h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm from Dublin, Ireland, usually live in Oxford, England but, right now, since the beginning of March and for the next two weeks I'm living in Madrid, Spain.

I've just finished watching the first game of Euro 2000 and am now writing this to the sounds of Janis Joplin, having finished a bottle of vino rosado (rose wine), all of which type of wine seems very cheap here in Madrid.

I don't know that I've much to say. The weather is warm, the candle is flickering on the table and I don't know any one-line jokes.

I'm going to be sorry to leave Madrid, because it's a really nice city but my work is not a lot of fun, so I won't be sorry to leave that.

Maybe it's time to go home, back to Dublin. I've been away a long time, since 1986, having come over to England for an indefinite period, not wanting to sit in Irish bars in England, dreaming of return, like so many other Irish, I didn't set a fixed date by which I would return, but reckoned I'd be away for a couple of years. Time has marched on and now I feel old and exhausted.

I'm not old and not really exhausted, that's just how I feel right now.

After Cheap Thrills I'm going to put on some Palestrina which I also bought today, in a burst of retail therapy, which I don't usually subscribe to but which today I succumbed to.

Anyway, that's it for now.

It's after midnight and though that's early for Madrid, especially at a weekend I'm tired and am going to bed.

I just finished Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks so need to start a new book. Looking at my unread books and deciding which one to start next is one of my pleasures.

Adios.

0010, 11-06-00