Gateway to St Audoen's

Another meeting today, this time with my ex-boss from irish Life. I'd sent him a proposal for some copy editing and design work and he wanted to discuss this a bit further. Even though our dynamic has changed utterly since I took my early retirement, still there's a lingering wariness hanging on, and I'm all too aware of his foibles and was prepared for anything when we met.

His office is across the river from the Four Courts, close to The Brazen Head pub. Naturally, I called in there for a quick pint of Smithwicks shandy and a final glance through my proposal and the documents which he'd provided me with originally. So I was feeling reasonably confident as I walked into his office and ready for whatever he might throw at me. As it happened, things couldn't have gone better. We agreed to tackle the original job in two distinct phases, he suggested a budget figure for payment which I immediately jumped at, and then he dumped something totally new on me out of the blue. He mentioned a professional embarrassment which had resulted from a client proposal being sent out without careful checking beforehand, and suggested that I come on board to provide copy editing services on an ongoing basis. We shook on it, but practical details of how this will work remain to be resolved.

Anyway, I left feeling quite elated, and returned to my car which I'd managed to park on-street near St Audoen's church. There's an entrance which leads up to the church from Cook Street where I was parked through a gate which is in one of the surviving sections of the old wall of Dublin. I strolled up the steps beside the church and out again through the park, doing a circle back down to the car. The sky was dull, the weather was breezy and chilly, but I enjoyed the little stroll thoroughly.