That Girl is back in town

Yes, I'm very pleased to see that That Girl has returned to the
blogosphere. She won the 1996 Irish Blogs Award for the best
personal blog, and deservedly too, I think. If you wish to read
some of her high quality writing, have a look at her blog for
26 February, "If you knew you had only a year to live, what would
you do?", and a piece she wrote on 26 March 06 about the death
of her father ten years earlier, both of which touched me.

To rephrase the last few words more accurately, I should have said
that I felt touched by TG's writing, to personally own that feeling
-- you may be aware that people or happenings can't make you
feel a certain way, it's more the case of how you personally feel
about them. Your brother or sister might feel differently about the
same experience, which is certainly the case as regards some of
what happened in my past family life.

Reading TG's blog today reminds me that on the way back in our
car from a concert in Leicester, last Saturday, we stopped off a few
times to look at the lunar eclipse. It was a freezing cold winter's
evening as you will remember, and the sky was clear with a
wonderful view of the moon and the stars.

I don't know if you did this as a kid, but sometimes I would pop
a Smartie in my mouth and let the sugar coating and colouring
dissolve, before prising open the outer casing with my tongue/teeth
to eat the yummy chocolate inside. Well the moon looked like a
well-licked Smartie to me, like a luminous button in the sky.

Another six years to go until the next eclipse....