The weekend just gone proved to be quite different from the run-of-the-mill weekends I seem to have. First of all, we (the family and I) spent most of it in Ennis, and secondly we didn’t get to watch much TV.

As flagged in the previous couple of posts, the annual Non-Competitive Festival run by Clare Music Makers took place over the full Saturday and Sunday. Various family members were taking part at various times over both days which meant being in town a lot longer than we normally would be.

The clocks went forward by an hour on Saturday night/Sunday morning so we had one hour less sleep. On Sunday morning at the uneartly hour of 10 am (old time 9 am), I performed my solo piece as part of the festival. I must say I was nervous as hell, and my fingers started shaking half way through the piece which caused me to wobble a couple of times though I did keep going and didn’t lose the timing. It sounded ok too. I’m glad I did it and even gladder it’s over!
On top of that, my 11 year old son had his Taekwon-Do grading which had us all sitting in the hall at the Ennis National School from 12.30 to 16.45 watching the various belt and tag colours go through their paces. He passed his grading with flying colours and is now a 4th Kup (blue belt). This meant we finally got to have lunch at 5pm in a Chinese in town.

The Non-Competitive Festival finished off with the CMM Orchestra (in which I am the Oboe) performing an hour behind schedule at 20.15pm. That went very well with the orchestra sounding very good indeed. “It was a pity we couldn’t do it a second time” several members remarked as we came off stage - all that practice and preparation and the thing is over in less than 10 minutes! Roll on the end of year concert in May, and the 2 week Summer Music on the Shannon.

The day is upon me almost. Tomorrow morning some minutes after 10.00 am I perform my first Oboe solo at the Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis, as part of the Clare Music Makers’ Non-Competitive Festival. Wish me luck!

The annual Clare Music Makers’ Non-Competitive Festival has come round again this weekend, when students of Clare Music Makers get the chance to strut their stuff in front of an audience without the added pressure of a competition. It’s all happening at the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis this Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th March from 9 am till late in the evening.
Why not pop in for a listen if you’re in town and have some time to spare?

The attic has been skimmed and is now drying out. To speed up the drying process somewhat (very necessary what with all the rain that’s been falling), we’ve put a dehumidifier up there and keep it turned on all day. It’s having the desired effect and I expect the drying process to be complete after the weekend. We can then think about what colour we’re going to paint it. Here are a couple of photographs showing what it looks like at the moment:

You can see the trapdoor in the ceiling in both these photos which is used to access the space from the corridor below. The Ebac dehumidifier is also visible.

We were privileged to attend a traditional Chinese music concert by the virtuoso Liu Fang in St. Columba’s Church of Ireland in Ennis on Sunday night (18 March 2007) last.
Liu played several traditional pieces on the Pipa (a stringed instrument similar to the Lute) before the intermission, and several others on the Guzheng (a large “flat-bed” type stringed instrument not unlike the steel guitar in looks) after the intermission. More information is available on her website.
We were entertained by a young String Quartet from Clare Music Makers during the intermission.

Went to Flamenco music gig at Glór, Ennis on Friday night (16 March 07) last as part of the Chord Ennis International Music Festival. It featured the virtuoso flamenco guitarist Rafael Cortés in concert with flamenco flautist Domingo Patricio, bailora Lola Ronda, drummer El Bruja and bass-player Aidan Crowley. A full house enjoyed a brilliant night of finest quality Flamenco.
My partner and I hung around afterward and got to talk to Rafael, Lola and Domingo in person, which was nice. Neither of us ever thought we’d see the day when we could go see World-class Flamenco music and dance in Ennis. How the world has changed!

It’s been over two months since the renovations started on the house, and they’re still not quite done. But the last huge step was completed today by Robert the plasterer when he cleaned up the dust and debris after finishing skimming the plasterboard in the attic. I must say he did an excellent job. We will now have to wait for the skim to dry completely (which could take a couple of weeks) before we paint it. We’re resolved on using eco-paint for the job.
The interior of the house is an absolute shambles at this stage, with a coat of dust on everything, and bits of rubble (old plaster, dust, grit, and assorted grime) all over the carpeted hallway. There are piles of books, clothes, plastic bags of miscellaneous bits and bobs, in every room. The kitchen is equally chaotic. We are all absolutely sick of it and can’t wait to have our nice clean uncluttered house back.
The roof is also complete, except for a smallish area at the back of the house which can wait for sunnier weather. All that’s missing are the gutters which haven’t yet been put back.
I’ve cleared away the rubble from one half of the front of the house - I still have to do the second half but the weather has been singularly uncoperative each Sunday which is the only day I can do anything. Here’s hoping…

Following a comment from Dan to my previous post informing me that some people he knows in Inch village (about 4 miles away from my house as the crow flies) have signed up for IFA Telecom broadband, I checked IFA Telecom’s website just now and see that they have added Kilmaley (albeit misspelt) to the list of places they supply wireless broadband to. So I rang them up and they are posting me out an application form forthwith.

I’m actually beginning to believe that we will have broadband in the next few weeks! Whoah there - hold them horses! - I’ll believe it when I get it!

I, like many people in rural Ireland, live in a Broadband-less area. I’ve long since given up ringing the Broadband providers and asking when it will become available, because the answer is invariably that the local exchange is not “broadband-enabled”. And that is the fault of Eircon (aka Eircom) and of the bunch of nincompoops, morons, gombeen (wo)men (most especially one Mary O’Rourke) and other assorted riff-raff that passes for government in this Island of ours for selling off the publicly owned telephone line infrastructure when Eircon was privatised.

So, it was a great and unexpected surprise to me yesterday evening to see the following sign firmly planted in a very conspicuous area beside our erstwhile post-office. The sign boldly announces to all and sundry that Broadband is now available in our area. It has a lo-call telephone number, a web address, and the logo of the providers IFA Telecom, as can be clearly seen in the photograph. Being in a hurry yesterday evening, I didn’t have time to take down the contact details, so I resorted to do so this afternoon which I duly did.

I checked out IFA Telecom’s website first (no! I’m not going to link to it!), and looked at the list of areas in Clare where their broadband (both wireless and ADSL) is available. To my chagrin, Kilmaley was not mentioned. But I decided to ring them anyway, just in case the website was out of date. So I rang and talked to a female telephonist (who shall remain nameless) who confirmed that IFA Telecom was not providing broadband in the Kilmaley area.

So I told her of the very conspicuous sign beside the ex-Post Office that proclaimed otherwise, to which she replied that this was not possible and insisted that the sign said “No Broadband - no problem” (her exact words) as they had another product to speed up dial-up connections. I insisted that it did say Broadband available but she didn’t agree. You can see from the photographs who is telling the truth.

I’m rather miffed by this the latest in a long line of examples of false and misleading advertising regarding broadband availability hence this post. I’m sick to the teeth of ads on the radio (invariably in put-on United-Statesian accents) trying to sell me non-existent broadband. This IFA Telecom sign takes the biscuit, however, as it is on my doorstep.

So, I say to IFA Telecom put up or shut up - either give us broadband or take you frigging sign down before I complain you to Comreg for false advertising.

Here are the details of the concert featured in the previous post:

• Grieg - Suite No. 1, Op. 46
• Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op.26
• Rautavaara - Adagio Celeste
• Sibelius - Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82

The virtuoso pianist who performed the Prokofiev piece with the RTESO was Simon Trpceski who hales from Macedonia.

The conductor was William Eddins who hales from Chicago (I think).