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Lucy, Long Beach Island and Ly-ins.

Last Sunday we set out for a day trip. The kind that happens a lot more in the Sring and Summer that it does in the Autumn Winter. I had it all planned first to Margate New Jersey and then on to Long Beach Island New Jersey. I had all the driving directions and indeed the only problem was our being very tired. Marc was tired from school, Jill was tired from getting up early again now that I was back from Ireland and oh I was unbelieveably tired.

I could not believe how much the trip to Ireland (where admittedly I did not waste a minute and I was up very early each morning) had taken out of me. In years gone by I would visit Jill 3 times a year and fly back the same morning I had work and would go straight to work and get back home that evening.This time it had taken me something like 10 days to truly feel normal again and in some respects I am still tired even whilst writing this.

Anyway we were all tired and instead of leaving maybe at 7am it turned to be 9.15am when we did leave and all was well until we got to Philadelphia and trying to get onto the Ben Franklin bridge. I have to admit this was my fault and cost us 40 minutes as we drove and drove and finally asked for directions to the bridge which was in full view above us and seemed in touching distance but we could not get to it. Having gotten onto the bridge the rest was fairly plain sailing and despite some really expensive tolls at $2 and such for a car we got into Margate a small town 10 minutes from Atlantic City (the east coast Las Vegas). We did encounter another toll whic demanded exact change of $1 in coins!!!....mad scramble for coins as the people behind us waited patiently. Coins got dumped into the basket and on we went to visit Lucy the elephant, a national historic landmark. Lucy was and still is an old style early 1900's beach resort attraction which was used in those days as an accompaniment to the famous elephant hotel where those with vast sums of money would come from Atlantic City and climb on top of Lucy the elephant )who is 65 feet tall) in order for them to pick which lot of land they desired to buy for investment and then they could get back to Atlantic City in good time for the night. Lucy has gone through various states is disrepair and even ruin and ever since 1960 onwards she has been coming back to her former glory. Lucy over the years has even been used as a beer garden but is now an important historical landmark on the atlantic ocean. Before we took the 30 minute tour of Lucy we had lunch and after all of this we drove north along the coast to Long Beach Island and as we always do there we went to the lighthouse in Manahawkin and then drove downtown to have a look around. It is just before the summer season so it was completely quiet despite the nice weather and there was not much happening. We spent a nice time by the beach and set back home on the 2 1/2 hour drive. A pleasant if maybe uneventful Sunday afternoon was had ny all.

Dublin Airport departure gate.

The day came around as it always does and after a very pleasant 9 days in which the time did not fly by as most holidays do and it seemed like a solid 9 days.
A lot was done in those 9 days the first night being the Saw Doctors and I surpassed all expectations of how the day would go. The started with saying good bye to Jill and ended with saying good night to Vinnie Mc Mullen some 17 hours later and I was mostly awake for all of it, in between there was my fellow flight passengers in row 34 D/E/F making an already bad flight worse by their thigh fat encroaching onto my alloted seat and then there was my family and then there was Colm and the gig and an auld taxi driver with a tour of Dublin and we only had to get to the Eleanora pub and then there was Mick Walsh, Leigh and Richie Micheau, and Vinnie and Colm. The rest of the time was spent with family and visiting such places as Pheonix Park and the Dublin Zoo and Glendalough.

If I am being truthful I had found the preceding year without any actual meetings with my family very toughas they had not been able to get over to America in the last year with my mother retiring and stuff like that that. It was a tough time not withstanding the attention that Jill and Marc give to me, they are the best Wife and Son I could ever hope for. Last year had been tough to say goodbye and this time would only be slightly easier. As it went down we did not have enough time to hang around and I found it easier to quickly but sencerly say goobye to all that had come to send me off. In everyone's own way I could tell that they had missed me and genuinely will miss me until we all meet up again. It is a big regret that I could not get to see a lot of you in person as time was a real enemy on the trip...those of you at Repro (and you know who you are) I would have loved to have done a chip run or even play a game of don...if I was allowed -although I seriously doubt that.!!!

I later had heard that they could still see me as I passed through the security scanner check and placed my shoes back on my feet...if only I would have looked back one more time. Laden with gifts from Ireland for family and work I set off for gate B34. I remembered the satisfaction of landing on Irish soil and for now at least for a year I bid Ireland a fond farewell. Jaysus I do wax lyrical don't I.

Those who abuse others on the roads.

It has become more and more obvious to me that there are a lot of assholes driving on the roads and highways near where I live. I can no longer speak for Ireland as I have been away for a few years and every year I do go back it has changed a lot.
But in my everyday dealings with other drivers I have found a serious level of asshole driving. Those who are desperate to get past you even though afterwards they will be only a car length in front of you. Everyday at regular intervals you have police parked in at the side of the highway monitoring the speed people are doing. So of course you get this speed well over the limit until a cop is seen then you have this brake down to legal speed and so you have this stop start stuff going on. People always seem to tailgate so close in fact that you cant see their headlights and then last Friday, my personal pet piss off peeve when I had complete right of way making a sweeping downhill slight left this dick completely cut across me and I had to break orelse I would have clipped the back of him and to make matters worse his passenger waving at me in an unfriendly almost taunting manner as if to say screw you.

Making hay while the sun shines.

Its a Friday night about 10.30pm and Jill's sleeping and Marc has just been put to bed. And usually I can't get onto blogger to post and while I tried here it did work. Hence my posting is being done now and I have a lot to post about. So I am going to post as much as I can to-nite.

Actually to-nite we were watching the tv show Punked with Ashton Kucher. The segment was punking some little known olympic swimmer, and noy did we all know she was an olympic swimmer as when it became apparent to her that she may actually get arrested ny these two burly policeman she made the point to say "I am an olympic gold medal winner". What an ego!!! as if to say that hey officer dont even think about arresting me as I am olympic swimmer and that small fact will help me. Is this what she will everytime a cop asks for her driver's license or stops her to check her tax. It was quite hilarious to see this and her belief that such things will play a significant part in her dealings with those who are supposed to protect and serve the people.

Glendalough....the glen of two lakes.

During my trip to Ireland we went to Glendalough. It was a fabulously warm day about 22-25 degrees celsius and it was still only the first week in April. I went to Glendalough as a small kid and have not been there ever since and it is a small source of discomfort that in all the years I lived in Ireland I never did get to such places as this. It was a Thursday, the first of the month of April and it was to be a very warm day. We walked around the lake stopping for a long and leisurely time beside the lake and enjoying Adam's (my 1 year old nephew) enjoyment of the whole thing. We had a lunch first and by the time we had walked all around and rested by the lake it was time to get dinner late in the evening. As we were to get served and luckily with Adam sleeping through all of this it struck me that Ireland was now a very very prosperous country attracting all nationalities who come to work maybe seasonally and maybe for a long period of time in order for their families to have a better life. Didn't many of us Irish do the same in decades gone by? , and we thought nothing of it except the amazing brain drain that Ireland must have been suffering. Of course Ireland did experience the amazing lack of talent that our educational system was producing only for it to go to shores abroad. So as a nation lets enjoy and embrace what those cultures will bring to Ireland and not see it as a terrible negative. With prosperity brings social and economic changes and we should be glad that it is happening in Ireland. It is true to say that Ireland has become a very expensive country in which to live, but lets try to look at the prosperity that the country is going through, I never saw so much cranes in the city of Dublin and when I was a student working in Germany for a few Deutschmarks I had an invaluable experience. Life is to experienced in the most optimistic ways.

I shall return!...soon.

There will then be a lot of backfilling of content and news and ranting and competitions and all that jazz. So keep checking back...I shall return.

Saturday sees my lucky streak continue.

Now maybe this is all a coincidence but last year when I came home I was backing the horses and I did unbelieveably well winning on my first 4 picks. This year was not different. On the Saturday of the LIncoln handicap I was sure that I knew I would pick "very wise" for the big one ..the opening flat meeting of the year as back in America I had looked at it quite closely and in advance on the thursday. I just had to pick the other races and sometime that morning I had said to Richie to back "very wise" going generally at 9/1. In all I had 8 bets of 10 euros each and the first of the day was Mister Hardy and that one won for me at 11/2. That was sweet ...I had recouped 65 of the 80 euros invested and still had 7 races in which to bag some more winners. Fran Berry an old friend of my brothers was given a shot on his best ride of the day Ardistan for John Ox, winning at 9/4 ....I was now in profit and my luck was further extended when "Very Wise" stole the Lincoln from the front and a handy draw. Leading for most of the way he was able to kick on and steal an advantage from 3 furlongs out. A good day indeed more than 100 euros in profit. Of course my brother got in too late as he had had trouble with a combination of trains and a hangover..still he had come to spend his time with me. Will my streak continue in 2008?

First day in Ireland brings the Saw Doctors.

So what would youu have done if you realised that the Saw Doctors were due to play the Olympia around the same time you are coming to Ireland. Yes of course you would work the holidays around in such a manner that would enable you to take in the show.
The flight was later than expected manely due to the fact that we were something like 15th in line on the runway at Nuewark on the Thursday evening that i was flying out. I had checked in manually using the computer check in service and had picked my seat..."yes" I thought to myself as I picked the aisle seat right at the back of the plane..."I wont get much hassle there" as i got to my seat I soon realised that it was a couple and a somewhat overweight couple....they were Irish too. So not much room for me to sit in as the guy's fat roll next to me invaded my seat area. Oh joy! and also include the constant stream of people who came to line up for the toilets. So all in all it was a tiring flight and not much sleep just the type of sleep where your chin is the highest point of you body. So with the flight being delayed my Mam and sisters were beginning to wonder if I was on the flight at all. But eventually I emerged and saw everyone for the first time in nearly a year. My nephew Adam made strange for a fewminutes but he was soon into his mischevious ways laughing and happy...I would soon realise that this kid had a lot of energy and slept only when absolutely necessary.

After spending some nice time and having a nice "prodical son" meal I was off to meet Colm for the gig. The support act for the docs were very very good and fair play to the band they do give youth a chance and allow up and coming acts to get their air time. The Olympia was jumping and I was giddy with the buzz of an expected good concert which the Saw Doctors always provide. As was now customary with the present tour the guys took to the stage under the sound of the Star Trek intro and a very entertaining and complex football analogy which explained what position each member played in the bands "sporting" line-up.
Needless to say the show was excellent with each song being as good as the one before and solo performances from each member which were very memorable. The band left at the end and were cajoled into coming out for an encore of 6-7 more songs which lasted about 30-35 minutes . Mainly because of a youtube comment which was posted after the Philly gig concerning "red cortina" I was determined to re-capture that song however they never did play that song....a real shame as its one of my favourites.

At the end of the show was all filed out and in front of us was a son and father who had been given the set list of the gig and they nearly shit themselves when Colm pretended to take it out of their hands yelling "e-bay" but they replied that it would be framed and kept as a source of pride.

After the gig it was on to meet up with the lads mentioned above ...but first we were taken on a tour of Dublin by a gormless taxi who transpired to be related to the jockey Catherine Gannon, man alive a small world indeed. A few scoops were had and a lot of fun indeed after the drinking we went to a chinese take away and got some grub and then as people peeled off home I was left with Vinnie Mc and we called into a friend of his and probably outstayed our welcome after having been welcomed with a lot of hospitality, I said good night to Vinnie and got a taxi home it was 4am when I got my head down.....it had been a long first day in Dublin Ireland. But all the same a great day to start my holiday with.

Holiday re-cap.

So folks I am back from my trip to Ireland, it was a good time spent with family and friends and I do apologise that I didnt get around to seeing some of you and I wasnt able to drop into Repro to visit my old work colleagues. At the start of my visit I met up with some old friends...Colm, Vinnie, Richie, Leigh , Dave and Mick Walsh in the Eleanoraand each day was full of things to do and places to go to...so in that sense it was a very full week and indeed after flying back yesterday I was really flaked tired and jetlagged. I am just thankful that today in work things are kind of quiet.