Horses For Courses

There was a time when gale force winds drove men from the sea. These days a gale is a call to arms to the kite surfers to arrive in droves. Spent an hour on the beach watching a traffic jam of surfers glide swiftly across the water. All that was missing was traffic lights to control a sky full of multicoloured kites.
Off now to wake the mother of a friend. It's more of a rural than urban tradition these days but my background harnesses me to both traditions.
"His friends assembled at the wake,
and Widow Finnegan called for lunch
First she brought in tay and cake,
then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry,
"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see,
Tim, auvreem! O, why did you die?",
"Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee........."
There will be no fights tonight. There will be music, stories and reminders of a bygone age, fondly remembered through softening fog of the passing years...just saying