Ennis, Ireland
My friend Rod (& his wife Diana) are in Ireland, and he sends me emails about his adventures over there. I laughed out loud at this story, and since I have little to share, I thought I'd post it. To preface it, they went into town to do some laundry and shopping. Rod struck up a conversation with a man sitting in the plaza, Paddy.

A little later two women in their 30s came and sat by the column.  They were talking and didn't seem to be having a problem until, suddenly; one woman started screaming at the other.  Apparently the other woman has accused her daughter of "strolling the catwalk".  This is apparently Irish slang for being a hooker.  They were yelling at each other.  One accusing, the other denying.  Finally they got up to leave and I started to breathe a little easier.  Just that quickly, on the sidewalk right in front of me, the mother takes a swing at the other woman and the donnybrook began.  There were slaps, punches, hair pulling, pushing and general bad language all over the place.  Soon the daughter in question, looked about 17, came back and tried to break the women up.  No luck.  These were no lightweights and they each had a pretty good grip on the other's hair.  Finally a truce was called.  The mother lost a big hunk of her hair and the other woman had a bloody nose.  They walked off and order was restored. 

When Diana came back I tried to tell her all this and she wouldn't believe me so I let it drop.  We walked back to the laundry and after paying 18 Euro, the cost to launder three pairs of pants at the hotel, for the entire batch we walked to the corner to catch a cab back to the hotel.  After we settled in the cab the driver asked if we were enjoying ourselves and I said that the weather was sure good and so was the entertainment in the main square.  And he says, "Oh, you mean the dustup between the two women?"  I thought Diana was going to choke.  The cab driver already knew about it and it had only happened about 30 minutes before.  Turns out he was waiting in his cab at a cabstand just down the street and saw the whole thing.  When we got back to the hotel an armored car was there picking up the deposit.  As we passed the guard in the hall he asked if we were having a good day and Diana said, "Yes we are and my husband saw some free entertainment on the square."  To which he says, "The catfight earlier today?" I couldn't believe it.  He knew about it too.  Wow, this is a smaller town than I thought.

I am back at the hospital next week for more tests. But I am happy (I guess) that we'll be able to work on what's wrong with me, instead of all this waiting. Dawn, thank you for the wonderful email. It meant a lot to me.

I think I'm going to tackle a new recipe tonight. I have the chocolate craving, and so I hope to satisfy that. If it's successful, you'll hear about it.

I'm closing with a quote from last week's episode of Monk.

Disher: I can tell you what time it is all around the world. (Looks at watch) It's 5:30 here; Denver, 3:30; California, 12:17; in Paris. . .time has stopped.