Fiacre Banks

@xFiacre (13205)

Ireland

Joined myLot 10 years ago

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

Fiacre Banks's Discussions

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 21 Dec

Walking along Princes Street this afternoon I felt intimidated by the crowds of shivering shoppers bearing down on me, and it seemed that everyone was going in the opposite direction to me, that I was invisible and was going to be...

6 responses •

6 people

Bumfuzzled.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 1 Dec

December has rolled in, but you knew that. In rolling in it has obnubilated the soft November memories that I’m desperately trying to hold onto because I find December to be the most depressing of all the months, what with...

2 responses •

5 people

No Nonsense November.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 19 Nov

Today’s date, the twentieth of November, issues forth with a sober and serious tone when said aloud, don’t you think? There’s certainly nothing twinkly about it, in fact if dates were occupations this one would be a bank manager...

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3 people

Cold at last.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 19 Nov

Today is the first time I’ve actually felt cold this winter, and the first I’ve worn a sweater outside. The temperature has dropped to 4 degrees, the sky is piercingly blue and the strong, cold shafts of light coming like arrows...

5 responses •

7 people

Under a murderous sky.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 15 Nov

Late this afternoon, as dusk was starting to gather, I took myself out into the back garden with a bottle of red wine. A mild November afternoon it was, the air full of the smell of decay and the trees almost devoid of leaves....

6 responses •

5 people

Drifting about a bit.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • 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

Free lunch.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • 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 (13205) • 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 (13205) • 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 (13205) • 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 (13205) • Ireland 7 Jan 24

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 (13205) • 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 (13205) • 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 (13205) • 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...

5 responses •

6 people

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

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • 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

Empty streets in the rain.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 26 Aug 23

I’m glad not to be in Paris tonight. It’s August and it’s hot, too bright and clogged with holiday makers doing Paris, picking over her as is if she were a bundle of second hand clothes for sale on the Salvation Army counter....

5 responses •

6 people

My cup is full and running over.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 2 Aug 23

Ebullient is the word I would select to indicate my mood as I sat in the bus this morning heading into town. I used my grumpy old man bus pass of course, so getting a free ride bolstered my positive, optimistic outlook on life....

6 responses •

6 people

Heaven’s tears

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 31 Jul 23

Forlorn is the word that comes to mind this evening as I look out from the upstairs window across the graves in the churchyard behind our house. Persistent rain is falling, washing off the headstones, and when the rain gives way...

10 responses •

12 people

As I roved out.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 31 Jul 23

What greater joy awaits a person than to venture forth into the world armed only with a slender cane and an inquisitive mind and then to walk. Kierkegaard was of that mind and habit, a practitioner and proponent of walking, and...

3 responses •

3 people

Piano life.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13205) • Ireland 25 Jul 23

I arrived home this late forenoon to find the house flooded with dreamy languor. After a period of being downcast my wife had found the motivation to express herself once more on the piano, releasing notes of Schumann’s...

3 responses •

4 people