Our columnist Frank Brandon on the security of being able to heat your home ‘by fireplace’ given recent power outages, revisiting the music of superstar country band The Highwaymen, enjoying Creggs RFC’s latest win, an upturn in the fortunes of Manchester United… and the world of scratch cards and lotto luck!
The house I live in is more than 40 years old. There is no doubt that if I was to build it now it would be very different. The four bedrooms should really be only three – as they are too small – the separate kitchen and dining room should have been all one, the sitting room is sort of away from the kitchen, and the back kitchen is also a bit on the small side.
However, I am also aware that if I was selling it, which I am not, I would be selling a four-bedroomed detached two-storey house, with mature gardens on an idyllic site with unrivalled views of the surrounding countryside adjacent to the parish church and less than a mile from the thriving village of Creggs.
It is convenient to the towns of Roscommon, Glenamaddy and Ballygar, all of which have top class second level schools, while the national school in Creggs is renowned as one of the best and most progressive in the entire country. Actually, it now sounds so good I’d nearly buy it myself!
It all depends on how you would look at it. When you compare my house to the fantastic modern buildings that are being built nowadays, you would have to admit that they are vastly superior to look at, and yet as I drove around the area today, the thought crossed my mind that I wouldn’t swap mine for any of them. And the reason is very simple.
As the country struggles under the present arctic spell (as I write), and as temperatures are promised to go down to minus 9 degrees (at time of writing), I wondered how people who live in these modern chimney-less houses would heat their homes if the electricity was to go. I’m sure they all have underfloor heating and all kinds of gadgets that didn’t exist in my time, but as I walk into my 1980’s building I have fires in three rooms that I can light regardless of whether we are out of either water or electricity. All I have to do is make sure I have enough firewood to get me through this very cold spell.
Now I know it’s all about the environment and Europe tells us we can’t build houses with chimneys any more, but apparently there are areas where people have had no water or electricity for days now. What would they give to be able to light a fire and relax in front of it? Even if they couldn’t watch TV, at least they would be warm.
Anyway, I am now about to put my feet up, thankful that we still have electricity but safe in the knowledge that if it is to go, my chimneys are the key to keeping me nice and warm.
Highway(men) to country music heaven
You will know by now that I like country music and when I can find it I like to watch Paul Claffey and Gerry Glennon’s music show on Sky TV. The problem is that the channel it’s on seems to change fairly often, although at the moment it’s to be found on Channel 588.
A couple of nights ago, purely by accident I chanced upon a concert by The Highwaymen which took place in 1990 – and I can only say it really blew me away.
For those who don’t know this, The Highwaymen consisted of four absolute superstars of American country music, namely Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. The concert that I found was over two hours in length and featured each of those four at their very best.
I have to admit that I would be less familiar with Jennings than with the other three, but obviously he is a major figure in country music and hugely impressive on stage. The thing that came across from the show was the great camaraderie that seemed to exist between the four of them. A bit like our own Three Amigos, they all seemed to thoroughly enjoy what they were doing and were having great fun while they did it.
Back in 1990 they were all relatively young, but in the meantime three of them have headed off to Nashville in the sky. Remarkably, Willie Nelson – who has lived a very colourful life – is still going strong at 91 years of age. As a man who is well known for his use of marijuana and for the fact that at one time he used to smoke two or three packets of cigarettes a day, Willie has had some health problems through the years, but at 91 he continues to perform and is still one of the great characters of country music.
Anyway, it was great to chance upon The Highwaymen the other night, and if it’s repeated I’d recommend that you have a look. You won’t be disappointed as they sing a lot of the huge hits each of them had over the years. Kristofferson, who only left this world in September, seemed to be the leader of the group, but all four contributed individually quite a lot, and it all added up to two and a half hours of incredible entertainment.
A sporting Sunday
It’s Sunday evening as I write and I have just had my sporting batteries recharged as our local rugby lads have finally played a game after nearly a month’s idleness. I cannot deny it was great to get back on to the sidelines (to either support or give out to our victorious lads).
They were playing Corrib in a last sixteen Junior Cup round, and even though it wasn’t a perfect performance we won well and now face Ballinasloe in the quarter-final this Sunday.
The good thing was that the severe weather of the earlier part of the week had disappeared and the roads were passable and all our pitches were playable.
Actually, getting away from the sport for a minute, one of the gripes a lot of us had out our way was that the very treacherous hill outside my house wasn’t treated at any time last week. Several times I saw cars fail to get up the hill, while I also know of a load of people who failed to take the turn coming down the hill to Donamon, and had to keep going straight on down to Bernadette Kearney’s old shop.
Now I know the Councils can’t grit every place, but for years everyone knows that this particular hill is a nightmare in frost, and surely such places should get priority treatment. Hopefully the next time we get orange or red frost alerts for Roscommon the powers that be will send the gritter out to Crosswell.
Anyway, having got my rugby fix earlier in the day, as a long-suffering Manchester United supporter the recent 2-2 draw against Liverpool gave us all a bit of a lift and so after getting home from Creggs, I tuned into Utd versus Arsenal in the FA Cup.
Once again, for the second week in a row, the much-maligned players produced a performance of grit and determination to get a great result against the London club. After going down to 10 men with half an hour left they dug deep and got through the remaining period plus another half hour of extra-time to win the tie on penalties.
Now life has been so terrible for all of us reds for so many years that we are well aware we have seen some promising signs before, but at last this team appears to have rediscovered what it is to play for Manchester United and are at least putting in some effort.
My late wife Carol used to deplore the way the United players showed so little heart and commitment in earning their massive wages, but if she were still here, I think she might finally have seen proper effort and work ethic from these extremely wealthy players. We’ll see what follows on from this but for the first time in a long time there may be hope.
And finally…
It’s hard to believe that the first scratch cards in the Irish Lotto were sold in March 1987, while the weekly lotto draw started a year later in April 1988. Since then I would shudder to think how much money I have spent on buying scratch cards, doing the Lotto (now twice a week) and the EuroMillions, also twice a week. It must run into many thousands of euro.
Many is the time I said to myself I would give it up. Unfortunately, I do the same numbers every draw since it started and so I simply can’t stop doing those numbers because they would surely come up as soon as I did (cease to play).
However, over there in Connecticut a lucky lottery player proved that it is possible to beat the odds when he or she won on two scratch cards in the same store in the space of four days. On day one, they won $200,000. Four days later they won $750,000 – the odds on doing this apparently being one trillion to one.
And so I am encouraged to keep going. Despite never having had any decent win in almost 40 years, just maybe I too can beat the odds and get myself a big win. If I do, the first thing I’ll do is tell you all!
