Life Goes On

Gosh, I've sort of been putting off writing a new post here because it'll mean that Thumper won't be on the Animal Disco's opening page anymore. But I have to accept that he's made a new home living on in my heart - a place that will never be subject to the vagaries of links in new windows or one updated blog post erasing all that came previously. Thank you so much to everybody that sent me kind thoughts and comforting words - I really appreciate it. And yes, of course life goes on ... before Thumper did his 'ball of light' thing, there was Dublin. Afterwards, there was a party (pre-planned, not a wake - although many a glass of the fizzy stuff was raised to his memory). Today, there's frost on the landscape and Christmas in the air; on Wednesday, there's an Icicle Works gig to enjoy in Bristol (for much more on that - including a link - see previous post, entitled 'Let's Dance', published in August). Now, The Baby comes with me to all of it. In a way, you do too ...

Dublin was indeed wonderful. It sort of reminded me of Liverpool - another city that's been through the wars (in all senses of the word) but bravely looks forward to much better days. We stayed at a hotel that had a vaguely youth hostel-ish vibe about it, slap bang in the middle of Temple Bar, which seems to be where lots of the craic action is. Bars, pubs, restaurants; venues, all-hours takeaways ... and stag and hen parties making the most of all the delights on offer. I guess we fitted in.

During daylight hours, we did the full-on 'touristy' stuff: both the Jamesons and the Guinness factory tours, complete with a horse drawn taxi ride after the latter and a tour bus trip in between. I loved having such relaxed quality time with my sister, and her husband loved his Birthday present, too. On our last day, I went off with Mike on a trip down his own personal memory lane - a moving experience for both of us. Unfortunately though, by that time news of Thumper's possible demise was starting to filter over from Bath, so the planned trip to the Writer's Museum didn't happen. But I will return to Dublin, that's for sure. Meanwhile, look out for a short story I started working on while I was there - it should appear here soon (god, one trip to Dublin and she thinks she's Roddy Doyle ...).