Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

It had to come. We both knew it; but we were hoping for a few more years before it manifested itself. Maeve has started singing the odd phrase from a song or two lately – words from the Corries “Skye boat song” or Petula Clarkes “Cannot live without your love”; but today we were watching “Ratatouille” the cartoon movie about a cuisine loving rat when Maeve said the ominous phrase – point to the main rat lead she said “Mickey Mouse”. Americanisation has started.

Happy new year all,

and what a xmas – its been quiet mostly because we have all suffered from one cold or another. New year was fun because her family came to visit and food and drink was shared.

After the new year snow arrived – the worst in Ireland for 30 years. I remember the one 30 years ago, but I was in England at the time – and I remember the fun of six foot snow drifts that lasted for weeks and digging snow tunnels, school being cancelled and the roads so bad you cannot drive on them. I remember fantastic snow covered vista’s. We lived in the country in a small English village miles away from most so called “civilization”.

One of the main things I remember is using sledges full of food which we teenagers pulled to out-lying houses containing old people who needed our help.

Back to the present and we see Ireland brought to a stand still by a prolonged cold spell (>14 days) and a meagre 2cm of snow – that and a lot of dangerous black ice on the roads. Funny thing is the government has run out of road salt (blames local council’s and the “rare” condition). Everyone is angry at the government’s incompetence in handling any crisis – before the snow it was the flooding, banking, housing etc. No imagination or planning with our rulers.