Memory

'Tis home from the local I am as is my wont on a Sunday.
She drinks but a sup from the beer cup, whereas the Map does wallow in the blackstuff on the Monday eve.
And Monday morn 'tis but my lie-in day, and Her to tally early.
And so to bed she for early night, while he the Map do tarry.
And onto the lappy he do go, for to engage in folly.
And to reply to all, that do, like him, bloggy!

For you all, this is the first song in my memory. My mam must have been singing this while I was being born!

For any who have the patience, I've just found the version the Mam used to sing, please , if you have the time , it is beautiful.

Sit

Sometimes I just sits and thinks.

And sometimes I just sits.

A Laugh

This will make anybody smile!

Big Sis.

My big sister is like my other mother.
She always seemed to be there when Mam wasn't.
Herself and Mam were pregnant at the same time on three occassions!
So I have cousins who are the same age as some of my siblings.
And I have nieces and nephews who are older than my younger brother and sister.
Imagine having an auntie or uncle who is younger than you!
I love all my brothers and sisters, there are eight of us in all.
But big sis is my definite favourite. For sure.
Today we (she) got bad news. That fucker cancer is after our clan again!
This time it has it's claws around Big Sis. And it's grip is tight!

He doesn't wanna let go. It's like Dada all over again.
It Does not look good at all. He doesn't want to let go. BASTARD!

Mam thinks that Sis is just very poorly, we can't tell her.

Maybe we're all wrong.

I'd pray if i thought there was a god.

He hasn't answered any of my prayers yet. BASTARD!

1965

Not up to much today. Head funny. (peculiar, not ha-ha.)

Jimmy got me reminiscing with his old photie, so heres one of mine.

Bobby, Noelie & Map. Circa 1965. Back yard, Island Field.

Winter.

This is James Grant of the band Love & Money with a solo version of WINTER.

It's my favourite song from the album 'Dogs in the Traffic'.

Enjoy.

gone

A guy I know died yesterday.

I'd known him for a very long time, though we were never friends as such.

We first knew each other when we were young teenagers in the school pipe band.

We occassionally chatted when we met in one of the local pubs.

How ya doin', grand, and yerself?

That kinda thing.

He was always a quiet, minding my own business, never wanting to know your business person.

He shot himself thru' the head.

I've lost more than one close friend through suicide. And still, I don't get it.

O.K. I realise that each one of them must have been very depressed.

At the very fucking end of the line.

Obviously with nothing to live for. And still I don't get it. I don't. I love life.

And my life hasn't been exactly easy. But I love living. The challenge.

Every day I wake up is a day I look forward to. Another challenge.

I hope I will never be as low as those friends I have lost.

I hope my children will be burying me as a dear old Gramps.

I hope I keep this attitude.

I hope to die old and fulfilled. I do.

But who knows.

"I'm a Big Girl now"

Most mornings I walk the Youngest Daughter (She's "almost" eleven) to school.

It usually takes adout 10 to 15 mins, depending on weather, mood, topic of conversation.

Some days we can chat non-stop the whole way from door to door.

Other times we do the trip with just a few smiles in each other's direction.

I usally pick Her up after school too, or Her Mom will do on the way home from work.

After much discussion over the past few days, we all decided that it was time She could start making the journey home on her own. (With her friends, Without us).

Big day for the Youngest!

Big day for the Mammy and Map!!

Heart in mouth 'til 3.20pm!

Update:

Home safe and sound, and very pleased with Herself!

Another rung climbed on the ladder that is Independance.

18th March. Phew!

And we managed to get through THAT day without mentioning it!

Fuck you Cancer!

My favourite sister in law was 40 today and the baby bro (her husband) threw a party.

As he should. As he should.

The lovely and delightful lady was diagnosed with cancer three years ago.

And as you can imagine, we all were not happy, to say the least.

'Cos we kinda love her a lot.

But she was ,thankfully, one of the lucky ones. A survivor.

So we went on the tear (pronounced 'tare' here)('on the pish') to celebrate.

We all had a bit too much. (to drink) Fuck it. We were all together. Alive. Having fun.

A pain in the head is expected tomorrow. And so fuckin' wha?

To you Val. Cheers my darling!

Thomond Park

Did our first gig at Thomond Park tonight.

Twas a good one.

Elton is coming soon, and Rod.

But we were there before them.

THEY will be playing the stadium tho'.

We were playing in Hospitality.

But it was still Thomond Park.

And thats a big thing for a local lad.

And fun was had by all.

meme

I've been tagged by Jimmy. The Bastard.

I have to do stuff and stuff. With rules if you don't mind!

Rules;

1. Put a link to the TAGGART on me blog. See above.

2.Write the rules. I is doin' innit?

3.Mention 6 things or habits of no real importance about myself. See below.

4.Tag 6 more misfortunes and link to their sites. (Cannot do, don't know enough peeps yet, sad.)

5.N.A.

Six Map Things;

1. I am very, and I mean Very, colour blind.

2.The smell of popcorn makes me want to heave. So, no cinema.

3.I was once mistaken for Ian Rush in a train station in Milan in the 80's. Gave autographs and everything. That was before the rhinoplasty.

4.I am a nephew of Do-Do, the famous dog-lady of Limerick. And proud to be so.

5.My Dad's middle name was Mary.

6.I had a labrador who once ate a collection of artist oils. We had multicoloured dog shit in the back yard for weeks. Very pschyadelic man.

There ya go Jimmy lad.

Dream

image; mel brackstone

Had a weird dream last night.

I went to the Moon. With three other astronauts.

It wasn't the Moon we all know and love tho'.

It was green and luscious and verdant with lakes and rivers and rolling hills.

And we were having a great oul time exploring and whatnot.

And then we saw vehicles coming at us and were quickly surrounded.

They were humans. They told us to take off our helmets.

The air was the freshest I ever tasted, almost intoxicating.

The four of us were separated from each other and I was taken to a town by a pleasant man, who was a bit too 'touchy-feely' for my liking.

It looked like any small town one might see on earth. I was shown around various buildings, including a creche that was full of little kids of many races.

Then I was taken to meet the Boss.

He was Splenda sweet, with a Colgate ring of confidence, wrapped up in a Daz-White suit.

"This is your home now", he said. "You can never go back".

Maybe it wasn't the Moon?

I'd have preferred Lanzarote tho'!

Must stay away from the Emmental at bed time.

It's a long way....

To Tipperary, that's where our gig was tonight.

For the wedding of a cousin of our guitar player.

So the room was full of musicians and singers and such.

And it turned into a kinda Irish hoolie.

Which meant that I ended up being the M.C.

And didn't have to sing so much.

Which was ok with me 'cos it meant that I could have some beers!

And still get payed.

AND it wasn't my turn to drive the band wagon tonight.

Which was ok with me. 'Cos I could have some beers.

And fun was had by all.

And sundry.

Perjink

Magnificent was my Perjink

At once both wild and pretty

It ran off with my favourite shoe

Which was an awful pity.

Stew.

Poems

BOCK is having a poetry evening.

I left this with him.

A flock of Obsks

From down in Nobsks

Hiked up to Bobsks

To look for jobsks

Then back to Nobsks

With sighs and sobsks

There were, in Bobsks,

No jobsks for Obsks.

Dr. Seuss.

It's getting like that. A pain in the knobsks!

Sunday Sunday

Sundays are special to me.

For a lot of reasons. And I don't mean the religious type.

Because of my work, I do weekends and am 'off' during the week.

About a year ago we (the band) decided to take Sundays off.

Now seeing as our working week started on Friday evening and finished on Sunday night it might look as if we were being overly nice to ourselves!

But then we all kinda decided over a few pints one night, hey, we Are gettin' older!

And we can survive on two nights money.

We were never going to be millionaires anyway.

Two nights. Thats enough.

My kids are getting older, some of the other guys in the band have just become parents for the first time!

So Sundays are special .

I ALWAYS get up late on Sunday.

Herself ALWAYS brings me coffee in bed! (She does that every day).

We ALWAYS do stuff , any stuff, as a family on Sunday.

And even though we always sit and eat together during the week, I always like to cook something special on Sunday.

Sometimes the kids invite their friends, a thing we encourage.

So we often have a very full and lively house.

And it's just great.

And kids are great, the ones we know anyway.

You have to just give 'em a bit of freedom and encouragement innit!

Anyhoo, as I said at the start, Sundays are special.

But I kinda like the rest of the week too.

You know?