you've got to admit, he is a cutie!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Same thing every year... I feel guilty!
For some reason at around this time each year, I get the creative urge to start writing and blogging again. In fact, not just writing but also the motivation to start taking more photos, cooking and eating better.... generally, taking a bit more care of myself. The urge to do some exercise has also been creeping in but thankfully, this is now fading and should be gone soon.
I think most people go through this phase after the Christmas and New Year excesses. It's probably a normal reaction, but each year, I feel bad about the fact that the motivation seems to dwindle by mid to late March (at the latest). So, as I do every year, I make my guilty contribution to my blog in the hope that it might be more than just a guilt reflex.
It's not that I don't have anything to say, particularly this year. We had flooding in late November, followed by a cold snap that brought us snow eventually in late December. As is often the case in Ireland, the few centimetres of snow brought the country to a virtual standstill. Roads remained untreated, footpaths and bike lanes were unusable except to the very brave and daring. As the snow eased off, the cold temperatures ensured that its remains would be compacted into a solid layer of ice which remained over most of the country until the middle of the second week in January. Almost immediately as the thaw set in, the burst pipe damage to the main water supply kicked in.
We lost our water pressure and supply last Friday afternoon and have had to resort to using an old well in the back garden, dating to the 1800's to feed the loos in the house. I spent all day today helping a guy to replace the booster pump we have in our basement so that we could draw on the little water that was reaching the house so that it could be pumped back up to our tank. Having just finished this task, it is possible that we may even get to shower in our own house tomorrow rather than the local sports centre... Oh, the luxury of it!
One thing that I have learned from this whole experience though is how much we take our water supply for granted. In a country where we don't pay for water and where it tends to rain pretty much every second day, you do tend to be a bit thoughtless about how you use or waste water. Having gone without a water supply for the best part of four days, you learn pretty quickly how big a role water plays in your life.
We couldn't shower at home. We couldn't use the washing machine or dishwasher. Even cooking was a problem if you wanted to boil water or cook vegetables. Everything gradually came to a halt as the house drained itself of every last reserve.
I think it's quite frightening that a cold snap that lasted about 2 weeks, with temperatures dropping to minus 10c on some occasions, would have such a crippling effect on the country. It highlighted for me, the very fragile condition of our infrastructure in this country and for many people, left them wondering about the competence of those people whose responsibility it is to maintain and operate that infrastructure. Have we let our civil servants sleep on the job for the past decades? What exactly have they been doing? What has our so-called government been doing that this has been allowed to happen for so long unchecked?
Having seen the economy and banking system collapse around our ears, we then had to watch as thousands of people lost their jobs, homes and businesses. All brought down by the incompetence and sheer incredible greed and stupidity of those we thought were in charge. Those very people who now not only claim that it was in fact the system that was at fault, but also those same people who now feel fully entitled to pay themselves large bonuses while our government tell us that a public enquiry into what went wrong in our banking sector is not really a priority.
I'm going to stop writing now for a few minutes until my blood pressure goes back to normal and my thoughts resume their normal patterns. I will be back - if only for another rant.
I think most people go through this phase after the Christmas and New Year excesses. It's probably a normal reaction, but each year, I feel bad about the fact that the motivation seems to dwindle by mid to late March (at the latest). So, as I do every year, I make my guilty contribution to my blog in the hope that it might be more than just a guilt reflex.
It's not that I don't have anything to say, particularly this year. We had flooding in late November, followed by a cold snap that brought us snow eventually in late December. As is often the case in Ireland, the few centimetres of snow brought the country to a virtual standstill. Roads remained untreated, footpaths and bike lanes were unusable except to the very brave and daring. As the snow eased off, the cold temperatures ensured that its remains would be compacted into a solid layer of ice which remained over most of the country until the middle of the second week in January. Almost immediately as the thaw set in, the burst pipe damage to the main water supply kicked in.
We lost our water pressure and supply last Friday afternoon and have had to resort to using an old well in the back garden, dating to the 1800's to feed the loos in the house. I spent all day today helping a guy to replace the booster pump we have in our basement so that we could draw on the little water that was reaching the house so that it could be pumped back up to our tank. Having just finished this task, it is possible that we may even get to shower in our own house tomorrow rather than the local sports centre... Oh, the luxury of it!
One thing that I have learned from this whole experience though is how much we take our water supply for granted. In a country where we don't pay for water and where it tends to rain pretty much every second day, you do tend to be a bit thoughtless about how you use or waste water. Having gone without a water supply for the best part of four days, you learn pretty quickly how big a role water plays in your life.
We couldn't shower at home. We couldn't use the washing machine or dishwasher. Even cooking was a problem if you wanted to boil water or cook vegetables. Everything gradually came to a halt as the house drained itself of every last reserve.
I think it's quite frightening that a cold snap that lasted about 2 weeks, with temperatures dropping to minus 10c on some occasions, would have such a crippling effect on the country. It highlighted for me, the very fragile condition of our infrastructure in this country and for many people, left them wondering about the competence of those people whose responsibility it is to maintain and operate that infrastructure. Have we let our civil servants sleep on the job for the past decades? What exactly have they been doing? What has our so-called government been doing that this has been allowed to happen for so long unchecked?
Having seen the economy and banking system collapse around our ears, we then had to watch as thousands of people lost their jobs, homes and businesses. All brought down by the incompetence and sheer incredible greed and stupidity of those we thought were in charge. Those very people who now not only claim that it was in fact the system that was at fault, but also those same people who now feel fully entitled to pay themselves large bonuses while our government tell us that a public enquiry into what went wrong in our banking sector is not really a priority.
I'm going to stop writing now for a few minutes until my blood pressure goes back to normal and my thoughts resume their normal patterns. I will be back - if only for another rant.
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