A Phonecall From Another Time
Depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you are, it’s January the 2nd or the 3rd right now.
But I’m not convinced either way.
In a house in Leicester on my recent trip to England, I sat at a table where people asked who owned the phone that was ringing in another room. As I was the most recent person to enter the house everybody looked at me.
They did so in time to see my self-righteous exclamation that whomever it may be it certainly wasn’t my Luddite phoneless smug self.
So everybody stared into that empty space over the table, and the ringing grew more rapid. I didn’t even know that phones could quicken their ringing. What advances technology has made. The phone could almost be an alert for something, an alarm, I thought. And then I said, Ah, and everybody looked at me again.
-It’s 8:00am in Kansas City, I explained. And somehow I didn’t need to elaborate that in the 3 months since leaving I hadn’t got around to changing my travel alarm clock from KC time to Irish time.
A week later it was Christmas Eve and I was upstairs on the bus in Dublin heading into town from the airport. Again it was 2pm, and a full busload of people got to hear my Kansas City morning alarm. I feel it gave a sense of urgency to the business of the afternoon.
I haven’t changed the clock on my computer either, or any of the timed online services I use, so it means when people ask me the time I look at the laptop and add 6 hours so I can tell them what time it is in the Ireland I’m actually sitting in.
So I’m permanently stuck between two worlds these days and it seems appropriate to a life with a suitcase. I’m on the road again you see. Not as far from my native Dublin this time, but another suitcase and another sofabed. Because for these last few days of the holidays I am mixing work with pleasure. I’m painting another house.
It’s a good life with a paintbrush in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other, whilst having Christmas Pudding for breakfast and chocolate for supper. Even if I don’t like chocolate. But heck it’s Christmas. Ireland this time. County Kildare.
And this time there will even be a mural. Not as big as Dublin, nor as brash as Moscow, but still, a mural is always exciting.
But being a man who refuses to work in not one, not two, but three countries, I do need to make time for ongoing Christmas indulgences, so things will continue to be a tad quiet ’round these parts for the rest of the holiday.
In case you were wondering like.
Tell me though, do you like the new snazzy menu I put up at the top of the site? It’s only been planned for almost 2 years. I might be slow, but I get there, and speaking of same - Happy 2008 to yehs!
More of My Momentous Meanderings:
• Readying For Ireland on the Streets of America
• An Irish Odyssey in Kansas City
• Back Home in Dublin, Back Cycling
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
The menu is cool in IE and Opera. Not rendering in Firefox though. Always Firefox or always just me?
By the way - check yer mail. Important message re drink.
Any word of when you’ll have your art shop up again, Mister No Land Man?
Primal, it’s rendering fine for me in FireFox - I had even tested it this time. I’m on FF 2.0 - what are you using? Will keep an eye on my not working very well email.
Sam, em, how about we just say Feb 1st and I just make it so no matter what the circumstances? I just looked over my shoulder and I can see snow out the window - yuk - I hate snow. I really hate snow. Anyway very soon I’m about to head off back to the US for the dog so, well, selling paintings, which means finishing a load as well as starting new ones, will then be the number one priority.
I’m using 2.0.0.11 on XP. I’m just seeing a vertical bulleted list down the centre. Maybe one of my plugins is causing a conflict. Very strange.
Hope the mural goes well - I’ve just gotten over my one hour jetlag from Ireland to The netherlands - it’s a killer
My head would be totally muddled by not knowing what time it was or always switiching it around. Hopefully you can abandon KC time once the dog arrives.
Primal - You still seeing an unstyled bulleted list?
Conortje - Ah but it’s really an hour and a half lag from the Netherlands all the way to Kerry. - a long hour. No wonder you were tired.
Medbh - I think when I witnessed people going to weddings in Cambodia before going to work that I realised time is just what you call it. Of course that can still be problematic if everybody else calls it something else.