Princesses

My wee sisters two girls were dressed as princesses for the royal wedding :) I think they look cute. The weather is so nice here today we went sailing instead of watching the ceremony but its been repeated on the news channel a few times and we havent seen any street parties today here to go to so we may have a guiness for them later at home. Its Friday so we will be having out usual Friday night barbeque.

I have a 50 Euro note hidden in my sock as I read about the elderly patient in a Cork city hospital was found to have €60,000 strapped around him. I dont have 60,000 but I know my 50 will dissapear if its spotted.
The man brought the money into the hospital with him in fear that it would be stolen from his home while he was away. Garda and health sources say the man is only one of many who brought large sums of money into hospital with them in the past year. In other cases, tens of thousands of euro have been brought in by patients worried that their houses could be burgled. And others are fearful that relatives will have access to their money in their absence.

Vets, frets and a large Creche lady

Well today was the day the dogs love to hate, it was Vets day. Now I have had some experience in the past with attending the surgery, wee Roory used to try and eat the vet if he threatened to insert anything up his anus, I'd probably do the same! Ishan peed himself with worry over the needle, I'm not that bad but after having my near death experience thingie and a spell in the hospital with things sticking out of veins and twice daily blood removal I dont care for them either. Worst I ever saw was a Croatian lady Dr trying to get blood from Angie after her car accident, she must have had 8 botched attempts at finding a vein and Angie was covered in bruises from her attempts, nurses are far better I recon.

Anyway Gus went first, Jessy waited in the car, he was fine sitting in the waiting room, fine getting the jab and I thought golly gosh this is too easy, or thoughts similar. Gus back to car Jessy to surgery and she got hers no worry, then I asked about Kennel Cough, it required a nasal spray which we managed to give Jessy, but when I returned her to the car got Gus and tried to give it to him he managed to jump off the bench reverse out of his collar run through the surgery waiting room shouting "Feck that" in doggy language out onto the pavement where 4 of us got him cornered and a large lady from the Creche, who has "experience with children" jumped him.
Now Mother, the word "feck" is not a swear word I checked and it, the origins of the word 'feck' are Irish or Scottish. In early 19th- century Britain, the word meant to 'keep a look out", right enough I'm no sure why the dog was yelling "keep a look out" but hey.

lamb stew

Well  I made a sort of North African spicy lamb stew with couscous, it was tasty, diced lamb, onion, mushroom and cubed pumpkin, Thai 5 spice, Harisa paste and tomatoes and the couscous was Ansley's Morocain style with bits of fruit etc.

People that didnt attend my dinner this evening were,
The Prince and Princess of the Asturias (I had to google Asturias)

The Crown Prince of Bahrain
Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium
The Sultan of Brunei and Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha
King Simeon II and Queen Margarita of the Bulgarian
The Queen of Denmark
King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes
Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Prince Constantine of Greece
Sheikh Ahmad Hmoud Al-Sabah of Kuwait
Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso and Princess Mabereng Seeiso of Lesotho
The Grand Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Raja Permaisuri Agong of Malaysia
Prince Albert II of Monaco and Miss Charlene Wittstock
Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco
The Crown Prince and Princess of The Netherlands
The King and Queen of Norway
Haitham bin Tariq Al Said of Oman
The Emir of The State of Qatar and Sheika Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned
King Michael I of Romania and Crown Princess Margarita
Prince Mohamed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and Princess Fadwa bint Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman
The Queen of Spain
The King of Swaziland
The Crown Princess of Sweden and The Duke of Västergötland
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand
The King of Tonga
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia
The Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia

Yes you guessed it I'm bored.

Trailer advert

In a huge advertisment drive, with no expense spared I did some small adjustments to my trailer so I could place a bike on top of it and leave it lieing around where people might see my telephone number and rent a bike, it didnt work of course but looking on the bright side as I always do, I never got a parking ticket either.

Had another excersise filled day again with a good few miles done on the bike and walking.

It was another brilliant day weather wise, have been spoilt this last few weeks, and I have just finished cutting the lawns again, you can almost see the grass growing this time of year. I shall have to put some weed and feed grass improver on the lawn as there are a lot of weeds through it, I'm kinda loath to spend money on someone elses grass right enough.

heavenly ginger lilly gus

Well we didnt go sailing, couldnt get the dogs into the kennel as it was full and Angie didnt want to leave them home alone, I was going to go myself but wasnt allowed, I sulked like mad, girned for a wee while about "whats the point in buying a yacht if it sits in the yard" then resigned myself to watching the rugby.

Took the dogs for a walk / swim and Gus got a wash with a wee bottle of shower gell called "heavenly ginger lilly" so he has to be refered to now as "Heavenly Ginger Lilly Gus" makes him feel like he should be in Crufts and he smells wonderful.

Depletion of the ozone layer- the shield that protects life on Earth from harmful levels of ultraviolet rays - has reached an unprecedented level over the Arctic this spring because of the continuing presence of ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere and a very cold winter in the stratosphere. The stratosphere is the second major layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, just above the troposphere.

The record loss is despite an international agreement which has been very successful in cutting production and consumption of ozone destroying chemicals. Because of the long atmospheric lifetimes of these compounds it will take several decades before their concentrations are back down to pre-1980 levels

The area above the red line will be affected by the harmful rays.

Went up to my pal Keith's mines as he said he had a nice bike ride on his land on the old Clifden to Galway railway line, it was quite hard going riding in the long grass but very pretty.

then we drove up to the Maam mountains and hard a wee cycle there too, so between our two rides and the walk with the dogs this morning it was an energertic sort of a day.

The sound of lambs has to be the most springlike sound there is and cuckoos always make me think of Spring /Summer.

I shall be attempting to Dap in the next few weeks.
While the major trout rivers flow into the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland, in the west of the country are to be found the finest brown trout fisheries anywhere in western Europe. Hard fighting, native trout that rise freely to the fly and are excellent sport. Many Irish anglers follow the Mayfly hatch as it spreads northwards along the river and lough systems on Ireland's west coast. Starting in early April, the Mayfly hatch can last into mid June. At its height, when the loughs are dimpled with rising trout, gorging themselves on the spent, adult flies, it is referred to as the "Duffers Fortnight." A period of about two weeks when, seemingly, every cast of the mayfly imitation produces a reaction from a feeding trout.

A popular and a productive way of filling the creel during this period is by "dapping" for trout. Using extremely long fly rods and floss silk attached to the mono-filament backing on the fly reel, the imitation fly is blown by the breeze, with the angler gently dapping it onto the ripple, thus imitating the the natural fly carried on the breeze. The take, when it comes is firm and the temptation is to tighten immediately. Striking too fast when dapping invariably means loosing the fish. Experience suggests otherwise. The old Irish dappers, or so the story is told in the pub afterwards, lit their pipes before striking a fish!

tics? bricks? words ending with s?

I forgot to blog about tic's infact I also didnt mention bricks, the dog has been picking up tics the last few weeks and I found one that had had its fill and fallen off yesterday, he has a very thick coat and its hard to see them in it, not the tic the dog. Anyway he is due his shots so I shall ask the vet if they have anything for tics.

Angie bought a 3 pack of Radox push top hygenic handwash bottles you know the ones that can kill off 99.9 percent of germs and the cat, anyway one is real weird its called "African Savanna" looks the colour of water buffalo pee and smells like cold tea. That reminds me of my most unfavorite advert, its for a handwash bottle that dispenses the goo automatically when it senses your hand, or the cat, below the spout. How stupid is their reasoning, they say that the pushdown part has a lot of germs on it from your hand, hmmm ok  your about to put goo on your hands that kills off 99.9 % of germs whats the problem? I  hate that advert so much that if you are in the room when it comes on I will go into a diatribe over it.

bricks, tics and other things that end with "s"

Well I never got stoned, giggling here imagining all the dopeheads that are googling the word "stoned" getting my blog as a hit. I actually got a couple of emails saying how funny they found my writing, so I paid them and got to wondering what on earth they had found so funny cos I was perfectly serious. Not the dopeheads the people reading my blog.

Anywayyyyyyyyyy, I heard in the news at breeakfast that Doctors had removed Toole from intensive care, I was only half awake and imagined a load of Indian Doctors wrestling a sphygmomanometer through the hospital. Sphygmomanometer sounds kinda reptilian ehh. Of course they were talking about Peter Toole who had the bad fall on the Grand National race day, no not Peter O Toole he fell down every day apart from Grand National day.


A young woman has been rescued after getting into difficulty while swimming in Co Donegal this afternoon.
The alarm was raised by a member of the public at around 4pm after they spotted the swimmer in the sea at Bundoran.
She was being helped by another person and was eventually brought ashore by the RNLI lifeboat, I think maybe her problem may be of a mental nature.


The suspect device found at Swords garda s Forces deployed the team to the scene outside Swords garda station in response to a request by the gardaí station has been classified as a false alarm. An Army Bomb arrived on scene at 3.30pm and carried out a controlled explosion on the device which was located underneath a vehicle.
Further examination of the device found it to have no explosive content, "Turnip?"  and the scene was declared safe at 5pm.

shhhhhh was that a mouse I heard?

Ooops sorry its just sooooo quiet here, I'd make one woeful Dad so I would 10 days of a 10 yr old and I am pulling my hair out, well I would be if I had any, na I'm kidding it was fun having a young visitor for a change, instead of all you old buggers oops kidding again. One thing I do know if I'd have had bairns I'd have gone deep sea in my merchant career.

We have had a wonderful spell of weather here, perfect for me really with temps touching on the low to mid 20's and sunny, I've actually been burnt a couple of times and invested in some sun screen yesterday. 

In the case of Mr Tucker I'd like to say "Goodonya Australia" this, lets call him lowlife wally has been deported because he failed a character test, he failed the test because he attempted to murder a police man and served time for that and another assault after he was released. His family emigrated to Australia when he was 6 and he never bothered to get citizenship lol good. I think its wonderful that Australia is deporting him.

American state and federal correctional authorities held 88,776 non-citizens in jail at 47,102 dollars a head in 2009 that is $4,181,527,152.00 I think that number is 4 billion 181 million 527 thousand and 152 dollars but I may be an Irish banker, anyway its a lot ehh, why doesn't Ireland take them off Americas hands for half that, feed them potatoes and provide them with the same health care as the rest of us get ie bugger all and we could pay back the EU loan.

While I was walking through my forest, quietly, earlier I started comparing Australia and Ireland and their pros and cons, now this will be controversial but its just my opinion, so if you don't agree that's kewl start a blog and make up your own list. OK Australia has a better deportation record in my eyes than Ireland, today anyway.
 Its heaps cheaper to live in Australia, when I say "heaps" I mean like it costs half.
Australia has far too many bureaucrats and one tier of government too many, and its going down the American you sue me and I'll sue you path. Ireland doesn't know what a bureaucrat should do, they have lots of them but they are totaly incompetent.
Theres not even flippin post codes here and a street can have 3 different names. Australian place names are kinda kewl Wooloomooloo.
Australia is Green, well actually is a sort of burnt colour but people are more interested in keeping the country pollution free than here, here the government slaps a 2100 Euro annual tax on a new petrol car in a pretence at cleaning up the environment where the same car can "commercialise" and pay next to no tax, suddenly blacking out the rear windows gets rid of fuel emissions, maybe its summat to do with if you can see the smoke from inside the car? And if you have a 40 yr old deisel with injectors last cleaned in 1979 that you can see whilst flying across the country to the USA with the amount of smoke it blows, its kewl thats got no tax on it either.
The Guiness is better here.
Australia has a lot of sun, it can also be unbearably hot, Ireland has a lot of rain and can be blinkin cold, but both places can be really bonny.
I enjoyed jumping in for a swim in warm water in the Aussie Autumn. *note* buy a dry suit for Ireland.
Australian speed cameras suck, they are just a revenue maker.
Australian Police aren't a patch on the Gaurda.
There are too many Indians in the Marine Service Board in NSW and too many racists in the country as a whole.
Australians think that Australia is the center of the universe, well actually Paul Keating got it right one time.
I haven't seen a single blinkin leprechaun since I arrived and think it may just be a tourist gimmick.
The wildlife in Ireland has been well and truly shot, in Australia if you venture out at night you can still run over a speed hump in the bush and know that it was a wombat not an unmarked  method of slowing you down.
There are lots of dangerous animals in Australia, anyone that says that they are just out in the bush miles away from civilisation is lieing and is probably employed by the tourist office. I was pulled backwards by a shark that fancied eating the fish I had on my spear fishing line, saw heaps of redbacks in Kurnell and a memorable red bellied black snake, got Sydney funnel webs in George's garden, lots of blue ringed ocy's in the bay, got two workmate put in hospital in Newcastle with snakebites.
Irish are a good crack but they are all depressed due to negative equity in their homes, Australians think they are a good crack.
Australians have schools that are more interested in sport than education, all of them.
The Irish are more laid back than Fijians.

I might continue this later if I'm not stoned, no I havent taken up drugs silly, I mean dont have bricks hurled at me.

Birthday

Well it was Sachas birthday today and he got a fishing rod kit so guess what I have been doing in between hiring bikes, cutting lawns etc, yep you got it fishing lol. It was a bright sunny day and not ideal for fresh water fishing. Tonight I might get the telescope out if it stays clear.

The moon rises at about 8 pm and Saturn not much later so there is a chance it might be a good spotting night.

Having a picnic breakfast at Maam with the boat moored up in the background

Miss me?

Well if anyone missed me it was because,we, Sheana, Angie, Sacha and I, were away sailing, went up to Maam which is about 35 miles round trip. We had a bit of everything, flat calm sunny run up under engine, yesterday, lovely night alongside not too cold and no rain, today got windy and we had a shower and sailed back under just a headsail at 6 knots.

6 dogs and 4 bikes on hire

Well we went for a walk with my 2 dogs and ended up being accompanied by another 4, we passed a dark skinned lady on the way back who had one dog she looked a bit distressed at passing our 6 due to hers having had a blue earlier with another dog but they were all fine and sniffed each others bums as they do.

I had 4 bikes on hire today which was ok as it has been showery and young Sacha has been helping me transport them about in the trailer. I have to collect the last one at 1700 and then we may go fishing for a wee while, it took me half the garden digging up to get a few worms as there were none in the compost heap.

Sacha is digging up more worms as I speak. I'll try and get a trout but all failign we have sirloin steak, sausages, potatoe bake and veg, kinda hoping for the steak myself lol. Angie took a weeks holiday but they have talked her into going to a meeting tommorow in England so shes away tonight and gets home about midnight tommorow.

More drama for the ferrys

Remember the German goose ? (Ship that was to take 2 ferry's that had been sold abroad) well her replacement ship managed to drop one of the ferries 12 meters back into the sea when a sling they were using broke. Accidents happen and in this case 3 men were aboard the boat when it got dropped, as a skipper we alleviate the gravity of accidents by taking care, in my opinion the German Goose, didnt take care, he didnt listen to the harbour master when he said not to anchor there, and put lives and his ship at risk and now this latest ship allowed men to be on the object that was lifted, this is a no no and they were lucky noone was seriously injured.

Well thats that out of my system lol Its a lovely day here and I should be sailing not blogging but I'm putting it off untill Sheana arrives and hopefully it wont rain all week.

Balintleva pier

Well the sun has got his hat on hip hip hip hurray, I didnt have much on today so took a wee drive 25 miles down to Rossaveal to inspect a potential launching spot for the boat, found a wee place at Ballintleva that would do at high water. One of Angies workmates lives at Rossaveal which is close and we could leave the trailer and car at his place. The Arran Isles are just a short hop from here and the coastline is a stunner although very rocky.

There were ruined buildings at the top of the wharf that turn out to have been coast gaurd buildings and then occupied by the Black and Tans who were employed by the Royal Irish Constabulary as Temporary Constables from 1920 to 1921 to suppress revolution in Ireland. Although it was established to target the Irish Republican Army, it became notorious through its numerous attacks on the Irish civilian population. Thats expalins the small windows for shooting out of.

I made a couple of new pals

This one is thinking of getting into politics and should do well.

Its a bonny afternoon and I have high hopes for a good week next week.

Beef bourguignon

Well I was all set to have Beef bourguignon for dinner, Angie had left some red wine so I browned my beef, added mushrooms, onions, garlic and a bouquet garni and the wine and put it on to cook, things happened, phone went, I got distracted online looking at a website called visitmyharbour which for 25 euro lets you download / print over 16,000 charts, ideal for me (tight arse) as charts cost an arm and a leg, and my oil delivery arrived 777 Euro sheeeze, anyywayyyyyyyyyyy my beef bourguignon didnt just stick to the pan it BECAME the pan, after extinguishing a mushroom I have decided to have a fish finger for dinner.

Bliddy internet !!!

Greenhouse

Well I got a greenhouse yesterday a sort of plastic / tubular steel thing that may make it through the spring as I have nailed it to the decking and also tied it with straps to the fence lol .

My neighbours Eoin and Gerraldine donated 4 tomato seedlings as they had spotted the greenhouse over their fence, which was very nice of them and proves that nothing happens in Ireland without being noted.  I shall grow Toms, Peppers and various other veg this summer. I also got some flowers Geraniums and Pansys

First hire

Well I hired out my first bike of the season today, I could have had 7 more previous to this but didnt have the public liability insurance sorted out so didnt chance it. The bike came back covered in mud and looked like it had a workout. I invested in a Karcher power washer this afternoon so it had its first job too washing off the bike.


Oil giant BP has announced it will restart drilling in the Gulf of Mexico this summer.
That's just a year after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the US, that sparked the worst oil spill in history.


Ireland's credit rating has been downgraded again in the wake of the latest bank bailout.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has stripped the country of its final "A" rating. Apparently we are getting a D rating its a German suggestion and it means Dolt, I think in reference to the dolts that were in charge of the banking system. I suppose it couls also mean Dumb and Dumber, disasterous,

Tigger and co

These are the three cats I'm feeding for my neighbour, two of them he has rescued from starving as they were roaming wild, but even after 2 months they are still really flighty, the smaller one of the two's eyes are like saucers when I go in with their food. Today was mostly dry and the wind has dropped down, almost good enough to put my boat in lol.

A Russian billionaire has paid $100 million (€70m) - the highest price ever paid - for a single family home in the US, according to reports.The 25,500sq.ft home in Los Altos, California, has five bedrooms, I have 6 na na na na mind you I dont have a ballroom or indoor and outdoor pools and infact the six bedrooms arent mine either lol I'm just renting them.

I see in the paper that "A western lowland gorilla has been born at Dublin Zoo, it announced today" I didnt realise gorillas could talk.

strong wind, hot wind and smelly cats

Well we have had a couple of days of strong winds they saw a lot of trees down in the woods I walk in and also a ship called the  Pantanal ran aground off the Co Galway coast yesterday she has since been refloated at this mornings high tide. The 7000 ton ship was here to transport two small ferries which were sold to a buyer in Mauritius. The captain was told not to anchor where he did by the harbourmaster due to the severe wind warnings but he went ahead and provided Ireland with the first sighting of a German goose this season.

Mary is visiting Oughterard :) I got all excited thinking it was Mary Byrne but its not its the Irish President Mary McAleese she will begin her trip by visiting the Clann Family Resource Centre and the Community Centre in Oughterard at 11am. I was wondering why all the school kids at Rosscahill were cheering and waving flags at me untill I realised I was leading a procession of pollies into Connemara.

I'm 24 hours into my 9 day cat minding stretch and already there has been one wee accident that missed the kitty litter tray, yukkkkkkkk. Thank Gawd my pal Mark doesn't have horses is all I can say.

Angie is back in Ireland tonight after her 5 days in the UK, I think she is off again next week to the UK and then Norway the week after.

I revamped the glengowla mines website and put that online yesterday its at www.glengowlamines.ie I didnt choose the colours or the old brochure on the left hand side they were the choice of the owner but in this case the owner is always right lol. I had put together a sophisticated looking page but they didn't like it lol so we went with the blue. I have another two on the go Clann resource center and Killanin dog kennels.