It's a stinger!

Welcome back! My week of acting is over and blogging will continue as normal.

The play was a huge success, we managed to get a surprisingly large audience for a "straight" play. It may just be a misconception that the Jersey audience prefer a bit of a song and dance. We got a fantastic review in the local newspaper, and with reference to my own performance, "Wayne Stewart was bloody amazing as Stanley, a truly talented actor, he was the star of the show, simply outstanding, amazing, and really really brilliant", or at least it said something like that.

Juggling work and performances, this play left me utterly exhausted. I awoke at 1:30 pm on Sunday feeling like I had just come out of a coma, and confronted by a daunting blank canvas of weeks ahead. Though tempted by the prospect of spending the rest of the day in that very position from which I had awoken, I gave Miss Shipley a call as she would undoubtedly have something highly active for me to partake in, and that she did. We set off on our bicycles to some tower on a distant corner of St. Martins, like, as Miss Shipley described, a scene from "Eerie Indiana", I still don't get this reference, other than the fact that there's a kid in it with a bicycle. We then continued our expedition to Gorey where we stopped for a light beverage. On the way home I stopped to pick up some new potatoes from a road side stall, for no other reason than that's just what "outdoors folk" tend to do, isn't it?

Today I went into town and bought some coffees to sample. I decided to visit the town library, with the aim of getting a library card and some books of interest, though it never occurred to me until then that the local library is shit. If you're looking for a book published after 1990, you'll have more luck in a proper book shop, which is what I ended up doing, so I had to spend a little money, but I see it as an incentive to actually read the books. I was originally only looking for a good book on edible wild plants, but ended up getting three other books that I could have indeed got from the library, three books I believe I should probably have already read, or should do before I die. These books are:

• The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

• Lolita - Vladimir Nabkov

• To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee

I also purchased "Wild Garlic, Gooseberries... and Me" by renowned chef Denis Cotter. I hope to report back with book reviews.

I made nettle soup today with nettles I had foraged while on my morning stroll. It's quite delicious, healthy and dead easy to make, there's an abundance of nettles this time of year, so I thoroughly urge you to give it a try. Get in touch if you would like the "how to...". Dare to try something different?