And now the end is near

This may be my swansong-more later.

So there was a course at work-in Belfast. I was all set to take the bus there-but a woman work-colleague asked me if I wanted to travel with her in her car. I said yes.

Big mistake-it was a nightmare trip. She was about 5 minutes late in picking me up.

Nothing wrong there, you and I say. She blamed being stuck behind three big lorries.

Now, her aim now was to make up for lost time- and it was a foot to the floorboards drive. I never knew such a small car could go so fast,shake so much and stay in one piece.

When we got to Belfast,she told me that someone told her a shorter route to the car park and she reaches over to my side of the dashboard for the google map/directions that she printed out the previous day. So she is reading the map,and fervently sucking on some fake cigarette nicotine device. She did 3 emergency stops in about a mile of travelling through the late rush hour traffic. My life flashed in front of me three times-2 of which I did not recognise (in one I was a Roman soldier and in another I was a peasant girl churning milk looking at an army of Vikings running towards the house) which proves there is such a thing as reincarnation. When we got to the building where the course was I apologised for being late as it took me 10 minutes to get my fingers out of her dashboard. When the course was over I asked the tutor if he knew if there was a Holy Shop near by as I wanted to buy a set of titanium rosary beads for the journey home. She was the fastest thing on two wheels-except turning at a junction,when she was the fastest on two wheels.

When we were leaving the car-park she told me she was going back her normal route. Good I thought, she knows where she is going, and she is not in a hurry- so it’ll be less stressful ……no way we were only ½ a mile out of the car park and it was another sudden slam on the brakes. I was wondering why I was the only person travelling with her that morning-now I know why. But the strange thing is-at the course when I was describing my trip over-everybody (icluding her was laughing) And the next day at work she encouraged me to go through the whole sordid tale again to the ones who weren’t there.

After a lot of thought I have decided to get the internet disconnected at home.

I think it may be the reason why I am so flaming miserable lately. For the life of me there is very little I want to look at on it. Order books,stuff via Amazon or someother place,book a holiday,and read the very odd email. Apart from that I can very easily live without it. My current contract ends on end of July. And unless somebody can convince me to stay connected I am definitely pulling the plug-and contacting my provider (? Is that right) and giving them a months notice.To be honest for the value of one months payment I might disconnect a month early and pay for the final month without having it. The Facebook thing too is getting on my nerves. I am fed up reading that somebody is sitting in a restaurant,pub,building somewhere. Maybe I’m jealous that so many people are having more fun than me. The fee I am paying is not that much to be honest-but this is something I really do think I can manage without.

I access to some internet at work-so too can I  send/get emails,order stuff on Amazon and book a holiday. I can also get free access at library too.  I’m not fishing here-but convince me why I need the internet at home. I’m also a bit peeved that almost everything is on facebook now.My favourite independent record shop now has a follow us on facebook thing stuck on its window.My rambling club now has a page on facebook-why pay for a website and flickr account when you can do it for free on facebook? The big thing now is those silver-surfer things encouraging the elderly to use the internet.This is why I think so many small and sometimes big shops are closing-things are so much cheaper shopping on line. Like I said-it’ll take a lot to convince me to stay on this thing.

So this could be my final blog too.

I have a theory-that I won’t go into as somebody might take the wrong way and worry about me doing something stupid. And there is no chance of that.I also think that if it was not for digital photography I would have no need for a laptop/computer either.

On a brighter note I am hoping to do the beaches cycle on Sunday and discuss a touring calendar for this year. And maybe get a pint along the way.

Sorry for the rant-I’m in that sort of a mood at the minute.Maybe this is my midlife crisis…

top albums-i think

The other week in little newsagents a magazine caught my eye. No it wasn’t “Sheep from Eastern countries” or FHMs top 100 sexy women. Incidentally that one is only just out-and checking it on a website I realised I did not know most of them-this magazine’s readership is white-van drivers, so probably explains the list.

Anyway the magazine was “Rollin Stone- The Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” I had the proverbial money to burn so I got it. Now Rolling Stone does this sort of thing quite often. And I am sure I have seen this one no more than 5 years ago at least-and I’m sure I remember seeing this for the first time some 20 or 30 years ago. I think this particular list comprised of 2 separate polls- one from 2003-the greatest albums of all time and one from 2009 –the greatest albums of the 2000s. It was a panel of 271 artists,journalists,producers and industry executives-and this shows on the list. And most of them were there because they felt obliged to vote for them.

I am almost sure the top 10 is almost the same as the 1^st one I saw way back when-I think I bought it back then,and despite a frantic search I discovered I no longer have it.Also being Rolling Stone magazine I felt it was very American orientated-wonder what it would be like if Q or NME or The Word did something similar.

Of the 500 I currently have 55 –there is one that I have all the tracks bar one as the band only made 2 albums (I think) and the greatest hits covers most of the 2 albums. So I’ll say 54. I used to have another 35 and they disappeared for various reasons down the years. Now here is the top 10

1 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”   The Beatles

2 “Pet Sounds”- The Beach Boys

3  “Revolver”- The Beatles

4 “Highway 61 Revisited”-Bob Dylan

5 “Rubber Soul”-The Beatles

6  “What’s Going On”-Marvin Gaye

7 “Exile on Main Street”-Roliing Stones

8 “London Calling” The Clash

9 “Blonde on Blonde” –Bob Dylan

10 “The White Album”-The Beatles

See what I mean? -well the top 5 any way.

Now here’s  MY all time top 10-well for this week any way. Simply because I like them. After I put year released and where it is on the top 500-not in any strict order.

1 “Live and Dangerous”-Thin Lizzy (1978)-nowhere. Despite not being as live as we were lead to believe this is still a super album

2 “Steve McQueen”-Prefab Sprout (1981)-nowhere. This was a great band. With their albums it took 2 or 3 listenings to get into it-and after that you discovered that you could not live without it.

3 “London Calling” –The Clash (1980) –number 8 . Too good to be classed as punk-this is  a great double album.I would like this album to be buried with me.

4 “The Undertones”-The Undertones (1978) –nowhere.Derry’s finest.Whist the Belfast band Stiff Little Fingers were singing about the troubles, this band was singing about things we really cared about girls,cousins and mars bars. But what in the name of all that is holy and Cody Jarret’s mother-what is wrong with this crowd?

5 “Hank William’s 40 Greatest Hits”- Hank Williams (1978) number  94 Hank was always ready with a song to match my mood-he could do the sound track to my life story.

6 “Stupidity”-Dr Feelgood (1976)-nowhere-a great R&B band from Canvy Island-now this one IS live and still sounds great.The bass and intro to Roxette is amazing.

7 “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon”-Paul Simon (1972)-nowhere-great song writing

8 “Moondance”-Van Morrison (1970)- number 66-everyone says Astral Weeks is his best –but I think this is much better.

9 “The Photos”-The Photos (1980) nowhere-very sexy voice of Wendy Wu. The band only made 2 albums.The second one was “lost” for a number of years and was only released last year.Good but nowhere near as good as this one.Bit of a Blondie sound.

Loved the bit were the strings kicked in on the single “Now that you tell me that we’re through.”

10”Blue Lights On The Runway”-Bell X 1 (2009) nowhere. Great Irish band from Dublin/Kildare. Great song writing here.

And that’s it-no doubt if I do this in other 5 years it could be different-bar one or two.

Thanks for reading-now –what is YOUR top 3? Could you have guessed mine?

roevalleyramblers go to lenanne

On Friday April 27^th a motley crew of five headed down to Lenanne,near Galway. Well to be honest between Westport and Clifden. Rather than hire a car James Agnew kindly offered to use his car-so a BIG thank you to James. On the way down Anthony pointed out that his stick was in his own car,and his wife was on the way back from Derry so we had to watch out for his car to flag her down-it worked.

We were staying in the same hotel as last year-so we knew to expect good service and a good deal. We had glorious weather all the way down-we had our lunch break just outside Sligo (I think)  off the road. There was a local man working on a vegetable plot-well at least we thought it was a vegetable plot-he could have been burying things/stuff for all we knew. He came over to chat to us and our Polish member Klaudius  said that he could not understand a word that he was saying.

My horoscope that morning said that a decision to travel would prove fortuitous and that I should buy a lottery ticket in the country I was going to. So when I got down there I got 2 scratch cards and a 2 lucky dips in that nights lottery.

Due to the glorious weather on the way down we got glorious views of the stunningly beautiful Delphi Valley and Ashleigh Falls. I envy people who see this for the first time.I know what is coming but the first time you see it your mouth drops open in amazement. We got to the hotel in time for a round of drinks and the last ordering time for dinner.

The next morning the weather was just as great as the previous day. Our goal was the Glencoughen Horseshoe –or the 12 pins. I have seen these in the distance as I cycled from Lenanne to Clifden a few times-and now I was for climbing them. The drive  there also had stunning scenery and was a great appetizer for what was to come.

We started the walk around 10:00 am and as we got out of the car I jokingly told Anthony not to forget his stick-and yes 3 minutes after starting he realized he did.

It was an hour later I realized that I left MY stick in the car-too late for me to go back.

The favourable weather enhanced the stunning views. We hit the first peak-Derry-Clare (677 m) at about 12:45,then Benn Corr (711) at 2:00pm. We met another walker and Klaudius went over to talk to him. He remarked on having an international meeting as he was German-to which I told Klaudius that him talking  to US was international.

Then things started to get tough, the descents were pretty steep and were nothing but shale/screens and we were just sliding down trying not to fall over-it was pretty scary.

I actually fell a couple of times and staved a finger. I managed to hit the wall as the saying goes and almost devoured a packet of jelly babies in one mouthful for a much needed sugar boost.

We met a group of other walkers coming towards us-one of them-who looked as shattered as I was said "Why do we do this?" and I said "You're asking the wrong person here mucker."

Two other members were as shattered as I was and were fed up with the precarious descents. They looked at the map and discovered and easier route-the 3 of us went for this one.And the next climb was almost like a wall. The  ground was pretty dry but Anthony managed to find the only wet patch in Connemara and tripped in it.

The walk ended around 8:30 pm and we got back just in time for last orders in restaurant-in fact the chef stayed on a bit longer for us. And we were ready for it.

To be honest if I had known what was a head of me I would have been better prepared-taking a bigger breakfast to start with and would have brought my energy gels. Despite the scary bits-it was an enjoyable trip. The experience/craic was great-wish I could say the same about the company (ok Brendan?).

Incidentally-I did not win the lottery or anything on the scratch cards. For those of you on Face Book some photos are on the club’s page there.They’re also on the club's flickr page-none of mine in there yet though.

Link to the club page   http://www.flickr.com/photos/roe_valley_ramblers/

hope that works Marni!