prolific.org

It struck me just now that I am more active during my holidays than I am at home. I’ve been back since Tuesday afternoon and have done sweet f.a. since. Hanging out online all day, twittering, editing a few pictures, chatting to a friend, eating and going to bed very, very late.

In France I woke up early most mornings, sometimes before dawn. I’d break fast soberly with some french bread and a few bites of Comte cheese, or a little bit of yoghurt. By noon, I would have been out walking and taking pictures for four hours or more. After lunch, I would pick another part of town to explore. I’d walk around till dinner time, feed myself, chill out a bit and be in bed before 10pm.

I do everything arseways.

Am away till September 4, but I might send some pictures to my Flickr account and will probably Twitter too.

Or maybe you’ll spot me on one of the Nice webcams.

While I’m gone, here’s something to keep you occupied: on the 28th (that’s Tuesday) you should be able to download a lovely mp3 of the classic ‘Singing in the Rain’ (as interpreted by GF) from Lemonland.net. I’ll link to the news item, but you may have to go to the site’s front page to find it.

I’m not sure if it’s a one day only download or whether they’re going to keep it up there, so I’m going to try to download it later today if I find a good internet place in Nice. If that doesn’t work I’m going to have to rely on one of you to do the honours for me.

For reasons known only to myself (I’m baffled), for my holidays next week I’ve decided to fly into Nice and then travel back via Marseille, Paris and Brussels. I fly in on Tuesday 28th, will stay in Nice for a few days, move on to Marseille on the 31st, stay a few more days and then from there take a train down to Paris, where – after a three hour break – it’s off to Brussels, arriving in the early evening. I’m travelling first class, so it should be fairly comfortable.

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From there I have two options. Go straight on to Amsterdam, which is another three hour trip, or stay over in Brussels, and the next day go photo hunting and have lunch at Scheltema before catching the train back home.

… can’t seem to make up my mind.

Did you see what I did there? Embedded a Google Map.

I’m off to the South of France next week and was researching my trip online. Found this on Wikitravel, among recommended drinking places for the city of Nice:

Ma Nolan’s [6] – Right in the heart of the ‘Old Town’ and next to the opera, Ma Nolan’s has everything you would expect from an Irish pub and more. Live music every night, major sporting events on 4 screens, really good food and very friendly staff. This place is a must.

Why anyone would want to go to an Irish pub outside of Ireland in the first place I find less and less easy to understand as I grow older, but really… four screens of sporting events?

Thanks, I think I’ll pass.

Taken near the start of our road trip which took us from Nottingham to Newcastle to the Lake District, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham via Sheffield. It was freezing cold up there near the Angel, but what a lovely and relaxing break it turned out to be.

I used a Photoshop action on this picture to simulate lith printing, a process involving special developer and paper, much employed by Anton Corbijn. Check out this with/without example.

View ‘Angel of the North’ large

Just when we we were getting very bored with Stratford-upon-Avon (at 11am on our second day) we came across this man whose name we may never find out. He built a miniature version of Stratford junction as it would have looked a long time ago and has opened his house to show it. I was a little startled when he suddenly appeared amidst the trains and started telling us all about his work there and upstairs, where he was working on a even smaller scale version. While Hg diverted his attention, I snapped a few shots of him and his pride and joy.

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Twenty years I’ve been travelling to Ireland, clocking up an impressive 40+ visits. I never really kept track of my stays, regrettably, but in my mind I’ve been almost absolutely everywhere around the country. Three times three weeks hitching around from Dublin to Cork to Galway, Sligo and back. Three or four times taking buses everywhere up and down the west coast. Three trips by car: West Cork, Galway, Antrim/Donegal. Day trips to Kilkenny and Wicklow.

I know I’ve never been to Wexford or to Waterford. But only now I realise that I haven’t done what every tourist has done: I’ve never done the Ring of Kerry.

Why? Well, at first I never went there, because everybody did it and I’m contrary like that. And then, I simply forgot. Always cut through from Kenmare to Killarney, leaving the Iveragh Peninsula and its tourist trail to the Yanks, the Germans and the hippies.

I’ll have to make up for it soon.

I know nothing about cars and even less about car rentals. I was checking tariffs earlier today, because we are renting a car for our trip to Ireland this October, and I was surprised at the price difference between Avis and Hertz. Same car, same week… but Hertz came out 50 euro cheaper. I had expected prices to be the same between such seemingly similar competing companies. Who can shed light on this?

I was just thinking, have you ever met ANYONE who doesn’t like Ireland? It’s got to be one of the most popular countries in the whole wide world. Why is that?

(Image nicked from ModSue)

That’s us, lazing about in Dublin, undecided about what to go see or do. (‘I know, let’s go over to the east side of the jungle. There’s always a bit of action, a bit of swinging scene, alright?’).

But really, in five days we saw two shows, went to the IMMA (modern art) and the Casino at Marino (18th century outhouse), had another extravagant lunch at L’Ecrivain, sampled the food and drink at various places such as the Octagon bar, Nude, Good World, Mulligan’s and what not. Mostly the Octagon bar. Why? Because it’s quiet, because they serve great food and have the best cocktails. I’m not sure the staff appreciated our ten hour session (‘I’d like some ice cream, please.’ ‘NO.’), but hey, it wasn’t like the place was teeming with punters.

In contrast, it appeared many of the other hotel guests never left the horrible hotel bar, with its round the clock play by numbers Irish didleyaye and dancing.

Ronnie Drew, I love ye, but there’s only so much I can take.