Update

How was it possible I didn't post anything throughout the entire months of May and June? Let me catch up on a few things. My last post in April finished with a dramatic cliffhanger. It was about Anne, our old neighbour. She had been away for so long that we almost forgot about her. And then came the message about her departure from this world. We visited her grave some time later, a very picturesque graveyard with a view.

Both our girls were spayed at the end of April. It was a stressful time, but we got through it. The bald patches on their sides have almost disappeared.

In the meantime we bought tickets to spend some time in July at my family home. We also bought a new fridge — tiny in comparison with the trendy ones, a little black midget. We'd love to have a fridge without a freezer but it's not so easy to find a suitable one. It was necessary to buy it now, as during our holidays we'll have a pet sitter looking after the house.

Since the last post, I've finished reading ca. fifteen books, one of the best of them was Zyta Rudzka's Krótka wymiana ognia. So far only one book by Rudzka has been translated into English, Dr Josef's Little Beauty (I have it as an audiobook and plan to listen to it after our holidays).

June was taken over by builders. Several contractors are working on our little house. The heating system was modernized (we use a heat pump now), the windows and front door were replaced and they are still working on the insulation. Most of the time it's been a nightmare, they have already destroyed parts of our garden, and some eejits cut down the lavender that was growing close to the walls (I complained officially).

Anything else? ... Stay tuned ...

Catching up with the good stuff

This is how you supposed to listen to Virginia Woolf's audiobook — with a cat in your arms ;)

Little Mary ... you can still see that her lower lip is a bit swollen. We're not quite sure what happened, but it's been like this since last Thursday. A few more photographs from the past three weeks:

Rusalka on its premiere night at the Bord Gáis Theatre, coffee time at 3rd Place, evening walk, one of our lazy lunches (fish and chips from a local fishmonger), our girls, and coffee with my former boss (last Thursday; he's a good chap indeed). 

Arts & threads

Yesterday we ticked off our latest opera experience, The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček. Wasn't quite sure what to expect; I didn't know the venue, Solstice Arts Centre in An Uaimh, nor the composer. It was thoroughly enjoyable, partly philosophical, partly hilarious, as it's not every day one can see opera singers performing in fox costumes.

I was wearing a new beanie that I'd finished knitting last weekend. In my head it's supposed to be a hat with cat ears, but because of the colour and depending on the way I style it, the ears can resemble fox ears or even devil horns ;) Love it.

I chose this yarn colour to match my husband's beautiful present, woollen fingerless mittens I got in December. Unfortunately, over two weeks ago, on a lovely Friday afternoon, I lost one of the gloves matching the beanie, and now I still wear the one that's left, refusing to accept my loss. It was the same day when we went with my Fred to watch Hamnet (the film is absolutely fantastic!). 

Discussions, books, knitting, and films – that's how I spend my time outside of work. Also, I've discovered something completely new, which I hope to enjoy very much:

In the background, Clanbrassil street on Valentine's day:) The book's still waiting in a queue.

Cats, humans, bullies

Bronek, my parents' cat, is still among the living. He gets a lot of medication, and I suppose he is not entirely aware that his life hangs by a hair. One of his sisters, Frania, has also tested positive :I Our girls, on the other hand, are in the best of health, length and width. We and our neighbours adore them. 

Have already finished reading five books this year, including The Gathering by Anne Enright. An enjoyable read, though it covers some really tough subjects. Currently, I'm in the middle of Ditlevsen's The Copenhagen Trilogy (have finished Youth). 

Can't believe it's already the second half of January; I go to work, spend time with my husband, deal with first-world problems, while occasionally hearing about what's happening on the "western front". The Orange Man's actions in his own country and abroad are heinous, but hey, who knows, they might bring some good for Europe. Just as Ukrainians have started using their own language after the Russian bear attacked them, so I've started looking for European products to support our own economy instead of feeding the bullies with my own money. It's my private politics, not very strict, just something I ponder about while shopping.

Catching up

The last week before Christmas at work was really tough, not because anything out of the ordinary happened, but because my energy and, in effect, the drive to stay patient was running out. I finished Friday with a very pleasant discovery: we ate out at a place called the Valley Inn. Good name, good food, very Irish. We also went to Dún Dealgan, had coffee in our favourite place and took a stroll along the main street with a quick browse in our favourite independent bookshop (I bought my husband a children's book written by an Irish singer and actor, Gavin Friday). 

Other good things? I bought two balls of yarn (from Norwegian Sandnes Garn) and bamboo circular knitting needles, size 4.00 mm. Also, finally decided to start journalling in one of the notebooks I had acquired a while ago. With a fountain pen :) And I gave my husband his Christmas present early (a nice coat he chose himself, Moncrief, dark No. 14). We also gave our neighbours presents, and received something from them in return.

I'm recovering after the intense weeks watching the old Dalgliesh series with Roy Marsden (I've finished A Taste for Death and have started Devices and Desires). Today will be about packing my suitcase and deciding what to wear for the journey. I'm still a bit wound up, but that will pass for sure.

I'm doing fine ...

... I guess ;) On Monday I was a bit unwell, very tired, my legs were like jelly by the end of the day. But I treated myself with kindness, had dinner made by Fred, and spent most of the evening reading. I did the same yesterday, and around noon I was already feeling better

Generally, last week was very positive (apart from some situations at work, where we had a few bumps in the road due to personality clashes among the students. I wasn’t involved, but it’s still difficult when you’re the one who’s supposed to offer mediation).

On Saturday, Fred and I, we went to the cinema to see a Polish film called A Good Home. It’s about domestic violence; quite a difficult subject, but it’s worth watching, even just for its educational value.

We were also spending a lot of money in coffee shops – Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, today… on Saturday we were out and about in An Inse and found a very interesting place called Sonairte.

Currently, I’m reading a great story: The Outrun by Amy Liptrot. I already know the plot, as back in April we watched the film based on the book, an adaptation starring Saoirse Ronan. The book is even better though, because it focuses more on the main character looking for new interests, hobbies, something to do outside of addiction.

On Monday I booked flight tickets for Christmas. € 341.78. Seriously. Yes, I already checked one or two weather forecasts, they said: White Christmas!

Don't judge a book by its cover, they say

While at work and a bit bored, I came across this cover of Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth. I'm not sure if it's an official release, or what, but I would buy it again just for it.

Random snaps

Below, there are some photos from the past few days:
Little Mary and Bron sleeping through Sunday; the book I'm currently reading (Jon Fosse, the photo was taken on Tuesday morning in a coffee shop); our wee village during an evening walk on Wednesday; an absolutely ridiculously huge Thursday pasta; and the last three photos are from today – we went on a date to Dún Dealgan, there was some sushi and some coffee involved, and of course a bit of sky-watching (I spotted some Christmas ornaments!); we also strolled into our favourite local bookshop, because that's what we do :)

3-11 October

I came back home on Saturday evening, and I still don’t feel like I’ve settled down. In the meantime, two lovely artists passed away – Patricia Routledge on the day I flew to Poland, and Diane Keaton on the day I was coming back.

Below, random pictures without captions ;)

Pee-stained pages of Norwegian prose

That's what a book looks like after the close encounter with cat piss. I choose to laugh rather than cry. It must've happened sometime around the first week we had our kittens, and it was partly down to my own laziness. For at least a week, maybe two, I refused to check what's going on behind the couch, though I knew that frightened Little Mary had been hiding there the first night. She didn't climb onto the bookshelf, little peanut, but when the girls were playing, some of the books from the pile fell to the floor and were left there, unattended, for a while (a long while, as the books stink like a dead mackerel). I'd decided to help them with vinegar; the one in the photo still stinks, maybe there's no magical cure :(, but I'm trying once again.

Going back to the book itself – I love Vigdis Hjorth, I love her passion. Over a year ago I discovered two brilliant Norwegian writers: her and Jon Fosse (actually, Fosse much earlier, in autumn'23). The latter got the Nobel Prize, which means a lot of his work has been translated into English and my mother tongue. Vigdis is far more obscure. Just yesterday I found myself frustrated that I don't know Norwegian. Only five of her books are available in English, only four books translated into Polish, luckily two of them are different from the ones in English, but still a big part of her work is inaccessible to me. Feck! Only now have I realised that both, Hjorth and Fosse, debuted the same year of 1983. Both their voices are of extreme literary beauty.

I've read Hjorth's Is Mother Dead, A House in Norway, and Will and Testament so far. I got If Only, on paper and as an ebook (the exact one in the photo, smelling of Little Mary's pee), and Long Live the Post Horn! on my e-reader waiting for their turn. As for Fosse, I'm reading his writings in two languages: have read I-II and III-VI of Septology (in Polish, translation of the the last part is coming out soon), A Shining (in Polish Białość), and two in English: Scenes From a Childhood and The Dead Dogs. I don't tend to read just one writer intensely, so it'll take me a fair while to get through more of their work. Still, even thinking about it makes me happy.

Fidgeting strangers

Politicians who constantly invoke religion are the bane of this world. Unfortunately, as of today, one of these types is now president of Poland. Thankfully, in Poland the president doesn’t hold as much power as the prime minister does – unlike in the US. Still, it’s a worrying sign of where a portion of my compatriots seems to be heading: resentment towards immigrants, fearfulness, anti-intellectualism, nationalism, and support for other nasty things wrongly called "tradition", like hypocrisy, violence, nepotism & hierarchies. There’s not much I can do about it, I can vote and keep living on my own terms.

I’ve been reading a really good book recently, Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth. It caused quite a stir in Norway after it was published, mostly because the author’s family seemed to recognise themselves in the story, and they were quick to insist that they weren’t like that (what a hypocritical move – either you recognise yourself in a fictional story, or you don’t, either you know it’s you, or you don’t). The topic is quite heavy: what starts as a dispute over inheritance is soon overshadowed by a serious accusation involving two of the siblings who, at some point, became estranged from the rest of the family.

When I was queuing to buy a flat white and a croissant (the ones in the photo) during my lunch break, there was a guy in front of me tossing and fidgeting with impatience while one of the baristas was serving someone else. The guy kept checking the door, glancing out at the street, like he was waiting for a bus or something. Finally, he was served and went out very agitated. Thought he’d get whatever he had been expecting, but no. I saw him again twenty minutes later, walking with the same impatient energy. I realised, he wasn’t really waiting on anything. The restlessness was from within, not connected to the world.

Peaks and politics

The past week and a half has been rather busy and full of all sorts of emotions. Fred and I paid a visit to my parents, who live down in Lower Silesia. We also stopped in to see Fred’s aunt and her husband in the Opole Voivodeship, and caught up with a good friend of ours who's only recently moved to Waldenburg (we spent some valuable time with her and her three rats).

In the middle of it all, we had hoped to get a bit of hiking in – and we did! Last Tuesday, we managed to wander through the highest peak of the Table Mountains, Szczeliniec Wielki. It’s a marvellous spot, and we were lucky to catch a few hours of fairly decent weather.

The next day, we took a stroll through Waldenburg’s King John III Sobieski Park, and of course we climbed the observation tower, which is known for its panoramic views of the town. After saying goodbye to our Waldenburg friends, on the way back to my family home, we visited The Holy Trinity Church of Peace in Świdnica, the biggest wooden Baroque church in Europe.

By Saturday, we were heading back home to Dublin, keen to cast our votes in the presidential election (the flight itself was a bit rough).

Then Monday came, and brought bad news with it: the nationalists had won. It’s disheartening how many controversial politicians win on the back of aggressive, conservative rhetoric alone. Nawrocki, the new Polish president, seems cut from the same cloth as the Orange Man over in the States – a shady character, voted in mostly because religious talk still holds sway over people living in fear. Have nothing to be ashamed of anyway, I didn't vote for him, but still ...

Below, the first morning in my family home and my late grandma's flat window seen from the garden; a cat idling outside our favourite coffee shop; one of my parents' cats, blind Niunia; walks with my Mum and husband; me hiking through Szczeliniec; one of the Waldenburg's mosaics; the Waldenburg boys; friend's recommendation; the Holy Trinity Church of Peace in Świdnica; my pork pie, my folks.

Vexed

Finished reading Wired Our Own Way. The only piece that irked me and felt fabricated was the one written by Anonymous.
So, you decided to have FOUR children knowing that you are autistic, so they might be too? I exclaimed.
Do you actually work, woman?
And, where's the father, for ancient gods' sake?

I know these thoughts are harsh and I may have completely misinterpreted her story, but that's what I thought, and that's what I scribbled.

***

At some point during the day, we managed to organise my shoes into sixteen new plastic boxes (of course, it doesn't mean that I have only sixteen pairs of shoes, we're talking here about the ones that weren't properly displayed ;)). It feels like a meaningful achievement.

A non-update

Second week of work in a new role wasn't all that productive, but at least I settled into it. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday sort of blurred together: Fred acted as my chauffeur, I spent far too much on coffees and croissants, and the weather was rather off – typical really.

Got a lovely gift from my husband, dark green Converse shoes. The next day (Thursday), I bought him Leonard Cohen's Poems and Songs (and a book about autism for myself – Wired Our Own Way). Today, I got a new pair of sheepskin sleepers (rubber sole on the old ones started to crumble like shortbread). We're both spoiled kids.

Below, one of my lunch breaks, the book and the Dog.

Won't party too hard

A day off. The first four days at a new job went smoothly enough. My old-new manager's an interesting character to chat with. An atheist and anti-monarchist rolled into one, with an extensive knowledge of Irish history and no shortage of strong opinions. Not boring, that's for sure ;)

I finished reading the second volume of Jon Fesse Septology with novels III to V. It was a pleasure, and to people who don't like his stuff, I honestly can't explain why. More like a meditation than reading, that's how it feels to me.

Later in the day, I talked to my parents. They're getting ready for the Easter weekend, low-key preparations, but with a few classics, like painting eggs and making vegetable salad. I think, they're already happy just knowing we’ve plans together in May.

As for us, Fred's working four days straight from tomorrow, so I'll be mostly flying solo. On Saturday evening we're going into town for a bit pet-sitting adventure; we'll be staying at our friends' place for the next ten days.

In the starting blocks

The money was allocated to renovate our small house, that’s the news of the weekend – I found out yesterday while I was walking towards the beach. Hope it happens soon, as I’ve been battling with the front lock for the past several months.

Friday was my final day at the place where I started working four years ago, just after the lockdown year of 2020. The farewell "party" was short – grand, I'm not really one for those sorts of things. I don't think they've had anyone before who was so organized without being full-on OCD. Technology worked in my favour, with one click I shared via Microsoft OneDrive everything I’d been working on over the last few months, and that was that. No regrets about this job; I've learned a lot, it gave me some time to ponder what I'd like to do next, and now I'm happy to begin a new adventure.

As of late, I finished reading Norwegian Wood by Murakami; I found it to be quite pretentious, and moved with relief on to Jon Fosse's I is Another: Septology III-V. I read both books in Polish translation, but, as always, I think it would be interesting to compare them with the English versions, as both Japanese and Norwegian are all Greek to me ;) And yesterday my husband and I watched There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis, a fantastic actor. I loved the slow-paced script.

Sunday has been rather laid-back so far. Fred cooked beef stew, and I haven't done anything practical, just blogging and thinking, letting my thoughts settle a bit before tomorrow. In the evening we plan to go to our friends' for a chat and maybe watch a film on Netflix.

Below, Friday's farewell Victoria sponge.