Take me home -The Liability

Friday night was clement, but the last few nights have been bitterly cold. As I strolled in an hour and a half late to work today, my boss informed me through a mouthfull of smoke that snow is on the way. I hope so because I wished for some last night. No point in having the cold if there is no snow, I reckon! I enter the lift as though in a dream and drift up to the fourth floor.

My family came to visit me last weekend, and it was the first time for my brothers to be in Barcelona. Already they are over six foot,and only fifteen. They grinned when I told them to keep on growing (when I was small I wanted to be six foot four) as apparently if they go over the six foot three they will become the tallest twins in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. I am pretty sure they will make it. They are so long and still very gentle boys. They are affectionate too and kept asking my mother every day at what time they would be seeing me. Jack wants to move here, Marty is horrified by the idea.

On Sunday we went to Parque Labrynth D´Horta at the foot of the mountains near where I first lived in Barcelona. The day was crisp and clear and the park was packed. I suppose in summer no-one bothers to go there because they all head off to the beach, but in winter it is ideal for a walk and a picnic. The entrance of the park is flanked by a moorish looking pink building to the right which is all cordoned off, and a dripping water feature on the left with what resembles a water dragon atop. We followed the path right and down, and walked through the green so-called Chinese garden. It had rained that morning and the foliage smelled fresh and clean. It was strange to see the juxtaposition of the leaves against the industrialised buildings just outside the wall of the park. We made a circuit of the lower gardens and then entered the main part of the park.

In the centre of the park is a lovely high maze made from evergreen trees. It looks quite simple at the start but is actually more complicated than you might think. However you would not be stuck for more than 20 minutes I imagine, so it is well designed for a bit of fun. After you reach the centre wherein stands a broken statue of Cupid on a pedestal, you can follow a path to a fountain in a little green pool at the back of the maze. Here, stairs ascend to a shaded area with more fountains and two statues of Diana. If you climb a little higher, you cross the bridge of lovers over a goldfish-full canal traversed by swans and black geese. At the apex of all this stands what looks like a moorish teahouse, with terracotta coloured walls and eggshell blue shutters. A huge raised pond or possibly what may have been a swimming pool, stands behind the teahouse, filled with goldfish and algae. From here you can see right across Barcelona, but the reflection of the teahouse in the still water of the pool is what I find most entrancing.

After the park, we went to watch the Liverpool-v-Man Utd match in the pub. Poor Marty is a massive Liverpool supporter but they always lose when I am with him. It was an inevitable result - Liverpool played well and worked hard but just misread each other all the time. United didn´t have much possession, but when they did they made the most of it. Marty was really upset when the goal was scored in the dying minutes. We returned to my flat for a short session of Father Ted and chocolate before meeting my mam and her husband for dinner.

After the meal, the twins went back to the hotel with their father, as once again Marty was not feeling too well. He was feeling sick for most of the holiday, poor boy. My mam took the opportunity to go for a drink with me, which was perfect as I wanted to go check out an open mic night that I´d heard of down by the sea. A few cocktails later and we were chatting to everyone in the bar (my mam is quite sociable too) and the barman was getting such a laugh out of us he was refilling every chance he got. At about midnight, my mam went home (where she had to bang on the hotel door for ages trying to wake her husband) and I stayed on getting progressively drunker. I have not been so legless in years, but I was still in a good mood. As it turns out, the bar I went to belongs to the same guy who owns the Travel Bar that I was in before Christmas. So after the barmen all finished, the entire staff headed somewhere I don´t really recall and I made it home at 7am to find the hallway door stuck closed. Luckily it was Monday so I didn´t have to sleep in the hallway as someone let me in.

The following day I went to drop in a CD to one of the lads in the Travel Bar. I didn´t mean to stay, but I but I have a rubber arm when it comes to drink. Colin was telling me that I got him into trouble. What had happened was on Sunday he had bought me a beer, and I was already very drunk and I told him "You will have to carry me home as it is! I don´t need more beer!" I already knew he lived round the corner from me. He just waved his hand impatiently at me and said "Don´t worry don´t worry, just drink the beer. I´ll take you home." Of course his friends only heard the last sentence, and thought that I was being taken advantage of. Six of them walked me home, and they practically frogmarched Colin off down a different road despite the fact that he lived there. I laughed so hard when he told me, because I really had thought nothing of it other than that his friends were being really mean to him at the end of the night.

Of course Monday night decended into a night out as well, however no drunkeness from me on this occasion. I met a social worker who has just moved to Dublin called Seán Lynch, and talked to him and Alex and Colin for the best part of the night. I eventually made it home at 4.30, with much less sleep but a lot more fun in my bones.