Topping up

Because of the likelihood of being needed on Monday to do some driving for the funeral of my friend Michael's mother, I needed to put some juice in the car's tank, and did it this morning because today''s session of the Music Group was outside the city, down in Wicklow town where one of the group members has recently moved to. The poor little car doesn't know what's happened to it recently. Crossing the city from my place to Carl's is about the longest trip it normally makes, but it had a bit of a longer spin last weekend for the terrible birthday meal, now there was the jaunt to Wicklow and from there it was to be straight to Chrurchtown for the Michael's mother's removal from the funeral home to the church, and the prospect of going down to Kilkenny and back on Monday. For a while now, I've adopted the approach of always buying the same quantity of fuel so I can keep track of the spiraling cost (33.23 euro this time for 25 litres, 32.73 on 6th June, 31.22 on 15th May).

I had to dash away shortly after the music finished, leaving the others to enjoy our host's post-music hospitality (compensating people for the unusually long journey). First stop was to pick up Carl, then it was over to GP-lunch-host Niall's to collect him, and then on to the church. The good old Irish tradition of having a few drinks in honour of the deceased's memory is still going strong, so we four joined Michael and his partner for a few scoops after the church ceremony. As designated driver, I went easy on the booze, but still lapped up the atmosphere in a good old-fashioned pub at Kilmainham (traffic was a bit rough on the way over because of the Morrissey concert in the Royal Hospital. On the way back to Carl's place we stopped off at Bits & Pizzas in Dún Laoghaire for a bite to eat. It's a cheap-and-cheerful sort of place, but the food was far better than what we'd had in last weekend's ridiculously expensive place.