Remembering November
Well, November’s over and today is the first day on the advent calendar, so I might as well ruminate on the month that's been.
November’s been a pretty fucking hectic month and there’s so much on my mind that I want to write about, but I’ve been struggling to articulate myself lately, hence why I don’t “blournal” as often as I’d like to. Obviously, my last “blournal” entry was well over two weeks ago when I wrote about the Moortown Men’s Seniors match against Clonoe. I went to see a couple of matches this month, partly because I want to start showing more support for the local teams, but also partly because I'm finally starting to show interest in sports after so many years of stubborn indifference.
I was hoping to write a “blournal” entry about this year’s Halloween, but it was a fairly subdued affair on my part. I only dressed up on one occasion, which was for a Halloween-themed pub quiz. Here’s what I wore.
I guess it’s not too bad of an outfit. If I was being generous, I would say that I was trying to pay homage to Flea and John Entwistle’s skeleton suits, but nah, I wasn’t. I really do need… and I want… to step up my Halloween game considerably for next year, but otherwise, the night itself was great craic.
The day after was October 31st and I travelled up to Derry with my friends, which has become a regular ritual in the post-pandemic era. The Derry Halloween celebrations are always a spooktacular delight and this year was no exception.
Alas, the month of November was where the real horror was about to unfold.
I’ve already written at length about the American presidential election, so I’ll try not to repeat myself. I know looking away won’t make this imminent (and entirely avoidable) shitshow go away but at the same time, I have to be mindful towards myself. Obsessing and worrying over how the next four (or more) years are going to pan out with Voldemort back in The White House simply isn’t going to help anything, so I’ve been doing as much as possible to keep my mind at ease in the aftermath.
The day after the election, I met up with my friend, Alice Bonsall, and I think that was a much-needed tonic for both of us. We’ve been talking about doing a podcast together many times and I’m hoping that we can finally get it up and running over the next couple of weeks. I’m not promising anything but we’ll hopefully have an episode out before the end of the year. Fingers crossed.
Naturally, the days are getting shorter at this time of the year and that leaves little room to go out and take in the sights and sounds of Ireland, but that hasn’t deterred me or Dad. Whenever we’re feeling bored or anxious, we go out for a drive with no particular destination in mind. One of our most recent excursions took us all the way down to County Down where I took a few photos of the sun going down over Spelga Dam.
There also may have been a bit of pubbing and partying in between, but yeah, that’s mostly what I’ve been up to this month. There’s been plenty of mundane shit in between but that’s just life for you. You can’t have the highs and the excitement without the lows and the mediocrity.
It’s been a strange and disappointing year, but I’ll talk more about that in the future. For now, I’m looking to start settling into the Christmas groove.
