The President Factor!

I have decided, at great personal sacrifice, to forgo my usual Friday night glass (or two) of Cava with the girls, and stay in and watch the 'Candidates Debate' live on TV tonight.

I have done my research and I am now more familiar than I was, with the duties that being President of Ireland entails.  I already knew that he/she represents the people of Ireland, and signs Bills before they become Law, so after further delving I have decided that largely they are a 'meet-er and greet-er' with a ceremonial role for visiting Dignitaries.  So, basically they need to be well groomed and well spoken, and know that they shouldn't wipe their nose with the back of their hand before shaking it with Mr Head of Germany, or greet Mrs Head of Australia with "Story Bud"? (A very Dublin saying which is shortened from the longer greeting of "How are you and how is it going with you today, Buddy?").

So I will be judging (I feel like I am on the X Factor) each Candidate tonight on their ability as a Dignitary Greeter.  I hope my judgement won't be impaired by the glass of wine that I might have to drink while watching!

Oh wait.....I've just had an idea.  Maybe we should have treated this whole race like the X Factor and made them audition and give them tasks to do.  Like, maybe give them a line of Dignitaries to greet and put an 'ordinary Joe Soap' in the line and see do they spot him.  Or, give them a Bill to sign and see do they spot the very obvious legal mistakes!  And then we could have great satisfaction in voting one out every week!

I wonder is Louis Walsh busy tonight...



PS...I promise after this debate I won't mention 'Presidential Election' again, unless one of them does something brilliant worth talking about, or equally something ridiculous!

Not again!

They're back again.  It only seems like yesterday that we got rid of them.  And they are no different this time. Still no imagination, still no style, still no witty slogans.

Still watching me at the traffic lights, still smiling at me with a expressionless eyes, still following me as I walk the dog, still making a mess of our nice tidy streets.  How will the lampposts cope this time, they will bend under the pressure of so many new attachments.  And I will have to look at them for at least a month!

Having to look at them everyday is not going to help me make up my mind either.  Or get me to change it when I have.  Although I do have to admit that one of them made me laugh today as the it made the 'subject' look amazingly like Groucho Marks!  Actually on reflection, Groucho Marks would probably make a better candidate than any in the running at the moment.  (That's just my opinion!!)  :-)

Election Posters!!  Grrr....

The lampposts of the country will be bending under the pressure of holding up the posters of seven candidates.  Well, six, as Mr Gallagher has decided not to put any up.  Very 'Eco-minded' of him - still won't make me vote for him tho'!!

I have a month to make up my mind, dilemma!  Anybody any thoughts on this that would help me??  Otherwise it's Groucho for President!!

A shaky start!

Fourteen eager faces looking at me....

Gosh, I'm nervous!

Somebody once told me that if you are nervous about public speaking, that the best way to get over it was to imagine your audience naked....Well!  Hmmm, I added some extra clothes to some of mine, and hats and and scarves...

"Good evening everybody, my name is Siobhan and I will be your instructor for the next five weeks for this 'Basic Computer Skills' course".

Two people got up and left!  Yikes!!

OMG!  Was it something I said, I haven't even started and already I'm loosing pupils.  I followed them into the corridor and they apologised and said they were in the wrong room, there were here to do the 'Domestic Thermal Insulation' course, which was next door!  Phew...  TG for that!  As little as I know about Computers I know even less about Thermal Insulation, unless you count the long johns and vest that I wore under my clothes when it was snowing last December.  For a minute I thought I had been rumbled as a fraud before I even had a chance to do my best teacher impression, and they had left in disgust!

Well, they hadn't and I did get a chance to do my best Air Hostess impression as I then went through the emergency exit and health and safety routine (which I had practiced over and over in my bedroom with Rusty as my very enthusiastic audience!) with the rest of my pupils.  I'm sure I heard somebody snoring.

Then there was the roll call and the form filling and the handing out of the course work and booklets.  It was almost time for 'coffee break' and I hadn't even opened a book yet....

That was last night, and it went pretty well.  I think they understood me, well they didn't look at me with blank expressions all the time, and I even answered some questions, like, where were the rest rooms and what time did the class finish!  And, despite my nervousness, I think they even learned something too!

But, it wasn't all success, I did have one pupil who couldn't quite keep up.  I stayed with him last night while the others went for coffee and we went over what we had done again and again with me doing my best artist impression by drawing little pictures to explain the keyboard until he was more comfortable with it and understood it.  I thought I had been OK with him and was encouraged when I saw him come back tonight.  But my high didn't last too long, he stayed until coffee time and then said it was soul destroying for him as he wasn't able to keep up and he wouldn't be back.....

Not a very good start for me as a teacher, and a bit soul destroying for me too!   I feel like running away, but I have to go back next week, and I have to stay 'till the end of the course.  I'll just have to put it behind me and chalk it up to experience and remember to bring thicker skin with me next week, and maybe draw better pictures!

So, I started off with 14, lost two to Insulation and one to lack of confidence, I hope I can hold on to the remaining 11, as well as my sanity!!

Sunshine for President!

18 to 24 degrees!  Yes, that's what the weather people on the radio this morning said the temperature would be today.  18 to 24 degrees.  I thought I had tuned into the wrong station.  I had to get out of bed and look out of the window to make sure I was in the right country. 

It's wonderful.  A bit late in the year, but still wonderful!

I was going to listen to the seven 'Presedential Candidates' debate on the radio at lunchtime, but instead  I made my escape from the Dungeon, went up in the fireman's lift, and out into the beautiful sunshine.  And to my amazement, on the lawn at the side of the Terminal building, the sprinklers were on!  Sprinklers?  In Dublin?  Unheard of!!  As if we don't get enough rain!!  Although it was nice to watch them and listen to the sound of the water spraying, it made the sunshine even more enjoyable.  It reminded me of being on holiday in Rojales, sitting on the terrace in the evening, opposite the golf course, sipping Cava, watching the sprinklers weaving and hissing soaking the putting greens, getting them ready for the next day, for the crazy people who play golf in the sunshine instead of sitting at the pool or on the beach.

I suppose I should really have stayed downstairs and listened to the debate and showed some interest in the upcoming election, but it really is hard to get inspired by any of the candidates.  I don't know how I am going to vote.  But I will vote.  I will just have to hope that one of them will stand out from the crowd and 'shine' for me like the sunshine today.

I'll read through their manifesto's and whichever of them promises sunshine everyday for everybody, will get my vote!

Now, time to eat my 'Fit for a President' sandwich.

Food and sunshine, that's all I need.  Oh wait.....maybe some Cava too!

Indignant (I think?)

My cousin's husband posted this picture on Facebook.

Of course, being blond, I am highly offended!  They are now off the Christmas list, and I am deleting them immediately from my Facebook account.


PS....What's a 'maze'?

Bye, Bye Baby....

So REM have broken up!

I was never a big fan, in fact I wasn't a fan at all.  I did/do know some of their more popular stuff but that's about it for me.  I did however, find it amusing that their breakup made headlines on the evening news on our nation television station.  Is there nothing else going on in the country or world that could have been reported?

But that news induced a very interesting and funny radio program today about teenage crushes and bands breaking up, and how the two together can cause havoc to the emotions of boys and girls everywhere.  And not just teenagers, there were 'older' fans ringing in telling their stories about the bands they followed everywhere and the lengths they went to to meet their idols, and being crushed (emotionally not physically - although that did happen to somebody's foot at a concert!) when it was all over for the band!  I was amazed at how involved some people got with certain bands.

It brought me right back to my first 'teenage' crush/groupie-like state!

I was one of the Tartan Army.  The name given to the followers/fans of those five boys from Scotland.  I remember being allowed to go and see 'them' when they came to Dublin at the height of their popularity.  I was only about 14 or 15 and went with a few of my friends from school.  Imagine, I was allowed to go without my big sister!  (There is no way she would have gone to see them, she was way too cool for that lot, but she did bring me to see Queen a year or two later when they came to Dublin, after I had long since forgotten about my teenage idols, and gotten a bit cool myself!)  Anyway back to my little band of groupies, we were a sight to behold.  Covered from head to toe in Tartan and complete with stupid hair cuts!!  Tartan hairband in our mad hair and tartan scarfs tied around our wrists.  Of course we thought we were the best thing since....since....well since whatever was the best thing that went before us!!

I remember it as if it was yesterday, getting ready, ironing the tartan trimmed trousers, the ones that I made my mother alter to make them look exactly the same as the ones that the guys in the band wore.  The bus journey there, admiring the other girls tartan outfits (being secretly jealous if theirs were better than mine), queuing outside - in a very orderly fashion - being let in, screaming running for the best spot, having a coke, checking out the tartan clad guys, waiting, more screaming, more waiting, the lights going down, even more screaming, we could see their sneaker clad feet under the curtains (yes there were curtains on the stage) and then as the excitement built, the music started, OMG the screaming, and then the lights went on, and then we couldn't hear anything after that, only screaming......

Of course there was the fainting too!  Not me, no way, I wasn't going to faint and miss any of the excitement.  But the amount of people that did faint was crazy.  A constant stream of girls being passed over our heads towards the exit.  A girl from my year in school was with somebody who fainted.  She was a hero the next day in school....

The Bay City Rollers!  (SIGH!)  Gosh, when I tell people now that I liked them, they laugh!  But I am not ashamed (no really, I'm not :-/ ).  I just remember that mad night and the fun we had.  Of course I have been to many concerts since, and I have even heard the music at some of them!!  But I will never forget my first one....BIG SIGH!!  I remember crying into my little tartan scarf when they broke up, I was inconsolable... 

I think they are back together now and still tour, with a different line up, how funny is that?  Only nearly as funny as those tartan trousers, and ridiculous haircut I used to wear....I'm sure I have a picture somewhere.  I know I still have the trousers, I'm just waiting for them to come back into fashion!!

Clarification.

For those of you that expressed concern, I would like to point out that no dogs were harmed during the making of the muffins.

And Rusty would like to add, that even he has standards, and has long since learned not to approach anything slightly blackened that the small blond one takes out of that silver hot thing in the wall....

Woo Hoo!

The muffins were a disaster....

But who cares, Ireland just beat Australia in New Zealand!!!

WOO HOO!!!

And now I better get to work or nobody will get any dinner tonight, never mind dessert.

Go Ireland!!!!  :-)

Damn!

I just made some muffins and they are cooking nicely in the oven.

One of the guy's in work has a very nice wife who has a catering company, and as a treat she sent us in a box of her home made muffins during the week.  I was last to the box and all the double chocolate chip ones were gone by the time I got there, grrr, so all that was left were blueberry (which I like) and a new type that I had never tasted before!  Raspberry and coconut!  Delicious!!  Who needs double chocolate chip anyway!

I pleaded with my colleague to get the recipe for me, but he said if he gave it to me his wife would kill him.  Spoilsport!  So I scoured the net and found the perfect recipe.  I even had all the ingredients in my cupboard!  And as I am having guests for dinner tomorrow evening, I though this would be the perfect opportunity to try out this new recipe on them.

It was all so easy, just throw everything into a bowl and stir, then put them in the cases and into the oven!  Job done!

Was just about to turn off the computer when something caught my eye....I re-read the recipe.

YIKES!!

I forgot to put the eggs in!!  Oh no......

I thought the mixture seemed a little too 'thick', but as I have never made muffins before I thought it was supposed to be like that.....Damn!!

I will just have to wait and see what they are like when they are cooked....thirty minutes from now....damn again!!

Maybe I could just give my guests more wine and hope that they don't notice....

Oh wait.....I can always do the 'Rusty test' on them.  If Rusty eats them, then they pass the test, and they will be OK, right??

I hope none of my guests (or Rusty) are reading this blog........!

Jane versus the Helicopter

I am so glad that I tidied up my little patch last weekend, because, as the weather was so nice this evening I was actually able to sit out there for a while and read.  I was wearing a fleece and woolly socks, but it was very pleasant.....for a while.

A very short while....I went out armed with my mug of coffee, eager to get started and delve into somebody else's world for a while.  But, I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked, because just my luck, there was a soccer match on in the local stadium tonight, and even though I can't hear any noise from the crowd, the match finished at the same time that I went outside and then the crowd started to leave.  And, as after all matches, the police take over traffic control in the area and to my annoyance, especially this evening, they always seem to plant the helicopter right over my house.  Disturbing the peace over my little world.

It's impossible to ignore it or to block it out, so it distracted me from my Heroine of the day, Jane Eyre.  I wonder what she would have made of the metal bird in the sky?  That would be an interesting book to read, without the sound effects of course!

Anyway back to my book, I know I read it years ago, but I try as I might, I can't remember the plot.  I have this sudden interest in it again because a trailer for a new film based on the book, that I saw recently, prompted me to pick it up again and find out what the big secret is that her 'master' is hiding.  I wonder how long it will take me to remember?   So, I am going to read this book as quickly as I can, solve the puzzle, go and see the film, and then complain loudly to anybody that will listen, that it's not as good as the book!!

I had to stop reading and come in anyway, as it got dark.  But that didn't stop the helicopter!

I wonder who I could complain to about that...

I don't think so!

I've just read a headline:

Windows 8 'will change everything'.


Really?

Will it change my bed clothes every week?
Will it change the light bulb on my staircase that I can't reach?
Will it change the traffic lights to green every time I come to a red one?
Will it change a pumpkin into a glittering carriage?
Will it change night into day?
Will it change poverty to wealth.....sickness to health......war to peace.....crying to laughter?

No -  didn't think so!!

But, by using it, I know it will change the colour of my hair (from blond to gray).
And the state of my nerves (from calm to ragged!).  I'm still getting used to Windows version 1!!  :-)

I'm not reading any more headlines!

Swoon - Mr Moon!!

I don't watch much TV as I think you probably know
But feeling a bit 'off'-ish yesterday, thought I'd give it a go.
So I lay on the couch with a hot drink,
Right, what's this that's come on?....Eastenders I think!

It's years since I watched this 'soaps' stories unfold.
Is it just my streaming eyes, or do they all seem so old?
Some new characters but the same miserable old set,
Some old characters, have they not been written out yet?

And just like the characters, the storylines are the same
everybody fighting, and playing a dangerous game.
Not very interesting I think I'll switch channels,
there is only so much of this nonsense I can handle.

Oh wait, just a second, I can't change just yet
Somebody kinda interesting has just come 'on set'
Those piercing blue eyes and that crooked smile,
On a face I haven't seen in a very long while

That face, it's so familiar and really puzzling me
this is so annoying, whoever can it be?
I rewind, freeze frame, and stare at the face
The features are so familiar, but the name I can't place.

His character has been given the name Eddie Moon
But I'm sure as a girl, he used to make me swoon!
Is this Mr Moon a good guy or a cad?
Oh who the hell is he, it's driving me mad!!

A song keeps rattling around in my head,
"Hold me close" were the words that he said.
It's transporting me back to the 70's, I think,
and the words from the song, they're definitely a link.

I'm racking my brains, and I'm really perplexed
who can it be.....

OMG......It's David Essex!!!

Not a very nice gu(e)st!

Well Hurricane Katia has left us.  And she very kindly left behind some fallen trees and power outages, and some very disgruntled rail passengers who's trains services were suspended, in her wake. But, thankfully (very selfish of me) she didn't leave any damage behind in my garden!

She did, very kindly, help me across the road on my way to work this morning on her way through.  It wasn't exactly where I wanted to cross the road, but I couldn't refuse her help!!  And I made it safely despite her urging!  I'm glad she is gone now and I hope the people in Scotland are prepared for her visit.  That was just a small taste for us of what the east coast Americans got a couple of weeks ago.  Sometimes I'm glad we only do things in a small way in Ireland!

Goodbye Katia, and you're one visitor I hope won't call again soon! :-)

A tidy up!

I'm feeling a bit miserable this evening.  ("What's new" I hear you cry!!).  For two reasons.  The first one is thanks to the tail end of Hurricane Katia, which decided to change course and visit our Island before blowing herself out somewhere over Scotland tomorrow!

And like any impending visitor a 'tidy up' is in order.  So I had to go out and tidy up my garden furniture and put it all away.  I also put away the sun brolly!  Always a sad moment for me!!  I usually leave it out until at least October even tho it doesn't get much use after the end of August, but it makes the garden look nice and when it's gone back into hibernation for the winter, the garden looks very bare.

So I now have a very tidy, very bare garden with all the furniture safely locked up in the shed.  I wonder how tidy it will be tomorrow when Katia is finished whispering her sweet nothings all over our land??  Will all my efforts on Saturday have been in vain?  I hope not...

My other reason for feeling miserable?  I'm getting a cold, poor me...I'm going to take some Echinacea and with that, I'll need some TLC.

I checked the cupboard where I keep all the 'cures'.  (You know that cupboard, we all have one, the one where we keep all the 'stuff' that we buy and are determined to take to make us feel better and keep us healthy).  I know I have some Echinacea tabs in there.

Found them, well I found the box....it's empty!

I also found some Vitamin C - which is out of date!   And some Vitamin A & D - also out of date.  I also found some Calcium Magnesium and Zinc, some Cod Liver Oil and some Immunol, all, yes you've guessed it, out of date!!  Oh dear!  If only I had taken all of that stuff then I wouldn't be looking in this cupboard in the first place.  I did find some St Johns Wort.  I think I'll take that.  It won't cure my cold but it might make me less miserable!!

I think another tidy up is in order.....

So because of the distinct lack of cures in my house the only thing left is the TLC, and the best form of that I can think of, would be a hug.  Any volunteers?  (??)  Just one will do.  Volunteer that is, I might need more than one hug.....  :-)

Oops!

Oh dear, what a 'faux pas'!

The Dubs aren't playing Kerry until next week!!  Silly me, got that one wrong.  :-)  Oh well, it will save me wishing them well next week.  That will teach me to pay more attention in future.  Maybe I should tell my neighbours too, the one's with all the bunting and flags hanging out of their windows....Perhaps some Kerrymen have infiltrated my neighbours houses and put the bunting up a week early to confuse me!!  Oh well, roll on next week when the game really takes place!  :-)

And now, after an exhausting day of standing around smiling, engines roaring, and copious flag waving, I am exhausted and the couch is calling, time to do nothing for a couple of hours.  Bliss!

Sad and happy thoughts...

My thoughts today, like the rest of the worlds, are with the people of New York and anybody that lost somebody precious ten years ago.  I wish them well today.

And on a completely different subject, I have somebody else I would like to wish well to today also.  The Dubs!!  Today we play our long standing rivals, The Kerrymen, what a match that should be.

And speaking of matches, well done to our Rugby Team who won today in New Zealand!

And speaking of Rugby, I'm off to tackle a few cars, bikes and 'Grid Girls'.  Glad I'm not in one of those suits today....brrr.....

UP THE DUBS!!!!   :-)

The great outdoors!

A beautiful September day in Dublin today.

And I made the most of it.  I started with breakfast in town in the sunshine, with two former workmates, and finished with dinner of homemade vegetable lasagna made with fresh vegetables, donated by another friend who grew all of them on his allotment.

But in between, I spent the day in my garden, working.

For the last few years I have neglected my poor garden.  I used to love being out there digging my hand in the dirt, planting stuff and then the anticipation of watching it grow.  And I loved the summer evenings when I would spend time out there with the garden hose giving everything a good drink.  Very therapeutic after a long day at the office.  But the events of 2007 (marriage break-up!) left me with no interest in anything except survival!  Of course, being the trouper that I am :-) I survived!  But, unfortunately, not many of the plants in the garden did!

At the beginning of last year, when the snow had cleared and it started to turn into spring, I began to take an interest again and I had a look at the garden and realized that it was gone a bit beyond anything I could fix.  So I looked around for somebody to help.  I finally found somebody and together we came up with a plan to restore my little patch to its former blossoming self.  The plan being, him doing all the work, and me basking in all the glory!!  We agreed on the plants and where they should go and we agreed on a date for him to start.....and then.....I was made redundant!!  It's a conspiracy against me and my garden!!

Needless to say, once again the garden went straight down to the bottom of my list of priorities, and Joe the gardener had to do his best on a severely reduced budget!  And to his credit he did!  And to my shame, once again I neglected it.  But not as badly as I had done for previous years.  But I planted no flowers and all my flowerpots remained empty again this year.

So today, I spend the whole day riding them of the moss that had grown over anything that was left in them and cleaning them and stacking them up ready for next year.  I also painted two wooden boxes that my dad made for me and they are ready now for planting.

So today I got pleasure from the garden in two ways, one by doing some work out there, and the second by eating the rewards of somebody elses hard work in the garden.

I am determined now not to go back to my neglectful ways and made a good start today by planting loads of spring flowering bulbs.  So when they flower (hopefully) next year, that will give me a good incentive to plant summer flowers.  And then once again my garden will be back in bloom!!

You never know, maybe next year will be my year to 'bloom' too.....although I hope I don't need to be stuck into fertilizer to aid the process...

Stoned!!

Finished work early today and made it home in nice time on this lovely sunny evening to get to Cruagh for a walk.  What a treat!  It was really lovely up there this evening and it was a glorious way to end a very busy and stressful week.  It's a long time since I have been so busy and stressed at work.  But, I am not complaining, in fact, I am loving it.  It's great at last to have something to do where I actually put my brain to good use, instead of letting it wander and get me into trouble!!

I was too busy even to blog!!  Imagine!!  And I had no trouble getting to sleep at night as I was so tired from all the hard work.  Ahhh, poor me.  So all in all it was a good week, (except for the bit where I got splashed by the cars and beaten by the rain etc, but we won't talk about that) and hopefully next week will be just as busy.

But, while I was walking in the forest, I noticed every so often at the side of the track, granite stones of various shapes and sizes piled up in little heaps.  Curious!  There's always stones on the track and always granite, but somebody would have had to go off the track and look for the bigger ones that were at the bottom of each pile.  Curious-er!  And then probably dig them out of the moss and grass that they lie in all year round at the side of the track under the pine trees.  Curious-er and curious-er.  I wonder who did that.

Well, I know it wasn't the deer.  There are always 'piles' up there on the track that they make, but lets just say that their piles are a lot softer, and a very different colour, than the piles of stones!

I thought, maybe it was some clever Parent with a bunch of children, trying to keep them amused as they walked around the sometimes quite steep track.  Well, it certainly kept me amused as I walked quickly on to see where the next one was.  I was kinda hoping they were going to give me clues to some buried treasure or point me in the direction of a rainbow, you know, the one with the pot of gold at the end of it.  But they didn't have any hidden clues nor did they seem to point in any specific direction.  They just had ants underneath them.  I was baffled, but Rusty thought it was a great game and barked enthusiastically each time I turned over another pile.  Anyway knowing my luck they probably would have only led me to a naughty Leprechaun.....With attitude...And very probably an empty treasure chest...Who would put a curse on me...And turn my hair red like his....

So, since its Friday and since I have worked so hard this week,and can't solve the mystery of the piles of granite, I think I will lead myself towards my own pot of gold.  Or as you would probably know it better, a bottle of Cava!

Top of the Morning to ya!  (Hic..)

I'm not complaining, but...

You know how much I love 'commenting' (complaining) about the weather.  Well I have decided that I am not going to comment anymore because it has just become boring and we are all very aware at this stage that the weather this year has been cr*p, to say the least.  So tonight I am going to tell you how much I enjoyed my lovely walk with the dog that I have just returned from.

It was lovely to get dressed in full wet gear before I went out.  It was lovely to be splashed by the cars while waiting to cross the road.  It was lovely to be walking in a wet windy and deserted park with the trees bending over so far in the wind that I thought they were going to snap.  It was lovely to feel the rain beating against the back of my legs making them sting.  It was lovely the way the wind kept blowing down my hood and whipping my hair into my face, making my eyes water.  It was lovely the way the wind was howling so much that I couldn't hear the music playing through my iPod..  It was lovely to see the dog running through the puddles and the wet grass getting his paws all wet and muddy!

And it was really lovely when I got home to have a pile of wet clothes to dry and to see the dog shaking his wet and muddy fur all over the kitchen.

I love November!  Oh wait.....

A ferry nice day!

For the second time this year, I got on a boat and went to visit one of the small Islands off the coast of this big Island that I live on.  But, I had no intention, (or hope I never have to), of spending a night on this Island.  Because, I was visiting Ireland's 'Alcatraz' - Spike Island, Cobh, Co. Cork.

A tiny Island with a huge history.

You can see the Island from the dock at Cobh (pronounced Cove, for you Americans reading!) and could probably jump (if you were a giant!) over, but because of the tides, the ferry takes you round the other Islands in Cork harbour so you get a lovely scenic trip.

Cobh is also famous for the fact that it was the last port that the Titanic paid a visit to on her fateful journey.  But enough about that.  Although on our trip round the harbor there was a cruise ship from Holland parked?  moored?  tied up?  docked?  (I don't know the correct expression, so feel free to correct me) and it looked very imposing just sitting there alongside the quay, its highest point being nearly as tall as Cobh's famous Cathedral.

Anyway, we got to Spike after 10 minutes of sailing and were greeted by a very informative guide.  She gave us most of the history of the Island while standing on the dock.  But it was very interesting.  I'm not going to recount it all to you, you can look it up if you want at spikeislandcork.com.  She told us that the Island was a place of incarceration five times in its history.  People who fought for religion were jailed here.  People who fought for 'Ireland's Cause' were jailed here.  People who just fought with each other were jailed here.  But the one's who interested me the most were the people who fought to survive, and were jailed here during the Famine for stealing bread to keep themselves and their children alive.

If they survived their time on Spike then they were sent in Prison Ships to Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) for fourteen years.  If they died, which most of them did, then they were just dumped in a hole and covered up.  How awful!  This mass grave was discovered by the Irish Navy, when they occupied the Island, while they were excavating a patch of land to convert into a football pitch.  How sad!  But the Navy didn't build their pitch, instead they built a wall around the patch of land and put up a cross.  How nice!  There is currently a petition to have all the people who were buried there posthumously pardoned.   One prisoner famous political prisoner of the time, John Mitchel who did survive, wrote a book about his time on the Island, call Jail Journal.  That's going on my list now to read.

And for the second time this year also, I got to see a prison cell of a famous person.  Earlier in the year on a trip to Paris, I saw Marie Antoinette's in the Concierge, where she was kept before she was beheaded.  I thought it was grim when I saw it, but it was five star luxury compared to John Mitchel's which was nightmarish.   Just a small wooden board on the floor for him to sleep on and a window about a foot wide.  It made me really sad.

I've probably painted a miserable picture, but it really was a very enjoyable and informative trip.  Especially for the guide, as she was treated to some 'extra' bits of information from my very clever Father, who was able to tell her that John Mitchel was eventually rescued by his friends who sailed to Tasmania and brought him to America, and eventually he got home to Ireland.  She probably knew that already, but she was very gracious!!  He did make me laugh.

And believe it or not, there was also a concert going on on the Island.  So, after all that doom and gloom we were able to sit in the sunshine in the courtyard in the center of the prison walls on a beautiful lawn, and listen to some great music.  What a lovely way to finish the tour!

And for the second time this year, I was on a ferry with some musicians!!  Some of them were finished their set and got the ferry back to the mainland with us....this is becoming a habit!!  I might have to visit another Island soon.

I wonder which one it will be......hmmm.......Lanzarote?  Barbados?  Jamaica?   Tasmania??  Eh...Not sure I would last that long on a boat, no matter how many musicians were on board!!  :-)