More bear handlers needed.

Well today is the Irish general election and apparently the voting numbers are well up on normal, In Australia we had to vote or were fined which didnt seem very democratic. In other countries however thousands join 'Day of Rage' across the Middle East were they prefer to shoot each other Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine are all at it. I hope one party gets elected here instead of the usual coalition where nothing can get through parlament, anyway less politics Rob. 
Guinness sales dropped 8% in Ireland and Northern Ireland in the six months to Dec. 31 then Russel and Keith arrived in Oughterard and the sales took off. Big weekend for rugby here, NSW v Queensland England v France and Scotland v Ireland,are my chosen games, go NSW, France and Scotland, mind you if the froggies get beat I shant cry.

I need more people to photo Charity the bear so anyone who would like to recieve her and take her picture please email me at robshairp@hotmail.com for more information check out the website http://www.robbos.ie/charity.htm

The unnamed Formula One Team sacked its entire pit crew yesterday. The announcement followed their decision to take advantage of the UK Government's Youth Opportunity Scheme and employ people from Liverpool.
The decision to hire the teenagers was brought on by a recent documentary on how unemployed youths from Liverpool area were able to remove a set of wheels in less than six seconds without proper equipment, whereas the formula ones existing crew can only do it in eight seconds with millions of euros worth of high tech equipment.
Prime Minister Tony Blair went on record as saying this was a bold move by the the Formula 1 management, which demonstrated the international recognition of the UK under New Labour. As most races are won and lost in the pits, the unnamed team now have the advantage over every team.
However, Formula one may have got more than they bargained for. At the crew's first practice session the Liverpool pit crew successfully changed the tyres in under six seconds, but within 12 seconds they had re-sprayed, re-badged, and sold the vehicle to the ***** Team for eight bottles of Stella, a kilo of speed and some photos of M******'s bird in the shower.

trees down

Well there were a couple of dozen trees down today after a bit of a breeze last night, reminded me of one Christmas back when I was a lumberjack hehehe this sounds like a made up story but its not, anyway I used to use old engine oil to lubricate the saw chain and would carry a jerrycan up with me to where I was working, filled with oil,  I also had a jerry can for petrol and the two cans plus a canting bar, for rolling logs I used to leave up there instead of taking up every day. I had a few days off over Christmas and when I got back half the forest had wind blown on top of my cans. It took weeks to cut back through to were I had been working previous to Christmas. Felling windblown trees is very dangerous as the branches store energy and when you cut through the main lumber the huge root divit falls back into its ground and the branches force the tree to jump back.

Got a busy afternoon here away to volunteer to fix up stuff for old folks lol I'll probably break more than I fix but hey its the thought that counts, then I have the solicitor to check out laws for setting up the bike hire business at 1600 then Mark the next door neighbour is coming round for a games night, darts and chess and maybe a few beers and the rugby on in the background as I have the house to myself.

I was dreaming about sailing boats last night but not wee tupperware ones the one in my dream was more like the flippin Bounty had all these storage areas and loads of potential lol. This house here will be good for keeping the boat and running my hire business from as it has electric gates and a huge drive/ paved area infact the whole front garden is paved, probably the owners have 15 cars. Talking about cars some good advice is not to swear at other car users, Eddie was driving down the road and a met a car coming the other way. Although there was room to pass easily, Eddie forced the oncoming car to slow down and wound down his window and shouted 'Pig'. The other driver looked in his rear view mirror and swore at Eddie. Then his car hit the pig.

technology rools

Well the neighbours invited us round for dinner on Sunday night and we had a lovely meal with them and another couple, the man was an eye surgeon and not sure what his wife does. Was a great spread with lobster as a starter and game pie for main I made a wee blooper mistaking mallard duck, or pigeon, or pheasant for venison (there was no venison in it  lol) so from then on if I required something passed ie the cheese platter I would ask for the venison. What a "goose" ehh, I'm sure it was the prescence of all the eniment surgeons. Anyway the house is perfect, only thing its missing in my view, is A view, ohh and some acerage apart for that its a cracker of a home. The reason I'm rabbiting on about this was (rabbit !!! giggle) there was a comment about how they didnt like google maps and especially the street view, I love it myself and heres another application of how good it is, my iphone has a wee program called Motion x GPS which can track where I go walking so click here to see todays ramble through the woods  http://maps.google.com/?t=p&z=15&ll=53.386639,-9.231613&q=http://share.gps.motionxlive.com/shr/x/kmz/d3102eaecb2a834fb498b71536516a7a I didnt go as far as I normally do as it was raining.

Wishes go out to everyone affected by the earthquake in NZ those in the way oif the cyclone in Australia and the Lybians that are being bombed by their own leader. What a world we live in ehh.

I'm again looking at getting a boat, its called "Isa Ma Bota" which I think may have a name change at some point, anyway she is a really clean example of the Magregor 26 X trailer sailer and the seller is including all sorts of extras to woo me like a dingy, hand held VHF, Weber barbi, and a GPS that werent on the initial inventory.

Thats her without her mast on, they used her as a powerboat most of the time which is great cos the sails haven't been hardly used, the reason I would like this particular brand of boat is that I can store her on the trailer at the house and not have to worry about bad weather, she is easy to tow/ launch and retrieve, light with the water ballast out, fast under sail and very fast under power to get back before the weather gets up, and she also has next to no draught with the keel up and water ballast out so the whole lake here is explorable/ fishable. Cant wait.

Charity visits Vancouver Island and Hawaii

Well the bear has been on her travels again, she has done now over 23,000 miles and her last stop was Hawaii http://www.robbos.ie/hawaii.htm . She is off now to Sydney for champers on the harbour ? who knows, maybe she will even get her pic taken with one of Tracy's Possum pals.

I was out and got a quote for bikes on Friday so as soon as I can get the money I'm investing in ten and opening up the Robbo's cycle side of the business, already there are a few tourists around so I may even put the bikes on credit just to get things going.

Also getting one of these and a carrier for the back of the car so I can deliver the bikes if needs be.

I'm not sure what sort of child seat to go for though, I saw one that had the child on a seat that was suspended on to of the crossbar so basically  the child was between your arms as you held the handle bars and I thought thats a good safe way to do it but apparently the childseat aft of the normal seat is better?

Rugby, Berlusconi, Ryan air and a big sheeeze

Well whats been happening? not a lot here my two teams got beaten in the rugby, Scotland didnt turn up at Murrayfield and the game was awarded to Wales and Ireland didnt manage to keep their intensity up enough to beat France. Its a bit dreich here today but I'll get togged up and take the dogs out shortly.

This is Ireland so theres not much good economic news apart from the company tax is to not be increased, if they had then companies would have left on the next Ryan air flight.  Around 100 Belgian students have been ordered off a Ryanair plane in Lanzarote. The airline says police were called when the students 'became disruptive and refused to comply with crew instructions' over a fee for outsized luggage shortly before leaving on flight to Charleroi on Saturday. I wonder why Ryan air waited till they were strapped into their seats and the aircraft was in the air before telling them the flight would cost double as their carry on bags were more than 10 inches long.hewy should have watched this utube clip before booking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3so6AJe4UQ

In Italy hundreds of thousands of women took part in rallies on Sunday to defend their dignity and protest over the underage prostitution scandal that has rocked the 74-year-old  (Berusconi's) centre-right government. He shrugged off the protest and was heard to mutter "they probably just wanted to get a glimpse of my bum" Ok I made that bit up, I was bored. Hes a better liar than me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0VkqDGZsz4

The cheapest tickets to go see England vs Ireland are 325 Euros sheeeeeeeeeze.

paintings

Well I did another couple of quick oil paintings

If my brother in law John comes to live with us here, I'm going to ask him to try selling them along with his stuff on a stall at the local weekly markets. Its hard to put a price on paintings, if you asked for an hourly rate they could sometimes cost an arm and a leg and folks dont seem willing to pay, maybe its cos your stuff is rubbish Rob?

I have had a couple of jobs on the computer fixing this week and just had a call from the volounteering mob to ask if I would be interested in doing repair work in folks homes, lol I didnt want to say that I'm not the best odd job person as I tend to jump straight in with the hammer but hey I'm doing it for free ehh.

It has been a typical West coast day today, drizzly, but that doesnt stop Gus , Jessy and I doing our wood walks, I very rarely miss a day walking in the woods and clock up over 2 miles every outing, must be good for my heart and the dogs love it. Another thing I have to look into is commercialising my Subaru, at the moment the road tax is E2100 per year and if I get it registered as a commercial vehicle it costs next to nothing. I would have to remove the back seats, level the foot wells and put up a cargo barrier, sometimes the back side windows need to be blacked out as well but its the only way I can afford to keep the car and we have the Ford if anyone comes to visit they can be run around in it.

RIP Gary Moore

Was sorry to hear that Gary Moore, one of my favorite guitarists, died over the weekend :( I just watched a gig of his last week on Sky, it was on about 0830 in the morning, not a normal time for me to sit down and watch the tv but i was looking for a music channel to play as I did my chores and happened on him and I ended  up late doing my chores lol. He was from N Ireland and I was kinda hopeing I could have gone seen him in concert now we are close to his old stompin ground.

Finished the Owenriff boats picture at last

I'm pleased with it and have started another of a Galway hooker (Boat, not Hairy Mary) and I'm using the palette knife rather than fiddly wee brushes as I tend to get carried away with detail.

Theres a destinct kind of Spring feeling in the air today a few showers and sunny intervals but mild and claming down again after the storms we had last few days.

signs and more signs

Well every tree / post beside the road that doesn't have a real estate sign on it now has a vote for me one. There appears to be 6 political parties in the running Fianna Fail (certainly failed last time) Fine Gael, Labour, Green Party, Sein Fein and the United Left Alliance. The only candidate I know is Cllr Thomas Welby as he introduced himself at the local small business community meeting I went to, seems a nice bloke and his mustache also seemed friendly (I thought at first it could have been a small hamster).

Its been the windiest week since I arrived in Ireland but not a patch on Queensland which was battered by Cyclone Yasi, I saw a boarded up window on a shop in Cairns that had "kiss my yasi" painted on it, such is the Aussie spirit and I'm sure they will bounce back quickly, thankfully I havent heard any reports of any deaths.

I have a pal in Ontario Canada who has been shovelling snow for the last week, I see there was up to 40 cm's forecast, thats a lot of snow. I'd be requiring a snow blower being a bloke and liking toys.

the Dail is dissolved

The Dail was dissolved today, sounds like an Indian disprin ehh but its the Irish parlament, Bifo made his speech commenting on how he feels as he is leaving politics, " In every government department in which I served, my overriding objective was to do my best by the Irish people" he is now going to rebury his head in the sand as he hasnt had any offers to be a  financial advisor apart from one from the Raving Loony party in the UK.

A Russian diplomat has been asked to leave the country after a garda investigation showed that Russia's intelligence services had forged Irish passports for use by a US-based spy ring. Irish passports are highly prized by secret agents and terror groups because Ireland's neutral status means that its citizens are welcome in most countries.

My Camela is bloken, it was a wee digital Panasonic Lumix which gave good results I recon, I'd love to get a digital SLR but they are out of reach at the moment and also Angie has a Fuji FinePix 8 MP that I have commandeered, I'll have to experiment with it to get the full potential from the camera.

Well that was yesterdays blog I forgot to post it, soooooo I had to google forgetfulness of course, Occasional memory lapses like forgetting where the car is parked are not signs of early Alzheimer's, but doctors still aren't entirely sure how much forgetfulness indicates a greater risk of developing the full-blown disease.

The problem isn't that you can't remember where you put your keys from time to time, it's that once you find the keys, you still can't recall that you put them in that spot. The problem isn't forgetting a single appointment, but a pattern of blanking on important events or responsibilities.
Or, as Dr. Barry Gordon of the Johns Hopkins Memory Clinic puts it: "Miss an exit on the highway once, that happens. Miss it five times and that’s another story." Ok what was I blogging about? Whats a bog again? bugger me I've burnt the mince!!!

Glad to be home

Well I was only away for a week and I know I'm always slagging the Irish about postcodes etc but it was nice to get back to Oughterard  yesterday. I had my first workout in 8 days and a good walk and didn't put on any weight while I was away, according to the scales, so am happy about that. The dog kennel owner had a laptop with corrupted windows files on it that wasn't working so I have sorted that up today and will get some money off the dogs accommodation last week.

Its a bit windy today and rain this afternoon clearing to a fine day tomorrow, Oughterard seems to get a lot less wind than I was expecting. Queensland is expecting Cyclone Yasi, expected to be a classified 'category 4' by the time it reaches the coast. That is the second-highest category and would be around the same strength as Hurricane Katrina and the strongest to hit Australia since early 2006. Cyclone Yasi, currently in the southwest Pacific, is expected to make landfall near the northeast military town of Townsville with wind gusts of 200- 260km/h, but with damaging winds along more than 1,000km of coastline.

Connemara  Stilettos