October 31, 2001
03:39 AM dublin time
the first proper event we went to in melbourne was the brunswick street parade. it's held to launch the fringe festival - a celebration of fringe, alternative and experimental art. it was very reminiscent of waterford's spraoi festival [weehee the spraoi] though i don't ever remember a naked man being part of the spraoi parade.
"a naked man?"
yes. totally naked. and walking his dog! i think he was possibly promoting or protesting spencer tunick and his naked group photographs.
another difference was that you can't drink on the streets in melbourne. actually i don't think you can in ireland either, it's just they enforce their laws in australia. they got around this on the day by having clever little drinking corrals on the streets outside the pubs - allowing the nasty alcoholics their bit of sunshine without disturbing the sober masses. of course we being good miserly types, did all our boozing before we left the house.
"but it started at noon, do you mean you were drunk before noon?"
of course! we have to be saving money somehow.
the parade itself was only part of the show. there were bands and acts to watch - we got to see some great breakdancing - and if you got bored with that you could just sit back and watch the crowd, which was chocca full of colourful characters.
and the reason i'm telling you all this now - six weeks after it happenned?
well i only just got my photos developed.
October 30, 2001
03:40 AM dublin time
cd's tuesday two:
1. did you go to see scary japanese movie 'the ring' last night? yes.
2. did it frighten the bejaysus out of you [especially the bit near the end]? well, maybe just a little bit.
[link]October 29, 2001
12:56 AM dublin time
what a wonderful birthday.
i wasn't planning too big a thing - being without my family and old friends - but i was totally spoiled by the lovely new friends i've made since arriving in melbourne.
spoiled rotten. with beer and barbeques and cakes and candles and pressies and party poppers and seahorse straws and super company.
and i got to swim in the sea. for the first time in australia. and the first time ever on my birthday.
and as we drove home yesterday i brushed the salt from aonghus’ eyebrows, resisted scratching my mossie bites and felt exhausted and satisfied with sore frisby muscles and a slightly sunburnt glow from my cheeks.
[link]October 26, 2001
06:34 AM dublin time
in a couple of hours twelve of us are going to board a rented minibus and drive ninety minutes west of melbourne for a weekend of possibe surf and sun probable sea and sand and definite drink.
just letting you know incase you were planning to ring tomorrow to wish me joyous birthday cheer.
[link]05:42 AM dublin time
one weekend we went for a ride on a steam train. it's called 'puffing billy' but it used to be called 'hissing jenny'. it was fun, but the engines can't turn around, so on the way home we got covered in coal dust flying out of the coal store that was now at the wrong side of the engine. and we saw parrots in the trees and square possom poop and nearly got lost in the woods. but then aonghus would probably say that a walk in the woods isn't a walk in the woods unless you nearly get lost. i think i might even agree.
October 25, 2001
04:45 AM dublin time
before i start bombarding you with australian photos [though bombarding might be too generous a word - we haven't taken that many yet - maybe tickling would be better?] here's the last four photos from asia;
the finale of our feet in asia photos - on a tuk tuk in bangkok - and three other thai photos of various sights of lights at night around pat pong and koh san.
04:30 AM dublin time
peta's idea of a picnic in a park sounds like a great idea for a blogmeet.
we should leave it til the weather's dependable though. when does that start to happen in melbourne? at the moment the rain is still a little too frequent - although picnics in the rain are the commonest kind in ireland. i have childhood memories of driving to a wintery grey beach, managing a quick walk before dashing back to the car to escape the rain and having the sandwiches and flask lids of tea handed to us sitting in the back seat. there's nothing like clutching a plastic beaker full of hot tea to warm your cold and damp fingers.
there's also nothing like basking on a picnic rug in your shirt sleeves and sunglasses under a cloudless blue sky.
i know which one i prefer, but i'm glad they're not all like that.
[link]October 24, 2001
06:39 AM dublin time
melbourne people : blogmeet : interested?
[as suggested by bronwyn. time and place to be decided]
[link]October 23, 2001
10:00 AM dublin time
hurray for unemployed aonghus who can run around all day buying and setting up modems so we have internet at home!!
and the other wonderful thing about having a pc again is that we can listen to music. gosh i've missed music sooo much. we could only have brought a handful of albums travelling with us, and rather than end up getting sick of them we brought none. instead once we had an address in melbourne we got our cds of mp3s posted over in anticipation of buying the 'puter. right now we're like puppies at a chicken farm, fighting over which albums to listen to. songs i was sick of listening to at home are sounding nostalgically familiar. goodness. i won't need to buy any new music for ages - i'm too busy re-acquainting myself with the stuff we have.
currently listening to smog. 'dress sexy at my funeral my good wife, for the first time in your life'
[link]October 22, 2001
11:46 PM dublin time
work work busy busy no time to blog. though if we get a modem for the new pc [yay! new pc - cheapie secondhand one - but it'll do the job] i'll soon be able to log on from home.
[link]October 19, 2001
06:57 AM dublin time
how poetic is welsh? [or else just his translating skills].
"You should blog in Irish more often - I'm lonely out here in the dead-tongue desert."
"dead-tongue desert". wonderful! and in honour of this request, some more irish; not another blog - i don't think my grammer is up to it - but rather a [very short] lesson in etymology.
the irish word for 'jellyfish', 'smugairle rón' [smug-er-le rone] literally translates to 'seal snot'.
in the english midcountry there's an greyish greenish apple that's used for cider brewing called 'coccagee' apple. the name derives from the irish words 'caca ghé' [kok-a gay] - the 'goose shit' the apples' colour resembles.
the word 'whiskey' comes from the irish 'uisce beatha' [ish-ke bah-ha] lit. 'water of life'.
'spree' [as in shopping/killing spree] originates from the irish word 'spraoi' [spree] for 'party'
there's plenty more. but my phonetic spelling is apalling and that's more than enough learnin' for a friday evening. have a good weekend now y'hear!
[link]04:45 AM dublin time
silly work email server has lost all my mails from the past day or so. grrr...
[link]October 17, 2001
05:46 AM dublin time
it's just over two months since we arrived in australia at the crack of a chilly dawn. exactly nine weeks since we were dumped outside an unfamiliar melbourne train station at 5.30am and rummaged through our bag of winter woolies for the jumpers and scarves that had sensibly been packed another two months previous.
i now go through that train station every morning on my way to work in the suburbs. and thanks to the scanner at work i have at last put all of the photographs i took in south east asia online. the last lot - malaysia - are just up.
[link]October 15, 2001
07:18 AM dublin time
my attention was grabbed in work this morning as i overheard one of the managers giving hushed instructions; 'i don't want to make a big deal of this'. my ears were primed.
it turned out he was just warning the people who open the mail to look out for and be wary of suspicious packages. what an overreaction i thought. perhaps not. it seems that there has been an anthrax scare in melbourne.
it hasn't yet been confirmed that it was anthrax but either way it's a bit unnerving. i hate this bloody stuff.
[link]05:39 AM dublin time
no longer can i say that i've never ever been to a live sporting event of any kind - on friday i lost my sporting virginity to an irish-australian game of international rules football.
international rules is a sortofa cross breed of irish gaelic and aussie rules football. it's only played once a year and my grasp of the rules was concentrated around trying to remember which goal we were aiming for [it changed four times during the match].
but it was fun. in a kind of 'doing something different' way. and we did win. but it reminded me of one of the main dislikes i have for sport. which is that someone always loses. and if i'm not actually supporting the losing side [which sucks in itself] i usually end up feeling sorry for them. which ruins my joy of winning.
i much prefer such non-confrontational pastimes as to concert-going. which i indulged in last night. and a fine gig it was too by the excellent chigago band tortoise. they played one of the best games of musical musical instruments i've ever seen, switching the five man lineup from
bass guitar
xylophone 1
xylophone 1
xylophone 2
keyboard
via
drums 1
drums 2
bass guitar
guitar 1
guitar 2
to the classic
drums 1
bass
guitar 1
guitar 2
keyboards
and not so much as a squeak from a vocal chord.
if you like instrumental jazz/space/rock/electronica, are in the st. kilda area of melbourne on tuesday october sixteenth and are willing to afford the hefty thirty eight dollar entrance i guess i might even recommend their second gig.
[link]October 12, 2001
02:17 AM dublin time
i found a box of matches in the pub last saturday night that i had to share. i kept it to scan, but as this was taking me too long to organise i had the brainwave of seeing if i could find the picture online. which i did.
this one is dedicated to red heads everywhere.
the sexiest matches in the world
[link]12:40 AM dublin time
quote of the morning [from 'the god of small things' re. jesus.]: he walked on water. perhaps. but could he have swum on land?
[link]October 11, 2001
07:25 AM dublin time
what a way to waste a morning - inspired by mr. swishcottage - an alphabetical list of all the gigs i can remember ever going to. i've excluded only those that have no web presence.
[link]October 10, 2001
02:18 AM dublin time
my goodness it is true. well fancy that. i wonder if they all have to wear grey robes. and mix up all the words in their sentences. and carry light sabres. and... and... ah feck, i can't come up with anymore - i've only seen star wars once. any more suggestions billy?
[link]October 09, 2001
07:59 AM dublin time
you may have noticed that i've been trying to include more pictures on this page. however me being on the other side of the world to most of my 'stock' [ha!] photos, i've a limited pool to draw from. but having a rummage round the aul web account, i managed to come up with a photograph i could tell you a story about...
when i was little, i had a birthmark - what's known as a strawberry birthmark - on my forehead. it's called a strawberry birthmark because that's exactly what it appeared to be - like someone had smushed a strawberry right in the middle of my forehead, just below my hairline.
my parents were assured by doctors that it would soon get smaller and eventually fade away altogether [which indeed it did, all that's left now is a barely noticeable layer of skin - like a miniature whoopee cushion] but in the meantime it didn't make for such a pretty site. my dad tells me that strangers used to come up to them and ask 'did you drop him?'. but he's prone to hyperbollox, so that may not be true.
there is however an amusing series of childhood photos taken of me between the ages of about six and twelve months [?] with a variety of strawberry hiding devices over my head - hats, scarves, paper bags, plastic pants [remember those big plastic knickers that used to be put over baby's nappies]...
that is one of the few photos of me with strawberry birthmark proudly exposed. i'm the one on the left trying to suck my finger. my mum's on the right. she hasn't changed a bit. mind you, neither have i.
[link]October 08, 2001
05:57 AM dublin time
[as seen in the vegetable market in hoi an, central vietnam] can anyone tell me what this vegetable is?
my guess is that they're some kind of mutant courgette. but you aussies should definitely be able to tell me, coz i think i've seen them over here too.
[link]05:16 AM dublin time
typically productive monday morning at work - photos of our time in vietnam are now available here.
[link]October 04, 2001
05:23 AM dublin time
i don't have any tattoos. piercings yes - nine of them - but they don't have the same permanence as tattoos, so they're much easier to decide to get. though i think it's more the pain than the permanence that puts me off getting a tattoo.
when we were in asia, particularly the thai islands of koh samui and koh pha ngan it was practically obligatory to have a henna tattoo and rather than be left out, i got one. in the obligatory place - the small of my back [baaaah]. a swirly black sun. i expected that once i'd gotten it i'd be very conscious of it all the time, but i completely forgot about it. i wonder if that's what it's like when you've a real tattoo. maybe i should get one and find out.
October 02, 2001
09:12 AM dublin time
two down, two to go. i've just finished posting the photos from laos, the thailand ones are up too, now i must start scanning vietnam and malaysia. do i ever do any work in work?
[link]03:01 AM dublin time
when we were living in dublin, because i used to get home from work about an hour and a half before aonghus i'd usually cook dinner. now that aonghus hasn't a job, he's doing all the cooking [and shopping and laundry... it's like having a slave]. but i'm absolutely loving all the meals he's cooking - it's making me feel quite spoiled. at home i'd gotten into the habit of cooking the same dishes the same way over and over. now we're having aonghus' stuff his way and it makes such a refreshing change.
on sunday he cooked a delicous pork satay, last night we had pasta with the most yummy tomatoey cheesy homemade sauce and tonight i'm looking forward to a creamy rich chicken curry.
i think i could get used to this.
[link]October 01, 2001
04:14 AM dublin time
we found out on saturday that the outdoor pool on the roof of our apartment block has re-opened, and coz it's been closed for so long, and it has an ingenious child-proof latch that makes it still seem locked, it was totally empty for our saturday and sunday hangover nursing swims. this might become a daily treat, though hopefully minus the hangovers.
[link]