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My Weekend: Hazel O'Connor

November 2009



On a Friday night, if I'm not gigging, I'd go to a tai chi class just up the road in Wicklow, where I live. I'm primarily living in Ireland but I have a place in France as well. It was a wreck when I bought it and I've been renovating it myself over the past few years.
Tai chi energises me and makes me feel supple and well. After that I'll go to Ping's to get my special veggie takeaway. They make me a veggie version of Peking duck, which I used to love before I became a veggie in 1984.
I'd eat that watching the catch-up of EastEnders, then The Dog Whisperer. If you like dogs it's brilliant. It's compulsive viewing. He's a Mexican dog psychologist and an amazing character.
I've got three nutty dogs so a large part of every day is walking them. I had a wolfhound once and he used to be so happy when I came home that he'd launch into a sprint along the whole acre of my land then back again. If I had guests come in through the gate I'd tell them "just stand here" because if you got in the way of him you'd be knocked flying.
On Saturday morning, if I'm not working, I go to karate, from 10am to 1pm.
I started it when my marriage split up. My mate was taking her son to a class and she said the teacher was really good looking. It was like a school teacher crush. I soon got over it once he'd told me off a few times.
I carried on with it because I found I adored the kiai, the big shout that you do. It was like a release from the end of the marriage and the end of the record company contract bull.
I can't go at the moment because I've eczema on my hands and I can't make a fist. It is stress-related. My mum's very sick at the moment. She's dying. So I wouldn't be surprised if my hands are raging with grief.
I watch Strictly (Come Dancing) because my mum watches it and I have to be up-to-date with what's happening for when we chat.
After I've done karate, I'll have an Irish Japanese lunch. Which sounds strange but my Japanese sensei (teacher) is married to an Irish woman and we always have a bite together.
Then I'll go shopping with them or some friends before walking the dogs, switching on the telly for Strictly and X Factor. My friend's son might be having a party, if we're lucky.
I don't go to pubs because I don't enjoy drinking.
On Sunday, if it's a nice sunny day, I will do the gardening jobs that need doing then go up the road to a hotel because there's always a bit of a craic going on. There might be the Sunday market there or you'd bump into people so I'd hang out for a couple of hours.
I've read every one of Alison Weir's books. She's a non-fiction writer of Tudor history, which I love. At the moment I'm reading about the life of Thomas More but Peter Ackroyd, the author, keeps putting phrases in old English that I don't understand. That does my head in.
When it comes to fiction it's Stephen King. I love the way he writes characters.
On Sunday night it's The X Factor again, which I've watched from the beginning for the first time. And it's fascinating. It's like the last days of decadent Rome when they had gladiators in the Colosseum. It's bloody mad.

Hazel O'Connor: Beyond The Breaking Glass, Palace Theatre, Newark, Saturday November 14, 7.30pm, £17/£14.50, 01636 655 755

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