A Canadian in Ireland

And brings the snow with it.

Read more...

Louis is feeling confident. But I think I have him worried.

Or maybe it's the hat.



Still about an hour and a half to the game, kick-off is at 18.00 ET. You can figure out the local time here. I'll probably end up being awake 'til after 2.

And if you can't watch the game on telly it's bing streamed online here.

Be sure to come back and join our Grey Cup party. Louis and I are going to share hosting based on the toss.

Let's Go Riders!!! Let's' Go!!!

So I've been watching at least two matches as day (gotta love round-robin tournaments ) And I've been looking at various curling related stuff on the web.
So we'll start with the basics. Wikipedia has a very good article about curling if you really don't have a clue.
Here's some more facts about curling from David Letterman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9sjo_3Itzc
But why would you want to curl? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVdjLaO2UCE
Some people argue that curling is boring. And there have been attempts to make it more exciting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGKdr_au240 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y05ihEitdU
But I think it's fine the way it is. Watch this shot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxmrH20IA2Q
Or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM5mFH3_Qhs
Or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEPMUmTaWY
But yeah, occasionally it can get a little boring, so you need to know how to amuse yourself.

What CBC never showed you... maryn aka 'myrna' | MySpace Video
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=8118377
If the action is a bit slow the fans are always entertaining.
Watching Britain's women play the US they showed a couple of spectators sporting these.
Finally,this aite has "borrowed" some pretty funny cartoons from sources around the web. I'll just post a link and let them worry about the copyright.
EDIT: The same site has a huge list of curling related videos.

Whether you are for or against the Winter Olympics they are coming.

Much as I'd like to be there, I'll have to settle for the next best thing. The BBC's coverage of the last Winter Olympics was top notch and based on the ad it looks like they will be again.



Phone surfers click here.

It might interest people to learn that Ireland is sending a small team. I guess all that snow we had over Christmas did somebody some good.

At the end of my last post I mentioned that I'd put up some photos taken over the holidays. I didn't include any because I'd gone on too long so here they are now.



In Ireland it's traditional to place wreaths on the grave of loved ones at Christmas time. Our tradition includes the grave of an old family friend. On Christmas day after mass we make an outing of driving to the little cemetery out in the country. Part of the tradition involves getting lost trying to get there, but this year, through an educated guess, I managed to program the sat-nav to take us to the cross-roads right below the graveyard. It was a good thing, since I was more concentrating on the roads which while not that bad were still slippery in spots.

We got there and back without much drama, only one real "woah" moment. Then we had Christmas dinner and later the brother and sister called us on Skype. That was special as we got to see each other opening our Christmas parcels. I got a belated birthday present which was really worth the wait.



And Mam got some new dishcloths. Before you go thinking that a lousy present, let me explain. She found these special cloths in Vancouver when we were there for the wedding. They're made of wood fibre and surprisingly absorbent. Soon Mam was using nothing else and after a year and a half her cloth was beginning to show a bit of wear.



Between Christmas and New Year's was quiet, the roads were so bad we didn't go anywhere beyond the village. The Steven's Day walk was cancelled, it's supposed to be re-scheduled but we've not heard anything, and we missed a couple family events because it just wasn't worth travelling.

So New Year's Eve was spent at home. I tired to get some photos of the lunar eclipse but I don't have enough control over my cameras setting to get the results that Words does



On New Year's Day we decided to brave the ice and go for a walk up the fields behind our house. This is the first time wee'd been exploring up this way so it was a bit exciting. Picking our way through the ice was also exciting, for different reasons.

Once we managed that though the path was dry and at the top of the hill we got an amazing view down the valley towards the village.



We spent some time looking around, picking out various landmarks. I tried to get arty taking pictures of the frost.



Not sure how successful I was.



Looking around some more we think we spotted Mt. Leinster off in the distance topped with snow.



The cold was starting to get to us so we headed back down. On our way we saw where something had been digging in the hedges. Any wildlife people have an idea what it could be?

No hunting the wren this year

Read more...

Ireland



We've been in the grips of an hard stretch of winter weather with nearly a week of daily snow falls. Most unusually it hasn't been melting, but has just hung around getting deeper.





It has caused major disruption all over the east of the country, particularly transportation - roads and Dublin airport being the most prominent. The worst, personally, has been the roads. Last week it was snowing every morning when I woke up and I had to crawl down the back lanes where I live to reach a major road to get to college.





It finally broke on Friday, which I had off, and yesterday was clear though the roads were only half thawed and very slippery.

This morning the snows came again. At least it's melting on the same day.





For the minute it's clear, though there may be more snow in the morning. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for passing this on to me Leazz

I hope you were all good little boys and girls and Santa brought you what you wanted. He did for me.

A bit surprising that he came at all. We were a bit naughty and only got our decorating done yesterday. Still, I think it turned out rather well.





Last year I posted some seasonal songs which people seemed to enjoy. Again, I'm late, but better late than never.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsUxCrS92tw



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojkWTseLkq0



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L6_wmwQ4Wg

So enjoy the rest of the day. I'm looking forward to a quiet evening in with a couple of Christmas specials.


Le gach dea-ghui i gcomhair na nollag agus na h-ath bhliana!

With Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year!

So said Aristotle

Read more...

I do NOT need this right now.

I'm supposed to be studying for the Christmas exams, but I woke up Saturday morning feeling like death warmed over.

Stuffed up, achy, and I think somebody has been at the inside of my throat with a Brillo pad. Of course the last thing I feel like doing is cracking a book.

Anyway, misery loves company and I sense a certain ennui present in the OC. So there's a brew on and coffee too. Pull up a chair and tell us your troubles.