Fiacre Banks

@xFiacre (15361)

Ireland

Joined myLot 11 years ago

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

Fiacre Banks's Discussions

Sweet convergence.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 17 Sep

I came across a scientific fact tonight that I find quite interesting and almost as bowel-loosening as a digital clock reading 12.34, a happening that keeps on giving. I discovered (though I’m sure you knew this already and are...

7 responses •

7 people

Perpendicular.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 16 Sep

I do love the word perpendicular - don’t you?. It greatly occupied my mind around the time that I first learned it, and once I thought I had mastered its pronunciation and meaning I felt that I had come of age. I was eight years...

4 responses •

5 people

New toilet getting closer.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 16 Sep

Our toilet guy came round this afternoon to measure up. He told us dozens of ways in which we could spend money on the new facilities we propose installing. Fancy tiles on the walls, fancy etching on the glass of the shower...

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6 people

Dirty old town.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 15 Sep

The thing about this town that bugs me most and could persuade me to return to live in the big city is this: there are no cafes where one can sit quietly and read while enjoying good coffee. For one thing, no cafe here makes...

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5 people

It’s good to get this off my chest.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 15 Sep

Why oh why does the press constantly give oxygen to that vainglorious segment of society we call celebrity? Again the Emmys take pride of place in newspapers and TV news and are accorded the same status and gravity as Putin’s...

8 responses •

9 people

Monday night.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 15 Sep

It’s Monday night, time to sit in the garden behind the house as Summer tilts into Autumn with a big goblet of deeply red wine, and let an equally deep tide of melancholy wash all over me. I'm not morbid and I'm not unhappy,...

4 responses •

4 people

High mourning.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 15 Sep

My mind was abruptly called back to the recent past this morning when I read @sissy15 ‘s post about wondering about in graveyards - those who know me will recall that I used to live beside a graveyard. I shared with Sissy how...

6 responses •

7 people

Ah, what might have been.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 14 Sep

On a winter morning in around 1977, (a sweet orange morning) the train I was travelling in was somewhere near Vienna, gliding along like the gleaming streak of red metal it was, stretched out between two banks of snow, shiny in...

3 responses •

5 people

Waste not, want not.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 14 Sep

I wrote yesterday about the installation of a new bathroom which we need and have decided to proceed with. Now I’m wondering, when the work people rip out my old potty ought I to rescue it, put it in the garden, and plant...

6 responses •

5 people

Tittybottle Park.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 13 Sep

A strange and probably little known fact of very little interest is that in England there are quite a few parks known as Tittybottle. One, in Bishop Auckland, started life as Cockton Hill, but was renamed as Tittybottle Park by...

6 responses •

6 people

I need a new potty.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 13 Sep

We’ve decided that we need a complete new bathroom. Our current arrangements are functional okay, but the shower is leaking, tiles are wonky and the entire business was installed on the cheap before we bought the house and it...

9 responses •

9 people

Turkish Teeth.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 13 Sep

Would you ever consider going on a dental holiday abroad? It’s a thing in the UK, whereby the holiday maker is flown to Turkey (or elsewhere) to stay in 5 star accommodation and have all sorts of extensive treatment at a very...

5 responses •

6 people

Should I be a little bit worried about myself?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 12 Sep

In the murky light of dawn this morning I fumbled about beside the bed for my glasses, found them eventually and put them on. I stumbled into the bathroom then on into the kitchen (after washing my hands - I’m not totally...

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4 people

I can’t eat anything more.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 11 Sep

I brought lots of lovely food ideas back from Italy last week so we had an extravaganza tonight and it took all day to prepare it. We started with cocktails: Aperol spritz for Madame, a negroni for sir and Diet Coke for junior...

6 responses •

7 people

The last day.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 3 Sep

We took the train to Florence itself, it was a time I remember oh so well. There was even a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Joan Baez but I didn’t comment because she looked, according to her age, as if she would just ask...

10 responses •

10 people

More gardens.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 2 Sep

Another day and another botanical garden, this time in Lucca. Superb trees that gave very welcome shade and a very welcome piece of advice, warning garden-goers to keep to the paths and talk softly - in Italy!!! Neither pieces of...

5 responses •

6 people

Sometimes I think.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 2 Sep

I’ve had a thought today and disturbed myself somewhat. Did you ever realise that you have always been in your own company? Others come and go but there’s no getting away from yourself. Now that’s something and a half. And we are...

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8 people

Quarantaduesimo anniversario di matrimonio

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 1 Sep

The reason for our little trip to Pisa is two fold. Firstly today is our 42nd wedding anniversary, secondly Thursday is my wife’s birthday. So today we celebrated the anniversary, drinking negronis in most of the cafes along the...

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6 people

Disappointing pesto.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 31 Aug

It was such a disappointment today to be served a meal that was not freshly cooked. The gnocchi were obviously bought frozen and the pesto was out of a jar - how hard could it be for a restaurant to serve freshly made pesto? It’s...

8 responses •

8 people

On the menu tonight.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (15361) • Ireland 30 Aug

Tordelli alla lucchese is what I ate this evening in a trattoria on the Borgo Stretto in Pisa. Similar to ravioli, tordelli is stuffed with beef or pork, Swiss chard, pine nuts, raisins, bread, spices, and grated cheese. In...

7 responses •

8 people