Ear to the Ground

If you are under fifty you may want to skip today’s post – perhaps saying “what a saddo” on your way out.

The fact of the matter is, today I spoke to Angela (my sister) and she told me that she’d been to Dublin and had a hearing aid fitted. Not to be outdone, I remarked that I’d been to Boots and bought a blood pressure monitor. I cannot comment on her hearing aid except that we had an acceptable two-way conversation with a fair amount of comprehension on both sides. Curiously, her ‘phone package allows her to talk for an hour without any additional charge. She uses a kitchen timer to avoid paying a penalty. Most of our chat wouldn’t interest you but you might like to watch Ear To The Ground on 3rd January. It is an RTE documentary series that will be about the Meath foxhounds, so if you don’t live in Ireland – like me – we will just have to see if it’s on Youtube. The hounds had a Meet down the road and Simon, my brother-in-law, suggested to the camera crew that they positioned themselves beside a covert where there was a fence that the braver members of the Field would jump. His plan paid dividends. First they filmed a fox slinking into the covert. Secondly, the crew asked for somebody to be out on a pony but it was term-time. Fortunately Micky was off school with concussion, after a fall out hunting, but his father – not his mother – thought that he would enjoy a bit of fresh air to help his convalescence. It was most unfortunate that he took another tumble gamely jumping that fence.

So, if you want to give a Christmas present to that person who has everything, I recommend this Omron model. Unlike children’s ‘ toys in the old days, it comes with batteries and is the ultimate old-folks toy for a hypochondriac