Freedom called that Wednesday morn and her call found men and women to heed her.
I was one of those lucky people who were conferred with a total freedom card on Wednesday May 19th, 2021.
It was granted in the shape and form of a Comirnaty [ Pfizer/ BioN Tech] Covid-19 Vaccine card. This confirmed that I had received two shots in the arm ,quoting the dates and type of my jabbing. I was a liberated man again having served my final 14 days of my post second jab sentence.
I went outside and threw a used mask up in the air in celebration. I was akin to a college student graduating and throwing a mortar board up in the air. I had graduated with the seventies class . Should I frame the final mask, or should I make up a time capsule and enclose relevant data to commemorate Covid 19 ?. Maybe then some student in future years might find it reflect and see how hard life was in 2020/2021.
I put my suggestion to senior management in the house and it did not even get to initial planning application stage. I think she thought that there was a slate getting slightly unhinged in the upper quarters. A certain course of action was recommended and yours truly duly obeyed .
I made my way to the waste bin outside the house and duly deposited my used mask to join all the other used items in the bin on their way to an incinerator somewhere soon. There was a certain relief and finality in this operation.
When this momentous task was completed, we adjourned for our Nespresso coffee moments , me with my medium strength Columbia and senior management opting for a Vanilio, both lungos with frothed full cream organic milk. This milk was pasteurised in Killygordon , Co Donegal. The coffee brew was perfect, and we both enjoyed this new strain of milk which had wound its way from The Homes of Donegal to the sunny Southeast.
Senior management had an appointment with her hairdresser on Monday and I was picking up broad hints that I could do with a trim. Now I must admit that, though very follically challenged on the top quarters, I was developing quite a bushy fuzz of hair over the ears .
So, I said what better way to celebrate Freedom Day than to head for my local barber . There was a big sign stating that I could not enter without wearing a mask. They had not heard that I was a free man, so I had to head back to the car and rummage for a mask. Luckily, I had one and so returned back fully masked.
To my delight there were three barbers on duty and one chair was vacant. It was duly sterilised . I took up position and the snipping started. She trimmed the ears , the eyebrows and the few spare ribs she discovered attempting to grow on top of my cranium. She cleared around the head, and I could see these blobs of grey silk like clumps of fuzz falling on the wrap around cloth about me.
Finally, she shook some talcum powder on my head and brushed it all down. She then whipped off the towelling telling me that I was all done and dusted. I paid up, gave her a suitable tip and off I popped.
Now the crucial moment lay ahead when I went home for that ready for inspection Captain Mannering moment. Senior management was delighted telling me it knocked 20 years off me . I didn’t quite get that. I will have to find out her formula for calculating age and hair trims. It's probably something like HANDA ,an abbreviation for Hair and age or something akin to that. That’s a matter for another day.
When I met junior house management in the afternoon one thought my new hairstyle looked well while a 3-year-old thought it was gross. Now there’s a fair dent to any man’s self-confidence, but what the hell. I was happy enough with the end result as I felt another bit of normality had returned to my life.
As they say in the Kingdom of Kerry when speaking about life “Hair today ,gone tomorrow.
Slán go fóill
Mick