Andy, Shelly Banks

Quick drive out to the Shelly Banks before heading to Dave's place. I met a couple of guys walking along the stretch by the power station. I had noticed while driving past them that one of them had a heavily tattooed neck. Andy and Owen were friendly and okay with being photographed and we had a good wee chat I think. They are both involved in the arts. I think Owen told me he's a song-writer and Andy is a tattoo/body artist. Not something I'd ever have done to my own skin. As the poet Michael Donaghy put it, it takes 'a whim of iron.' But I'm curious about tattoos and piercings, a form of body adornment that goes back to the Picts and beyond, and the whimsical pictures people will etch into their one and only mortal vessel.

Driving out to Greystones afterwards I saw off the last of the lovely evening, deepening to that gold-leaf light, purplish clouds grazing the Wicklow mountains. Dave and myself made a pasta dish (mushrooms, bacon, etc.) and watched a DVd I'd rented, 'All Is Lost.' Very good performance by Redford, but all in all a bit floaty and self-consciously 'beautiful', eg. the burning dingy/crown of flames seen from improbably far below.