Galway Christmas

This has been a Christmas holiday to spend indoors. Unusually, Galway and Ireland have had a white Christmas. Temperatures have plummetted to below Zero. Something that rarely happens, especially here in Galway where we have the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream to bathe our shores in a warm current. No, instead, we've had polar blasts sweeping across the country. Lots of reports of accidents on the roads. Many roads are impassible. Our own N17, fortunately has been kept free as it is a national route. But the sideroads are very icy and dangerous.

I've been spending the last few days helping my nephews with their French Leaving Certificate preparation. Tough work. For them, especially. French verbs, especially those of the irregular kind, are not exactly fun at this time of the year. We spend every morning working on oral conversation, comprehension, verbs, bits and pieces of grammar with a sprinkling of French idiom thrown in. A poor alternative to the XBox waiting next door.

My reward each evening is some quiet time with a glass of Jameson and soulful music on the CD player. It is a great way to keep warm!

Happy Christmas and New Year

If anyone out there is still reading this, I wish you a Happy Christmas. I was perusing some blogs this afternoon and the thought came to me that I was once, in a former life, a fervent blogger. In fact, I introduced quite a few people to the art and pleasures of blogging but then, to my shame, realised that I had not blogged in a long time.

I wasn't altogether sure which platform I had used. Was it LiveJournal or eBlogger? So just on a whim I went over to eBlogger and sure enough my name and password were both intact. So, here I am once again.

On January 4th I start my cardiac rehab programme at James Hospital, Dublin 8. It is not too far away and the walk (or bike ride) there will do me good. The nurse in charge of the programme has told me that the first day will be quite gentle. On January 5th we do a stress test which will really push me to my limits. Hopefully, it will all go well. And it will, with God's help.