Road trip 2008

Feeding the horse?


The great road trip of the summer of our lord 2008 (Star date, has yet to be defined, that much is true)

After getting the car, we decided to go to Cobh, so off we went… to Cobh, which helps, if your going to Cobh, which is strange, because we missed the turn off and ended up in Dungarvan, oh well stranger things have happened, it was a nice spin anyway, we weren’t far from the road that if you coast down the hill, feels like your going up hill, it’s all an allusion, but isn’t life an allusion?

Not so little horse


Went to Ardmore, and saw where we used to go on holidays, it was like going to Spain for the O’Callaghan’s, and we got cornflakes on summer holidays, other families got cornflakes all the time, Porridge in Glanmire. Cornflakes in Waterford, oh the joy of going out ‘Foreign’.

We walked along the beach and didn’t stack any stones, the Normans were better at that kind of thing, and wasn’t the evidence everywhere to be seen.

Point of Interest, you are never more than 8 miles from a Norman building in Ireland, 4 miles an hour being the walking speed, you were never more than 2 hours from another fort.
Later we called into an art gallery and had chips (the latter brought back memories, we obviously didn’t have much need for nutrition in dem daze)

Cork


Day 1 of the trip we drove up through Cashel and stayed in Kilkenny, great music and pubs in Kelkenny, if your passing through that is, if your living there it might be another story, didn’t go into the castle, home of the Butlers.

The guy I met that was a landscaper for Coolmore stud was telling me how clannish Kilkenny people are.

This was on Inis Oirr (Aran Islands) after some drunk local told him in a rude way to stop singing English songs, and they were Christy Moore songs to boot. I don’t think that drunk local saw himself as part of any European union, and the signs of the European union everywhere. Small people.


West Coast


Before the European Union, not long ago this country used to be full of pot holes, the stories of people falling into pot holes you might expect in a war zone were stuff of legends, and we were nearly a 3rd world country.

I didn’t encounter too many potholes driving around Ireland; 20 years ago you would have had a very sore back side. Hurrah for the European Union, for every $1 we gave them they gave us $8, so we gave them all our money, I’m sure a lot of Germans were wondering where their tax $’s were going and I have a soft bum to prove they were $ well spent.

I heard about a guy who rang the local council to tell them a local guy who was known to make dodgy compensation claims was taking photos of big pot holes in front of his house, the next day, the whole road was repaved.
I was probably cheaper to re pave the road than go to court with a guy after some handy $$$

West Coast

Fast forward to the morning after.....Metallica !!!!

A Canadian in Ireland, i call her 'D'...for Dangerous, or something of the like


The sun greeted me, by shining in the window of the Hostel 'El Dodgy', so far so good... so far.


Carrig a reid rope bridge, i saw Billy Connelly walk it and i said to meself, i'll go there, and i did too


I once met an old guy on Inish Mor (Aran Islands), who wasn’t so old, he might have been old because he was in his 70’s, he wasn’t so old because when he woke up he would jump out of bed and say an Hail Mary and then do some shadow boxing. I have never met anyone young that would do that, the house would have to be on fire for my family to get out of bed.

I did not jump out of bed, I was balls naked, in the El Dodgy hostel, what do you expect for 12 Euro? You certainly get what you pay for.



I woke up with my ass facing the dorm and my face to the wall, I saw no evil. For some reason I thought the chick opposite me was Diana (my bestest friend from Canada) I said something to her then I remember laughing, then I remembered Diana was in Cork and there were other people in the dorm, that’s a lot of remembering with your member unrestrained like a wild Jackal, in the El Dodgy hostel.



I thought I might as well get up and have a shower, but first I went looking for the toilet, I had to come down to the ground floor. There were only 2 toilets and 1 shower in the whole place. There was an Australian looking guy in his Australian flag boxer shorts with a ‘Support your local hooker’, I was pretty sure he wasn’t from Sligo with 2 other chicks waiting for the shower, and I was just thinking if they went in together they would have used less water, which would be good for Oz as it hardly rains, in Ireland there’s hardly any sunshine.



I asked the receptionist if there were any other showers, she said no, I laughed + laughed, she said ‘I know, people ask me that all the time’

Just then a guy left and said ‘Goodbye’ in a stern voice, he didn’t sound like he was going to be back, and we laughed. They must have been pumping laughing gas into the place.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.......what's left of it.

So here’s the deal.

Lot’s of ‘Stuff’ happened and is happening, and my job is to tell you about them in such a way that makes you think I’m having the time of my life and if I ever get time to reread it all (or part of) I will think (in my own way), well I have done some things of note (and hopefully made it into blog’s of note, I’m not taking any bets)

I have lots of things to catch up on, you see I have made notes, and even though they were good times, I’m not sure I should start there, but where to start, so I’ll start at the start, the start being, what ever isn’t crossed out in the notebook, it’s my own version of crosswords.

Shane castle from the O'Neill clan, Antrim


When I write my notes in my blog I cross out the words in my note book (some people that read my blog think I’m insane, no I’m not, yet, but there’s no people in society that think there as sane as the insane, and maybe there the sane ones …. as the man said.

I think I’ll tell you about Metallica, I stayed at ‘El dodgy’ hostel, it was at the bottom of the list of hostels that a free bed, so I checked in and went walking. Went to the pub with all the flower pots (South side) and was talking to a fan (not electric) of Metallica

I didn’t go to the gig as early as I normally would have, thereby missing Jack Black’s band. I have heard tell they are a funny band. When I came back to Cork I was talking to a chick collecting tickets at the cinema that went to see Mr Black’s band (Tenacious D), she spent the whole time queuing to get in, and when she got in, it was over. I walked straight in.

I chose right, in getting there later, just about.

Shell to Sea protest site


You see, I , we got a bus from the city, on the way out, everybody was half drunk, getting that way, some people got off to relieve themselves, some bought beer, you see it was rush hour traffic, I got off too, and got on. The driver was a laugh, some guys from the bus behind us got on our bus and told us their driver was an asshole.



The first 2 guys that got off were walking next to the bus for over an hour, they got on and some people got off, then the bus took off for the next 5kms to the gig, they must have been the luckiest guys in Ireland (the ones that got on).

Metallica said we were loud, and I think they were right for the amount of people, Kirk ran back on stage after the gig and said ‘Hey Ireland, my dad is full blood Irish’, that morning I read that his dad was an alcoholic and was never around, they played from 8.30 till around 11, not bad.

Look familiar


Thank you, come again.