Roisin woke me this morning at about 5:30, but she was successfully wrangled by Sally, so I was going to go back to sleep when I heard crunching on the gravel outside. Going to the window (cautiously) I discovered about eight cows standing in the front garden, eating things. I rather hoped that it was all a dream and I could go back to bed. Sadly. No.

So we rang the farmer and stood blocking the paths around them, keeping them confined to the bottom of the garden. We were all cold and tired and grumpy but the farmer duly arrived and chased them over the ditch into the field and moved them into another, non-adjacent -- field.

I wish he'd just fence the damn field properly.

I experienced Dublin's latest Brand New Thing -- The Luas. It's an oddly popular thing and it feels very slight -- insubstantial. Granted it's handy for getting into town from work (for the moment) but I'll be interested in the passenger numbers when they come out. This line (there will be two) runs along what used to be the Harcourt Street railway which joined Harcourt Street with Bray and the rail line on the coast and was closed in 1959. The route of this line was largely intact and as a result the Luas does not mix it up with traffic until it crosses the canal into the city center. This is good, because when it does, it slows down considerably and I wonder how useful the red line will be as it is all at street level.

So here is my first Luas ticket. When I was keeping this, I reflected on how just because we can chronicle all this stuff, doesn't mean we should. Historians will probably find their job a lot easier in the future, and the forgotten minutiae of life will languish on discarded disks in Google instead of in junk shops.

When in America, I bought the DVD set of Twin Peaks. It was $33 instead of 70 sterling so I felt I was getting a bargain. The fact that the American edition doesn't have the pilot or first episode on it makes it a bit of a false economy and who thought it was a good idea for the first words you hear on a boxed set to be "Previously, on Twin Peaks"? The show itself is not as good as I remember it. I was a different person then, but I had hoped that I would love it just as much.

And I do love it still, but only in an affectionate way as one does with an old friend that you probably wouldn't like that much if you met them now, but love the shared history you have.

I had forgotten (or never noticed) how soap opera-y it was. Everyone is sleeping or in love with someone -- usually someone inappropriate. The kooky bits still work very well and make up for the hokier bits.

When it aired originally one could see each episode three times a week and I think I did, for the first series anyway. But one episode I've only seen once -- the llama episode -- and I'm probably looking forward to it with more enthusiasm than I should. There's one moment where Agent Cooper and the llama lock eyes .. it's priceless. I hope it survives the re-telling.