Previously on Odieas Gael blog- Gerdy went down Donegal and…–ach there’s no time for that –just
re-read the last one-I’ll get on with it.
Anyway the first night was just a general introduction in
which we were told what to expect:- the lessons, the levels, the workshops and
the entertainment. After this we headed off to the pub-Roartys it was called
and a great wee pub it was too. And a nice wee seisiún in progress too. The other guys in the
b&b were regulars and were fluent in the lingo-they only come down for the
craic. They were from Belfast and one from England
direction. The guy from Belfast
had eight languages when I said “wow” he pointed to the English guy and said
“that’s nothing, he has 18.” I found out that he makes his living via a web
site dedicated to languages (1)
So –where are we? Sunday? Right! The first day. To be honest on Saturday
as I had a fair bit of time to kill I regretted not bringing the gerdymobile
with me-but kept telling myself that would have been very antisocial and all.
Sunday was the first lesson proper. Fairly big group of various
nationalities/ages. Just at the start we were told about the workshops and that
we could change if we wanted to. The workshops included:-hill walking,bodhran
playing,tin whistle(I actually bought one, just in case-imagine it, me doing
Lithium on the tin whistle), drama,set-dancing,sean os singing, sean og dancing
and so on. Carolyn oddly enough had never heard of the sean og dancing (2) and
I told her to go to it as I know she would love it-and that I might come along
to watch as it is very watchable –especially when a gurl is doing it.
I decided to do the hill walking. The start to the walk was
pretty wet-in fact was our first days rain in 17 days some people looked pretty
grim so I told the old story of Noah in the Ark
and when he passed Ireland
(3).
The nightly
entertainment put on for us was superb-it just got better and better-I thought
I had died and gone to music heaven-but I think I already said that.
On the Wednesday my gear from the hikes was still a bit damp
and fancied a change-someone suggested the set dancing (think it was Carolyn
actually). I decided to go along just to watch and get a few photos. Eventually
my mind started ticking over “ Carolyn –arms round waists,some other feisty
looking gurls-arms round waists, Carolyn….” So I was up dancing-and great craic
it was too-worked up a fair aul sweat, Carolyn –arms…” Despite getting it all
wrong and losing my partner a couple of times, I said that I’d be back the next
day-with a sat nav. Leaving the place
when it was all over on 1st day we saw this thing crossing the
road-we had no idea what it was –but as we were looking at it cars were
stopping to see what was going on-and they would not drive off until it was out
of danger.
That night going into the pub Carlolyn stopped me and said
she had something to say to me and wanted to say it away from the noise. She
congratulated me for getting outside my comfort zone and getting up to dance
and said it was a major thing for me. I said that it wasn’t and that getting up
and making a fool of myself comes second nature to me.Then SHE told me to stop running myself down and that
I was good at the dancing (actually, another person told me this too-what’s
going on here? I was thinking). Then I was thinking-I’ll show you what coming
out of my comfort zone is later.
All in all it was a great week-I managed to tell a joke half
in Irish,and my teacher made me tell it to another teacher.The next day I asked
what irish for another word was and the teacher asked me if there was another
joke on the way. I learned my “chat up line” in Irish too (4). On the last
night we had Moya Brennan from the group Clannad and she did a wonderful
version of the song “She Moved Through the Fair.”
On the last day after everybody had gone (Carolyn was
staying an extra week). Carolyn and I went for a walk up the beach-barefoot-and
had a great long chat. Both silly and pretty serious.( 5) . Any way that’s
that. We’ll try to meet up next year DV and all that. I want to do the Odieas
Gael thing again-most definitely. There might be a cycling holiday in August.
Carolyn’s holiday time is July-so I might be able to slip in an extra cycling
holiday. I have a very apt cd made for her-when she emails her postal address.
All in all it was a great holiday-but I wonder if would have
been as good without her.
To be continued…..i hope
1) It’s
called http://www.omniglot.com he also
has a very busy facebook page that is very interesting-with the chat in it.
2) Sean
og dancing-pretty modern irish dancing-like this http://youtu.be/D0gF97WASl4
and this is the brush dance pretty scary stuff
3) During
the flood Noah (in the ark) was passing Ireland. The was simply chucking it
down, and the waters were getting higher. He saw a man sitting on the summit of
a mountain. Noah leaned over the side of the ark and said “Get on board,we’ll
save you.” and the Irish man said “Ach! It’s all right, it’ll pass.” Which just
about sums up the Irish attitude to rain.
4) The
chat up line is a not particularly complimentary one. I must make it clear that
I have never used it. It’s just a joke with me. Carolyn found an idea for a
sketch in a sit com staring Gabriel and I using this very funny-and I wish I
got photo of her laughing here-it was a
joy to watch.To be honest Carolyn is the only person who has found this funny.
5)
No comments:
Post a Comment