A Glassful of Life

Silent Witness. People have asked me many times, “Why on earth did you sell your lovely little house?” I’m not quite sure where to start. Let me see if I can muster a brief synopsis:   The year began auspiciously, I quit drinking and then I lost a lawsuit—the sword of Damocles that had been hanging over my head for the past three years—and I was ordered to pay 95,000 euros. That is not the sort of change most people have in their back pocket, so, thinking laterally, I sold my house.   I had planned to live out my golden years in that house, but oddly, selling my comfortable, cosy home, and jumping into the unknown, was rather liberating.   At the moment, I am trying to negotiate with the couple who sued me. I have appealed the ruling, without much hope of winning. Apparently, it could take about two years to go through the court system, so I thought I could save everybody some time and stress, by offering to pay them now. Now we are sort o...

  Brandy, Candy. Today it is Monday the 2nd of January 2023. It is a dull day. The lack of sun and the grey sky make me feel melancholic and my toes are cold. I still have no socks.   I was looking forward to Christmas this year—I was going to curl up on the sofa and watch some Christmas movies, do a bit of cooking, savour a few glasses of wine, Zoom with my family and friends, and enjoy an extra brandy and port. A nice relaxing Christmas, no stress—no pressure.   Life had another plan for me:   On the Tuesday before Christmas, by appointment, I went to the health centre early to drop off a urine sample and for a blood test. Then I did my Christmas shop. I was planning to make a Mushroom Wellington, so I needed, amongst other items, mushrooms. I took the opportunity to buy myself a Christmas bottle of brandy and an extra bottle of port, just in case. Everything was set.   On the Wednesday I had to return to the doctor to check...

  I am turning into a pincushion.  My life is unravelling—I knit, and I unravel—I unravel and then I knit.   When I was in my twenties and thirties, knitting was an integral part of my being. I always had at least one project on the go and when I moved from Germany to Ireland, with a three-month-old baby strapped to my side, one of the things I felt was indispensable, was my box of knitting needles. I still have that box and the needles.   Throughout my life I became good at knitting things up and then taking them apart again. If I made a mistake, I was never afraid of ripping back a jumper, even if I had to rip it back to the very start. And then I would start again. It was a good life lesson, like building sandcastles on the beach and then letting the sea or the children destroy them. You just have to get up and do it all over again.   When the children were younger and I was married, we used to watch a lot of movies and series’...

  A Bouquet. So , we are halfway through November already. This year has truly flown in a whirlwind of getting back to some sort of post-covid normal, whatever that is.   On the world stage, I was heartened by the results of the US midterm elections because I believe in democracy and personal freedom. Not so buoyed by the announcement by the former POTUS to run again in 2024, but hopefully he will be gently manoeuvred out of the way over the next couple of years or even better convicted and incarcerated.   Ukraine’s continued success—though the war is horrendous and never should have been—also bolsters my mood. I hope with every fibre in my being that somehow it will end soon with a cease to the onslaught by Russian missiles against people and infrastructure in Ukraine . I was deeply saddened to hear of the missile dropped on Poland today.  (Disclaimer: Yes, I know there are other wars, disputes, protests and human rights abuses in the worl...

  Me, my clean, top teeth, and a gourd as a hat. My teeth ache. There is a reason; I had my teeth cleaned. There is a plethora of dentists in this area and last week I shopped around to get the best deal. Last year I paid 50 euros for a simple cleaning that left me underwhelmed. That dentist also gave me a check-up and advised me that I should get a teeth guard. I don’t remember the quote they gave me but even with the member’s discount, it was exorbitant. They told me that I grind my teeth at night. I told them that I didn’t want a teeth guard—I didn’t tell them that in fact, I grind my teeth during the day, not at night—well, perhaps I grind them at night too—but the point is, they made assumptions and I hate it when people make assumptions about me and I’m not going to wear a teeth guard during the day. So, this year I avoided the teeth-guard-dentist and popped into the dentist’s where I had had an emergency repair of a chipped front tooth in February. When I went in for that ...

Luckily I've got these two to look after me.   So, finally, it happened. I got the dreaded covid. It blindsided me. One day I was fine, perhaps a little raspy. The next, I was laid out on the sofa with full-blown symptoms. The virus raged on the Thursday but I tested negative. On Friday morning the virus continued its slash and burn through my body, and I got a positive result. On the third day, I had a temperature of 38.5 and was definitely delirious, but at least that was the last day, and when my fever broke around 6pm, the worst of the symptoms were swept away with it. By the following Friday, I tested negative again. Now, three weeks on I am fully recovered…at least, I thought I was, but as so many sufferers have said, “it lingers,” which is so irritating. The last few weeks have been so up and down it's no wonder I have been feeling seasick. I am short-tempered and clumsy, which makes me even more irritable. A vicious circle that nips at my heels and nibbles away at my se...