Pádraig received a present today. Rather, it arrived for him in the post. (He didn’t get it yet:) A vinyl. Signed by Bell X1 on their latest album. (I sent an email to Atkin Promotions and Ticketmaster asking them about accompanying persons’ tickets for their next concert but didn’t get a reply, yet.) In the Euroshop in Phibsborough I bought the first Christmas present: a €2 20 picture camera. It all felt very basic, retro, authentic.

Today as well, the famous Golden Gate Bridge jumping Apple iPhone is being fixed. They are going to try and fix it because it turns out its not just a case of a broken screen but also a slightly bent casing. They recommended to put it into a solid protection casing once the screen was fixed thus preventing the bending case cracking the screen again. I’m getting this feeling that cracking iPhone screens are the expensive part of an iPhone (rather than the phone itself as I’d always thought). It’s clever business if you think about it. You sell someone an expensive piece of equipment, build in an easy to break component, expensive to replace, yet not expensive enough to warrant the purchase of a new phone compared to fixing the old. You create a whole new industry!

After bringing our Nissan to the NCT (it failed because of a broken mirror and the wipers, wipers!) I visited the young man, our good friend, with a severe acquired brain injury who just moved home after 6 years in a nursing home. You should have seen the joy on his face and that of his sister and parents who all were over the moon to have him back amongst them. I’d say it’ll take some time for all to get used to the new situation. It will be the whole family. Being together.

Pádraig had this idea of not owning anything of value. Of not taking millions of pictures with an expensive phone, but with a disposable camera. What are you more likely to look at: millions of digital pictures or a dozen printed colour chrome ones?

The idea might be catching on…