mns  2008-03-11 11:06   

I have always thought that the standard of education in Ireland is very good, and I have always loved geography. However, the geography of England, in my day at any rate, was dealt with in a very cursory manner.
And so it came to pass that when JC and I decided to go to Harrogate for a bridge congress I was under the (mistaken) impression that Harrogate was on the east coast of England and I was looking forward to windswept walks along a sea front or maybe even on the beach, the smell of brine in the air, the crashing of waves…
I never thought of looking at a map so convinced I was of Harrogate’s position.
At large congresses you often end up having dinner with people you have never met before, and by way of conversation, on the first evening, I asked how far we were from the sea. I can usually smell the sea from just a couple of miles away, and I was puzzled that I couldn’t sense it at all.
The couple looked surprised at my query and said that if we set off early in the morning we just might get there and back in time for the bridge the following afternoon. A bridge diary was produced, within which a neat map of the British Isles was handed to me. To my disbelief I discovered that we were just about as far from the sea as we were from home in Chester. We were right plonk in the middle of England leaving me wondering why on earth I had thought that Harrogate was a port. It’s a bit like thinking you could take the ferry from Leitrim to Wales based on some obscure but very inaccurate piece of information formed in your brain in childhood.
I keep looking at the map now to try to get my English cities and towns in some kind of perspective.

An Angel at my Back is out and tomorrow we take the ferry (storms permitting) from Holyhead to Dublin for Thursday’s launch of the Open Door Series. Each of the books in the series is beautifully presented and Charlie Bird, one of my heroes, is doing the actual launch. I’m both excited and nervous about the trip. It will be lovely to see friends and family, to introduce JC to those who have not met him before, and to meet those with whom I’ve been working but have only communicated with on-line.
My nervousness comes from the fact that when I’m under pressure or surrounded by a lot of people I lose names. I can remember details about people under these circumstances, but I cannot dissemble the names in my head. I remember it happening at another launch, and a woman whom I knew very well asked me to sign a book for her.
‘Whose name will I put in it?’ I asked, playing for time.
‘Mine,’ she said.
Oh God, I thought. ‘How do you spell your name?’ I asked.
She looked at me in amazement and said, ‘R I T A.’
I nearly died of embarrassment. ‘I meant your surname,’ I said, trying to cover my tracks. I don’t know if she bought it. There is a limit to the amount of ways you can spell Jones.

I’m also excited about meeting some new friends. Because JC and I play bridge online we have made a lot of virtual friends, and some of these are trying to make it to the launch even though they have to travel quite some distance. One of them I suspect I may have met before as a child because my school occasionally played hockey matches against his school – Dundalk Grammar School. It was always a terrifying experience playing against a mixed school, both because the other team had dozens of boys screaming from the sidelines and also because the girls on the team practised against the boys and were really tough and hard-hitting with their sticks.
My mother, who used to coach us, tried to reassure us that skill would win out – as indeed it usually did – but it didn’t minimize the feelings of intimidation. When I think about it, I can still feel those butterflies of nervousness. Someone once told me that butterflies are good but that you need to get them to fly in formation. Well, we’ll see…
Then there are my school friends, and their support over the years and my excitement at seeing them again is really uplifting today as I begin to pack. My children, my siblings, my beloved cousins, maybe my uncles, my loving friends from Wexford, my wonderful bridge friends and the friends I have made through my children and their school days, and the whole buzz attached to a launch… it’s no wonder the butterflies are out in force today.

The ferry leaves tomorrow at lunchtime. The weather forecast seems to imply that the present storm may have abated at least a little.