Fiacre Banks

@xFiacre (13020)

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

Close the door behind you quietly and don’t let the goat out.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 21 Nov

A pair of underpants, a pair of glasses, yet in each instance just one item is referred to, complete and indivisible under God, even to those who deny the existence of such as guarantor of the unity of a pair of underpants or...

3 responses •

5 people

Language, my dear, language.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 20 Nov

Isn’t English weird? The past of teach is taught, but the past of preach is preached, but not praught, as you might think it ought to be. And I just came across another linguistic oddity. The white powder descended from the sky...

8 responses •

9 people

No Nonsense November.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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 (13020) • 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...

6 responses •

7 people

In praise of the blockage fixer.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 19 Nov

Today was a day when a touch of constipation would have been appreciated- my toilet is blocked and cannot be used. So my wife and daughter have taken themselves out for the day to spend my money in cafes and shops while I sort the...

6 responses •

7 people

The men in white coats are coming to get me.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 18 Nov

It’s the end of October The summer is over The streets are much colder The cafés are warmer Rome is just rising Young David’s surmising That ladies past midnight Are too enterprising So jealousy burns In the heart...

4 responses •

5 people

I hate tech.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 18 Nov

I sent a text to my daughter yesterday and it wouldn’t send. I sent one to my son and again it would not send. The fault lay (of course) not with me but with my new phone and I tried everything possible. Eventually, with some...

5 responses •

6 people

Stewed apples.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 18 Nov

The atmosphere in my kitchen this morning is one of warmth, comfort and security. And nostalgia. A pot of apples is stewing away happily, cooking apples infused with cloves, cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice and a splash of brandy....

5 responses •

8 people

Swings and roundabouts.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 17 Nov

You know that journalists have run out of newsworthy stuff to report when they major on the fact(?) that the rest of November is going to be cold in the UK. That’s what the BBC’s leading with and the papers are sure to follow....

5 responses •

5 people

Disorientation.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 17 Nov

We’re attempting another jigsaw, but we’ve been struggling with it. We prefer to do jigsaws without reference to the picture on the box and this one is of a Japanese scene with large spaces of featurelessness. With so little...

4 responses •

3 people

Under a murderous sky.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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

I went down.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • Ireland 14 Nov

Today I fell. I’m not given to falling, nor do I welcome it. Last time I fell was about 10 years ago taking a short cut through an unlit car park on a cold winter’s night that was so deep, and I tripped over a brick. I suffered...

15 responses •

15 people

Carnlough beach.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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...

6 responses •

8 people

Drifting about a bit.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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

I’ve been thinking.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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

Rooftop bar. Sunset. Cocktails.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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...

2 responses •

4 people

Vomiting diplomatically

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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...

2 responses •

5 people

Has this ever happened to you?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13020) • 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 (13020) • 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 (13020) • 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