Apologies that this rather long blog is coming two weeks after we did a
quick weekend jaunt to Carrigeen but I forgot to write it up – short term
memory loss or else the weekend was so fabulous that I did not have time. I am
going for the fabulous weekend option. But I did want to record the highlights of the weekend so here goes.
It was our first “proper” weekend to the house and we’d
chosen the weekend to coincide with the music festival in Dingle called Other
Voices. Other Voices most famous claim to fame was an amazing session in the
church by Amy Winehouse. For those of you who may have missed it, click here to
see the set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aatZ9VSF7Mc
– there are more videos but this is incredible.
Other Voices itself has been going ten years and is a
showcase of the best up and coming music around, not only Irish but worldwide.
Over three days, there are normally 3 sessions taking place at any one time, in
pubs, churches, museums & the courthouse. The sessions last about 30 minutes
and are free to attend. Beginning at 11am each day and ending sometime after
1am, you could pack a lot of music in if you had the stamina – which we do not.
An incredibly bad web site tell you a little about the weekend: http://www.othervoices.ie/
Anyway back to our weekend, flying from Stansted to Kerry on
a full flight we arrived on time. Himself sprinted across the carpark to the
car hire office and within 10 minutes we were zooming through the Kerry
countryside although not without having a little “incident” in the carpark...
what is it with hired vehicles and airport carparks? Thankfully this time it
was not me and so far we think the rental company has not noticed that
himself rubbed the alloy wheels alongside the ticket barrier…. Because Dingle is nearly 25 minutes behind GMT
– only time wise of course we were able to make the journey all the way in
daylight.
A quick at Garvey’s Supermarket – yup we have a loyalty card – to pick up
the makings of a meal for Friday night. It is
basically the last shop for us before we arrive at the house – so a stop is
vital. Although breaking news, we heard
a shop might have opened in Ballyferriter..
The house was fine on our arrival and the key task of the
evening was to assemble the spare bed as we had a guest arriving about 11pm. AE
was attending after an event locally which might have involved a glass of wine and
did not want to drive back home so bedding down in Carrigeen made sense. It did mean that it was about 2am when we all
hit the sack = wiped for Saturday night.
Saturday
Up bright and early with a cooked breakfast of local
sausages, rashers, black/white pudding and we were set for the day. Hands up
who knows what a rasher is… himself is now calling them that.
Despite the late night,
Saturday turned out to be a fantastically productive day. Bookcases were assembled, boxes were
unpacked,
shelves were erected and generally a major organisation project was
completed. The place was beginning to look ok.
And the new office for ORMA was set up in the most westerly
part of Europe but not too close to America.
But that’s enough
DIY, what about the music we said. With Roisin O
playing at 5pm in town we headed in to meet the gang and hear her sing. We’d not see her live before and
oh wow what a voice. This was her first gig at Other Voices and the packed
marquee at An Chonair pub had a fantastic session with her.
Coming from such a talented music family, her mammy is Mark
Black and her aunt is Frances Black and her brother is Danny O’Reilly – no relation
sadly – but lead singer with The Coronas she was very comfortable with the
audience, played several instruments and belted out the songs brilliantly.
For those of you who want to listen to her, click here http://roisino.com/
Sunday
However the night before & the day all caught up with
us, so no more music but an early night. The upside of an early night is that
one wakes up bright and energised the downside it that it is 6am. But with jobs
still to be done we had plenty to keep us occupied.
Including the erection of a new house sign, to
complement the letterbox. I am told it’s
not quite straight but I didn’t go out to look at is. I’d love to be a fly on
the wall when the locals spot the sign. It’s just as well yer man has a surname
with a mc in it, sounds Irish enough that locals might assume he is Irish.
With the Other Voices coming to an end there was nothing for
it but to hop into town and catch a few more sessions before the Christmas
lights were turned on by Walking on Cars. Never heard of them? Shame on you,
they are Dingle’s latest band and a lovely bunch of lads – particularly if you
are under 15 http://www.walkingoncars.com/
The turning on of the lights was preceded by the most
wonderful and sweet lantern parade. Hundreds of children turned up with
lanterns of every shape and size made from milk bottle, cola bottles, you name
it, it was made into a lantern. Honestly though, we’d not seen so many under 7’s
in one small town for many years, as himself said, it’s a long winter, dark
nights and not a lot else to do!
The highlight of the lantern parade for us was meeting our
neighbour, the ban garda. In case you
don’t know what a ban garda is, that’s
the local police in this case a woman and what a wonderful person she is.
Really very friendly and chatty, great to have on your side and plays a mean
game of golf.
Monday
We were meeting our surveyor to talk through the work we
want done on the house. Having established the list of things with him and his
mate Derek we headed off for Tralee and the local Currys/PC world – well who
wouldn’t. We were in search of a cheap 50cm free standing cooker. What we can
now tell you is that it is not possible to buy such an item that gets any okish
reviews, never mind good ones. So it looks like there is nothing else for it but to
thoroughly clean the current cooker and make do.
It was a fifteen minute hop from Tralee to the airport, an
on time flight with Ryanair and before we knew we were back on the Stansted Express
hurdling towards London.
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