kind of update

Well I am now retired 3 and a bit years. It is still a novelty to me and I am (naturally) loving and trying to make the most of my free time. Some habits still remain from my working days. I just can't lie in bed late in the morning. OK I may get up an hour later than I use to-but for many people that is still very early (7:25 ish).
I had planned to do a few things to celebrate my new lifestyle-but I am yet to do them. Things like -sitting up late listening to radio, surfing the internet, watching movies, reading, playing on my PS4.
Walking about the house in my jimjams all day,unshaven,unwashed
But I still go to bed at my normal time, get dressed almost immediately . And wash every morning (whether i need to or not).
One thing I did say I would do, that I have started to do is to use my free time as an excuse to travel. This year I have booked 3 holidays-and I am going to do my very best to do this every year. Holiday 1 was my somewhat traditional cycling holiday in Ireland it was a new venue for me-Wicklow. Pretty hilly it was, but weather was superb and the craic was great. And  met another great character for my "the best cycling group" list. Oddly enough there are 2 people in my WORST cycling group are also in my best group-warped that I am  this makes sense.

My next trip is a cruise-Norway. To experience a cruise is on my bucket list. There is an opportunity to do a little cycling on this. Somebody told me that, even at my age, I could be amongst the younger ones on the trip.

And later in the year it is a coach trip to Scotland. This is a Northern Ireland bus company, so it looks like everybody on the trip will be from Northern Ireland (so I should be able to understand most of them).
So that's going to be my goal now, 3 holidays a year-one in Ireland, one abroad (who knows the cruise bug could bite, although i would love to visit route 66,new orleans, nashville-places like that) and a coach trip in UK.
Now that I have the free bus pass, i aim to use that a lot more than i do-must be more second hand book shops out there.
And maybe re-read and re-write by bucket list
And I'm still to lazy to spellcheck and read this over

Here we go 2,3,4

I have no idea idea why I am doing this. I have nothing planned, but then again having plans takes the fun out of most things. The whole make it up as I go along is something I do most of the time
     There be a great quote that has been linked to Joey the Lips from the movie "The Commitments." Now as far as I know he does not actually say it (in the movie at least, don't know about the book)-at least I have an excuse to watch the movie again (if only to see and hear the lovely Maria Doyle-Kennedy again). Like Captain Kirk never said "Beam us up Scottie, we're in a spot of bother down here." and Macbeth never said "You dirty rat."
    ANY WAYS the quote is "Glorious failure is better than doing nothing. At least you tried." From experience I know this is true. Thirty years ago I took a career break and headed off to London to seek a new career and life. Hated it -too loud,fast and dirty. OK there was a good pub round the corner from the flat i was was sharing. Made a bad choice in temporary work and was told other ones I should of tried when I got back home. Could not get on with the somewhat schizophrenic person I was sharing with. And the French doll I opened up my feelings to on that holiday. Both disastrous -but if if didn't do them I would still be asking myself "what if..."
 Still too lazy to spell check this-have new laptop and can't find it yet. Think I have now-but still too lazy to re-read.
The new house is slowly falling in to shape just minor things to do now-like decorating-a painting job, or something. A couple of savings accounts to get sorted. I want one to get ready for annual bills like house and car insurance,tv license, and money aside for repairs. I want to have my usual holiday saving fund too,
    This year, as well as my usual holiday cycling in Ireland I want to do at least one big holiday. A coach trip. Two come to mind so far. One that takes in Route 66 and another that does Nashville,Memphis, New Orleans and the like-the whole music thing.
    And now a dilema-some of my very favourite films are directed/star Woody Allen-and I have some on DVD. The man is apparently a monster and molester. I deplore this sort of crime.Once a singer that I liked was found guilty (with no doubt) of this crime and I binned the records and cds i had of his. Not many to be honest-and I still think one song he did is still a very good song (thankfully i have a cover version of same song done by a group i still like.)
Sooo should I dump my Woody Allen collection? I mean what if YOUR favourite singer was found guilty of some hideous paeodfile crime?  What if the same happened to a fav movie star/director-What would YOU do?

A COMEBACK OF SORTS...

Haven’t done one of these in a while-wonder if anybody still uses this particular blog site-or even looks at it.

Well I’m retired just  over 2 ½ years now-and not having to go to work is still a novelty and something  I still can’t believe.  There are a few things I have not done yet, like sitting up really late watching a movie, listening to the radio, logging into a chatroom and chatting to someone in some far off country (or even not so far), having a lie in until noon  and tramp round the house in my jammys like tony soprano until bedtime  (maybe  in the next week or two I might do that, read on) ,watch tacky daytime tv  (don’t think I’ll ever do that).

Things I DO do (but not enough) getting away for an impromptu long weekend (again this can be improved on soon)

I’ve just bought a house. Strangely at my age I thought renting might be better. I mean (seriously) if dementia should strike, that way the nursing home cannot grab my house to pay the costs, or the like.

Although I have a somewhat warped sense of humour-some elements of the house will be quite serious and somewhat “normal”-but in some parts, well it IS, MY house and I will do whatever I want. Even though I’ll be there on my own I am going to put an old worn (or I’ll make it worn) comfy armchair in the shed, if there is enough space a dartboard. A place I can go to get away from the world (and not hear anybody at the door)- after all a man needs his shed.

I’m def getting a couple of toys –a ps4 and maybe a little remote controlled car.

Some of my worries are relatively minor and really non-essential. Like how do I get the internet set up? Even a phone-assuming I decide to get a landline?

I’ll admit it, it’ll seem odd being in a house where I am the only one who is making the noise. I wonder how I will find not having to shut the door and slap on headphones so I don’t hear 2 other tvs blairing away. How long before I decide to redecorate properly? What’ll be the first mail order thing I get?

Mistakes will be made in getting stuff and doing things-forgetting things too I recon. But I’ll bounce back as always (I hope). For a start I don’t like the front door, the clothes line and I want to get a gate at the side up –if I can.

To be continued… but not checked or corrected…Some things never change...

The Crabbit Man is Boston Bound

I decided that I needed to get away, and away far and somewhere differentish. So I choose Boston. I had to fly from Dublin to Heathrow and then Heathrow to Boston. Doing it this way worked out about £180 less than flying direct from Dublin.

       On the first night in Dublin I headed into the city to meet up with someone I met on one of my ICS holidays. I had two winning scratch cards that were worth €10 –I got 10 more €1 cards. Of those 10 I did quite well and won a total of €31 (€2,€2,€4 and a €25). So next time in Donegal I’ll get another €31 worth of cards (I mean €31 euros isn’t going to change my life-is it?).

        The flight to Boston started at 7:40 am from Dublin. And I had to be there 3 hours prior to take off to check in-so I had to be there for 4:40 am. I got to Boston at 13:30 (Boston time). So I was 7 hours in air. The room in hotel is much bigger than I expected.

          After checking in I walked round the block and called into a bar called M J O’Connors-obviously an Irish bar. The bar maid was from Cork and was very chatty and recommended places to go and see. Two men beside me at the bar were talking music and I joined in (as I do). They were two brothers, on was called Jay, and I forget the other one’s name. After they left to go to a concert the barmaid came over to me and said “Do you know who THAT was?” I said “No. Why?” and she said the one who was sitting beside me was  Whitey Bulger’s lawyer-Jay Leno. I did a search on internet later, and sure enough it was the very same person. Surprisingly, I am not sleeping with the fishes.

         At breakfast in a café next door to the pub I got talking to an English couple called Kevin and Theresa. I said with names like that they must have an Irish connection-they laughed and said yes. They were touring with a company called Travelsphere and gave me a brief description of their syllabus –sounded good to me. I actually met quite a few other people from their group-I think there was about 40 in it.

          On the Saturday I took a coach trip out into the New England countryside. Weather was not great, so I did not get the views I was hoping for. We stopped in a little village called Kennebunk,Maine. Pretty touristy, but nice. On the trip we passed through another little seaside village-waves were high, weather was miserable-but there was loads of surfers out doing their bit. There was also a McDonalds –that was boarded up-seems it shuts during the off season. We also passed George Bush’s summer home-apparently he and Nancy were in. as the flag was flying. There was A LOT of big houses around here-obviously a very affluent area.

          That night at the bar there was an annoying English man at the bar, who complaining the lack of Caffreys and Kilkenny beers. And that he got them in New York and moaned on. I interrupted (idiot that I am) and said that I was from Ireland and it was very rare to see these beers even in Ireland, and anyways hardly anybody likes them. I was lumbered with this this buffoon for the rest of the night-I got a look of sympathy from the bar maid. I got away as quickly as I could.

            On Sunday I did the heritage walk with a group and guide. She asked if there were any English people in the group-reckon this was because her script had some anti-Engllish its in it. She asked us all to say where we were from, when it came to me I said Northern Ireland but that I had an Irish passport, and that on forms where it says Nationality I write “confused.” I got talking to people on the group, one guy asked me “What brought you to Boston?” and I said “British Airways.” And then I told him the real reason. After the walk I hooked up with a couple from Baltimore and we went off to the Cheers bar for something to eat and then we went out to Harvard for a look around. After we parted I got the train out to see the JFK museum –which was great.

             Decided to give the bar a miss-in order to miss the annoying English man and hit the bar in the hotel instead. And also decided to stick to the Sprite too (as the Sprite was on tap, I liked the way I got a top up)-and got some fries too, which to me were drowned in salt. The person beside was actually the guide from the travel group and he gave me links to a couple of touring groups and his own. Noticed something pretty strange at the bar in hotel-they do not serve more than 2 drinks to one person at a time, if they are at the bar on their own.

          Next day I decided to do the hop on/hop off bus –to make a start on my little shopping list. And the table tennis bat at the top of my list. I got a blank look in the first sports shop that I went into-he did not know what I was talking about, I quickly discovered that over there they are called Ping Pong Paddles. They had none any ways. He directed me to another sports shop called Modells. Went there-and they had none left. Later on the bus trip we passed Fenway Park. Whilst walking round the block I saw a bar/restaurant called Blazing Paddles and it had Ping Pong Paddles on its logo-good omen I thought. No. they just rent them, BUT the waitress told me the store where they get them-Target. So I went there to try-no. Apparently they sold the last lot to…..yep-Blazzing Paddles.

              Gave the pub a miss again, mainly as there was no seats at the bar, and I could not see the Cork bar maid. At hotel bar I got talking to a guy who was there on a 24 hour Hackathon. He asked me if had seen much USA TV and we discussed a few shows. I told him I got the Pixies CD-he said he was a fan. When I said my favourite Pixies song was “Monkey Gone To Heaven” he said that he did not know that one. That night I called into a 7-11 store and got 2 scratch cards @ $2 each-I won $4. There was a beggar outside-I gave him the cards and told him if he uses them for 2 more and wins the big money, to give me a mention on TV. ANOTHER THING to get rid of loose change I would give coins to beggars-one woman looked at them removed the coppers and said “I don’t want THEM” and tried to give them back to me and then threw them on the street.

               Final day with time to kill I walked up to Quincey Market and Fanuel Hall. Somebody told of a shop there that might do Ping Pong Paddles-Newbury Comics.

They actually did have them-BUT it was the really cheap ones a kiddie would play with. In the comic section I asked about a particular comic and the attendant had no idea what I was talking about, he had to check it on the computer to see if they had it.

HMMP the guys in The Big Bang Theory would be in a state of shock at this.

I tried another part of the Freedom trail on my own. In an American/Italian district I came across a lovely little book shop called I Am Books. Got talking to the owner he asked me about the last book I read. I said “High Fidelity” and told him my Nick Hornby story. He said that he had the Italian version of the book and reached down and showed it to me..

So all in I had a good time there. I would go back again but as part of a group. As Joanne said it’s nice being able to turn to someone and say “Gord, would you look at the cut of that!” Once again to busy to spell check-extra/hidden  bit is on the other blog…still working on photos will email ones I have emails for when done, but my id on flickr is gerdybaby.

                                         HIDDEN BIT

It is 21:34 on my last night as I write this-and decided to include it almost word for word on the blog. Of the $600 I brought with me I have  $111.09 left (when I landed in Dublin I had $53 with current rates I think it turned out better getting € rather than £ at bureau de change at airport.) On the trip I met some very interesting people and one really annoying one. Travelsphere and Just You sound like a good bet for a holiday next year.

Incidentally when I got back home I got a good table tennis bat (that’s what WE call them) in the first shop I went into in Derry. And it was 70% off. I asked the girl at the desk if it was a left handed one-she started to read the stuff on the wrapping and said “Sorry it does not say anything about that here.”

The money box is almost full-I started it on 20 October last year-I had planned to open it on same date this year, no matter what-but I’ll try to hold out until it is actually full.And nobody, NOBODY back home had heard of Whitey Bolger

...I'm back-kind of

I ‘ve been off this for a while now. Taking a kind of break,hiatus,gap,rest, lazy fit-call it what you may. The crabbit man has been doing a fair bit of travelling/moaning.And still to lazy to spell check.

   Let’s see-I’m living in the land of retirement just over a year now and still loving it. Occasionally I DO get a little bored and I wonder what would I doing at work if I was still there-and THEN I realize life is so much better.

    I’ve redone (or should that be I have started to re-DO) a bucket list. One item is to try to get away abroad at least once a year. And on Friday of next week (30^th September) I am bound for Boston (or is is Boston Bound, answers on a post card to the usual address). Doing a bit of homework/reading up , so I have an idea what I want to do/see. No doubt I’ll be looking for second hand book shops,record shops, somewhere decent to eat, real Boston bars away from the touristy ones with decent music (on a blog I heard someone called Will Daly-so I will be hoping to see him.) I want to get outside Boston on at least two coach/boat trips and see the New England countryside and maybe a little town in the small town America atmosphere. I’m not meeting up with anybody this time-so it’ll be a pretty good adventure. I’ll be sending myself a post card too-a new thing I have started. Not sure if I will get away with the stone this time.

     In May my little rambling group was over in the Isle of Skye. We had near perfect weather-breath taking views. Not often you are bothered with midges AND snow. If you are interested here’s a link to the photos.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskAHy94Q

This was my first time in a hostel-it was actually quite enjoyable. But if I did it again I would try to do it with a group that would be big/small enough to take up a room-rather than share with strangers. I suppose that way we can safely lock our gear in the room when we head out for our exploring. The train journey to and from at start and end had outstanding views and there was no way any body would want to be reading a book during it.

   In August I was off on my usual cycling holiday. For 95% of the time we had superb weather-sunny skies AND a tail wind. I knew most of the small group. Much that we enjoy each others’ company, I was a little disappointed that I was not meeting any new people-so perhaps next year I’ll try not to meet up with the same people again. On the first day I managed to get lost on my own (as I always do). I decided to call at a house and get directions or find out where I was. The door was answered by a stunning blonde woman wearing only a short dressing gown. Now I knew that there was no way I would remember what she was going to say as my mind was elsewhere, thankfully she called her boyfriend to explain better. Here’s a link to pictures from THAT trip-none of her I’m afraid to say.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskG2V7fZ

So hopefully I’ll be back with stories to tell of Boston and its surroundings soon-and maybe a new venture I am contemplating. There will be more later...

Reflex Loathings

I have Bill Bryson to thank for this idea. Now, he feels that there should be about a dozen things that we should be allowed to dislike without having to justify or explain why we don’t like them-he calls them Reflex Loathings. Here are mine:-

1. People who walk the streets,buildings-well anywhere with those Bluetooth phone things in one of their ears all the time.

2. Extra bits at end of credits in movies & secret tracks 15 minutes after the last one on cds

3. Mint flavoured chocolate

4. Gag Reels on DVDs of tv shows

5 People who have those little blocks of wood with supposedly witty slogans on them, like “Don’t worry about the dog, beware of the kids” in their homes

6 T-Shirts that cost more than £3

7 Google+

8 Giant TV screens (bigger than 20”)

9 People who say Stroke City rather than just Derry or Londonderry

10 Button flys on trousers

11 Tribute Bands/Acts

12 Colour names that I don’t get e.g. taupe

13 anniversary boxed sets of albums with several extra cds of out takes and different versions of the songs

14 That Trending Now thing on Yahoo

15 Green toilet paper

Too be added to…

 And you dear reader?

Dark side? I'll show you a dark side

In the movie “When Harry Met Sally” Billy Crystal (can’t remember the part he played) says that whenever he gets a new book he reads the last page first-so that if he should die before he finishes it he knows how it ends (this is not a spoiler folks-this will not have you knowing how the movie ends). And Carrie Koch said “Life is uncertain,eat dessert first.” Carrie ALSO said “Life is mind over matter. The people who mind don’t matter, and the people who matter don’t mind. I can do whatever I put my mind to.” This second one is something that I say to myself every day.

ANY WAY the Billy Crystal bit leads into what I am going to go on about. I do something similar with movies. Movies I have already seen, I hasten to add. If I am watching a movie on DVD I will whiz through to my favourite scene-just in case I die, the world ends, my dvd player gives up the ghost etc etc. Here are some of my favourites. I will try not to make any spoilers

1 “White Heat” –obvious here the “Made it ma, TOP OF THE WORLD” bit.

2. “Match Point”-the bit were James Ellis solves the crime.

3. “Love Actually”-the cue card bit (even though I know from experience it doesn’t work like this in real life-but I AM OVER HER!!)

4 “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”-  the end bit  when he says “did you see Le Forge out there?”

5.”Hi Fidelity”- the Bruce Springsteen bit

6 “Annie Hall” –the scene with the movie queue

7. “The Bourne Ultimatum” – the bit at the end just before the music kicks in and the knowing smile on her face.

8 “True Romance”-my number one favourite movie here- 3 bits here- Alabama’s monologues at start and end (but you need to see the whole movie for the second one to make sense)-(that’s 2) and the Clifford Worley /Vincenzo Coccotti scene

was going to stop here but feel obliged to make it to 10

9. “The Godfather” –the end bit as the door is shut

10. “Stranger than Fiction” –the bit where Harold plays guitar in Ana’s apartment (mind you the scene where he first meets her is pretty good too-hubba)

Well that’s it. What about you lot? What bit of a movie would yous fast forward to at the start-JUST IN CASE?  but the bonus here is-if nothing happens you get to see it twice!