The Angry Doormat

In January 2014, a friend from Singapore came to stay for the weekend.  The visit was not good timing for me as I had an essay to  hand in the following Wednesday but I 'offered it up'.     She arrived on the Thursday night in a bad mood and it stayed that way until she left again on Sunday.  She makes no secret of her disdain for Ireland and arriving in January during the worst storms on record sealed her opinion of my homeland.  She's an amateur photographer and so I took her to lunch in Kinsale and then to Garretstown to photograph the spectacular wild Atlantic.  The winds were so strong on the beach front, we could only exit the car from the driver side.  The winds nearly ripped the door off and half a ton of sand blew in during the two seconds the door was open.  We had a delicious lunch in the Bulman which was particularly cosy under the raucous conditions - the road in front the Bulman was swept away the next day by a freak wave.

It's hard going entertaining someone in a bad mood but I did it for the history we had together and it was the right thing to do.  Before she left me on Sunday, she said, "You're too much of a doormat, you need to do something about that."

I did.  I blocked her from Facebook and I have no interest in seeing her again.  Childish of me I know but I know I'm at fault too for my lack of sincerity. Maybe she picked up on my lack of interest in her, it could be she missed her family and, Ireland in January is bleak.  There's a lesson in here for me somewhere; I'll figure it out yet.