Shingles and all that jazz

I am into my second week with shingles. It is painful. unpleasant and restrictive. I got the antiviral medicine within 12 hours of the first blister erupting, also painkillers and stuff to make me sleep but had to go back to the gp within the first week as the painkillers firstly prescribed were not touching the pain.

I was already on antibiotics having been diagnosed with pleurisy two days before the blister appeared. I don’t do things by half – ever.

Of course we have had some fabulous weather, well really fabulous for West Cork. The sun is shining and I had just got the man who helps in the garden to put the swinging hammock up. One of the pills I am on instructs me to stay out of the sun so even though I have the canopy on the hammock have had to stay mostly indoors.

There are whales just off the coast at the moment. How I would love to be out on a boat with my camera. One chap encountered a humpback when he was kayaking only yards from the coast near Dunmore House Hotel. There have been lots of sightings out of Baltimore too and Baltimore is rapidly becoming the whale watching capital of Ireland. We are fortunate to have some really experienced guides on the whale watching boats and it is a huge draw for tourists.

I went along to the Tom Crean play performed at the Celtic Ross Hotel – and it was brilliant. And the Vespertine Quintet played Grove House, Schull a few days before. Equally inspiring such talented musicians and of course the inimitable Jessie Kennedy who is shortly to launch her new CD entitled The Carbery Songs. The launch is appropriately in St Fachtna’s Cathedral, Rosscarbery. It promises to be a memorable evening. Having heard a couple of the songs already I am so looking forward to hearing the rest of the CD,

There is so much to look forward to and West Cork really comes into its own at this time of the year, that is if you are a lover of literature, music, and the arts. Spoiled for choice and so lucky to live here.