Our columnist thought a trip to the ‘Big Smoke’ – Cork city – would be a good idea during mid-term, but was sent packing back to West Cork after a mustard-flavoured McDonald’s mishap and completly booked-out cinema saw her (and the kids) pining for home comforts
• SO, how was your mid-term? I love the February mid-term and think of it as a gorgeous little gift that gets you over the line to Easter.
Just when you think you can’t hack any more dark mornings or making school lunches, boom, the mid-term lands and all is good again.
My only problem is that I always have high, and hugely unrealistic hopes for what’s essentially just two days off (I use the word ‘off’ loosely).
Among the things I was hoping to achieve last week were: take a city break or at least organise the summer holiday, go on a proper day trip – one that required a flask and an early start, defrost the freezer and batch cook healthy dinners, have a lively night out with friends, have a lie in, do a general declutter, find something to wear for ‘The Communion’ and do some gardening.
I have to admire my optimism all the same.
We didn’t get around to doing any of those things. Instead we just went to Cork – which is what West Cork people call the big smoke, the city.
The plan was for a little bit of shopping, and then go to the cinema, the fancy one with the big seats.
I had billed it as an ‘event’ what with not getting around to the city break or the day trip. We were going to push the boat out altogether and not bring our own treats in with us either– woo hoo!
The show we wanted to see was ‘Dog Man’ (you can deduce from that how old my companions were) and as it was being screened pretty much on the hour for four consecutive hours I figured there wasn’t any need to pre-book.
Sure, we’ve enough schedules and time tables during term time. Go with the flow. Live life on the edge right? Wrong.
There was not a seat to be had for that show, on that particular day in that particular cinema.
It didn’t matter how many times I asked the girl at the counter if she was sure, completely positive, absolutely certain there was nowhere she could squeeze us in, on a bit of a step or anything, the computer said no.
There wouldn’t be a peep out of us, I promised, you wouldn’t even know we were there.
We’d even pick up some rubbish on the way out. Still no.
I desperately tried to rescue the situation by suggesting a trip to McDonalds instead.
That was a bit like going from the frying pan into the fire as it was another hugely popular option for mid-termers.
Despite ordering from an actual person at the counter, and not the self-service option, purely to avoid any possibility of a gherkin or onions infiltrating the smallies’ burger, the inevitable happened.
It came with a gherkin and onions, oh and also a generous smearing of mustard to spice things up a bit.
That mightn’t sound like a big deal but you sort of had to be there to appreciate it – it was also very noisy, and it took ages to find seats and I needed the loo but couldn’t face another queue. So, to be clear, the mustard was a condiment too much.
• There was nothing for it: we abandoned the burger, grabbed the fries and made a quick retreat to West Cork.
By the time we got to Bandon our moods were lifting. I decided I wasn’t prepared to give up on the cinema idea so we went to Clonakilty which is probably what we should have done to begin with.
We were half-an-hour too early for the showing but weren’t taking any chances, even it meant we had to display extreme willpower not to eat all the popcorn before it started.
We even met a few people we knew which was an added bonus. I’m not sure we’ll be venturing past the Viaduct again any time soon, unless it’s absolutely necessary.
So, the verdict on ‘Dog Man’ is that it’s good, but you probably need to have read a book from the series to get a handle on what’s going on.
You’ll have to take my younger companions’ word on this, though, as I had the most glorious nap of my life for almost all of the film (to be fair it had been a testing morning).
Emma's been watching Robert De Niro in 'Zero Day' – a political series almost as unbelieveable as 'Dog Man'. (Photo: Shutterstock)
For more grown up viewing, I’ve started watching Zero Day on Netflix, a political thriller starring Robert de Niro.
Like Dog Man, it’s a bit far-fetched in places, but De Niro is a joy.
A quick Google search revealed he’s 81 years old – and a father to seven children ranging in ages from one to 56 which is even harder to get my head around than the plot! Mad Ted.
• Have you noticed all the potholes around the place at the moment? Well, it’s hardly surprising after the amount of rain we’ve had lately.
I adore stormy, cosy weather, but I’m craving some blue skies at this stage.
It seems like every other weekend has a status yellow weather warning, the trampoline is up and down like no one’s business, and the driveway looks like a green squelchy carpet, as moss is about the only thing thriving at the moment.
The longer days are coming, so here’s hoping for some dryer ones too.
• And finally, just like that ... Lent is upon us – starting on Wednesday March 5th.
That crept up fast, didn’t it? We’ve still got some selection boxes left over from Christmas which we’d better get stuck into without delay, although to be honest I think I’m past giving things up, and I’m more about giving things away to reduce the overwhelm.
Studies suggest that women are affected by clutter-induced stress and I totally agree.
On that note, a pal of mine is holding an event that I think will interest a lot of people: a gear swap.
It’s an opportunity to donate helmets, jerseys, wetsuits, boots, hurleys etc that have been grown out of or are no longer needed, but are still in good quality.
The idea is to rescue items from landfill, to save people money and help with decluttering.
It’s a very smart idea.
In fact I was only suggesting to a pal the other day that perhaps the wonderful folk who run Cúl Camps might reconsider issuing a new bag, jersey and t-shirt every year, in favour of perhaps a simple pair of socks or even a single pair of shorts.
Just a thought.
In the meantime, support the gear swap, a climate ambassador programme initiative, in Crosshaven Community Centre on Sunday March 16th from noon.
