‘DON’T make unnecessary journeys’ is the advice Teresa Mannion famously gave us during her rain-drenched report in the eye of Storm Desmond. I found those words repeating in my head last Sunday as I sat in the airport bar in the eye of a six-hour delay to our Ryanair flight to Nice. The journey was for a work trip, so the very definition of unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, albeit a big event for us with our new animated kids TV show launching on RTÉjr and CBeebies this week, and the series launching at a TV market called MIPCOM.
We were due to set off on a 5pm flight which eventually left Dublin around 11pm in absolutely atrocious conditions. I was glad we were flying out instead of flying in. I saw a few planes attempting to land and taking off again just metres from the ground as the wind was simply too strong. Our departure was surprisingly steady and once we were out of Dublin, it was smooth cruising out over London, Paris and eventually landing into Nice at around 3am French time. Luckily, we had our driver still available to take us on the short spin into Cannes where our AirBnb hosts met us with the keys for our accommodation. Lots of people make a hobby out of giving out about Ryanar but, given the conditions, it was amazing we could still be on the ground for work and meetings the following morning. Our modern systems of transport might put us through the ringer every now and again, but the older I get the more I appreciate the professionalism of staff and crew who can overcome extremely inclement weather and keep the show on the road. Having said that, I’m glad I wasn’t on the flight from Faro that made several unsuccessful attempts to land in Dublin on Sunday evening, and had to divert to Birmingham and Manchester before finally touching down in Ireland close to midnight.
Take your time, now!
PART of my fairly stoic response to some unfortunate first world problems might be that I’m in the middle of reading Meditations for Mortals: Four weeks to embrace your limitations and make time for what counts by the writer Oliver Burkeman.
He’s a writer I’ve enjoyed for many years, with his Guardian columns exploring psychology and systems of productivity. I find that his new book strikes a lovely balance between practical advice on how best to manage your time and deal with stress and a more holistic outlook drawing on the works of many philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers. Burkeman begins the book by stating that, assuming you live to be 80, you have just over four thousand weeks of life. Instead of spending that time trying out new ‘life hacks’ to make you even more busy and productive, Burkeman looks at practical and reasonable approaches to time and time management whilst being realistic about the fact that the problems and obstacles never go away and that, ultimately, our key to contentedness might be found in more practical tools and shifts in perspective.
In a ridiculously crowded Dublin Airport Terminal 1 last Sunday, with Storm Ashley making short work of everybody’s best laid plans and passengers scurrying for space on the floor, his words were a balm to the soul and a quiet reminder of all the things I should be thankful for.
Will K be Trumped?
I HAVE never been more convinced that Trump is going to win the election. Although the polls appear to have Harris and him neck and neck, Trump’s voting record has always outscored the polls in past elections and, bar some miracle, I think that will be the case again this year.
Whether this means America is sleepwalking into an autocracy might be overstating it.
What it means for Ukraine and the wider world is extremely ominous.
Trump’s running mate JD Vance proposes a peace deal that would demand the future ‘neutrality’ of whatever’s left of Ukraine.
This would make it impossible for Ukraine to join a Western alliance and any Trump-led ‘peace talks’ would result in some version of defeat for Kyiv and a temptation for Putin to expand his ambitions. What would this mean for the rest of Europe?
Unfortunately, here are some things that even Oliver Burkeman can’t make me feel calm and confident about.
