Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

Happy Valentines day to lovers one and all. Here is the meal I cooked my wife this evening …

Cod with Potato Mash & Chives with sweetcorn chives – the crab was just the spur at the moment.

Coming back to Donabate from Swords Co Dublin around 14:00 when just before Newbridge demesne there was a police diversion, loads of blue flashing lights redirecting traffic down to the Turvey road.

A couple of hours later I came across this http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/1010/651435-dublin-donabate-rta/ – which was backed up from chatter down the local supermarket talking about how the Golf Club (which one there are a number here) has been robbed and in the get-away the driver plowed into an oncoming car whilst overtaking some others. Apparently there is a lot of Damage. Both Drivers had to be cut out of their respective cars … a lady had 2 broken legs was hospitalized along-side a baby or young girl. The “Get Away Driver” may have had at least one leg amputated.

Interesting times indeed in rural Ireland.

Yeah I know its the US Independence day, but this is NOT what this post is about. What this post is about is that 20 years ago today as a 27 year old I came home to Ireland from England, and Ireland as well as myself have changed a lot since then. It was an overcast but warm day, and everything I had was in a kit-bag and a rucksack – and that included a small expensive 386 laptop which I had bought the previous week from my redundancy pay. England was in a bad way and in recession in 1992, and mom and dad (and my kid sister) had returned to Ireland a few years earlier; I had lost my job (voluntarily) and I had split from my then Girlfriend (she found someone new) and needed to get out of the rut my then life had gotten into.

Dad being the rock of a man he always was picked me up at Dun Laoghaire ferry port – the old train pier and not that fancy new one used by the HSS and we drove home to Navan. Ireland in 1992 was a very different place in many ways and in others was so very similar to today. Unemployment was high then and now – as was “the recession”; although the recession today is far worse than then. I have seen Ireland “boom” and “bust” because of Politician and developer greed where Fianna Fail bought electoral power with the money from a property boom used to bribe the electorate by reducing taxes and boosting the public sector and social payments. Ireland has become a haven for IT because of its closeness to Europe, we speak English and have a well educated workforce – being corporate friendly has helped. I have to admit the TV here is still awful and beautiful Georgian Dublin has been spoiled by high-rised development along the river and in the IFSC. A lot of the old cinema’s on Dublin’s O’Connell street and Abbey Street have closed – and a few new ones have opened. Thankfully the choice of cuisine has improved no end in Dublin in the last 20 years and the Porter House micro brewery produces some fantastic products.

Navan has gone from a charming quaint small country town town to one more bustling and surrounded by drab dreary housing estates full of people who commute daily to Dublin for work. There is now at least an “OK” motorway system in Ireland that was not there 20 years ago; although for the life of me I don’t understand why in Dublin they thought 2 lane motorways would be more than enough for any projected traffic load and that using roundabouts and traffic lights to gain access to motorways was the right thing to do.

I have had a great 20 years and life has been good to me and the family. I met a wonderful woman who for some bizarre reason decided to marry me; and together we have a wonderful daughter. I have a great sister who I have a grand relationship with and whose kids are gorgeous. Being an IT Developer/Architect is the best job anyone can have – well I think so. Life in short is good.

Coming home to Ireland 20 years ago was the best decision I ever made and I find it hard to understand how 20 years has passed so fast.

Anyway happy Independence Day everyone.

Today five years ago my beloved father died in his sleep at the relatively young age of sixty nine. My Father died suddenly in his sleep in pretty much great health and before the birth of two of his grandchildren of whom he would have no doubt adored.

Even after five years I am still in many ways are grieving for my father – a grief although dulling with time will never go away. I miss my father – my mentor and my friend. Now I realize the truth and luck in choosing my father to be my best man at my wedding simply because he was – and is – the best man I have ever known. Every month I raise a single smokey Scottish malt whiskey in celebration and toast to the man who was my father. So many good memories, and twinges of pain at never having the opportunity to say goodbye. I look at today’s papers at the awful news of families and children slaughtered in Syria by a Government desperate to keep power, and in Afghanistan by an American solder “gone rogue”; I was lucky to have been brought up, known, and molded by a man of honour and substance – my father.

I still miss you dad. You are still my hero.

I am not too sure what period the following covered (prob in the last 10 years) but they are the Meals-ready-to-eat (MRE or ‘Field Rations’) that are issued to troops in the field who are not near a army canteen or mobile kitchen. There are a number of “menu’s” and which one you get on any given day was pretty much a random lottery from what I remember. Most troops used to hate field rations for a number of reasons: they can’t cook, the limited menu (snacks were pretty much the same and breakfast was almost always some form of meat and beans) and most people usually don’t like something in each menu so swapping a pudding for a tin of sausage-and-beans was common. For me I did not like afters (puddings apart from chocolate ones) and I don’t drink tea so would swap those for a tin of beans and a coffee ration for example.

One thing my father taught me was you needed to “supplement” the rations anyway you can. For me I used to bring a supply of salt, pepper, dried soup, OXO cubes, tomato ketchup and mustard sachets (kind you get in cheap cafe’s) and a plentiful supply of “instant potato” to help “improve” the rations. If the truth be known I actually quite liked Army food. Anyway I digress from the list of menus.

Menu ‘A’
Breakfast: Hamburger & Beans
Snack: Oatmeal block, Fruit Biscuits, Brown Biscuits, Cheese Spread, Choc Bar (2), Boiled Sweets
Main Meal: Soup, chicken & Mushroo & Pasta, Treacle Pudding

Menu ‘B’
Breakfast: Corned Beef Hash
Snack: Oatmeal block, Fruit Biscuits, Brown Biscuits, Meat Pate, Choc Bar (2), Boiled Sweets
Main Meal: Soup, Beef Stew & Dumplings, Choc Pudding in a chocolate sauce.

Menu ‘C’
Breakfast: Chicken Sausage & Beans
Snack: Oatmeal block, Fruit Biscuits, Brown Biscuits, Cheese Spread, Choc Bar (2), Boiled Sweets
Main Meal: Soup, Lamb Stew & Potatoes, Fruit Dumplings in a Butterscotch Sauce.

Menu ‘D’
Breakfast: Corned Beef Hash
Snack: Oatmeal block, Fruit Biscuits, Brown Biscuits, Meat Pate, Choc Bar (2), Boiled Sweets
Main Meal: Soup, Pork Casserole, Treacle Pudding

Menu ‘E’
Breakfast: Bacon & Beans
Snack: Oatmeal block, Fruit Biscuits, Brown Biscuits, Cheese Spread, Choc Bar (2), Boiled Sweets
Main Meal: Soup, Lancashire Hotpot, Fruit Dumplings in a Butterscotch Sauce.

Menu ‘F’
Breakfast: Beefburger & Beans
Snack: Oatmeal block, Fruit Biscuits, Brown Biscuits, Meat Pate, Choc Bar (2), Boiled Sweets
Main Meal: Soup, Steak & Veg with potatoe, Rice Pudding.

Menu ‘G’
Breakfast: Meatballs & Pasta in tomato sauce
Snack: Oatmeal block, Fruit Biscuits, Brown Biscuits, Cheese Spread, Choc Bar (2), Boiled Sweets
Main Meal: Soup, Chicken Stew, Choc Pudding in a chocolate sauce.

Daily Drinks and Sundries
You are also issued on a daily basis a number of drinks: powdered chocolate, coffee, tea. You also get vegetable stock, powdered milk, sugar, lemon or orange powder.