Monkey watching

While we were quite happy spending two days at the craft fair, we felt that three would be pushing it a bit, so we decided to spend our last day in Dublin visiting the zoo. We were staying in a hotel within ten minutes' drive of the zoo (well, it would have been, had the signage been up to scratch), but we eventually made it after 14 minutes and paid for our tickets.

The weather had been foul during Friday and Saturday, but on the Sunday it was glorious: bright blue sky and hardly any wind. Fantastic. We walked around a bit, not only admiring the animals, but the displays of Chinese lanterns. They were used for an evening event, when they would be all lit up, but even during day light, they were very impressive. 

They depicted not only animals but characters from Chinese history as well. So fantastically done with wires and some sort of plastic over the top, but they really gave the things they depicted some definition. 

After having spent quite a bit of time watching a giraffe eat some leaves off a tree and some gorillas clamber down a tree, we needed some sustenance. It took ages to get our coffees though and by the time we had finished our lunch, the weather wasn't as nice anymore: dark clouds had moved in. 

By the time we had about seen our last animal, the first drops started to fall and by the time we got back to our car, the drops had turned into a down pour! By the time we got back to the North however, the rain had ceased again and we got home in the dry. 

All in all though: it had been a good weekend.

Absent

Not one of ours

Yes, I have been absent for the past week. The first three days were me driving to Glasgow every day, not leaving much time for anything else. Then there was the slightly easier day on Thursday, but apart from the driving I still had to do, I spent it doing laundry mainly. 

During the evening my sister came over, because we were going to Dublin on Friday. We had booked tickets to go to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Dublin. Two days! Friday doing the fair itself and Saturday doing several workshops. 

My 'regular' ones aren't as clever as this sampler one!!

Once we got to the hall where the event took place, we took our big bag with us (yes, we were prepared) and headed inside. A lot of stalls selling fabric. In fact, it was called the Knitting and Stitching Show, but it should have been the other way around as the yarn was very much outnumbered by the fabric. And the yarn that was there, didn't tempt us. Nor did any of the knitting needles (they are too short here anyway) or crochet needles (wrong handles). 

The fabric however... There was one stall with so many lovely Christmas fabrics, I now must have enough for several blankets I think! And don't worry: I saved up for this event. We both came away with a fair amount of fabric and then there was the fabric cutting mat and ruler and knife (for me) as well. Plus a really handy storage box. 

I touched one and got told off as well

On day two we took the bus to the event instead of driving and on arrival my sister found the fabric she missed on day one (but which I had gotten), before we headed off to our first workshop to make a little felt pot. Well, it was a soaking experience, our pots looked just about passable, but it was fun to do and find out it wasn't for us. Oh, and we tossed the pots on our return to the hotel that evening.

Our second workshop was a lot better: we were making a fabric box. Really easy and straightforward and definitely we could do at home quite easily. With regular or Christmas fabric. We both have enough of the stuff anyway!! 

This was my little box. It does need some finished touches, but it was easy enough to do

The third workshop was completely different again. How to make your own fabric. Not sure about that one, although you can do some pretty neat stuff! It just all felt very "kindergarten" what with the cutting of paper and sticking it on another piece of paper. Or just colouring in! Not sure I would want to do it. Although the one I have made, might get made, just because I would get some free fabric out of it! 

All in all, the fair was a success for both of us, although not so much for our piggy banks. Good thing I had saved up for it!

This is the artist's mother. It is long wool threads sewn onto gauze. So beautiful!

Coffee, the Irish way

My first trip in 2005

Looking at some of the photos of my past travels and trips, I came across some photos made while on one of my many tours to Ireland. A colleague of mine had done the trip before me and had given me all his notes and stuff and told me about this, that and the other. And then it was my turn.

We spent one day 'doing' the Ring of Kerry. Exactly what it says on the tin: you drive a loop around the county of Kerry! And a very beautiful loop at that. Only to be done one way though, since some stretches were really narrow. When I say some, read quite a few! It was a beautiful part of Ireland and it was a joy to be driving there. 

One of our stops was at a small pub/restaurant right by the side of the road. Most of the coaches stopped there in fact, so it might have been small, but it was also always busy! There were two reasons for stopping there: the ordinary reason of food/drink/toilet and the other reason of the tiny little museum right beside. 

The little museum showed life in a small Irish community, with cottages, tools and peat. A lot of peat. We could go inside the small cottages and look and wonder about how they were able to live in such basic conditions, but that's humans for you: surviving on the minimum. 

The museum wasn't the main attraction of my passengers though. The coffee was. The Irish coffee. As soon as people got through the door, the serving staff started. The glasses were waiting already, containing whiskey and brown sugar and then hot coffee was poured in. After which they would hold a spoon upside down and pour cream on top. Five euros later and people were enjoying their coffee. Irish style. 

I never got to taste it though. Something with alcohol and driving and such. Until one day the European laws changed and I had to have a day off during a trip. Which meant that I wasn't driving, but still very much working as a tour guide of course. It also meant that I wasn't driving and could partake in a coffee myself. Made with decaffeinated coffee of course. 

Let me tell you: if you are ever being driven around the Ring of Kerry and see a sign for the Red Fox, make the driver stop and buy yourself a coffee! It's worth it! 

Murphy and the cats

Something else that originated in Ireland

Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law? Everything that can go wrong will go wrong? Apparently originating in Ireland?

Have you ever lived Murphy's Law? Dropped a just buttered piece of toast by accident? And it of course landed butterside down. Because it's after all Murphy's Law!

Going on a completely different strain of thought now though: did you ever see a cat fall out of a second story window? Guess what: the likelihood of it landing on its feet is nearly 100%! 

I promise: I never pushed a cat out of a window!!!

But... what happens if you put a bit of buttered toast with the butterside up on the back of the cat and then gently push it out of the second floor window. Would the cat land on its feet? Or would the cat fall on its back thanks to the buttered toast and Murphy's Law? 

In fact it's neither. The two would balance each other out and the cat with the toast on its back would just hover in mid-air. At first of course the cat would be in total panic. But after a while he would relax. Even start to purr.

Now purring cats make a sound. And this sound was heard by beings far far away. Very far far away. Beings that wanted to conquer the world. But how? After all, they only had one functioning flying saucer, which isn't much in the whole conquer the world scheme! 

Is it one? Found in Germany.

The answer was those cats. So, with the one flying saucer they had, they came down to earth, caught all the cats, got all the bread, a few toasters and of course butter and flew off to wherever. After a few days of severe toasting and buttering they finally were able to get the cats all fitted out. And after fitting the cats to all the saucers, the pushed everything out of a second story window and off they went. 

There was a problem though. They had left the care of the cats in the hands of some disinterested youths. They preferred to watch Mrs Brown's Boys and listen to U2 than feed the cats. And cats get hungry. And when cats get hungry they will try to find food. Guess what: there was food on their own backs!!

Gougane Barra in County Cork

You might be able to guess what happened next. The cats contorted and ate the toast on their backs. Which meant that instead of hovering and flying, the saucers now went hurtling down. All the way to earth. Where the cats landed on their feet and escaped. The saucers made huge holes in the ground that quickly filled with water, creating the small and big lakes now dotting Ireland. The aliens didn't stand a chance and perished.  

So, next time you see a lake, remember: don't ever tie a piece of buttered toast to the backside of a cat! 

This was a bit of Blarney prompted by Spin Cycle. Thank you Ginny Marie at Lemon Drop Pie and Gretchen at Second Blooming.

PS: no cats were harmed in this story. Well, apart from the cats that landed on that island in the Irish Sea that is. They got their tails caught underneath the saucers, leaving all the cats on that island tailless for ever!!

The Irish

Photo taken a few weeks ago

When driving a bus, you get to meet so many people. People who seem to have trouble to answer the simple 'hi' I greet everybody with (she managed on my third try). People who say they are children and so clearly aren't (the one person I checked today: was a child). People who just put money on the pay table and expect me to read their minds (I failed that class at witch school). People who chat and expect me to answer. 

Today I had a man on the bus. He seemed to be nice. He carried some bags and sat in the front of the bus. And he chatted to me. About how Kristiansand (in the South of the country) was very racist. How Haugesund is very friendly and family-like. He asked me if I was from Haugesund. Which I am not. The minute I told him I was from the Netherlands he started raving about Ajax. About it being the best team in the world. How they were going to beat Manchester United. Or Juventus. 

He went on about ice-skating. How the Dutch are the best. Like Sven Kramer, who always seems to win. And then he went on to say that Irish food was so much like Dutch food. Well, either he has never been to Ireland, or he thinks we eat the way the Irish eat (he had been to Schiphol: he was raving about the cheap souvenirs). Cauliflower, broccoli and carrots with nearly every meal. After I told him that the Dutch don't eat the same type of food in general, he told me our tastes in music were the same!

Anyway, he got off, wished me a good night and I realised there isn't that much difference between the Dutch and the Norwegians. Both nations have some people who are a bullet short of a fully loaded biathlon gun. Just so you know!

'Wonderful'

The subline with this week's prompt was: anything you think, is or looks. So basically I have the pick of the lot. Which of course makes it harder to pick! Because do I pick a wonderful photo of one of my travels, or do I pick a wonderful photo of my wonderful family? In the end I went for a photo taken in Ireland, way back in 2005. I took it along with hundreds of other photos that I thought were lost forever, so it is doubly wonderful: one that I found them again, and two that it is so beautiful.

This is of course a photo of the Cliffs of Moher. And those cliffs are the end bit of the Burren, a beautiful landscape in the West of Ireland. Most of the time you don't have to wait long before the fog or the clouds lift and you have a fantastic view of the cliffs and perhaps even of the Aran Islands, which are a bit further out in the Atlantic.

Wonderful!

This is my 35th entry for Photo Theme for Thursday. Why not join?

'Tough'

Whenever I see fuchsia plants in the Netherlands, they look small and tiny. Especially compared to the specimens I saw while travelling through Ireland. Because over there they're not necessarily garden plants, they're the hedges separating the roads from the fields. And when they grow too much, a mower comes past and mows them to a managable size again. However, within a week they are back in bloom and look absolutely great.

Fuchsias in the Netherlands don't really get the chance to become that big and that is mainly due to the weather. Because during the winter we get frost over here and they don't really like that. However, in Ireland there are hardly any frosts at all and the fuchsias thrive!

This is my 30th entry for Photo Theme for Thursday. Why not join?

Treasure

The Cliffs of Moher

I treasure my photos. I have albums of my trips abroad alone or with my sister, I have digital albums of my work trips abroad and ever since I had a fight with my computer and lost (note: don't hit a laptop, he doesn't like it much), I have learned the art of back-up. Because in that famous fight I lost several hundred photos I had taken in Ireland, Italy and smaller trips at home.

Today as I was sifting through my photo negatives (I am scanning them all in again), I found a cd-rom. Since I didn't know what was on it, I stuck it in my computer and a couple of seconds later I watched completely dumbfounded at what came up: Ireland photos, London photos and much much more! I haven't got everything back, but my Irish treasure is back!

I is for...

Inflorescence

This is Common Cottongrass, that is not a grass (sorry). It grows in acidic wetlands and peat bogs all over northern parts of Europe, Asia and North America. The flowering stems are 20-70 centimeters tall (8-28 inches) and have three to five inflorescences hanging from the top.

It is common in the Manchester area of the UK and is the official county flower of the Greater Manchester region. Cottongrass is very important for hikers. It's a great indicator of potentially dangerous deep peat bogs.

This photo was taken in Ireland in the region of Connemara where there is still a lot of peat being harvested by private owners.

For more I-words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

Photo taken in June 2008 by my father

D is for...

Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church

This church can be found in Caherciveen, Co Kerry and is the only church in the Republic of Ireland that has not been dedicated to a holy, saintly or religious person. Instead it has been dedicated to the most famous inhabitant of Caherciveen.

Daniel O'Connell was and still is considered to be one of the great men of Irish history. He struggled and fought for equality for both the English (read Protestant) and the Irish (read Catholic). A Catholic himself, he knew first-hand the difficulties of living in a country where the Irish were considered to be inferior to the English. But he had had an education, a privilege forbidden to most of his countrymen and that education helped him in his life to try and end the discrimination. He abhorred violence and has been the inspiration to other great leaders in more recent years: Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King for example.

If you want to know more about Daniel O'Connell, read this article from Clare Library.

For more D-words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

Photo taken in July 2009 in Caherciveen, Ireland

B is for...

Burren (Bhoireann)

Burren, or the Burren as it is now more commonly known, literally means Rocky Place and it is easy to see why. It can be found in Co. Clare in west Ireland and it is a stunning place.

It's the youngest landscape of Europe and has suffered a great deal during the last ice age (about 10,000 years ago). The landscape is formed of limestone which was laid millions of years ago in a shallow warm sea and is a result of dying sea plants and animals. When the last ice age ended, gletschers scraped off the top of the seabed and left the current situation.

At first glance the whole area looks devoid of life and containing only rocks. When you look closer though, you will see plants and small animals everywhere. It is in fact the most diverse habitat of the whole Irish island, containing plants that are usually found in both Alpine and Mediterranean regions.

The Burren end in the Atlantic Ocean with the Cliffs of Moher

Turloughs are holes in the rocks which are usually filled with grass. When it rains those holes fill up with water, usually from the bottom up (the ground water level rises). Some of those holes can be filled with water even in dry weather, others only fill up with very heavy rainfall.

Clints are blocks of limestone that make up the ground. Grykes are the lines that cut through the clints. The most important ones run from North to South and the lesser important ones run on both sides at even angles. The colour of the limestone (especially when seen from a distance) is a grey lilac colour, also depending on the weather. The further down you get, the more covered the rocks are with bushes and grasses.

In the area there are quite a few historical and archeological sites. Megalithic tombs, portal dolmen (amongst them Poulnabrone Dolmen), ring forts and Celtic Crosses can be found here.

For more B-words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

Photos taken in July 2009 in Ireland

P is for...

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Poulnabrone Dolmen (Hole of Sorrows) is a portal tomb in the Burren, Co Clare, Ireland dating back to the Neolithic period (4200-2900 bC). In 1985 a crack was discovered in one of the standing stones and had to be replaced. At the time they also excavated the site and found between 16 and 22 adults and 6 children buried beneath the monument. Personal items buried with those people were amongst others weapons, pottery and quartz crystals.

When I first travelled through the Burren you had to park on the narrow road, let the people off to see the monument and try to dodge all the other traffic. Now, I am not saying it's a major motorway, but still, it could get quite busy and tight. Fortunately, in the last few years they have built a proper parking place in one of the fields adjacent to the road, where there is enough parking for both cars and coaches!

For more P-words from around the world, please visit ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

PS: for next week's Q I was a bit stuck! Until I thought of questions. So, ask me any question you like. About me, about my job, about my cats, about my beliefs, anything and I promise to anwer all! You can either send a question to my e-mail address (in my 'Me' page) or leave a question in the comments!

O is for...

Oldtimer

I am not particularly bothered by cars. As long as they get me where I want to go I am fine. If they are bright pink, it's even better (I know I know). But seeing a long line of all those oldtimers in the Irish countryside even made my heart flutter a bit!

It was a rally and the cars and their drivers came mostly from Spain and Portugal and they all looked so proud of their vehicles. I was driving my coach at the time and all of a sudden I saw one of them. I stopped the coach and let him pass and just as I was about to continue driving, I saw another one coming and another and another! I motioned them to stop so I could reverse and let them pass me by without problems. My passengers loved it and so did I. Another highlight of Ireland!

For more O words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

G is for...

Guinness

Guinness was named after the founder of the brewery, Arthur Guinness. The stout was based on a porter that was popular amongst London dockers of that period. Arthur Guinness started a brewery in Leixlip, Ireland in 1759, but at the end of that year moved to Dublin for 45 pounds per year over a period of 9,000 (nine thousand) years! A decade later he exported for the first time.

The brewery still stands on the original brewery grounds, but it has expanded a tiny bit over the years. The Guinness family was highly active in all aspects of social life. Housing, parks, theaters. In the twentieth century all the parks that were owned by the family were given to the city of Dublin, to be used by its people.

According to legend, Guinness is a great fertility enhancer. The original owner is said to have had quite a few children. The Guinness Book of World Records was started by one of the family. Rutger Hauer (a famous Dutch actor) was the the face of Guinness for several years. Dressed in black and with his blonde/white hair he looked like a pint himself!

Guinness isn't in family hands anymore, but it's still a great tasting stout! In small quantities that is...

For more G words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

F is for...

Ferry

I have a severe love-hate relationship with ferries. I don't mind the shorter rides across rivers and canals. I do have a problem with the longer rides across seas.

The very first ferry-ride I ever took was while crossing the River Lek near my grandparents' place. It would take only ten minutes, including getting on and off. Larger river barges would have right of way, but it was an easy ride. It was also the fastest way to cross the river, since the nearest bridge would be miles out.

Over the last couple of years I have had to cross the North Sea and the Irish Sea on more than one occasion. And no matter how much I love visiting Great Britain and Ireland, those crossings are a horror in my mind, because I nearly always get seasick! The first time it happened was on one of my first trips to Ireland. As we got back and had to take the ferry from Harwich (England) to Hoek van Holland (the Netherlands), I felt a bit strange and according to one of my passengers I looked green!

The photo was taken of the ferry crossing the River Shannon in Ireland (Talbert-Killimer), a crossing of about 25 minutes and just about right. It's right at the end of the river before the river disappears into the Atlantic Ocean.

For more F-words from around the world (doesn't that sound weird?), please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

PS: Since I am a professional driver it's not a good idea for me to take seasickness pills since they work for about four hours, meaning I would still have them in my system after I got off the boat. And since most of them have drowsiness as a possible side-effect...

V is for...

Victualler

There are a few words I love. Actually, serendipity, quicquidlibet and victualler. I first heard the word victuals in one of the great movies of the fifties, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The first wife to arrive is expected to make good 'vittles' (food). But the word seemed to be extinct. I never heard or saw it. And then...

I saw it. In Birr in Ireland. A real honest working victualler! Of course I took a photo, but I still didn't really know what a victualler was. I figured it would be like a grocer, but when I looked it up, no mention was made of a grocer, only of a sutler. I'd never heard of a sutler, so I had to look that up! That turned out to be a person who followed an army and sold provisions. So again, you could say a grocer, but still no mention of that word.

Anyway, victuals are food supplies or provisions, so someone who is a victualler is the person who supplies the food or provisions. Anyone any other thoughts about the word?

For more V words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

K is for...

Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey is situated in Connemara, Co. Galway in Ireland and is a beautiful neo gothic building. It used to be a private home, but in the early 1920's it was sold to the Benedictine Sisters. They originally came from Belgium, but had been chased out of that country by World War I. After several years of roaming about they ended up in Connemara.

Apart from being a convent for the sisters, it's also a boarding school for girls. The nuns already had a school while in Belgium and they continued with the school when they arrived in Ireland. One of the most well known students who attended the school is actress Angelica Huston. She was in the Addams Family, The Witches and Prizzi's Honor amongs many other ones.

In recent years the number of sisters has dwindled dramatically. There are hardly any women who want to move into a convent anymore and that has resulted in an aging population of nuns. This also means that there are ever less teaching nuns. This has in turn resulted in the order deciding to close the school. As of 2010 no new students will be accepted. All the girls who study there now, will be allowed to finish their schooling. Closing the school will not mean the order will sell the property, the nuns will continue living there.

You can visit the house and grounds, although you can only see about four or five rooms of the house. The church in the grounds is a lovely little church which is a miniature replica of the Cathedral of Norwich (UK). The gardens are definitely worth a visit as well.

For more K-words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

I is for...

Italian Garden on Ilnacullen

I had masses of photos from Ilnacullen, a small island in the Bay of Bantry. Every type of flower, every type of weather, seals, trees, the lot. Unfortunately this is the only one I've got left, due to a fight with my computer. I learned the value of back-ups that day!

Anyway, the island of Ilnacullen lies in the Bay of Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. The only way to get there is by ferry and on the way there, you will almost always see seals. At the right time of year you will even see seal-pups! After you've arrived on the island, there are flowers and plants everywhere and finding the most beautiful is a daunting task. There were two areas of the island I really loved and the Italian Garden was one of them. I could imagine myself sitting at the far end of the photo, reading a book, enjoying a glass of wine or talking to friends. The gardening I would leave to a hunky gardener of course, no point in getting my hands dirty doing something I know nothing about! And if I can afford a garden like this, I can also afford a gardener I think!

For more fantastic I-words from around the world, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

Horror

I went to Scotland last year. I had only ever been once before and that was only for 3 days, so going there for just under a week was brilliant. Even if I did have to work! However, the trip wasn't as good as it could have been. One lady in particular made the whole trip into a horror that would have rivalled any horror film of today. Read all about it here!

Today I phoned the office. It's that quiet at work, I thought I would ask for some vacation. As long as I was back in time to do my trip to Ireland! At which point my boss told me I wasn't allowed to do that trip! WHAT?!?!?! My boss didn't know why, but he had been told I wasn't allowed and a colleague of mine was going to do it in my place. That colleague is not the sort of person to wrangle himself in my spot, besides, the trip is mine: I turned it into what it is now!

So, I phoned the planner's office. And was told that I wasn't allowed to do the trip because of that horrid woman of last year. Ah well, in that case: my colleague was welcome to the trip! Because I would want to kick her off the coach within a day! He is welcome to all my information regarding times and places and phone numbers of people and restaurants, so he can do the trip to the best of his abilities, but I am glad it won't be me.

Just a shame I can't go though, even if I don't feel like going with her on board. I know my way around and I am much more knowledgable about Ireland then I ever was on the trip to Scotland. And I will miss out on another opportunity to make gorgeous photographs! Ah well... no use crying over spilt milk...

Ireland 4

Well, I promised photos of my trip to Ireland and here they are:

This is one of the High Crosses in Clonmacnoise, one of the old monasteries in Ireland. A beautiful site with churches, crosses and round towers. I did my own tour, because if I have it done by one of the staff, I have to translate and that takes twice the amount of time!

According to some people this is the most beautiful view in the whole of Ireland. Of course you can only say that if you have seen every single view in the country, but it is definitely gorgeous. The photo was taken from Coomakista Pass on the Ring of Kerry overlooking the Kenmare River. The weather was not the best (we actually had quite a bit of rain during this trip), but it's still a really nice view...

You can't miss the fuchsias in Ireland. If you do, you are probably driving around with your eyes closed, because they are just everywhere. The most dominant colour is pink/red, but I have seen them in white/pink and they look even more delicate! The sight of hedgerow upon hedgerow of flowering fuchsias is amazing and brings so much colour to the countryside!

This is Galway Cathedral. After a day in Connemara I would usually end it by going to Clifden, the unofficial capital of that region. This time I decided to go to Galway City however and that was a good choice: we parked right next to this lovely cathedral. The clouds over the cathedral decided to drop their load only minutes after I took this photo. I had to run for cover, but still managed to get quite wet...