Blue And Green

Barry by Martin Storey

in Rowan Softknit Cotton

Soon I may concede defeat... the neck injury is back with a vengeance and metaphorically marching round with placards to let me know knitting is really pushing my luck.  To complete this sweater, I've been calling heavily on my highly developed ability to filter what’s not of interest (to me) – a knack which I've always found very useful.  Nailing down every last detail is certainly necessary from time to time, but I’m not a natural nailer down... And while I admire and am grateful for those who are,  I move much more in the direction of leaving gaps for creativity.    Which is why I was delighted to learn that Druid had embarked on a marathon six-hour staging of four Shakespeare plays in one show.  Obviously this is breaking all traditional rules - accents and approach aren't always "correct",  text is adapted, but with the honourable goal of tracing themes that mightn’t be in bas relief from treating the plays individually.... very exciting (and so it proved to be - go see it if you have a chance).

I booked early and last Tuesday travelled to Galway from Dublin by morning train, and was just starting into the day's newspapers when a small, brown suited man with a HUGE turquoise suitcase made to sit across from me ... He began to hoist his case up on the luggage rack and I began to pay  heed because if anything went wrong (and there was every sign it would), I and an equally concerned elderly lady were right in the firing line.  After a particularly perilous failed attempt, I got up to help, which involved some negotiation, hefting and chat. We both sat down, job done, but he continued to chat... exhaustively... becoming very worked up about headlines from my papers.

So I said, "I know nothing,  and from what you say, it sounds as if I'm better off that way today",  and pushing the papers across the table to him, I resorted instead to headphones and closed eyes….

Very pleasant it was too..

Lovely views..

The train got in and I made my way quickly to get some lunch and then on to the theatre box office to collect my ticket.    At the top of the lane where I was headed was a small crowd behind barriers and a few police in attendance…. Now that I came to think of it, there’d been some police up at Spanish Arch too, where I had had lunch....  a helicopter had hovered overhead as well actually...

“What’s going on?”, I asked joining the queue. 

“Camilla”, a woman answered.  “She’s going to a show in the theatre down the lane there “

“I see”, I said, taking a sidelong glance - over previous days, even I had noticed that a royal visit was headed to another part of the West of Ireland on a reconciliation mission .

 “Actually I’m going to that show too”  I said, indulging her "I have to  collect a ticket" - and I called to a  policewomen over the barrier “Excuse me, how do I get through there?”

Another woman to my right said, “Me too - what are we to do?”

“Well we can’t let ye through”, said the policewoman.

"That's crazy!", said the other woman.

“Why?!” I asked

The policewoman looked at me in disbelief, and I began to wonder if it was all part of the show. 

“I can’t find my feckin phone”, announced a woman with a baby in a buggy, rooting through a handbag.  “Have you got yours, Mary?”

“I’m not takin any photos of her – she caused terrible trouble in that marriage”, said Mary (or who I suppose was Mary).

“Ah let bygones be bygones”, called another voice further up.

“There’d be more out for Diana”, said a woman,  wrapped grimly in her rain coat. 

“Diana’s dead, but”, said the first woman, still hunting for her phone.

“Listen, I just want to go to the theatre”, I said.  “I’m in the right place, aren’t I?”

And then, to my complete astonishment, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, emerged from the lane, flanked by Galway's Lord Mayor in his gold chain and a few others in their Sunday best.  Waving at the crowd, she crossed the street.

".................................!", I thought....  she's just another person, but still...

“She looks like an air hostess”, said the lady with the buggy, out of her bag now.  “Oh Mary, I wanted to get a photo”

“Hang on, I'll try”, I said, recovering myself sufficiently to hold my phone up in the general direction of the rapidly vanishing duchess.  “I think, I've ....oh...damnation! Now I’ve gone and lost my booking reference”.

View fullsize

definitely click to enlarge and then put some effort into looking for blue-green

“Didye get it?  Didye get it?  Will you email it to me?!”, said the woman with the buggy and I took her email address.

The policewoman, more at ease now the Duchess had pressed onward, was taking an interest.  "Did ye?", she also asked. "Let's see", she said and  I handed her my phone.

"You have to kind of enlarge it", I said... "See.. the flash of colour ..."...

“She's well gone”, she said, unimpressed.

“Well it's better than nothing“, and still struggling to put it all into context, I stretched out the photo on the screen.  “You know", I said "...Years ago I saw Yasser Arafat... uniform, headgear, the works... come out of the Mansion House in Dublin with the Lord Mayor in his chain.  We were just standing there (well, swaying really)(after Christmas lunch), and the door opened and some city official led them off with a kind of gigantic golden orb ....very unexpected, especially in those days...  Then another time I was listening to my favourite singer on the radio while driving my car and ...”.

“Ye can all go in now”, said the policewoman,  back to business, pulling back the barrier with clearly no more time to waste.

Inside, actors were standing around, limbering up, calming down, waiting to begin, and over by the door the theatre director was giving interviews to two journalists

“Great for Druid...Royalty on and off stage today”, she was saying.  

"You know, this is all very surreal really", I observed to the woman checking my ticket. "And all before the performance even begins.."

“What was she like?”, someone else asked

“She had kind eyes”, said an actor passing by in doublet and hose. 

Thanks yet again to Milla from The Stich Shop for sewing up.