im2old4thisblogstuff

  Yesterday, after finishing volunteering with Age Action in the Wexford Library, I went on over to the Wexford Arts Centre for lunch in the D'lush Cafe. I met Amy there who I thought was very friendly, welcoming and accommodating. She even helped me to my table. Even though I knew what I wanted, I held off a bit and waited for Mum and James to arrive before ordering. I had to wait for a bit because they were finding it difficult to find parking, but they eventually did and joined me. Anyway, I ordered the pancakes with maple syrup, James had the pancakes too but with bacon instead of maple syrup and Mum had a crepe with sugar and lemon juice. Many would see pancakes as a snack but for me, I am at the stage where that'd do for my lunch and I think James is that way inclined too. Mum, however, would tend to go for other things like soda bread and soup and nothing on the lunch menu appealed to her. I would go again and James would go again. We'd probably order more pancakes a...

'23 is getting off to a good start. '22 was okay - we're at the stage now where we can drop the 20 now - but its second half was much better and that was thanks to the Social Prescribing service. Things do look a lot better for me now and I'm getting ready to face new challenges.  If you'll recall from reading my last post, one of the new challenges I faced was publicly speaking at the Healthy Communities launch. I was so nervous that day but I didn't shy away like I normally do. They say we humans are either fighters or fighters, and I was always the latter. Well, this one time I was a fighter. Also, I would have certainly backed out of something like this before. On Wednesday 11th, myself and another user of the Social Prescribing service, Darius, were interviewed for the RTE Radio 1 show 'CountryWide'. Here are some photos from that day: Left to right: Eamonn, Darius, myself and reporter, Della Left to right: Deirdre, Darius, myself and reporter, Dell...

And here we are again, Christmas. A time for giving, being with loved ones, eating a huge dinner and a massive amount of sweets, and watching Christmas movies on the telly - my favourites are Die Hard 1 and 2.  It has been an actual trial to get to this point, what with the outbreak of COVID in 2020 seeing the Roaring Twenties 2.0  getting off to a fantastic start. And the war in Ukraine, forcing thousands of its citizens to abandon their homeland. There was also the extreme weather we experienced here, near 30 temperature in July to near -3 in December. It seems like things are going to hell in a handbasket. At this time, I always feel that it is important to think of those who are less fortunate. Those who are experiencing homelessness, starvation, poverty and depression all have it tough at this time. It makes me think of the song It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year  by Andy Williams, well, it really is not! I don't mean to get anyone down and make you feel bad, ...

Friday 2nd December saw the launch of the 'Healthy Communities' initiative in Wexford and I was asked to be a speaker at it. I was using one of the services called Social Prescribing which promotes mental health and well-being all through the county. At my last meeting, Lisa had asked for a testimonial from me and I assumed it was for publishing on their website and their literature. But I had no idea what would follow next. Another lady at the service, Deirdre, called me a few weeks later and asked me into a meeting. I said yes, kind of warily, in fact, thinking that I may have done something wrong. However, when I got there, she praised my testimonial for being honest and truthful. Her boss, Mary-Louise, came in and pretty much said the same thing. What happened next surprised me. I was then asked to do a promotional video for them, and attend the launch as a speaker. Something like that had never happened to me before. So, I said yes because I thought it was really important...

Linking to my first post, here is the theme of my favourite game. It is called 'Theme of Laura' and it was composed by its sound director, Akira Yamaoka. The 'Silent Hill' games have always had excellent music in them - and I encourage you to look them up - especially because each of the main themes matches the mood of each instalment. This one, however, sticks out the most for me because of its melancholic melody and fits in perfectly with the game's mood. Excellent stories deserve excellent music.  If you want to hear more music from this totally epic horror franchise, I've made a YouTube with some of the best. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRsxeHA1V213l8VMp3GUhKG4j8NCvC0lf

Something happened to me about two weeks ago that had never happened to me before; I was recognised on the street. When I came out of Iceland [the supermarket, not the country], a man approached me and asked if I was Gerard Young and I said to him that I was. He then asked me if I had a story published, I said no but I did have a monologue that I had written and performed locally at the Wexford Arts Centre. He then told me that he was a close friend of my sister and her husband. He also said that they were very proud of me and talk about me often. Well, all I could do at that moment was smile because I like it when people say nice things about me. When I got home, I thought about the interaction and replayed it in my head and I was actually surprised about it. Surprised that my sister's husband was talking about me as well as my sister. I wasn't expecting that. My mother once talked to someone on a train about me and said 'My son's a playwright'. But for some reason...