Fiacre Banks

@xFiacre (14676)

Ireland

Joined myLot 11 years ago

An Irishman who has called many places home, enjoys whiskey in moderation and reads Dostoyevsky frequently.

Discussions (120)

Fiacre Banks's Discussions

Has the war ended?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 8h

This house in Bayeux certainly has the wow factor and it’s only 100 metres from my brother’s care home. It’s an old house renovated with so many quirks to be figured out. There is a door that leads to a corridor that goes...

2 responses •

2 people

Silly boy.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 18h

So I got chastised twice today by strangers, and that’s on top of wifely admonishing. The first was in the train station in Le Mans. A silly man was trying to prevent me from going into a cafe and I was having none of it. I...

4 responses •

4 people

Squirty elephant.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 13 May

I got squirted in the face today by a mechanical elephant. Mercifully it was water with which I was squirted from its trunk, and not with anything more distasteful from somewhere else. The elephant is housed in Nantes and is...

9 responses •

8 people

Squirts on the high seas.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 13 May

I do hope that our lovely cruise bunny @looeyville doesn’t fall foul of the lurgy that has afflicted 50+ passengers on a cruise that left Belfast this week and is now quarantined in Bordeaux. They have all been felled by a severe...

6 responses •

5 people

Quack quack yum.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 13 May

Tonight’s dinner was duck, that’s duck three nights in a row and they have become pinker as the days rolled on. Tonight’s was so pink you could nearly hear it quack. The entire meal was first class and it makes me wonder again...

7 responses •

6 people

Anti vomit drawers.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 12 May

The taxi ride from the airport to our apartment on Monday was a bit of a palaver. I’m rarely given to the extravagance of taking a taxi, but in this case it cost no more than the three of us taking the bus, and it’s a lot more...

5 responses •

4 people

Food or art? I go for food.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 12 May

Croissant, baguette with butter and jam, coffee and orange juice - breakfast in the Jardin des Plantes in Nantes this morning. So copious that we were able to skip lunch and save ourselves for dinner. One on the “must see”...

11 responses •

10 people

Nantes greets you.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 11 May

I like Dublin airport - one of my favourite airports. What I don’t like is staying in an airport hotel - nicely appointed but characterless. That’s what we had to do last night. The meal was outrageous - my salmon filet had...

7 responses •

6 people

Thongs away.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 9 May

My wife takes to do with her 91 year old aunt with dementia who lives in a care home but doesn’t really know where she is. Recently she went through the lady’s clothes, removing old items and replacing them with new clothes she...

5 responses •

5 people

Give the news a rest.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 6 May

Among today’s news reports much has been made of the demise of Ted Turner, the man credited with bringing about the monster that is 24 hour live news streaming. This is something that should be regretted rather than celebrated....

10 responses •

11 people

It’s that time of night.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 21 Apr

One of the main worries that seems to beset the human race is the possibility of extinction by either climate change or a nuclear incident. Would that really be such a terrible thing? If we were all to die we’d know nothing...

9 responses •

11 people

Sitting and silence.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 19 Apr

Silence has descended onto my back garden and it’s lying there thick, luxurious and welcome. Neighbours have laid aside their whiny garden machinery and their dogs seems to have fallen asleep, so I’ve taken advantage of the lush...

4 responses •

5 people

Hot wind.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 17 Apr

The wind is blowing warm air in from the south east tonight so I’ve had to open the bedroom window to relieve the heat, otherwise I’d get no sleep. The house is generally overheated now since we had our central heating system...

11 responses •

11 people

Carpet’s down. What colour do you like on the floor?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 10 Apr

Well the carpet man’s been and gone. There were two of them, they worked fast and efficiently and they did not show us their bottoms when they bent over - my kind of carpet man. The room looks warm and rich now, and our daughter...

8 responses •

8 people

New carpet, maybe.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 10 Apr

The carpet fitter is supposed to be coming today to fit a new carpet in my daughter’s bedroom, the room I’ve just painted. Of course he didn’t give an exact time, just Friday and that could be anytime. I was up at the skreigh of...

6 responses •

6 people

So civilised. Now I’m happy.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 9 Apr

I was pleased yesterday when I took a seat in a seaside cafe a few miles along the coast from where we live. My expectations were low of course, and I ordered tea and a slice of coffee and walnut cake with an ominous anxiety...

6 responses •

6 people

The mystery of the disappearing Spanish wine.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 9 Apr

On this sunny afternoon I sat among my flowers with a glass of wine for a while and bathed myself in all the loveliness. I took the above picture of tulips which have come up nicely, all vibrant and interesting looking. But when...

5 responses •

7 people

Flushed with success.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 9 Apr

The plumber came and flushed out my radiators today as promised. It took four hours, but that was partly because he chattered on continually, stopping work when he was explaining how awful his ex wife is and how difficult it is...

5 responses •

6 people

I’m getting flushed.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 9 Apr

I’m having my pipes power flushed today. My appointment is not with a urologist but with a plumber who will execute the procedure and allow heat to return to my radiators and heat my house. Of late my radiators have been quite...

7 responses •

9 people

Language, language.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (14676) • Ireland 8 Apr

I’m reaching out to all who deign to read my request. I’ve been painting my daughter’s bedroom (pink of course) and I’m not gifted in the art of home decoration. Actually I’m fairly useless. I’ve just bent over to dip my brush...

5 responses •

5 people