me & geography

Settling in...

2008-10-10T01:50:00.000-07:00

It's always wild moving to a new place, so many expectations and dreams that you've hardly noticed. You've built some imaginary castle in which you plan to live out your day-to-day fantasy life.

Though this is not entirely true of our move to Ireland. I mean our house is a bit like a castle, what with the hillside view of the sweeping hills and the.... well I suppose that's the only thing that's castle-like. But Ireland. Wow. You've tipped us on our heads and left us gasping for breath. But we want more!

In the last week we've discovered, re-discovered and uncovered some possibilities for the next stint of our lives, time flies, spirals too quickly and then slows to a snails pace as the wind whips around the perimeter of our winter hide-away.

The nearby town has accepted us and we feel a part of it already. It's slowly sharing it's jewels with us and this past week we've had several. But the most notable was the Sustainable-Clonakilty meeting we all but stumbled upon on Wednesday evening. A small group of locals, head by one who runs the outrageously well-priced local organic shop, gathered to discuss the fate of their town. They blushed when we applauded them on all that had been achieved so far, the recycling and garbage program keeps most large families down to producing only one large bag every 3 weeks. The fact that they are a fairtrade town, with local fairs and markets and shops flourishing, when the rest of the western world seems to be doing these things only to save face. But that is not enough. This small group aims to make the whole area sustainable. And they've been at work at it for 8 months. They've paired up with a city in Austria who will big-brother them through the process. They go next month. They work quick here.

This little town is proving to challenge the way we live and think and encouraging us to push our limits. They'll be plenty of jobs, though volunteer, trying to collect all the data required to design a sustainable system that will work for Clonakilty, and so perhaps we'll have to survive a bit longer without savings and pour our resources into supporting this movement and gaining from all it is sure to offer.

Through all this, what is only 2 weeks but has already seemed much longer, we've been concentrating our efforts to find what we're meant to be doing as independents and how we want to live as a family. We're working on markets, music and our exploding tree artist co-op collective visions and we're sure that more hints and guidance will come with time. Looking forward to sharing the outcome with more updates soon.

xx A & J

Our new home

2008-09-30T14:05:00.001-07:00

Hello!

We're on the road again, at least we were, but now we're settled again... This time in Ireland. We had a great trip from Canada to England with wedding blessing in Cambridge followed by 'Justin Grounds' tour while visiting with friends along the way. We then drove through Wales spending the day napping in sheep fields and popping into small towns on our way to the ferry terminal at Fishguard to get onto a 2:45am boat last Friday morning.

We awoke 3 hours later to the captain on the intercom telling everyone to get back into their cars and off we went. It was Just's first time to Ireland and the mist over the rolling hills did the trick, he's hooked.

We were meant to come straight to our winter hide away but were told that builders would be working until Sunday morning, and since it's a house-sit, and not costing us more than a few electrical bills, we didn't complain... instead we took the opportunity to visit with my friends Denise and Gary south of Dublin, who I met in Australia and have just had a baby and moved house. We stayed there 2 nights and then made our way here, after giving the bug a tune-up and via visiting an old friend of Just's who now lives in Roscrae and makes Irish pipes (beautiful!) when he's not working as a paramedic, to Inchydoney.

Inchydoney is a tiny village of sorts with no shops but a massive expanse of beach and dunes. Clonakilty is our nearest town, a mere 5 min drive away where you can find all the modern conveniences and pubs, pubs, pubs.

We have spent the last 2 days foraging & munching on blackberries & sea lettuce (way to go Will & Lucy on the book! we've used it to both feed ourselves and avoid death by poison) and swimming in the ocean (wetsuits are a must).

I also had the pleasure of visiting the local guarda (police) station to register to stay more than a month, since i'm married to an EU-er. There was no line, no wait and no forms. Et voila! I can stay a year and work anywhere I please. It was a joy, a credit to the Irish lack-of-red-tape establishment.

So what's next? We've been on the trail for what's to come and it's looking like it will be a great winter, with friendly neighbours and lots of prospects for good work.

Ok, all this from a hotel parking lot located conveniently down the road with WiFi... internet to be setup once the first bill arrives!

Much love to you all and hope this finds you well!
xx A&J

Oregon Rash and Tattoos

2008-06-01T18:28:00.001-07:00

Hello All,

Justin here, typing while Allison makes some dinner. Well we spent a week in McMinnville, Oregon, and there are two stories to tell, both concerning skin.

After a week of being on the road and camping, we got to the Phillips' house, and enjoyed a lovely hot shower, and Allison scrubed her face with exfoliating soap and then toweled down with a nice freshly washed towel. Lovely.
Hmmm, not so lovely, as the towel had been tumble-dried in the machine with a cheap no-name fragrant drying sheet....and little did we know that she was extremely allergic to some chemical in the sheets...Within hours her face was all red and inflammed, and we were wondering what the matter was. However, still puzzled, we got on with washing all our dirty clothes and gave them a good fragrant tumble-dry. Within days, not only Allison's face, but her whole body was covered in terrible red blotchy rash which was itchy and uncomfortable and spreading. We visited the Rite-Aid pharmacy about 5 times, each time getting another brand of cream, none of which did much for the, now very unpleasant, rash. I spent mornings on the internet researching home recipes for soothing balms, including grinding up Vitamin C pills in the coffee grinder and making a paste, which seemed to soothe the skin for a few hours.
After deciding it must be the dryer sheets, we boil washed all the clothes and strung up a makeshift line in the yard to dry them. Allison also wrapped herself in the sleeping bag to avoid any contact with any sheets!

Eventually Tracy came home one day with a tube of 'Miracle Rash Cream' and we jumped on that for a few days, but still little help....only temporary relief. With the USA medical system being so costly and Allison stubbornly refusing medical help, we toughed it out, aiming to get a doctor as soon as we reached good ol' Canada.

By the time we reached Seattle on the Greyhound bus, Allison's eyes had swollen up and she had to lie down with Chamomile tea bags on her eyes . Things were getting desperate. However sure enough we made it to Canada (after much trouble with the border guard, who found us to be 'very suspicious'!) and Allison found some nice steroids and medicated cream, which has started healing her up within hours and stopped the itching....
Phew!

The other skin story is a tattoo story. Reid (our friend in Oregon) does a fine trade in home-made tattoo guns and 3 years ago did a tattoo on me (Justin) making one out of my old electric shaver, a biro tube and one of my guitar strings! So, on returning to Oregon, we decided to get our wedding rings tattooed and came up with a nice little ring design. Saturday afternoon saw Reid pull out his gun and a bottle of ink and (with the pain-killing supplied by gin and lemon through a crazy straw!) we were married indelibly under our skin. (This, of course, happened before the rash spread down Allison's arms and hands!) We called this our Oregon wedding, and grabbed some lemon meringue pie and champagne and had a nice wedding dinner. Now that's a ring that isn't coming off!

Another post with non-skin related details coming soon.
xx J&A

Arrived in McMinnville

2008-05-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hello!
We're safe in the home of Just's friends' just south of Portland... return the VW tomorrow with only one parking ticket damage thus far... (fingers crossed!)
We're here for a week so will be online & skype!
x A&J

Redwoods

2008-05-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

We're now in a town called Crescent City, just south of the border of Oregon. The past few days have been incredible. So much learning and seeing and doing.

I forgot to say in the last post that we had spent the previous morning (last Sunday) looking around San Fransisco we happened upon a traffic jam like no other, the closer we got to the city, the worse it got, and the more costume-clad university types we started seeing... see photo... we decided to take a risk and drive down a blockaded road only to find ourselves in the middle of the biggest post-street party clean up we had seen a while, ambulances, street cleaners and garbage trucks... and more of the cosumers - totally loaded, and it was 11am on a Sunday... we figured it was a end of year uni party and got the heck out of there, luckily the main downtown area was clear... later we found out it was actually a marathon day that has been running every year and has just exploded with crazyiness... wild.

From there we found ourselves climbing a mountain and chatting up a park ranger for discounted camping, which she helped us out with and we have offered a free ticket to Just's seattle show for her boy.

We camped that night in this amazing ravine, with private beach and amazing sunset.

Yesterday we were hunting for this hippy community Just had found when he was here years ago, turns out it's been sold and so instead we drove into the middle of the redwood forest and met a nice Texan who we decided to share a site with... an early start this morning and we've already got 3 hours of driving under our belt and it's 11:30am. Crossing the border today and hoping to pithc our tent on the beach again...
LOTS OF LOVE!!
A&J
ps. the first couple pictures are from our first 2 nights on the route 1, (which we've been driving on this whole time, night 1 on a beach in santa barbara and night 2 in big sur)

Going North

2008-05-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Ah. The landscape around here is amazing.
Just and I spent last night camping at the edge of the ocean on this massive rocky bluff with no one else around, except whoever stole one of our bagels from our food store in the middle of the night!

We're rushing our way up the coast so more pictures tomorrow I'm afraid. If you want to find us on a map we stayed just south of Stintons Beach last night and are at Point Area now, sleeping in the redwood forest tonight.

Just to let you know we're here and well!
xo A&J

Driving Driving Driving

2008-05-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

Just and I are making our way up the coast, we spent the night last night next to the beach just south of Santa Barbara and are almost at Big Sur where we'll be camping again tonight. We're loving our tent and are happy to have some nice in-between quiet time together.

It's been incredible being back in North America, so many big cars and big RVs towing SUVs... amazing.

No pictures for the moment, just doing a few emails in a little coffee shop and off again.

Lots of love!!!
xx A&J

Joshua Trees

2008-05-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

We left the big city yesterday in the morning and made our way East, out to the Joshua tree desert (via Target of course to pick up a snazzy tent & air mattress).

It was an amazing time to have a bit of peace and quiet and reflect on our move across the sea and look forward to what's coming.... we camped out beside a massive rock formation and climbed to the top for dinner. We are now making our way back to LA for the night and will be heading north on the route 1 tomorrow. Some pictures and a video! x A&J

Melbourne to LA

2008-05-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time since I've written anything on this blog but I'm on the road again, and so here we go.

We left Melbourne after almost a year of adventures and new friends. So many beautiful people. A group of our nearest and dearest took us to the airport to send us off, it was a big step, especially for Just who'd been living there for almost three years.

But we were welcomed in LA by open arms and an air mattress to crash on in the afternoon when the jet lag hit. The first two night we stayed with a friend called Sarah in her swish downtown loft and explored the city... some pictures.

Life these days.

2007-07-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

So i've been meaning to post since i've arrived back to melbourne but time and words are fleeting things... big apologies to anyone who has been wondering.

Just and I are living in a little garden flat just outside the city, it is cold and rainy most days but every now and then the sky turns blue and it seems almost like a Canadian summer. We have spent the last month up and around the coast touring Justin's music with lots of adventures and doors opening up for the future. Aside from that days have been filled with projects, i'm helping out with the setup of an artist community turning not-for-profit/community center as well as the running of all things financial and administrative for Just's music and production label... lots of music and lots of new friends.

Life here is flying by in a slow-growing-tree kind of way. We've bought a 1971 beetle who we are learning to take good care of despite all the driving she does, she sits out front next to the '74 kombi van who is tired in her old age and we are getting ready to sell. We have bought me a sewing machine for my upcoming 25th and I'm hoping to get crafty again and run a little market stall out in the country where we have also volunteered to sell products for a local charity... so heaven on earth really, very busy and very much exactly where i need to be at the moment.

We will be flying back to the UK and then back for a visit to Canada for September before coming back here for a bunch of months... miss you all and lots of love. xx Allison

Turkey

2007-06-04T03:26:00.000-07:00

A few more pictures of Istanbul, Im not going to write too much, im a bit sleepy. This is the renouned Grand Bazaar.
We took a boat trip along the river that joins Asian and European Istanbul... saw many beautiful Mosques...

Topkapı Palace
The Blue Mosque.
MARMARIS
For the last week Okan and I have been living it up in Marmarıs, on the Mediterrainean coast. We did a bunch of daytrips including a bıt of scuba diving and lots of sun.

Ruins of an ancient monastary.

Marmaris beach.
And you thought Canadians were patriotic, the Turks love their flag more than we do!
It was Okan,s first dive and we had a great day for it. Lots of fishies and great visibilty.

View over Marmarıs city.Okan swimming in a waterfall.
Mud baths!
A 5000 year old tomb.

So Im back in Istanbul for 2 more days to do a bit more exploring and to prepare myself for the long journey back to Melbourne... I can,t wait.
Much love. Allison

Athens to Istanbul

2007-05-23T01:27:00.000-07:00

After the best night train i,ve experıenced to date ı,ve arrıved safetly to Istanbul. I managed to get my own room for the traın and even though ıt was 20 hours ıt went by pretty fast and ı got some good sleep. Immıgratıon and customs at 4am also went super smoothly and wıth my track record that made my trıp. I.m now at my frıend Okan,s house who I met ın a summer French course a few years back. Yesterday we wandered one of the many cıty centres (ıstanbul has about 10 centers and a populatıon of 15 mıllıon) and last nıght we went out for a proper meal wıth hıs sıster and frıends that lasted a bottle of Rakı and about 4 hours. Wıll be here for about 5 days and then the plan ıs to head south for a week. Im doıng my best to learn some Turkısh and learnıng so much about the culture and faıth over here, will be brınıng a lot of ıt home wıth me.

Vıew of the Blue Mosque and a few others.

Coffee at Istanbul,s waterfront. In Europe lookıng across to Asıa.

Was so good to hang out wıth my famıly ın Greece and ı can,t belıeve ıt,s already over. Thanks so much you guys, I had a ball and wıll be home agaın before you know ıt! xo Allıson p.s. please excuse the typıng... turkısh laptop.

Week 3 - Nafpaktos

2007-05-17T10:30:00.001-07:00

We have left the big city behind and headed South to Nafpaktos, the hometown of my sisters landlord from Toronto. She invited us to stay and we are now setup in our own little apartment from where we've been taking our rental out on adventures in the surroudning countryside. This is us with Effie (landlord) and her daughter Rena on the beach about a 5 min walk from our apartment.

Athena sanctuary at Delphi. Yesterday we drove out to Delphi, where Greeks and Romans used to travel to to seek the advice of the oracle. A very hot and beautiful day.
View over Delphi, ruins of the temple where the oracle sat, which was thought to be the center of the earth.
We are here in Nafpaktos until Monday morning when we head back to Athens, mom and dad hop on a plane home and I catch an overnight train to Istanbul to meet my friend Okan for two weeks before heading back to Melbourne! Much love, Allison!!!

Roberts Family Getaway in Greece - Week 2

2007-05-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Santorini
We spent the last 4 days of our island hopping adventure on beautiful Santorini. This is the capital, Fira, this island is thought to be where Atlantis was, it was incredible, all built up along the cliffs with the land saved for farming. The buildings looks like snow when we were approaching by boat...

Our second day we took a boat out to explore a volcano, the one who's erruption would have destroyed Atlantis.
Sunsets at Oia, this was the big thing to do on Santorini and was worth the close-call-almost-running-out-of-gas-on-a-twisty-mountain-road-covered-in-fog adventure that followed.
Bells and views of Pygros, a beautiful little proper Greek town built at the top of a hill.

Ancient Thera, after a big climb we were rewarded with more amzing views and the ruins of the ancient capital thought to be more than 2500 years old.

Athens We had our last 4 days in Athens. Lots of ruins, lots of history, and lots of kebabs. In the background of this picture you can make out the Parthenon up at the Acropolis, which we were about to climb in 35 degree weather...
Temple of Hephastus at the Ancient Agora.
Views from the top of the Acropolis back down over Athens.

Hanging out with friends on the roof of our hotel downtown, that's the Acropolis lit up in the distance.
Changing of the guards.
Shopping in the busy streets of Athens.
After saying goodbye to Sar at the airport the three Roberts' that remained then rented a car and headed south.

Roberts Family Vacation - Week 1

2007-05-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Athens to Mykonos. After meeting mum, dad and Sar, we boarded our cruise ship and set sail. The Roberts family vacation in Greece has officially begun. The ship is great, about 8 floors, 4 decks, 3 pools and massive buffets.
First stop Mykonos for sunset.
More sunsets and a view of our cruise ship in the background... not too shabby eh?

Sunsets over the city.
Streets of Mykonos.

Day 2: Kudasi, Turkey & Pamos.
We stopped in on Turkey Tuesday monring (as you do) and visited the ruins of Ephassus, ancient city from 200-50 BC, this was a highlight for us so far, super beautiful. It was a bit rainy in Patmos and we were only there 2 hours so I'm not posting any pictures.

The 'theater', able to seat 28,000.

Watching someone hand knot a carpet is unbelievable, I thought crocheting took time, these take 6 months to a year to complete.

Day 3: Rhodes
We spent the whole of Wednesday exploring the walled city of Rhodes, it was beautiful, little cobblestone type streets winding into each other, old windmills, old towers and fortresses.

St. Paul's Gate at Rhodes.

Days 4 - 7 - Crete. For the last 4 days we have been exploring Crete. The Palace of Knossos was something to see (2000 BC) as was the cave where Zeus was said to have been born. We rented a car for 3 days, checked out some beaches and had our first bit of proper relaxing.
Knossos, check the views!

This is the climb to the cave Zeus was said to have been born in... waaay back when.

A bit of a road block. We started calling these lovable mountain creature Gheep because we weren't sure if they were sheep or goats....
A well deserved beer after doing a bit of off-roading in our rental... an adventure to say the least but we're all still in one piece!

A market in the capital.

A fort on the North Coast, built by the Turkish in about 1500. The Turkish and Greeks fought over Crete for more than 1200 years.
mmm church bells.
Proof we've been in the Aegean sea.

Lunch by the sea.
Tonight, our last night out in Crete.So, tomorrow we're off to Santorini for 2 days before heading back to Athens to exlpore, we're all doing well and more to come as usual!

A short week in England

2007-04-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-17T02:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Beaches and Parks

2007-03-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon and Saturday Heather and I took long walks. The first was through the sea-side town of Bangor with Richard and Claire (Richard's cousin and her financee).

Building dams and collecting shells at Bangor beach.

Saturday was a long walk to lady Dixon Park where Heather and I did things like lie in the grass and rearrange nature.

Plans now are to have a 9-day road trip with Julia after Heather leaves here next Friday and then back to Cambrige April 18th... ooo the adventure continues!

The Troubles

2007-03-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Julia, Heather and I spent the morning on a Black Taxi tour, learning a bit more about 'the troubles' by getting a tour of the some of the areas of Belfast that are still divided and covered in murals. For a little background 'the troubles' refers to the time between 1970 to the mid-90s when Catholic militant groups were fighing to reunite Ireland while Protestant groups were trying to keep Northern Ireland's Brittish rule. In this time many innocent people were killed, the country is still struggling to heal from all the damage done.
We visited Catholic and Protestant communities still divided by a 'peace wall' and gates that close the road between after dark. The messages on murals are similar on both sides, tributes to heroes and successes, prayers that history won't repeat itself and for troubles to end in other parts of the world...
gates to keep kids from causing more trouble after dark...

The peace wall that divides and will continue to do so until the people express a common desire to have it taken down.

Blustery Belfast

2007-03-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

The weather here is nuts. You'll go out on a sunny morning and before you reach the bus stop it's hailing, by the time the bus arrives it's raining and by the time you mount the bus it's blue skies again. The wildest weather i've come across anywhere.

I'm staying with Heather at her boyfriend's grandma's house (Nanny Dunn), who has proven to be quite the host, the house is always full of family or at least grandkids staying over after a big night out.
Heather and I have been meeting up with Julia (who i met in Canada a few years ago)and spending days exploring Belfast as well as nearby cities and castles.
I'll likely be here another 2 weeks and we'll taking in some of the more cultural highlights, doing the renouned 'black taxi' tour of the Protestant/Catholic areas tomorrow, learning a bit more about the Troubles. Also looking forward to heading a bit further North and West, haven't seen proper Irish countryside yet, can't wait to get my first real glimpse of some rolling hills.

It's so nice to have a home base again, seems like everywhere I go i'm being looked after, with time to breathe and daydream, and there've been lots of 'em. I'm looking forward to many possibilities for the next few months, lots of good things growing. Lots of love. xo A

Days in Dublin

2007-03-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

Stayed for 2 nights with Denise and Gary in Dublin. They were amazing, met them in Sydney. However, I dont' have a picture of them since we had planned to meet them for a birthday drink after I met up with Heather the last day but due to the crazy Dublin traffic

(the worst i've come across so far) it ended in a rush to meet them to collect my bags at the bus station before scurrying off to Belfast.

The two days I did spend in Dublin were great, a very busy city, thick with history. I had the first day to wander on my own and then met Heather who came down from Belfast to meet me.