14th of May, 2005 POST·MERIDIEM 06:54

There are roadside stalls all over the place here selling Spargel—asparagus—and what perplexes me is that they’re all doing great business. Constant queues in front of them and everything. For asparagus. And it’s not some special fantastic asparagus that tastes nothing like asparagus—that is, that tastes good —no, it’s just normal asparagus.

Explaining the status of English in Ireland last night, through English, the only word I could come up with for it was »Amtssprache« and “vernacular” only occurred to me this morning. Looks like some of the language is sinking in, despite my working almost entirely through English most days, which is a bit of a relief.