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.