A short walk by the river

A large part of the economy involves the proletariat (that's all of us) being entertained in exchange for money. I have grown to be suspicious of these transactions as they have become monstrously expensive and ephemeral and people who have money buy into the system because they can. A staff round-robin e-mail this Spring offered four unwanted tickets to the 23Jun18 Billy Joel concert for €460! My eyes were on staaaalks: half a Grand for 2 hours in the Aviva stadium with a lot of other crumblies? That amount of wedge would be really appreciated by your nearest struggling single parent. You could reprise your 1970s memories on youtube - Uptown Girl - Piano Man - while feeling virtuous that you hadn't been supporting Aiken Promotions.

My roomie at work is in some sense in charge of all the post-graduate students, despite only having 3 under her direct care-and-attention. To mark the end of the school year and the start of Summer, she canvassed opinion about what they/we might all do together to celebrate. "Let's go ten-pin bowling" came back. It wasn't strictly my business but I bridled at that suggestion as being unimaginative and costly [R for indicative prices]. I explained my baggage: all through the 00s, I was a comparative immunologist in a lab that cared about the whole person and sponsored an annual lab outing. The Lab murthered The Boss paintballing; played soccer in Glendalough; did corporate bonding in Blessington; walked along the cliffs in So Co Dublin; did the Tayto Theme Park; yomped to the top of Mount Leinster and then had a BBQ. You can see the conflicting pulls here: the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun vs me and The Boss preferring something more thoughtful which promoted cohesion and kindness over noisiness and the haemorrhage of money.

I therefore suggested a) a walk up a hill from our farmlet or b) a walk by the river for the altitude challenged. And it was so! It was agreed that, on the last Friday of June (yest) we would walk from Clash [R] to Graig along the tow-path of the Barrow River Navigation with ice-creams promised at the end. I've done this before and before that Ten of us piled into two cars setting off from The Institute at 3PM. It was shoving 30^oC, but we knew it would be cooler by the river. There were only 2 Irish Citizens: one a New Irish born in Senegal. The rest: Greece 1; Britland 1; Poland 1; France 1; Germany 1; India 3. I dunno what it is about the Irish, who make up half our post-grad community: they just don't seem up for getting out and about. I suggested that we could sing River songs in the back of the car on the way to Launch-point:

• The Boss
• Alison Krauss: total immersion baptism optional
• Milky Chance
• Neil Young
• Agnes Obel
• Billy Joel: it's hard to escape from BJ.

And eeee it were luvly. But I have to report that the girls in the back of my car were planning a trip later on to the Tayto Theme Park!