Photos from Christmas in Edinburgh...

flickr photo link: <Christmas in Edinburgh, Dec 07> Some photos from our trip to Edinburgh!

A blogging Happy New Year!

Hi everyone. Long time no blogging, so it's time for a major update. Well, it's about 8c today, slightly cloudy. I've just been up to the N.I. border to buy some fireworks for NY Eve from a shop in a big shipping container - they take Euros or Pounds (anything really, as long as it's cash!) Gerald & Sandra are here from Germany at the moment - they're checking out the touristic sights of Dublin today. Clare is downloading her email on the kitchen table. Just another day in Ireland!
So today you get all our news in one go. The (loose) definition of a blog is... "a frequently updated journal or diary", and we know we've kind of broken this rule, and we hope to start updating again more frequently as we go into 2008! We haven't written a whole lot since our trip to the USA in October (and we're still trying to finish those stories too)... Somehow our time has been filled. Straight from the top of my head, what's happened recently...?
- Clare finally submitted her MBA thesis, which has come back pretty quickly with edit requirements, etc. so will still need quite a bit more editing. Life wasn't meant to be easy! We went to the Dundalk Greyhound Stadium for Clare's work Christmas Party. Lot's of fun betting on the 'droopy' dogs. We even scored some wins!
- Joe has taken a huge step and left DHL Express after 11 years. What the? I'm starting a new role with HP Dublin (Clonskeagh) in January 2008 as a Technical Support Team Leader. For those of you that may have changed jobs recently, or considered it, or started into the process, it takes time and is quite mentally demanding - especially so after being with DHL for so long. But I'm really looking forward to it. A new role, new location, new challenges, more exercise :) Roll on 2008.
- We spent Christmas in Edinburgh with my cousin (well, relative cousin) Katherine & Chris and their daughter Isla. We had 9 people for Christmas day (Kiwi & Aussie friends joined in) - much ripping open of various presents & tonnes of chocolate gifts from Chris's school kids, plenty of turkey, brussels sprouts (yum), roast potatoes, Christmas pud, a various assortment of brandy creams & butters, chocolates, Port, Baileys, cheese, etc, etc. followed by a long game of Edinburgh Monopoly which ended in a draw (too many competing tycoons to reach a decisive conclusion!) We even cracked open our last bottle of Bundy Rum from Australia (even though you can actually buy it here, from Sainsburys!) Tastes pretty smooth after the local dark rums in Ireland. So overall a great day of consuming and relaxing. Hope you all had a good one too!
The weather here has been pretty mild overall - we've had a few frosty mornings (scraping ice off the windscreen), and some major rain here and there, but nothing too extreme. Certainly no freezing fogs like last year, although we really notice the difference in winter air quality here in Annagassan as opposed to Dundalk, where the coal & peat burning adds a certain "Dicken's" quality to the air.
Life in Annagassan has been mainly quiet as usual, bar one recent night when we heard sirens for the first time (ever) here, and a fire engine eventually screamed into our carpark. Seems a lady tenant had poured vodka into her own car and set it alight! The rain was pouring down that night, but the fire'ies still had to get it under control. Then the Garda eventually turned up to check out all the commotion. The car, quite charred inside, was left in the same spot when everyone left, and was still there days later. No surprises there.
Haven't had much of a chance to do any photography recently, but will get back into this when things settle down a bit. We're off to London on 06 Jan to meet up with Leisa & Paul for the day, then I've got another friend from DHL Brisbane in London the following weekend. Clare has upcoming work trips to Brussels, London & San Francisco. I guess you could call it the "soft" season right now... Europeans don't travel so much in winter and airfares are remarkably low.
What else? Well, wherever you are, or whatever you're doing, have a great New Years Eve and a happy & healthy 2008, and we hope to see you all soon. I'll be setting off those fireworks, after making sure all cats & dogs are well away, and doing my best not to lose an eye, or an arm (or someone else's!) Thanks for all the great emails from everyone with news of your lives too!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tin Sandwich

Check out our Friday night Irish Trad music buddies from the Glyde Inn Annagassan...
Presenting "Tin Sandwich", playing for Balcony TV Dublin...

The flaps on the plane go up and down...

Honestly, we really didn't intend to become carbon unfriendly vandals... It just sort of, well, turned out that way. Admittedly, it has a lot to do with Ryanair and their ludicrously cheap fares that have made us well known at Dublin Airport, along with the other hordes of travellers dashing to the "portacabin gates", where we queue to board with our rolling luggage and packets of sandwiches - no more than a glorified bus depot really. The customs guys glancing at passports on Sunday night looked decidedly bored. In fact, one might have been resting his sleepy bloodshot eyes as my photo flashed before him. So there you are. Will I get to the point? Yes, well, we seem to be flying somewhere almost every weekend at the moment. Not that strange when you consider that flying to/from Dublin is literally cheaper than any other way to move either around, or off this little island (Ireland!) - the place we call home right now. We flew back from New York at the end of October, have just spent the weekend in the English Midlands (East Midlands Airport), and we're off to London for a same day return this Saturday, for cheaper than a couple of rounds at The Glyde Inn (where the craic has been very good on recent Fridays). Yes, Ryanair to London costs 10 Euros each way right now (1 cent fare plus €9.99 taxes!) In fact, €10 to many places in UK/Europe, but you have to really snout around for those €10 bargains to Frankfurt or Venice, etc. - those places that might be a bit more interesting than Birmingham or Leeds (nothing against Leeds, honest). So we're proud Ryanair warriors, with more miles racked up on 737's than our own cars. At this rate, we'll need to plant several hectares of trees if we're ever gonna make up for all this!
We had a lovely weekend in the Midlands... Stayed with my Aunt & Uncle, Anne & Andy and visited my cousin Nicki & family in their brilliant thatched roof house in the heart of the English countryside ... Had a couple of quick walks in the Peak District on Saturday, but the low cloud and rain was quite persistent... Excellent pubs of course. Winter is upon us now, and ice had covered our cars at home on Monday morning when Clare left for Cork at an ungodly early hour (to give a training course). But haha, my new car, a Peugeot 206 has anti-freeze in the windscreen spray, so I wasn't forced to scrape mine with a credit card... (It was still under 1c around 8.30am, brrr). Yes, the joys of winter in Europe. The bus strikes in Northern Dublin didn't help Clare and the M50 traffic - the papers say we're entering a "winter of discontent" in Ireland as workers hold out for more cash. What with Bertie forgetting where he got his bags of money from and the condition of the hospitals here, they sure could do with some good news stories.
Lot's of things happening here (my new 206 - I heart Peugeot... oh, and 2 new supermarkets opened in Dundalk, and the new "sushi train" place is about to open in Swords, just the 2nd in Ireland)... When we get a chance to sit down; and finish our photos from the USA; and write the stories to go with the photos, etc, etc. We just need to sit still for 5 minutes and stop looking at the Ryanair website, mmm. Now please ensure you fit the oxygen mask to your own face before assisting other passengers...

Those Halloween flashbacks...

Photo Link: <USA photos, October 2007> (first edition, many more to be added!)
Hi all, we're back from the US (which was truly excellent) and back at work and all. After a pretty quick flight back from New York, a long good sleep on Sunday and the public holiday on Monday (for Halloween... yes, we get a holiday for Halloween here), things returned to normal. We'll update the blog (backdated) with all of our stories and photos from the USA soon - it just takes time of course.
Halloween night here was just amazing. This was the first time in recent years I haven't done a party or costumes or theme parks, etc, etc. We just wanted to soak up the Irish Halloween atmosphere, and we weren't disappointed! Thanks to the mass sale of fireworks to the public (from large shipping containers on the N.I. border - Euros or Sterling accepted!) there were rockets going off everywhere. Driving home along the M1 was like memory flashbacks to WWI or WWII, as things whizzed and banged over every tiny village and settlement in Ireland - white light and booms on the horizon and flashing in the sky. We've never seen anything quite like it. A sulphur fog had descended over Dunleer as the local youths spinned their car tyres and set off whiz bangers in the direction of the local supermarket. In Annagassan, the kids had constructed a massive bonfire of pallets on the wasteland next to the fishing wharf. It burned like an Iraqi oilwell. Not sure what the ignition substance was, but nitroglycerin comes to mind or maybe just good old petrol. After the July bonfires in the north and Halloween down here, we think CHEP pallets should come and investigate where all their pallets are disappearing to in Europe. Look no further. Sorry, no photos tonight!
Back to the pub tonight to see if the trad music is still on. Winter is slow coming this year.
Chills & Thrills for another year... :) Joe.

New York, New York...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>

Under construction...

New York, New York

Your friendly Wyoming law enforcement...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
Under construction...
Lander, Wyoming Highway Cops, Vail & Denver

The world of Yellowstone...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>

Under construction...

Yellowstone National Park

Devils Tower Wyoming

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
Without gushing superlatives, this was a very special part of our trip. Ever since first watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" many, many years ago (then plenty of times since), I'd wanted to see the Devils Tower for myself. One of those all-time movie location holy grails. But Wyoming is one of those difficult places to get to. It's not like getting on a plane to Los Angeles or New York. You have to plan a journey, rent a car. You have to approach the tower, drive around it, see it from different angles, get the dawn & dusk views. It is wonderous, spectacular - different in it's physical aspect from how I'd imagined, and possibly somewhat smaller than imagined too, but sheer and mystical all the same. From outside the monument, I pictured every view of the tower from the perspective of the movie lens - putting every scene into place. We had a truly wonderful afternoon and morning here. You can't spend much more time than that really, as the activities are limited and you soon discover the location is quite remote really. There isn't a whole lot else around!
Devils Tower is a National Monument, entry US$10 for 7 days. You'll probably spend a few hours or a day, unless you want to study the prairie dogs and take every back country hike. On our first afternoon, we drove up to the visitor centre and took a quick walk up to the rock. Being off season, there was hardly anyone here. After checking things out, we parked beside a hill outside the monument, and I took loads & loads of sunset photos while I slowly froze. But it was all worth it. We ate some chips & dips and marvelled at the whole thing. Back into the car, and a short distance back to the Best Western Devils Tower Inn at Hulett. Looking like a log cabin on steroids, this was a very nice & very new motel with huge rooms and really comfortable beds. Highly recommended. If you blink, you'll miss Hulett (pop. 408). We had a burger at little tavern just down the street, then slept well while the aliens made their plans round the back of the tower, in the darkness...

After a waffle breakfast, we were back at the tower. We did the circuit walk around the base. Again, there were few people around. Some climbers sauntered past us on the path, then we watched as they scaled the east face. They looked like little ants in 'The North Face' jackets. Our experience was over, and we left the monument between 11 and 12, saying goodbye to the prairie dogs on the way out! We had a massive drive ahead of us.

South Dakota to Wyoming

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>

We left the Black Hills today, but only after a fun morning at Bear Country USA, a drive through wildlife park where bears (and other animals) literally tussled in front of our car then plonked themselves down in the road, so it was careful going. The bears could smell food in our car too. I didn't want to explain that damage story to the rental car people! They also had a zoo section with cute baby animals, including red foxes. The park was almost deserted being so late in the season, but the website says they're open until the end of November.

Back on the I-90, we headed northwest towards Deadwood. This was a slightly weird frontier town in the hills, famous for the gold rush days - Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and a recent tv series (which didn't show in Australia as far as I know). Whilst quite historic and well detailed, nowadays Deadwood is famous for casinos and all-you-can-eat buffets, so we drove through quickly and kept driving as we could see snow further up the mountain. Just past the town of Lead, things had turned white all around and we pulled into a forest to throw some snowballs (the crazy Aussies seeking out snow wherever we go!) We came down the mountain via the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, a wonderful drive made all the more spectacular by the snow in the trees. We were quite lucky there.

We joined the I-90 again at the town of Spearfish and crossed the state border from South Dakota to Wyoming. We'd already decided to stop at the next town of Sundance. However, as we drove along the quiet main street, we soon discovered this was not the Sundance famous for the film festival. We really should have done our research! So, with Sundance devoid of food (bar the local service station) and the Devils Tower a little over an hour away across the Bear Lodge Mountains, we decided to backtrack to Spearfish for a food stop. Just off the I-90 we found another American family diner with good food, endless drink refills and impossibly low prices (especially compared to Ireland). After the refreshment stop we drove back into into Wyoming again, and approached the Devils Tower from the northeast side (Belle Fourche & Hulett). Looking back, we could never say we didn't cover these roads thoroughly!

It's raining in Rapid City

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>

It's raining in Rapid City, South Dakota. We stopped for dinner this evening at Red Lobster on the I-90, where dinner comes in 3 sizes - big, bigger & biggest, much like the eager patrons. Clare ran across the wet carpark to Target (none in Ireland!) to buy some clothes, while I waited in the restaurant lobby with the buzzer that vibrates when your table is ready. About 25 minutes later it went off, and we chose our delicious seafood meals & cocktails, which came in the same gigantic sizes as the meals (my strawberry Lobsterita was exceptional!) We had a friendly table visit from the manager, Kent French, who wanted to talk to the only Australians in town that night and told us he was a world "clapping" champion, video here. Nice guy! I finished up my Lobsterita as the people on the next table were offered another plate of endless shrimp... We drove back across the hills to our lovely hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Keystone (about US $58/nt) and hit the sack.

We'd started the previous day collecting our Hertz Rental Car at Denver Airport. Flicked on the Sat Nav and headed north on the I-25 past Loveland & Fort Collins, Colorado - with huge RV sales yards and shopping malls on the highway. Traffic thinned out as we entered Wyoming. We stopped for food nr. Cheyenne - BIG food & huge trucks in the parking lot with gun racks & "hunter" bumper stickers. This was the real American homeland - wide open spaces and about as far away from Washington DC or Seattle as you can get! It was getting dark as we kept going north, eventually climbing in elevation as we left Wyoming and entered the far southwest corner of South Dakota (our forth state for the day!) We got to Keystone late that night.

When it comes to blurbs about tourist towns, sometimes the local tourist authorities put it best, so here you go: Keystone... The “Home of Mount Rushmore” and truly a “City of Gold”. Rich in gold mining history the quaint town of Keystone is just two miles from Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Once a gold mining boomtown and later the location of the monumental carving of Mount Rushmore, Keystone was also the adult home of Carrie Ingalls of “Little House on the Prairie” fame. With all this to offer who needs more? But there is a lot more. There are historic and Presidential museums where you can learn about the history of Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum – Sculptor of Mount Rushmore, United States Presidents, Keystone and Carrie Ingalls. An alpine slide and Tramway with great views of Mount Rushmore and the surrounding area; an actual gold mine that you can tour and then learn to pan for gold; a Historic 1880 Train ride that takes you through some of the most beautiful Black Hills scenery around; beautiful caves that boast some of the largest formations around, and a Historic Walking tour that takes you on a trip back in time!

It was well & truly off season in Keystone and things were really quiet. We waited a while for service in the local diner to get some breakfast. Then straight up to Mount Rushmore (annual parking pass US $8). An attractive family of rocky mountain goats were munching on the plants in the multi-storey carpark (this place was really built for summer crowds). We took lots of photos of course. Mount Rushmore is suitably impressive like all the pictures you see, but we were told the nearby Crazy Horse Monument was better, although it has decades of blasting and chiselling to go before any sign of completion. Anyway, we did the little walking circuit under the Presidents' faces and admired this patriotic salute to all things American. Time to move on.

We headed down from the Black Hills towards Badlands National Park and made stops on the way, firstly to talk to a rancher, Ken Wilson, who had 5,000 head of cattle on 40,000 acres. We'd stopped at the end of his driveway to take some pics of the fall foliage. Like so many other friendly people we came across, I guess they were happy to chat with anyone that stopped, especially Australians! At the next settlement (ghost town!) of Scenic, Clare was given a little history by a first nation guy sitting outside the local store. The glory days of Scenic had long since passed, and this was literally a tumbleweed town where we expected to see Wylie Coyote chasing the roadrunner down the street with some Acme TNT. We gave the guy a few bucks and carried on.

The weather was doing weird things as we drive across the amazingly flat South Dakota landscape towards Badlands. The towns out here along the I-90 started to resemble what you might imagine of the American "outback" - dusty, trailer park homes, quite rundown, etc. We established pretty quickly we definitely wouldn't want to live out here. This is the area where America once kept it's "Minuteman" longrange nuclear missiles, but the vistor centre was closed so we moved on. The open air Prairie Homestead along the road was also closed for the season (it looked abandoned), so we scaled the fences to take a look around. Lots of cute prairie dogs popping their heads out of their burrows. We tore off into Badlands and made a few scenic stops along the way. Thick cloud had moved across now, and any hint of the fabulous colours that this area is famous for were well and truly washed out. But the views were still amazing and it was worth the drive. Rain & darkness were falling as we took the I-90 back into Rapid City, past Ellsworth Air Force Base, more trailer park homes and finally to our table at the Red Lobster... God Bless America!

Elvis does his stuff

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
After a couple of days in Las Vegas, we'd settled in. Well, as much as having Bloody Mary's for breakfast is settling in to anywhere. Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Our hotel room facing the strip had a wonderful view, but absorbed the full cacophony of wailing sirens 24 hours a day and sightseeing helicopters returning to the nearby Airport in a constant stream like the evacuation of Saigon. Nice. We soon met Mahia & Trent (and various friends & family members) and started planning some little activities, all leading up to their afternoon wedding at "A Little White Chapel" at the other end of the strip. We all hit the factory outlet stores (outstanding value for clothes & shoes) and a bunch of us had a very entertaining time at the Madame Tussauds Las Vegas. We poked some good fun at George Bush and got a great pic with Elvis (the first of our Elvis experiences). This was located at The Venetian, which, while spectacular in it's own right (along with other Vegas casinos), does not replicate Italy. As much as I can be a philistine of fine arts, even I can see the value in visiting the real historical places in our world (like Italy), versus the Las Vegas or theme park version. In the mean time, Clare was enjoying the poolside cocktails and catching up on yet more work. We had a brilliant 2nd Anniversay dinner at Sushi Roku Las Vegas at Caesars Palace. After missing sushi in Ireland this was truly superb - sashimi, soft-shell crab, lobster, yet more cocktails, etc... in a "Blade Runner" Meets Ginza interior design... A bit dark for reading the menu but all very good with friendly service.
The afternoon of the wedding rolled around, and we all made our way to "A Little White Chapel" for the ultimate Las Vegas wedding. I knew this place had old movie star folklore, but it was far smaller and pokier than one might have expected - but all part of the experience. We eventually filed into the small chapel (would fit maybe 20 people max.) and an Elvis impersonator opened the proceedings with "Viva Las Vegas", followed by another quick number while the webcam was activated... Australia, you're live! Mahia wore a red Chinese dress with Trent in a black suit. The wedding celebrant was a funny little lady - not sure if there was much scripting to it all. Vows were exchanged, another famous number from Elvis, a few photos, and things were wrapped up. As the next wedding started inside, we all congregrated outside watching the girls on the swings over the road under the giant NUDE sign. We took the a stretch limo ride back to the Excalibur, with the driver telling us about his most famous customers. That night we ventured out through more smoky casino floors to "Gonzalez Y Gonzalez" at New York New York for plastic souvenir yardglasses filled with frozen margaritas (I still have mine!) and obscenely large plates of Mexican food. Very Las Vegas...
The next morning we braved our way through the TSA security processing and had breakfast at the Airport. I had my final win on the slots (Star Wars), and we flew off to Denver with United Airlines. That's enough of Vegas for another few years!

Viva Las Vegas!

USA blogs, October 2007:
1. Viva Las Vegas!
2. Elvis does his stuff
3. It's raining in Rapid City
4. South Dakota to Wyoming
5. Devils Tower Wyoming
6. The world of Yellowstone...
7. Your friendly Wyoming law enforcement...
8. New York, New York...

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
15 Oct 07 CO127 DUB/EWR 1045/1305
15 Oct 07 CO1468 EWR/LAS 1615/1847
19 Oct 07 UA1610 LAS/DEN 1100/1356
26 Oct 07 CO629 DEN/EWR 1225/1810
27 Oct 07 CO126 EWR/DUB 2155/0825+1
Well here we are at the centre of decadence in the western world, and Las Vegas is still well and truly living up to the hype! From the astonishingly huge themed casinos to the endless magic & Cirque Du Soleil shows, Vegas is still pulling them in thanks to slick marketing and a genuine wow factor. We're staying at Excalibur (around US $100/nt but varies massively), and with 4,008 rooms this is the 7th largest hotel in the world. Thankfully, we don't think it's quite full right now! Punters play in the smoky air-conditioned comfort of the casino floor (more than 100,000 square feet) and feed money into the slot machines, then retreat to the myriad of food options including 24 hour McDonald's & Krispy Kreme Donuts, etc, etc. Clare and I have successfully avoided the junk however, and had some some of the best sushi we've ever had at Suski Roku, where everything is flown in daily (more in the next update). So each casino is a slight variation of the next - the outside might be Caesar's or Venetian or Paris, etc. and the rooms might be more plush, but the same smoky darkness and bling-bling machines dominate every design.
I find Vegas very interesting as I first came here in my travel industry days (early 90's). Many of the older casinos have been demolished, leaving huge dusty sites along the strip, and the city is well and truly in the grips of another casino building boom. Everything being built seems to appeal to a hip new demographic, which seems strange as the average age of visitor this week seems like 50+. Certainly the "family" pitch which existed a few years back seems to have disappeared, with less fun park rides now, replaced by more designer shops and casino floor space. Gambling revenues are still the key to the existence of this city. People stroll along the strip each night with their souvenir cups filled to the brim with frozen margaritas, while hordes of marketing canvassers flog time share with "free" shows and cards for call girls. But sorry, no such thing as free round here. And of course once you get away from the strip you quickly see a more real side to Vegas, cookie-cutter apartment blocks sprawled across the desert floor to support the 100's of 1000's of low income service workers here.
Now we're in Vegas as my friends Mahia & Trent are getting married here. So more on that in the next blog update. Bye for now!

..// Shadee Acres \\.. 2004

Photo Link: <..// Shadee Acres \\.. 2004 photos>
Video Link: <YouTube video... "Welcome To Shadee Acres">
With Halloween 2007 coming up fast (Halloween is REALLY big in Ireland), it was time to get the old stuff onto flickr... so here are some great memories from 2004 - the "Shadee Acres" Halloween Party at Wavell Heights...

Always trust the local guy

A gentle mist has descended tonight. That was after the soft rain today. There was really great trad music on the car radio as I took an early evening dash to Tesco's to buy some lightbulbs, to replace all the one's in our apartment that simultaneously blew this week... But apart from the lightbulbs blowing, it's been a good week, where Clare and I have both been quite busy. I suppose it's taken us a while in Ireland, but between Clare's work, and my involvement now in photography & trips with the Hash and other things going on, we feel like we 'belong' a bit more than before. We're constantly learning (and it does take time), how things work here, and there's somewhat a sense of community emerging in Annagassan too.
So the trusty Nissan Almera has got a few more miles left in her yet, according to the local mechanic at Dunleer who installed a new radiator for just 180 Euros (which is an absolute bargain I can tell you - I was quoted 100 Euros just to get the car towed out of Dunleer!) Now she drives better than before - mmm, I guess that swiss cheese radiator may have been causing problems for a while (in hindsight). While going through my own car "withdrawal", I rented a car for a week from Budget for 100 Euros. A great little black 5 door Polo that went quite fast on the motorway (hhmm). If you're planning on coming to the UK or Ireland and renting a car, you must, must check out this site - http://www.travelsupermarket.com/. This seems to be THE BEST price comparison site in Europe for car rental, hotels, flights, etc. Even flights from the UK to Australia can be compared here. Clare's boss couldn't believe that you could rent a car for a week for 100 Euros (about AUD 160) - and that was all inclusive too, no catches. I don't think you'd get a car for a week in Brisbane for that. But when it comes to travel bargains, of course nothing really beats Ryanair over here, where you can regularly get 20 Euro return flights to London (well under AUD 40) - that's the TOTAL fare!
Got some good feedback on my 6 photos at the photo comp the other night. There was some really great beginner work, needless to say I didn't win (I didn't expect to), but my highest scoring photo was Siena Window, which I think got a 9 (out of 10) from one of the judges. My 6 entries were pretty much 'point and shoot' efforts, and while the quality of cameras are improving and everyone is becoming an expert, you still need to know about the basics of photography - composition, light, shutter speeds, etc. So I have lots of learning to do. Sorry no new photos to add to this blog tonight, as I haven't had the time to take any more!
Only 2 weeks to go before the Australian Leprachaun's hit Vegas & Wyoming...

Tales of the week...

(photo credit: http://www.ruralgateway.org.uk/)

Autumn is well and truly upon us. The days are brilliant blue sky but it gets positively frosty as darkness falls. The grit trucks were out on the motorway last night and the temperature was 4.7c on our bedroom windowsill this morning, so it's time to rug up for winter. The fireworks places on the border have cranked up too, and shops are stocked with Halloween stuff. The whole fireworks thing is really weird as you're likely to hear the whiz and bang of a rocket being let off at any time, any place, from now till New Year!
The radiator in my car literally disintegrated late last week. I was driving up the M1 onramp about 10 minutes from home when steam started billowing out. There wasn't just one hole in it... it looked more like a smashed up honeycomb (eg. LOTS of holes!) So I managed to coast and hop the car down to a small town called Dunleer (about 1km away), then took the bus to Swords instead. We found the local mechanic on the weekend by asking people outside the pub. So that's where the old Nissan Almera is this week... Well, it does have 147,000 miles on the clock so we're looking at the options of getting a newer car, and I've got a rental car for the week in the meantime.
Clare has been in Dublin all week for the World Seafood Congress 07. Busy, busy, perhaps finding time for a tipple of rum or two with the Aussie visitors in the evening!
Not so many tractors on the road this week as the National Ploughing Championships are on (the equivalent of the Ekka in Brisbane). Loads of exhibitors, trade village & food and of course LOTS OF PLOUGHING! Couldn't see it for myself as they have it midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday) and we definitely don't get a holiday for it!
Bye all.

Planning, planning...

Colorado, Wyoming... Too many miles? I just can't help planning, and Google Maps makes it too easy. Got to see Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, etc, etc... Clare says one day she's going to book a trip for us that will be truly spontaneous and unplanned... What the?

Change Of Season...

Just a quick update this week, as we really didn't do a whole lot over the last weekend. Even the pub was quiet on Friday night. Clare is still working away furiously on her MBA, and I'm really getting into photography, having joined the Drogheda Photographic Club and getting my entries together for my first competition (for new or non-advanced photographers!) Those 6 entries are blogged directly from flickr following this post, which reminds me I really need to take some more Irish Pub Of The Week photos (I've fallen way, way behind with those), but I might also be helping out with a bit of an experimental photographic project in Drogheda in the next couple of weeks too...
On the homefront, the leaves are starting to fall from the trees and it hit 5 degrees the other morning. Signs of the months to come, after such a great summer (ok, an Irish summer!) The cockle pickers have been digging away on the Annagassan mudflats at low tide. We're pretty sure it's a commercial operation, and the workers are bussed in from somewhere. Starting to make plans for Christmas, etc.
Trust all is good in Brisbane town or wherever you are right now!

Angel

Angel
Originally uploaded by clare&joe

Barajas

Barajas
Originally uploaded by clare&joe