views and addiction

That's the view from the "top road" of Loch Corrib, or part thereof. Its another nice day so I thought I would nip up and take a panorama shot. The one  below is the Oughterard Pier

My next door ,Owen sems to be addicted to his power washer, maybe he is just cleaning everything prior to the onset of winter I'm not sure, but hes out there from dawn to dusk power washing. He has a cute wee English cocker Spaniel called Maggot who is ultra affectionate and comes running every time she sees me, I miss Jessy and hope she has been ok in the kennel in Australia, its only eight weeks till she arrives but saying that my furniture was only in transit for 6 weeks and that felt like years.

I had to put my car rego inspection back till Friday as the tax exemption letter hasnt arrived in the post yet, this is Ireland and the letter may have been sent to Mr Thairp Old Town Appartments or Abainne Rhubhe or maybe they arent bothering till new year. Did I mention there are no post codes here ?

Ohh before I forget, I've found out one of the things wrong with having a huge house, if you lose something the search area is huge, it takes a hugh amount of time to find the object, you are hughly knackered walking up and down stairs looking and I suppose hughly relieved when you find it, today I had lost my wallet, tomorrow, who knows, but at this rate either my memory will improve or I shall be up for the Oughterard Triathalon next spring.

I got my second PC up and running again too :)

nice day

Well its a bonny day so I took a ride on my bike, I have been doing short distances ie up to the shop etc lately but this is the first time I have cycled any distance since I broke my elbow. Was a pefect day for it sunny and mild and calm but my elbow was sore to say the least, I get a lot of pain from it anyway normally its the first conscious thought in the morning and last at night. I am excersising regardless of it if its not healed after 10 months I think this could be best it will get. I put my gym together today, it took four of us in Sydney, well actually it took Paddy, Blake and I and a customer who popped in and stayed but today was much easier, fewer people to trip over for starters helped. Below is a view from the pier in Oughterard that I cycled to

My next door neighbour is taking his boat out of the water this afternoon as the fishing season is over for another year, it would be great having a wee boat for the loch but I'm kinda saving for the motor sailer yacht at the moment, when I say kinda thats because I'm not actually earning anything yet lol, my next thing after the car gets registered is to have some cards printed out and put some notices up around the place and maybe do a letter drop. I have registered a business name  "Robbo's" and suppose I should have a website sooner rather than later. Anyway I'm off to start on that web site lol instead of talking to myself on here. Ohh I got the windows xp pc up and running so am only one down at present.

All moved

Well everything is moved in and it feels like home I cant believe how much stuff we own, this is a 6 bed house, huge, and we have filled it. Russel comes on a week Friday with number 1 dog and John and I finished off making a fence to keep him in.

The hall

Sitting room

Sitting room

Snug

                                                                              Dining room

It has been dry this weekend and I just finished mowing the lawn, you never know when the next chance will be not like Sydney where most days are gardening days. My two computers didnt fair well in the move and neither will boot, I think the vista pc's Mother board has blown and the graphics card on the win xp pc is also cactus. I have to make a deal with a computer company in Galway for my spares etc so hope to secure a 10% discount from them as my prefered supplier. 10% off a new pc will be first transaction and the computers that came from Australia can be spare parts.



house contents arrive

Well everything arrived on time and went well which is amazing :) John and my neighbour Mark helped me all afternoon emptying boxes and unwrapping moving furniture and we all had a chineese carry out for dinner. I drove the car out of the container onto a car recovery truck which then lowered me to the ground. It was great to have a helping hand and the house is great with the furniture in.

furniture arrives tomorrow

Well tomorrow is the big day, the car arrives at between 0930 and 1000 at Galway and it has to get unloaded onto a loading bay then the lorry carries on with the container to Oughterard where the removalist and his van will be waiting to unload the contents into the house, I have an itemised list and also put the contents required in each room on the door on a list along with the box numbers, everything had to be numbered for the customs. John, Angies brother is coming to help unpack and I might rope my neighbour in too if he isnt hiding under a bush 50 miles away.

I have been making mosaics the latest designs are on mdf board I have cut to shape, theres a bit of a knack to it but I'm getting there.

is it summer again?

Well its a bonny day here :) summer has returned so I ran around taking pictures of some of the flowers in the garden just incase it blows a gale tonight and thats the end of them. so heres a few things that are still blooming in the garden.

Apparently this is the time to plant daffoldils for next spring, did you notice my wee typo there? daffoldils mine will probably fold right enough. Planting them I should plant a hundred bulbs I think. I read somewhere that The best way to garden is to put on a wide-brimmed straw hat and some old clothes. And with a hoe in one hand and a cold drink in the other, tell somebody else where to dig.

No news of the container yet, apparently the customs official may want to contact me and "make friends" gulp !!! It would be great if its a nice day when the furniture arrives and everything stays dry.





Time Flies

Well thats another weeked over, this week hopefully will see the Subaru and the house contents here. Its going to be a big job unpacking things and getting everything set up with new plugs but it will be really comfy in here after its done. I hope Angie's Brother John pops up again but if he has work on I shall have to manage, I might ask my neighbour if hes not doing anything and I need a lift. Hes just moved from Cairns in Queensland and I am letting him use my internet for free (because I;m a really excelent neighbour and he was having to drive to Galway to get his emails etc) he seems like a nice bloke and hopefully they will put the phone on in his house as he is thinking of renting elsewhere if they dont.

The leaves are starting to turn colour now and it wont be long untill the nights draw in and winter is here, it will be about 12 years since I was outside Australia for winter so in some ways I'm kinda looking forward to it. Summer of 2010 was by no means a scorcher but we did have periods of good and bad weather. The month of June was mainly warm dry and sunny especially in the West of the country. July turned out to be by far the wettest month of the Summer touching record wetness in some places and August brought a return of sunshine but not as warm as June, though the Northern half of the country had a lot more rain than those in the South. I hope to have a yacht by June next year and will have summer holidays afloat in June, so all things going to plan I'll aquire a boat around March and get used to her during April and May before sailing around the West coast of Ireland and up the West of Scotland. It will be about 270 mls to Oban from Galway

I have made a wee lean to to keep the bikes and lawnmower dry, its only a tarp so not sure if it will survive any gales but its a wee bit shelter, this huge house has no garage and the storage is down in the basement, if it was mine I'd put up a garden shed. There is a fenced off part for the bins and fuel tank so I've put the tarp over that.

In Chile, rescuers say they've completed the drilling of the first part of a shaft which will be used to bring the men trapped in the collapsed mine back to the surface.

The 12 inch wide hole has reached the cavern where the men are trapped.
A larger drill bit will now be used to make the shaft wide enough to pull the men to safety.
A special meal is being sent down to the miners so they can celebrate Chile's bicentenary, but the authorities say they will not be allowed to have the red wine which traditionally accompanies the feast. Probably incase they try climbing up the 12 inch hole.

Pope Benedict XVI is in Britain for the first time in 28 years he apologised for the "unspeakable crimes" committed by Catholic priests who sexually abused children in a speech at Westminster Cathedral, next move would be not to hide the offenders. On a lighter note did you know he was named for the patron saint of putting hollandaise on poached eggs. Blinkin heck I forgot where I was for a second maybe its wise not to do pope jokes Rob.

sun is out wee birds singing and

Well the sun is out and its a bonny day, all the wee birdies are singing away and crapping all over my decking, oops maybe could have put that more delicately Rob, ochh well its written now. The good thing about blogging is you can always use the backspace key if you think you have gone over the score with your last scentence and delete things for posterity. I think I may have situated my birdfeeder in the wrong spot as its more popular than Marks and Spencers and I'm thinking of selling Guano part time until the seaguls discover the feeder, then maybe fulltime, the feeder is mounted on the side of my decking. Prospective customers could be gardeners and hunters as Guano manure is an effective fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient due to its high levels of phosphorus  and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. The Guana Cormorant has historically been the most important producer of guano; its guano is richer in nitrogen than guano from other seabirds. Other important guano producing species off the coast of Peru are the Peruvian Pelican and the Peruvian Booby. Thank gawd there are no pelicans here. Yet.

I have been erecting a fence to make the yard dog escape proof, right, I'm as good at fencing as I'd be at Elephant training, I was going to buy the fenceless fence ( radio transmitter that give the dog a wee shock when it strays too close to the boundry) but on further googling it may be a bad thing as the dog when it receives the shock accosiates it with whatever is on its mind at that instant, not nessasarlily escaping the garden. I can see me having to chase Sheenas dog Gus around the village, which will be great excersise no doubt but maybe not great for Anglo Irish relationships if I'm swearing a lot.

Heart attacks and reflections

Ajax midfielder Evander Sno had be to revived by a defibrillator on three occasions after suffering a cardiac arrest during last night’s reserve game at Vitesse Arnhem I can only imagine how he feels this morning as he recovers, Evander is only 28, I was 44 when I had my heart attack, he must be fit, being a proffessional footballer, I wasnt, being a layabout. He passed out and they had to use a defibrulator to resucsitate him I was concious through mine but apart from those differences he has to go through the same recuperation I suppose.

When you are having a heart attack and concious, in my experience, you aren't scared, I was more concerned about how much of an inconvenience I was causing my parents, however when you start the recovery you are concerned about everything, I had to have a defibrulator fitted due to arythmias and had a series of shocks fom it, which affected my mental concerns on a huge scale, but I think anyone that has a life threatening moment, as serious as a heart attack, is affected in the long term. I had to go to a Dr to help me out with my anxiety and I still get moments of irrational thoughts, most of which I blog about. No Rob they arent irrational m8 they are just silly, as is, talking to oneself, especially if you use heaps of commas.

One thing I do know is that we arent here for a long time really, so why not be comfortable and live life to its fullest, I was never one for long time planning anyway.

I see in the news here Taoiseach Brian Cowen has denied giving a live radio interview while drunk or hungover, Bob Hawke has denied ever giving one sober and he had the helm for 3000 days. I mean whats so wrong about talking while innebriated ? wait a min Rob what is that I smell on your breathe is that peppermint over beer? hic

Tonight for dinner I'm cooking chicken breasts baked with parma ham and goats cheese, actually its not Parma ham its air dried ham from the local butcher that has won awards, and potatoe and onion ducks egg fritata. The oven in this house is great 6 gas burners and 2 electric ovens and grills. I had a play with the central heating too and its really controlable , has 3 zones with thermostats a timer and each radiator has also its own control. Run by oil it seems to be good.

Ohh we dont give way here we yeild

Ohh below is my first attempt at mosaic its meant to be a lorikeet not a multi coloured football btw.

Ryan Air

Thats the CEO of RyanAir Mr O'Leary making a goose of himself and what a rubbish company he has too, not only is he argueing that a co pilot is unnessasary on short flights he also wants us to pay to use his toilets aboard and in the paper today I see that the $80 fee (payable in advance for traveling with a musical instrument) is for checking it into the cargo hold, two schoolkids, with no other hand luggage the other day were asked to pay $300 each to buy seats for their instruments, be different if they were trying to get bassoons or double bass on, I've travelled before and some folks manage to get huge bags on as hand luggage.

Occasionally, airline flight attendants make an effort to make the "in-flight safety lecture" a bit more entertaining. Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported:

"As we prepare for takeoff, please make sure your tray tables and seat backs are fully upright in their most uncomfortable position."
"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 6 ways out of this airplane..."
"Your seat cushions can be used for floatation, and in the event of an emergency water landing, please take them with our compliments."
"We do feature a smoking section on this flight; if you must smoke, contact a member of the flight crew and we will escort you to the wing of the airplane."
"Smoking in the lavatories is prohibited. Any person caught smoking in the lavatories will be asked to leave the plane immediately."
Pilot - "Folks, we have reached our cruising altitude now, so I am going to switch the seat belt sign off. Feel free to move about as you wish, but please stay inside the plane till we land... it's a bit cold outside, and if you walk on the wings it affects the flight pattern."
And, after landing: "Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."
As we waited just off the runway for another airliner to cross in front of us, some of the passengers were beginning to retrieve luggage from the overhead bins. The head attendant announced on the intercom, "This aircraft is equipped with a video surveillance system that monitors the cabin during taxiing. Any passengers not remaining in their seats until the aircraft comes to a full and complete stop at the gate will be strip-searched as they leave the aircraft."
Once on a Southwest flight, the pilot said, "We've reached our cruising altitude now, and I'm turning off the seat belt sign. I'm switching to autopilot, too, so I can come back there and visit with all of you for the rest of the flight."
As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Washington National, a lone voice comes over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella...WHOA..!
"Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead area. Please place the bag over your own mouth and nose before assisting children or adults acting like children."
"As you exit the plane, please make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."
"Last one off the plane must clean it."
And from the pilot during his welcome message: "We are pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry...Unfortunately none of them are on this flight...!"
Heard on Southwest Airlines just after a very hard landing in Salt Lake City: The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump and I know what ya'll are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault.....it was the asphalt!"
An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, give a smile, and a "Thanks for flying XYZ airline." He said that in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally everyone had gotten off except for this little old lady walking with a cane. She said, "Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?" "Why no Ma'am," said the pilot, "What is it?" The little old lady said, "Did we land or were we shot down?"
Overheard on an American Airlines flight into Amarillo, Texas, on a particularly windy and bumpy day. During the final approach the Captain was really having to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant came on the PA and announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo. Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"
Another flight Attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."
After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced: "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."
From a Southwest Airlines employee.... "Welcome aboard Southwest Flight XXX, to YYY. To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seatbelt, and if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised. In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with two small children, decide now which one you love more."
Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but they'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines

Twitching

Dont worry Mum I have not developed a weird twitch or muscle spasm, I'm blogging today about all serious birdwatchers keeping a life list of bird species that they see (or “twitch”) during their birding pursuits. Keeping a life list becomes an interesting and challenging obsession. In tracking down target species there are no guarantees that a particular bird will stay in one area or even turn up when it is expected. Just to catch a glimpse of a rarity can be a real buzz, but to get a “crippling” view (i.e. to really see the bird close up and for a good long viewing time) would be the ultimate in sheer delight for a birdwatcher, OK I copied that from a website btw I'm just watching mine out of a kitchen window and getting a "crippling view" sounds sore so I'm not going there. I have seen some nice wee birds I think one is a starling and another a great tit I'm sure I've seen them in Australia, maybe at Bondi Beach, no that was a seagul Rob.

Its a nice day here and I'm hopeing it stays dry enough to get the grass cut, the landlord left a honda lawnmower here and John and I spent about an hour trying to start it, had the plug out and carbi off before we discovered it has a wee handle that has to be held on to or the engine wont fire lol. So much for my marine engineers ticket and Johns gardening experience lol.

Well its cut and I've been shopping and collected the mail, got my certificate of company registration, of course its at the wrong address as was the Eircom tellephone letter yesterday they addressed it to 9 Abhainn Ruibhe which is the Gaelic for Owen Riff or (sulfur river) so named because sulphur stones were found in the river in 1666 and 1667, a period of extraordinary drought. Stones of a similar type were also found when the Board of Works was deepening the river in 1960.The name of the river was anglicised to Owenriff. Thing is the posty doesnt speak Gaelic so everything addressed to Abhainn Ruibhe ends up with an incorrect postal address sticker on it and someone at Eircom is really nationalistic and promptly changes the address back into Gaelic so the mail is often late lol. Probably anyone sending me mail should send it to Rob Shairp, 9 Owen Riff, or Abhainn Ruibhe, or Sulfer river, Oughterard, Galway ohh and theres no postcodes here did I mention that?

Theres also a thing called a "Twitchathon"

Well well

Well the broadband internet is installed and working to be sure and the sky tv too, so I'm hot to trot. Well actually I'm hot to sit on my bum watching tv and chatting / blogging. NOT. Actually I've been very good walking every day and dieting, it wont be long till my bike arrives and the home gym too.

Ireland is kinda quaint, in a kinda quaint way, the driving licence here for example is photo of the holder glued to this bit of paper that says this person can drive, my new credit union passbook is a plastic sleeve where they placed a printed reciept of the 50 Euros I used to open it, and the doctors perscription is a bit of paper handwritten with the drugs required and a stamp for the surgery which could be forged using a potatoe, of which there are a few here. On the other hand to enter a bank you need to enter through two successive doors with entry buttons where they check you out, xray you and measure you up and enter you into the database of people who have visited a bank in Ireland, then when you get in and try to open an account its like trying to skin an apple using a spade.

I've been warned by two people now "dont tell the Irish too much cos one in four will take a lend of you and use the info against you" I havent a clue what info I was going to divulge that they could use agin me but hey thanks for the information, ohh and my last tax return was a total fabrication. Probably one in four is quite a good average too.

football and feeding birds

Well my mosaic football is looking a wee bit like a lorikeet ? Theres more to making a mosaic than  I thought lol I was under the impression that if the Greeks could do it then it should be a dawddle. Bit like the Irish win over Andorra at the football, Scotland played as normal , hadnt a shot on goal for the first 45 mins before they went one down to Liechtenstein sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeze, ranked 100 places below Scotland at 141 in the FIFA standings and with a population of 36,000 less than the 37,000 crowd inside Hampden, they threw everybody behind the ball in a bid to protect their lead.

I bought a bird feeder about a week ago and the wee birds have just discovered it and theres a fight on for territory

We stopped for lunch at a wee place called Moycoulin, which is on the road from Galway to here, the other day and they had videos for hire and old ones for sale,  2 for 5 Euro, so not having a tv reception we bought 4 to watch over the weekend, the first one we tried was in French with subtitles and called Legacy, the speel on the dvd didnt mention it was French and said " An intruiguing Thriller in true Hitchcockian manner" I didnt realise they meant Hamish Hitchcock from Dunblane, who is famous for his directing of the 1935 sheep dog trials. Out of ten this movie scored minus 5.

 The second movie called "Limits of Control" was "Jarmusch's latest is a star strewn Antonioni- Esque Bond Movie... Dazzling" NOT, Bond is a bandy black dude with one facial expression, he goes through the whole movie as if he has just stepped in dog doo, this movie scores minus 25.

John, enjoyed one called "Tenderness" with Russel Crowe but I've watched it twice now and still dont know what its about. It scores 2 out of 10.

The last one was called "Thick as Thieves" with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas it wasnt much chop either to be honest I give it 4 out of ten. So all in all the 10 Euro investment in entertainment was well worth it as I got something bloggable from them. All four are going to the Charity shop this morning.

Credit union

Well I joined a credit union today in the village here, they are a bit different to Aussie ones as they dont give you a check book or bank card or anything? I thought I'd do as I did in Australia and run my business through it, but that may be harder than I thought. The Irish credit union movement was founded as a result of the efforts of three dynamic, pioneering and entrepreneurial people. In Dublin in the 1950's, they witnessed the effects of high unemployment: sickness, malnutrition, money-lending, hunger, poor clothing, poor housing, and inevitably, emigration of one parent or of the whole family. In addition, state unemployment benefits were low and did not last indefinitely leaving many families in abject poverty. The founders recognised the root of the problem as lying in the scare availability and poor management of money and resolved to identify a system that would allow people to gain more control over their finances.

I am having a bash at mosaics and have started doing one of a Lorikeet theres a bit of a knack to it and at the moment my lorikeet looks like a multi coloured football. My first attempt was of a Galway hooker and is drying at the moment it also looks a bit like a football. I may try doing a multi coloured football next.

11 pubs and a trip to Roundstone and Dogsbay

John is staying with us this weekend and we went for a drive to a wee place called Dogsbay at  Roundstone as my neighbours wife was saying its her favourite spot for a swim. The weather started off dry but we have had a shower this afternoon. Roundstone is a quaint wee fishing village with tourist traps, one lady owner of a wee place that sells jewlery was hinting to John that she was looking for a hubby she must have been in her 70's but strangly enough John seems keen. 

The wee bay that she likes to go swimming at is at Dogsbay its a bonny spot and Angie had her shorts just in case, and she said the icebergs werent putting her off in the slightest but she didn't go in today.

There were people kite surfing just before I took this shot.

This is Conn son of the sea or "Connemara" and below is Angela daughter of the Grant in a similar  pose

I counted the number of pubs in Oughterard and there are 11, the population of Oughterard is 1305 people here so thats about 118.6 per pub, 24 percent of Irish people said that they had not consumed alcohol in the past 12 months so thats only actually 1002 people who drink so thats 91 per pub. Over 27 percent of Irish people surveyed, said they consumed alcohol about two or three times a week, while 7 percent consumed alcohol four times a week, so four times a week the pub could expect 6.37 patrons and twice a week you could expect 25 people in. OK Rob thanks for that information, what is your point? well maybe a bakery would be a better idea as a business proposition.

Owenriff river

Well theres a wee river at the bottom of the garden here, which will no doubt be a raging torrent when this weather breaks, ohh its beautifull again today btw, I followed it a few hundred meters downstream and came to the Oughterard Fishing Club, loads of what I would consider narrow gutted, simulated clinker type. Lots of them are half full of water or worse so I shall make enquiries as to if there are any for sale at a great price, the loch has hundreds of islands on it fresh for the exploreing and I can think of at least one dog that would like to tag along.

I googled fishing on Loch Corrib and "Lough Corrib is one of the best game fisheries in the world and it is a wonderful place to experience what Ireland has to offer both in terms of the game angling and the hospitality of the local people." thats me btw local. All I need is a wee boatie and I'll be a local fishing guide, lol the fact that I know hoot all aboot freshwater fishing is irrelavant I have the gift o the gab to be sure. The best wetfly fishing is at the beginning of April, for about two weeks, and again during the Mayfly period, May 16th to 30th. Dapping the natural mayfly is very popular in late May / early June, see I sound real proffesional ehh, wonder what "Dapping" is

Owenriff towers

Well an exciting day here, O'Reilly the builder is coming to install an extractor fan, I'm so hopeing it doesnt need a rolled steel joist, ok thats a subtle reference to the Fawlty Towers episode "The Builders" just so your all on the same wavelength as me so to speak to be sure. He was meant to be here at 0830 but thats Irish time so it could even be tomorrow or he might not even bother. Also today at some point the UPC telly mob are coming to install the tv, you cant get a picture here with a normal arial, hey I shouldnt have to pay a licence ehh if theres no reception in the place? They may arrive on Saturday. The UPC tv isnt as good as Sky TV but Angie signed up for a yr with them and theres a E100 penalty if we change so I guess its UPC4ME I'm aiming not to watch as much tv here anyway and do more hobbies etc instead.

Its another dry bonny day here I havent a clue whats happened to the weather, here was me buying wellies and oilskins and it turns out Ireland has the climate of the Algarve to be sure, ok I'm pushing it a wee bit and its bound to rain now ehh lol. Ok where did I leave Stubbs's telephone number?

Phones and the like

Well I still have no phone or broadband or tv set up as the old phone is still connected and they wont / cant do anything until its disconnected, lol apparently and I have this from the horses mouth to be sure to be sure, it takes 24 hours to disconnect the broadband, 24 hours to disconnect the phone and 24 hours to disconnect something else, I cant imagine why it takes so long but perhaps its because there are no postcodes here, did I mention that before? sure I did I did. Did I say "to be sure" to be sure I did too. Yawn.

Well its still dry and a nice enough day with it, I actually went out and bought a hose today as the plants look dry. No doubt as soon as I water them it will rain. Angie has signed up to do her yachtmasters day skipper ticket and that arrived int he post today, its actually quite in depth coastal navigation by the last sections, I was impressed until I had a thought, "what good is a basic navigator", none at all is the answer, its a case of a little knowledge isnt enough.

The garbage and recycle bin stickers arrived today, over here there are no water/ garbage rates instead you pay a private contractor to take away the rubbish it costs E220 for a yr for a 240lr general waste bin and a large recycling one for paper and tins, they are collected on allternate weeks, in Australia they collected the garbage weekly, in 2 weeks it would have walked itself to the dump in the Summer.

The Quiet Man bridge is situated between Oughterard and Maam Cross on the road to Clifden, Connemara. It was over this bridge that John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara crossed to his ancestral home "White O' Morn" in the 1952 film " The Quiet Man".

Well its another bonny day here, pretty soon the garden will need watering at this rate, I have to buy a hose and petrol can at some point, theres a lawnmower left here and I have to look after the gardens, John, Angies brother could be coming for a visit this weekend hes a professional gardener but the forecast looks dreich. He may end up staying with us for a while.

I got a dvd player yesterday and joined the local video library as the TV still isnt on, Ireland is great but sheeeze its slower than a wet weekend in Stornoway when it comes to buerocracy I have to wait till the phone is turned off before I can get it reconnected and tv put on, you would think that could be done pretty much instantaniously but nope lol day 3 and the tel is still connected. I want to get broadband on but they need a tel number to check availability as this address doesnt exist on their database, no postcodes here doesnt help lol. The car insurance folks AVIVA wont respond to my phone calls but apparently you have a months grace to get the insurance done ? weird but hey its Ireland. Next thing I need to do is sort out insurance for the Subaru and plates gawd knows how long that will take.