Fabo food in Poland...

Clare has been Poland for a quick business trip...
"Fabo food - lots of bacon and pork, soup, cabbage (many types), beetroot products and yes many types of cheese for breakfast. Much vodka too, but I gave mine away. I figured after the red wine there was no need for 5 vodka shots. And to be ready for 8am breakfast of cheese and jellied fish. But the blokes took up the challenge along with very large glasses of Polish beer. Wonderful weather- really wonderful. Skies like Australia. Bag somehow got soaked in beer on the way home with Ryanair, and mobile phone nicked out of bag too."
No photos for this trip, but that problem will be addressed soon (says Joe)...
Also from Clare "I read some English paper on the flight between Stansted and Dublin last night - of a celebrity poker night which was to raise money for the “The Shane Warne Foundation”. Can you believe such a thing? £10,000 ENTRY PRICE. Full of Rothchilds, Guinesses (no pic of Titanic though), Goldsmiths incl Jeminina Khan and Hugh Grant. One pic was of Hugh holding onto Jeminina by the leg. I thought he should be doing that, as I am sure its “The Shane Warne Foundation for blonde skinny women with mobile phones”. Hugh was the best poker player amongst the non professionals but didn’t make the final round to win £100,000."
Raining again in Ireland...

Paul Mac Live @ Groove & Grape

Photo Link: <Paul Mac photos>
We sent to see Paul Mac at the Groove & Grape Festival at Conrad Treasury on Saturday night, lots of photos right here. Met Steve Chak and Carolyn there. Great little festival, in Queens Park next to the Casino, but ultimately a small crowd ~ I guess there are so many good things on to see these days. This was Paul Mac's first appearance since Splendour In The Grass, where he did an excellent set. He had all his support vocalists, and played Sweetness and Light again (from the early Itch-e and Scratch-e days) which got the crowd moving and must be one of the best ever Australian techno tracks.
Over to Ireland in 9 days now ~ booked some flights on Ryanair from Dublin to Cork for like 9 bucks + loads of taxes & surcharges, will every airline in the world go like this? Clare is over in Poland talking salmon, etc... I'm ready to go!

Drama in Dundalk...

Some amusing updates from Clare over the weekend...
There was a severe flood warning issued to coastal Ireland/UK over the weekend due to the combo of very high tides and a low pressure system sitting off the coast in the Atlantic. But luckily the low pressure system has stayed away until tonight. The river out the front has got very high but hasn't burst its banks. Loads of fish swimming around. I am not sure if they are just mullets or salmon!
But the two big dramas have occurred each at 5am. Sat at 5am, bloody fire alarms. Checked the flat, checked the hall for smoke and then went downstairs with Brian from no 32 (again). The alarm screen said fire in stairwell on floor 6. So we went up to check. But as we were reading the screen 3 young Polish kiddies sped down the stairs to the car park. I said "movement at the station" and thought they were evacuating. A lot more people woke up and checked things this time compared to last time. Met some more neighbours (Irish who blame the Eastern Euro types for all this disruption - I think she is right). Brian and I went to the 6th floor and found 4 shoes left on the stairs and cigarette buts. The smell of cigarette smoke was so bad I started to get asthma. And we could hear music from that level when we went outside. So we concluded that the Polish kiddies were having a party and smoking in the stairwell and that set it all off. But once the alarm is on, only the firemen can turn it off and they don't seem to have turned up. The main alarm stopped after a while but there is a low level alarm on the first floor that was still going yesterday arvo. Must drive the 1st floor mad. I got up at 11am and then the bloody alarms started again at 11.35am or so. Even I am hardly checking for smoke now. And if you turn the smoke alarms off in your flat then the alarm downstairs is triggered again. That's what everyone did last time. So if we have a real fire everyone will die in there beds with pillows over their ears.
It's getting cold now. Fog completely covering the Cooley Mountains and the river at the top of its banks and the temp is dropping and I have the ugh boots on for the first time at 3.30 in the arvo. I guess the Atlantic storm will come tonight...

A couple of wee updates...

Clare has been having fun (and exercise) with the Dublin Hash House Harriers. Here is another link to some photos from a couple of weekends back...
On the subject of photos, here are the last of the 2005 black and white photo links - Vietnam 2005 and Hoi An River, Vietnam 2005. That's it with the black and whites for now!
Joe is looking forward to leaving for Ireland... According to the desktop beer counter, there are 28 days, 9 hours, 54 minutes and 49 seconds to go, until boarding the first Qantas flight.

Black & White Photos...

Have just uploaded loads of Clare's black & white photos from 2005. They were so difficult to get processed in Brisbane, but in Ireland, no problem, and scanned onto a CD! So here are a LOT of them, uploaded onto Flickr websites...
Photo Link: <Greece 2005 photos>
Photo Link: <Gythio, Greece 2005 photos>
Photo Link: <UK 2005 photos>
The speed of uploading these photos made me fondly remember the (recent) days of having cable internet, now I'm on lousy ADSL... (Joe goes to make another cup of tea)...

Windy Wellington

Photo Link: <Wellington Family photos>
Photo Link: <Wellington Airport photos>
Joe went over to windy Wellington on the weekend of 18-22 August to visit Guy, Kerstin, Daniel & Patrick... Had a great time. Over on Air New Zealand (sweet) and back on Pacific Blue. Very smooth flights both ways, Air NZ better of course as you get a meal, a drink and a movie (The Sentinel). But of course you pay for the difference (and had 3 seats to myself both ways). Was a pretty wet and wild weekend (the weather, not the nightlife), with mega wind chill Phil... (say that in strong Kiwi accent). Saturday went for a drive in the Hutt Valley, then in the evening went to a great Asian fusion restaurant Chow in Petone (Clare would have died for the blue cheese wontons), followed by the funny movie Confetti at the little Lighthouse cinema down the street - great fun! Sunday went for a drive to Martinborough and had another nice cafe lunch (NZ is just chockers full of great food, and really reasonable). Then stopped at Kaitoke Regional Park (setting for Rivendell, LOTR trilogy), for a walk on the swing bridge. On the Monday rain kept falling making it hard to get around on the streets, especially as I was trying to keep a new camera dry (Pentax K100D), and it wasn't even mine! Took a look at the city, quick stroll through Te Papa, and wanted to take some photos in the airport/Mt Victoria area, but as the rain kept falling I decided to get a small car from Thrifty, then got some good pics of Air NZ planes from the seawall at the southern end of WLG Airport with the windchill burning my face. The car ended up being pretty convenient as I had to leave Lower Hutt about 4.30am on the Tuesday morning in the pouring rain, to get in the Pacific Blue queue (that's Blues Queue, not to be confused with Blues Clues), to catch the plane to Brisbane (usual tiresome Virgin high jinks on the plane, "in the cockpit today, we have Captain Kirk and Mr Spock", etc, etc...), to get collected from Brisbane International and be at the office 15 minutes before my start time at 10am... Brought home a lovely cold too. Cheers. Family photos and Wellington Airport photos from the weekend.