Diddlie I de do

Well I'm home from the hospital again, this time they gave me 4 cortizone injections in the back ? not quite sure why apart from the fact that my back was sore, that was the reason I went to see the Dr last Wednesday. Anyway I know now after a GP visit, and a visit to the bowel specialist, two nights and 4 days in hospital, and a visit to the reumatologist, that I dont have kidney stones or anything drastic with the bowel apart from it being a bit inflamed or reumatoid arthritus. The drugs I took which had me no where near food or a loo for 2 days then sitting on it constantly afraid the porcelin may crack, when I wasnt stuffing things up my bottom, seem to have worked?
 So whats up with you bud? sorry havent the faintest idea. Ohh he ended up asking if I'd had a colonoscophy, or summat recently and I felt like saying "no the only thing I have been putting where the sun doesnt shine for the last week is my index finger on the end of a painkiller / anti inflamatory" but I didn't as they are just doing their jobs ehh. Whinge over? Well not quite, do you know how much they charge !!!

I'm changing my favorite movie of all time to  Darby O'Gill and the Little People just because Sean Connery singing riles the heck out of those trying to get rid of the "leprechaun diddly I de do" Irish label they are stuck with to be sure.

Ok change of subject and I'll try and be serious, anyone scared of flying, as a few of my friends are, should look at this guy who is eighty three Ron Akana from Boulder, Colorado., finished his career as a flight attendant over the weekend on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Kauai, setting the world record for the Longest career as a flight attendant he clocked up 200 million miles in the air.

Ok Diddly I do off I go

windy day

G,day all, windy day here and I dont mean my bowels lol, good news this time of year if its windy is the midgies dissapear, until the wind drops anyway. So if you were looking down from space on Connemara and saw all these wee white bodied people with freckles and red hair, running around after their lawnmowers you would know it was windy.

Took a pic of how the fireplace looks at the moment, I'd like to paint the brown surround with a satin or even more matt finish so will save for yet another tin of paint. They do make small test size tins Rob, yeah I know but but !!!!

 

Anyway better dash here have to go do some shopping, the highlight of my day apart from the suppository of course.

A hurricane a lion and two years in a tent

Well I was feeling a bit sorry for myself this morning untill I saw the poor souls that have just been buffeted in Haiti, by hurricaine Isaac, most of who are still living in makeshift tents after their homes were destroyed two years ago. It shows the rift between developed countries and third world ones when I remember the amount of discord there was in Sydney when people couldnt get their tiles / roofs repaired for a couple of weeks after the hailstorm there, because of insurance backups and lack of tradesmen. Isaac is heading for Florida now On the seventh anniversary of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans.

A lion is roaming around Essex, if you ask me it's a great spot to import more of them, that accent grrrrrr, every time I hear someone on the x factor auditions say they are an Essex girl or guy I hope like mad that they sing like a Sylvester Stallone x with a seal and don't make it. Sorry to the loads of lovely Essex folks out there but why don't you gag those "any way is Essex"  "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." pfftt.

It's blowing hard here today, bit like me ehh, and I have put a fire on, the shed is running low in peat so I bought some of those pressed peat bricks which seem to burn well and give off a decent heat, they worked out at three euros a block which should last a day in the burner and longer if I use wood as well so they aren't too bad, a bag of smokeless coal here costs 17 euros. It's good to be getting the hot water from the fire not just heating in the one room. 

I,m out I,m out wohoooo

Well I,m nearly out, just waiting for a lift. They armed me with drugs and have set me loose. Had a good craic with my nurse Trish this morning as this is the first day I can pass wind in three days and I had her in hysterics that maybe the airconditioning might get contaminated. I think she was very happy not to be the NS nurse as they had to do the suppository thing lol, she promised me some KY jelly but I said I,d rather have the ice cream.

The dogs will be glad to see me no doubt, as I shall probably be going outside a lot in the next wee while, subtle reference to wind there. Just for a giggle I might go stand in the lift for a while before Angie gets here.

in hospital

Well im in the ER Galway hospital with suspected kidney stones.I will know more in a while no doubt but am kinda uncomfortable at the moment.
I will keep you all updated as to if i have to stay in overnight or not. Didn't even have a shave lol so look kinda bedraggled.

It's a kinda dreich day anyway and all I had on was painting, I put an undercoat on the new mantle yesterday which was like applying treacle and I,ll probably have to do a fair bit sanding before I gloss it, you would think nowadays they would have easy application under coats, they do Rob just you chose an Irish brand.

Petrol prices are about to jump up again, at the moment the Government get 93.5 cents out of every ltr sold in tax crazy ehh. It's good they have wifi in the ER here at least I can muck about on the iPad. I used to change tack mid scentence with topics but am much better now and they have nice blue curtains in here to be sure.

Angie gets a shot of the mower

Well Angie had a go at cutting the big lawn today which is good as she now knows whats involved and how big the job actually is :) I managed to get the edges and the other lawns done before it started raining. Dogs got a swim in the ocean as they had both been wading in the pond to cool off and were muddy.

I was meant to have a tiler come to price doing the kitchen floor yesterday he didnt come, and another one today didnt appear either, considering there is meant to be a shortage of work in Ireland you would have thought they would have at least rung to say sorry I cant make it or something along that lines. One of my pet hates is so called tradesmen saying they will do something then blinkin not appearing, its like they think you have nothing better to do all day than wait for them not to come.

May be going to Scotland in September for a wee break to see the folks, am just going to check out ferries now. The boat will have to come out of the water at the end of the month too was a rubbish summer and I was watching a wee yacht making heavy weather of it going out of Casla bay when the dogs were having a dip as the weather was coming straight into the bay, not the most enjoyable day out punching into short seas and driving rain.

 E coli bacteria is in the news today Six people have died and at least 100 others have been made ill by pickles contaminated with E coli bacteria in northern Japan.
Officials in Hokkaido said today that the pickled Chinese cabbage was made by two local producers and sold across the region. The first reports of illness occurred about 10 days ago.
Most victims were elderly people in nursing homes, but a four-year-old girl in Sapporo city died last week, a few days after eating the pickles.
Pickled Chinese cabbage is a popular Japanese side dish, and the deaths have shocked the country. Most food poisoning cases in the past have involved meat or seafood.
In Ireland,Cork County Council has banned swimming at three beaches in the county as a precautionary measure after dangerous levels of e-coli were found in the water.

Rowan Trees

What a great tree the Rowan is it doesnt get too big has a wonderful show of white flowers earlier in the year and then a mass of red berries this time of year until the start of autumn. There is a saying that if the red berries are prolific then a hard winter is to follow if this is the case I may need snow shoes as the trees are full of berries.

Oh rowan tree, oh rowan tree, thoul’t aye be dear to me,
Entwin’d thou art wi’ mony ties, o’ hame and infancy.
Thy leaves were aye the first o’ spring, thy flowr’s the simmer’s pride
There was nae sic a bonnie tree, in all the country side.
Oh rowan tree.
How fair wert thou in simmer time, wi’ all thy clusters white.
Now rich and gay thy autumn dress, wi’ berries red and bright
On thy fair stem were mony names which now nae mair I see.
But there engraven on my heart, forgot they ne’er can be.
Oh rowan tree.
We sat aneath thy spreading shade, the bairnies round thee ran
They pu’d thy bonnie berries red and necklaces they strang.
My mither, oh, I see her still, she smil’d our sports to see,
Wi’ little Jeannie on her lap, wi’ Jamie at her knee.
Oh rowan tree.
Oh, there arose my father’s pray’r in holy evening’s calm,
How sweet was then my mither’s voice in the martyr’s psalm
Now a’ are gane! we met nae mair aneathe the rowan tree,
But hallowed thoughts around thee twine o’ hame and infancy,
Oh rowan tree.

Sorry I burst into song there I'll just slap myself and maybe blog about something less ehhh red.

Francis is just finishing installing the mantle piece and fire surround so I shall take some photos before I paint it, I,m thinking maybe a dark brown satin finish would look well, the skirting will wait till after the wood flooring is laid and that will finish it off perfectly, I,m glad the marble got removed even though it has cost a bit more than we budgeted for.

Have just had a lady and her son look at Marks car which is still sitting out on the roadside with a for sale sticker on it so hopefully that will sell.

I couldnt believe what I was seeing on Thursday on TV with Reuters TV footage of officers opening up with automatic weapons on a small group of men in blankets and t-shirts at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum plant, note to self dont take machete to my next picket line.

my firepit

The pavers behind have been moved since I took the picture they are now around my vegetable garden. I need to get a metal grill for the wood to burn on and a barbi grill for the top. The marble came off the fire surround and is bliddy heavy, my shins can contest that fact.

Heading over to the dentists this morning to spend my weeks earnings on a couple of fillings, I sold the last two mountain bikes yesterday so just have to get rid of the bike trailer thingie and do some sums to see how much the bike hire cost or earned last season.

The midgies have been crazy this summer which will probably be the norm with the shelter I have from all the trees and the water round about, I have a list of jobs I want to do but am covered in bites from them and the horse flies so a lot of the jobs wait until its blowing a gale or even till this next winter.

Olympic closing ceremony

Well what did you think of the closing ceremony? I,d like to say it was excellent as the rest of the games were but, I don't know, Geoggios Kyriacos Panayiot had two songs, personally I wouldn't have given him one I can't imagine him still having the fan base he used to after all his exploits in the parks but hey. Emili Sande has a great voice but personally I wouldn't have had her sing the song she did twice, the best of the entertainment for me was Eric Idle, the Who, John Lennon, Jessie J , Queen, Annie Lenox, and wow I never thought I would say this the spice girls. I think there are some british bands much better than some that featured but it would be impossible to please everyone ehh. Anyway it didn't take away from a great Olympic fortnight, I have never watched as much sport in my life and most of it was riveting viewing I think the bbc did an awesome job of coverage with the red button allowing people to view sports that would not normally get airtime wtg. 

Things are getting back to normal here now, the Galway races have finished and the Volvo cean race,so no doubt the builders will be back from their holidays and I might get my wiring done and floors laid and the fire surround finished, probably my website work might progress too as I have been waiting for photos etc from customers. 

A mountain named after me

Well I think it's great they have named a Marsian mountain after me, as usual they forgot the "i" but hey what's new I normally have to repeat my surname spelling 5 times and I,m often asked "are you sure"

Just harvested / cleaned and froze half a squill ion carrots and also some spuds and onions and yet more zucchini the veg beds I made from used scaffold timbers last spring have been great. Next year I shall be even more organized and put down heaps more spuds and maybe try some different veg.

Today is less hot than yesterday but very humid, I managed to cut the rest of the grass and put down fertilizer before it rains so that's me done for the day. My brother in law in Sydney was telling me that they have had severe winds for the last few days and there is dangerous surf on the beaches, I think the USA has had a real dry summer, so bad infact that the price of bread is about to rise dramatically as their crops have failed, Australia was very wet this year, we had a great spring and a woeful summer up until this week anyway, my pal in Canada was saying they have drought conditions. I think the weather has to be the most whinged about thing out there.

Sailing and a galley awash with water

Well I,m just back from a sail which wasn't that enjoyable, Jessy was a real pain, for some reason recently she gets really scared on the boat and tries to escape, so she had to be tied up down below. Then I had far too much sail up for the conditions so the boat was heeling and rounding up in the gusts, I looked down below and the galley was awash with water so we just came back in. Turned out there was just about 10 Ltrs of water that had spilled out of the fresh water container under the sink so I just mopped it up with a towel when we got back in. Reminded me of the 1 st element of seamanship keep the water out of the boat. Gus jumped over the side after we berthed and near strangled himself as his lead got caught. I knew I should have just done some gardening today lol.

The whole country here went mad when Katie Taylor won gold in the boxing And IRELAND jumped to 39th in the medal standing. it could be enough of a boost to end the Eurozone crisis, or maybe not. Well I dont know wether to go for a swim or do some mowing, I know what I should do.

New phone

Well my trusty old iPhone gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I made the leap and got a new one on a plan with Vodafone the plan gives me unlimited off peak calls to the UK on the home phone and free calls to other Vodafone mobiles. The new phone is a Samsung Galaxy 2 and I have just being setting it up. As far as gizmos go it has them all including voice commands that actually seem to work ie I can ask it to send a text to someone in my contacts or look up frogs on google or set an alarm. It doesn't feel as classy as the iPhone but it is fast and has lots of good features including an 8 MP camera, I can remember the first digital cameras that came out that had 1MP and they didn't have a phone attached.

It's another glorious evening here weather wise although the day was overcast. Finally we are getting some heat it was 26C today. Hope to get out sailing tommorow.

Shins vs Marble, Marble wins 2-0

Well I was making a firepit out of the marble fire surround that was taken out in the renovations and managed to take the bark off both shins at the same time when one of the blocks tipped over, gladly my neighbours are a fair distance away as the air turned blue. We had the first taste of summer today withthe temp climbing to about 22C and sunny and calm so i took time out to do some work outdoors, no midgies around so I have all the windows open for a while. Jessy is lieing outside in the sun probably remembering Australia.

If its nice tommorow I might try and get out for a sail as the weekend looks dreich again.

Apparently there was a Twitter frenzy today when a newspaper refered to Katie Taylor (Irish boxer ) as British lol it sounds like a not very frenzied frenzy ehh a twitter frenzy, anyway the whole town of Bray where she comes from is stopping for her next match at about 1400 today, good on her hope she wins, ohh her Dad is from Yorkshire btw.

Well lunchtime is over so I better get back to it.

First use of the range oven

Well we are having roast leg of lamb tonight so the oven is getting its first workout and all seems to be going well, the smell from the kitchen is awesome.Harvested and gave away some more veg today, the zucchini are over a foot long and we also have a huge crop of carrots and  onions. The day has been sunny intervals and torrential showers and I spent it painting the hall ceilings and walls as well as doing other wee bits and bobs. 


Angie was at the reposing of one of her workmates Mothers who passed away earlier in the week, basically the coffin is out on show and folks come and show their respects, the que was right up the street. There is a Mass tomorrow in the local chapel and I think she is going to that too. 


I hope the weather improves this week so I can get out sailing, watching all the Olympic sailors has me in the mood for a sail. Having the boat alongside has been great no hassles with moorings and rowing out and worry about the weather but unfortunately the summer has been pretty woeful so I haven't been out in her as much as I would have liked anyway maybe we will have an Indian summer he says with fingers crossed.


Marks car is still sitting outside, I put an advert on Done Deal but there hasn't been any response yet. 

Heating finished

Well the central heating is installed and working great guns I'm sitting here in a pair of shorts blogging, I put the shelves back in the hotpress today and almost finished tiling the wee shower room, it looks well.

This used to be two rooms both pokie and dark, I took the photo from inside the shower which is also a huge improvenment as they put a pressure pump in the water system so the shower has a great pressure  now.

The new stove sends hot water to the tank below, it holds 500ltrs of water and as well as being future proof with all these different places solar and different methods of heating can be plumbed into it also has all these failsafes and valve thingies and buttons and stuff.  

We couldnt afford a new kitchen so I painted up the existing units and renewed a worktop, there was nothing wrong with the carcasses anyway and it would have been a waste to scrap them.

The floors will get laid after I finish painting which will take a couple of weeks anyway but  I have the carpets and tiles lifted (the carpet is on top on my percolation area suppressing weeds till next spring) and we aim to put hardwood flooring in the sitting room and tiles in the kitchen. I'm going to try sanding and varnishing the hall cork tiles I think.

Because I'm home renovating the Olympics have been on in the background and what a brilliant coverage there is too, the BBC has up to 19 different sports on the red button and ones like the sailing and archery have been grabbing my attention between jobs. I think the UK has 8 medals so far one ahead of Australia.

Summer hasnt arrived yet although yesterday was nice it was back to showers today.