The wide views..
The fresh air
The hard rocks...
...really hard rocks...
Add your own silly comment:
"We came we saw we slipped."
"You should have seen the other guy"
"The pirate look"
"DIY Harry Potter?"
"Rock 1: Zeek 0"
Sunday 31 May 2009
We love the Mourne Mountains
The cool streams...
The wide views..
The fresh air
The hard rocks...
...really hard rocks...
Add your own silly comment:
"We came we saw we slipped."
"You should have seen the other guy"
"The pirate look"
"DIY Harry Potter?"
"Rock 1: Zeek 0"
The wide views..
The fresh air
The hard rocks...
...really hard rocks...
Add your own silly comment:
"We came we saw we slipped."
"You should have seen the other guy"
"The pirate look"
"DIY Harry Potter?"
"Rock 1: Zeek 0"
Thursday 28 May 2009
Begging Irish Style
I was cyber-nating in my office when I heard what sounded like martial music outside. Next thing there was a hefty knock on the door...
I opened and there was a full marching band - 10 flutes, piles of drummers and one large bass drum . I smiled and handed cash over. It's hard to say "I gave at the office" when you have the IRA marching section complete with 2 police cars, motorbike outriders and a pied piper parade of kids banging hell-for-leather in my front yard.
I like their style.
I opened and there was a full marching band - 10 flutes, piles of drummers and one large bass drum . I smiled and handed cash over. It's hard to say "I gave at the office" when you have the IRA marching section complete with 2 police cars, motorbike outriders and a pied piper parade of kids banging hell-for-leather in my front yard.
I like their style.
Wednesday 27 May 2009
We went to America on Monday!
Okay, so not really, but it did feel like it.
We went to the Ulster American Folk Museum. It is a huge open air museum, you start off as a poor starving Irish peasant. You look at the way they lived, tiny smokey damp wet houses full of lice and rats. You are starving because of the Great Irish Famine.
A blacksmith's house, they must have suffered with lung problems.
Then you move up the ladder a bit to the middle class houses (still in Ireland) and then onto the rich families (those who emigrated out of this bunch did so by choice not starvation.)
Each child in the family had their own chair, made to size.
One of the wealthy family's sun dial, in Ireland!
This is on the second floor, it is the chimney, so big because the family would have hung their meat up by the fire to smoke it. You could have stood 12 people in the fireplace, it was huge!
Corbin the tenant farmer farming Peat, no, not Pete his dad, Peat the fuel.
The last you see of Ireland is this town street at the harbour.
Then you go into the building and onto the boat that will take you to America. 
You were only allowed up on deck if the captain gave you permission, so if he wasn't feeling too kind then you spent the full 5-8 weeks (weather depending) down below in steerage. Again, lots of rats and lice, although the sailors liked the rats because they believed that if there weren't any your ship was going to sink.
One family to a bed! Nobody slept well.
Then you come off the ship and you are in America! (I think they did that really well, the fencing is different, the trees are different, the houses are different, you actually feel like you have stepped into another place.
An American farm house, that is corn growing in the field, it is covered in plastic because in reality it was still in Ireland and there is not enough sun to grow it properly, so they were trying to encourage it by heating it in the plastic.
An old fashioned lathe. They used string to shape the wood.
We went to the Ulster American Folk Museum. It is a huge open air museum, you start off as a poor starving Irish peasant. You look at the way they lived, tiny smokey damp wet houses full of lice and rats. You are starving because of the Great Irish Famine.
A blacksmith's house, they must have suffered with lung problems.
Then you move up the ladder a bit to the middle class houses (still in Ireland) and then onto the rich families (those who emigrated out of this bunch did so by choice not starvation.)
Each child in the family had their own chair, made to size.
One of the wealthy family's sun dial, in Ireland!
This is on the second floor, it is the chimney, so big because the family would have hung their meat up by the fire to smoke it. You could have stood 12 people in the fireplace, it was huge!
Corbin the tenant farmer farming Peat, no, not Pete his dad, Peat the fuel.
The last you see of Ireland is this town street at the harbour.
Then you go into the building and onto the boat that will take you to America. 
You were only allowed up on deck if the captain gave you permission, so if he wasn't feeling too kind then you spent the full 5-8 weeks (weather depending) down below in steerage. Again, lots of rats and lice, although the sailors liked the rats because they believed that if there weren't any your ship was going to sink.One family to a bed! Nobody slept well.
Then you come off the ship and you are in America! (I think they did that really well, the fencing is different, the trees are different, the houses are different, you actually feel like you have stepped into another place.
An American farm house, that is corn growing in the field, it is covered in plastic because in reality it was still in Ireland and there is not enough sun to grow it properly, so they were trying to encourage it by heating it in the plastic.
An old fashioned lathe. They used string to shape the wood.
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Doing the dishes
It was Corbin's turn to wash the dishes, and he suddenly developed an allergy to dish water! So I decided to solve that problem for him.
He had great fun, and half of the dish load got done. You're only 7 once.
He had great fun, and half of the dish load got done. You're only 7 once.
Sunday 24 May 2009
Survivor Salt Island
The Kalahari Kanoe Klub (not to be confused with the other KKK) ended up roughing it this weekend after a National Trust booking error put someone else in the only formal accommodation on Salt Island.It took about 30 seconds to decide that we'd camp rough rather than paddle back and another 2 minutes to pull out all the cool survival toys everyone carries on a trip like this 'just in case'.
My professional engineering registration enabled me to easily beat off lesser qualified members of the team and grab the prestigious title of shelter designer.
Ewan (on the right of the picture) won the right to build the fire by dint of having the coolest fire starting device (everyone else had matches or lighters - he had an aluminium stick that gave off sparks when struck by steel). I could have taken him on this with my Bushman knowledge but I didn't want to appear greedy for all the good jobs.
We had a perfect night and a great paddle back. Darren (middle in the picture) managed to capsize in the freezing water giving us a chance to practice rescue techniques on him. He was a bit selfish and insisted on getting out of the water before I could find my camera so we have nothing to show for it.
Thursday 21 May 2009
Happy Birthday Cheryn
13! Wow, we now have a teenager in the house!
Cheryn had a great party on Friday night, she and 5 of her friends went to Mc Donalds, then off to ten pin bowling. Then they slept over at our house.
I didn't manage to make her a cake on her birthday, so she got one last night. She asked for mint, caramel and cream icing. It was delicious.
Silly me, when taking a video you don't turn the video camera like you would a camera :)
She had a good birthday and is grateful to all of you for the phone calls and cards. Thanks everyone.
Cheryn had a great party on Friday night, she and 5 of her friends went to Mc Donalds, then off to ten pin bowling. Then they slept over at our house.
I didn't manage to make her a cake on her birthday, so she got one last night. She asked for mint, caramel and cream icing. It was delicious.Silly me, when taking a video you don't turn the video camera like you would a camera :)
She had a good birthday and is grateful to all of you for the phone calls and cards. Thanks everyone.
Saturday 16 May 2009
Of testosterone and Oestrogen
Zeek and I escaped to a church camp last night. Men only. It was easy to understand them. Everyone was the same age, about 17. Some had been 17 for many years but there was no complicated maturity stuff to deal with when we were sitting around the fire talking about camping pranks.
Contrast this with a house filled to bursting with the angst and uncertainty of 6 13-year old girls celebrating Cheryn's birthday. Nobody at the camp worried about make-up or what they looked like first thing in the morning. There were no ulterior motives or salads. We played a violent game of capture the flag and ate braaied meat. The simple pleasures.
I like being with men until the snoring starts. I had pitched my tent between a hybernating grizzly bear, a rusty chainsaw and a jackhammer. My thoughts of violence become more irrational with each passing hour. They're alive only because it was raining and my sleeping bag was warm.
Contrast this with a house filled to bursting with the angst and uncertainty of 6 13-year old girls celebrating Cheryn's birthday. Nobody at the camp worried about make-up or what they looked like first thing in the morning. There were no ulterior motives or salads. We played a violent game of capture the flag and ate braaied meat. The simple pleasures.
I like being with men until the snoring starts. I had pitched my tent between a hybernating grizzly bear, a rusty chainsaw and a jackhammer. My thoughts of violence become more irrational with each passing hour. They're alive only because it was raining and my sleeping bag was warm.
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