Gravestones

I didn't surface until mid morning, and just pottered around the house until lunch time, tidying, cleaning and generally doing some of the housework which has been neglected since Christmas.

After lunch, with the clock moving on inexorably, I decided to get out of the house rather than wait around and get all stressed out waiting for the arrival of the UPC 'crew' to reconnect me to the internet. I set out for Malahide, but stopped on the way at St Doulagh's Church (which I've blipped before) to point the new camera at it (the new camera which still has to go for a checkup after its fall over Christmas). I don't know what it is about this place, but I've become quite fascinated by (with?) it since I first came across it. Today was different than previous forays because the gate, which is usually padlocked, was open, and I was able to roam unhindered all around the church and its surrounding graveyard.

It really is a most atmospheric place, and I found it difficult to choose a blip from the many options that came home in the camera. This one got the nod partly because it's a first attempt at using the Lumix G3's monochrome setting, but also because it best captures something of the atmosphere of the place. Most of the gravestones are toppling over, which gives things a sad, neglected, almost Dickensian feel. I'll be back again. For sure.

I continued on to Malahide, fitted in a decent bit of a walk along the seafront and back around to the Grand Hotel for a pit stop. It was dark when I got home, but I could see that next-door neighbour Susan's TV cable had been tidied up and re-fixed more securely in position on the front wall. So I dashed into my own place, unplugged my modem, plugged it back in again -- and watched in horror as the lights didn't change to the all-systems-go light show I'd expected. An email test also proved unsuccessful. I couldn't understand how UPC could have attended to Susan's problems and left me in the lurch even though our problems were so obviously related. I'm sure my face was a picture of disappointment: at least for the minute or two it took for things to settle down, and emails to begin to load (I just hadn't waited long enough for the modem display to go through its complete cycle, apparently).

The doorbell rang at about 5:50 pm. "Hi", said the guy on the doorstep. "UPC. You have a problem?" Yes indeedy, UPC really had done what I jokingly told people I suspected they would do: they'd sent out two teams, failing to cop on to the fact that my address and Susan's are next-door to one another. The first team had the cop-on to sort me out while they were seeing to Susan's TV problem, but nobody had bothered to cancel the second visit. The guy who arrived at my door had a quick look at what the other team had done and gave their work his seal of approval. He was very pleasant and all that, and urged me not to hesitate if ever I had any problem (huh: that's a laugh!).

Anyway, enough already. I'm back connected once again and no longer feel isolated and cut off. I've caught up with some gap filling here and here. Still one day to back-blip, but that will have to wait for tomorrow. I'm a bit tired right now (it's tomorrow as I type this), and the missing blip needs some processing done to it before it's fit to publish.