Real Madrid

Puerta de Europa, Madrid

MADRID... (There are lots of photo links in this story)

flickr photo link: <Madrid, Apr 07>

flickr photo link: <Madrid Bullfights, Apr 07>

05 Apr 07 IB3183 DUB/MAD 1835/2200

09 Apr 07 IB3186 MAD/DUB 1615/1740

Continuing our tradition of quick European Vacations from Ireland, we ate and drank our way through Madrid over the Easter weekend. We loved the parade of strange religious costumes through the streets & alleys on Good Friday. We raved about the grilled prawns in the tapas bars. The art and architecture are not to be missed, but plan your time carefully. And the bullfights, which are something you only have to see once, but are part of the history and culture of this great city.
We flew from Dublin to Madrid with Iberia. Dublin Airport was far calmer than expected and we got to our gate in no time at all. Nice airline, smooth flight. The new Madrid Barajas Terminal 4 is huge and sweeping in scale, more in kind with Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong Airports than any other European Airport. Took a cab to the hotel. The freeways into Madrid are quick & seamless, giving you a distinct impression of being very new (and so much better than Ireland!) Our home for 4 nights was the 2 star Hostal Persal (€99/nt), in the absolute heart of the historic quarter of Madrid (100 yards from the Puerta del Sol, and very near the Plaza Mayor and the Prado, Thyssen & Reina Sofia Museums). The continental breakfast ran till 11am, which was great for us!
Joe... I slept in big time on Good Friday. Didn't get outside the hotel until early afternoon, and found some lunch at a place with a person inside an inflatable chicken suit. Not bad. Clare then spied a little Tapas Bar that soon became our favourite in the area (La Zapateria/The Shoemaker) which had grilled prawns in sea salt (absolutely lipsmacking), octopus, meat kebabs & paella. And of course bottles of the local red (very drinkable), and glasses of Cerveza (beer). Our average bill there was about €35 for 2, including drinks. We then retreated back to our hotel room and did the very Spanish siesta thing.
Clare... I decided that as it was Good Friday, I really should go to Mass. I'd checked with the hotel reception and identified the 2 main "must do" mass churches in downtown Madrid - Basilica of Crist de Medinacell and Church of San Pedro el Viejo Nuncio. I chose the Church of San Pedro (built in 1202 on top of the mosque that was here in the Muslim district in the middle ages), as it was the smaller and much older church of the two. At Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, in downtown Kenmore, Brisbane, the two biggest and well attended masses of the year are Good Friday 3pm mass and Midnight mass on Christmas Eve. With this in mind I actually dressed decently and wandered off through the back lanes of old Madrid (Real or Royal Madrid). On my way down I noticed large numbers of people of all ages heading off in the opposite direction, very well dressed including full length fur coats, yes real animal fur, this is Spain, the land of the bullfights!
I eventually found the Church of San Pedro and sat down for mass which was sparsely attended, to my surprise. With no priest in sight the Stations of the Cross started, led by a lay attendant. So 20 minutes later it was all over. Apparently Saturday is the big day for Easter mass here. There was a small stall with religious items for sale. I bought a magnet of a saint and 2 post cards of the Mary and Jesus statues/icons ? from San Pedro. The Mary and Jesus "statues" were made of wood - quite realistic - standing on a "bed" of silver or gold that has been built to be carried around. After the mass that wasn't, I wandered off and just started popping into churches I found - loads of them. All were different, very different styles of architecture and interiors. Every one had different "statues", particularly of Mary, standing on silver or gold "beds". After the third one I was wandering through the back lanes and stumbled upon a procession of people (men, women & children) dressed liked black Ku Klux Clan people. I thought THIS IS MADRID, and just started following the procession through the laneways. I found the procession around 7.45pm. Later I found out it had started at 7pm and didn't end until 11pm. It didn't travel too far at all, but took a very slow route via small laneways dating back to the 1200's. This is what the ladies in fur coats were doing, following the procession. The people dressed like the black Ku Klux Clan were carrying large candles, others were very, very well dressed women in black "widow" clothes from head to toe, and others were carrying the Mary Statue on a silver bed. Yes, solid silver. It took around 12 men and women to carry it with many rest stops along the way. It was a cold night with frequent showers (the weather in Ireland was actually much better). Even the small children in the procession made it all the way to the church of Inglesia la Santa Cruz. At this point the police escort closed ranks and no one other than the parade people could get into the church. I think the procession of Saint Dolores started in 1592. Pity I can't read the Spanish brochure that the kids were selling. Half way through I went back and got Joe from the hotel and we got some great pics.
The next day (Saturday) we made a concerted effort to be tourists and did the Madrid VISION open top bus tour, then did lunch at the Palace of Jamon (Ham Palace). Don't even start me on Spanish hams from pigs wandering free in the oak forests in the hills. Simply wonderful. Then off to do art: a portrait show at Fundacion Caja Madrid which included Andy Warhol, Picasso & Dali, then Escher's "The Art of the Impossible" near Puerta de Europa (the 2 leaning skyscrapers - really amazing). Then dinner back at La Zapateria followed by a long stroll around the old town. We ended our night at the famous Chocolatería San Ginés. Love chocolate, then this is definitely the place for you - a favourite haunt of many Madrileños, this place serves thick cups of chocolate with churros (long sticks of fried dough) in a white-marbled bar. It's been around for well over a hundred years. All diets on hold tonight.
On Sunday we started with a stroll through the huge El Rastro flea market. Then we started on the art again (it's SO easy to get around on the Madrid Subway system). We saw photos of Madrid from the 1950's to the present, then the large Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the best collection of European art this side of the Hermitage which holds Catherine the Greats collection. Gave the Prado and Reina Sofia a miss due to very, very long queues. (Joe says - the security guards in the museums here all carry guns - these guys are serious about keeping a hold of their art!) Then the bullfights. We had to see at least one bullfight for real. We saw 3 fights at Las Ventas and it's rather cruel. We cheered when one bull tore down the wooden stand in front of the matador, much to the consternation of the Spanish people sitting next to us. The real eye opener was the treatment of the final matador who must have been the best of the day and was carried out of stadium by a frenzied crowd of people and driven away with a police escort. Lots of excitement there!
Back to the city centre and a late night drinks and jazz session at the Central Cafe 2 doors from our hotel (stumbling distance). We had tapas and some serious drinks & cocktails whilst listening to the Lluis Coloma Trio, who were great. This was my type of bar, with a rum menu, which type of Havana Gold exactly did I want? And perfect daiquiris (lucky it was our last night).
The next day we headed back to Madrid Barajas after lunch only to discover our flight was overbooked and we had somehow been placed on standby. Clare produced her Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer Card, and we were immediately upgraded to business class for our flight back to Dublin. So we got on the plane and turned left (as they say). Now this is the life! Madrid was everything that Paris never was. The food, shopping and art are more easily found and enjoyed. Can't wait for Barcelona.

flickr photo link: <Madrid, Apr 07>
flickr photo link: <Madrid Bullfights, Apr 07>

Boston Common

Clare in work mode at the Boston Seafood Show

Photo Link: <Boston photos>
I'm finally getting around to doing some more blog updates. Not that I'm too busy or anything, you just have to find the time to sit at the laptop and get it done. The first update is from Clare's trip to Boston in March...
Clare says... I took a work trip to Boston (for the SEAFOOD SHOW) and I saw the Pogues. Best corporate function I have been to. Yeah, and some drinking sessions with Newfies till the wee hours. God they can drink those Newfies (Newfoundlanders). I need to get ready to do it all again at Brussels (Seafood show). Flew to Boston on Virgin Atlantic. The river, sea, lakes, etc. were frozen in Boston at the start of the week but mostly thawed by the time we left. I took the pics whilst on the trolley tour on the last afternoon. Still the whole place is rather bleak as there is absolutely no green anywhere at all - all dead under the ice and snow piles. We (Peter, my boss and I) went to a drinks party (for Bantry Bay Mussels) in South Boston (Irish town) and it was like Belfast - full of IRA murals on the walls. Nothing like it in Australia.
The Pogues concert was the third in a row for Boston which was then being followed by New York for St Patricks night. We got tickets for the 10th row from the front at the Orpheum Theater a couple of hours before the start. We then popped off to the California Pizza Kitchen. For those people who went to my parties at Auchenflower in the 1990’s with the infamous pizzas - a lot of the recipes came from this establishment. The Pogues, for those that haven’t seen them, are an Irish punk band formed in London in the mid 1980’s when Ireland was a very different place from now. They play traditional Irish songs with a punk beat and sing their own songs as well. Some of their own songs are absolute classics for the Irish especially those who came of age in the 1980's and had to move overseas for jobs ie. London & New York, even when they didn’t want to leave. There is one in particular called “New York Fairy Tale’ which I'd never heard in Australia and they didn’t play in Boston, as they needed a female singer. But it's probably the only song of theirs they didn’t play, as they came back for 3 encores. The band consisted of Shane McGowan, the infamous lead singer, 1 drummer who also sang a solo, 2 guitarists, one who also sang a solo, 1 tin whistleplayer who also played a lot of other bits and pieces including a biscuit tray at the end, 1 banjo player and a sax player. They played all the songs I know from the CD "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" with the exception of "And the band played Waltzing Matilida", wrong target audience for that one. They played "Dirty Old Town" and "Irish Rover".
And yes, for those that are familar with Shane McGowan (he played the Byron Bay Blues Fest a few years ago), he did stand up for the whole show and no, did not appear to be drunk/stoned throughout the concert. But he was drinking something that looked a lot like whiskey straight all night, but could have been ginger ale (Shane has been trying to dry out for years). But he did smoke non stop all night despite all the signs saying it was a smoke free building. By the encore Shane couldn’t walk or stand up by himself. He needed a roadie to basically walk him to the stool they had put out for him and hand him a smoke and drink. Maybe it wasn’t ginger ale after all. And they had a Mary statue up on the sound equipment. Okay they are Irish but the last song on the CD "Thirteen Thongs" by the Lonesome Cow Girls did come to mind. Those of you who went to Woodford in 2005/6 would have heard this song and know what the Mary statue probably contained.
We couldn’t get a taxi back to the hotel so walked quite a way past the still frozen Boston common and were meant to meet up with the Newfies again for another get-together but these sessions tended to finish at 4am, so I piked and went to bed. The next night we had dinner at a place called Cotton Wood - well worth it for the cocktails alone, but the steak was wonderful. Ran into some of our Irish clients there as well. Very small world. I expect to meet up with a lot more familar (Aussie) faces at the Brussels seafood show in April. (The Boston photos are linked right here).

I Can't Get No Satisfaction...

Irish Pub of the Week #2 - Cobblestone, Smithfield, Dublin 7

Hi all, just a quick weekend update. We managed to get 2 tickets for The Rolling Stones at Slane Castle in August (about 1/2 hour from Annagassan)... Should be a blast - concerts at Slane Castle are reputed as being quite special with 80,000 people in a in a natural amphitheatre beside the Boyne River, in the height of the Irish Summer (but I still had no idea Clare was a closet Rolling Stones fan). All 80,000 tickets sold out in 1 day of course!
On Sunday, we went for walk with the Dublin Hash Group (A few photos are here) - we were following impossible clues in Polish, German & French from pub to pub across Dublin. Found a great Sunday afternoon trad music session at the Cobblestone, Smithfield. Not much to look at from the outside, but that's no sign of a good Dublin Pub. There are so, so many of them to choose from...
We're off to Madrid this Thursday for 4 nights away. This was a surprise trip for Clare, but I've given the destination away now - Olé...

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)

House Of Sand & Fog

Joe... "Well we've moved into our new apartment at Annagassan overlooking Dundalk Bay (the Irish sea). This picture was taken recently on an incredibly foggy afternoon. The scaffolding on the left side has come down since the pic was taken - the developers had some last things to finish! The tide comes and goes very fast and people wander along the shore with their dogs, kids looking for shells in the mud - very Ireland! The view across the bay from our big picture window actually reminds me a little of Hawaii (believe it or not) - mountains rising out of the water in the distance. And this view changes throughout the day as the weather changes - clouds rolling across the sky with the sun occasionally breaking through. Yes, it pretty much rains every day in Ireland in one form or another. Here is a typical Irish weather forecast for the week...

Monday - some rain & sunny spells
Tuesday - mainly fine with some showers
Wednesday - sun breaking through in some areas, with light showers in others
Thursday - heavy rain & wind
Friday - cloudy with light rain, etc, etc...
You get the general picture. In the end, you just don't notice it anymore. So each morning, I cross some country lanes (watch out for those slow tractors), and join the motorway to my office at Swords which is about 35-40 minutes away. And Clare goes off to her office in Dundalk, in between her fabulous trips."

NORWAY...

Photo Link: <Norway photos>

Clare... Thanks for your cards and emails. Keep them up. Last Thursday night I got back from far northern Norway - way above the Arctic Circle (Tromso). I was there for a meeting of the EU salmon research project I am working on. It was cheaper to go on a cruise of the fjords than to stay in a hotel - and you can’t escape and end up doing twice as many meetings but still it was all amazing. It got down to -20c on the last morning in Trondheim. Unbelievably cold. I couldn’t breath and had to breath thru my scarf but still have the asthma today. On the first day I had to run out and buy a set of gloves and wooly hat. Wouldn’t have survived without them.
The cruise was spectacular and the weather held for the whole trip blue clear sky, just mind blowingly cold. Had to dress like a polar bear every time you went on the deck. Snow and ice everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it. Will send some postcards in a few weeks when I stop for a bit. I fell over on the ice on the last morning but onto my backpack like a Xmas beetle, so no part of my body touchéd the ice and so didn’t sprain my ankle, tear a ligament, break a small bone in my foot or large bone in my thigh. Thank goodness. Didn’t even break the bottle of 7 year old Havana Rum I had in my bag. Good packing there. And we saw the northern lights on two nights. The first time was a bit poxy - like the milky way really. But the second night it was proper northern lights with the light pulsing across the sky and with green and pink bits around the edges. Couldn’t take a photo though.
Think I'll pop off to bed now and will promise to write a decent story about Norway soon. I have to go to Berlin and Brussels with work in the next few months and Joe & I are going to stay in a villa in Tuscany at the end of May with Chris & Shay. And we have a long weekend in London in March and I will take Joe to the far south of Ireland (where I go for work in remote fishing villages) on the St. Pats long weekend. Joe has a secret weekend planned for us over Easter. And the EU salmon project has a trip to Brazil in October and we're going to a wedding in Las Vegas of one of Joe's really good Brisbane DHL friends in October as well. We're going to stay for a bit longer and drive from Denver to the Devil's Tower in Wyoming (Joe says - think "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind!")

I went to Holland a few weeks ago with work to see a mussel factory (in Yerseke spelling ?) and stayed the weekend with a friend (Dorine in Nymegen) from my Africa trip centuries ago. I also went to the western part of Ireland - Connemarra about 2 weeks ago. The salmon place I did in Connemarra was all Irish speaking. The only English conversations were with me. Even the phone is answered in Irish. A totally different lost world down there. They just want to be left alone to keep on with their way of life. Since so much has changed around here (eastern Ireland) in the last 5 years, places like that are fighting to be left alone in peace and quiet. After centuries of being left alone due to abject poverty now they want it kept that way. To buy a house there you have to pass a Irish language exam - written and oral. It was the first place that didn’t ask about me being Australian - you are just another outsider from somewhere else, so exactly where doesn’t matter - Dublin or Sydney. They did ask me “Winkel - what type of name is that ?” The Dutch of course wanted indepth and precise answers to that question the other week. They actually assumed I could do their audit in Dutch! Bye for now.

Latest News & Dublin Airport

Here we are again. Just enjoying a little smoked salmon breakfast on a Saturday morning, and looking out at the Cooley Mountains. As much as we love the "North End" of Dundalk, with it's abandoned pubs & cracked windows, our view will be different from next weekend, as we've secured our new 2 bedroom apartment at Annagassan! So we'll be loading the DHL Jumbo Boxes back into our cars, and heading off for our new home. Please email Joe at jf1969@optusnet.com.au or Clare at straddiegal@optusnet.com.au if you'd like our new address/phone details. We'll also have a new phone number, etc. Eircom have promised to connect our phone & broadband straight away, so we will see! And, much to contrary belief, Annagassan isn't a stomach complaint, it is in fact a tiny fishing village with 1 shop and 1 pub, where we hope to become "locals" over the next 2 years...! So, again, we extend the invitation to anyone heading this way at any time - you are most welcome to come and stay at Annagassan any old time. We will post some photos when we're all settled.
Clare is off to Norway for work meetings tomorrow, on a boat cruise (yeah sure, they call it work!) The latest temp there is minus 12... That's why they drink vodka over there. Better wrap up warm Clare!
On a completely different subject, I'm still being an aviation geek over here, and have discovered that Dublin Airport is a great spot for aviation photos. So, this will still be my hobby every now and then. Here are some of my photo results from last weekend... Enjoy!

Working Life in Ireland (Christmas Update #3)

So I guess the biggest news for me (Joe) is that I'm back with DHL Express, in Swords, just near Dublin Airport. I'm working as a Key Accounts Advisor, which is quite interesting, looking after the day to day runnings of some of DHL Ireland's largest accounts. The role is mainly proactive, and my past experience with DHL has allowed me to take up the ropes pretty quickly. So everyday, I go down the lift in our apartment building, into the underground carpark, drive to Swords (about 45-50 minutes on the motorway), into the DHL underground carpark, then up in the lift to my floor. Consequently, I've joined the gym and I'm going 2-3 times a week! Clare continues to do well in her role and went to the Netherlands last week, and off for some meetings and audits in Southern Ireland on Sunday night. We spent a recent weekend checking out some of the areas south of Dundalk, and discovered a little fishing village called Annagassan. We loved it, so we're currently negotiating to move into a new apartment there overlooking the sea. It's very quiet and the village has just 1 local pub and shop. But it's very beautiful, and will make a change from Dundalk (but only about 15 minutes away). The 2 photos of Annagassan in this update are actually from the local pub website, The Glyde Inn, so please feel free to come and join us for a Guinness or two... We'll keep you updated with how it all goes!

Also, all of the pictures from our recent trip to Germany are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

Berlin, Berlin (Christmas Update #2)

flickr photo link: <Berlin, Germany, Dec 2006>
On 27 December, we took the ICE train from Braunschweig to Berlin. Very crowded, so we found some seats in the buffet car, but also very fast, so we found ourself at the brand new Berlin Hauptbahnhof in less than 1 1/2 hours. From there, we got frustrated by the ticketing machines, but eventually found our way on the S-Bahn/U-Bahn to the stylish Moevenpick Hotel Berlin, which was absolutely beautiful (our Christmas treat!) Our top floor room had a huge Philippe Starck designed bathtub, groovy lighting and chocolates magically appeared on our pillows every evening. Berlin is truly amazing, and can only be compared to London & New York in terms of scale & shopping. Clare had visited in October 1990, just a year after the Berlin Wall came down, and 1995. I'd never been there before, and I want to go back already!
You could easily stay a week and not see everything you want, from Checkpoint Charlie (very close to our hotel) and the whole Berlin Wall history (and associated museums), to Museum Island (chock full of huge museums bursting at the seams with ancient treasures) which we only saw from the outside, the Jewish Museum Berlin & the 2,711 concrete stelae of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which we saw on a bleak and overcast day, perhaps the most appropriate time. Near the memorial, next to a childrens playground and large apartment building is a simple sign showing where Hitlers' bunker was located. History is at every turn - you need to use your imagination sometimes, but remnants exist all around that help you to feel it. So, we fit all of that into 2 1/2 days, as well as the Museum for Photography and the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), which is so massive it's almost overwhelming. The Museum for Photography features Helmut Newton, a Berliner who lived for a time in Australia and took photos for the fashion and art world. He died in 2004. Many of these attractions can be found on foot with a half decent map, or just use the S-Bahn/U-Bahn, which has a huge network of trains crossing Berlin in all directions.
Finding great food in foreign cities is of course our forté, and Berlin was no different. After Braunschweig, we'd had enough knackwursts & cake, so we quickly found an excellent Japanese restaurant, Izumi sushi bar in Kronenstrasse (try everything, it's all good). The breakfast buffet at our hotel was outstanding (but we only made it on 1 morning!) The next evening, Clare settled in with a cheese platter & a glass of red at the mindblowing KaDeWe foodhall. 1,300 different types of cheese, 1,200 sausage and ham delicacies, 400 types of bread & rolls, 34,000 products - unbelieveable but true. Clare says the listeria filled cheeses were the best she's ever had, and very filling. I settled instead for a Nasi Goreng from the local Asian takeaway! On our final day, we met Clare's friend Michael (from an African trip in 86/87) for lunch at Cafe Einstein Unter Den Linden (nr. Brandenburg Gate), had a fantastic walking tour to Museum Island & Berliner Dom, and ended up at the Vietnam Restaurant next to Friedrichstrasse Station. Authentic and quite reasonable. We found Friedrichsrasse to really be the new centre of Berlin. From pretty much nothing 10 years ago to Mini-Cooper showrooms, French department stores and European designer clothes. All too much for our budget!
That was our final night in Berlin. We ended up braving the chill to see if the queues for the viewing dome at the Reichstag had dimished in the evening, but they hadn't. So we retreated to the warmth of our hotel room to get ready for our early morning flight back to Dublin. Oh, I almost forgot to tell about the snow. Yes, as we peered out of the crooked windows of the Jewish Museum (don't miss it) on our 2nd day, snow flakes started to fall. They got heavier throughout the day, but had stopped by evening. Of course we rushed back to the hotel to get our camera, and we got a few photos, but it was just a great experience. Our flight back with Ryanair from Berlin-Schönefeld Airport was on-time and smooth. As cheap as they are (and for their poor reputation), we've had no problems yet with Ryanair, and that capped off a truly superb week away - completely different from Christmas in Australia!
All of our pictures from Berlin are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

Frohe Weihnachten! (Christmas Update #1)

flickr photo link: <Braunschweig, Germany, Dec 2006>
23 Dec 06 EI DUB/DUS 1340/1930
30 Dec 06 FR SXF/DUB 1105/1220
Haven't had any updates just recently, so it's time for 3 quick ones in a row. Happy New Year everyone... We hope you all had a good one, wherever you were. We spent the night in Dundalk, watching the local Polish kids burning themselves with fireworks in the park over the road, but more about that later. We're feeling thoroughly "reunified" after our Christmas week in Germany. We learnt a few things... about the superb "Weihnachtsmarkt" (Christmas Markets) of Braunschweig, the organisation of the Germans at Autostadt (Car Disneyland), the immense history of reunified Berlin AND the value of the Euro in Germany (compared to Ireland!)
We flew with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Dusseldorf on 23 December. We got to Dublin Airport around 5am to the busiest airport I've ever seen in my life. No kidding. Even the worst days in Australia never rivalled this. A bit like what you see on tv when Heathrow is in the fog, but no white tents on the roadways! But there was no fog this morning, this was just Christmas. Dubs can be bad at the best of times, but I guess we should have known that flying at Christmas is a no-no. We used the self service check-in terminals, which everyone does, then spent an hour in the "bag drop" queues. Then into the security line (more like a conga line!) which snaked round and round the terminal like something out of Disneyland. That took another hour, and we made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare - phew. Dusseldorf Airport seemed pretty quiet after Dubs, but they continued the Christmas joy by taking about 1 hour to get the luggage onto the conveyer belt! Met our good friends Gerald & Sandra to have a quick tour of this sophisticated city on the Rhein. Nice Italian lunch at Vapiano, then down the autobahns for 3 hours to Braunschweig (reached 180 km/h). Met Gerald's parents, Sylvia & Peter, then off to the Weihnachtsmarkt for some delicious bratwurst, strawberries dipped in white chocolate & glühwein (Clare says it's an acquired taste)... Gerald & Sandra bumped into loads of old friends, it seemed like the place for old friends to come home and meet up at the end of the year. We all had a great night, and another experience is ticked off our list!
24 December started with a traditional German breakfast - breads, meats & cheeses. Then up out of the fog into the blue sky of the Harz Mountains to walk off some of the food - alas no snow but pretty cold. Back to Braunschweig for coffee & cake (a real German tradition), then later our Christmas dinner of duck legs, red cabbage, potato dumplings and real cranberries. Gerald's 94 year old Grandmother was there and had some amazing tales, born in England in 1912, emigrating to Germany in 1922 and staying for the WWII while her brothers & sisters went back to England. So we had a nice day, but so much food, too much food...
On Christmas Day when you'd think everything would be closed, a lot of things in Germany are open, including the impressive Autostadt in Wolfsburg, the futuristic showpiece of the Volkswagen Group in an ultra-modern concrete landscape dominated by the huge 'Pink Floyd like' smokestacks of the VW Factory. Did you know the VW Group includes Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat & Skoda as well as all the V Dubs? (but not many Combi's in sight)... As well as bucket loads of interative displays & cars, they have 2 huge glass car "towers" that lead to an underground VW delivery centre, and yes, some customers were even picking up their cars on Christmas Day. Anyway, we called it 'Car Disneyland' and it's well worth a visit if you're in northern Germany. On the way back, we stopped at the disused East/West Germany checkpoint at Marienborn-Helmstedt on the highway from Hannover to Berlin. More than 1000 GDR soldiers inspected everything moving between west & east until finally abandoned on 30 June 1990 after the wall came down. A great museum and such amazing recent history...
We spent another day walking in the countryside and checking out downtown Braunschweig before going for more coffee & cakes with Geralds' sisters family. A good chance to practice a little German, mmm... The next day (very cold & foggy), we took the ICE train to Berlin for part 2 of our little trip...

All of our pictures from Braunschweig are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

... Continued in Part 2 (Berlin)...

Winter Solstice at Newgrange

flickr photo link: <Solstice at Newgrange, 22 Dec 2006>
External Link: <Official Newgrange website about our visit>
We went to the winter solstice at Newgrange, County Meath this morning (about 50km north of Dublin). Clare won 2 tickets for us in a lottery that had 27,485 applications! It was pretty amazing...
Here is a little text about our morning, copied from http://www.knowth.com/winter-solstice.htm with links to additional pictures and information:
The passage and chamber inside the ancient mound at Newgrange are illuminated by the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box over the entrance and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. The dramatic event lasts for 17 minutes at dawn on a few days before and after the Winter Solstice. Admission to the chamber at Newgrange for the Winter Solstice sunrise is by lottery. The 2006 Winter Solstice Draw took place on the 29th of September, there were 27,485 applications. Application forms are now available at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre for the 2007 Winter Solstice Draw. Here is a link to some additional historical information about Newgrange. Bye for now.

Christmas in Ireland

It's 10.40am and the temperature is 2c outside. Yes, that's 2c, with a freezing pea soup fog that's been hovering for more than 24 hours. It was actually blue sky on Tuesday morning as I walked through the streets of Dundalk, but as I spoke to recruitment agents on the phone from our apartment, the thick fog rolled in over most of Ireland & the UK. You could hardly see out the window! Slightly concerning as we’re flying to Germany on Saturday morning, and a lot of flights are disrupted right now, but it’s supposed to clear by then. So it’s well and truly winter here now. No snow, but the fog has given Dundalk quite a mystical “Christmas” look with the lights shining through the haze and the church bells ringing, really quite lovely. People are very, very into Christmas here. Loads of lights in all the towns (Dublin’s are amazing), all the ladies in town are getting their hair done, and people are buying turkeys. Even the Aldi supermarket about 200 metres from our house sells frozen turkeys, ducks and goose!

So, I've made the big move, and I'm settling into daily (jobless) life in the emerald isle with Clare. Yes, I'm an unemployed bum, but it's not that I haven't already looked for jobs. In fact, I was offered a job today, in a vast call centre on the northern edge of Dublin, but I might be a little more selective and make sure I find the right one. I will have to decide. Until then, Clare can keep me in the lifestyle I'm accustomed to. I've already discovered the cheapest supermarket (Aldi), and found an IKEA lookalike computer desk (made in France) that's almost impossible to build. That's how I'm spending my days in the lead up to our cold Christmas in Germany.

We leave here on 23 December, over to Dusseldorf on Aer Lingus, then spend Christmas with Gerald & Sandra and his parents in Braunschweig, then on to Berlin on 27 December for 3 nights, then back to Ireland on 30 December with Ryanair. Not sure what we're doing for New Years - might be a quiet one, but there's always opportunity for a quiet drink or two in this neck of the woods. Cheers everyone, and all the best for Christmas & Happy 2007!

A night at the Brekkie Creek...

A final catch up at the Brekkie Creek! From left to right - Supriya, Joe, Lyle & Kevin - the "old" team leader crew at DHL Express Brisbane. Supriya remains, Joe is moving to Ireland, Lyle is doing teacher training and Kev has moved into sales. Good memories from 10 years at DHL Brisbane and a few last drinks, so a good night was had by all. The pics are all here. Now just to pack up the last of my stuff...

The Pink Floyd Experience

Rick and I went to see The Pink Floyd Experience at the QPAC concert hall last night. Absolutely awesome tribute show, with (obviously) years of practice in recreating the Pink Floyd sound and vision. Well worth seeing (and hearing). They did a full version of "The Wall", building up the wall throughout the show, and breaking it down at the end. Plenty of theatrics as well as superb music. It was amusing to see some older members of the crowd getting up and leaving as the show built to a finale. Sometimes I have no idea why people buy tickets to shows which are obviously not suited to their tastes... Mmm...

I'm nearly ready to leave Australia for the cold & darkness of Ireland, with a quick stop in Portsmouth, England on the way to look at buying a car. I'm just packing my 2nd Jumbo Box now, to be sent with DHL of course! Clare has returned from San Antonio, Texas, which was rather like Brisbane, to an icy/murky November in Dundalk and Northern Ireland... Now you can start to understand why there are so many pubs in Ireland and so many households have Sky TV... When daylight starts to go under 8 hours a day... They're sure not out having BBQ's, but at least they have plenty of water!

The Ashes has started today and is showing on all the tv's in my call centre. I would rather watch grass grow.

Clare in San Antonio, Texas...

Clare is in San Antonio, Texas this week with her boss Peter from Ireland, adding to the Clare & Joe World Tour, which has taken in Wellington, Dublin, Belfast, Poland, London, Orlando & Los Angeles over recent months! More cities & dates to be added soon! ...

I'm in Texas. Ye Ha! I've finally got the internet on in the hotel room. I was having problems as you have to use your own name as a password and the hotel computer kept rejecting me. So they gave me another name - Winkler! My trip started on Friday night, and on my way to Crumlin (Belfast), I got stopped by the police at Newry and asked where I was going and why. Every car in and out was being stopped. Belfast cars were allowed on. Peter said they were looking for someone in particular as it would normally just be a road block and re-direction signs. The B&Q store in Newry seemed to be intact and not in flames when I went past! (see note) Belfast (MI5) airport was a breeze compared to Dublin but no special clearance zone with Americans in the basement. So at Newark we had to get our bags and clear customs and check in again. Stress and a half. We were both quite buggered and it was warm in Newark. Peter got detained for a bit to discuss why he still had his green slip in his passport from his last USA trip!

Newark is a completely new airport since I was last there. Owned by Westfield actually. All food groups and lots of other shopping. I went to a mall in San Antonio this afternoon, and frankly the Westfield at Newark was better! Not one supermarket, book store, music store, etc. at this mall, but Macys, Saks, bath shops ie. body shops with artificial colouring & flavouring, and kids shops like I've never seen. I bought nothing. And of course you can’t walk across the 6 lane highway to the mall across the road. I tried. At least its warm. And no RAIN. Actually they are in long term drought. All parts of the USA had flood rain this week except here.

Funny kind of place but still it’s a big American city with shopping malls and a wide range of ethnic food available - loads of Tex Mex and BBQ shops. Not BBQ as in Bunnings but as in meat that has been Texas BBQ’ed - not like an Aussie BBQ. Traditionally buried in a pit and cooked for 12 hrs on coals but does not taste or look anything like a hangi. So much better! I did tourist stuff yesterday and went to The Alamo, San Fernando Cathedral, the historic "artist village" (all stuff made in Nicaragua, etc.) and I went to the art museum for a photo show. Walked for miles, caught buses with locals for 85 cents, talked to homeless black folk, etc. and ate Tex Mex for lunch. I stuck to some meal based on corn chips, avocado, salsa & sour cream (of course). And a margarita (of course). But alas no plastic cocktail cups yet.

That's it for now. I'm presenting a 15 min session on Wednesday. Lots of networking happening!

(note) - B&Q is a British hardware superstore chain (much like Bunnings) which has been targeted by firebugs in Northern Ireland recently. Nobody has been caught yet. So you're always on the lookout when you drive past B&Q!

Ever feel like this before your morning coffee?

OK, before I start, this post is pretty much unrelated to Dundalk, or to the travels of Clare or Joe, it is however related to Joe's madness on Halloween, and how this has translated to his call centre, causing his staff to cover their desks in cobwebs or come to work in costumes covered in blood, hugging a giant inflatable pumpkin. That just about covers it. Meanwhile, Clare spent Halloween in cold Dundalk, while fireworks went off in the background, but alas no kids knocking on the door seeking candy, as Tain Court is a high security impenetrable fortress with no access for trick or treaters. So that's how Halloween went down for 2006. Of course, there was always 2005 in Edinburgh, where a fine cool evening was spent on one of the "least ever spooky" underground tours, in what is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in Great Britain. But I did bring back a nice gravestone! So please enjoy all of these photos taken at DHL Brisbane.

Chills & Thrills for another year... :) Joe.

Joe's Orlando Theme Park Madness #2

The PT Cruiser - Thrifty rental car in Orlando...

So before I start, there are picture links all through this update... Joe is back in Brisbane, and back at work :( after flying around the world on 11 flights in just over 2 weeks. Rather sleep deprived, especially after Orlando, where I made the most out of the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal (night 1 & night 2), which was rather great. On the way over to Ireland, I had a quick stop in London for the day - refer to previous updates for my thoughts! I met up with one of my DHL work colleagues. There was supposed to be a 3rd person too, but they didn't show. Then on to Ireland, which was great - a nice balance of cool, gloomy days and others with the sun trying valiantly to burn through the fog! I'm really glad Clare "undersold" Dundalk, as it really wasn't as bad as I 'd expected. I thought Dundalk was more of a "nondescript" town than a troubled one now, and will experience a lot of change for the better over the next few years. We will certainly have no problem living there - it has all the services and supermarkets you could wish for, and while it's different, that's the spice of life, and you gotta love the taters! The countryside around Dundalk is quite nice, lots of places for walks in the country and old pubs with Guinness on tap. So yes, I fixed a bunch of stuff in the apartment (Tain Court) and got the tv working (yes, now we can watch Spooks on BBC1), then we went to Cork for a weekend on Ryanair which was lovely. And I took myself off to Dublin for a day (no photos). I also met with DHL and talked jobs and career options, and the job market seems pretty buoyant just like Australia.
After about a week and a half, I left Dublin for Orlando, via Newark Airport (New York) on Continental Airlines. The security for this flight was extreme, with about 5 levels of questioning, searches and double checks. Dublin and Shannon (on the west coast of Ireland) are the only two European airports with U.S. border preclearance facilities (fully staffed by U.S. Customs), which save you a lot of time upon arrival into the U.S. All flights were smooth, and whilst Continental were very good, I would still rate Qantas as the best of the 6 airlines travelled on this trip (Qantas/British Airways/Aer Lingus/Ryanair/Continental/United).
Had a fantastic time in Orlando (refer to Joe's Orlando Theme Park Madness #1), and went to see The Pet Shop Boys on the first night at Hard Rock Live. There is no rest for the time challenged in Orlando, and the days and nights were filled with: Disney-MGM Studios the next day (if I hear "Have a Magical Day" one more time...), followed by the 1st night at Halloween Horror Nights (HHN), then up again for Universal Islands Of Adventure the next day, followed by a tour called "Unmasking The Horror" which looked behind the scenes at HHN (this was a real highlight for me), followed by my 2nd night at HHN. Got back to my hotel room well after midnight, to get up again at 4am, to fly to Los Angeles on United, to spend the day there, to leave LAX that night, to fly to Auckland, and connect to Brisbane. Mmm, very little sleep. I think I could spend a week in Orlando, but Clare certainly isn't the worlds biggest theme park fan (I could tell you about the time I convinced Clare to go on the Corkscrew at Seaworld, but I'll leave that for another day!) Anyway, a good time was had by me, and the tens of thousands of others in Orlando that week, although the rental car girls complained about how quiet things were. Now I have just over 5 weeks left at work, before I head back to Ireland again.
Just a quick summary of all the NEW picture links:
- London, 07 Oct 2006
- Dundalk, Oct 2006
- Tain Court Dundalk, Oct 2006
- Cork, Ireland, Oct 2006
- Cork Airport, Oct 2006
- Newark Airport, 18 Oct 2006
- Pet Shop Boys, 18 Oct 2006
- Disney-MGM Studios, 19 Oct 2006
- HHN#16, 19 Oct 2006
- HHN#16, 20 Oct 2006
- UA273 MCO-LAX In Flight, 21 Oct 2006

An update from Clare...

Front view of Newgrange with white quartz facade

Hi all,
Sorry for a long time since I have emailed (or blogged!) Mainly due to the combination of travelling with work again, assignments (MBA) and more visitors. Sailing finished the weekend Mum came over. Hopefully I will be able to get some photos of the last race around the Kish lighthouse for the blog. I haven’t done any Hash walks since Paddywack in Dublin in Aug - those pics are linked here. But may get to the Belfast hash on Wednesday night. Joe has been updating our blog that I still haven’t learnt how to blog yet (so Joe has updated it!)
Mum has been and gone as has Joe (Joe will be back soon though). So now I am sick and collapsed in a heap on the one weekend between visitors and assignments/exams (still crawling along with the MBA). I have been listening to various BBC radio shows and have heard a summary of Irish history from 1690-1790 and now understand why the Orange order was formed and how the really bad stuff against the Catholics started around 1750 and really got under way when they could send them off to Sydney. May have to learn to podcast from MMM in case I listen to far too much intellectual stuff on BBC.
Joe fixed: the radio (now on BBC), the TV (now on BBC), the car radio (Now on BBC), the dishwasher, washed the car, made all the lap tops in the apartment be able to pick up Wi-Fi wireless internet, put a mirror up in the bathroom and fixed the light bulb. I have the phone on at home and everything working now.
I have work in the north this week and then 2 weeks in the office and then a week in Texas, USA. Went to Poland a few weeks ago for my EU salmon project. So lovely and sunny and warm, blue sky like Australia, but a killer of a winter. I also have an animal welfare course for salmon farmers to design and then design a new seafood auditor course, and input all the data for the EU salmon project.
So the weekend Mum was in town I had to finish the last fish economics assignment (MBA) and do 2 work reports. Luckily the weather was terrible and Mum was sick of touring (across Russia and Italy), so she didn't do much and I typed drivel.
I went to Tipperay last week for work. The song "It’s a long way to ..." is actually a British Soldier song, as there was a big base there before 1922. I saw what is left of the barracks. I went out to dinner with Chris and Shay the night before going down and Shay was singing the song until he stopped and said "I shouldn't sing this as it’s a British soldiers song." And promptly stopped. The people I was with also told me that, and showed me the old barracks. The town is really small actually. We need to do a weekend around Tipperay as there are so many castles and ruins on the banks of rivers and on top of rocks around there. I would say that the castle at Cashel is more striking than Edinburgh.
Joe went to Belfast International airport to take plane photos in the laneways near the farms. But a car came up and parked right next to him, watched him until he left. Joe told Peter (my boss) this story - who lives right near there. And Peter laughed and said it was MI5. Apparently there is a RAAF base right there too and as my car has County Louth plates and is registered to the company in Dundalk, the Brits have cameras in every lane and would have been watching Joe especially with his camera and Dundalk car. Plane watching isn't big in Belfast!
Joe came over just hours before our actual anniversary day and we had a lovely leisurely breakfast and then Shay (Chris was still in Minsk) came up from Dublin and we went to Carlingford and did a token walk towards the top of the Tain trail mtn and then a side detour to a minor forest and back to the pub as it was pissing down and Joe didn’t have the gear and was soaked. So not like Straddie a year ago. We met a black and white sheep dog on the way up the Tain mtn. He was sitting in the road up to the “wee gate” where some kids were picking blackberries for jam. And he took us up to the wee gate and waited for us to let him in, and took us all across the trail and then down again and only vanished when it got really wet and we let him out of another gate onto a laneway where we assume he ran home. He was really scared of sheep. Wouldn’t walk near the sheep until Shay has shooed them away. Fascinating. He must wait at the road waiting for people walking up to take him thru. He also got some chocolate from Shay, which he really liked.
Today has been magnificent after pouring rain all night. You can really see all the different colours in the Cooley Mtns - red bracken and green grass patches, dark green forest and white houses against the pale blue sky and fluffy grey clouds. Joe has taken loads of great pics (coming soon!) Earlier this week I got a phone call from the people who run Newgrange (5000 yr old druid temple) saying that I had won a place in the lottery to see the sunrise during the winter solistice on the 22nd of Dec. Which is good because we fly to Germany on the morning of the 23rd of Dec for Christmas with Gerald and his family. As I can take another person, Joe is a winner as well! (Joe says - am I, REALLY?) He didn’t get to visit Newgrange this time as he came on audits with me and saw parts (most) of Nthn Ireland. We went to Cork City on the weekend (and ate and ate, it's a serious gourmet town) and he went on the bus to Dublin and took the bus tour and visited the Guiness brewery, etc.

Was hoping to get tickets for Lansdowne Road Wallaby match in Nov (19) but at 150 Euro on the terrace to stand in the rain, I was thinking that I would just go to the Aussie pub in Dub with Chris and Shay. And then a friend of a Tracy's found that the Aust Rugby Union website had special tickets for Aussies residents living in Ireland for a third of the list price. Must have passport details to buy and collect tickets. So we have been rounding up passport details to get Carol (Kiwi) and her Pommy friend in. So now we have a mob flying in. We have Tracy coming in from Baghdad, her ex flatmate (Darwin) coming in from Scotland and another bloke from England. The Wallabies are playing Ireland for the last match at Lansdowne Rd before they close it for a refurb. This will be the last game played there as the Gaelic Footy people won’t let any “British Games” be played at Crowe park (the other Dublin Stadium) because the British murdered a whole bunch of people at a Crowe Park Gaelic Game in 1919 or so, I don’t think much Rugby Union will be happening around here for a long while. And it will be a big Aussie fest.
For the Catholics: Dundalk even has Novenas!!! Mum had to explain to me what they were, so you ask your Mums. About 10,000 people (really - no exaggeration) turn up to pray to some obscure saint (Mum couldn’t even tell me about him) 10 times a day for 10 days. Has clogged the town up traffic wise. No car parks anywhere. They even have the Angelus on TV twice a day. And end of the night prayer on TV.
Am officially sick today. The sore throat has progressed to a chest cough. But it all explains why I've been so tired in the last few days and had achy pains which seem to have gone now. So have done very little today. Unfortunately I have three back to back audits this week in the north. I think I will go on the Belfast hash walk on Wednesday night at Lisburn if I am feeling okay by then.
Cheers, Clare.

Joe's Orlando Theme Park Madness #1

So here is Joe blogging from Orlando, taking a quick break at my computer between 2 theme parks on the 2nd day... My trip here will pretty much consist of this:
Day 1 - arrived late afternoon from Dublin, via Newark on Continental. Collected a Thrifty car and went to my hotel, Fairfield Inn nr. International Drive. Had a quick break then I went to Universal, with every intention of going to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville to get some cocktail cups. HOWEVER, that was not to be! Whilst parking in the huge Universal parking lot, I met some crazy Americans, Glen & Walter, who were looking at the differences between their PT Cruiser (car) and mine, and they pointed out that The Pet Shop Boys were playing at 8pm at Hard Rock Live (in Universal). Of course I had my Belfast HHH t-shirt on, so it took some convincing (actually to several people last night) that I WASN'T actually Irish. Mental note - I will wear this t-shirt often, as it's a good talking point. So, I bought a ticket to the Pet Shop Boys, met Glen & Walter inside, and watched the concert, while downing a few American beers. Walter got pretty hammered. He "welcomed" me to America with some straight JD (Jack Daniels)... Mmm... I didn't drink the whole cup :( The Pet Shop Boys were absolutely brilliant :) and a fantastic night was had by me and others in the crowd. Ended off at Denny's for a quick snack as I hadn't eaten anything, and retired, eventually, back at the Fairfield Inn... zzz... Glen took quite a few photos of the night, and emailed them to me, as promised, within hours... Great guys, and YES, they were straight, and made it quite clear to me that we were probably the only straight guys in the crowd... Pity Clare wasn't here, as she too would have had a great night, especially in the current balmy temperatures in Orlando, pretty much like Cairns.
Day 2 - quick breakfast, then spent the day at Disney-MGM Studios in Disneyworld, then off to Halloween Horror Nights 16 at Universal Studios tonight (about to leave very soon)...
Day 3 - quick breakfast again, then the day at Islands Of Adventure, Universal Orlando, then my 2nd night at Halloween Horror Nights 16, to see everything I don't see tonight... I'm also doing a behind the scenes tour as well "Unmasking The Horror", which should reveal a few things about the running of the whole operation. I can't wait for that...
So, I will post some more photos and tell more on my next update. Now, to head out again, there is no time for sleep here, this is party town...
... Continued in Part 2...

London and ipods...

London… It's 7.45pm Saturday, and here I am back at Heathrow Terminal 1. Another feat of design where they let a rat run through and maze and find cheese, then gave it a pen & paper and an architect’s degree. Either that, or someone said, “let’s build a long skinny line of gates 1km out into the middle of the airport, and make people walk all the way from the plane through poky corridors to where they collect their bags”. Take a wrong turn and you find another few hidden gates here and there. But these hidden areas do contain exceedingly good sandwich shops. The Brits are good at that.
What a great day in London. Blue skies (worthy of Brisbane), taking photos for tourists at the Eros statue, a couple of pints at lunchtime, and the Billy Elliot musical in the afternoon, which was really fantastic. My creative juices are really flowing tonight, thinking thoughts about everything going on around me. Maybe that’s because I’ve been awake for 46 hours now, give or take a snooze through some crap movies, or the in-flight map as the blip of our 747 crawled sluggishly across Kazakhstan. Let’s review those crap movies now before I talk about London again…
Click – Adam Sandler fans will like it. Nobody else will.
The Devil Wears Prada – Meryl Streep plays an evil fashion mag bitch who still manages to communicate some sort of moral values to a new recruit. Obviously American.
The Lake House – Far too confusing for an inflight movie. I kept expecting Keanu Reeves to say “whoa”. Along with Sandra Bullock, they were far better in Speed.
Poseidon – There’s something ironic about watching an ocean disaster movie while the wings on our 747 are flapping furiously while crossing some stretch of shark infested water at 40,000 ft.
So back to London... I was on the tube going back to Heathrow, and the ipods were making me chuckle. There was a line of like, 5 people with ipods and mobile phones. One guy with a big nose has an ipod and 2 mobile phones. 1 phone rings and he mumbles a drug deal in Spanish. Then the 2nd phone rings, he puts the first phone on hold. The ipod buds stay in his ears throughout. This pattern continues. The guy next to me makes his phone beep in alien tones while using the ipod. These 2 devices are unrelated as far as I know. An Arab guy with an amazing headdress gets on. The headdress flaps like a Star Wars costume, Jar-Jar Binks style. His phone rings and he also answers it. Then a Virgin Atlantic hostie gets on, adorned blazingly in red. Checks the phone, puts on the ipod, and looks poised for her flight to Hong Kong or wherever. I’m immediately reminded of the irony of this morning, when an elderly United hostie got on the tube. The poor old dear had lipstick running like Bobo The Clown. Must have been a hard flight in from Omaha. So naturally you start to compare the difference of United vs Virgin recruitment policies in your mind. Richard Branson vs The Florida Bingo League. Mmm. So all through these tube journeys, and walking the streets, you hear so many languages and see people playing in lush green parks (like the movie Notting Hill), and you sense an amazing level of racial harmony. At least it looks that way... Only one other thing, so many people on the tube have really bloodshot eyes (like the vampires in Blade). Either everyone is taking drugs or they live permanently underground riding the tube. Probably just too much fun and too many late nights. So London certainly has a very cool feeling. Now if only they could fix Heathrow Airport…
As a footnote, the gate for my Terminal 1 flight (Aer Lingus) was Gate 88, about 5 nautical miles from the check-in area. But seriously, the route to this gate area went across a busy airport road, down a couple of travelators and finally into a long area that resembled an alien space tube. But still room for a couple of bars with faded carpets and sticky tables. Please give my regards to the rat. I hope he found the cheese.

Random musings from 40,000 feet...

Joe has just flown BNE-SYD-HKG-LHR, and here I stand at Heathrow Terminal 1 at 6am. Good flights, but more about that later when I have a chance. Really just observations, as I reckon if you get here in one piece, and on time, you've got nothing to complain about... Now to get into Central London...!