The Warmest Spot in the House

We ran out of heating oil towards the end of last week and are still awaiting a delivery. The weather of late, especially in the west has been unseasonably wintery. It even snowed over the weekend. So naturally the house has been freezing. Every day as I shiver away in the icy cold studio the terrapins get to relax in the only warm spot in the house.  An underwater heater coupled with a UVA/B light means that for the turtles at least  it's summer every day.

Felt Shamrock

I was feeling crafty Sunday evening so decided to get out the box of fleece and make something. Initially my intention was to make a puppet. Unfortunately after 3 hours of planning, cutting, pinning and sewing I ended up scrapping it...To be frank it looked terrible. I was working with out any sort of pattern and it showed! 

So I cleaned up my mess, destroyed the evidence and made Neen a shamrock badge instead. She'll be working in the Nursing home St. Patrick's Day so now she has something green to wear!

Listening to Chopin....

I picked up a CD today in HMV...'Chopin Piano Favorites' I love Chopin's work and this album features a selection of some of the composers best. One of the tracks featured is 'Prelude In D Flat Major "Raindrop" Op. 28 No.15' my absolute favorite piece of music by the Polish composer.

Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

My thoughts and prayers are very much with the victims of the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami...the picture above was drawn by a young child from Aizu, Northern Japan. (The drawing was originally featured on and property of this blog here.)

Playing Pokemon White

Neen picked me up Pokemon White for the Nintendo DS yesterday...It's a really well designed update to the popular Pokemon series. The addition of a seasonal cycle and improved graphics are two notable changes. The world itself also has a more 3-dimensional feel to it. In fact although I'm only a couple of hours in, it's definitely the most beautiful looking Pokemon game I've ever played. Couple that beauty with perfectly crafted game play and it's obvious, Nintendo have hit another home run with these 5th Generation installments.

Kick Off!

It was the first match of the season last night. Galway United versus St. Patrick's Athletic in Terryland Park.

Antony came along to watch his first football match and ended up donning the stewards jacket along with myself and the rest of the Galway United Committee. He did a really great job selling programs and helping set up. I was very proud of him. My cousin Mark was at the match too but as he was with his friends and had his image to uphold - I understandably didn't see much of him. : )

A few pre-match training shots...

The opposition in training.

Kick Off...

We ended up losing the match 3-0 but the young fans were just happy to be there. I was really impressed by the way the entire Galway United squad took time to sign autographs and chat with the munchkins. Even in defeat they were true gentlemen. The vast majority of the team are newly signed, but are already living up to their roles as hero's to the local kid's.

After the match Antony and I headed over to Pappa Johns and shared a sausage and pepperoni pizza. Despite the loss it really was a great night.

John Bramblitt

The Documentary from John Bramblitt on Vimeo.

Galway United Pre Season Launch

The Pre Season launch for Galway United's upcoming season was this afternoon. Here are a some of my fellow Management Committee members. The launch gave fans the opportunity to meet the manager and team, get autographs and have their photo taken. It was held in Elvery's Sports and was a big success!

Members of the Galway United Management Committee. (l-r) Morgan O'Brien, Vincent O'Connor, Bertie O'Leary, Mike Daly, Noel Connolly, Mairtin O' Mochain, David Flaherty, Sean Rafferty. Front: Ronan Coleman.

Saturday Walk...

Neen and I went for a walk together this afternoon. Although we live just three miles from Galway city centre the countryside is literally on our doorstep. In truth we didn't know where we were going, we just decided to head out and see where the fate's brought us. We found a small country road we hadn't traveled down before so we thought "why not?!"

We walked until we reached a crossroads and to our detriment we chose left. A narrow low-lying road turned out to be impassable as a 20 foot patch of road was flooded. 

We re traced our steps, took the right turn this time and stumbled across this friendly fellow. Neen was filming a video for her Youtube channel at the time and he immediately walked up to us and the camera to say "Hi" I rubbed his coat and after a couple of photos and a chat we moved on.... 

But the horse decided to follow...The wall on this end of the field was higher than he remembered!

Neen took a quick photo on her phone and for a second time we said our goodbyes.

The horse however had other ideas. Unbeknownst to us he made his way from one field to another and eventually found his way to the farm yard entrance for one last rub. It's a shame we didn't have a carrot or apple with us...next time though!

I find it pretty cool that on a day I found a mysterious horse shoe in our garden (check previous post) I also met a super friendly horse so close to our home. Neen eventually dragged me away from my new best friend and our walk continued...

We also met quite a few cows along the way...

Although they proved quite uninterested...

if not a touch suspicious...

I leave you with one last photo to ponder over...

Who or what lives in this absolutely minuscule house?

(PS If interested, Neens video of our walk can be seen here on her Youtube channel.)

I found a Horse Shoe!

For the first time in months it was finally nice enough weather to go outside and kick the ol' football around. Sora came too, mostly to watch although she did "attack" the ball a couple of times just for fun. I wasn't out for long, maybe 40 minutes or so when I found this; a metal horse shoe, slightly eroded and embedded in the ground. I'm really not sure how long it has been there.  Nor can I fathom how exactly I haven't stumbled across it before. It was literally right smack in the middle of the garden. The amateur archeologist in me would love to think it was considerably older than I'm sure it actually is. Still cool though!