Agreement

Last weekend (1-2 April) was not remarked. Cleaning house, walking dog, playing golf are the constants.

Easter weekend kicked off brilliantly Thursday night at the Lyric Theatre with the play Agreement, looking at the seven central figures involved in the Good Friday Agreement, Gerry Adams and David Trimble (representing Nationalism and Unionism), John Hume (somewhere in the middle), Mo Mowlam and Tony Blair (British government), Bertie Ahern (Irish government) and George Mitchell (US). The play was intentionally called Agreement, not The Agreeement, to highlight the players and their fraut relationships, rather than the document they signed. It was excellent. So much external pressure on each of them that the final 24 hours was a pressure cooker that was, in a way, made for the stage.

Friday:

8:30 a.m. walk along the coast with Ann & my dolphin Paddy. Then a quick   Sainsbury's run, then veg prep, given I have people coming for dinner.

11:30 a.m. Golf with one Cathal Cunningham. We are in an alternate-shot competition next week so we played a round to learn about each other's game. He handicap 5; me handicap 29.7. Two very different games.

3:45 p.m. Run by Spar on the way home for a lemon (forgotten in the morning) then home to complete four dishes, set table, etc.

5 p.m. Visitors arrive with Maddie, a black lab and one of Paddy's girlfriends. My visitors went to church and I kept Maddie for the evening.

Saturday

9:15 a.m. walk at Stormont with my neighbourhood gang, followed by tea and buns at a picnic bench – a weekly ritual.

Then St. George's Market – two more plants of a variety purchased the week before – pachyphragma macrophylus. So named due to its elephant ear-shaped leaves. I bought it for the spikes of white flowers, which are enlivening my front garden.  Then to Dundonald Nurseries in search of an azalea variety I've been looking for for years, but usually in the fall when it's too late. None there, but I did buy a gorgeous clematis for my arch.

I spent most of the day gardening – weeding border gardens and planting two of five plant pots purchased recently. In the evening dinner with Thea at Shandon.

Sunday

Lovely long walk with Paddy at Orangefield. I ran for 10 minutes. Somewhere recently I recalled that running was a goal – somehow forgotten over the winter. So I'm incrementally building up and then will visit physio to check in.

Golf at 11 a.m. Our first rounds since maybe November or December played without mats. An adjustment to the height of the ball strike. Also – high winds. My play was abysmal. More gardening then got stuck into The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, an Irish author who created the perfect novel. I'm drooling over it.

Monday

Back up Cregagh Glen (pictured previously) with my pup. 9:30 a.m. tee time. Played by myself and was frustrated by slow pace of play in front of me, so went to the driving range after five holes. Played two more holes and then visited the chip and putt area – realised I very much need practice more than I need play.

The rest of the day was gardening, including dividing and replanting clumps of asters, with breaks taken to teach Paddy agility. My friends laughed at the chair under the jump, but why wouldn't he go under if he could? I've since added a third obstacle. He's picked it up very quickly, to which I attribute both his intelligence (high) and quality of treats on offer (also high). Evening was a trip to Sainsbury's (petrol, groceries, more dog treats) and a stop by Shandon to deliver chocolate to the staff, which have had a busy Easter weekend.

Tuesday is a holiday in NI but not GB, where my office is based. I took a hybrid approach to the day. Worked for an hour early in the moring. Walked Paddy. Golf from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., including soup in the restaurant. Then a few more hours work. Everything is so off kilter at work (we are mid re-org) that no one missed me.

I did not get my taxes done this weekend. I did not change my gas account billing to pay-as-you-go after setting up an online account (this requires me to get a key for the box that contains my meter, whose serial number I need). I did not set up a health care spending account, which will allow me to reclaim money spent on physio care. I did not read the paper I bought two weeks ago nor any poetry nor did I get on my bike. But my dog knows agility and my front garden is less and less lawn and more and more perennials. And I played a lot of golf!

6-11 April