDs as well).

I am not risking saying anything!

Last weekend my plans were derailed by a migraine.
After I replied to pgmcc's enquiry that I had indeed recovered fully, another cut in.

So - I'm staying shtum, in the interests of maybe not spending the weekend feeling as if someone is inserting needles into my eye socket.

I normally get migraines maybe once or twice a year. Current stress levels undoubtedly have something to do with it.

>24 -pilgrim-: Rotten. One migraine is bad enough, two are an abomination. Please get over this one ASAP!

Thanks everyone.

those are my favorite lakes, too, catzteach. Normally this flowage is pretty quiet, but on holiday weekends, especially the 4th of July, it gets loud and very busy. Today is raining so maybe everyone will go home and if the sun comes out later we'll have out quiet water back.

>24 -pilgrim-: I remember my late mother suffering from migraines when I was a teenager. It was largely stress - her marriage was in the process of breaking up, and after my parents finally split, the migraines largely stopped.

>24 -pilgrim-: not another one! Migraines are awful! I used to get them once a month. Now I’m lucky enough to only get one or two a year. But they knock me out more since I don’t get them as much. I hope yours goes away quickly and does not come back for a good long while, or ever.

>26 Bookmarque: the lake I went to is rather popular on a regular day, but it was super crowded yesterday. People were parking at least 1/4 mile away (blocking the forest service road) and walking back to the lake, sometimes carrying their kayak.

>7 catzteach: "Fika" is what we call having coffee and pastries/biscuits (in the UK sense of the word...). It was maybe more necessary in the older days when most work was manual and required a lot of energy: it serves as a sort of snack break. Nowadays it's more like "let's meet over a fika", which means we'll have coffee/tea and munch on something while catching up on life.

>20 Bookmarque: Holding my thumbs for your dad to get well soon.

>21 Jim53: I, too, expect to watch that game. Anything but an US win would be a surprise, though.
I didn't get to see Sweden win the bronze as we were out in a garden. And watching or listening to a game would had been very rude to my sister and her husband, whose birthday get-together it was. I was so sure England would win, I really like the way they have played, this far.

>23 Peace2: Well, I thought it was so and so. Fun, of course, but I don't really feel that I'm the target group. Son, who soon turns 16, liked it very much.
I have no idea how they got from the entrance to the Tower of London to the building with the crown jewels without getting gunned down by drones. It's a fairly long and open stretch. But hey - it's a superhero movie ;-)

>24 -pilgrim-: Ouch! I hope your weekend turned out well.

thanks everyone for your thoughts and wishes. Dad is doing well.

The story is that his seizures were caused by the brain bleed he had in 2017. That was caused by anti-clotting drugs he was on when the clots in his legs went to his lungs. They say the scar tissue in the brain can cause seizures even if he isn't currently bleeding (he isn't). They didn't say it was usual, but that it was something they expect in many cases. Why the fuck they didn't warn us about this and put him on anti-seizure meds is BEYOND my comprehension. I'm livid about it. He wouldn't need a shoulder ball joint replacement now if he'd been on meds. The episodes he had were so violent he wrecked his shoulder and is a ton of a pain (surgery tomorrow). At the very least the severity might have been less even if he did have one.

Anger aside, the hospital stay will be considerably shorter now we know what we're dealing with and it isn't complicated or mysterious.

Well, gotta finish cleaning up for our dinner guest and then maybe I can enjoy the deck with my latest book Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward.

>38 suitable1: About your dad: well, it’s good news of a sort. Best of luck for him for the surgery.

>30 Bookmarque: Why the fuck they didn't warn us about this and put him on anti-seizure meds

As you are probably aware, my current enthusiasm for the medical profession is extremely low, but (being the Devil's Advocate for a moment) maybe they were concerned about the side-effects?

As to why they didn't warn you of the possibility? "We didn't think it necessary to worry you" would be on a par with some of the patronising responses that I have heard recently!

I am sorry your father is going through this, but really glad to hear that his problems are something fixable.

>25 haydninvienna:, >27 Maddz:, >28 catzteach:, >29 Busifer: Thanks everyone. I agree with Maddz, this is probably stress-related. Like @catztesch, my normal rate is a couple per year.

But the 'stealth approach' worked: I actually had quite a good Sunday, even managing to fit in a short visit to a medical museum. I found the comparative anatomy fascinating, but, really, looking at pickled tumours was something I could have done without!

I know it is ~p~, thank you for taking the time to respond and commiserate. Yeah, it could have been lost in the shuffle since he had so much wrong with him at once, but it still irks me that we had no idea this could happen. Bah. I know you and others have it worse, but I say bah!

Surgery today at noon eastern US time.

I'm going paddling since today is the only non thunderstormy day we're going to have until Friday. Husband is off to work in NH and won't be back until Thursday.

>34 Bookmarque:

I hope the surgery goes well. I say "bah!" with you.

>24 -pilgrim-: Sorry to hear about the second migraine kicking in. I swear, I had nothing to do with it. Honest.

How was Donegal, Peter?

>37 haydninvienna:

He took an inch!

Having started this thread with enthusiasm for a long weekend in Donegal and a three day book fair, I feel I owe you a full weekend report.

As with any event there were negatives, but despite the negatives I had a wonderful weekend.

I took Friday and Monday as annual leave so the first thing I did on Friday was get up at my usual time of 06:00hrs and head into town to pick up the car I was hiring for the weekend. (Quick head-nod to the car hire company. I have used as many of the car rental companies I know over the years but I have settled on a favourite. It is probably inappropriate to mention the enterprising company I use but it has corny advertisements about customer service but it lives up to the promise. I mean the customer service is excellent; not corny. I have rented from them in three countries and found the service of equally high quality every time. If I need to hire a car for any enterprise, and I mean any enterprise, I chose this enterprising company first. I believe it is US based. I forgot to say I also find their rates very competitive.)

The car was ready and waiting for me and agent had me up and running in no time at all. I learned a few weeks ago that the hire company has Nissan Qashqais as their fourth level car. While this was three levels up from the cheapest rental rate I discovered that the price difference over the four day hire was only €6. As I drive a Qashqai I was delighted to hire a car that I am used to driving.

So, I had the car.

Headed home, picked up George (our cat) and headed to the cattery. The place we use is great. We have been using it for years. We started with our dog Indiana who loved it so when we got cats we used it for the cats too. It goes by the great title of The Canine Country Club and Cattery. Again, great customer service and reasonable priced. The first time we left Indiana there while we were on holiday she did not want to go home with us. We went to collect her; she came out with her tail wagging; ran over to us and had cuddles all round then headed back into the kennels as if she had enjoyed our visit and we could now go home.

I digress.

I got on the road to Donegal about 13:00hrs. I expected to be in Donegal about 17:00. I got there at 20:15. The direct route is not motorway and dual carriageway the whole way. In fact most of it is normal A-grade country road, which in Ireland is a two way road with a single lane in each direction. It was on one of these roads in Northern Ireland (my route took me through Northern Ireland) that I met a traffic jam. Apparently there had been a three-car pile-up at a junction about a mile up the road. I checked google maps for an alternate route to find that I would have had to add about seventy miles onto the journey to bypass the point where the accident was. At the time I was not even sure where the accident was. I could have been eight miles up the road. When I first tried to check Google maps I found I had no coverage so was a bit peeved.



Anyhow, I adopted my usual approach in one of theses situations; I did not let it annoy me. I knew it must be an accident and I was sure the people in the accident had more to complain about than I had, so I sat back to await the inevitable crawl forward when the emergency services have done their work. The accident was severe enough to be reported on the traffic news for Northern Ireland. I saw one ambulance leave the scene with its lights and sirens on but I did not hear how many people were injured.

Anyway, that delayed me for some time. I eventually got out of the car and collected my copy of The Princess Bride from the boot. I should have started reading it earlier because I had only read one page when the cars began to move.

The accident happened at a point where another road joins the main road from the right. I suspect someone was edging out and someone else was going to fast and, and, and… I hope no one was seriously injured.

I had been able to communicate by text message with my sister so she knew not to stop the rest of the clan from eating dinner until I arrived.

As I got to the top of the hill above my sister’s cottage I took a picture (with the camera on my phone) of the lake and the hills. I have a habit of doing this as it is a view that takes me back to happy days in my teens and early twenties. I then drove down, parked, and made my entrance. Ta da!



My sister put out a great, huge, piled-high plate of chicken casserole for me. She obviously wanted to clean the casserole dish and she had been telling everyone else not to eat too much as Peter was coming and he would be hungry. Of course, as always happens on such occasions, everyone would have had a modest portion so as to leave some for Peter and Peter ends up with a treble modest portion. It was delicious which made it easy to finish off.

As Inch Island is just over 55 degrees North it was still bright until close to midnight, so we had a great chin-wag and a cup of tea before going to bed. My sister and her husband have been at the cottage for a few months and one of my nieces is home on holiday from New Zealand with her two young boys. The are seven and five and so, yes, as you can imagine, the arrival of the fabled Uncle Peter caused excitement and I was therefore guaranteed of a six o’clock alarm call as the two boys sneaked upstairs to the attic to see if Uncle Peter was going to get up and play with them.

Before we get to the book fair, I have to report another very annoying negative, but it is more of a first world problem than a serious, life changing event. One of my intentions in going to Donegal was to take photographs with my “good” camera. I checked it before I left home and it was working great. I checked it in Donegal and it was saving pictures as blank, black rectangles. ☹ This became additionally annoying when my niece introduced me to “Fluffy”. Fluffy is what the children had christened a fledgling swallow that had hatched in a nest in the porch, and who, with his mother, was hanging around the house totally oblivious to the presence of the human residents, and who would let you get to about two yards of him before making a move to fly away. Talk about a great opportunity to photograph these fantastic little birds and my camera decided to sit down and go on strike. (Update: I took the camera to The Camera Shop (That is actually the name of the shop where we bought the camera) and it is on its way back to Canon for repair. I am told it is a six to eight week turnaround time. ☹ )



Now for the book fair.

The book fair is organized every year to raise funds for charity. The local Catholic and Presbyterian parishioners organize it and gather books from around the county. The charity this year was The Donegal Hospice.

The fair is held in a large church hall. It is quite large and rows of tables were arranged in parallel for the length of the hall. The books were mostly fiction with a biography section, a gardening section, and then a assortment of non-fiction. There was a section of religious book which was an interesting mix of Catholic, Presbyterian and Church of Ireland texts. I say interesting in the context of the church hall being only about two miles from the border with Northern Ireland where there was sectarian strife for decades. It was nice to see how closely people work together when the have a bit of sense.

I saw many excellent books there but I have either read them or have them on a shelf waiting to be read. The first book I selected for purchase was Farside Gallery. I love the Farside cartoons. I bought this to have a giggle at and to leave at my sister’s place for the rainy days. (Did I mention that the weather was fantastic and that I had to keep moving into the shade because I was getting too hot in the sunshine. The light was perfect for photography. Damn!)

I then found a copy of Kipps by H.G.Wells and picked it up because I was afraid I would have next to nothing to buy. Most of the locals use this event to buy their reading for the long winter nights and they had big bags, boxes, and trollies loaded with books.

My next find was The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller. She won the 1998 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; at €100,000 this is the highest valued literary award in the world for a work in English. What is unique about it is that the books selected for the award are selected by librarians around the world. Any librarian in the world is free to nominate a book for the long list.
For a bit of non-fiction I picked up a book by Bob Curran entitled, The Truth About The Leprechaun. 😊

Then I spotted Bridge on the River Kwai, the book on which the film, “The Bridge Over the River Kwai”, was based. I like the fact that this book was originally written in French by Pierre Boulle and that another of his French works is, The Planet of the Apes. I think a great quiz question would be, ”What is the connection between ‘The Bridge Over the River Kwai’ and ‘The Planet of the Apes’?

Having found that book I had hit a vein that obviously had come from the same person’s collection and picked up:
The Dam Busters
The Colditz Story and
Santorini.

After that we went for coffee in a coffee shop called, The Gap, where my niece had a Gap Bap and video called her husband twelve time zones away to show him she was eating a Gap Bap. He was not impressed by being woken up but was impressed by the Gap Bap. He is coming over in a few weeks’ time and has insisted on going to The Gap for a Gap Bap.

Sunday was a big occasion day. One of my sister’s sons has just had a big promotion. He invited everyone to lunch in a local posh restaurant. There were eight adults and six children under twelve. It was a glorious day weather wise and it was a fantastic family get-together. My sister is twelve years older than me and is, in fact, my Godmother. We have always been very close and her children and I have always had a great relationship. It was a fantastic day and we took over four hours at lunch. I was the first to break things up as I had to head back to Dublin and they were all aware of how the drive had taken seven hours on Friday.


That is Inch Island across the water.

I had an interesting encounter. One of the waiters was that younger brother of someone I had spent a lot of time with when I was a teenager. He had known me back then and I knew who he was but I could see he was not sure who I was. He knew my sister, her husband and their children but when I said, “Hi Peter. It’s a long time since we met.” (Yes, his name is Peter too.) He replie, “Aye! It is.”

I could tell he was having difficulty. I said, “You’re having difficulty placing me.” He said, “Naw!”, pointed at my sister and her husband and said, “You’re one of their sons.” That got a laugh.

When I told him who I was and how I had hung around with his brother and sister her remembered me and said, “That was a while ago!” When he said that I agreed and then realized it was the 1970s. We shall not discuss this further.

My drive home was not seven hours and I was back in my home territory in three and a quarter hours.

That was my fantastic weekend!

>37 haydninvienna: I was preparing my report when you posted. You will find it in post #39.

I hope that answers your question. :-)

>39 pgmcc: >40 pgmcc: Fully answered, thanks mate. What a weekend. What a lovely tranquil place. Pity about the camera, but such is life. I didn’t know that Alastair Maclean had written a book called Santorini! I have The Dam Busters, bought for me by my parents not too long after it was published.

I just looked at Inch Island on Google Maps and there are photos of black swans?

>41 haydninvienna: There is a pair of black swans on tge fresh water lake between the two embankments that join the island to the mainland. They are believed to have escaped from a private collection. They have three cygnets this summer. None of their previous broods survived to this stage.

As you will know they are Australian natives, hence the surprised tone in your question.

My sister’s place is the only habitation on the shore of the lake.

>42 pgmcc: Exactly. I understand that there’s a small self-sustaining colony of black swans somewhere in the SW of England but I hadn’t heard of any stable populations elsewhere in the British Islands.

>43 haydninvienna:
Dublin zoo has always had two, but that is far from self-sustaining. No one knows where the Inch ones came from, or if they do they are keeping very quiet.

>44 pgmcc: And the birds aren't telling!

>39 pgmcc: A great weekend, it seems like!

I don't know how many times a week I say "we used to...", "back when...", etc, only to realise that well, yeah, I've spent a lot of time in late 80's West Berlin but haven't been since 1995 and certainly have no idea whatsoever what the city is like now. Just to name one.
Or meeting someone unexpectedly, in a corridor at a clients' office or on the tube, saying "hi, wow, it's been a long time" and then thinking back and realising that it's been 25 or 30 years...

>17 -pilgrim-: Sorry for the belated reply to your question. I sing mostly at my local church in Addington, South London. I've recently joined this other choir that sing once a month at different venues around London and the SE. So this month was Hampton Court, August will be St Paul's cathedral and September Rochester Cathedral. It's great to sing in such lovely places. I was sorry to hear about your migraines and hope that you will have a long spell without any for a while.

>34 Bookmarque: I hope everything went well for your father.

>39 pgmcc: Thank you for the illustrated account of your weekend. The combination of beautiful scenery, books and great company sounds just about perfect.