TALKING COCK...

We have a new neighbour. It would appear that a rooster has made himself at home in the green edge of the MacRitchie catchment that borders our home. Not sure if someone brought him there, though I would think that with an animal so domesticated, it might point to the fact that some people may actually living in the green (especially since we sometimes see strange lights etc). But I digress. The problem with this supposed alarm clock is that it seems to keep really strange hours (not that we're complaining about not being woken up at 6am or some other ungodly hour like that). But seriously, he crows at... of all times... 11am (which if you asked me is possibly indicative of a higher form of intelligence, since it is exactly the right time that Pete and I would probably want to wake up on any given day). Anyway, as I was saying, he gets going at 11am, and sometimes, equally randomly, at about 5pm (which, ironically, is about exactly the right time we would wanna be going home from work). It could well be that the parents in the neighbourhood ganged up and did something to the bird after learning this: "In a recent USDA study, researchers decided that the crow of the rooster in the morning may have long term effects on the hearing of infants, whose ears are not yet accustomed to such sounds." But coincidences aside, is our random rooster absolutely normal?? Or has there been some kind of serious cock up here?? TW

WHADDA WEEK...

Got so much to report that I don't know quite where to start, plus I have something in the oven so don't have that much time for a complete update. Felt in the mood for experimenting and Pete's working, so decided to make a pasta bake. Went with a basic beef sauce but had a surged of thai inspiration, so in went some coriander and a couple of spices. Tastes pretty good, even if I say so myself. (update: chef extraordinairre Pete approves!!) Okay, so first things first - a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to some of the most important June babies in our lives, who all just turned highly significant and momentus ages (though for the record its all the ripe old age of 21) - Mum (Gladys), Mum (Rita). A special birthday shout out too to one of our favourite nephews Luke Matthew Williams (Man U #5 for now!!), who turned a very very impressive 6 last week to the tune of racing games, chocolate, and a promise that he's still going to be able to beat Pete in bowling on the Wii when we head over next year! Oh, and then there's Claud, and Sujin.... realise we have a lot of mid-year born favourite people! Hope its a brilliant year guys. We're still editing the photos and the video, but managed to pull off a great surprise birthday party for Mum at ours. Almost all the cousins made it (and on time!!), and the crew from over yonder even recorded their special greetings and emailed them in for us to screen. All the kids performed little skits/dances/instrumentals etc... And I think it is safe to say she had a fantastic time. What made it even nicer is that it was at home, so we didn't have to worry about noise levels, last orders, other people or doing anything at all we wanted at any given moment, which was fab. Other than that, its been an eventful couple of weeks, between work and everything else, and believe me when I say its a lot more than the usual (will let on when the timing's a tad bit more... appropriate). I know we owe photos and stories from the trip, and we promise we'll have those, as well as both Mums' birthday shots, up soonest. Together with at least three paragraphs of excuses as to why its taken so long (we promise). (cont'd) Okay, so what else... We've finally settled into the house again methinks. Was a bit hard. Came back, got sick, had surprised birthday weekend, worked, worked the weekend, and then covered the Water Summit (god wasn't it BRILLIANT to be back on the reporting circuit again! Had the time of my life back on the ground interviewing, writing, meeting people, and not least, actually making Happy Hour once or twice, which made the early starts completely worthwhile. But it realise made me realise how much I really like journalism.) But yeah, finally nestled back in, and getting back into my usual routine. We've started cooking alot again, which is great, especially since it means being able to eat lunch the next day without having to go to the canteen!! We've also been experimenting with a couple of restaurants over the weekends, but for lack of anything great to say, apart from the fact that the steak at Wild Rocket is still nothing short of amazing, will keep the comments brief. Very open to some suggestions for great places though. Haven't found anything particularly brilliant lately.... Anyone checked out White Rabbit at Dempsey yet? Thoughts? Okay, so that's the deal for now. Gotta actually get to work, and trying to go in with a smile on my face even if it it (groans) Monday. Will be back later today. Cheers, TW

SOME PEOPLE JUST DON'T LEARN... SO LETS MAKE THE LESSON HARDER

Question of the day. Any creative ideas for getting rid of an unwelcome - not to mentioned, extremely stupid - blog stalker? Yes, we know who it is, since this person has left her muddy paw tracks all over the place, down to her company name. Free world and all it is, and blogs are in the public domain, after all. And if this person so completely lacks a life and needs ours as a crutch, like okay lah I guess. I guess I could simply make this person's identity and intentions fairly public. Would be a laugh and a half for most people familiar with her shenanigans. But any ideas for anything more fun? ;) PS: Photos and accounts of Ireland trip to come soon (as soon as things calm down a little, we promise). TW

HEAT WAVE.....

Back in the Singers and boy is it flippin hot. Made a cursory stop in Dubai on the way back thinking the 999.99 per cent humidity there might buffer the impact but nooooooo.... It is HOT. And stuffy. What's strange though is that we never got super extreme cold in Ireland (believe it or not). Largely sunny but with a nice nip to the wind. Chilly late at night, but then we had the Big, Warm Bushmills/Guinness hugs to cope. Got about a day and a half of rain, but believe you me, in a country where it's destined to rain at least once (for the large part of each) day, we got sun burnt. Woo hoo! In Ireland. Go figure. We're back into the ***** now though. So. It was a phenomenal ride (in the proverbial sense). Can't say much about the airline. Service - competant. Plane - competant. Alcohol - satisfactory. Food - shite. If Etihad is really going to be catching Emirate's wind (besides the arse end of it), it's really going to have to rethink its catering service. Or at least the people who cater for Economy. Got lucky on the last leg and became fast friends with the economy cabin service crew - who coped well, despite it having to deal with the fact that 1) Pete's TV screen didn't work 2) Art's screen worked but the remote control didn't, 3) Besides the vegetarian option, everything had prawn in it, which we are both allergic to. We didn't bitch about it, but they were nice enough to recognise the shite situation, and, to allay the crappiness, bring us 1) FANTASTIC leg of lamb from Business class, and 2) Glenmorangie from First class, which beat the Ballantines in Economy hands down. Pity we only discovered such generosity on the fourth of four legs though. Would have been handy to have such privileges from the first (erm, yeah, can we have aisle seats? yeah, and the one with the busted tv screen please? bulkhead with the screaming babies? and make sure the food is yuck. Sure!). Still, it couldn't beat the tiny budget (read: We would charge for oxygen masks if we could) airline to Cork, where, after a traditional delay, the pilot casually went on air to say "Shirley, prepare cabin for takeoff....". Pete, of course, got a huge kick, and called the (by then, irritated) stewardess by name all flight long. How's that for personalised service? OH, SHIRLEY!!!........... Flight back to Dublin was even better.... They had two passengers with seeing eye dogs, which, unknown to the airline, apparently, need their own seat space, since it is pretty impossible to have a dog lie in front of a seat with non-existant legroom.... So, at least one (insert airline here) staff, who probably had free seats to Dublin for the bank holiday weekend, got highly unglamourously yanked off her seats... One went in the jump seat in front of us... the other, I am afraid to ask about. At least no one ended up using the seat in the toilet. Or at least that we know of. Travel. Ah. I'd say the best leg was Dublin to Abu Dhabi. Nice empty aircraft. Suitably seated right in front of the galley. Four seater with two vacant. Not that we slept for five seconds. God bless international-time-body-clock-friggididodas. And Guinness. And Bulmers. And Bushmills. We did, however, on several times this trip (except the last, when the remote didn't work and A was the default answer) become Millionaires on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, at least in seat-back sense. We could have implored them for bubbly with enough cock-n-bull. You have to love long haul for the crap it inspires. But again, it was a fabulous trip. Will try too avoid detail so the pictures - once we have edited the million and three hundred of them - can tell the story in ways I could never imagine. Will do the abridged version (to prove we can remember most of it).... There was Cork and Dublin, where we saw Amy do her first Holy Communion, celebrated two birthdays (including the sunburn BBQ to mark Gladys' (my mum-in-law's) 75th and Maureen (our cousin's) severaleth 21st), spent some time with Matt (my father-in-law), caught me my first brown trout while fishing (which I released with strict instructions to "Find Nemo!!") n Lough Leane, chilled with Luke and Aaron, hung out with the about-to-burst Hilary and Eoin and watched Clint Velour - aka Paddy - and Jen tie the knot!. Speaking of knots, I got - thanks to Mum - my first Celtic wedding ring to mark our now three year-and-five month union, which is absulutely amazing, and which I will never take off. And then Abu Dhabi and Dublin, where we marvelled at the pretentiousness and pomp, shitloads of sand, glod plated buildings etc etc etc, while spending quality time with my cousins, Mehirr and Prem, and just chilled out. It was great, filled with the same amount of food that could feed small countries, and I have to say, amazing quality time with the people that matter most - family. All up, it was great. I would love to include some of the inane/insightful/incredible chatter/jokes/conversations. But like I said, I'll save the narrative for when the photos and videos come on board. That said though, it was brilliant to just STOP. Stop and take stock on the people/experiences/dreams that really matter. The ones that I would fight tooth and nail for, and work day and night for. The ones that you want to think about the minute you wake up, be aware of, for the hours/minutes in the day, and the reflections you have at the end of it. The ones that make up the life that is worth living. I will take liberties (with permission), in saying for that for us both, this was one of the most meaningful trips we have made both as a family, and for family, without saying the previous were less meaningful because I strongly believe, and always will believe, that wisdom, belief and appreciation are things that grow stronger with experience and age. For us, it prompted reflection, co-reflection, and a sense of communal belief that our life is really about the Williams' and Mulchands' that have come before us, and that will come after. It makes you know what you want to wake up to in the morning. Forever. With love, TW