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

I've had a busy week or so, and I haven't had much of a chance to be on h2g2, so I'm just catching up now with old conversations.

Friday 13 March
El was playing with her music school's symphony orchestra. They did a Rossini overture "The Italian Girl in Algiers", a Shostakovich piano concerto (the one from "The Little Tin Soldier" in Fantasia 2000) and Dvorak's 9th Symphony "From the New World". It was a wonderful concert, particularly the piano concerto.

Saturday 14 March
Went into town to buy a present for a friend of mine who is 50. His birthday wasn't until the following Friday, but this would be my last chance. Did a lot of gardening to try and sort out the garden after the winter. Chopped back a lot of the bushes in the back flower bed and spread compost all over the place, which was made in my home-made compost maker. In the evening we went into Dublin and saw a performance which was a combination of mime and dance. It was called "Spheres" and featured an Australian group swaying from side to side on the ends of huge pole. The spheres where giant paper balls which they started inside and gradually climbed out of, all accompanied by coloured lights and music. Wrote and sent off a quick article for The Post.

Sunday 15 March
Did more gardening, then in the afternoon we all headed down to Wexford to our mobile home for a quiet and relaxing day or two. It was our first trip since the really cold winter. When we turned on the water at the main, water gushed out of a pipe at the side of the mobile. The system had frozen over the cold weather and there were burst pipes in three places, including inside the gas water heater. Two hours later the maintenance man had replaced the heater and fixed the leaks and we were 400 euros poorer. Still, we had a nice Indian take-away.

Monday 16 March
Normally we spend time in Wexford reading and gardening our little plot, but the man who owns the park had spread four inches of clay over the entire park in an attempt to improve the drainage, so our lawn and flowers were all gone. We'll have to hope that it will all grow again. So we read. A late lunch in Wexford was as good as ever, then we headed home. In the evening we had a choir rehearsal, the second last one before our next concert, which is 16th Century English choral music, including Taverner's West Wind Mass.

Tuesday 17 March
St Patrick's Day. We went into Dublin to see the parade, and to see El's boyfriend performing as a crow in one of the dance exhibits in the parade. There were lots of marching bands and other stuff as well. Mrs G and I then split with the girls and eventually found ourselves at Grand Canal Dock where we had a nice late lunch and coffee. That evening, I had a lot of tidying to do as I was heading away for a few days, and before I got back my brother would be arriving from Brussels to stay with us.

Wednesday 18 March
Woke earlier and drove to Naas, about 30km from Dublin, for a three-day residential management training course. The hotel we were staying in had lots of lovely grub, and the course itself was quite interesting and certainly kept us all busy. And the free bar afterwards kept me busy too.

Thursday 19 March
I was supposed to stay in the evening for dinner, but I slipped off and drove back to Dublin in time for a concert my two daughters were playing at in their new school. (The school is an old one, but the building is new). They're trying to promote the schools as an artistic, cultural place, so they put on a concert, with music as diverse as classical pieces on cello, and "Johhny B Goode" on electric guitar. Iz played one piece and sang in the choir, while El played 2 pieces on piano, 2 on cello, did a duet on piano with a violinist and also sang in the choir. We had tea and sandwiches, then it was time for me to head back to the managment course.

Friday 20 March
The management course finished at 4:30 approx. I was supposed to have a recorder class in Dublin soon after that, but I didn't think I could make it, so my teacher agreed to hold the course in her mother's house which coincidentally is in Naas, so I only had to drive for 10 minutes. Mrs O'B kindly gave us coffee and scones, then we launched into our recorder consort music, which is challenging but relaxing as well. We did a lot of work written for a tenor and three bass recorders, with a lovely deep sound. Then I had to speed home, collect Mrs B and go to the 50th Birthday of my friend P. It was a happy affair, but overshadowed by the loss of P's wife, who died unexpectedly just a year ago. I gave P a mandola which is a type of over-sized mandolin. He's interested in Irish traditional music and can already play a number of instruments so he'll have no problem picking it up. Meanwhile my brother arrived from Brussels and my daughters let him in. He was fast asleep by the time we arrived home at 1:30.

Saturday 21 March
I greeted my brother and we had breakfast together, then he headed off to visit various relatives and friends. In the afternoon, I went to my cousins who had kindly organised a get together for all the relatives so we got to see many people that I rarely meet. In the evening, Mrs G cooked up a lovely pizza.

Sunday 22 March
More of the family arrived, with my other two brothers turning up with members of their families and we had a big get-together in our house which lasted most of the afternoon, but people had to head home at about 6. I cooked up a simple pasta meal and I and my brother stayed up late drinking wine.

This morning my brother headed home to Brussels. I'm off work for the week, so I'm going to get some things done and I'm going to relax a lot as well.

Shame about the garden - I hope it soon recovers. And you were lucky to get a man to mend the burst pipes in 2 hours - I suppose that counts as an emergency, though.

Hi Gnoman,

Echo Trillians sentiments.

what a busy lovely life you lead. Lots of music, lots of friends, and lovely meals. sounded just great to me. !!

keep well and fit and healthy.

sincerely,

christiane.
Ar80

That was quite a week, Gnomon!

Good to have you back in the fold

And I always think I'm busy.

Glad you had such a good couple of weekends.