Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

Need I say more?

The day started out as all good days should, with an Ulster fry. Soda bread, potato bread, egg, bacon, sausage, tomato, where's the black pudding damn you???............I'm dribbling on the keyboard.










The woman is a witch, all doubt has been erased from my mind forever. I don't ever remember having days like this when I lived here.....I only lived here for 27 years mind you.










We headed up the Antrim Coast road, a beautiful drive on the right day and they don't get any more right than this one. Terry took us to one of the Glens of Antrim, a first for me. We went to Glenariff Forest Park. Pictures included, nuff said.



It's true all over the world. We sight-see and look at places when in other countries but rarely look in our own back yard. Taken for granted springs to mind.


Now this wee photo of Janene melts me, don't ask me why or how I took it, it was just one of those spontaneous ones.












Topped off with the barbecue at Torr Head, it was an awesome day all round. After my mum it has been a bit surreal, but days like this make you realise what it's all about....leaving blog immediately before violins and angels appear......talk later.

"Pack a coat! A good waterproof one!!"...

that's the first thing Mum said when I told her we were off to Ireland. Okay, maybe not the first thing but it was pretty near the top of the list... in the top 3 at least.

So when we woke up in Dublin the morning after flying in and Terry looked out the window wondering "What's that blue stuff up there then?" I have to say I wasn't overly surprised by that comment, after all I had been warned by many people about the weather. We started our road trip back up to Belfast and Terry said to me "It'll not last you know. By the time we get to Norn Iron it'll be back to grey and thunder." I wiggled my fingers at the heavens .... dooo-doooo-do-dooo...

When we hit Belfast the skies were still clear....

"Yer woman there, Tommy, I think she's a witch. Look what she did to the weather"

I think Terry was quite relieved when it clouded over and drizzled later in the evening. Tommy too because he'd been warning me about the weather... along with EVERYONE else!!

So what I want to know is... what is all this about then?


I'm beginning to wonder if it's all a cunning plan to keep people away from such a gorgeous place! I've seen rain one day since we've arrived, the rest of the time it has been amazing. Despite assurances that the weather is normally never ever like this I have to wonder... Terry seemed awfully prepared when we decided to go on a road trip up the coast today!

I'm not going to rattle off great detail of all the places we went, basically we aimed for a place called Torr Head and stopped off to stretch our legs and look about other places on the way. It was a very lovely day so we had some fabulous sceney on the way...

Magic!!

We arrived at Torr Head and the sky was beautiful and clear... we could see Scotland off in the distance.

Just absolutely stunning views.

We climbed up the to the old coastguard station that you can see on the hill there.... it was disused and in ruins but it seemed like the perfect spot for a barbeque... and Terry had come prepared!! He cracked open his disposable barbie and set to cooking us up and entree of bacon before spoiling us rotten with the main course of Northern Ireland Sirloin!! You couldn't ask for better!

After all that decadence Terry was starting to feel a bit under the weather. It was getting on in the day, heading towards 6pm, and the other places we had thought about visiting were closing for the day so we decided it was best to aim for home. We'll be back up that way for more though... stay tuned!

Oooooh! The market!!!

Friday morning and Tommy was with his Mum at the hospital so.... Terry took me shopping! He
had been up early to take Janet to the airport for her girls weekend away. He cooked me lovely scrambled eggs then we set out. We were keenly waiting at the bus stop by 8 o'clock... the early bird gets the worm and all...

We could smell the markets well before we entered them. The fish stalls were right next to the main entrance so we got a good whiff. Interesting to see the different varieties of seafood. Some I recognise like gurnard but then there were the massive crabs and prehistoric looking ling.




There were loads of food stalls... veges, bread, cakes, lollies, cheese, tea, olives, butchers, deli.... amazing! We got to sample lots of goodies, if we go again I'll skip breakfast and fill up there... yum yum!

There were also stalls with 2nd hand stuff, books, clothes, jewellery, craft, t-shirts... loads of stuff... I wasn't really there to buy but I did find a couple of brooches I had to have... as mementoes of the trip of course!

I tried to keep my mouth shut and blend in so I could immerse myself in the atmosphere and the accents. The singsong banter, arguments and bargaining all really interesting to listen to.

One thing that strikes me is how personable people are. We grabbed a coffee and sat ourselves down next to a chap - Mervyn - who.... somehow??... got onto the subject of the state of the health system. It would seem that many of the problems we have at home are not isolated. Mervyn however had a far more interesting account having worked as a porter. I'll not go into it here, but he had me shedding more than a couple of tears.... laughing my head off that is. Suffice to say his tale involved a "short wee man rapidly approaching 6 foot", a peculiar buzzing sound and a set of forceps! Oh Lordy!!

The morning after mum died I woke early. Decided to take Janene on a tour of the 'old home town' from my perspective and memories of the place, rather than getting on a tour bus. Too sterile. I've been away about 20 years in total which is so difficult to believe sometimes! I'm lucky though that I've been able to get back every 2 or 3 years and the changes to Belfast have seemed to happen gradually. Dramatic though. All for the good!
No route was planned out, the whole drive was instinctive, almost on autopilot, and looking at the photos later it was interesting to see where my head was at. Probably 'up your arse' as the lovely Terry (our host and my best mate for many years) would say often.

TERRY PRETENDING TO READ

I headed for the 'Newton' or Newtownards Road which is where I was born and grew up in the early 60's. Working class, Harland and Wolff shipyard country. Found our old street where the first house we had lived in was, though the old houses are gone replaced by modern red brick. Down Dee Street and our first close look at the 2 big yellow cranes that dominate the East Belfast sky line, Samson and Goliath.

After getting told off by another security guard (see Janene's post re Heathrow airport arrival) about taking photos, we finally found a good vantage point to take a couple of pictures.

From there we headed through the city, up the Crumlin Road, out towards the International Airport then back again via Ballysillan and the Shankill Road. Saw a few of the colourful murals reflecting the Troubles from the late 60's to mid 90's.

Must be a throwback to living here in the early days, but I seemed to spend a wee bit longer taking photos on the protestant Shankill Road than on the catholic Falls Road, Janene's camera had a fast shutter speed but not fast enough. No offence intended to anyone, it was all psychological combined with a lead foot at the approriate time.

It was good to see the artistic side being used for something more positive when we came across this mural of the legend, Geordie Best. For those of you who never knew him or saw him play, go and gt a DVD or archive footage. This man was the greatest to ever kick a football.

OK just a quick announcement. Mum passed away peacefully on Friday night at 11.08 pm. My brother Steven and I were with her. She has been ill for quite some time so it was expected, just good to see her go so peacefully.

Hello!! Sorry about the downtime, it's all a bit of a blur really!! Just a quick rundown of the adventure so far...

Chris dropped us at Auckland airport on Monday morning. We got all checked in and sorted then hung around in the bar for a bit before heading off to board. We misjudged the time needed to get through customs which left us running for the plane... great for Tom and his adrenalin rush... maybe not so great for my nerves! We made it though so that's the main thing ... I have to trust that Tom knows what he's doing given that he's done all this before, but even so... LOL

The flight to Malaysia was about 11 hours. We were lucky enough to have a double seat (next to the window) to ourselves so no clambering over others and vice versa.
Flying over Australia and watching the desert below was amazing... so many interesting colours and patterns and the vastness of it had me glued to the window for a lot of the time.

We landed in Kuala Lumpar at about 9:30pm, a bit later than scheduled. Because we'd checked our luggage all the way through to London we could head straight from the airport into the city. We jumped onto the express train and managed to negotiate the Central Train Station to catch another train to Chinatown where we had a room booked and were hoping to do a bit of shopping. I just have to say that our small experience of the transport system was amazing... we could hardly believe how easy it was to get tickets through the vending machine and to find our way around... and cheap!!

We very quickly checked in to our motel which was right in the night markets then back out onto the streets to look at the stalls. Tommy wasted no time and was straight into bartering and buying... what a shopping fiend!! In the short half hour or so we had before the markets closed for the night he had bought football shirts, belts, sunglasses, a wallet, DVDs and more football shirts... legend! I suppose it helped that he had a mental list to start with. I just wandered about looking in case I saw something but then didn't really have the energy or inclination to bargain.

After the markets closed we found our way back through the labyrinth of halls and lifts and stairs back to our 6th floor room and hit the sack about midnight ready for an early start.

5:30 our alarm went off and we staggered down to reception to meet our taxis. We were handed some sandwiches (breakfast was included in the room rate) and off we went. The taxi ride was great... averaging about 140kph in a wee datsun sunny (or similar) with a neon buddha on the dash, weaving from one lane to the next, seemingly at random... there was next to no other traffic so I'm not quite sure why the lane changing was necessary aside from providing a bit of entertainment. Made it onto the plane with a little more time up our sleeve this time... yay to that.

13 hours more of flying time and barely any sleep, we landed in Heathrow. Tommy flew through customs thanks to his home passport and then waited for me to get through the loooong foreigners queue. He thought he'd take a photo of my official entry into the UK....

here's one of me next to a big sign ... "NO CELLPHONES, NO CAMERAS" I'm pretending I have no idea who Tommy is... I could see security bearing down on him!!

Being the high flying international covert operations spy he is... he actually managed to take more photos as he was talking to security... you never know what secrets you'll discover in the carpet....

Its the last time we'll see this for a few weeks!! Who knows... might be even longer if winter arrives while we're away! Nearly 7:00am and not long to go now!! Is it time to get excited yet?

It's time for a coffee... I know that much!

Now, y'all know you can click on the pictures to get a better look and you can leave messages in the comments section if you want to say hello! We'll do our best to keep you filled in!

The picture on the right is Libby on an average day at the beach, she's like the rest of us, good, bad and other days. I think the sand in her shorts put a bit of a damper on things.

Shit it's almost 3am and we head to the airport in a bit under 7 hours. Means I should sleep on the plane though. Feel sorry for the poor bastard who will have to listen to me snore, apparently it's a bit loud but that's ok, I'll be asleep at the time. I'm still dicking around trying to put together some photos onto a CD as a slideshow to take home to the whanau, should have started this project a wee bit sooner. A bit much to download the software at 10pm and expect to master it in a couple of hours.....I know, I know, there are people out there who could, but they don't have a life. Whilst learning I've eaten an Indian and drank 4 beers. (Also squeezed in a game of Battlefield and half an hour watching the History Channel. That was good, it was all about the blokes who made the first Atomic bomb. Wouldn't it be great to know that was your legacy to the world.....) That's enough, I'm off for some sleep and I'll talk to you later. Nighty night.

My.... what a big bag you have!!!

The one on the left .... Ha!! It's HUGE!!

Twice as big as mine! I guess Tom's taking more make-up than I am! LOL!
Actually its a golf travel bag that Tom bought today so he can take his clubs with us... except it fits everything else in too. The thing is massive... could well be a body bag! We should've bought it earlier and packed me in it to save on airfares!

Well... it looks like we're all set. Bags are packed and we're ready to go... ... like now!!

Tom reckons this is the most organised he's ever been in his whole life... I'm sure he'll get over it!
Strangely enough there's no nerves... Tom's done this enough times not to feel nervous (although he keeps raising his concerns over how organised we are and that it's just not natural)... and as for me, well we're so organised that I'm not at all concerned...

...just looking forward to it now!! Bring it on!!

OK went away and looked at the help re posting photos.....stage 2 of the learning process. Enjoy it while you can, give it a year and I'll be pumping shit on here so fast your head will spin....bwahahahaha...

This luffly, luffly picture was from our trip to Great Barrier Island, New Year 2006. That's left to right: Paul and Jane. me,Janene and Uncle Shaun.....eeeek!! Where's Libby??!! Maybe she was taking the photo??? You will get to know Libby in time, be patient.

Ok this is the first post to this first blog on our first ever trip overseas together. Not the nicest reason for a trip, my mum is not well, she hasn't had the best of health for a while and it's catching up with her. "tis what it is" as Skip once said to me, good philosophy that one.
We will still enjoy the travel and catching up with family and friends. It's as much a family reunion as a trip to see mum. For a start we know little sister Allison is having her baby on the 15th May yay!!!! (Some health issues there so she is booked for a ceasarian, nothing too serious I think? What would I know I'm a male.)
It's getting exciting as we get closer to leaving on our first leg, a flight to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and an overnight stop for some shopping and beer, not neccesarily in that order. This is really a test of putting our first post up, hopefully the content will improve as we get better at understanding the programme. Just trying to figure out how to post a photo....hmmmm.