Adrian Phelan

Post 9

A wonderful Christmas time | Ed | The job bit | Seeing my dad | Smoked v Fresh Cod | Food tasted better with wine | Do Good Well | Rounding off

Welcome to this week’s blog. 

Happy run-in 

Less than a month to Christmas and I’ve nothing done. I was ahead with my cards last year and got them all sent in good time. I think I’ll look to buy them this weekend and send them out sooner rather than later. Then we’ll spend the rest of the month being reactive going ‘we weren’t expecting one from them, we better get them one back.’ You can’t do that in the last week though. Those ones must go unrequited and then you spend the next year avoiding the sender. I haven’t seen my parents for ages.  

The decorations should also go up this weekend with a little help from some Sloe Gin (If there’s any left) and the Jim Carey animated version of Scrooge, which we’ll most likely watch for the first time this season. It’s very good if you haven’t seen it.  

But we need more new Christmas songs. Little has stuck since Mariah Carey, so we’re on a twenty-year never-ending loop between that and Slade. The Elton John and Ed Sheeran one isn’t bad but that’s only because it would seem I have to mention Ed Sheeran every week in this blog.  

A Netflix bit  

To stick with Ed for a minute, I watched the one-shot thing he did for Netflix on Tuesday and despite the obvious staging being a bit cheesy it was very good. We had seen how some of the camera trickery was done in behind the scenes footage of Adolescence (same production team), so we didn’t have to guess about that but if he’s asked himself recently, ‘Where do I go next?’ this was the perfect answer. Well done on that one, it was a good call.  

The job bit 

I applied for an NHS job this week. Interestingly it was a couple of grades below where I’d left off but, in my opinion benchmarked too low. The money has moved quite well in the health service so I’d be happy from that perspective, and I do need to ask honest questions about where I should be pitching myself. It was good to get back into the swing of reflecting on my skills and experience. With working full time I need to apply time management skills to make sure I have capacity to consistently apply for suitable roles and that will be the challenge But it’s one I am ready to face head on. January marks the final quarter of this financial year so I’ll be monitoring what movement there is in the market. If you’re reading this and looking, remember to keep me in mind. 

Faith of our fathers  

I went to see my dad in hospital at the weekend. It wasn’t planned and I was very much in and out of Dublin so apologies to those I didn’t get to see, although some of you are thinking, ‘we dodged a bullet there.’ It was interesting to spend time in his hospital, which had a statue of Jesus or Mary at every turn, making it more difficult to find his room. I was even offered communion on one of the days, which I nearly took for a laugh, but decided that wasn’t in keeping with its true spirit.  My Dad’s out of hospital now after an 11-day stay and hopefully enjoying his home comforts once again. One of which might be smoked cod and chips, which I use as a segway to the next section.  

Who are you codding? 

For the benefit of non-Irish readers, the go-to fish in Dublin is smoked cod. Now my local chipper in the UK does the best ‘fresh cod’, so the debate rages. Which is nicer? In recent years, fresh had been knocking smoked out of the park but my word, I had a delicious smoked cod on Friday (Macari’s, Glasnevin, check it out) and the game is on again. The chips weren’t bad either. While we’re in the area I heard the news that the owner of my childhood local pub – which is next to the chipper – died recently, and I send my condolences to his family.  

There’s a new podcast in town  

‘Food tastes better with wine’ is a new podcast hosted randomly by our old babysitter’s son Jamie, fellow school and soccer dad Dom and their friend Gemma, and it’s pretty cool. It complements a new wine club that has started up locally. If you follow the podcast, you’ll get details of that. I’m not known for my love of wine, but I will one day make the pilgrimage to the Bordeaux region of France to visit Chateau Phelan Segur, which is my birth right. I’ll post more about the podcast as it grows but wanted to mark it’s very first episode for posterity because I think it will go from strength to strength.  

Do Good Well  

Not a charity this week but shining a spotlight on International day for the abolition of slavery which aims to raise awareness about modern day slavery and its eradication. There’s an estimated 12.3 million people in slavery today forced to work for little or no pay. Find out a bit more by clicking the link.  

Farewell and thanks 

As ever, thanks for getting this far. Stay in touch and if you’re happy to, please share a link to the blog with your networks.  

Adrian  

07974669338 

adrianphelan@hotmail.co.uk 

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