The sweet life.

These folks seem to have things pretty much figured out...



I've noticed a trend, on this blog, to just embed videos. In order to shake things up a little bit, along side the video link in this post I'll also include a link to a fantastic looking recipe for tomorrow's dinner...

http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/lentils-and-beef-stew-estofado-de-lentejas-con-carne

Check it out! I looks delicious!

Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!

Not a fan at all of any double entendres, but I've got to admit, it's catchy!

Canada Day Film Recommendation

I just watched One Week staring Joshua Jackson and enjoyed it thoroughly. I thought it was a quirky and intelligent film and unashamedly Canadian. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something to watch surrounding our nation's 146th birthday.

The soundtrack is also pretty awesome. CBC Radio 3 had this to say about it...

"Michael McGowan, writer and director of the new Canadian film One Week, says that with this film, he wanted to "create a narrative that was also a love-letter to the county." Well, if his movie is a love letter, then the soundtrack is the mixtape he made for his girlfriend, Canada."

50 Cheap and Fun Ideas

I was having a little browse online to find inexpensive ideas for things to do this summer. In doing so I happened upon the Tiny Buddha's page of 50 ideas. I was actually really impressed by the simplicity, accesibility, and actual fun quotent of their list. Obviously this is entirely based on my own interestes and tastes but why not click on the link, have a read, and let me know what you think?

 

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/50-creative-cheap-ways-to-have-fun/

Perhaps a future project...

http://www.simondale.net/house/

I've been a big fan of eco-building and earthships for a long time. I've also been looking at pictures of this house for the past couple of years without knowing anything about it. Imagine my surprise when I found a website all about it!

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."

Merry Christmas

I hope this picture turns out alright. It's a composite of pictures I took yesterday in town. It's the Galway Cathedral and middle arch. As you can see things are lookin' exceptionally festive as this year in Ireland it was, indeed, a white Christmas! The cheeky cherub in the bottom right is Fiona after getting the last of her shopping done in town before heading up to Mayo for Christmas eve with her Dad on Inismacatreer.

We're living the dream...

I wish I had a VW camper!

Pictures are worth... making up for not posting?!?

Well I don't have the internet very often! So it's not easy!

But here's a quick snapshot of what I've been up to these last few weeks...

I was filmed for channel 5 and the BBC...

It was a travel show around some of Europe's more eccetric locations. I got to be in it at a monkey sanctuary where I had been volunteering. I think they're going to make it look like there is an ostrich there who's in love with me!

This is a garden that I've landscaped for fun and profit out in Connemara. This isn't the best picture of what I've done but it's better because it's got the mountain in the back!

And this is me enjoying one of the 3 new toilet plungers I've recently purchaised, so that I might juggle them!

But now I have to go to a VIP concert down at the docks. I won tickets on a radio show Fiona signed me up for! The band is from Dublin and are called Aslan. I have no idea who they are, but food and drink is provided!!

Overdue

Well, I've been up to a lot since last I had the internet. I've been robbed by gypsies, been stalked by an ostrich, taken 3 BBC producers on a boat ride through islands of angry monkeys, found cash work, knocked my finger nail so hard it's in the process of falling off, broken irreplaceable crystal, met and dinned with famous actors and politicians. The list really does go on and on, but I won't bore you with the details.

That's not what this post is about. This post is about the quality work that I've been doing here in Delgany. For example take this first picture here...
This is what the old barn looked like through the small door in the back when I arrived. As you can see it's a shambles and a terrible mess. Nothing lovely, quaint, nor romantic about it at all. Then, after 1 day I managed to sort things out and create this...
A much more picturesque and useful space to house this curious little pooch who's wandered by to see what all the fuss is about. All in all I'd say I'd not done bad for a days work!

(Incidentally that's the neighbour's dog and his name is Pie Face.)

Adventures on the horizon

For the time being I'll be leaving Galway, and heading once again for Ireland's east coast, and the county of Wicklow! I've been out that way once before, and spent some time at Carraig Dulra living in a yurt and enjoying life out of doors! And as it happens, I was told that I could rock up again for a visit and don't need to give notice.

So that's what I'm gonna do. I gave 'em the heads up but not even I know exactly when I'm gonna arrive!

http://www.dulra.org/

Then, (or possibly before) I've been invited to a monkey santuary, also in Wicklow, to help fix a shack. This task involves me making a small amount of money which is more than welcome, and also the opportunity to learn to sail!
http://www.monkeysanctuary.com/

So for the next month or so that's what I'll be up to. Possibly longer as there's a family fun park in the area that, apparently, might be inclined to hire someone such as myself. In case you've not picked up on the pattern here, my cash flow has flowed a little more freely than I'd realized up 'till recently!

A tipi in the Wirral

I've made it to England. Tomorrow I head to London to visit Patty Wagon before he head's to Africa for a year. Aside that it's business as usual. I live in a tipi surrounded by sheep, chickens and a donkey. A few friends and I help build a house with occasional side trips into Liverpool etc.

I've got tons more to write but only 3 minutes left, so another time.

Sweet deal!

I made a new friend last night and she seems pretty connected. Last night she managed (in only a matter of moments) to get myself and Griff staff passes to the Green Man festival near Cardiff. Griff works 'till 6 and after that he's going to drive us both down to the festival where I'll do . . . something in exchange for free entrance and camping etc.

I'd say it's a pretty sweet deal! I hope the weather stays nice!

You mean it rains here too?

I did it! I managed to escape the grips of Ireland and have made my way over to Wales! I found a way to make the crossing quite cheaply, but didn't find it until I didn't have enough time to qualify for the savings, so I just bought a ticket on the ferry and Rory (the guy who's couch I was surfing on) drove me to the dock so I could catch it.

Once in Wales I started talking to an Irishman who's been living in England for a while, and he bought my train ticket for me, and a cup of tea. Obviously I declined the offer at first, but he was persistent, and really, I wanted to accept. So, after the required 'Oh no's and 'I can't accept's I did just that.

I'm in Bangor now, and have been here a couple of days. My first full day was spent lost in the fields and forests of Wales trying to find a campsite which doesn't exist. I followed the directions of the folks at the Hostel and ended up in the arse end of nowhere. While there I took in some fantastic scenery, walked through some beautiful countryside, and got thoroughly lost. After a while the trail I was following seemed to stop, and I found myself walking through fields of sheep, cow shit, and mucky water. At one point I had to climb through about 20 meters of forest, during which time I managed to find no less than 5 sheep's skulls and find myself at one point standing on the spinal cord of a sheep, with my feet both between it's ribcage. I think once a sheep goes missing here, they just forget about it.

Anyway, after about 5 hours of random walking, Gruffudd (Can't pronounce it so I call him Griff, he's my Welsh contact) picked me up and took me into Snowdonia national park where I stayed at a hostel and enjoyed an included buffet breakfast which allowed me to pack an inexpensive lunch.

Since then I've attended a lunch with a group of Welsh speakers at the University of Bangor, and been given the run around while trying to convert some traveller's checks into cash.
Despite the rain, I'm going to camp tonight, and at some point I think I'll actually tell the campsite about my plans. No rush though, I've still got 48 minutes left on the Internet at the library!

Seeing as this blog's been so popular lately . . .

I'm out of Galway. It took me a little longer than I had planned to pry myself away from everything and everyone that was keeping me there, but I've moved on. I'm in Co. Wicklow now (actually at the moment I'm in the library in Wicklow Town) and I'm working on a farm again.

It's really cool. It's called Carraig Dúlra (can't seem to link to it, but the URL is http://www.dulra.org/) and it's not only a farm, but also a traditional skills bank. It's on Carraig Mountain which is lovely, and I spend everyday outside. I sleep on sheepskins on the floor of a yurt and we cook all our meals in either an outdoor kitchen or over a fire.

I live with a couple of other folks, Petra from Toronto, Meg from Maine, and Alberto from Millan. They're all great craic and I'm really enjoying myself. Today was our day off and we walked all over the place and ended up enjoying the sun at the beach. We've got some photos kicking around, but they're not online yet, thus you can't see 'em.

It's chilly today . . .

. . . and there is a window open in the internet cafe.

Colm took this one of Keith and I at the first place I stopped in Taumgraney.

This is Matia, Kano, Drea, Chris and I on Jarod's last night in Ireland.

The dog gone dog’s gone

Since my dog’s gone deaf there’s been a lot more wildlife coming up close to our house. The other day I almost hit a deer driving up my lane because I was distracted by the family of deer in the field. A few days later I drove past a couple of school busses full of children, all watching the wild turkey we had in our field. Yesterday they (the turkey not the school busses full of children) were in the back field right next to the house, so I snapped a picture.

A little bit of light . . .

There have been a lot of different things happening in my life recently. I’ll list a few of the best . . .

I went to Toronto last weekend with some friends.
- We went to a bar, which was pretty cool! It had about 4 different rooms you could sit, stand, dance, and drink in. One room had a piano player entertaining everyone while another had a man playing some fantastic songs by himself on guitar. It was quite a social evening which ended in someone we met being caught in the middle of a pizza fight, and Mike W. having his face forced into a big tin which had recently contained a huge serving of haggis.

When I got home I heard wolves in the woods and watched deer running through the trees and fields away from the howling.
- The heading for this one pretty much gave it away, but it was vary cool!

While looking for a job I saw hope for ‘outdated’ concept of community.
- I was looking through some job postings in an employment centre, and another man that was there referred me to a couple of places he knew were hiring that I never would have thought to look! Then I was directed to a closer job bank but wasn’t given an address, so one of the other people in the room took it upon themselves to interrupt what they had been doing to give me the directions I needed. Then when I got to THAT job bank, I mentioned that I was looking for something close. About 5 minutes later a man gave me the booklet he had been looking though and told me that he had saved all the jobs that were close for me as he was looking for employment for himself. Just because he overheard me talking about what I was looking for. Kinda trivial, but very positive, and that’s what I’ll focus on!

My new hero.

This is an island, built out of old pop bottles! Don't believe me? Read on!

Read this . . . and this . . . and this . . . and this. Then brace yourself, and read this.

Richie Sowa is a true visionary! He's dreamy!