Bucketing down

Carl go back from his trip to the US yesterday morning, exhausted after his Tulsa-Chacago/Chicago-Dublin flights and the wait in between. He phoned from the airport when he got in, got the Aircoach home, and went straight to snorey mode.

We agreed that I'd go over to his place this morning and that we'd let the weather decide whether or not we went to the garden open day which the brother of one of Carl's neighbours holds each year on the June Holiday Sunday. The forecast had been bad, and the forecasters were unfortunately accurate. It had rained during the night, it was raining as I drove across town this morning, and in mid-afternoon the heavens opened with a torrential shower of rain which transformed the street outside Carl's place into a running stream.

We'd already told the neighbours that we wouldn't be going to the open day, so they said they'd contact us when they got back and that we'd meet for a chat. They did that, and we went across the road for drinks and banter. As it happened, we heard that the weather in county Wexford wasn't bad at all, and that they'd had no rain. The highlight of the garden is a laburnum walk which is very much like this one. It isn;t yet in full bloom, but was nonetheless an impressive sight, or so we heard.

Earlier on, after the Hollyoaks omnibus and an episode of Ballykissangel, we retired to Carl's Kino to watch Avatar. It was magnificent! Every report we'd heard had been unfailingly positive about the technical side, but tended to be critical of what was felt to be a shallow plot-line and lack of character development. We weren't in the least disappointed by any of that, and were particularly struck by the degree of criticism of US foreign policy and of the effects and consequences of globalisation. All in all, a terrific and spectacular experience. We'd fully intended catching it in 3D in the local cinema but never got round to it. Even though Carl's Kino isn't yet showing its movies in 3D, we were utterly bowled over by Avatar. It fully deserves all its awards and all the hype. Avatar was the highlight of the weekend.