Whispering Pines Hotel Crosshaven

... and arrived at http://www.igy-rodneybay.com/
in St Lucia yesterday, one hour under 15 days.

'A Lady' is an Oyster 56 http://www.oystermarine.com/fleet/56/de fault.aspx

My Mum's 90th Birthday party next Saturday, Christmas and New Year then off.

everyone went to blarney, well everyone except alex and i. so we got to explore cork and see the opera house, which we sketched from a cafe with a really weird waiter who insisted on seeing our sketches after we were done, because "he had a moleskine too, at home" okay. cool. then we ventured off around the city and found a church and sat ...

... and toured the Desmond Castle, which was a really small castle in town, really just the house of some nobles. This castle did have an old jail, though, that held immigrant prisoners, especially American merchant sailors who may have been labeled as pirates. We then walked up to Multrose Church in town, but it was not open.
We decided to drive to Cobh, a small fishing town about 30 minutes away ...

... of minutes because you had to provide the data for your car.
We had a 2 hour drive ahead of us to Blarney Castle and we were hoping the rain would stop- and that it did! The weather was clear by the time we got to Blarney Castle. There was a cute little town right outside the castle. We first went to the castle to "kiss the blarney stone". The castle wasn't really big, but it had some crazy, narrow, twisted stairs to the top. There was a little bit ...

... reasoning behind his hesitation was that finding his house with a GPS and a bloodhound with a snout full of Brian's tube sock would not have been adequate in locating his lodging. Brian lives up a hill and around and down the other side on a beautiful inlet that leads to the town of Carrigaline. Not only are the streets to his house maze-like, a couple are narrow and steep and you hope beyond hope that one of your neighbors isn't flying over the hill from ...

... averses et des éclaircies, aujourd'hui il a plu un peu) On m'a dit que c'est une météo exceptionnelle là-bas (le gros soleil pendant 5 jours) alors je leur ai dit que j'avais amener le soleil avec moi =P J'ai acheté plein de choses à Midleton! Surtout de la bouffe, mais aussi une serviette, des linges pour essuyer la vaisselle (je ne sais pas qui a lavé les linges pour la dernière fois et à quand ça remonte... je préfère utiliser mes propres choses, c'est mieux ...

... gens sont très sympathiques ! À l'autobus, y'a eu un léger problème avec mon billet et le chauffeur s'est arrangé pour que tout aille bien... Et une fois à Cork, où je devais changer de bus, il a parlé à un monsieur là-bas qui s'est arrangé du prob pour que je puisse me rendre jusqu'ici. Et le monsieur a même offert de guetter mon sac pour que j'aille aux toilettes et quand je suis revenue, il l'avait déjà mis dans l'autobus ! Ensuite, y'a un monsieur ...

... beautiful church, named after (they think) the black robes the priests wore, another local myth was it was named for the black Plague that took 15 of its members. It has beautiful xx glass windows, I would have loved to have looked inside, but it is very much a working church, with three services a day, so it wasn't really possible. (and for once the sun was in the right position and everything!!) Up to another Cathedral St Canice. This is the church that gave Kilkenny it's name ...

... Ferry. It had a delightful setting and an Egon Ronay recommended pub. Great lunch in baking sun looking over the marina and river - idyllic - oh yes and England being stuffed by Australia was on the telly. A perfect day for a Welsh Rugby supporter (not so good for Gina). Cobh (aka Queenstown) was the last port of call for both the Titanic and the Lusitania. They had and ...

Good day to all you lovely people who can be ***** to read my oh so interesting life.... I.E. my travel stories. So, what has happened.... well, a customer from the Nethouse invited me n Lenina out for his birthday - he was a bit of a traveller as well, very good spoken English but grew up in the middle east and Oz and somewhere else. It was quite a cool night and I got nicely drunk and ended up going to the nethouse (work) of all places... but there's lots that I ...