There is a certain element of Irish thought that accords English institutions a large amount of respect! We review the long history of its institutions and its traditions, many of whom were responsible for our own, and decide that it has a greater understanding than we ourselves possess. However, for many people, the events of the last few days have been a huge awakening, wherein we realise that we may have vastly overestimated an nation and its population by some massive degree. In short, people, the English are as thick as two planks! What the hell is up with these people, because it certainly seems they are not connected to the same reality as the rest of us!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…

Hey, miss me? I’ve not posted much lately, mainly because I was too busy. The main reason for that was a little thing called the UCD Festival, which took place last Saturday. I have been working on it since last November, but things really went up a gear since May. It meant that for the last two weeks, I’ve been at my desk at 6.30 am every morning in an effort to get all the Schools ready, and this last week has seen things reach a frantic, three-seconds-for-every-job pace. Saturday had me awake at 4 am, in the car at 5.05 am, and not really wrapping things up and leaving until 4 pm that afternoon.

I haven’t been this tired since the kid was a newborn. I have pressure behind my eyes and my brain won’t stop. My skin feels weird, my muscles are all twitchy and I’m fairly sure I have high blood pressure, there is a thump-thump-thump feel to my spine I can’t get rid of. It’s not that I’m slow, it’s that I can’t even get started. The kid as well won’t let me leave the room without him, he’s seen so little of me right now. Hmmm.

Still, the day itself had some amazing moments. There was the great fun of showing my sister and her family around campus. The attendees to conferences who were dying to see their old campus again. And seeing the campus decorated was a pleasure. Check out #UCDFestival for photos.

And there was this. The artist in residence, Michael McLoughlin, created an instillation called ‘Fabric’ with me. It was based on an idea I had, to interview the men and women on campus who make life there possible. To that end, we interviewed support staff and administrators who had worked there for years, and who would very much be the students face to face experience of UCD. It took a lot of work, but nevertheless we got it done. I took a quick video on the phone, about two minutes long; 

Did it get a lot of praise? Nah, not a bit. I doubt many reading the notes even found it worth attending. Made me think of this (which is by Bill Watterson, not me, and I never said it was);

In that I’ve ended up being snobby and elitist in an effort to shine a light on the essential but mundane. Still, there is a victory here, and that is something to be proud of.

In any case. Normal programming can now resume. So swimming, and maybe writing, can start soon.

But enough about me, how are you?

In honour/fear of the event I’ve forced my characters through, it seemed only fair to do the following.

So by this time tomorrow I’ll be walking and then running the damn thing. Wish me luck….