“All that we’ve done
We’ve lost, we’ve won
All that, all that and more
All that we’ve seen
We’ve heard, we’ve dreamed
All that, all that and more
All the smiles and all the frowns
And all the ups and all the downs
And all the fears that would soon be gone
You ignore my gaping flaws
And I see you and I’m in awe
And look outside, it’s very nearly dawn
I can’t believe my luck in meeting you
Hey, help me out, I can’t find my left shoe
Russell Craig Mael / Ronald D Mael
It is 23.19pm on Thursday 17 July 2025, and I am writing this on my laptop in our sitting room with episode 3 of series 20 of American Pickers playing in the background. I have just been in the kitchen and put Tuna out for the night. Tuna is our cat, and I am tasked with putting her out for the night as she has the frequently annoying habit of screaming MIAOWWWWW into my ear on my pillow at anytime between 3.14am and 5.02am if we feel sorry for her and let her stay inside for the night. Tonight is not one of those nights. On other occasions, when I am either away , or have gone to bed before my Soulmate, or one of our Wunder Monkees are home and up after we are, whoever has to ‘put Tuna out’ complains about how emotionally troubling it is , to force her out against her will…this is with the obvious exception of our Elliott , who, left to his own devices, would happily cast Tuna out from his first floor bedroom window without asking or prompting. My Soulmate comforts herself that Elliott’s ‘robust’ attitude to Tuna is due to his ongoing Bio-Med education…where as the rest of us know that he just likes throwing things out of windows.
I have no problems getting Tuna to go out for the night , as I simply open the fridge and pick up a carton of milk, jiggle it gently, and Tuna appears at my feet and we go to the kitchen door and I pour out some milk on the back step and she goes out, and we all sleep well.
“Why don’t you put it in a bowl for her ? “
I used to !
But then I would be asked by my Soulmate the next morning about giving Tuna milk, as she is convinced that she’s lactose intolerant. I, brought up on a rich diet of Tom & Jerry cartoons , know that this is ridiculous…but Elliott , due to his Bio-Med education, has backed up his Mum, and despite his ongoing propensity to throw Tuna out of any window, joins his Mum , in chastisement of me, in daring to give her milk.
So I stopped giving her milk… in a bowl , and started to simply open the fridge and pick up an egg, jiggle it gently, and Tuna appears at my feet and we go to the kitchen door and I crack the egg on the back step, using the shell to mix it up a little, and we all sleep well. For reasons that I can’t remember, and aren’t material to this story, this was also considered a bad thing to do. So I stopped. And then two months later, when I actually stopped, after leaving a few bits of egg shell on the back step , and having to admit, reluctantly that I was feeding her eggs and taking a solemn vow NOT to give her anymore eggs… I started ‘accidentally’ spilling milk on the back step, for Tuna.
But , before all that, at approximately 9.12pm , Jake, Elliott, my Soulmate and I had started watching a movie ‘Wrath of Becky’ on Netflix. It proved to be everything we disliked in any movie, and yet was so wonderfully trashy, implausible, and wonderful , that I would recommend it to anyone who was already in good mood.
Before that we had all had dinner together, around 7pm.
Our dinner this evening was prepared by Jake. Jake is a vegan , and compensates for the absence of delicious meat by adding spices. Today has been an emotional day, for reasons we’ll get to, so we were celebrating before dinner was served. During dinner , everyone switched to milk..or coconut milk.
Before that Elliott, the cat catapulter, and I had called to see my Mum & Dad after work. They were happy to see me…and to a lesser extent , Elliott. We celebrated my good news with a cup of tea and a chat about golf, Portrush, and illegal putters.
Before that, at work…yes I sometimes appear at work…I’d had a lovely meeting with Brenda from Friends of Rossmore Park about the upcoming judges visit for the Pride of Place awards. We chatted for 50 minutes with my Soulmate about our families, recent adventures , and people we liked, such as The Hannon…and people we didn’t like…also The Hannon. We then spent 5 minutes doing the work that we’d planned to do, and successfully delegated anything awkward or technical to Gerry.
Before that I’d had a luverly lunch with the luverly Dee, Audrey, Dympna and Liz, where we planned out the next 3 years of the Drumlin Giants trail development. We also discussed the storm, the Country Music Festival, and other disasters.
Before that my Soulmate and I drove back to Monaghan from Maria’s. We’d called there on our way home from the hospital and I’d got a tearful hug from Maria as she told me that she was delighted with my news and that that she loved the way I’d embraced life after being given a second chance, a chance not afforded to our Speedy. We had croissants and coffee and discussed hips, pain management, drugs, our kids, DIY, and grocery shopping.
And before all that my Soulmate and I had sat in a consulting room in Beaumont hospital with a very nice SHO who told us that my most recent scans were all clear and that my bloods were good and had been consistently so for a while, and as a result they were going to make my ongoing checkups annual instead of every six months. It was only after he’d told us that that we realised how worried we’d been and how we had both been pretending that we weren’t.
It’s been a day.
All that.
Toodles,
Paul
P.S. This is ‘All That’ by Sparks. I went to see them this week in Dublin with my great friends Micky, Paula, and Pat. The first song I remember Sparks playing on Top of the Pops was ‘The Number One Song In Heaven’ …which I was shocked to find out was in 1979 ! I have been fortunate to have had Micky and Paula as friends since shortly after that. We went for dinner before the gig in the Camden Kitchen, and we drank Cosmopolitans, tiny bottles of craft lager, and had delicious food and wonderful conversations.
The gig was amazing ! They finished with this song…and so have I.
