Fiacre Banks

@xFiacre (12920)

Ireland

Joined myLot 9 years ago

An Irishman who has called many places home, enjoys whiskey in moderation and reads Dostoyevsky frequently.

Fiacre Banks's Discussions

Naughty miss.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 29 Oct

A teacher at my old school made it onto the front page of our newspapers today, and not in a good way. She has been found guilty of grooming then seducing a 13 year old boy. I hated the school. It was peopled by 1100 boys many...

5 responses •

6 people

Carnlough beach.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 28 Oct

Not much can beat a dander along Carnlough beach in the late afternoon sunshine at the end of autumn. The world is held in a gentle quietness, the retreating tide leaving the sand wet and gleaming under the benign influence of a...

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7 people

Drifting about a bit.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 22 Oct

I was taken by surprise this afternoon by a burst of unexpected autumn sunshine. I sat in the back garden for half an hour, sheltered from neighbours’ eyes and cold winds and I took a bottle of red wine with me though I only had a...

6 responses •

8 people

Going through the change.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 22 Oct

After seven years wedded to my phone I conclude that I need a new one. That’s the same conclusion arrived at by the tech lady I consulted yesterday at the phone hospital. So I’ve ordered a new one and it should be with me...

3 responses •

4 people

I’ve got PVSD.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 21 Oct

I know that self diagnosis ought not to be trusted, but in my case I’m quite confident that my current general malaise is a case of Post Vacation Stress Disorder. I’ve already shared my feelings of general lethargy and despondency...

5 responses •

7 people

I’ve been thinking.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 17 Oct

For four hours on Wednesday I devoted myself to the issue around uncomfortable airplanes experiences. I applied my thinking quite sedulously to the thorny problem and now I have the solution airlines like Aer Lingus have been...

3 responses •

7 people

Do you adjust well after a holiday?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 17 Oct

When the trip is over and you’ve brought a lot of memories back with you and a lot of sand between your toes, do you just transition back into normal life and get on with it? I do, but this time I’ve returned feeling despondent...

4 responses •

7 people

Rooftop bar. Sunset. Cocktails.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 17 Oct

Our last evening in Greece was spent in a kind of posh hotel in Piraeus. I’m not a posh hotel kind of person, but I did enjoy sitting in the rooftop bar sipping cocktails at sunset watching the coming and going of boats in the...

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4 people

Vomiting diplomatically

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 16 Oct

Leaving behind us this morning the sweet loveliness that is Piraeus, the thinking person’s favourites port, we took a taxi to Athens airport. No sooner had we roared off, our daughter (who I’ve previously explained has Downs...

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5 people

Has this ever happened to you?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 14 Oct

I’ve never had this happen to me before - have you? It was our final meal before leaving this pretty little Greek island where I’ve been sojourning this past few weeks. I ordered Moussaka and it arrived, all hot and rich and...

12 responses •

13 people

While travelling.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 9 Oct

I got in some more serious people watching today and helped a lady go to the toilet, though that hasn’t come out quite like it sounded in my head. We were both wandering around the inner sanctum of a very clean but labyrinthine...

3 responses •

5 people

Free lunch.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 28 Sep

A man came over to our table as we lunched today - I was having souvlaki. I assumed he was checking that we were satisfied with our food, but no. He was telling us that he was paying for our meal. Oh. Why? He was overjoyed that...

8 responses •

9 people

A very naughty word was said.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 16 Sep

I caused yet another man to say a very naughty word tonight. He called wanting to ask me some lifestyle questions for a marketing company, which was frightfully kind of him. I agreed, but said, “Before we begin, I charge 3...

9 responses •

10 people

Hiding in plain sight.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 26 Aug

Early this morning I took myself down to the shore hoping to find some trace of God among the boats and the rocks and the seaweed: or as a man with a more poetic soul than mine once put it, to find God “among the garbage and the...

2 responses •

3 people

Wet knicker restaurant.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 21 Mar

Somehow we have come away on holiday with a very limited supply of underwear for our daughter: we think it’s sitting in a bag at our from door at home. She is quite annoyed at us, and even more so now because of my attempt to...

9 responses •

7 people

Alexandria

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 7 Jan

There used to be a boat that sailed from Piraeus via Latakia in Syria then on to Alexandria on the north coast of Egypt. A long time ago I travelled down to Latakia from Aleppo on a truck carrying bales of cloth and caught that...

4 responses •

4 people

Dreary Belfast for some.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 15 Sep 23

Most of the people of Ireland stepped out into a watery world today, a world blessed and quieted by rain that’s gentle and soft and thoroughly Irish, and although it is loved and welcomed we like to complain about it. In the...

6 responses •

7 people

Thursday rendezvous, by appointment.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 13 Sep 23

Autumn 1986, Rue Daguerre at dusk at the end of a cold November. Chestnuts roasting on a brazier at the street corner, currents of warm air swirling from the doors of bakeries, bars and the stairwell down to the metro, all with...

3 responses •

3 people

Final picnic for peaches.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 11 Sep 23

If only Peaches had listened things would have turned out so differently, but she was always so headstrong and hadn’t much sense of danger. There was no telling her, she always took things too far, right to the edge, and this time...

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6 people

I think it might have been a trappoidal fanfungle. Could be wrong though. I’ve been wrong before.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (12920) • Ireland 11 Sep 23

I came across it yesterday, almost the same colour as the sand it was lying on, and so beautiful. I was walking along the top of the dunes, parallel to the shore and heading north. All my attention was given to boats on the water...

3 responses •

5 people