It seems the interval between my posts is getting longer. I guess that's to be expected since everything I do in any given week is not a completely new experience but I'm starting to worry about losing the habit of posting. I'm going to try to be mindful of that in the coming months.
Since my last post on October 15, we had a few days of breather between having Alan's sister and her husband in and welcoming friends from Washington. Judy and Mark arrived on the 18th and, as we have done with most guests so far, we gave them a one day primer on Dublin during an initial walk through the City Center and then encouraged them to explore on their own the following day using the Open Top/On-Off Bus. That is a good value for any new city I think because with the two-day pass you get to go around the whole city and see the main sights with narration. Then the following day you can re-board and see the things in which you are most interested.
On their second day, they went to Kilmainham Gaol (the jail where the British kept Irish political prisoners from the 1700's to 1922), The Writer's Museum, the Joyce Museum and the National Museum. I joined them for the tour of the National Museum because I wanted to see The Meeting on the Turret Stairs http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.postercartel.com/uploads/postercartel_product_option.imageDetail/1050-108.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.postercartel.com/en/1700-3682.aspx?o%3D1050-108&h=497&w=500&sz=35&tbnid=cZiakWxQshQ0TM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=93&zoom=1&usg=__d0uwFR1MvnuRMBkdwPLbfrJ5QzM=&docid=VvFD_lJT4daniM&sa=X&ei=EVGKUKqFBdKDhQeG34Ao&ved=0CEIQ9QEwCA&dur=819. This was voted as the number one of Ireland's favorite paintings in a poll done last year. This link does not do it justice. The real thing is bluer than blue and gives one a real sense of longing and regret. Judy and Mark also wanted to see the Jack B. Yeats (William Butler's brother) paintings and drawings for Punch because they headed for Sligo and "Yeats Country" on the following day.
I'm excited to hear about that adventure because they hired a private tour with a guide that is supposed to be a Yeats scholar. The area around Sligo where the Yeats brothers were active is very dispersed and when we went there were disappointed that we couldn't find half the interesting things mentioned in the guide book. If it works out well for them, we will take a trip to Sligo to do it too. After two days in Sligo they spend three in Galway and we are planning to meet them tonight in Cork for the Cork Jazz Festival. This is our first festival in Ireland and the line-up looks good to Mark (the only one of us who seems to know much about Jazz). I'm looking forward to the adventure, there's plenty to do in Cork.
They will return with us to Dublin on Monday for another few days and then the fly back to the States on the 31st. Then another few days breather until we leave for Holland on Monday, November 5 for 3 days.
In between all the visiting and culture, I've been taking set dancing for a month now. I go with my friend Mary once a week to a pub in Churchtown where we are trying our best to learn. Set dancing is kinda like square dance except that the foot work is more complicated and fast. I'm not progressing as quickly as I would like and Mary and I agreed last time that we would try to find other partners who are a little further along. I think that's one problem, neither of us knows the steps and can't really guide the other. I think this will be easier for Mary, because one of the dancers already has his eye on her, and seems very interested in taking my place. She's further along than me because, as an Irishwoman she had lessons as a child and the rhythm and steps just come more naturally to her. I'm a little slower in getting it, but hopefully someone will be willing to dance with me. One issue is because there are so few men, I have learned the man's position so unless I want to change now, I have to find a woman partner. If I change that means I have to re-learn all the steps on the opposite side. I hope this isn't going to be a big problem, I really like doing the dances.
I'm also participating in Bridge with the American Women's Club on Friday mornings. Another activity in which I'm quite a novice. The people are nice but my play is very poor. I'm going to start lessons in January when the beginners lessons start again. I like to play.
Finally, I'm also going to a second dance class on Wednesday afternoons that's a little slower than set dancing, more exercise and modern dance, although one of the dances we are learning right now is a minuet. That is a lot of fun.
Best of all, I've met three people that are becoming friends. Mary, who I've spoken of a lot in this blog, is the "best" . I've know her longest and we have a lot in common. Dierdre is at the Wednesday dance class and she's now coming to the set dancing as well. We have coffee most of the afternoons after the Wednesday class (set dancing is in the evening and ends at 10 p.m. by which time I just want to go to bed). And Sarah, a woman I met while in Mallorca. She and I met last Saturday and did a tour of the Irish President's house in Phoenix Park and lunch. I like her a lot and plan to keep up that budding friendship as well. All in all, things are really good right now.
I expect my next post to be next Friday, just before we leave for Holland. I hope I can keep that commitment!
Friday, October 26, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
It's been a while since my last post. We have been busy and I'm happy to have a breather for a few days to catch up. Since posting on September 29th, we've hosted Alan's sister and husband, been on a walking tour in Mallorca and seen 9 plays in the Dublin Theatre Festival. This is going to be a long post because I want to cover the trip and to record my feelings about all of the plays.
The visit with Alan's sister and her husband was a real treat. In addition to seeing one of the plays with them, The Dubliners, we also had a chance to catch up with the family and show some sights of Dublin that we think are particularly noteworthy. It was too bad they didn't have an opportunity to see more of Ireland since this was their first trip outside the USA in over 30 years. It was a quick, three-day visit, but we packed a lot into it. They went on to London for another whirlwind three-days of touring.
First Mallorca
The Mallorca walking trip had its ups and downs. We booked with a travel provider associated with the Irish Times newspaper, The Travel Department (TD), recommended by several Irish people that we know. We were particularly interested in using this travel provider because they do Christmas trips in Italy, Portugal and Malta and we are considering one of them for our Christmas this year.
As promised by the people we know that have booked with TD in the past, the other people in the group were really nice and we met several with whom we will likely keep in touch. This was the first walking tour TD has offered in Mallorca though and there were several things to be desired about the experience. I also learned, or maybe re-learned, a lesson about myself that I hope will be remembered next time I book an 'adventure' holiday.
First on the positive side, in addition to the nice group of people, Mallorca is a beautiful place. George Sand spent a winter in Mallorca with Frederick Chopin (to whom she was not married, causing quite a stir on the island) and characterized it as a place where "everything seems to pose with a kind of vanity to please your eye." To my mind, this was a perfect description. I really found it very beautiful.
Surprisingly, the food was not so good, the Mallorcans we encountered weren't particularly friendly and the hotel was abysmal. The latter was a surprise to us because our friends and those in the group that have done TD tours in the past agreed this was not the norm, usually the hotel is one of the high points of booking with this operator.
But, for me, the insight that, like bike touring, I don't care for walks that don't go anywhere but up and then down. I have to remember that I don't like doing it. Touring like that attracts people that seem to be in it for the accomplishment of getting to the top and down again the fastest. I am not one of them. I don't really care about getting to the top, I would much rather walk between towns or villages, with a stop for lunch in a nice cafe or pub and interesting shops at the end. In 2004 I did my last biking 'touring holiday' on a trip in Ireland and this trip shared some of the characteristics of that one. Each day there were miles to be covered, a stop for a quick lunch, and then more miles culminating in 'a view.' At the end of that process an exhausted flop into bed is the most likely outcome for me.
On this trip there were two tour guides, the leader of the two was definitely of the quick-to-the-top mindset. He stayed in front at all times, where he expounded on family, military service, taxes and government as if there were no views in all the world but his own. The other guide was much different in his love of homeland and the environment and knowledge of Mallorca flora and fauna; he also understood his role in keeping the group together and paying attention to the sometimes dangerous, steep and gravelly mountain paths we traversed. It was hot and the path to the top of the three mountains we walked was pretty boring. So, when my attention wasn't completely focused on not slipping on gravel or pitching off a cliff, I was just hot. If it weren't for some of the other travelers with whom I had some very nice conversations along the way, I would have hated the whole experience. Fortunately we only hiked three of the seven days and Mallorca is just a beautiful, beautiful place. So, Mallorca 10, this sort of hiking 0.
One of the things that Alan and I discussed while there, however, helped us to clarify our onward plan once we leave Ireland. First, I think we are going to extend our stay in Dublin until at least November 2013 and then spend the winter and spring spending a month or so in a variety of European cities, returning to Bloomington in the fall of 2014. During our visit to Mallorca's capital city, Palma, we thought we might pick that location for one of those months. It's a big city and there seems a lot to do. Also, not many people speak English and we both thought that we could really brush up on our Spanish quickly if we were thrown into that situation.
Dublin Theatre Festival
The Mallorca trip was sandwiched between seeing nine plays in the Dublin Theatre Festival. Both Alan and I really like live theater so wanted to get to see as many of the plays as we could. Given that our trip was during the second week of the three-week festival we wound up seeing more than one play a day on two occasions. We got to visit three new venues as well as re-visit the Gaiety Theatre, a beautiful theater with, as we discovered to our dismay, some very obstructed-view seats.
The fist play we saw, Beyond the Brooklyn Sky, was on Wednesday, September 26, at the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, a small community at the last stop on the Luas, Dublin's light rail service. (Luas means rapid in Irish.) The theater was a nice one, built, as most of the surrounding neighborhood of high-rise apartments and vacant retail stores, during the height of the Celtic Tiger but now fallen on hard times. The play was well done, about a group of friends, several of whom spent their youth in Brooklyn, NY with most returning to Ireland during the boom years. It was sort of a Return of the Secaucus Seven Irish-style. We both enjoyed it.
Two days later, we saw the first theatrical performance of James Joyce' The Dubliners at the Gaiety Theatre with Alan's sister and her husband. Alan and I recently re-read the book and earlier went to a lecture about the making of the play. This book of short stories is the most accessible of Joyce' work, I think, and the play really captured the arc of the stories. I was really surprised how well it held together. During the lecture the playwright said that the Joyce family resisted allowing performances of this work and now that the 100-year mark has passed and it's in the public domain he thinks there will be a lot more interpretation of The Dubliners stories on the stage. We were happy to be able to see the first of them in this city. Our guests enjoyed it as well.
Then on Sunday, September 30 we saw two plays. The first by a New York company, imported for the festival with an interpretation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. This was at the O'Reilly Theatre in Belvedere College (James Joyce and Kevin Barry were alums). I'm a real Hemingway fan and I also enjoyed this book but boy oh boy, three-and-a-half hours of every scene of excessive drinking in bars, bullfights, unrequited love, existentialism and the dissolute life of the rich American expat in Paris and Spain in the 1920's was too much. I don't know how any producer didn't have the alarm bells ringing when he or she heard that the play was going to be over three hours. It was really boring.
Fortunately, the next play we saw that evening was short and very good. Everyone is King Lear in His Own Home at the Smock Alley Theatre on the Quays in Dublin City Center was the best depiction of madness on the stage I've ever seen. There were only two characters, I think they were supposed to be father and daughter, and both were nuts, yet we got them. I couldn't tell you what it was about, other than insanity.
October 2, several days before we left for Mallorca, we spent a very nice evening with our old family friend at dinner and then to see The Last Summer at The Gate theater on O'Connell Street. This was a play with a theme similar to the first one about youthful emigration and returning home in middle age. This is a recurring theme in Ireland because so many people leave and come "home" only for visits. The idea of never really making "home" the place where they have gone is interesting. Anyway, these people were more prosperous than the ones in Under the Brooklyn Bridge, but the story of making choices and youthful love simmering over many years was done very well. In this play they did a really good job of alternating between two summers 30 years apart.
Two days after we returned from our trip we saw three plays on the same day. All performed by the Druid-Murphy company by the playwright Tom Murphy, at the Gaiety Theatre. We have since learned from friends that the three plays are booked for The Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center this fall. Conversations on a Homecoming, set in Galway in the 1970's was also about emigration and the ones who stayed behind. A lot of dialogue but interesting. A Whistle in the Dark was a family drama with which I could really relate. One son trying to move away from a life of mindless family in-fighting while the others try to pull him back with the bromide: "Who do you think you are?" That's a whistle in the dark alright. The final play, Famine, was set in 1846. I've learned so much about the famine in Ireland since I've been here, but there was a new wrinkle here that I hadn't thought about before, the English landowners actually wanted the Irish to emigrate and so that was one of the reasons they didn't do much to help feed the population and continued to press them to pay to rent their land. There was so much more than just crop failure going on then. Unfortunately, Alan was tired of sitting, and we were both tired of craning our necks in our very poor obstructed seats, that we left at intermission during Famine.
Finally on Sunday, yesterday, we saw Halcyon Days at the Smock Alley Theatre, the same venue as King Lear. Except for The Dubliners this was by far the best play we saw. Given that Dubliners was a rich and well financed production and Halcyon was a two-person, one set, production this was the greater achievement, I think. Two people finding love and affection at the end of their lives in a nursing home. It was just great.
After these weeks of great activity, I am happy to spend a day or two at home. I just tried to get back into my routine of going to the gym and a leisurely read of the newspaper this morning. Tomorrow I have some work to do and then back to my set dancing class in the evening. On Thursday friends from Washington are coming for a few weeks, during which we will go to the Cork Jazz Festival with them. Another busy period coming up.
The visit with Alan's sister and her husband was a real treat. In addition to seeing one of the plays with them, The Dubliners, we also had a chance to catch up with the family and show some sights of Dublin that we think are particularly noteworthy. It was too bad they didn't have an opportunity to see more of Ireland since this was their first trip outside the USA in over 30 years. It was a quick, three-day visit, but we packed a lot into it. They went on to London for another whirlwind three-days of touring.
First Mallorca
The Mallorca walking trip had its ups and downs. We booked with a travel provider associated with the Irish Times newspaper, The Travel Department (TD), recommended by several Irish people that we know. We were particularly interested in using this travel provider because they do Christmas trips in Italy, Portugal and Malta and we are considering one of them for our Christmas this year.
As promised by the people we know that have booked with TD in the past, the other people in the group were really nice and we met several with whom we will likely keep in touch. This was the first walking tour TD has offered in Mallorca though and there were several things to be desired about the experience. I also learned, or maybe re-learned, a lesson about myself that I hope will be remembered next time I book an 'adventure' holiday.
First on the positive side, in addition to the nice group of people, Mallorca is a beautiful place. George Sand spent a winter in Mallorca with Frederick Chopin (to whom she was not married, causing quite a stir on the island) and characterized it as a place where "everything seems to pose with a kind of vanity to please your eye." To my mind, this was a perfect description. I really found it very beautiful.
Surprisingly, the food was not so good, the Mallorcans we encountered weren't particularly friendly and the hotel was abysmal. The latter was a surprise to us because our friends and those in the group that have done TD tours in the past agreed this was not the norm, usually the hotel is one of the high points of booking with this operator.
But, for me, the insight that, like bike touring, I don't care for walks that don't go anywhere but up and then down. I have to remember that I don't like doing it. Touring like that attracts people that seem to be in it for the accomplishment of getting to the top and down again the fastest. I am not one of them. I don't really care about getting to the top, I would much rather walk between towns or villages, with a stop for lunch in a nice cafe or pub and interesting shops at the end. In 2004 I did my last biking 'touring holiday' on a trip in Ireland and this trip shared some of the characteristics of that one. Each day there were miles to be covered, a stop for a quick lunch, and then more miles culminating in 'a view.' At the end of that process an exhausted flop into bed is the most likely outcome for me.
On this trip there were two tour guides, the leader of the two was definitely of the quick-to-the-top mindset. He stayed in front at all times, where he expounded on family, military service, taxes and government as if there were no views in all the world but his own. The other guide was much different in his love of homeland and the environment and knowledge of Mallorca flora and fauna; he also understood his role in keeping the group together and paying attention to the sometimes dangerous, steep and gravelly mountain paths we traversed. It was hot and the path to the top of the three mountains we walked was pretty boring. So, when my attention wasn't completely focused on not slipping on gravel or pitching off a cliff, I was just hot. If it weren't for some of the other travelers with whom I had some very nice conversations along the way, I would have hated the whole experience. Fortunately we only hiked three of the seven days and Mallorca is just a beautiful, beautiful place. So, Mallorca 10, this sort of hiking 0.
One of the things that Alan and I discussed while there, however, helped us to clarify our onward plan once we leave Ireland. First, I think we are going to extend our stay in Dublin until at least November 2013 and then spend the winter and spring spending a month or so in a variety of European cities, returning to Bloomington in the fall of 2014. During our visit to Mallorca's capital city, Palma, we thought we might pick that location for one of those months. It's a big city and there seems a lot to do. Also, not many people speak English and we both thought that we could really brush up on our Spanish quickly if we were thrown into that situation.
Dublin Theatre Festival
The Mallorca trip was sandwiched between seeing nine plays in the Dublin Theatre Festival. Both Alan and I really like live theater so wanted to get to see as many of the plays as we could. Given that our trip was during the second week of the three-week festival we wound up seeing more than one play a day on two occasions. We got to visit three new venues as well as re-visit the Gaiety Theatre, a beautiful theater with, as we discovered to our dismay, some very obstructed-view seats.
The fist play we saw, Beyond the Brooklyn Sky, was on Wednesday, September 26, at the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, a small community at the last stop on the Luas, Dublin's light rail service. (Luas means rapid in Irish.) The theater was a nice one, built, as most of the surrounding neighborhood of high-rise apartments and vacant retail stores, during the height of the Celtic Tiger but now fallen on hard times. The play was well done, about a group of friends, several of whom spent their youth in Brooklyn, NY with most returning to Ireland during the boom years. It was sort of a Return of the Secaucus Seven Irish-style. We both enjoyed it.
Two days later, we saw the first theatrical performance of James Joyce' The Dubliners at the Gaiety Theatre with Alan's sister and her husband. Alan and I recently re-read the book and earlier went to a lecture about the making of the play. This book of short stories is the most accessible of Joyce' work, I think, and the play really captured the arc of the stories. I was really surprised how well it held together. During the lecture the playwright said that the Joyce family resisted allowing performances of this work and now that the 100-year mark has passed and it's in the public domain he thinks there will be a lot more interpretation of The Dubliners stories on the stage. We were happy to be able to see the first of them in this city. Our guests enjoyed it as well.
Then on Sunday, September 30 we saw two plays. The first by a New York company, imported for the festival with an interpretation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. This was at the O'Reilly Theatre in Belvedere College (James Joyce and Kevin Barry were alums). I'm a real Hemingway fan and I also enjoyed this book but boy oh boy, three-and-a-half hours of every scene of excessive drinking in bars, bullfights, unrequited love, existentialism and the dissolute life of the rich American expat in Paris and Spain in the 1920's was too much. I don't know how any producer didn't have the alarm bells ringing when he or she heard that the play was going to be over three hours. It was really boring.
Fortunately, the next play we saw that evening was short and very good. Everyone is King Lear in His Own Home at the Smock Alley Theatre on the Quays in Dublin City Center was the best depiction of madness on the stage I've ever seen. There were only two characters, I think they were supposed to be father and daughter, and both were nuts, yet we got them. I couldn't tell you what it was about, other than insanity.
October 2, several days before we left for Mallorca, we spent a very nice evening with our old family friend at dinner and then to see The Last Summer at The Gate theater on O'Connell Street. This was a play with a theme similar to the first one about youthful emigration and returning home in middle age. This is a recurring theme in Ireland because so many people leave and come "home" only for visits. The idea of never really making "home" the place where they have gone is interesting. Anyway, these people were more prosperous than the ones in Under the Brooklyn Bridge, but the story of making choices and youthful love simmering over many years was done very well. In this play they did a really good job of alternating between two summers 30 years apart.
Two days after we returned from our trip we saw three plays on the same day. All performed by the Druid-Murphy company by the playwright Tom Murphy, at the Gaiety Theatre. We have since learned from friends that the three plays are booked for The Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center this fall. Conversations on a Homecoming, set in Galway in the 1970's was also about emigration and the ones who stayed behind. A lot of dialogue but interesting. A Whistle in the Dark was a family drama with which I could really relate. One son trying to move away from a life of mindless family in-fighting while the others try to pull him back with the bromide: "Who do you think you are?" That's a whistle in the dark alright. The final play, Famine, was set in 1846. I've learned so much about the famine in Ireland since I've been here, but there was a new wrinkle here that I hadn't thought about before, the English landowners actually wanted the Irish to emigrate and so that was one of the reasons they didn't do much to help feed the population and continued to press them to pay to rent their land. There was so much more than just crop failure going on then. Unfortunately, Alan was tired of sitting, and we were both tired of craning our necks in our very poor obstructed seats, that we left at intermission during Famine.
Finally on Sunday, yesterday, we saw Halcyon Days at the Smock Alley Theatre, the same venue as King Lear. Except for The Dubliners this was by far the best play we saw. Given that Dubliners was a rich and well financed production and Halcyon was a two-person, one set, production this was the greater achievement, I think. Two people finding love and affection at the end of their lives in a nursing home. It was just great.
After these weeks of great activity, I am happy to spend a day or two at home. I just tried to get back into my routine of going to the gym and a leisurely read of the newspaper this morning. Tomorrow I have some work to do and then back to my set dancing class in the evening. On Thursday friends from Washington are coming for a few weeks, during which we will go to the Cork Jazz Festival with them. Another busy period coming up.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
I feel like I'm really getting busy now but I still want to be recognized as a professional. I need to find a way to leave that behind.
I do a dance class on Tuesday evenings (set dancing), another on Wednesday afternoon (dance as exercise), Bridge group on Friday mornings, film group every 'last' Wednesday, aerobic exercise at the gym we've joined every morning and a book club starting in October. I've had friends tell me that retirement is busier than work life and I'm definitely finding that to be true. Yet, I find myself longing for a day of doing nothing, although that's a condition I also fear for some reason. I've always been a productive person and want to continue that in my retirement from work, but I also want to NOT WORK. That's a job in itself.
I've recently re-read a book that I co-authored with a person that I have known for many years and it's caused me to think that I'm not done working. I think I'd really like to develop some of these really good ideas into a new service, to work on speaking on the topic and establishing a business around that. I know I could do it. I don't want to do it. I'm having so much fun not working at a career. I really want to pursue that, but I'm also afraid that I won't be able to do it. I guess it's been the path of least resistance for me for so long that I don't know how to get out of this well worn rut. I still want to compete and succeed in the narrow field where I feel so productive!
But, I also want to succeed at living the life of Riley that I've earned. I hope there's a way to balance the two.
As I re-read this I can imagine young people looking at these words and saying "I wish," which also fills me with sadness. I wish for you too, but I also would like you to know that you wish for the same things when you are 64 that you did when you were 26. You will be the same person throughout your life.
I do a dance class on Tuesday evenings (set dancing), another on Wednesday afternoon (dance as exercise), Bridge group on Friday mornings, film group every 'last' Wednesday, aerobic exercise at the gym we've joined every morning and a book club starting in October. I've had friends tell me that retirement is busier than work life and I'm definitely finding that to be true. Yet, I find myself longing for a day of doing nothing, although that's a condition I also fear for some reason. I've always been a productive person and want to continue that in my retirement from work, but I also want to NOT WORK. That's a job in itself.
I've recently re-read a book that I co-authored with a person that I have known for many years and it's caused me to think that I'm not done working. I think I'd really like to develop some of these really good ideas into a new service, to work on speaking on the topic and establishing a business around that. I know I could do it. I don't want to do it. I'm having so much fun not working at a career. I really want to pursue that, but I'm also afraid that I won't be able to do it. I guess it's been the path of least resistance for me for so long that I don't know how to get out of this well worn rut. I still want to compete and succeed in the narrow field where I feel so productive!
But, I also want to succeed at living the life of Riley that I've earned. I hope there's a way to balance the two.
As I re-read this I can imagine young people looking at these words and saying "I wish," which also fills me with sadness. I wish for you too, but I also would like you to know that you wish for the same things when you are 64 that you did when you were 26. You will be the same person throughout your life.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Started set dancing on Monday. Boy is that work!
There were about 30 other dancers, all Irish of course, and all were familiar with the basic steps so even when the instructor asked if they had ever danced before they all were familiar with the general idea -- except me. When he heard my accent, he asked "do you know 1-2-3?" Well, no. He then separated me from my friend Mary (Irish, knowing 1-2-3) and I was next to him the rest of the evening. I got 1-2-3 pretty quick but the rest of it, whew. It was dizzying, twirly and fast. Except for getting dizzy and quite sweaty; more than the others and partly due to my thyroid medication I think, it was really, really fun! I was glad I'm fit because otherwise I would not have been able to keep up.
Fortunately for me as a newbie, I was always in the female position. Since there are mostly women in the class (no surprise there) some women have to take the male position and then everything is opposite. This is an issue because one aspect of set dancing is alternating partners. About a quarter of the class is men so half of the people in the male position are women, and when in that role the women led the way women lead, they explained stuff. Dancing with the men was easier because they approach the task by forcing you to do what's needed. They squeeze, pull and push. The women didn't do that at all, they held lightly and said "do this; do that". It was hard to process the explanations when things were happening so quickly, much easier to get squeezed, pushed and pulled in the right direction. Venus and Mars all over again!
Most of the people were really nice, although some seemed not to want to dance with me and my two left feet. No one was mean or anything, but when it came to the men changing circles (there were three of them) I was always the last to get partnered up. Fortunately the instructor kept a good watch on me and sometimes pulled a better dancer to me so that he didn't have two klutzes twirling awkwardly together, a survival tactic for his work I guess because that could definitely cause a pile-up.
The dance is like square dancing in that it's four couples in a square with a pair facing each other most of the time. It's also similar in that there are various formations and what, in square dancing, is called promenade is used at the start. The big, big difference is that one-two-three. Instead of in square dancing where people walk normally, all of the steps in set dancing are done with a one-two-three shuffle, similar to polka. That's what makes it so strenuous.
The only problem with the current class is its location. I have to admit that the neighborhood is quite dodgey (a word used here a lot to describe bad). It is OK in the going but the class is out at 10 p.m. so it's pretty dark and lonely coming back. My friend drives and the parking is also not good, although on Monday she found a spot about a block away. She wouldn't hear of me standing at the bus stop and drove me to a better one. We go in different directions and I just don't want to take advantage of her, so this is no good. We have found another place that is in a country pub with parking, so next week we are going to try me taking the bus to her place, driving there and then me getting the bus back from her place.
I've been without a car for a long time now, 8 years since we moved to Washington, and I'm used to public transit, but I have noticed people who have cars just can't fathom waiting for a bus. But I know I have to be careful about that because it can also lead to a lot of inconvenience for drivers if I were to take advantage of that mindset. I really don't mind the bus, I'm used to it.
Next week we start going to plays in the Dublin Theater Festival series and Alan's sister and brother in law come for a visit, so things will get busy. We are looking forward to having guests again!
There were about 30 other dancers, all Irish of course, and all were familiar with the basic steps so even when the instructor asked if they had ever danced before they all were familiar with the general idea -- except me. When he heard my accent, he asked "do you know 1-2-3?" Well, no. He then separated me from my friend Mary (Irish, knowing 1-2-3) and I was next to him the rest of the evening. I got 1-2-3 pretty quick but the rest of it, whew. It was dizzying, twirly and fast. Except for getting dizzy and quite sweaty; more than the others and partly due to my thyroid medication I think, it was really, really fun! I was glad I'm fit because otherwise I would not have been able to keep up.
Fortunately for me as a newbie, I was always in the female position. Since there are mostly women in the class (no surprise there) some women have to take the male position and then everything is opposite. This is an issue because one aspect of set dancing is alternating partners. About a quarter of the class is men so half of the people in the male position are women, and when in that role the women led the way women lead, they explained stuff. Dancing with the men was easier because they approach the task by forcing you to do what's needed. They squeeze, pull and push. The women didn't do that at all, they held lightly and said "do this; do that". It was hard to process the explanations when things were happening so quickly, much easier to get squeezed, pushed and pulled in the right direction. Venus and Mars all over again!
Most of the people were really nice, although some seemed not to want to dance with me and my two left feet. No one was mean or anything, but when it came to the men changing circles (there were three of them) I was always the last to get partnered up. Fortunately the instructor kept a good watch on me and sometimes pulled a better dancer to me so that he didn't have two klutzes twirling awkwardly together, a survival tactic for his work I guess because that could definitely cause a pile-up.
The dance is like square dancing in that it's four couples in a square with a pair facing each other most of the time. It's also similar in that there are various formations and what, in square dancing, is called promenade is used at the start. The big, big difference is that one-two-three. Instead of in square dancing where people walk normally, all of the steps in set dancing are done with a one-two-three shuffle, similar to polka. That's what makes it so strenuous.
The only problem with the current class is its location. I have to admit that the neighborhood is quite dodgey (a word used here a lot to describe bad). It is OK in the going but the class is out at 10 p.m. so it's pretty dark and lonely coming back. My friend drives and the parking is also not good, although on Monday she found a spot about a block away. She wouldn't hear of me standing at the bus stop and drove me to a better one. We go in different directions and I just don't want to take advantage of her, so this is no good. We have found another place that is in a country pub with parking, so next week we are going to try me taking the bus to her place, driving there and then me getting the bus back from her place.
I've been without a car for a long time now, 8 years since we moved to Washington, and I'm used to public transit, but I have noticed people who have cars just can't fathom waiting for a bus. But I know I have to be careful about that because it can also lead to a lot of inconvenience for drivers if I were to take advantage of that mindset. I really don't mind the bus, I'm used to it.
Next week we start going to plays in the Dublin Theater Festival series and Alan's sister and brother in law come for a visit, so things will get busy. We are looking forward to having guests again!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Solpadeine is My Boyfriend, a play we saw yesterday during the Dublin Fringe Festival, was about the most moving performance I've seen since The Last of Mrs. Lincoln when I was in my 20's. I'll remember it for a long, long time. (Solpadeine is a drug for headaches. It has codeine in it so it's addictive. It's really amazing to me that you can't buy a big bottle of aspirin tablets here but you can get an addictive drug over-the-counter. I think the issue must be quantity and how it's taken because it seems you can only buy 12 at a time of any headache remedy and almost all of them--including this one--is effervescent and dissolved in water.)
The show, a one person performance, written and performed by an incredibly talented young woman was about the struggles young people face in Ireland -- all over the world really -- when they can't find jobs. The poignant aspect about this condition here in Ireland is that joblessness among the young is almost always 'solved' by emigration. Now they are mostly going to Australia but the effect is still the same on Ireland as when they were going to America. Pain and loss among family and friends left behind. I'd never really looked at it from the perspective of the young people who stayed behind. The courage, it seemed, was in the going. This young woman, Stefanie Preissner, has captured and articulated the courage it takes to stay. I was really, really impressed. If you are interested, you can read more about this performance and her here: http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/emigration-stefanie-preissner-585621-Sep2012/
I'm reminded over and over again how what we thought in America was a bad economy, is really so, so much better than what it could be like if the recession was as real there as it is here. For all the talk of how bad it is there, and I'm not minimizing the lack of work that I know continues to bedevil the U.S. economy and people we know and love there; the double dip recession that is here, is frightening. Not only are there no jobs but investments are not performing either so even people with savings continue to be hurt. We had a brief conversation with a woman about our age while we were waiting for the doors to open on the performance. She has three sons and even the suggestion of them emigrating brought tears to her eyes, she knows it's a real possibility that one or more of them will do it. It was really sad.
On a happier note, both Alan and I received copies of the books we worked on the in last year in the mail this week. It was a real pleasure to see them in print. Mine, 10 Lessons for Cultivating Member Commitment is a "best seller". Which in association terms, means has sold over 200 copies since it was published in August. I don't have the numbers for Alan's, Environmental Scanning for Associations. I don't think Alan is really touting this achievement in any event since his area is really fiction. He's been busy working on a play and has joined a writer's group, so that's his main focus.
I've taken two drop-in dance classes already, and will start the more formal set dancing class on Monday. I'm very excited to begin. The drop-in classes are on Wednesday afternoons and so far I've learned a few steps in the jitterbug and the start of a minuet. It's quite a bit more strenuous than it seemed at first but good fun.
Next week we will start going to the plays we've booked in the Dublin Theater Festival, including the first staging of James Joyce The Dubliners with our visitors, Alan's sister and brother in law. We are so looking forward to seeing them.
The show, a one person performance, written and performed by an incredibly talented young woman was about the struggles young people face in Ireland -- all over the world really -- when they can't find jobs. The poignant aspect about this condition here in Ireland is that joblessness among the young is almost always 'solved' by emigration. Now they are mostly going to Australia but the effect is still the same on Ireland as when they were going to America. Pain and loss among family and friends left behind. I'd never really looked at it from the perspective of the young people who stayed behind. The courage, it seemed, was in the going. This young woman, Stefanie Preissner, has captured and articulated the courage it takes to stay. I was really, really impressed. If you are interested, you can read more about this performance and her here: http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/emigration-stefanie-preissner-585621-Sep2012/
I'm reminded over and over again how what we thought in America was a bad economy, is really so, so much better than what it could be like if the recession was as real there as it is here. For all the talk of how bad it is there, and I'm not minimizing the lack of work that I know continues to bedevil the U.S. economy and people we know and love there; the double dip recession that is here, is frightening. Not only are there no jobs but investments are not performing either so even people with savings continue to be hurt. We had a brief conversation with a woman about our age while we were waiting for the doors to open on the performance. She has three sons and even the suggestion of them emigrating brought tears to her eyes, she knows it's a real possibility that one or more of them will do it. It was really sad.
On a happier note, both Alan and I received copies of the books we worked on the in last year in the mail this week. It was a real pleasure to see them in print. Mine, 10 Lessons for Cultivating Member Commitment is a "best seller". Which in association terms, means has sold over 200 copies since it was published in August. I don't have the numbers for Alan's, Environmental Scanning for Associations. I don't think Alan is really touting this achievement in any event since his area is really fiction. He's been busy working on a play and has joined a writer's group, so that's his main focus.
I've taken two drop-in dance classes already, and will start the more formal set dancing class on Monday. I'm very excited to begin. The drop-in classes are on Wednesday afternoons and so far I've learned a few steps in the jitterbug and the start of a minuet. It's quite a bit more strenuous than it seemed at first but good fun.
Next week we will start going to the plays we've booked in the Dublin Theater Festival, including the first staging of James Joyce The Dubliners with our visitors, Alan's sister and brother in law. We are so looking forward to seeing them.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Well, Notre Dame won the game last Saturday. As expected, I stayed at the tailgate party, put on by Democrats Abroad, just long enough to see the start and eat the burger. We met several new people and I officially joined the American Women's Club of Dublin (AWCD) a cosponsor of the tailgate party. I've heard the game was very good for business in Dublin, there were tons of Americans on the streets. I think both Navy and Notre Dame fans are rabid and rich so coming to Dublin for one game was appropriate for them I guess. Anyway, the Dublin retailers were happy.
I attended a drop-in dance class on Wednesday afternoon and, although it wasn't set dancing (which starts on September 17) it was fun to meet some new people and to learn a new dance, a minuet. I will likely do that on Wednesday afternoons going forward as well as the Monday evening set dancing.
Tonight we are going to hear the President's acceptance speech with a group from the Democrats club. They have arranged for a big screen TV to be set up in a pub in the City Center. Up to now I've been watching the speeches by YouTube the following morning. Prime time in the States is the wee hours of the morning here. I really enjoyed seeing Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton in particular but was also impressed with San Antonio's mayor. He's an up and comer I'd say. As soon as Hispanics become the majority in Texas, I expect that state will move pretty shortly thereafter from red to blue.
This morning, I did a walking tour or Merrion Square, which is a park in the City Center formerly owned by the Catholic Church. Until 1972, the park was locked up and you needed special permission to enter, but in that year the Bishop of Dublin gave the property to the City. It's just amazing the hold the church had on Ireland. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't until the famine (1848) that the church emerged with such political and social power here. Although it didn't do much to help the population and mostly sided with the land owners during the famine, it moved pretty aggressively to take control in the vacuum caused by the decimation of the population as the one entity with an organization. Living here is so interesting. A lot of my myths about Ireland are being burst.
The Dublin Theater Festival begins here on September 25th and we have booked to see 9 plays between September 25 and October 14. Considering that we're going to be on a walking tour in Majorca between October 4th and October 12th, that's a lot of them. On two days we're going to see more than one. For one play, The Dubliners, we will be accompanied by Alan's sister and brother-in-law. It seems a fitting play to share with American visitors. The venue is also one I'm happy with, The Gaiety Theatre, site of the recent performance of Riverdance that we saw. The stage was too small for Riverdance, but the theater is just beautiful and it's the perfect spot for a play.
The upcoming week should be a quiet one. The only thing on my calendar is the first monthly meeting of AWCD, but I expect that I'll keep myself busy nonetheless.
I attended a drop-in dance class on Wednesday afternoon and, although it wasn't set dancing (which starts on September 17) it was fun to meet some new people and to learn a new dance, a minuet. I will likely do that on Wednesday afternoons going forward as well as the Monday evening set dancing.
Tonight we are going to hear the President's acceptance speech with a group from the Democrats club. They have arranged for a big screen TV to be set up in a pub in the City Center. Up to now I've been watching the speeches by YouTube the following morning. Prime time in the States is the wee hours of the morning here. I really enjoyed seeing Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton in particular but was also impressed with San Antonio's mayor. He's an up and comer I'd say. As soon as Hispanics become the majority in Texas, I expect that state will move pretty shortly thereafter from red to blue.
This morning, I did a walking tour or Merrion Square, which is a park in the City Center formerly owned by the Catholic Church. Until 1972, the park was locked up and you needed special permission to enter, but in that year the Bishop of Dublin gave the property to the City. It's just amazing the hold the church had on Ireland. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't until the famine (1848) that the church emerged with such political and social power here. Although it didn't do much to help the population and mostly sided with the land owners during the famine, it moved pretty aggressively to take control in the vacuum caused by the decimation of the population as the one entity with an organization. Living here is so interesting. A lot of my myths about Ireland are being burst.
The Dublin Theater Festival begins here on September 25th and we have booked to see 9 plays between September 25 and October 14. Considering that we're going to be on a walking tour in Majorca between October 4th and October 12th, that's a lot of them. On two days we're going to see more than one. For one play, The Dubliners, we will be accompanied by Alan's sister and brother-in-law. It seems a fitting play to share with American visitors. The venue is also one I'm happy with, The Gaiety Theatre, site of the recent performance of Riverdance that we saw. The stage was too small for Riverdance, but the theater is just beautiful and it's the perfect spot for a play.
The upcoming week should be a quiet one. The only thing on my calendar is the first monthly meeting of AWCD, but I expect that I'll keep myself busy nonetheless.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Just as in the States, September is the month that starts afresh. Here, summer isn't bracketed by Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in September but simply by months. Summer starts in June and ends when the kids go back to school the first weekday in September. It's not that there aren't holidays here, they just don't commemorate anything in particular, most are just called "bank holidays" and those are days when most everything but retail is closed. It rains buckets on most bank holidays. I didn't post as I usually do yesterday (Friday) because I wanted to start afresh too, so here I am on September 1 at 4:38 a.m.
I'm excited to start this month because there are lots of new things on the calendar. The thing I'm most excited about is starting set dancing classes. I've identified two places that offer classes and it looks like so much fun -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj13osgy2M0 . One starts on Monday the 12th and the other on the 16th. I remember my mother and father's fond memories of their early days when he played accordion and she danced. In later years she kept up in the States in a square dance group and you can see from the video that, except for the caller in square dance, set dancing is very similar. I was inspired to do this by seeing set dancers in a pub during our trip to Dingle last week and set about finding a place for classes. Although he has agreed to start square dancing when we get back to the States, Alan is going to pass on set dancing but, like with most dance, women are more prevalent anyway and it's acceptable for women to partner in it. I'm delighted that my friend Mary says she'd like to come along, so I'll have a partner to begin.
There are also two new networking groups I will be attending with monthly meetings beginning in September after a summer hiatus, Democrats Abroad and American Women in Ireland. Since the election is coming up so quickly, there will be lots to do in the former, starting with the President's acceptance speech at the convention on September 7th. The latter seems like a group I was involved in during my time in Milwaukee but I'm hoping not so cliquish since it should be more fluid, with people coming in and out as they arrive in the country. The group in Milwaukee was not that dynamic since people tended to be from and stay in that city for their whole lifetime.
After parting with our friends in Dingle last Saturday, Alan and I returned home to catch up on maintenance; lots of laundry, shopping and cleaning. We did take a break on Tuesday and saw the movie Shadow Dancer which was quite good. Then on Wednesday morning I met friends at the Irish Film Institute (IFI) for the monthly "Strawberry Club" outing for seniors. We saw the 2009 movie Welcome to the Riley's with James Gandolfini. IFI is very similar to the American Film Institute (AFI) with special deals for members and this Strawberry Club is one they put on each month for the over 55 set. It's just great because for 3.50 Euro (about $5) you get a movie that you wouldn't otherwise see and a coffee. The last several times I've done it, I've met friends and had lunch afterward. A lot of fun.
Our U.S. friends returned from their continued travels in the west of Ireland on Wednesday evening and we had a nice dinner in and heard the story of their travels. The story of Sheila, the compulsive B&B operator at the Cliffs of Moher was hysterical. They left early on Thursday morning for the trip back to Madison, WI.
It was such fun hosting them and we are looking forward to a lot more visits in the next two months. In addition to great company, this couple brought a big bottle of aspirin tablets. For some reason you can't get that here, aspirin only comes in effervescent tablets in a box of 12. Our next guests, Alan's sister and her husband (or as Alan's much beloved mother called "Margenes", just and Alan and I were "Alans"), are bringing ice cube trays, the kind that makes big cubes, another thing that is not available in Ireland. We've got a list of such items so those of you getting ready for your trip here be warned!
Today we are going to a tailgate party for the Notre Dame/Navy football game that is to be played here in Dublin at the Emerald Island Classic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Isle_Classic . I'm not much of a football fan so I don't expect to last for the whole thing, but Alan will likely stay till the bitter end. Since they are Hoosiers AND "The Fighting Irish", we're both rooting for Notre Dame.
I'm excited to start this month because there are lots of new things on the calendar. The thing I'm most excited about is starting set dancing classes. I've identified two places that offer classes and it looks like so much fun -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj13osgy2M0 . One starts on Monday the 12th and the other on the 16th. I remember my mother and father's fond memories of their early days when he played accordion and she danced. In later years she kept up in the States in a square dance group and you can see from the video that, except for the caller in square dance, set dancing is very similar. I was inspired to do this by seeing set dancers in a pub during our trip to Dingle last week and set about finding a place for classes. Although he has agreed to start square dancing when we get back to the States, Alan is going to pass on set dancing but, like with most dance, women are more prevalent anyway and it's acceptable for women to partner in it. I'm delighted that my friend Mary says she'd like to come along, so I'll have a partner to begin.
There are also two new networking groups I will be attending with monthly meetings beginning in September after a summer hiatus, Democrats Abroad and American Women in Ireland. Since the election is coming up so quickly, there will be lots to do in the former, starting with the President's acceptance speech at the convention on September 7th. The latter seems like a group I was involved in during my time in Milwaukee but I'm hoping not so cliquish since it should be more fluid, with people coming in and out as they arrive in the country. The group in Milwaukee was not that dynamic since people tended to be from and stay in that city for their whole lifetime.
After parting with our friends in Dingle last Saturday, Alan and I returned home to catch up on maintenance; lots of laundry, shopping and cleaning. We did take a break on Tuesday and saw the movie Shadow Dancer which was quite good. Then on Wednesday morning I met friends at the Irish Film Institute (IFI) for the monthly "Strawberry Club" outing for seniors. We saw the 2009 movie Welcome to the Riley's with James Gandolfini. IFI is very similar to the American Film Institute (AFI) with special deals for members and this Strawberry Club is one they put on each month for the over 55 set. It's just great because for 3.50 Euro (about $5) you get a movie that you wouldn't otherwise see and a coffee. The last several times I've done it, I've met friends and had lunch afterward. A lot of fun.
Our U.S. friends returned from their continued travels in the west of Ireland on Wednesday evening and we had a nice dinner in and heard the story of their travels. The story of Sheila, the compulsive B&B operator at the Cliffs of Moher was hysterical. They left early on Thursday morning for the trip back to Madison, WI.
It was such fun hosting them and we are looking forward to a lot more visits in the next two months. In addition to great company, this couple brought a big bottle of aspirin tablets. For some reason you can't get that here, aspirin only comes in effervescent tablets in a box of 12. Our next guests, Alan's sister and her husband (or as Alan's much beloved mother called "Margenes", just and Alan and I were "Alans"), are bringing ice cube trays, the kind that makes big cubes, another thing that is not available in Ireland. We've got a list of such items so those of you getting ready for your trip here be warned!
Today we are going to a tailgate party for the Notre Dame/Navy football game that is to be played here in Dublin at the Emerald Island Classic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Isle_Classic . I'm not much of a football fan so I don't expect to last for the whole thing, but Alan will likely stay till the bitter end. Since they are Hoosiers AND "The Fighting Irish", we're both rooting for Notre Dame.
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