Sign of the Times

Today, I am standing in a frill-free, foreign-owned supermarket, peering at the Schnitzeblibil herself has found at a bargain price.

"What is a Schnitzeblibl?" I ask, innocently. It's been a long week.

Herself looks down her nose at the foreign label on the plastic bottle.

"It's either a shampoo... or a salad dressing. I'm not sure."

"Ah."

I lift up a green net bag.

"And the Defergaumin?"

"Six for the price of four," she says.

"Do you think," I ask. "Do you think the Defergaumin could be served with the Schnitzeblibl?"

"Don't be silly," she says. "Look, give me that trolley and go and look at the Man stuff."

I examine the rotary motor mower; poke briefly at the energy-saving L.E.D. work lamp; try on then put back the protective chainsaw boots. I meet Herself in the next aisle, where she is wrestling another woman to the ground, growling menacingly.

"MY....! I said MY Liebenhaffabudenschtiffel!"

In the car park, a man is tentatively cutting off a shopping trolley wheel with a brand new plasma rig.

"Only nine-ninty nine in the third aisle," he says, grinning.

I pack the groceries into the car and we drive away.

Revolution Now!

A third-level student gentleman on the bus this morning was overheard to say that he thought the bus must be leaving town earlier because it reached his stop earlier this morning.

I wondered if he'd noticed the lower-level schools were on a mid-term break, which meant less traffic, which meant he had to run for his bus. Nope. Don't think it registered.

His third-level lady companion said she thought there was a strike on next week. He said he thought there was one on Saturday. And one next Thursday. And there could be more after that (wait for it):

"...depending on whatever the hell they're striking about."

Take an F grade in Cause and Effect, young man.

I think I'll stop my Union sub now.

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

Translation, (but the original French is much better, I think) courtesy of this site:

The blue sky can collapse on us
And the earth fall to ruins,
I don't care, as long as you love me.
I don't care a damn about the world.
As long as love lights my mornings
As long as my body trembles under your hands
I care little about problems
My love since you love me.
I would go to the end of the world

I would have my hair died blonde
If you asked me.
I would go and unhook the moon
I would go and steal a fortune
If you asked me.
I would reject my country
I would reject all my friends if you asked me.
People can laugh at me
I would do anything
If you asked me.

If one day life tears you away from me
If you die whilst away from me I
don't care as long as you love me
Because I will die too
We will have eternity all to us
In the blue all immensity
In heaven no more problems,
My love, do you believe we love each other
As God reunites those that love one another.

Three years old and 43

This aul' blog got to wear an "I am 3" badge on February 6th, 2009 (I accidentally notice).

(As I write this, Herself tells me Leonard Cohen is very loud for next door. There's Leonard Cohen irony in there somewhere, I bet. "He was blogging, but poor Leonard, he had to go down, down, down....")

Anyway, as I turn off Leonard, here's a Happy Birthday to you, aul' blog!

Me, I get to be 43 on 20th February, a considerable achievement in the life of... well, an-almost 43 year old.

My sister happened upon a photo of the Big Snow of 1982 while clearing out the very last items of my father's house, which shows what "real snow" looks like in Ireland (as distinct from the shallow stuff, comparitively speaking, that we've had over the past couple of weeks.... or was it days? I can't remember, really.) Left to right is Spider O'Toole, Whacker, and me. The calendar would make me about 16 or thereabouts, and zooming in on the blurred image of us (we were standing quite far from the camera as the shot was more to do with the snow than with us), it's hard to believe that in that year Spider and I started being served beer in pubs. Small wonder it only took two pints to put me on my ear.

Night, night.