Scariff Tip Trip - Tuesday 30 Oct 2007

It's 12.50 on the 31st, but this is for yesterday. By now you know the hours I keep. After breakfast, we headed of to Scarrif to get rid of the re-cycling and rubbish. Had to go into the village first to buy our voucher for 3 black bin liners of non recyclable rubbish for 12 euros. Back to the tip. There's a great little Irish lady there who seems to be the boss and a young man who helps, he has Downs Syndrome an is always keen to help with your bags, etc.

It was busy as usual, farmers on tractors, an odd assortment of cars and drivers, vans and trailers. It's a great place to socialise and everyone is in a good mood. We tipped our cans into the food can receptacle, drinks cans into the can bank, all the plastics into the plastic bottle chute, old saucepans and barbed wire (the latter from my bramble patch) and much paper and cardboard. Even little batteries into a small red bin! Feeling very virtuous, we headed back into Scarrif centre for our customary coffee and a bun at Joe and Brians' Cafe.

Scarrif is a very 'right on' village. Full of vegetarians, vegans, hippies and even the odd local! Many of the villagers are from the UK. We discovered the cafe on our first trip there, after our tip run. It is run by 2 special needs adults, and is supported by the local monastery. They do the books for the boys and a motley collection of people seem to come and go and help out or just pop in to chat. They make great tea and coffee and always have a range of home made cakes.

They also have art on the walls. This changes occasionally and is always a source of interest to me. This time they had some very atmospheric black and white photos.

We ordered our coffees (fair trade of course and in individual cafetieres) and I had a scone with butter and my favourite jam, apricot while Jim chose a vegan fruit cake. Joe brought it all to us. I had worn my black sweat shirt with High Tor Players on the front, this being one of the companies I used to act with. A chap with a long pony tail said, 'Not High Tor, Matlock'. It turned out he lived in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire when he was a child for quite a few years. I lived in Matlock Bath from 1980 to 2002! It's a small world, as they say. We chatted for ages all about the place and some of the residents we both knew. He had gone to school with my best man from my previous marriage! The chap sitting with him was wearing a hand knitted striped woollen jumper, had his grey hair long and wore a beret. That's the usual sort of uniform for Scarrif.

Back home and I managed to plant the black tulip bulbs I'd been meaning to plant yesterday when the loo and poo crisis struck. I can't wait to see them flower in the spring.

It was dark by 5.30ish, so early. Had to come in and it was also drizzling quite heavily by then. Jim potted the roses individually so we don't have to rush to get the rose bed ready. He also made a great vegetable curry with rice, very Scarrif!

I watched 'Wolf' on tv, a Jack Nicholson/Melanie Griffiths film where Jack gets bitten by a wolf and naturally turns slowly but surely into a werewolf! As in the end does Melanie. Great fun, Jack at his OTT best. I love that man. Earlier Holby City proved a bit of a disappointment. It gets more like Coro/Eastenders each week. Very silly.

Caught up with a few more old friends on Facebook today. Another of the Millstone Grit Company, Nancy, who used to play 2nd witch. We toured round many schools with a workshop production of Macbeth. I played Lady Macbeth. What a part. Nancy had this wonderful costume, like an old orange curtain full of holes. Each time she put it on, a bit more of it disintegrated! They were fun times, though hard work.

Night all.

Bogs and Blogs - Monday October 29th 2007

Rainy cloudy day today. Decided to do our trip to the Scarriff tip/re-cycling place before we head back to the UK for 3 weeks on Thursday. Loaded up the car, set off, after about 10 minutes we realised it's a bank holiday Monday in Ireland today, so the tip will be closed! Turned round and, rather than heading home, went on to Gort to fill up with fuel for Thursday's trip. Visited the brand new Lidl store, very exciting! Then a quick trip into Supermac's for coffee and a warm muffin with ice cream. Mmmmm.

Back home, in time to do a bit of gardening before it got dark. I dug up the dahlia corms ready for winter storage and was about to plant some black tulip bulbs when Jim appeared with a very worried look on his face. Could I poor a bowl of water down our loo? It appeared to be blocked. AAAAH! We are not connected to the sewage system, but have a septic tank. There is an 'inspection pit' where you can see whether it's flowing properly, situated near the tank itself. When I poured in the water and flushed, no water appeared in the pit. Problem.

THEN Jim discovered that just outside the toilet, on the ground outside, is what looks like a paving slab in the concrete. He lifted it up. Horror of horrors, his gaze was met by several floating poos, much paper and the most ghastly smell one could imagine. I volunteered to scoop out the offending matter, but Jim valiantly offered and he didn't have to do so twice! I fetched the reserve pair of new black sturdy Marigolds and a bucket. Scoop scoop, slop slop into the bucket. The smell made us both feel like hurling, and I don't mean the Irish game. I then found a suitable stick and it was poked and prodded down the pipe. A sort of squelching noise indicated that the blockage was freed. Back inside, poured in another bowl of water and, whoosh, away it all went. 'We can do poo' I said to Jim! Well, you have to laugh. I decided not to take any photos of today's events.....

This country life does have its limits! We both felt a bit queasy for a while, so it was much later we decided to have dinner! It was too dark to continue with any gardening, so the bulb planting will have to wait until tomorrow.

I have found one or 2 of my old acting friends on Facebook today, which is great. I felt as though that part of my life had disappeared, almost to the point of not having happened. It's been great to renew friendships and chat about acting again. It was once such a huge part of my life.

Sadly my daughter has a friend who is currently in hospital in the ITU. She has cancer and now has an infection and I gather the next 24 hours will be crucial. Miserable news.

Off now to try and knit some more of the damned pockets for the never ending Advent Calendar project. I can't believe how long it's taking me. Maybe I should do it for next Christmas.

Dark Days of Autumn, Hot and Hurling 28.10.2007

6pm and dark already. The clocks went back last night so Winter is on her way.

Went to go to bed yesterday (or rather 4am this morning). Jim had turned the electric fire up to its most powerful in the morning, thinking he was turning it down. It must have been some sort of tropical heat in there. I sat on the bed for a few seconds, quickly realising life in that room was unsustainable! Jim was mortified. I tried to sleep on the single bed we have downstairs and J rigged up a bed with settee cushions on the snug floor. Neither of us got much sleep. Some time in the early hours, J crept upstairs and the temperature was about back to normal. Thankfully, we both sank into bed and slept like logs for a few hours.

This afternoon, having forgotten to re-set the bedroom clock, we arose and discovered we had an extra hour before we needed to go out. Great. Our local village, Killanena, had reached a hurling championship final. Now, this is not some sort of ritual where they all stand in a line and see how far they can projectile vomit, but a uniquely Irish sport. This is an excerpt from an Irish website, roughly explaining the game.

Hurling is a game similar to hockey, in that it is played with a small ball and a curved wooden stick. It is Europe's oldest field game. When the Celts came to Ireland as the last ice age was receding, they brought with them a unique culture, their own language, music, script and unique pastimes. One of these pastimes was a game now called hurling. It features in Irish folklore to illustrate the deeds of heroic mystical figures and it is chronicled as a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years.

The stick, or "hurley" (called camán in Irish) is curved outwards at the end, to provide the striking surface. The ball or "sliothar" is similar in size to a hockey ball but has raised ridges.

Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one.

You may strike the ball on the ground, or in the air. Unlike hockey, you may pick up the ball with your hurley and carry it for not more than four steps in the hand. After those steps you may bounce the ball on the hurley and back to the hand, but you are forbidden to catch the ball more than twice. To get around this, one of the skills is running with the ball balanced on the hurley To score, you put the ball over the crossbar with the hurley or under the crossbar and into the net by the hurley for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points.

It all sounds dreadfully complicated but in reality is not so. Just as the game started, an Irish Coastguard Rescue Helicopter came over the ground. It landed just a short distance from the ground, then took off some 5 minutes later. No doublt we'll read all about it in the 'Irish Champion' on Thursday. I did take a couple of photos (above).

We have never watched a live game and decided this would be just the opportunity so to do. The final was held in Ennis GAA ground, so well within our reach. Kick off, or whatever it's called 'hurl off?' was at 2.30. On the drive to Ennis, flags were flying outside most of the houses and messages painted on boards with 'Good like Mikey and the boys' in varying shapes and sizes were placed by the roadsides. Several old cars were also parked along the route, painted in the blue and yellow colours of Killanena, plus a model of a player on a bike and a leprechaun in team colours sitting on the verge! It must have been heartening for the team on their way to the ground to see so much support. Hurling is HUGE in Ireland.

We managed to find a parking spot not too far from the ground, paid our 10 euros each and squeezed through the ancient turnstiles into the ground. The undercover stand was pretty full, mostly with Killanena supporters, but quite a few of the other teams' supporters were there too, in bright yellow. An Irish pipe band lead the players onto the field and the excitement was tenable. We soon got the hang of the game and what was going on. It's frighteningly fast and the ball can be hit from one end of the pitch to the other in seconds. Players have to be incredibly fit and some of the tackling was pretty violent. Killanena lead at half time, both sides having a goal apiece but Killanena having more of the 'through the post' hits. Sadly, in the second half, the opposing team gradually drew level and in the last few minutes, took the lead. The boys from Killanena were very small by comparison and simply seemed to run out of steam. I think they lost by 2 points but it was a bit hard to tell as the score keepers mixed up the scores on the board in the last 10 minutes! However, the whole event was great fun, we enjoyed it immensely. I look forward to watching a professional game in the future.

Back home and Stanley was duly set into action. He did belch out a bit of black smoke, but seems to have settled down now to getting on with his job.

Of Rugby, Rain and Rose Gardens 27.10.07

Well, it's actually the 28th now but this is for the 27th. Woke up to low cloud, mizzly drizzle and quite a strong wind. Thought we'd better not tackle the rose garden, then decided, to hell with it, why not. Are we made of paper? So we tooled up and attacked our would be rose bed with matocks, spades and secateurs for the brambles - (more brambles). It wasn't too bad really, just very wet! We stopped and looked at each other at one point and burst out laughing. Rain was dripping off us and we were both very dirty. 'If anyone saw us now, they'd think we're bonkers' laughed Jim. Had a break for coffee and a bit of a dry off, then back out to tackle some more. The rain had stopped and it was quite warm, though still windy. We had a date with a rugby match on sky at 6, so couldn't stay out too long. Very satisfied with our efforts so far and we cleared a goodly patch. More tomorrow hopefully.

Inside for a much needed bath, then settled down to watch the rugby. Jim's great nephew Sam Burgess (as mentioned before), is a rugby league star at 18. He was playing his first match for the UK in a test series against New Zealand. I got a bit mad with the tv as the first 2 tries awarded to NZ shouldn't have been given. Bloody Aussie ref! The commentators talked about Sam all the time! His tackling was awesome. The game was pretty close and the second half was much more exciting, especially as Sam scored a try! We were SO excited! England won by a good margin so a great start to Sam's international career. The match finished at 8pm and we were due down the road to our neighbours for a meal at 8! Hurriedly got ready and headed off down the hill.

We had a brilliant evening, super meal, convivial conversation and great wine. Arrived back here about 1.30am. It was absolutely tipping it down so we had to change again and get dry by the time we got home!

It's my first husband Ken's birthday today. Amazing that he's made it really as he's pretty ill with emphysemia. Self inflicted from smoking and 'other' forms of self abuse, but I still felt sad when I last saw him in April at his Dad's 80th birthday party. I still have a soft spot for the old devil. Hope he had a good one.

Friday 26th October 2007. Bath, Barn and Bread

I was awoken by Jim with a mug of tea. He'd run a bath, so I followed him - with the addition of more hot water. Bliss. Wet and windy outside. We had a leisurely breakfast (cereal) and sat in the conservatory, watching the birds and putting the world to rights. Also discussed blogging and the things you couldn't really put in one.

I continued my blitz on the barn. By the end of the day, all the wood had been sorted. Jim did some work then came outside and we had a chain saw logging session, getting all the wood I'd stacked sawn up for Stanley. Brilliant. Jim had had a wander around the land and viewed the site where we intended to make a formal rose garden. It was totally waterlogged. Hmm, probably not ideal for roses, better for fish. Had a re-think and decided on a new site. Unfortunately, the area in question is knee deep in grass and, you've guessed it, more brambles. We're going to have a go at clearing it this weekend. Roses have already been purchased and need planting.

Tomorrow evening, we are going down to our 2nd closest neighbours, Hilary and Joe, for a meal. First proper invitation we've had from them. They're a lovely couple, Joe has just reached 60, while Hilary is quite a bit younger. (45) He makes films of some sort. Arty ones I think. Their house is big and modern, architect designed and overlooks the lake near us, Loch Graney. Stunning views. They have 4 lovely children and a gorgeous cocker spaniel bitch called Millie. We were invited to Joe's 60th but sadly were back in the UK at the time.

This afternoon we had a break and eat some of Jim's home made bread with our own blackcurrent jam. My daughter in law purchased one of those bread makers and didn't like the bread it made, so she gave it to us, together with a large recipe book. We have tried all sorts of recipes and all the bread has been fabulous. I can't see us every buying bread again whilst in Ireland.

This evening I made a tapestry Christmas tree ornament of a Christmas stocking. It's from a kit our neighbour Sandra gave me. I've hung it round a bottle of wine purchased to take to the meal tomorrow night. Then, as usual made one and a half pockets for the never ending Advent Calendar! I will finish it one day!

As it's not 2.45am, I think I'm off to bed.