The 12 Pubs of Galway 2011

http://youtu.be/Ouxwb4qU5b8

Eleven

Happy 11:11:11 11/11/11!

For the book

This is the image I'm going to submit along with my story to this little website...

http://wegetthere.com/travelmeansfreedom/

If my story is published, I'll let you know where you can buy a copy! :)

Ooooohhh, Sha ma wa wa!

I don't know what what this is, but it's too awesome not to share!

Next time Adam...

Are you kidding me??

I don't even know what to say! This is either too awesome for words, or not worth the effort!

Read this...
http://ugonnaeatthat.com/2010/04/24/star-trek-romulan-ale/

And then check this out...
http://www.vulcantourism.com/

If you don't know anything about Star Trek you can read this...
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Vulcan

And, if you just don't care, have a look at this...
http://cuteoverload.com/

Demi Vert

At long last I'd like to introduce everyone to Demi Vert, our downstairs flat with a back garden. I've taken some pictures and then stuck them together to make larger pictures. They pretty much speak for themselves so I'm going to let them do just that. It would be nice if you'd let me know what you think of the place!

The Front Room:

The Hallway:

The Dining Room:

The Back Garden:

You may have noticed that I didn't include images of the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. That's not because we don't have them, but more because we'd like not to post pictures of them on the internet. We're weird like that!

"One Town, 50 different People, One very difficult Question"

Here's a little video a friend of mine posted on Facebook. It's filmed in Galway and I think it makes for interesting viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7pdAn3foE

The Royal Wedding

Did you ever play 'Where's Waldo?' (Where's Wally for the English readers) when you were younger? Here's your chance to relive the experience! Aside from being in the background as When we went to London to see the wedding there was a picture taken of the crowd in Hyde Park that will be kept in the official wedding album. It just so happens that you can see my face and hat in said picture, see if you can find me...

http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Hyde%20Park%20Family%20Photo%20Panoramic%20(Kois%20Miah).jpg

Overall the entire day was fantastic. We got a seat near the front of the crowd in Hyde Park (which at it's peak swelled to 130 000 people) and when the airplanes did their royal wedding fly over on the big screen in the park, we all turned around and watched them appear, from behind some trees, and fly above our heads as they circled the park. It really felt like we were a part of something amazing. Then, after a jug of Pimms in the park, we went out walking in London just to see what else was going on, I got a roadside view of Prince William and Duchess Catherine driving away from Buckingham palace. I'm sorry to say that, because nobody was expecting them to drive past, I was too overwhelmed to actually snap any pictures, but I got a good one of Camilla as she and Prince Charles drove past. I'll post more pictures of the day when I get them off Fiona's camera.

Twins Talking

I can't embed it, but it's still worth watching. I don't know what the discourse is like in Canada (or even the UK for that matter. I guess I should listen to something other than TodayFM) and I also hadn't seen the original video. So this made me smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEXFMm1JNk4

What have we come to?

I've recently happened across an interested article on Treehugger.com about our attitudes towards meat in the industrialised world. I've included at little snippet of the article here, on Colour Circus, but if you're interested enough to read the rest of the article, you can click here.

"National Butchers' Week aims to help Brits learn more about the meat they eat. The poll surveyed 1000 adult meat-eaters on basic cuts of meat.

An alarming 17 percent thought that pork wings are an actual cut of meat.

Nearly twenty percent thought that tofu ribs and leg of liver were cuts of meat. As many as 23 percent thought that chicken chops or lamb drumsticks were something that you can buy from a butcher."

Gentleman me?

This Friday I had planned to, with Fiona, accompany a friend to Oxford for a few drinks. This was the plan until Thursday when I found out that Mr. B was going to be playing at the Vaudeville Rave in Reading on the same night. Needless to say I amended my plans accordingly!

It was a really, really good evening and I plan to attend another at some point. The whole experience really reminded me of the Unfair that I went to when I lived in Halifax. The only difference that really stood out was that at this Vaudeville Rave everyone was in costume. It was an eclectic mix (trust me, this is not an exaggeration) of gypsy, burlesque, renaissance fair, chap and steam punk.

The evening unfolded along the following lines...

DJ Dubious rocked the party with his Balkan/Swing from the turntables. (I've just realized we heard him play once before at the Global Cafe! It's good to know these guys are all local!)

Our MC for the evening was Bass6 who's beat boxing was incredible!

The first half of the show was a cabaret including sword swallowing, belly dancing, light bulb eating, unicycling, magic, a very strange contest between 2 fellows who reckoned they could solve a rubics cube faster than their opponent while being distracted by volunteers from the audience, and various other acts.

Following the cabaret the chairs facing the stage were removed and the music began. The first group was Tankus the Henge followed by the main act Mr. B, The Gentleman Rhymer (you've already been introduced). I bumped into him in the clutter of people in front of the washrooms. I tapped him on the back before I realized I didn't really have anything to say to him, so I just shook his hand, said that I wanted to say hello, and then said I wouldn't keep him as I knew where he was heading. Smooth aren't I?

The next band was Sam and the Womp who blended Balkan and Dubstep with outstanding results. It was during their set that we bumped into Gentleman Jeeves who invited Fiona and I backstage for a cup of tea. We had a choice of Jasmin or Darjeeling. I chose Darjeeling but should really have chosen Jasmin as there was no milk on offer. Behind us was a 4 poster bed upon which people were jumping. It was all very surreal and only compounded by the fact that the entrance to the back of stage area was just next to a croquet field where ladies and gents were competing.

At this point it was 3ish in the morning and Fiona and I decided (in light of the fact that all of our friends had already departed) that we would head home. That meant we missed the last act Dutty Moonshine who I'm sure was excellent.

And that was our evening! Since the carnaval in Dunkerque there's been a lot of occasions for costumes! I'm going to put some serious thought into the possibility of establishing one of my own!

Colourful traditions

As promised, here are the pictures from our recent road trip to the Dunkerque Carnaval!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48141953@N02/sets/72157626147664009/

If you're inclined you can learn more about the history of the carnaval here or even visit the official site here.

Then there's always...

Fiona showed me this one yesterday. Apparently they made the film as a tribute to Caitlin Rose who wrote the original.

Call me crazy, but I prefer Rowan's version!

Coming home from Carnaval

We heard this song as we were heading back to the Ferry to England after our weekend of cross dressing, drinking, singing and my first proper Carnaval. I'll post some pictures of the weekend here when I get to see them myself. 'Till then listen to this song and let me know what you think...

A day like today

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

- Charles Darwin

I dare you not to smile!

Poetry Slam

Last night I participated in a poetry slam down at the global cafe and I had a really good time. The poem I'd written and recited was okay although I wasn't completely happy with it. Despite the fact that I'd only written the poem the night before I made it into the final round! Sadly, I hadn't anticipated that and hadn't prepared a second poem, so instead I read aloud The Cremation of Sam McGee, which ran overtime, and because it wasn't my original material I was disqualified from the competition. Although in fairness I had already disqualified myself aloud to the audience when I opted to read something other than that which I had written myself.

Apparently they're going to make it a regular thing and if they do, I think I'd like to give it another whack!

Bang! Out of the blue!

Something unprecedented on this blog! A picture of me with a mustache!

It's getting there.

Fancy a cuppa?

www.freeteaparty.org/

I love this idea. I love tea and grass roots projects. I love random adventures and local communities. I only wish I'd thought of it first! But I'm glad I can read about it and if I ever decided to host a free tea party, I'll write in and let them know about it.