Nothing is as funny as Albatros Sex, no joke

Well well it´s that time again

What time you say, time to string a few words together, put them into sentences and try
and make sense of things, if that makes any sense.

As from the title of this story you can imagine were it is going, but we´ll get to that later.
Now, what was i going to say, well, since i left you i went on an 8 day trip around the Galapagos, and what a trip it was, except for me getting an ear infection and still popping pills and staying out of the water, luck for me someone on the boat penecillin and some pain killers, or else i was in trouble, funny how long these things take to get better.

Well i suppose that will ´Learn me´ for not taking these things seriously, but then again one of my major problems is not being able to take ´Things´ seriously, and i´m being serious obout that one folks, not sure what the lesson in the story is, but it´s there. lesson learnt. Move on, ok so.

Met an English chick before getting on the boat cruze, and as it turns out, there is someone else in the world that talks as much bullshit as me, and it´s not me or my evil twin, although it does sometimes feel like i do have a evil twin, lets call him ´Bad Kieran´ for arguement sake, and when he had the ´Bad chemicals´ going on in his head just about anything can happen and it sometimes does, sometimes.

Had a normal time on the boat, and it felt strange, Em (The Aussie) thought it was funny when i told her i was normally more talkative, for her i was talking a lot. Couldnt really get the words out with a pounding pain (Or in Spanish ´Duele´, but thats spanish) in me ear, nope i didnt feel much like talking. By the time we got back though i was getting out a few words. Yes indeed here come´s an avalanche of words, look out boys and girls, head to the hills, Arghhhhhhh.

Now on to what has to be the funniest thing on the trip, lbatros Sex.
Close your eyes, and try to imagine this folks, got them closed ? ok so, here we go.

Naughty Naughty, i see you


Behind a bush i saw this bird stand on the shoulders of another bird, i´m no expert but i´m hoping it was a female, it would be a bit ermbarrasing for me to know i was cheering on 2 male birds going for it, yep very embarrasing.

After a few frantic moments, to the poor birs below it must have seemed like an eternity it was all over.

Now the macho on top, has what looks like to me a smile on his face, yes he´s smiling , definatly smiling and proceeds to walk away 10 feet there abouts and the other bird does the same and sit looking at a bush, now they are not more than 15 feet away from each other both looking into a bush looking in opposite directions, and the macho on top is still smiling away to himself, i nearly pissed myself laughing.

I dont think i´ll ever forget it, and while everybody else was snapping pictures, Kieran with no camera saw the love scene of the century, if it could be called that, which it can because it´s my story and i´m playing god here, so thats it ´love scene of the century´

Thats it, stop reading, get a life and write a story about it, i did and i´ll probably do it again, so there !

The wonderful thing about tiggers

The Galapagos


Well i know it´s only been a few days, but since it´s hot outside, a bit too hot for me, not that i´m any hottie, it has to be time to be inside and pen some more rubbish, if only for my amusement. So far i am not amused, but it´s still early, and it being early i´ll get on with it as best as i can.

So, went out with Jill and Co on Wednesday, had a nice time, thanks Jill. Jill goes home early, bye bye Jill, see you tomorrow, and i dident know how true that would be.
Then the captain steps in and asks me back to his place for drinks, well i think he did because before long we were back at his place and the drinks were flowing.

Before long, i decided it was time to go swimming. I feel a bit like George Bush some times when i make decisions. I am the decider and i make decisions, that´s what deciders do´ and it´s true because when you are old enough to do this then you are really getting places. I wasnt getting anywhere quickly.

Fast forward to me swimming out the back of the Captains place, swimming around, really nice,¨Oh whats that, some yahts, i think i´ll take a look¨ and on closed inspection they realy were yahts, and what would be expecting out the back of a guys place and he happens to be called ¨The Captain¨ well much fun was had diving off these boats and climbing op to them, it´s a full body work out i can tell you.

Sean from Texas was telling me next day that it´s nor really cool to dive off other peoples boats, they´re some peoples houses and you wouldnt dive off of someones house, good thing that no one was in them i´m guessing. Well nobody told me this and before long i was having a great time

(Authors note: not many people you will encounter in life, this or the next are morning people and you have to be really careful of people of those who are not, well thats the advice that was given to me a few years ago by some old French guy, hello old french guy, there you go, i´m not making this up)

Well after much making noise outside the captains place, you could say i finally got his attention, and to be fair he´s way worse than me. He cherises his sleep, so i had to take off.

My clothes were in his place, so was my money. They were going to have to wait, and in fairness to Jimmy Hendrix, he was definatly on to something when he said ¨I think i´ll wait until tomorrow¨, too bad i was doing my air guitar impression instead of listening, because i now feel like he was trying to tell me something from beyond the grave (Play errie music here)

Got back to the peir and there was nothing else to do only swim and swim home i did. Nice morning for a swim it was too, i´m sure a lot of people thaught the were witnessing some new form of water creature on the Gallapagos and i suppose in a way they were.

I´m still having fun at this stage, there goes the phrase ¨No mon no fun¨, you Sir are wrong, very wrong indeed, very wrong. Because my money was at the Captains.

Got back and i though the best thing to do was tell Jill the full story and let her sort everything out and smothe everything out, remember I am still the decider here and since i´m writing the story i am god too, Why not there´s got to be a first time for everything, and if everything goes to Shit, i can say Ït´s my first day¨ which in a way is true.

Got to Jill´s place and explained the whole story, i did knock. It would be bad manners not to, and after explaining my self Jill went about fixing everything. Hipp Hipp Hurrah for Jill.

After wards i was a bit dissapointed i didnt sing my Tigger song from Whinney the Pooh. Jill had Whinney the Pooh and Tigger too sheets.
After singing the song for her the next night and finding it amusing, Jill tells me that if i sung the song to her i would have gotten a box. Some people just arent morning people i guess.

Tigger song:
The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful things
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is I'm the only one

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful chaps
They're loaded with vim and with vigor
They love to leap in your laps
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is I'm the only one.

Tiggers are wonderful fellahs.
Tiggers are awfully sweet.
Everyone elses is jealous,
And thats why I repeat...

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Are Tiggers are wonderful things
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is I'm the only one.
Yes, I'm the only one

Sometimes i think, why cant i be normal like everyone else
Jill last week told me she likes me the way i am and wouldnt want me to change, this is still an opinion she shares, is she crazy or am i ?
Fast forward to dinner last night and some frally good food from Chilie.
Phone rings, Jill answers, it turns out to be the captain wanting me to go back and fix the damaged fly screen, you know your getting bad when the local crazy guy is saying your crazy.

All´s well that ends well and everyone had a good laugh.

Peace out

A holiday within a holiday

Toilet in Secret Garden



Well it´s taken me 52 minutes to get this far, how far that you say ?

Well i started off ripping Jill´s music into a format that would fit onto my mp3 player, thanks Jill. I call that format mp3.

Well whats been happening, well since i last left you, probably with a full stop, so i´ll give you an encore and then continue.

Right so, down to business. Now i´m back in Porta Ayorta, beginning to feel a bit like Father Jack when he sobered up, ´Am i still on that feckin island, afraid so father jack.

But it´s not all bad, between reading my books and hanging out with Jill and drinking beer and then after 8 beers hanging out with drunk Jill and then some more beers life is going well, depends what you call life really, and we´ll get to that later.

Got to the Galapagos with no real clear idea of what i was going to do except hang out and meet people and ´Do stuff´ect ect and so on and so forth.

Lets start at the start, after a bit of a false start getting here, missed my flight from partying too hard, cant really blame anyone but myself and making myself look like a bit of an eejit infront of the family not being able to wake me up and when they did, i opted to go back to sleep, i was never happier to be asleep, so much for partying hard.


Eventually got here and happened to see a guy hanging around a bit, so i said hello
and as Jill will tell you, ´Hello´ is a good way of metting people, so i said hello
and as luck would have it, his name was Kieran to, and he was from Cork too, but raised in North Carolina, well 2 out of 3 aint bad as Meatloaf will tell you.

So it began there and went on, met some girls from Quito, hello girls and the party went on
Met Jill before the girls, hello Jill, and the party went on.
Met the Captain, and the party went on.
Met Mike from San Diego, hi Mike, and the party went on.

Currently listening to Jills music, and the music is strangly interesting, no sure what it´s called and maybe i´ll never know, i´m waiting for the ´Peaches and Peaches´ song to come on.
Yep cant wait for that one.

Back to the story, after being 7 odd days of pretty much drinking with a girl who likes beer more than me, and i came to the Galapagos for a break, i thought it was time for another break so i went to Isabella, and off i went, within 20 minutes of getting there i met Mike ´Kicking it´

´Kicking it´ will be one of my phrases from here on in, i feel like i was walking through a lost home for dog´s and baby ´Kicking it´ was looking up at me with his ´Moo cow´ and i said ´Can we keep him´ and while i was busy
filling in the papers i saw ´Random´ and i said i´ll take hime too.

As Mike would say ´Random´, which he said funnily enough quite a lot when i was talking to him, which was quite a lot.

Which brings me to Mike, went to his boat on Isabella, tide was getting low, bad idea. After about 2 hours of ´Kicking it´ on his boat it was decided i should retire to my Quarters, good idea no ? (Thinking to myself ´Well, yes and no´ brain
yes and no), We headed back and since Mike didnt want to damage the engine, he lifted up the engine, good idea no ?

Well yes and no, because he couldnt get it back down again. So anyway out comes the lighter, and it came omoniously close to the engine, it was pretty dark, and i thought that was a bad idea, but it turned out to be good as he go the motor down
But the lighter got wet and by this stage Mike was getting a bit distressed and couldnt light his cigarette, which turned out to be a bad idea. I wanted to paddle over to one of the yahts and disturb a guy from his G and T.

But that would have been a bad idea as your supposed to know what your doing at sea, i would like to state here that i´m not a seaman and i dont know anything about seamen, or being a seaman for that matter.

Jill´s song is telling me she is too drunk to fuck, good one Jill, where do you get your inspiration fom ?

So Meself anf Mike, make it to shallow water, and off goes the engine and out comes the paddle, paddle boys, paddle, so we did, until the best oar broke and we are floating again.

So i said, ´Will i get out and push´ Mike says no, so i did anyway, until we hit dry land, well really it was a sand bar, and we were still 150 meter´s from real dry land.

Luckily enough, i was able to walk most of the way, and Mike was like, Íf you walk around the side it wont be so bad.

So after running back for my sandles, which as it turned out werent mine at all, i went straight accross, and the water went as far as my waste then af far as my hips chest, upper chest and i must of been a funny sight wit my wallet and shoesover my head, hoping it wasnt going to be any deeper and as i got back i saw a small sting ray.

Mike was telling me, that he felt really bad watching me wade accross, i thought it was hilllarious, as Mike ran back to his dingy
before it floated away.

Next day we swapped back sandles, and the boys sailed off to the south pacific and they all lived happily ever after.

And thats the story of Mike and Me.

On Isbella, we went snorkling and a Sea Lion came up to us and pretty much said ´Thats not how you swim, this is how how you swim´ and proceeded to show us land cratures how it´s done zooming around us and jumping out of the water, nothing i´ve ever seen comes close, saw white tipped sharks, heaps of them, Boobies (The bird kind, i like them too, the birds´

And thousands of Turles, giant ones and their babies.
Walked to the Wall of tears, it´s a huge pile of stones prisoners of war had to build to give them something to do i suppose, i suppose it´s safer than digging a hole?


Later

Paddys day is a coming

So roll on the weekend

Paddys day is coming up, Saturday in fact and all is well.

Finished reading 'Me talk pretty one day' by David Sedaris

And even though (note you should never start a sentence with and) i should give the book on to someone else, i'm not
i'm going to read it again and again and again and again and again. There i've said it. Your not getting it.

Maybe by reading it over and over some of it will rub off on me, or may be it wont. But why take a chance when it could ?

Going to the Islands on the 23rd, for 18 daze. Looking forward to it. Chris is scheduled to arrive today, should be good and as the
experienced guide i can make all sorts of statements and judgments and since I’m the guide, who’s going to argue with me ?

The Jazz festival has been going well with free concerts during the day and gig’s at night, and for $10 how can one argue? Saw some great piano players this week, last night there was a guy playing the harmonica that was tearing it up. He played some really complicated stuff on Piano as well and then he played both. The bass player last night was unreal, pretty good considering that they don’t really have the clubs here for that stuff.

The Sax player from Argentina won best Sax player from 2000 – 2005, didn’t do anything unreal, it’s hard when you start off on Coltrane. Not every player is at that level.

Had a dance lesson with Elli, Wilma and their friend that I think was in that dance group we saw 2 weeks ago. Loco for the dancing they are. Then we saw the Dancing with the stars, it was a bit like standing next to teenagers watching the Beetles, but without the live music.

Spanish is coming along well, now we have covered the past, present and future. Much practice is needed but it is making sense, sort of and if it isn’t, ignorance is bliss.


A Sedaris bit for yea

See yea in the funny pages

Walking in the Jungle, it´s no forest you know !

One of Kirsten´s photos

Just got back from the jungle treck in Tena.
Me ? I had a great time, i stayed with Fidel's family for 1 extra night.
I stayed in the upstairs of his house, under construction, currently has 2
walls. All his neighbors could see me sleeping.

As predicted, by 1 Australian on the advice of another Australian i would end up buying a lot, most of the beers, and as good advice goes i threw caution to the wind. But the difference being that the chick in the
red short shorts that cooked breakfast in the morning
came out with us, and was looking exceptionally fine, and could she cook !

She had no problem with my accent, the first girl in a
long time and even though she didnt speak a word of
English at one point i remember thinking, "Hey i'm
speaking Spanish".

At that point the cost of beers went out the window
and beers were on me, it was a good Spanish lesson,
very intense.

Her room was below the bus stop, i got a wave goodbye,
i did at one point feel like saying, "I'll be back" or
"I'm not leaving" but instead i just got on the bus
with Fidel and his family.

All in all, it was great craic.

The Shaman who doubled up as the old man performed a ceramony to get rid of bad spirits which i think did the trick.

I think someone swiped a few travellers cheques, $20 or $40, but shit happens, they got me yet another time.

Stayed in a cave the second night of the treck, i didn´t think i got any sleep, but it´s comforting to know the guy next to me was pissed off with my snoring and farting, i blame the motu (Chick pea kind of food). What else would you expect ?

Had a fish dinner, rice salad and 1 whole fried fish at the bus atation, the doller goes a long way here.

Speaking of food, my legs were eaten (Breakfast, lunch and dinner) on the treck, only a bit of malaria about, if thats any consolation...........

Chris is arriving in a few days, i will be the Tour guide, should be good

Peace out

K

Mi Feliz Cumplianus or my Birthday

It was my birthday and as happy birthdays go, it came
and went, not without it's little adventures and
surprises, some you can see in the photos and some you
cant.

Since my camera was stolen a few weeks ago i've begun
collecting other peoples photos, much handier than
taking my own and better too if i was to be honest,
which i'm not. But defiantly cheaper on batteries. Now
I'm not too upset about leaving my rechargeable
batteries at home.

Having a great time staying with the local family, the
dinners are awesome, and now i have my Ecuadorian
soccer shirt with a number '30' on the back, nice
touch, me being 30 the other day and all.

The Spanish is going well too, decided i'm going to
head to the Galapagos Islands around the 20th for 2-3
weeks, then at some stage it will be Colombia, lots of
good things are being said and the lost ruins in the
north seem to be the place to go, so go i will.

Climbing a mountain, then going down

Hola (I think the spelling is right)

The Spanish is coming along nicely, the family are great. Heading out with them tonight to see a Salsa performance. Free tickets and a rumor of a salsa class on Friday.
Heading to the Sacuquili market to morrow. It´s supposed to be Ecuadors most important market, no commercial crap, just rural people. Not much beer tonight, wont have a repeat of last week (I meant to go last week, but the night life was calling) and a birthday on Friday, mine to be exact, theres talk of a birthday cake.

One of my Neighbours, from Queensland is leaving, so there is going to be a bit of a party, so it will be a good one.

Life is easy, the way it should be, i´m learning about English grammer by learning Spanish and every day i´m understanding more and more even though somedays i look like a mute when i´m trying to say something.

Climbed the local Pichincha volcano 3 days ago, i was the only one to walk all the way up, every one thought i was on speed, nope just house music, glad i didnt run out of batteries or i would have been screwed.
I did a fair bit of training in Cork for it, bringing my mother´s dogs for 15km walks, i never did run out of batteries, i would have been screwed there too.

Going to head down south after the Spanish in about 3-4 weeks, theres no rush, i have plenty of time. I´ll hit the Moccu Piccu trail, it will probably be the rainy season, but i´m used to it and it doesnt bother me a bit, sur wasnt i on the Arran Islands in January ? It's not too bad once you get used to being cold and wet all the time.

Hola from Quito

A dancer performs during X-9 samba school's parade at the sambodrome in Sao Paulo



Thing´s is going well here. Moved out of the hostel and into a house around the corner, with a very nice family that love having the ´craic´, i only understand about 5% at times, but they like having fun and eating well, so i understand enough.

Had a game of football with them a few days ago when i met them, it was Europe V Ecuador, and with the altitude you have to be pretty fit to keep running, anyway we were beaten convincingly by a bunch of girls and the mother and father, i spent most of the time in goals gasping for air, good fun all the same.

I was voluntering at the hostel, but they wanted me to miss Spanish classes, so that wasn´t on and i put a stop to that, so no more free beer, accomodation, food and i´m feeling the better for it.

There´s a market really close with heaps of cheap food, great coffee, fruit and vegtables.
Today i had a potato and meat soup, i was pretty happy with that for a dollar and then i was given a plate of rice beans and chicken and told it was included, all for a dollar. Too much!!!

Went with the family to their house in the country with a few other tourists and had a great time. Went to a place called ´Rio Bamba´, and as the people in Ecuador love doing had a huge water fight. Arrived in this town and there was over 1 km of everybody drenching everybody else, when we couldnt get water we got these aersol cans that squirted foam, what a laugh, i must have got about 8 of these cans in about 90 minutes.
Some guy got me, and he happened to be holding a hamburger, so i got him and his hamburger, i might have been going a bit too far, but if your going to start a war......
Even women in their 60´s were getting into it, hard to believe

The family´s place is in a valley outside the town, where everyone grows their own crops, they have a stream flowing above their crops and they unblock it and the water winds down and waters their crops, they must have spent ages digging. It´s volcanic earth too, so everythig grows, very beautiful.

Went to a suprise party in their grandfather´s place, i was probably told about it, but since i havent got the hang on the language, i was suprised and everyone got shots of the traditional brew and then more and more.

Went to an outdoor basketball court later that night where they had a DJ playing with 3 of his MC´s who have to talk over every song, i suppose urging everyone to get into it.
The local brew was $1 for a big bottle and everyone was being offered shots from the same glass, very funny.
The people complain here when it´s 17 odd degrees, they think it´s the middle of winter, they cant believe me walking around with a T shirt, they´d never survive the Arran Islands.

Had a few more water fights before leaving next day, everyone must get wet, everyone, what a laugh, everyone gets envolved, no water restrictions.

Since it was carnival, everybody was up for singing, it was a variation of the pretty much the same song, with the chorus ending with ¨... carnival´, great craic.

I´ll be renting a double room off of them now with a kitchen, sitting room with TV, bathroom and if i wanted 3 all you can eat meals thrown it, it would be $15, i cant eat that much food, so i´ll proably just have dinner with them and everything is cooked from scratch and you get more and more and more.

Going to head to an indiginous market 2 hours south on Thursday, apparently it´s the most important market in Ecuador.

Crocus flowers blossom through a layer of snow in Freiburg, southern Germany

Well this time next year I won’t be a millionaire, but this time next week I will have been on a Jet plane, 2 in fact.

I booked the first flight today, and if I had booked it last night it would have cost me Euro 0.01, today 23 euro, so why didn’t I do it last night, internet connection was slow. That’s like I suppose, tough shit.

Going to head out for a walk with the dogs, listen to Spanish, hopefully some of it is sinking in. Languages are acquired, so it will be a case of having to acquire it when I hit SA, because very few will ‘Have the English’, do you follow me now?

Listening to the Frames on the net, through You tube, not a bad band, Kerry I think, a bit like Cold play, a bit I said!!

Should be cleaning out the attic over the garage today, my cleaning services are in the demand, no frills, cleaning, I get the job done, I could be to cleaning what the Dog the bounty hunter is to bounty hunting. I’m coming to get you!!!

Might go to a gig tonight, Cyprus Avenue has a UCC student night on, I’ve always fancied myself as a bit of a student around campus. After all I’ve technically been there and in reality I haven’t, but that’s reality and that’s a tricky thing sometimes.

Off for a walk to Knockraha and back, I’m off.

Where the bloody hell are you

The Basant Panchmi Festival in India, celebrates the onset of spring, marking the beginning of new life as yellow mustard flowers start to bloom




Gone Arran
Set off from Cork last Tuesday with a faint idea of what I was going to do, that being go to An Galliamh (Galway in English) and see where the craic was at.

There is a new service from Cork to Galway 18 Euro return, so I got that and as it turned out I was the only person on the bus. I remember sending out an email saying something like, ‘There’s 5 cars in my house and I can’t use any of them, so I’ll get a poor mans chauffeured trip to Galway. Turns out I was right.

As we got as far as Limerick another guy got on, I remember he was reading a comic, I haven’t seen anyone read comics since I was 10.
Anyway after a drivers smoke brake we got talking for the rest of the trip.
He showed me a place to stay, the SleepZone. We met up later for a few beers and then went to a comedy in the ‘Rosing Dubh’, 3 excellent comics, I laughed hard and drank heaps of Guinness, oh the Guinness was great, one solid week of it, it was probably coming out my ears in the end, so good.

Went on the Burren trip, saw the Dolmen, hard to believe that those 3 stones have had 1800 birthdays. And all of us tourists gust get off a bus, go in for 10 minutes take photos and back on the bus again.
Went to the cliffs, got talking to a Canadian guy Matt I think it was, hard to believe how windy it was, a Polish girl was taken by the cliffs only 6 weeks ago while posing for a photo, ‘Yeah, back a bit, back a bit’, then no more, game over folks.


Then we called into Oliver St John Gogarty’s place


Very nice, the tour guide was really good, heaps of stories, great value on my 14 Euro student ticket, there was only 4 of us on the bus too.

Went on a pub crawl with the Canadian guy and listened to some music.

Next day it was time to get out, so off I went. Having coffee, I had an idea, what about the Arran Islands, so I got a ticket and as Hunter S Thompson said, ‘If you buy the ticket, you take the ride’

Only about 10 people on the boat, found a place to stay, it was raining a fair bit, but I was starting to get used to it.

Walked around and noticed a pub open, so in I went and I was quiet surprised to see a modern pub, like any you would find on the mainland. Very impressive, but the best was to come.

The best Guinness of my life was being served, what joy!!
Later that nigh I went to the Hotel for some food, very nice setup again. The barman was a polish guy, first Polish guy I have met in Ireland. Ordered food, not too bad, more Guinness, not bad. I was the only person there, not too bad. Had a good chat.

Went back to the village, met an old guy Padraig, he’s 73 years old, every morning he arises and says 3 hail marys as he’s so happy to be alive and Shadow Boxes. I was thinking to myself what would you think if you happened to be walking past and saw him shadow box, you’d probably think he was off his game.

Found Tiompal Ciaran, had a look and got a few photos.
Went up to Dun Aungus, hard to believe that it dates back as far as 100 BC when they had no tools and the rock was cut from rock.

Very hard life, no wood to make a fire, windy rainy area. They must have been constantly wet or damp.

Even when they started farming the islands, there’s 1800 kms of stone wall on the islands. They made soil, every where you look there are stone walls and some of them as was rightly pointed out are works of art and they are, they also double up as cattle shelters as they don’t bring in their cattle.

So after being wet and cold on the islands, being cold isn’t so bad anymore.
Called to Doolin on the way back, I was the only one on the bus and had a great chat with the driver.

Got a photo of the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival sign, the bottom of it says ‘Were here for the women and the beer’. Had to walk a long way for that one, but it was worth it. Might try and make a brake around the 5th of Feb.

Here I go now.

Cooking, Cleaning and living a normal life

A Hindu holy man bathes in Allahabad during the Ardh Kumbh Mela festival, the largest religious gathering in the world

Well what’s been going on ?

Been helping the mother put her new kitchen in the first step in putting in a new kitchen is take out the old one, but before you can do that you must take out what’s in the old kitchen, and before you do that you must have somewhere to store the stuff So I spent 4 days cleaning out 2 Attics, had a fire going for 4 days solid, burnt heaps of old paper, you can be fined here now for having a fire going on your land, but if the fire wasn’t going nothing would have been thrown away and you would be back to square one, how am I going to get the kitchen in.

So now we are at a stage where the old one can come out, only took 5 days, but we are there, and it’s not a very big kitchen either.

Getting away from work and all of that, went out last Sunday night to see a gig.

I saw Wallis Bird
Unreal is all I can say, she badly cut her finger when she was 2. Right handed, so she taught herself to play as a left handed, because no one told her that was not what you were supposed to do. Great gig, I was talking to a guy that was telling me her drummer was unreal.

Looked her wikipedia, she is compared with Janis Joplin and Annie De Franco, haven’t heard much of Annies stuff, but now maybe I will.

Going to go to Galway to morrow and see where the craic is at. There is 5 cars in my house, but no chance of me getting a car for a few days or a week, so I think I’ll get the bus, someone else can drive, I’ve driven enough. I’ll feel like a poor man being chauffeured around, but chauffeured none the less and that’s better that walking or a kick in the arse. And that’s a fact.

I’ll try and use my fake student id, it’s expired. But it still works. Meself and the sister went to the movies last night. She goes to UCC, I have a fake USIT that says I go to UCC, the guy selling tickets took ages looking at her ID. I started making a bit of a fuss going ‘Erra, Susan I’ll pay for it’ just to get his eyes away from the cards. It worked too, but after all, she is an actual student. You can never be too careful, there are some chancer’s out there.

I will try and take in the Cliffs of Moher, without getting blown off, I’m told a few have of recent. Won’t be getting too close, my camera has a very nice zoom function, very nice. :) God knows how many Australians went on about West Ireland, now I think I’ll go and see what they were on about.

Stay tuned


Kieran

Oh the weather outside is frightful, the fire is so delightful.......

Cool eh ?


It's lashing rain as a write this. Been quiet on the going out front, too quiet if you ask me.

Had a few beers last night while the mother and sister were having dinner upstairs at a bar, i'm told my mammy put me to bed. Sent off a few text messages too, seemed like a good idea at the time, but over time, maybe not and as the length of time increases and as the universe expands, no defiantly not.

Been very slack with the Spanish lessons. The mother doesn’t want me to leave, will have to get motivated again, pick a date mid January and go.

Walking the dogs here is really good, went on a huge walk with some good tunes into the country, or used to be country, it's like Fraggle rock here with the Doozers building everywhere.
Every morning I’m under constant survalance, I cant bring all 3 dogs, cos they are Fuckn mad as hatters. We have 2 outdoors and one indoors. If the one inside sees me walking around she starts barking, them the 2 outside go absolutely mad, it wouldn’t have been much of a problem 10 years ago, but the Doozers have been hard at work and now we have neighbours.

Told my sister I was talking to my uncle in the pub last week and he said to me ‘What does your mother see in those dogs, they’re only mongrels’
Sisters response ‘He’s a feckin mongrle’. Funny thing is that they both are right

The walk was really cool, if the battery on my iRiver went dead there is no way i would have made it back, no way. Every one thinks i'm mad walking, but if you saw the country with the mist lifting, you'd have to be mad to stay in bed.

I saw Warney went out well, made the back page of the newspaper here, i nearly laughed. I was contemplating ringing the newspaper and abusing them for putting an English game on an Irish paper, all for a laugh of course, i don’t mind Warney at all.

I was in a pub last week and i said to a fellow.
Me: What’s the story with this country, it's dark at 9am and it's dark at 3pm, in Australia it's 25 Degrees.
Him: 'Erra, Feck Australia, I'm watching a horse race'

It's become a bit of a running joke here, every time i mention 'Australia' my sister says 'Erra, Feck Australia, I'm watching a horse race'. I have to do something to amuse myself.

I've been helping the mother out cooking, cleaning and stuff out the back that she's been asking my siblings to do for ages. I am number 1, it doesn’t matter what I do for the next year
Cooked rice and vegetables a few times (All in 1 pot) here with a Soy sauce, Chilly, coriander, ginger and Garlic sauce) I am being hailed as the best chef since Jamie Oliver. But any dinner you don’t have to cook, is pretty good.

So I’m living the normal life for a bit, trying to get the dole too. Money for breathing really which I will hand over to the mother, I don’t need it, but it’s on offer. I feel like a guy going to dinner party with a doggie bag and saying ‘It’s for the dog’ and someone else saying, ‘But you don’t have a dog’, at that point I am going to fake a mental illness, that’s half true after all, some people don’t need much convincing of that after all. :)

Have to make a start on the Spanish again and figure out where to go Ecuador, I think…………..

Time will tell

Kieran

Oh the weather outside is frightening

People walk on a pier by the sea during warm weather on New Year's Day in Athens, Greece.


Oh Hello there

After a 43 hours commute back home with 1 hour sleep maybe
on the plane I had enough of traveling for that point in time.

Flew into Cork and I thought to myself ¡What a beautiful
day¢, what an eejit I felt like when it was announced that there was
fog in Cork and after circling for about an hour it was off to Shannon Airport
and then a bus to Cork a 2 hour journey

I remember feeling a vague need to cry when that news was announced,
but I¢m a big boy now and big boys don't cry, do they?

The funny thing about it was there was a Tibetan Buddhist
flying to Cork too, and I remember thinking ¡He probably took too
much acid in his day and has come full circle now..

He got off the bus within 30 min at his stop going to Cork, it couldn't have
worked out better for him, I must be praying to the wrong god again.

Flew from Melbourne to KL, yeah big deal I hear you say, I
though I was going to Singapore, worked out well in the end, I had
breakfast in
my favorite place in the world, cheap cheap too. Worked out about $1.20
Australian for gourmet Nasi Lemak, yeah gourmet, no GST added on
either, quality; eat it at the side of the road, yummy.

Flew from KL to Amsterdam with KLM airlines and if you've never flown with them before, don't!
The air hostesses are the biggest bunch of school teachers I have ever seen in
my life.
If you have more than 2 drinks with alcohol you are branded an
alcoholic, School teachers!!!
Nothing a hot session with a man couldn¢t fix of course,
hey I'm a man! Well I suppose there will be other times.
They do take their job very seriously though; you¢d swear we
were going to outer space. Which was were I was going flying into KL.

Left revolver Sunday and pretty much went straight to the
Airport, passport control I might not get on the plane if I kept on
singing and dancing, I was singing Chris Rea, Driving home for Christmas¢ oh yeah
and I had a fair amount of speed too, did I tell you about that ?

Had to go to the toilet every half an hour and do my version
of the Melbourne Shuffle, I was having a great time. The Phillipino
woman and her daughter next to me must have thought I was from outer space
and I was half way there literally.

Stopped off in KL from 5am till 11.30pm and did some
shopping, charged my iRiver at a backpackers walked around and took in
the carbon dioxide.

I was standing at the Burger king at 11.05 pm trying to
spend my last 6 Rinngit (Just over $ 2) when I though I¢d have another
look at my boarding pass, it said boarding time was 10.45pm.

I then proceeded to run the fastest 100 meters of my life, I
must have looked such a sight, I can laugh now, I wasn¢t laughing then,
when I got on the plane I looked like I¢d just gotten out of the shower.

Got lots of great tunes before I left Oz, and have been
bringing my mothers dogs on huge walks every morning, when the tunes
are going, I could walk all day, the dogs can't I'm afraid.
But they go apeshite for walking all the same.
My mother has 3 dogs so I can only bring 2 at once because
they go a bit mad, well if the piggy in the middle thinks he¢s been
left at home, madness erupts and everyone is woken up by dogs barking.

Oh and a little Christmas present, for getting this far into
my bullshit with hitting the delete button, well done.

This DJ has only had her decks for 2.5 years and is the best
DJ I have heard in a long time by a country mile, enjoy.

DJ

Oh and happy Christmas, and I hope Santa brought you
everything you wanted, if you were good of course.


Kieran

Last Daze

Wild ducks fly across the Siberian river at a temperature of around minus 20 degrees


Brrrr, should be around 1 degree at home, going from 25-30 to 1. But it is Christmas time, isnt it ? Hmmmm……..

Right I’m down to my last days in Oz and strangely enough it feels pretty good. I’m doing fine.
Been crashing on couch of Chris and a chick I met a few weeks ago Jamilla.

Funnily enough, was out with Jamilla 2 night’s ago went back to her place, had a few Jim Beams and a smoke or 2. Where there’s smoke there’s fire yeah fire. Maybe with all the bushfires going on, maybe that’s not too good a comment, but it did sound good at the time.
Which reminds me, a not so old but more on the overweight side was getting or trying to get off the tram yesterday and the doors closed on her. Eventually she got off, my comment was ‘Be quick or be dead drawing on my vast metal repertoire and ‘That’s poetry in motion, literally’ and it was the tram nearly took off with her jammed in the door’s and that wouldn’t have been too funny, after a while or maybe it would get funnier as time went on, and on, and on.

Going to the opera tonight with Chris, going to see Turandot. Chinese inspired that was banned up until Sep 1998, laugh at yourself China will you!!

Called up to see Gerard yesterday had Absinth for the first time, might explain how I fell off the bike, hmmm makes sense the more I think about it and especially when I move around.

Haven’t even told you about the mad and stupid landlord trying to stick a knife in me last week, what a silly man.
Got on to the local council to shift his 7 cars and a tow truck parked illegally, even in the ‘No Standing’ area. Unbelievable is all I can say to that, if I parked there for an hour I would get a ticket.

Will have to take Frankie to VCAT court ext year, it’s all a game and I’m super Mario jumping around the place. Wonder when I’ll get super powers.
Started watching Heroes, on of Chris copied off of someone else’s series not yet available in Oz. Anyway it’s good, do yourself a favor and get it on a hard drive and watch it. I’m not a fan of staying in at night .i.e. ‘Can’t do Thursday night, heroes is on at 8.30’ aw boo hoo, your life is being ruled by a little box in the corner of the room, fair enough I suppose. I suppose its better that your life being ruled by a bitch in high heels or not demanding attention, look at me Kimmey!!

Phillips is gone to India, Gerard is off tomorrow, I’m off on Sunday, ‘So Fuc#$n what’ he says. So what indeed, choice bro. [experiment with the English language there, wont now it was a success until Scholars are trawling through my work trying to figure out things like, ‘What drove him on’, ‘Who inspired him’, ‘Who or hat is don don’s’, ‘How did his plots and characters develop’] ok experiment is over, now all I have to do is play the waiting game……………………..

I’m bored, but writing this waffle tends to help

K

Sometimes in Russia trucks are used as a bridge pier.

This happened in Medvezhjegorsk city, 200 km North from Petrozavodsk in Karelia, Russia.

The driver of the truck tried to pass under the bridge with an opened load body.

Typing away on a Monday arvo, nothing else to do?

Another busy weekend.

What’s the story morning glory? I was reading about the benefits of writing, and their appears to be many benefits for all sort of ‘Things’ going on in your head. So it’s a good idea to do what I’m doing. Defiantly not the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, no not by a long shot.

Among the sensible thing’s I did on the weekend (Before I started partying with Ross and co.) was catching up with Cassie, at the market, the Prahran market to be exact.

I used to go there and have a free breakfast of bits of sausages and crackers and any other free food they were dishing out, some days I hit the jackpot. Great place to eat in an expensive area, and did I say fun, it was that too, Who says the best things in life aren’t free, they are, Prahran market of Saturday, yummy. 

Met up with Cassie’s mom, pretty chilled out, and went to rub the budgies in the flower shop on Chapel st. Not as good as when you come out of Revolver, but that’s another story, I had sleep.

I went to see Cassie’s piece of heaven, yep. I could be comfortable there, if I was settled that is. Not sure if I could get used to the idea of living in the same place for a long time. I like change, one day I might even shape shift. Some people believe in it.

I watched some program where a guy was saying ‘If you believe you can walk through a wall, you can walk through a wall’.

Henry Ford once said ‘If you think you won’t succeed your right twice’ or something like that, Eeek? That didn’t go too well.

Try something else, ok so.

Went to the Belgium Beer garden yesterday, but first I went to word. Not too many people there. Good fun as always.

Met a guy called Rob and is friend, can’t remember her name and had good craic. After they left I walked back to the band and met some other girls and hung out with them for a while, not a ad day in the sun. Not a bad day in all, then I came back to the city and had Hungry Jack’s, and why not, I’m nearly 30 years of age you know ?

Friday I caught up with Matt and went to Brown Alley, some German DJ, Michael Maher I think, and house ort of music up stairs. Good craic.

Met a girl who’s mother was into the German DJ, and, and the mother went clubbing more than the daughter. Hard to believe, but there you go.

Met another girl called Ruby who was shocked when I told her I had female friends, and after telling her that she said ‘You must come and see me in Sandringham, we can go for a walk along the beach, we can go for coffee……’ Very amusing. Have to give her a call, called her, no answer. Such as life.

That’s roughly what happened on the weekend, give or take a few other stories.

Might go the opera this week, more bands, and meet up with the Famous Ross and get the Iriver.
Sharlet mover out, and no bond was forthcoming, same old ding dong, that’s what you get sometimes I guess, when you expect these things it’s not so bad I suppose. I’ll look forward to getting screwed, oh Frank give it to me baby !!

Going to Splodge tonight, should be good. Have to call to the Library and get my Eminem cd back and pick up some other stuff.

Peace out

K

Been a long time, been a long time

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (on platform) waves to cheering supporters during his closing campaign rally in Caracas.

Well, well, well

Hmm, better start with the weekend, the last one, if I can recall it. Friday night I stayed local, oh, in fact I went to a festival on the Edinburgh gardens in North Fitzroy, great craic. Early one, went home for a smoke, woke up on my bed at 7am with clothes on, I was going to go to bar open but alas, never made it.

Woke up, finished the beer that was opened and went to sleep.

Woke up again and got up, I’m on a roll now. Walked to the library and found a perfect backpack, with may I add day pack, 2 weeks in Vietnam is probably all the action it’s ever seen. Could not believe my luck, nothing at all wrong with it. There was a printer next to it, should have picked that up too.

Met up with Cassie Bourke in Fitzroy for lunch. Went to the veggie bar and then to the artists market. Cassie was dreading going, well sort of expecting to see crap and ended up loving it. Called into see her friend in Collingwood.

Called into the Tote later was watched a band, met some chick that I was talking to 2 weeks ago in North Melbourne, but talk is cheap and I have lots of it :)

Went back to the festival in North Fitzroy, saw some shows. Ate the food, drank the wine, every body having a good time, but you, you were talking about the end of the world. Well that’s what Bono would say.

Got up next day, bright and early, no sleepin’s for me. No flies on me and off to the Sunday club. Met Ross and his girlfriend, left there and went to South Melbourne for a dim sim, met the Bev and Micks crew back from big night. Their friend (Barman from 2 Floors up) and lots of snake bit was consumed.

Went to the Belgium Beer garden and ad a pretty cool time. Good spot, might go there again next week.

Ben Watt is playing on Saturday night, should be good, big weekend. Friday night in Brown Alley, should be good.

Good link with a difference

Oh the weekend the weekend

Well, trying to remember what happened on the weekend.

I went out with Fuz and Heidi and his French friend, can’t remember his name now,
Went to brown alley, had enough of that then it was off to Revolver, on attempt 2 I got in. Stayed until around 12 noon as per usual, should have gone home, when will I ever learn, never probably. Got home on Saturday around 2pm had a sleep, felt much better indeed. Decided I would have a quiet sort of night, so it was off to the Tote, met some people Nicky, Lou and can’t remember the guy’s name. Then it was off to Jim’s tavern. Yummy Greek food.

Then it was off to my place to view the city lights have a beer and smoke. Nicky had a voice mail of a guy that had Turrets syndrome. The voicemail contained some impromptu comments ‘I don’t know where you are’, ‘Show us your pink bits’, very amusing party piece.
Went to the Sunday club in the city, had a bit of a dance, met some people and went to Revolver after Revolver I went with an Indian chick to The Vineyard, had another dance and met 2 dental nurses one of them I going out with an Irish nerd, there you go, then I got a taxi home. Story.

Should do some more productive things on the weekend, hmm. But that’s not going to happen, met some good people though, not that bad and had fun to boot, there you go, not too shabby.

Recording more in the mix music, Anthony Pappa to be exact, much better than his earlier stuff.

Met a chick at the Sunday club that’s a fan of Inthemix music, it would be interesting to meet up with her to give her all the music I’ve been recording.


Peace out, for now :)

Memories of my dog Alf

Cute puppy isn’t it ? Apparently it’s a half dog, half cat. The dirty dog, it’s the offspring Alf was always trying to have, god bless his little soul.

Well it’s Friday afternoon, I’ve done feck all this week again as per usual and loving it, the finishing line is well within sight and I’m going to power home over the finish line. Just had a flashback of Guerilla tactics I employed against my landlord, not that I would get the blame. But the landlord will be hopping mad at the girls or maybe at everyone, the Metallica song, 'Am i evil.....yes i am', or maybe he's getting his Karma that he's been dishing out for so long. Getting it from me !!

I used to be an altar boy you know? No one ever suspects the altar boy, did I tell you I had my photo taken with the Bishop? I didn’t, well I’m telling you now.

Recorded heaps of Ben Watt and I’m going to get more, all his friends are on his site, your supposed to pay and only listen, but I’ve got the recording down to an art and I’m grabbing it all, gimme, gimme, gimme !!!

Must print out my Spanish homework and do that Monday, life is tough, he he.
Subscribed to lots of new Pod casts today and watched a documentary that was asking the question, ‘Did Aliens create the Pyramids’. Some people think so, let them off, you have to have something to believe in I suppose, even if it’s half baked idea, or not.

Good link easy_mental_multiplication


Maybe it’s time to ring people, why not waste a more time before I go out for a beer with Fuz and Heidi.

Blizzard of oz

Going to see Malmsteen later, I have a spare ticket, hmmmm. I wonder who will be coming with me ?
I actually wrote an SMS to Jo, but since I deleted her number and all her messages, I guess I cant contact her, such a pity.........well maybe not. Time to move on. :)

I know I’ll feel like a kid with Malmsteen tearing it up, cant wait my friend.

Went out to lunch with wine, free of course, Ignatio did a big thank you to everyone, thanks for what, I haven’t done anything ? Well I lie a little there, I have been downloading and recoding a bit of music, but what’s a guy like me to do ? If I didn’t do that I would be doing absolutely nothing, I’ doing it for my sense of self worth, it makes me feel important, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with work. Well life cant be all about work, can it.

No regrets here my friend, I’ll look back on this contract and say ‘That was the best job I ever had ?’ only because I didn’t have to do anything and no one cared. Yep I think I’ll die a happy fellow reminiscing on that one.

Didn’t do any Spanish today, that’s the beauty of the iRiver, I’ll do it on the way to St Kilda, you little beauty !!!


Give it up, yeah! (Ben Watt song)

Sydney baby yeah

So where did I leave off last ?

Some where last week, early last week I think it was.
Well what happened since then Kieran ? Well I’ll tell you.

Met Mr. Phillips last week for coffee and he mentioned the Newtown festival and how he was going. I didn’t think much of it until I was walking back and I had to book a ticket to Sydney. Good idea.

Took a half day on Friday and day off on Monday, good idea.

Got Chris to drive me to the airport, good idea, got there on time. Great all was going well, but I noticed they were only boarding a pane to Perth, something was not right.

Checked my email, realized the flight was from Tullamarine, eek !!

Managed to ring up and get the flight changed, only cost me $5.50 too, I thought it was $50, but I didn’t care. I should have been sipping beers on the harbor, but it wasn’t to be. No problem, got to Newtown for around 9ish in the end, no worries.

Saturday night had a party with Simon's mates, took a few good photos too. Ended up getting a Taxi there, it was nowhere where I thought it was. Redfern is a big place, or so it seems to me anyway

I went as a rock star (In get up from last year, I like the clothes though). Fell asleep in the downstairs part of the house, good sleep.

Woke up and I was off out the door, take me to the festival. Taxi back.

The dog show was good craic as always, hung out by the DJ section for most of the day, missed Bass Kleb, saw Bec Patterson, the English chick I was hanging out with thought she was good.

Went for a beer in the Carlyle and low and behold I saw Jane sitting on the bar like she had never moved, had a beer with her and her friend and it was back to the festival.

Met one of the girls from the Coopers Lisa near the Courthouse, she told me she was thinking about me the other day, very strange indeed!

Hung out with the English for a while, she cooked dinner I got the wine and it was back out to see what was on offer in Newtown. Went to the @Newtown, looks more classy now.

Monday I woke up, that was a good start, checked out, called into Startcorp or bCode as it’s now called. That was a good laugh took a few photos, back on the harbor baby. James, Raena and Mr. Mak are the only surviving members, the cat doesn’t have any teeth apparently, hmmm to be expected really.

Ohh, had a thought there 32 days until I leave, I leave the same day as my work Christmas party in the Fitzroy Bowls club, I’ll be going to the real Christmas weather my friend, don’t worry about me.

Went to Bondi, called into the Lets go surfing (Where I bought all my surf gear) and had a chat.

Went to the walk to Coogie, met an awesome chick from Yorkshire, Lindsey, great craic. Got a few photos too. I was too occupied with saying good bye to her that I forgot to pay, probably didn’t occur to her either. I was happy to have met her and she was happy to meet me, then we went our directions.

I did email her yesterday and offer her a flight to Melbourne if she wanted to come down, chances of that now are very slim my friend, very slim. No regrets on my part thought.

Now I’m back to work, going to see Malmsteen tomorrow, should be great.

That’s it for now :)