February….ing

Failed to write anything about January which was best forgotten.  Getting in a February post before the month ends.  Thanks to Christina for the idea.

In February I have been:

Rehearsing for the Chester Mystery Plays.  I play the First Senator in the Nativity scene (I have four lines!) and am also part of the Big Boat in the Noah’s Ark scene. There are also quite a few crowd scenes with ‘movement’ and music so I have more to do than I expected.  It’s fun, though quite time consuming.  

Teaching a new literature course which I’ve called ‘Humour and the English’.  I’m really enjoying this one and the students seem to like it too. We read and discussed Beryl Bainbridge’s ‘The Bottle Factory Outing’.  I knew very little about Beryl Bainbridge and have enjoyed reading her biography and watching interviews with her. She certainly was an interesting character. We have also read ‘Excellent Women’ by Barbara Pym which I loved. This week we are discussing another of my favourites, Zadie Smith’s ‘White Teeth’.

Sitting in front of the fire far too much. We have been lighting the log burner to avoid turning the heating on during the day.  Instead of pottering around the chilly house doing household tasks, I have been staying in the cosy lounge reading. 

Visiting Dublin on a half term trip with Kate. Although I have driven through Dublin many times, I haven’t actually visited the city since my early twenties, quite some time ago.  It has changed a lot - felt very European actually.   Full of students in the area we stayed close to St Stephen’s Green.  Grafton Street has all the usual upmarket shops you get in city centres.  And so many bookshops: Eason’s a name you don’t get in England, and lots of independents too. Away from the city centre there seems to be a lot of building going on and flashy office blocks for big companies. We did see another side of the city on the day we walked through a residential area to the Guinness Storehouse. Here the multi-storey flats with net-curtained windows and neglected looking playgrounds reminded me of parts of Liverpool. 

I encouraged Kate to explore Dublin’s literary heritage. Looks more like Hugh Grant than Oscar Wilde. 

We went on the tour of the Guinness Storehouse…

And learned about how it is good for you! 

We heard the story of the Jeannie Johnson, a replica of one of the famine ships. 

We had coffee in Bewley’s and admired the stained-glass windows

Feeling happy that the days are getting longer and the garden is coming to life.  I need to get out there and do some tidying this week. 

Planning holidays with Paul. We’ve had to postpone a trip to Paris on Eurostar I’d booked in January -  it was his Christmas present.  The week before we were due to go, Calum, Kate’s boyfriend, had emergency surgery to remove a burst appendix and was in hospital recovering for a week.  They had been lined up to look after the dog and also I did not want to go away until he was well again - it was all very traumatic.  So we’re now going to Paris in June and have another trip to Ireland and one to Scotland in the calendar.