Springtime in Ireland

Irish Pub of the Week #1 - Maccarthy's Bar, Castletownbere

Damn, it's really foggy tonight!

It’s Springtime in Ireland. Everything is glowing green despite the St. Patricks weekend of hail, sleet, snow & pouring rain (often all at once). Even most of the daffodils have survived it all – just a few broken stems. The trees are getting buds and some have pink flowers. Lambs are running in the fields and we have daylight until well after 8pm, which is a weird concept, and will only get later from this point on. The sun is valiantly trying to burn through the cloud layer to raise the daytime temperature out of single digits, but Ireland has a strange meteorological condition at the moment. With the rising temperatures and all the moisture in the fields, an amazing permanent haze (fog) hangs over over the landscape. It looks very much like Aussie bushfire smoke, but when you wind your car window down, the blast of cold air reminds you it’s still March. The haze looks really spooky with all the bare winter trees and has developed into thick pea-soup fog for the last 2 nights when colder air comes down. There’s been some incredible car smashes near Dublin too…
We had some friends (Chris & Shay) up from Dublin for the weekend and it was the first weekend Clare's been home for a full weekend here & not writing assignments! We took a nice walk along the seashore, patted the local dogs (and fed cows), popped in for some craic at the local pub and made a nice dinner. We even discovered some sort of ancient mound, just over the river from our apartments. Clare is away now on a quick 2 day audit in Northern Ireland, while I continue to deal with my DHL clients who seem to exist in a world of permanent happiness. On Monday morning I thought I’d try a new shortcut across the country lanes to the M1 (motorway to work), but ended up taking a long, long drive & discovering lots of new pubs, but alas it was far too early for a Guinness and I eventually got to work just a few minutes late. One more weekend at home, then we're away for Easter...

St Patrick's Day Weekend

Watch out for those giant leprachauns...

Photo Link: <St Patricks Day Parade in Cork photos>
Photo Link: <West Cork (Castletownbere & Peninsulas) photos>
Photo Link: <The Wicklows photos>
On the St Patricks Day Long Weekend we headed down to Cork and the incredibly beautiful and rugged peninsulas of South-West Ireland that stick out into the Atlantic (Sheeps Head & Beara). Lots of small towns & villages, rocky hills & mountain passes, lakes, many sheep & cattle, great pubs & music, etc. The weather was really wild and endlessly changing, from icy rain and hail to wind so strong you couldn’t stand up. Coming home on Monday, the tops of all the mountains were all covered in snow. We started out the weekend with a night at the Ibis Cork East, then a rather lacklustre St Patricks Day Parade in Cork (I guess we were expecting Riverdancing girls), then we headed for a little town called Castletownberehaven (Castletownbere for short). Clare's been down there about 4 times for work, and is still amazed how many business names in every village are the same names as kids she went to school with - “We even found a pub with music and people were dancing like we had to at school – Pride of Erin and all that. Apparently it’s called “Calie” dancing (wrong spelling for sure). First time I had seen anyone doing that style of dancing here. Irish dancing is when you hop around with your arms at your side. So when we drove around all these towns in Southern Ireland (far south) with names like: O’Sullivan, Nolan’s, Dunne’s, Burke’s, Hennessey, Hegarty, O’Brien, Crowley’s, O’Neill… all I could think was it was a very long way in so many ways from Bantry Bay to Brisbane, especially in the 1860’s let alone 1790’s.”
We stayed at the Cametringane Hotel for 2 nights. Quite comfortable, and good Irish breakfasts (& the breakfast staff were quite entertaining, especially the girl who was just like the dippy Alice on the Vicar of Dibley - she sounded exactly the same). Anyway, they ended up charging us considerably less than what was quoted when we booked, which is always nice. For dinner, the first night we had fish and chips from the local chippy (very fishy fish and chips, being a fish town and all), and the second night we had dinner at The Old Bakery Restaurant, which was ok but nothing too flash. The scenery in South-West Ireland is totally spectacular and every turn reveals new landscapes & microclimates, like around Glengarriff on Mizen Head Peninsula where semi-tropical plants like camelias, tree ferns and wonderful rhoderdendrons grow in this cool climate. There's even a bamboo garden you can visit. All of these plants were flowering when we were there, then we got hailed on... then sleet... then snow, before the weekend was out. We found a “Hobbit” grotto on the Ring of Beara full of wonderful trees and moss that we think must have escaped from a New Zealand forest - very Lord Of The Rings. Clare took pics of moss for her Dad - who drove the family around NZ for 3 months in 1973 taking pics of moss!
Yes Ireland is the sort of place where you just want to keep stopping the car to take photos, but the photos don't really take it all in - you have to see it for yourself. On the way back home, after more hail, we stopped in The Wicklow Mountains (south of Dublin) in the hope of throwing some snowballs. There wasn't quite enough snow for that - just a quick flurry or two, and more spectacular scenery... Just another weekend in Ireland!
Here's a few pictures from our weekend...
- St Patricks Day Parade in Cork
- Castletownberehaven, Sheeps Head & Beara Peninsula, etc.
- The Wicklows

Living life on the edge, Sheep's Head Peninsula...

Blog about nothing...

This update is not a blog of excitement, rather a blog of Korean BBQ, flatpack furniture & dog biscuits - just an average weekend in Ireland. So last Friday night we went out with the Dublin Hashers to a Korean BBQ Restaurant in Parnell St, Dublin. After a couple of pints up the road, we all sat down in Korean BBQ Restaurant #1, when the organiser of the group realised she had booked us into the wrong Korean BBQ Restaurant (the one she meant to book was just next door). So all 15 of us ended up sheepishly moving from Korean BBQ #1 to Korean BBQ #2, next door, while the staff looked on. I don't think Korean BBQ #1 was real happy with us, but what can you do? So we all proceeded to cook little morsels of meat and sweet potatoes on our Korean BBQ's and a good time was had by all. We left after the dinner, as Clare was flying to Boston on Saturday morning. I think some people partied on. Clare packed her new corporate rolling luggage, purchased at Luton Airport last weekend...
Early on Saturday morning, Clare left for Belfast (for her Belfast-Heathrow-Boston flight), and I started ripping open boxes of flatpack furniture from Argos, the incredible catalogue shop that sells everything. You pay at the counter, then wait for your stuff and they call your number - "number 39, your electric shaver is ready", "number 40, your flatpack furniture is ready" (no IKEA in this neck of the woods)... Things soon disappeared into a haze of screws, nails and allen keys, and 2 slightly flimsy bedside cabinets and 2 chest of drawers were finally completed by Sunday afternoon. Clare texted me at some stage to say she was eating bagels and having a Frappucino at Heathrow. I made a cup of tea. Another trip to fabulous Argos later for a couple of slightly flimsy matching bedside lamps, and all was done...
Sunday was grey and drizzly. I'd thought about taking some photos today, but in Ireland you learn never to make plans when it comes to weather. So after finishing the furniture and vacuuming up all the mess, I went for a drive across the countryside to get a few things from Marks & Spencer in Drogheda (they have good fruit salad and other yummy things). Also stopped at LIDL (like Aldi) to get some dog biscuits, and looked for a couple of electrical extension leads at Woodies DIY (like Bunnings), only to discover that they just don't do extension leads in Ireland. Weird. Anyway, the dog biscuits: The Saltings has a couple of resident dogs, who get very excited when you pull into the carpark in the evening, or try and eat your shopping, or try to jump in your car, or join groups of walkers along the seafront on weekends. They're not neglected, I think their owners are just out a lot. So I got them some biscuits, and next time I see them, they might get a biscuit from me (or Clare!)
Next weekend is the Paddy's Day long weekend (yes, we get Monday off in Ireland), and we're heading south to Cork and Bantry Bay for a bit of Irish sightseeing. Might even get stuck in some long weekend traffic. The days are getting much longer now. See you round.

London Calling!

Todays lesson is London in dot points, some links & a few piccies, as we're all rather time limited in this day & age...

Planes: Took a rather hairy flight with Aer Lingus from Dubs to Heathrow, after taking a sharp climb (perhaps avoiding a Pakistani Airbus), we landed in the driving rain...

Planes: Took Ryanair from Luton back to Dubs, a bit smoother than Aer Lingus, but that's what you get for flying in Europe in winter...

Trains: Mental note for next time, lots of tube lines are bound to be shut down on a weekend...

Automobiles: We like London Cabs, especially when you're hungry and you can't be bothered seeing if the tube station is open again or not...

Hotels: Stayed with Shirley & David @ Rickmansworth on the Friday night, thanks for having us...

Hotels: Stayed Saturday night @ The Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum, very nice, thanks to lastminute.com for that one...

Food: Took in the Harrods food hall - bought some duck fat (following Nigella's advice) but successfully resisted the Krispy Kremes...

Food: Sushi at YO! Sushi Harrods is expensive and not as good as Brisbane or Berlin...

Food: But we had a great lunch at "The Cock Inn" at Sarratt - I highly recommend the rhubarb crumble... :)

Highlights: Clare did 5 photo shows - the best one was the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum, and found at least 1 show with photos of Central Asian Meat Markets that cost over £1000...

Highlights: Joe went to Billy Elliot The Musical (excellent), as Clare hates musicals!

Highlights: Got to catch up with Alison & Barbara & Ian & some of the kids, and the dogs on Sunday afternoon...

Lowlights: Loads of stylish Italian tourists clogging up the pavements of Knightsbridge...

Lowlights: It rained a lot on Sunday, great weather for ducks, not for people...

Click on the picture to see a larger version...

Batchworth Lock, Rickmansworth

The Cock Inn at Sarratt, Rickmansworth

Who's on stage today at Billy Elliot?

The Metropolitan Line is quiet on a Sunday

Clare contemplates North London from the tube

Equus @ The Gielgud Theatre, West End

Les Miserables @ Queen's Theatre, West End

Visual art @ Piccadilly, London

Safety Curtain, Victoria Palace Theatre (Billy Elliot)