A short week in England

Alright. Well I arrived back to Justin's parents' house in Cambridge last Wednesday. Thursday morning I was greeted by a letter in the door from Ella asking me if I could play photographer for a posh restaurant opening
she had organized for that evening... of course I graciously accepted. It was a fabulous evening complete with fire dancers, free cocktails and live jazz band.

with Ella and Beattie.

a little later in the evening...
Sunday I took the bus to Milton Keynes to spend the day and night with Lucy. She wined and dined me with a picnic in the park to soak up some sunshine and then we headed off to this incredible house our in the country where we made a roast lamb dinner and fed the horses. We met up with a few of her friends and had a good little night out where my dreadies got lots of compliments so I was happy.

Trafalgar Square! (what happened to all the pigeons?)
Monday morning I took the bus again, but this time to London and met up with Jess, once again. We spent the day wandering about London, visited the Tate modern and splurged on lots of yummy food.
After saying goodbye to Jess I visited with Phil and George Tuesday morning and then headed back up to Cambridge. I'll be here till Thursday when I head out to see cousin Martin and family for 3 nights before flying to Greece on Sunday!
Lots of LOVE!

Roadtripping

Julia and I had an amazing week road tripping the South of Ireland and we very blessed with the most beautiful weather Ireland has seen in April in a long time. First official stop was Galway one of the best little cities i've ever come across.
We met up with Elaine and Jenny, who I met in Darwin last year, for a bit of on-the-fly 'diddly-dee' music and Irish singing.
Galway's infamous prom, the longest in Europe.

After 2 nights in Galway we headed South past the Cliffs of Mohr...

and landed in Ballyferriter, a tiny town right on the West coast, it was so beautiful... and some proof I went into the sea... it was cold enough to keep me out the rest of the trip.


Leaving Balleyferriter we found the ruins of an ancient Monastic settlement from the 6th century, the day was perfect for it, this is the kind of stuff Ireland just oozes.
Early versions of the Celtic cross.

We then kept driving, around the Ring of Kerry, Ireland's most renowed coastal drive.
Daily stops were made to soak the dreadies in saltwater... they were in what I called a 'moody adolescent stage' and have since blossomed into young adulthood, I think the saltwater did the trick.


and came across Staigue Fort, early AD, built simply by piling up rocks and wedging in smaller ones. It was a about 2 miles in from the coastal road and surrounded by sheep.

Oo I just had to take a few pictures of the old Celtic crosses, so many old graveyards and church ruins... so much history.

We spent our other nights sleeping in out of the way little towns, once with family friends of Julia and the other haggling our way into a B&B down by Cork.
Our second to last day was spent exploring Kilkenny and we spent our last night sleeping in this castle-turned-hostel. It was an amazing building surrounded by proper castle walls where we sat inside at night and had a campfire. Not too shabby!
The morning of our last day we explored the Dunsmore Caves, the biggest and best caves in Ireland just North of Kilkenny. The village people had used this cave for protection from weather and Vikings. The history of the place was amazing.

After the caves we returned to Belfast via Dublin to see my friends Denise and Gary again and arrived home Sunday evening. I'm at Julia's until tomorrow night (Wednesday) when I fly back to England. 10 days till the Roberts reunite in Greece!

George Monbiot

I've loads of pictures from my road trip down south and I will get them up soon, but I've recently been introduced to George Monbiot (check out the site, there is something for everyone) and want to share some of his words. In these articles he writes about obstacles we are now dealing with growing up and living in more affluent countries. Things i've been having lots of chats about lately.

"What the corporate or institutional world wants you to do is the complete opposite of what you want to do. It wants a reliable tool, someone who can think, but not for herself: who can think instead for the institution...

Even intelligent, purposeful people almost immediately lose their way in such worlds. They become so busy meeting the needs of their employers and surviving in the hostile world into which they have been thrust that they have no time or energy left to develop the career path they really wanted to follow. And you have to develop it: it simply will not happen by itself...

(This does not mean) that you shouldn’t take “work experience” in the institutions whose worldview you do not accept if it’s available, and where there are essential skills you feel you can learn at their expense. But you must retain absolute clarity about the limits of this exercise, and you must leave the moment you’ve learnt what you need to learn (usually after just a few months) and the firm starts taking more from you than you are taking from it. How many times have I heard students about to start work for a corporation claim that they will spend just two or three years earning the money they need, then leave and pursue the career of their choice? How many times have I caught up with those people several years later, to discover that they have acquired a lifestyle, a car and a mortgage to match their salary, and that their initial ideals have faded to the haziest of memories, which they now dismiss as a post-adolescent fantasy? How many times have I watched free people give up their freedom?"
see article

"The gulf between what we are told we should be and what we are is growing. As children’s expectations lose contact with reality, they are torn between their inner lives of fame and fortune and the humdrum reality their minds no longer inhabit. Advertising (and the businesses supported by it) is not the clattering of the stick in the swill bucket that Orwell perceived as much as the carrot that keeps the donkey moving. You are never allowed to come close enough to eat, however hard you pull. An economy driven by dissatisfaction could scarcely fail to cultivate mental illness."
see article

I think this is meaning so much to me at the moment because I've a) been tackling my own issues of what I want to do with my life, b) I've been hanging out with so many teachers, who I envy because their work is so needed and their path seems so clearly laid out and c) I've been hearing so many people talk about how quickly life passes, how easy it is to get sucked in to doing something just to get by, how we really need to make sure we enjoy life, that we fight to find our proper calling.

Armagh

Friday and Saturday I spent visiting Lisa and her Kiwi Aaron in Markethill, Armagh. Susan met Lisa in New Zeland and then introduced her to me in Sydney last year and we met up again in Perth. Saturday we drove to the East Coast to the Mourne Mountains and Newcastle. This is rock is called 'Giant's Rock'.










We stopped at this harbour and were greeted by a pair of what we think were sea lions, could me wrong, but they were beautiful and quite massive. In the background you can see the Mourne Mountains.






Views of the Mourne Mountains, this rock wall stretches 22 miles across the mountains, the great wall of ireland.


























Lisa, Aaron and I before heading out to a charity quiz night.






Sunday morning Julia from Belfast picked me up and we drove West to Enniskillen where we spent the night with two girls she had travelled with in Australia, this morning we drove South into the Republic of Ireland and are now in Galway for two days exploring and meeting up with a couple friends I met in Darwin. This is the castle next door to Elaine's house that she had told me about on our travels, she used to play here when she was little, this horse just wanders around the ruins all by itself... beautiful place.

The North Coast

Monday Julia, HT and I went up to the North coast for a bit of exploring. Before long we found ourselves at the BEAUTIFUL Giant's Causway. Legend is that two giants, one here and one on the coast Scotland threw rocks across the channel at each other and this was the result. A sea of hexagonal rocks. I love rocks. I loved this place.


What remains of a little church we stumbled upon... a favorite photo shoot, felt much like the old ship wreck on Fraser Island.
Dunluce Castle, very very nice and old.

Musseden Temple... located on the edge of a cliff in the middle of a sheep field (which we crossed unharmed (mum you would'a loved it)). I used to be a library, part of a Bishop's property, we also roamed around the ruins of his house.

HT is leaving me tomorrow to head back to our homeland :( It has been so amazing being able to spend time with her these last 3 weeks, a broadway musical really, wouldn't have had it any other way! T-MO you're the best!!!

Julia and I are headed South for a week after I visit Lisa in Armagh this weekend (who I met in Oz) and so lots more to come... i'm back here around the 17th and flying out of Ireland back to England on the 18th. Lots of love!

Around Belfast

The fabulous Dunn family who've been putting up with me the last few weeks.
<-- Irene, Andrew and Elizabeth
Graeme (who, by the look on his face, would rather be eating a kebab at 3am) Mrs. Dunn (our hostess with the mostess and HT)

and resident celebrity Roy

Some more pictures of new friends and old friends around Belfast.

Home Sweet Home.