Going the Soul’s Way Clear days bring the mountains down to my doorstep, Calm nights give the rivers their say, The wind puts its hand to my shoulder some evenings, And then I don’t think, I just leave what I’m doing And I go the soul’s way. Born in rural Ireland in 1938 John Moriarty was an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. He came however from an ordinary world; the fourth child of Mary O’ Brien from Barragougeen on the Kerry/ Limerick border and Jimmy Moriarty from Baile an Lochaigh near Dingle, he grew up on a small farm of 27 acres in the townland of Leitrim Middle ab ..read more

The Carte Vitale crowd have refused my application of course. They have demanded a translation of my birth cert, and a good quality copy of it. Despite having originally demanded the original copy, which by its original nature, is old. Thirty two years old, to be exact. A pristine copy with no creases is a bit much to expect of it, don’t you think? So yeah, they want the original, but they want it to be beautiful. And in French. And for all their demands of copies, naturally they have neglected to actually return the original to me, despite my having carefully put it in a poly pocket with a la ..read more

Karim’s gorgeous sister has arrived, and is flouncing around the apartment and refusing to do anything except go shopping for clothes and chocolate. Apparently chocolate is a big obsession in Tunisia, but the quality of their own chocolate is truly awful, so she has gone wild and is buying in bulk. Karim finally admitted to me that he is sharing the bed with her, and they spend long hours in the bedroom on the phone to their mother, all of them giggling loudly. He has the most gorgeous giggle, that is elicited usually at some fit of outrageousness committed by himself, but I’d love to know wha ..read more

There are fish. Two fish. Interrupting my enjoyment of my buckwheat porridge. I like them not. They have been carefully stationed there in advance of the arrival of Karim’s sister, and he is frantically recleaning all the things I dutifully cleaned yesterday. I like this not either. I have sternly advised the poissons, “You are for eating, not for darting around my breakfast table, thinking you’re ornaments and making my peripheral vision think you are mice.” But to no avail. They care not for my cautionary words, and continue to unnerve me. But yes, I have been talking to them. So far today ..read more

I can happily confirm that in general, work is going much better. Despite the odd faux pas, (pas grave), I have pretty much a full page of smiley faces on my ‘work appraisal database‘. In fact there were a couple of days when I really enjoyed it, and I’m starting to get on very well with one or two of the others. I also took great pleasure in eavesdropping the Giant Bitching Session in which Goeffrey moaned at length to Brigitte (wife of Davide, joint bosses) about the two bitches in the kitchen, including how they were unreasonably ateing the head off me for nothing. That, I can tell you, mor ..read more

Slightly less malade. The drugs they gave me in the French pharmacie are working most fantastic magic and I am improving, although perhaps not quite as quickly as I imagine. I urgently need food supplies at home (today has been the first day I have succeeded in washing myself, so that should give you some idea of energy levels). However, this means having to go shopping. I have had to bribe myself into it with a trip to Bio Break, my favourite gluten free cafe, where the waiter makes me very nervous with his aggressive friendliness, but where I strangely like their cardboardy vegan food. I kno ..read more

Since returning from Ireland, I have been afflicted with a chest infection that has knocked me for six. Apart from work, I have barely been out of bed in three days, and last night I had to sleep sitting up. This ignominy was thanks to the horrible cough, which had me pinned horizontal for two days, but which then revolted badly against horizontality and insisted on a full time upright position. So a mixture of breathlessness and guilt propelled me into the sitting room to sleep, where I could take advantage of the cushions and cough away unhappily without melting Karim’s brain through the car ..read more

We had a new girl started in work with us last night. I am only raging jealous at how everything is coming to her so easily, what with the monstrous advantage of understanding what people say to her. I think I may have underestimated just what an obstacle that was going to be…. But for now, my focus must change. Back to psychologising and speaking Irish, to see if the Irish psychologists will have me on their panel again. It has been so crucial to me to continue improving my French that I haven’t been able to allow myself practice Irish for even a minute, but now is the hour. And let me tell y ..read more

We could have had it all. I was SO CLOSE to getting a full week of smiley faces on my work chart. SO CLOSE! I was having the bants, we had only two clients in the restaurant last night and spent the rest of the time telling jokes that worked despite language barriers. It was great. Until this morning, when commenced the great ‘aw aw aw aaaaaawww aw’ debacle. Apparently none of us thought to bring the till down into the cellar last night, which is technically on my list, but is definitely not my job. However, this was no impediment to Jeannette delighting in the rage that this permitted her, an ..read more