"Waterlogged and Saintly"

I've been back home now for about two weeks and I know that one or two of you are getting impatient with the silence......I will write about it! It just needs time to percolate. I had a lovely time with the new parents and the Precious Bundle; made some lovely new friends; saw some beautiful places, and suddenly it was time to come home, just when I was hitting my stride. I spent ten days with Rise. Is it churlish to say it wasn't enough? I was delighted to see her, but, it wasn't enough! She keeps looking for new posts on my blog. I keep looking for new posts on hers. We're both feeling uninspired!

Meanwhile, The Bean noticed that there were six hundred and thirty messages in my in box.

Six hundred and thirty.

Stretching all the way back to October 2003.

Oh dear.

"Don't you ever delete anything Mom?" he asked incredulously.

"of course I do!" I said. "I just keep the ones I want to reread."

That sounded lame, even to me. In what lifetime do I plan to have time to reread six hundred and thirty old e-mails? So I've been on a mission to delete, and give my in box a lean and hungry look.

These things cannot be accomplished overnight. I have to be careful not to delete any gems such as the following, until they have been properly savoured. One incautious click and it would be gone forever. Phft! And look what you'd have missed! This is part of an e-mail titled "Waterlogged and Saintly" that I got from Rise last August. She even mentioned that she planned to blog about it. Did you see a blog post about Lough Derg over there? Uhuh. Me neither. So what I'm doing here could be thought of as a public service....if you stretch your mind a little! Go on, stretch it!

Hi Molly,

Sorry for the silence from this end. Myself and the black dog took ourselves away for a couple of days to Lough Derg!

Do you remember Lough Derg? The place of pilgrimage for all God fearing, holy Catholic, slightly deranged Irish folk?? What was I doing there you might ask ... Not being a believer in coincidences, when a leaflet about Lough Derg fell into my lap out of a magazine, while the black dog was nosing around, and the world was looking particularly gray, I thought to myself, "Why not?" Over the last couple of years, I had often mentioned that I'd like to do it, some day, soooo....Off I went to Donegal.

The pilgrimage involved three days of fasting, going barefoot over the rocky, stony beds, and praying. The website was at pains to say that one didn't need to be a practicing Catholic to do the pilgrimage, but, in true Catholic Church tradition, that was a load of horse-[expletive deleted, tsk, tsk!]. Quelle surprise.

Lough Derg itself is in Donegal, at the back end of nowhere. Long drive. The pilgrimage takes place on an island in Lough Derg reached by a ferry. I had hoped it would be a silent time, but the world and his mother were there, with their corns and bunions on full display, praying fervently. I think I was the only non-Catholic present, but I'm glad I did it. It was very tough. The weather was, as usual,[expletive deleted, potty mouth!] Not to mention cold, wet and windy. Going without food and staying awake for thirty six hours does funny things to your brain! What brain, you say?

I came home just in time for the Leaving Cert results. He[youngestsonofrise] did very well ... surprised everyone, including himself! I told him it was all due to Lough Derg, and me spending three days on my knees, starving, freezing, and battling the demons in the rarefied atmosphere of saints and sinners!

"You didn't get where you are today, sonny boy, without your mammy at your back pushing your arse up the hill!"

He had the grace to be slightly amused.

I feel a post coming on about the Lough Derg experience ...

L [oldestsonofrise] is off to Sicily tomorrow for a scuba diving course. Wish I were going too! Not with him of course ... just to go somewhere its not raining ... it hasn't stopped [expletive deleted, again! The shame of it all!]-ing rain here for the last 2 weeks....

The Met office are issuing weather alerts regularly about the possibility of severe flooding;

The farmers are whinging;

The slugs are about to take over the landscape;

The government is on holidays;

The country is beginning to go down the tubes economically, and the experts tell us it's time to tighten our belts.

Bet if the sun came out, the entire population would down tools, grab their buckets and spades and head to the seaside ....



So there you have it. A blog post from Rise, just not on Rise's blog. I'm feeling kind of saintly myself. A big sister's got to do what a big sister's got to do. Now that I've moved those words over here, I can delete one message from my inbox. Which leaves only six hundred and twenty nine.