A few more hours

And it's HOLIDAYS !!! Slaving away at the moment trying to finish as many things as possible and then at 1900 it's off to the train station and it's done;

Hopefully I'll get a chance to throw some quick holiday reports on this blog, if not, have a good time and I'll talk to you when I get back.

Oh Canada! Oh Canada!!

It has finally started

After nearly two weeks of non-stop sunshine and splendid evenings, the rain has come in again. And Dee had the idea to go to the beach today on her day off; well, best of luck!

Thank God we'll only have to sustain just two days of it ;-)

Alexia Juliana Marcella Laurentien

Now fair enough, when there's a new arrival in the Dutch Royal Family, the kid needs to get a name, but who came up with Alexia Juliana Marcella Laurentien? It's like one of those quizzes 'which word does not fit in this sentence'. I knew that the Crown Prince was a bit of an idiot, but jeez, this is too obvious!

Can the Dutch people have a referendum on this and reject it?

Packing

And no, haven't done ANY packing yet. Hopefully tonight; but then Linda & Leo are calling up, so it might just be tomorrow evening; or no, can't do that either as I'll be watching Brazil vs Argentina with Shane.

By God, it will be just throwing some stuff into suitcases on Thursday morning and hoping that we packed all, HEH!

Outside dinner and a glass of wine

It just seems like it cannot get any better; the weather is beautiful, we're having dinner outside on the lawn; enjoying a glass of wine with our neighbour and basically close up shop by 23.00 to go to bed. Life is good!

Flight 853

15:30

AC853

CALGARY

AIRBORNE 1554

Terminal Three

This is only today's flight... another three days!

Preparing for Calgary

And yeah, as the weather was so amazing last night, we didn't leave Lauragh until 23.00 hours last night; we just sat outside and browsed through the Loney Planet guides and some print outs on Calgary.

Thank God Dee's father had a gallon of spare petrol in the shed; we didn't quite have enough to make it all the way to Cork, so half way Lauragh we decided to return and wait for the morning to get petrol... Mike so deserves our help again in three weeks in Glengarriff.

Amazing sunsets

And while U2 played in Croke Park for 80,000 fans, we just sat on the top of the mountain looking at an amazing sunset.

And yes, we did indeed sheer some sheep!

So, that's the big group done in Lauragh; more to do in Glengarriff, but we'll do them when we're back from Calgary.

And just in case you didn't believe us, here's the proof:

Another weekend of sheering sheep

Leaving the office here in about an hour; on the road to Lauragh to help Dee's father with the second lot of sheep; should be fun enough... Dee bought the Lonely Planet book on Canada during the week, so we'll be browsing through that during the evenings raising the anticipation to board that aircraft on Thursday.. thank God.. it's only 6 days away! Woo-hoo!

Ironing - great stress relief

After an absolute horrible day at the office (don't ask, equipment that works perfectly, then shows intermittent problems, then perfectly again, then intermittent failures again), I was fit to sit in a corner and just cry. Thank God there was a lift home, some garlic bread, half a pizza and a pile of ironing to relief the stress. Oh yeah, to top it all off, I couldn't resist a small bit of Haagen-dazs. Feck it, sometimes you just gotta give in and live a little.

Feeling great today; just found out that we're gonna get air conditioning at the office next week, so no more 27 degrees Celcius room temperatures! Yes! And yeah, that cycling trip this morning worked off last night's junk food, so all's good again!

Not going to Greene's again

Don't get me wrong, we had a lovely evening and it was great to have the entire company and the partners all together for a night out, but nah, I will not be eating in Greene's Restaurant again. The food was fairly blend and it upset my stomach overnight, so nah, will just be going back to Scoozi's or Kafkas or something.

Maybe we should go to Jacob's on the Mall again. That used to be good!

An early night does a world of good!

After a weekend of sheering and gathering sheep, we said we'd go for ONE pint only at the Eastvillage. Era, it turned out a bit different and we left the Quad by 3AM, being at the office again at 0845. So needless to say I was absolutely shattered yesterday when I got home. An early night does do the world of good though.. feeling great again!

We're having a company dinner tonight at Greene's Restaurant on McCurtain Street to celebrate the longest day of the year... there had to be some excuse ;-)

Hello dentist. Goodbye dentist

I don't like going to the dentist; not that I'm nervous or anything like that; it's just annoying, but era, it has to be done every now and again. Well, 12 minutes and I was out again with a EUR 50 invoice in my hands. I need to floss better. Fine. Is that all? Great, see you in 6 months!

Batman Begins

Okay, my first ever movie premiere! Batman Begins in the Gate Cinema in Cork.

A good enough movie, but too long and too far-fetched.... then, everybody else thought it was absolutely brilliant, so it's probably just me..... go and see for yourself.

Myrtleville

We had Valerie, Grace and Maureen visiting our place last night, so after some tea and biscuits we went out to Myrtleville. We had a lovely evening and after a Father Ted episode on the DVD it was time to go to bed.

Why I don't fly Easyjet

That's why. Thanks to Emma for providing the image.

No, this one isn't Photoshopped

Just playing with the reflection of the sun in the window.

Hibernating!

We were supposed to go to Myrtleville to enjoy the last evening of fine weather; instead we just had a bit of grub, had a quick lie-down at 8, woke up at again 11, brushed our teeth and slept on until 7AM this morning!

I suppose we probably needed the rest after all the partying we've done lately!

Nuff said about that anyway, the weather is shite again.. got pretty soaked will cycling in. Thank God the shower here at the office has never let me down! HEH!

Ik ben niet bang voor de tandarts....

I must say that I don't mind going to the dentist, but I can't say I enjoy it either. After walking into town from Douglas this morning I was told that Dr. Russell wasn't working today and had tried my mobile.... unfortunately the old number! Bummer!

So yeah, will have the check-up now on Friday 08.30AM. He better gives me a discount ;-)

OMG !! - Part 2

And this is why I posted OMG last Saturday!

OMG !!

Oh My God !!

This weather is just unbelievable!! With this weather, there is no place like Kerry! Wow! Had a great night in the An Sibin pub last night celebrating Dee's exam results. Let's put it this way, it was bright and early this morning! We got the car serviced and will have some friends coming for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy... just a quick chicken curry and rice.

Can this weather last for the next 120 years please?

Thank you.

Sights of the Nordics

Just had some time to take these pics of the old digital camera;

Iceland:




Departing Stockholm Arlanda:

Approaching Oslo Airport:

Legal Eagle !!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got the news that Deadlydee has passed all three exams of Year 2 - Legal Studies at University College Cork.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunshine! Sunshine!,

Amazing weather once again!! Another few hours and it's off to County Kerry! Forecast is good up to Monday, so finally we can enjoy a nice summer's evening!

Dee's job with the Food Safety Promotion Board finished up today, but she'll be starting with a sollicitor in town from Monday onwards, so all's good!

And it's just 20 days before we're boarding flight AC853 from London Heathrow to Calgary. Life's good!

It's a beautiful day!

As Bono would scream it out loud: It's a beautiful daaaay!

Wow, amazing weather today, and I'm sitting here at my desk with 25.9 degrees Celcius room temperature. Fairly hot alright, so just going out for quick walks every now and then.

Going for a bite to eat with work tonight.. should be fun alright.. tomorrow it's off to Kerry already.. Time flies!

Pfffffff... madness!

Tuesday morning... after a long, mad, crazy weekend!

We had a great time on Friday night in Dingle, got woken up by the fire alarm on Saturday morning, so I was standing in me boxers out in the coartyard at 0930 looking for the blaze; Nothing going on, so back to bed and asleep within 30 seconds.

We took the Tarbert - Killimer to get up to Lahinch; After a quick snooze we had some food in O'Looney's and went for pints then all across the town; A lot of annoying Dubs and Stella's, but still a great night! Couldn't get into the night club, so got stuck out on the beach with an Indian take-away and some cans ('Ai em on holidaysch and my girlfreund and I are very hoengry, could we get some voot and drink please') - it was the only place still serving, everything had closed its door. We were in desperate need!

Went back to Cork on Sunday... Blue Bamboo... good enough.. 'Pump up the jam, pump it up!' Good old 1980's dance!

And yeah, as I've enjoyed life a little bit too much the last couple of days, I took my bike out for a spin to Belgooly (40k roundtrip) yesterday.. just had to work off the pints consumed in the last few days.

Today is another lovely day.... thank God... it's been about time we got some sunshine!

Bank Holiday Weekend - Lashing rain

As far as the forecast tells us, it's gonna be a typical Bank Holiday Weekend; Rain, wind, showers and more rain. Lovely!

So yeah, with Deadlydee being in Brussels for a hen weekend, the lads are going to the countryside. First stop tonight: Dingle. Good old Ballintaggart House had some dorm beds available for us, so at least it's something; next stop: Lahinch; after that anything can happen!

Have a good one!

Good old Scoozi's !

We went for a bite last night in Scoozi's!. It was absolutely gorgeous! That Chili burger and the Baileys Cheese Cake... yummie! So yeah, back to the tuna salat platter today at the office.. having fun is great, but it can't last forever.

Miserable old day here, so no plans for tonight, hopefully it'll brighten up for the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend!

Priceless !

As this guy obviously had a big piece of toilet paper stuck to his pants and was wearing a 'Von Dutch' t-shirt I just had to ask him where he was from. 'Germany' he responded promptly and proudly.

So, I let him walk around for the rest of the day with toilet paper hanging out of his pants.



Full size photo here

Larnaca, Cyprus

Sunrise of Larnacy, Cyprus while on the road back to the airport.

Nicosia, Cyprus

And as this was the view from my hotel room, you can imagine I felt right at home

Close the barriers - An aircraft might pass by

This is an interesting scene at London Heathrow airport; they basically close the level crossing so that this jet can make its way to the runway.

Sights of Athens

As promised, some more sights of Athens...

The land of Gods

So, I'm finally taking a bit of time to add some stuff to this blog again. Athens is one amazing city! The combination of its historical civilisation and its modern-age infrastructure make it a remarkable place to visit!

As with all tourist destinations ensure that you visit the Akropolis just after 8 in the morning; if else you'll be stuck with groups of Italian schoolkids, Japanese pensioners and the odd-German walking in front of your camera.