Lady Gregory

Lady Gregory 20/03/23 6.45pm
There is a gap between activities, not enough time to go home and then come out again.
Enough time to fit in a swim if hunger and tiredness didn’t get the better of me.
Instead, I sit at a small wooden table in the corner of the dining area.
While I eat the table opposite me is occupied by a large group engaged in interesting and lively conversation. They look like they have all come from a course together.
They leave the scene and not long after two women come to sit at the table.
Their conversation is engaged, and they seem as if they don’t know each other that well. I am assuming that they too have been attending the same course.
The woman with the curly hair and glasses has a German accent and a loud voice, the other with her back to me is more quietly spoken and it is more difficult to hear her words.
“When I came here, I felt such a pull, this is Ireland. Really where I feel my life is right now.
A waiter with a loud voice, a Northern Irish accent, and a sweaty face.
“Just tea yeah? We have berry, peppermint, chamomile, green tea.”
They choose chamomile and green.
“That’s really what it feels like right, a bottle of champagne.”
 
 What kind of workshop have they been doing I wonder!
 
The sound of the waiter’s voice, the thrum of music, the clatter of china.
Plates and footsteps, movement.
A red halo of light beneath my eyes, the light shining on my glass’s frames.
Chairs are being moved.
“musical chairs” says the waiter.
“Is that chair okay for you?”
“Please leave it for me yeah” says the woman with her back to me.
The waiter pays no attention to me, I am invisible in the corner.
The German woman continues,
“Something I have been thinking about, I have space that I can retreat to” ……. “So, it’s very tiny. Very, very slowly I am working my way out of that.”
It’s getting darker outside, the waiters talk to each other, but I cannot make out their words.
The imitated sound of a doorbell, ding – dong, a “thankyou”
A different waiter returns with a tray with tea. “Did you order tea yeah?”
Their conversation continues. “Just a variant from the heart”
I’m born in Hessermarhoo, now I’m closer to Frankfurt, I have two sisters and brothers.”
 
Car lights shine in the window.
The woman with the curly hair and glasses, “They found a partner, made a life.”
No, not a typical German and getting less typical by the moment.”
The women laugh.
“I’m on the verge of.”  …  “Strange people, online courses, worldwide,”
 
Tinkling glasses, clattering cutlery, “Just coffee?”
 
“self-discovery, humour” ….
A child’s voice, a beep of the till, clatters, chatters.
Only the two ladies visible opposite me. All else a soundscape.
A man enters and sits down facing the bar with a pint of Guinness.
“Just be an individual.” Says the German woman.
“Give people the choice, ………. that is something I find very sad about Germany. You have to do this, and you have to do that, don’t break the rules…………. limit your creative choices.”
“I came from a very remote area; I didn’t want to be judged. Running around the water at night. To be invisible in the crowd instead of being seen in a remote area.”
More voices. “Daddy, I like the place.”
“Oh, that’s great”.
“Soup of the day, chicken goujons, pasta, chicken or salad” The Dad’s voice reads out the menu.
“Mash, sausages.”
Another little girl’s voice.” I want sausages on it’s own!”

The German “There was a lot of woods and greenery around me.”
 
Music, ice bucket.
 
Dad’s voice “You fell back you really hurt your hand”.
 
Ice bucket, laughter.
 
Dad: “You got a fright”
Mum: “Do you want sausages?”
“I don’t want mash, I want sausages!”
“Sausages”, laughter.
“Dad, do you know what I’m going to do?”
 
Cutlery
My attention shifts to the two women at the table across from me.
“Because it’s so true if we don’t have our safe space. “It took me a while to realise not everyone is feeling the way I do.”
 
Dad’s voice: “Ok so, let’s have the chips” good girl.
The sounds of a happy family, relaxed chatter, and warm laughter.
“Hey, don’t be throwing things when we are in a restaurant” he says kindly.
“Can I order for two kids one with sausages and chips and one with mash?”
Childs voice: “I don’t want chips.”
Mum’s voice: “Can I order a large wings? …...
“How hot is hot?”
Beep, beep, beep.
“I don’t like it.”
“Daddy, Darcy did this”
 
 “Looking from the perspective of strong good energy. My moon is in Aeries which equally starts at the equinox.
 
Mum: “Hey, don’t do that!”

“This is the perfect workshop, that was my hope in all this.”
“On the one hand time changes” ……………… “a clock to measure it or something.”

The German woman’s words are an appropriate end point to this moment of waiting.
The whole process has been so absorbing that I find myself rushing out the door in order not to be late!