So What Next?

I do a yearlyish savings thing. I have a money box that can only be opened with a tin opener. In the box I put £1 and £2 coins. What I do is,  £1 coin a day and when I get £2 coins in change they go in the box-no matter how many I get-they go in.Be it one or four-they go in the box. It usually takes just over a year to fill it. So it amuses me to feel the weight of the coins increase. The money is used solely to treat my self to stuff-just I don’t need-just want. New toys I suppose. Bad thing is, as I was getting near the end I got a bit obsessive, I decided to put in any pound coins I had daily, and I was breaking paper money just to get £1 coins to put into the sealed box. The box was opened last week. My total was £630 (that’s about  $1012) Now, not much more than that could get me a good long weekend far away in January-which gives me time to save more. Big question now  is what to treat myself too? I’ve a few ideas:-the new photoshop elements 11,a kindle,a personal radio, a weekend in Galway,Dublin,London; a photography course where I learn camera raw properly , maybe get some sort of language lessons? Any ideas? I keep talking myself out of a trip to America-I almost had one planned this year-but talked myself out of it.

That’s one of the problems of getting older-you keep convincing yourself that you don’t really need anything-or want sometimes. Getting older is a bit of a rip off. I remember as a child I thought it would be great being able to drive-you get in the car at night and drive for miles and miles until it’s daylight. With the cost of petrol now-now a good idea. In fact I hate driving. If I did not need to drive,I would not have a car.  The whole staying up late thing is not as good as the child me thought-I now know the main reason my parents hounded us off to so early was because after a day’s work and looking after us THEY were shattered-and they needed time to relax. And I’m not even a parent.

So the biggish question is what do I do with my vast collection of coins-well I am gradually putting them into a savings account and when it’s all in the building society account I will decide then what to do with it? Any ideas folks? I am tempted to use the £30 bit on £10 scratch cards just to be extravagant-but then I am too sensible to do that.AND Elements 11? Do I REALLY need it-elements 9 is still pretty good, but 11 has got the bit for movies and my new camera can do movies-so it looks like I’ll be getting E 11.

I’ve noticed I have a new follower/reader here-feel free to make comments and/or give me ideas on what to spend on.And it’s GREAT to see you there!

The rambles are more local now-but still great craic. It’s my turn to lead a walk this weekend. I know where the walk starts, but after that I’ll just make it up as I go along.Part of route depends on weather too.Pictures are from Sunday’s walk. Incidentally halfway across the misty moor I broke into song and sang “Memories” Actually the word memories is all I sung as that’s all I know from that tune-no doubt I got strange looks from my group. I made up for it by telling them the story of when Idi Amin was training his army he made them do the goose step. When asked why, he said “What’s good for u geese is good for Uganda .” And with that I’ll go-still want suggestions on what to treat myself to.

a wandering whatever

I’ve been labelled a globe trotter this year. I have not really gone that far but I have been moving about a bit-and I’m hopefully not done yet. If somebody gives me a big enough kick up the proverbially derry aire I could be pushed into going abroad in November or January. But we’ll see.

I’ve kind of threatened a summary of my travels….so far. I’ve already done the Irish Cycling Safari one where I met the lovely Carolyn. What’s happened since?

The Glover Challenge.

This was a particularly tough walk.Took us 12 hours to do something like 14 miles over a few mountains in Donegal.Weather conditions were very chanrable.We met nobody, and in a way this was great-the whole solitude thing. I managed to get separated from group for a while and this was scary, the whole alone in the wilderness thing. Despite it’s toughness and enjoying it emensly this is something I don’t think I’ll do again-as a complete walk.Parts of it most definitely-but all of in one go….no.

Lessons leaned here-have a spare glasses case in rucksack-when it is misty rain-glasses are a hinderance-much better clear out of focus, than can’t see a bloomin’ thing. Oh! And when I got separated, I luckily still had a phone signal-a whistle is much better-got one now.

My next trip was a cycling trip in Scotland. This has been planned for a few years and this year it finally got off the ground-despite a kind of falling out. This was with the friend who got me into the cycling thing, and nurtured my love for the outdoors and my general fitness level. During the trip something’s he said made me realise how much he valued our friendship, kind of surprised me. He actually apologised for something that happened some 7 or 8 years ago. I told him that, that was water under the bridge and I had forgotten about it-that’s what friendship was all about. We had great weather on this trip saw some scenery I can only describe as Nirvana.Racey looking landlady in our B&B and a few really challenging climbs. The day we left this haven countryside we had rain of somewhat Biblical proportions, roads were flooded-there was no way we could have cycled in that weather-so, something was most definitely out to make sure we had a good time.

Ben Nevis had us leaving home for the ferry at the unwelcoming time of 4:30 am. The hotel we stayed in had its own leisure centre –so I went prepared. Despite being very comfortable the hotel’s food portions were miniscule. The climb up The Ben (I can call it that now) was relatively easy.Well after the glover , it had to be. What I didn’t like was the crowds of people coming up AND down.We started our walk at 8:30 am, so I don’t know what time the others started. It was just a track up and down.The summit was very misty with quite a few people doing Usain Bolt poses-not me.

Took me about 3 ½ hours to get to the top-actually did not need the lunch that I brought with me. On the way home we were in no mad rush so we stopped to get a few scenic shots and views before getting to the ferry. 

 

So what next? We asked ourselves –we done the highest in England,Scotland, Ireland and Wales-to be honest I don’t care –as long as the craic is good, the air is fresh and there’s not hordes of people blocking the way.

No idea what I’m up to in November/January.But want to get away somewhere. Need a new passport though-and that’ll mean having to shave and wash properly for the photos.

Things in general for me are pretty crap at the moment, but when I summarise my blessings –after the obvious first 3 –I can ride a bike, I can read a book and I can pee standing up. What I have done so far this year makes me smile-the little things that happened on these trips make me laugh-even though nobody but those on the trips will get the joke, like the waitress in the hotel on the Ben Nevis trip who scolded us for taking extra rolls for our soup-without asking; or the waitress in the restaurant on the Scottish cycling trip who cleared our table by instalments-I fit looked like we had finished she was down lifting the plates, as soon as the utensils had left our hands.

Any way I KNOW what I have to do to get my life in some sort of order again it’s just taking that leap of faith or whatever terminology is used.

Incidentally the mad Donegal woman now in Dublin I met last year emailed me to tell me she is considering moving back to Donegal.AND she has been sending texts the odd time-her humour is as almost as warped as mine –or is it the other way round Having a friend like her around could keep my spirits up. Oh and Carolyn keeps in touch too-her stories of her travels make me smile too. A return rubber band fight in 2013 is possible

 

clare burren and carolyn 2012

Holiday 2012. I am back with Irish Cycling Safaris. I’ve been holidaying with this group since 2000. Some years I have done doubles with them-so obviously I like them.

And legend has it that friends of Ernest Hemingway bet him that he couldn’t write complete story in six words.To cut a long story short-he did, and believed this was his best work . What did he write?..”For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn.” Why am I telling you this? I have no idea. Think Hemingway would love Twitter. F Scott Fitzgerald, on the other hand would love Facebook. Wished I could do this blog in six words-“Cycling Holiday.Met Carolyn.Magic Time”

Right where was I? Oh yeah-are you sitting comfortably?

This year the holiday was the Clare/Burren one-oddly enough I have met some of my favourite people on this one, each time.This is my third time doing this particular one:-great pubs,great music,great pubs,great scenery and great pubs.

It starts in Ennis.There was a big group, 21 I think it was. After dinner the whole bonding thing quickly started.There were 3 others there I met last year and it was a kind of planned reunion. An American woman called Carolyn was singing at the end of the dinner table-with a rather large songbook.

The next day our destination was a place called Spanish Point-which was basically a beach. There was a village near to it called Milltown Malbay-which is famous for being the village in Ireland with the most pubs per head.

Our lunch spot was in a little village called Creegh in a pub, that did not have a license for soup. YEAH! Outside there was a sign saying “sandwiches, tea and coffee” The coffee was instant as I saw the barmaid sending a child out to the shop to get another jar-as the rush was on!

The sandwiches were:- cheese, ham, cheese and ham, and ham, cheese and onion. Oh! The special that day was ham and cheese. The craic in pub that night was great. The American woman Carolyn responded great to two of my one-liners, so I decided to home in on her for my jokes, and our little drinking group got a new member-Christina. One member of the group kept calling her Chrisitne and it was amusing getting him to remember her name .I suggested that we call her Martha,saying at least we would have the last letter right. I then decided that the next day we should all call her Martha to confuse everyone else.

Next day weather was not great and that was much the way it would remain for the rest of the week. The next day the target was Doolin-which is famous for the trad music. We had lunch at a lovely seaside town called Lanhich. My room mate and I decided that we would give the Cliffs of Moher (which are used for the Cliffs of Insanity in the movie “The Princess Bride”) a miss as we saw them before and wanted to do a boat trip round them instead-but the weather got bleaker,we gave the cliffs a quick look and got to Doolin to find out that the ferry was cancelled AND we got to the b&b before the guide-so we could not change.Oh! in lunch place at Lahinch I was explaining to rest of table how bill was sorted and halfway through I realised I was talking too fast for them, so i stopped-apologized and restarted. Night in pub was eventful. The dinner pub was packed and food orders had got a little out of control, and people who came in after us were getting served before us and orders that had no owners were appearing. There was a great group playing and despite the crowd the talented Carolyn was up jigging, must admit I was scared I was going to be kicked by her. Joerg and I decided to go to another pub-think a 3^rd person came too-but this pub was dead compared to the first one and one of the items on their menu was spelled wrongly (I think-must check it out).

Next day the weather was, well worse-and this was the  day that we caught our first glance of the magnificent Burren. But when you see the pictures-when I get them sorted, you’ll see how bleak it was.Lunch was in the famous Lisdonvarna,had a pretty good seafood chowder there. Joerg and I were pretty keen to get to hotel to get showered and have a couple of Irish Coffees.

Craic in pub that night was great. I got singer to do “Teenage Kicks” Carolyn was in her element here and was dancing all night-she even did a costume change and got the singer to do a Spanish type song and she was up there,fan in hand,rose between her teeth giving it all she had.And good it was too.

Next day was rest day and some of us booked a guided tour over the Burren.The guide was a local person, and halfway through the walk one of the members of my group said that it was only because they were getting use to my talking could they understand some of what he was saying. I told them they were lucky we were not in Cork as they can do a full sentence as one syllable. One of the American’s in our group approached a woman in the other group and said to her that she looked like the woman who played the barmaid in cheers and she said that, that was because she WAS the woman who played the barmaid in Cheers-no kidding the very same Rhea Perlman-unfortunately I did not get a photo or a chance to talk with her. Walk was great, but sudden heavy shower we all got soaked, I had to get my trousers dried out in drier in hotel.Carolyn and I had planned to go up to see the Ailwee Caves but we were recovering from walk-and we lost contact- so we/I  decided to give it a miss. Pity as I was hoping the two of us could get lost in the cave. Great night in pub-packed.Carolyn sung and danced.

Next day weather was a bit better. Billy the guide took us to a round fort and gave a most interesting and informative story about it. Then we saw the Poulnabrone Dolmen-thankfully not that many people about, so got some good photos.

THEN on route was the Burren Perfumery-the smell here was overwhelming, but despite that, the grounds outside were most relaxing.It’ll come as no surprise that the men in group could only withstand 5 seconds of the aroma inside the perfumery.We were staying in a very picturesque village called Kinvara-the owner of the place we were having dinner was not the most socialable and was a bit annoyed when I asked for the full menu as opposed to the abridged version on our table. That night due to a little chaos the group got split up –and I managed to withhold Carolyn from singing and dancing –but she did have an elastic band war in pub- and despite what she says-I won.

Last day weather was great.Three of us got a bit diverted-well Christina the Swede said she was good at map reading and knew where she was going-and Richard and I did not want to argue-turned out the route we took was wrong,but when guide came back to find us, told us our new route was better than the official one. We passed the Father Ted house that day. The craic on the last night was great. In pub Carolyn sung and danced and a local girl did a great version of “Me and Brownie Magee” and “Caladonia”.

I had stayed on a extra day in Ennis-and coincidentally so did Carolyn-she asked me if she could spend the day with me as I was going out to Bunratty to see the castle and folk park. We had a great time together and the day just flew in.That night we could not be bothered “dining” so we just got a sandwhich and a bottle of water from Dunnes and sat on a park bench and had a great chat-about life and  things. We looked for a pub with music-found  a fairly quiet one –and Carolyn sung and danced-unfortunately she did not bring her dancing shoes. We met a Thai guy from USA who said that he was in Ireland checking out his Irish roots-and he sung and danced with Carolyn. I couldn’t as I had a sore leg. OH! apparently his Mother is Irish.

I walked her to her Hostel-then she walked me to my hotel and walked back to hosel on her own (ha ha only joking).

Next day we spent a couple of hours walking round town before making our way to bus station-Carolyn had to walk on almost every wall she saw-did not fall in river-drat! At bus station we had an elastic band fight, and deservedly got strange looks from other people in the general area.And I won again.

THEN I was off to Galway –caught the start of the Arts festival-in heavy rain I watched a  spectacular parade-my little compact camera drowned-but survived, I think.Missed Carolyn during Parade as she would have loved it.

Tuesday headed back home-great holiday! And Carolyn got up and sung and danced.

For the record this was a really good group-or I say strange? as they got most of my humour. Questons? Fire them at me. And Caroyln sung and danced.

hooray it's a holly holly day

You’know I know it’s a fact of life that we all get old. But it’s a little disheartening when you realise that the rock idols,even sex symbols of your youth are now pensioners. Paul Mc McCartney and Paul Simon being 70, I can handle that-but Patti Smith 65? I bought the new PIL cd –and great stuff it is too.There was a dvd of the band in concert along with the cd. When John Lydon came on stage he had a pedestal, with the set list and lyrics on it. After he drawled a hello to the crowd he puts on his reading glasses which were hanging round his neck.Now if he had come on stage actually wearing the glasses, I could have coped with that. But the way he put on the glasses reminded me of a grandparent putting on his/her glasses to read a birthday card received from a precocious grandchild. And I think I read today that Harrison Ford is also 70. Don’t think I can watch “The Empire Strikes Back” in the same way again now.Patrick Stewart is 72 I’ve only known him from Star Trek-so THAT I can handle.

Off on holiday tomorrow-cycling in the Burren-hopefully I’ll get a chance to do some hiking there as well-so will have to be careful when I start my packing tonight.And wondering what I can chance leaving behind. I’ll be doing my traditional scratch card buying game as well. Might cheat a bit this year and start the run when I get off bus in Galway. And as always I’ll promise myself something different next year-but I never do. There are 3 people (at least) that I met last year.And I am wondering how many others I may have met before. Any how a good time will be had by all.Everyone is saying to me that they hope the weather is good. To be honest I don’t care, I have noticed that the craic at dinner/pub at night seems to be better after a very wet day.And anyhow booking a holiday in Ireland is easy-but am saving for something special next year DV

The Neurofibromatosis thing that I have seems to be getting a bit of publicity on tv recently.The people that have been on have a much more advanced condition than I have, so I have been counting my blessings and realise I am so lucky. If I were to have children the chances of me passing this on is 2 to 1. So maybe my bad luck in the love/romance thing is actually a good thing.Because if I were to pass this on to a child and it turned out as bad as the 2 people I saw on tv, then I could never forgive myself.

So it’s the holiday this week.Hope the craic is as good as it was last year.Going to visit Galway for 2 days after the holiday is over.

Some of my favourite blogs have been absent from the site for a while-but 2 of them are back. And I’ve discovered a new one, about a 21 year old girl who has had a stroke. I WAS following one called “366 acts of kindness” –but stopped that as it was excruciatingly twee. It was actually funny in a way-but groannnn.

Take care folks-AND too lazy to spell check and all that.

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!