Snowy Glasnevin

After yesterday's wake it was time today to move on to Bernard's funeral. Fortunately, 10.00 am mass was in Glasthule church, very, very close to Carl's place. Despite the closeness we were quite happy to accept a lift from one of Bernard's friends who was late arriving at the house for the removal of the coffin and was still there as we cagily stuck our noses out in to the treacherous, icy, wintry conditions.

James also brought us over to Glasnevin cemetery for the burial (another unusual experience, since all the other recent funerals I've been at have been to the crematorium rather than an actual lowering into a grave). It was strange to be in such a snowy landscape. Its almost a given for funerals at this time of the year that it will rain, but snow in the graveyard was yet another new experience to add to the weekend's fund.

Bernard's brother very kindly invited us to join the family for lunch afterwards. Not just any old lunch, mind you, but lunch in Roly's restaurant in Ballsbridge, where the brother is one of the owners. It was a beautiful meal, and triumphantly revived the reputation of the place in our estimation, which we'd felt had gone off a bit on our recent visits there.

It was 5.00 pm by the time all this was over, and Carl and I were due to meet music-group-conected friends at 8.15 for a meal, Having been on the go since 2.00 pm yesterday, a bit of a siesta was called for before heading out again. Our meal was in Keshk on Leeson Street. The menu is Middle Eastern, but the main claim to fame of the place is its bring-your-own policy for wine, which inevitably makes the bill considerably less than it would if typically exorbitant restaurant prices were involved. Having stuffed ourselves earlier at the funeral lunch, we didn't really do full justice to the food, but we had a pleasant night all the same, with lots of good chat with our friends.

A long day, though, and a long and tiring and rather sad weekend over all.