a polar bear in the garden

last night was the first friday session at the corner house pub in cork city. mom and i headed in to the city centre early to get a table and save seat for dad. while we waited, a man called 'joe' sat down with us and pulled up a chair to save for a friend that would be joining him later. after introductions and handshakes, we learned that joe was from galway but living in dublin and just in cork for the night. he was a primary teacher who dabbled in bodhran playing, so he and mom had lots to talk about!

when dad joined us, about a pint and a half later, the majority of the musicians had assembled and were chatting and enjoying a pint around the long table in the back of the pub. i found it fascinating that the session would start when one of the members decided. a fiddle would start and seconds later the rest of the group would join in, their conversation on hold until the next break.

mom's bodhran instructor was a member of this session and a very interesting character! he sat directly in the middle of the group and seemed to be talking to his instrument while he played. i found myself intrigued with two fiddle players who sat on the far left end of the table and a young flutist who sat opposite them on the far right end of the table. the music was phenomenal! we were tapping our feet and clapping our hands on our knees. i'm sure the smile on my face was quite goofy!

we sat through 6 or 7 songs before it was time for us to head back to crosshaven for dinner. the musicians were taking a longer break at this point so we were able to visit with a few of them on our way out. dad was talking with one of the fiddle players that i had been in awe of; an older gentleman called 'matt' who had done a fair amount of travel with his music. he shared that austin, houston and san antonio were among the stops he would make in the spring. of course that got us off on a tangent about texas and soon i was sharing with him the reason for my visit. he was familiar with ballymaloe (as most of the irish are) and in fact knew rory o'connell, one of the instructors there, quite well. 'just mention my name when you meet him,' he told me. as i was thanking him for that contact, mom pulled me over to where she was standing and introduced me to colm murphy, her bodhran instructor. they were talking about the weather (naturally) and colm was describing how cold it was in terms of what the irish are used to this time of year. 'it's so cold, there were two polar bears in my garden today!' laughing hysterically, we said goodbye and were on our way.

we had a dinner booking at the mad fish restaurant which is located inside cronin's pub. we arrived a bit early and were seated at a table near sean, thecla and joleen cronin who were finishing up their meal. we exchanged hellos and after a quick look at the wine menu, dad was asking joleen for a recommendation. she immediately talked of a pinot noir that was just 'lovely' and that was all dad needed to hear. dad had a starter of grilled scallops in a garlic butter sauce and mom ordered the salt and pepper squid. for our meal, dad had the mad fish dish, mom ordered fish and chips and i had the vegetable red thai curry. everything was gorgeous! when our server came over to drop off a bottle of water, she mentioned that she overheard sean and thecla talking about my going off to ballymaloe. she told me that her cousin, sean, from roscommon, would be starting at ballymaloe on monday as well. i made room in my head for his name, filing it near matt's so i wouldn't soon forget.

stomachs full, we said goodnight and headed back up the hill to the house.