THE REST
Otherwise known as Miscellaneous
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MEANWHILE…#5
This is what I’m getting up to lately… Reading: Just finished “The Half Heroes” series by Ian W. Sainsbury. Loved it but couldn’t help feeling the third book was a little rushed at the end. Rereading Julian May’s “Saga of the Exiles” Series after 40 years. Finished book 1 The Many Coloured Land and most of the way through book 2 The Golden Torc. Every bit as good as I remembered it to be, despite some language and references that would cause a bit of a stink if it was published recently. The series is out of print and I had to buy the four novels from an online site selling second hand books. When the ban cheile saw the well thumbed books she was amazed I’d actually have books that battered. But the urge to read…
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My Signature: A Moviestar Moment
When I was promoted to what was to become my final role before retirement I had a momentary realisation that would make a small, but legally important, change in my life from that point on. I needed to change my signature. The role I was taking on, area manager for the local education and training board, would require me to sign multiple documents across a range of purposes on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. The signature I had relied upon for the whole of my adult life up to that point was extremely legible and used a print based layout – letter by letter. It required me to lift the pen a number of times and more importantly was rarely used. I needed a signature that would be more difficult to copy and quick and…
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MY REDBUBBLE REVOLUTION
Okay I realise everybody at some stage looks at other peoples art and says to themselves “I could do that”. Sometimes we’re so off track that as soon as we try we realise it’s a non-runner, but then sometimes that’s all we need to recognise our own ‘art’ is quite good, in its own way. It took me years, no decades, to be comfortable enough to think that what I do could be considered art and when I did I wanted to share my enjoyment of the whole process. Once I got over my artistic stagefright I thought I’d dip my toe in the world of using my designs as something to share with the world on Things and that led me to Redbubble. It was my own little Redbubble Revolution. Now I’m about to start adding…
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THE KILLUMNEY INN
A quick call to the Killumney Inn on a Saturday evening in July to make sure there would be a table available and we were off and seated by 8pm. We needn't have worried about getting a table because only one other table in the restaurant was occupied and on a summer Saturday evening that seemed a little off putting.
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MEANWHILE…#4
This is what I’m getting up to lately… Reading: Not reading anything like the volume of books I should be reading since I’m in holiday mode for the past couple of weeks. Just finished Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. It’s a really satisfying twist on the whodunnit. Just started The Rise and Fall of DODO by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. A SciFi (sort of…) novel about quantum physics and magic. Watching: Not finding TV very satisfying lately. Sticking to my staple diet of Luke Cage Season 2 with a smattering of Who Do You Think You Are? – both US and UK. Jessica Biel and Liv Tyler came across as very likeable indeed. Listening To: TED Talks mostly and some Robert Thurman podcasts on Buddhism. Making: Bookmarks from stone and beads and elastic and stuff. Doing: Enjoying “pottering” – nothing…
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100 DAYS: DAY 1 to 10
I knew it would be a challenge more than a project doing the #100DayProject but I didn’t realise how much I would get caught up in the “must do” rather than the “want to do”. Obviously I was missing the point altogether, despite having it explained to me in detail by Paparali – who by the way has been sticking to her “Less” themed project like glue. I got off to what I thought was a good start. Making little videos of my creative efforts and enjoying the new experience, never having done so before. In a sense that learning was my first creative effort for the project. Day One I set aside a notebook to doodle and plan. I’m a little precious of decent notebooks and hate starting something in them and not seeing it out…
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MEANWHILE…#3
This is what I’m getting up to lately… Reading: I’m reading two books at the moment. The first is the latest from John Connolly Game of Ghosts and the other is for work Professional Development As Transformative Learning (!) by Patricia Cranton. Watching: Coming down from a staple diet of DC and Marvel binges, I’m on the lookout for something meaty. NCIS and Bull are keeping me sane in the meantime. Listening To: Not much really if I’m to be honest. I’m relishing the silence of late (a lot of voices ringing around my head all day in work at the moment). Making: Concentrating on the blog lately means the pieces of slate I picked us to make jewellery are still decorating the boot of my Jeep. But soon…very soon. Looking Forward To: The weekend.
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IRELAND: THE STAR WARS CONNECTION
The Ban Cheile* and I were fully charged and ready for our three-day adventure to South West Kerry to see if the Star Wars™ influence had changed the area in any way and also to enjoy a seriously chilled extended weekend break. If you’re a Star Wars fan you’ll know the cast and crew spent some time in and around Kerry while filming scenes for The Force Awakens and returned for the upcoming The Last Jedi. I’m pleased to report that other than an odd, and I mean odd, reference to the brief, but important, Star Wars experience (like a three foot storm trooper challenging an equally diminutive sith lord in the window of a guest house in Portmagee and a few “Skellig Wars” t-shirts featuring green-eyed puffins in Darth Vader gear) the Kerry coast has been…
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IRELAND: VALENTIA – ISLAND AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
While the Ban Cheile* and I were on our Ring Of Kerry trip last month we based ourselves in the Valentia Royal Hotel on the small island off the Kerry coast. The island is just 11km long and 3km wide with a population of only 665 permanent residents – about the same as a very small neighbourhood in Dublin. Having said that it’s a fascinating place to spend a few days and since we were fortunate enough to have terrific weather it meant we could arm ourselves with our cameras and do the on tourist exploration of the island. Accessible only by a bridge at Portmagee (the small ferry from Reenard on the “mainland” – can you even call a bigger island a mainland? – to Knightstown only runs from April to late autumn). Valentia is steeped in history and…
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VALENTIA ROYAL HOTEL
The Ban Cheile* and I were really looking forward to our three-day stay on Valentia Island (Kerry, Ireland). We jokingly decided we’d go to South West Cork to see if we can follow the Force as it were. All true Star Wars fans know by now that the amazing scene at the end of The Force Awakens, where Luke Skywalker makes his big entrance, was shot on a tiny monastic island off the Kerry coast called Skellig Michael. We decided it was time for us to return to the area to see what the influence of the Force might have had on the place and to treat ourselves to a chill-out long weekend in the process. We arrived early the previous day to our hotel, The Royal Valentia Hotel. We’d stayed there some years earlier when it…
