ho hum

no news really... i'm sort of getting ready to leave my current job.. i can only work with the company for another four weeks before my visa restrictions require me to change jobs. i think i might try to find a gaff in galway. i thought i'd live in dublin, but galway is much more laid back. it's a college city, so lots of weird interesting young people.

experienced my first frost last week... when we got into the car in the morning there was ice on the windscreen. we had to pour hot water on it to melt it. it's usually just a couple of degrees above zero in the mornings. the landscape is beautiful at the moment, every day there's more yellow, red, orange, even purple in the trees... it's really extraordinary. i'm going to try to find some time to take some decent photos.

the louie dance

this is louie, having unexpectedly found a bottle of buckfast tonic wine the morning after a night of hard drinking. hair o' the dog.

buckfast is apparently made with care by the monks of buckfast abbey. it's cheap and strong, and a staple of the fundraiser diet.

more photos

1 - couple of guys i work with, phil and scuba steve, with their x-box faces on.
2 - toshwidger butcher in waterford. couldn't walk past without taking a photo. i mean, really.
3 - myself and lyndon the bear. lyndon was given to bec by a guy whose door she knocked on.
4 - the coast off dun laoghaire
5 - some of the incredibly masculine men i work with. louie louie herbert (his actual name on his birth certificate) and 'darlin' josh with the kentucky drawl.

door to door

for the past two weeks the company i work for has been doing door to door fundraising rather than street fundraising. it was horrible. i was absolutely rubbish at it, and it was BORING! and i don't like bothering people at home. we met lots of nice dogs on the street though. the first photo below is a dog we called 'badger' because it looked like a cross between a dog and a confused badger. so in the photo we all have our best impressions of a badger face on. we didn't realise until looking at the photo that we all made the exact same face. the second photo is laura and bec working hard, knocking on lots of doors, and the third photo is us 'hi-ho-ing' and 'off to work we go-ing'

i'm really excited about the leaves changing colour. it's really pretty... some leaves have started to fall too.

wet aussies, cold aussies

autumn!

the leaves are changing colour! getting cold too... the other day it was only 7 degrees! at the beginning of autumn!

irish roads

nice little perk of my job is that i get to drive '07 cars all around ireland with petrol paid for. as team driver i get the car to myself for the weekend too. unfortunately, irish roads and drivers suck. the worst part is signage. they feel the need to have several metre tall orange signs for 'ramps' (speed bumps) on suburban side streets, but only m 'n' m sized speed limit signs on major roads between towns.

don't have much time now, but i feel this rant will continue in the future.

some irish expressions

grand - as in "you're grand"/"it's grand" (ie. everything's fine)
sound - as in "he's a sound lad" (ie. trustworthy)
deadly - as in "that was deadly!" (ie. a positive exclamation)
here - as in "here, why'd you do that?"/"come here, what does he want?" (ie. to get someone's attention. alternative to "hey". nothing to do with physically moving closer to a person)
gaff - as in "we'll be back at the gaff in a few minutes" (ie. house, residence)

electric picnic

spent the weekend at the electric picnic festival, which was absolutely ridiculous. highlights include bjork, polyphonic spree and deerhoof.

i absolutely cannot believe how much fun i had. wish it lasted forever. will post pics as soon as i get a chance, as pictures will speak louder than any words i know.

here we go.. pics.. first one is me in disguise. if you look closely you can see my moustache drawn on my finger. next pic is just me with random festival people. they gave me some beer. thanks guys. next is lovely bec, doing the classic louie louie pose, and the last pic is just me with more people i work with. the guy on the left is louie louie, named after the song. he's my team leader. tall simon in the middle, then bec and laura (my darling australians) on the right.