Leaving Dubai, back to Europe

So, after a day in Athens and nearly a week in roasting, traffic-jammed Dubai, it's nearly time to go back to Europe. Dubai is a lovely place but has fallen victim to its own success. Fantastic architecture, a good (business) climate, but ridiculous traffic. Sitting in lines of traffic that aren't moving... go here in 5-10 years from now when they have their infrastructure in order. Until then, just watch it on Discovery Channel and be amazed with the way this city is booming!

Gotta get up in 6 hours for my Emirates jet back to Heathrow.... so, nite nite.

Miserable Failure

Who do you think would be the first hit when you enter 'Miserable Failure' as search query in Google?

Well, see for yourself

All over the place!

Thursday 22-09-2005, arriving Athens 0145AM
Friday 23-09-2005, arriving Dubai 0045AM
Thursday 29-09-2005, arriving London 1215PM
Friday 30-09-2005, arriving Eindhoven 1900PM
Monday 03-10-2005, arriving Cork 1100AM

So yeah, if you need me, try me on the mobile.

Current bid of EUR 219,000 !

The current bid on our neighbours place is EUR 219,000 !

Maybe we should sell up as well and move somewhere else?

Sky News got it right!

And now that we finally have Sky Digital we can actually watch something!

Seat 3F

Seat 3F is really the best seat on the Airbus 320 series! Get on first, get settled while everybody else is still getting on board and most importantly, get out first! Thank God I had my favourite seat again last night; estimated time of arrival: 2325. Eeuhhhmmm nah! The Heathrow boys had some air traffic restrictions in place again, so we landed around 0050! With only a few taxis still queued up at Cork Airport at that stage I was lucky to get out quickly!

Oh, the image below I got sent by my Dutch friends; It was the sunset on the evening that Cork won the All Ireland; Under a RED sky on the Ballincollig bypass!

Message is clear!

Thanks again for coming!

Some of my college friends from Utrecht, the Netherlands, visited last weekend! We had an amazing time touring around Beara, Kenmare and Killarney! And yep, we had a great time! If you're ever looking for a B&B in Killarney, try the Fuchsia on Muckross Road, especially room 11 (it's got a bloody jacuzzi!!).

YES !!!

RYANAIR ANNOUNCES 15th EUROPEAN BASE AT CORK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

LOW FARE DOMESTIC FLIGHTS ARRIVE IN IRELAND

Cork to Dublin on Ryanair! Brilliant! No more 3.5 hour journeys on old, expensive trains operated by union workers that go on strike over nothing!

When can we vote Michael O'Leary in as An Taoiseach ?

Equity! Equity!

Our neighbour called over there two nights ago saying that she was going to sell up her place and move towards Midleton; Cheeky as I am I rang the auctioneers to find out today's selling price of our apartments. EUR 215,000 !!

That's bloody insane!

Evening views over Cobh

After driving from Little Island to Glanmire and Little Island to Cobh Cross without crashing into anybody, Dee thought it would be a good idea to celebrate! Well, I must say, I was fairly chuffed with myself not to panic and keeping control of the car. So yeah, watch out, Wout is on the road, and the test circle is no longer Eastgate Business Park! Well, with three weeks to go until the Legal Season starts again at UCC, this is the time to get out on the road and just get it done.

Anyway, we had a lovely time in Cobh last night and as you can see it was a beautiful evening!









And yeah, we really need to get blinds, soon!



And this little train brought me into work this morning

Being a kid again!

We went up to Emma & Anthony's place in Glenville last Saturday night to celebrate her birthday. They had an adults bouncing castle rented out for the night! I haven't had that much fun in ages! It was fantastic to be a kid again, even it was only for a few hours and era, the few bevvies helped as well!







Even though it was pissing rain all day long on Sunday, we still enjoyed the Midleton Food & Wine fair. The pesto and sun-dried tomatoes taste lovely in combination with Arbutus' bread!

Oh, just a warning: I'll be driving around Eastgate again tonight!

Canada - Part II

View over Waterton Lakes with the campsite on the bottom right



The REAL cowboys! Yeee-hah!



The main entrance into Waterton National Park



Fields and fields of these yellow things! Pretty though!



And yes, this IS the color of Moraine Lake!



Deirdre's most perfect spot of the entire trip. That bench and that view. Thanks very much.



Oh yeah, and we met this little creature in Calgary Zoo just before flying home.

Ice creams!

Yeah, those Canadians don't do things by half - so neither did we! We were on holiday afterall!

Long overdue!

When we returned from Calgary I promised to post some more pics.

Going down? The Banff Gondola takes you up to 2500mts within 8 minutes. Eeeek!



Johnston's Canyon in Banff National Park







The Lundbreck Falls



Somewhere near Cameron Lake, Waterton National Park



Waterton Lakes, crossing the border between Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA.

Some other sights

Evening sunshine in Balla, Co Mayo



And Zorro Returns on the way back to Cork



And the new courthouse - better make sure Dee only ends up there representing a client!



The view over Fota bay as taken one morning on the way to work



And my wonderfull ferry that takes me accross so many days

Road Traffic Watch

And if you ever get stuck behind this guy, please call the road traffic watch, as he'll be doing 35miles in a 60 zone without leaving anybody out.

Castlebar Party Nights

Well, after a couple of hours and plenty of jars, you can't really see whether it is true or false.

You decide!

Near Kenmare

You might have seen this when you're driving into Kenmare coming from Kilgarvan.

Sights from high above

No this was not hurricane Katrina, but even so a nice enough view on the way back from London last week.



Then, the approach into Cork Airport is always a better sight. Home!

Oh yeah, the wedding

Well, we were all color coordinated. Up Cork!





And even that full Irish in the morning didn't really help... a walk in the park and the sunday roast did though :-)

And when I finally left the office....

Cork had already fallen into evening darkness





But at least this morning was a beautiful one!