Xmas 04 Email - 22.12.04

got a bit carried away

hey guys,

hope you are all well. sorry i have been a bit distant of late but i have been super busy and you know how it goes. i apologise to any of you who have mailed me and not received a response from me.

so what have i been up to?

well, other than working, two fridays ago (10th dec) i ventured into the land of paddys, declans and guiness to visit me mates jon and miguel. i arrived in dublin at about 11.30am and somewhat tentatively negotiated my way across the breadth of ireland to a quaint little place called galway. the irish it seems, don’t believe in a freeway system and instead prefer to rely on a network of country lanes. as a result a 100km journey took 4.5 hrs.

i arrived in galway at about 6pm, met jon and headed off to the pub for a pint with his work mates before even touching down at home. true to form, i was introduced to paddy, paddy, paddy and dave. a learning i’ve had – no matter where you are in the world, in every community, there will always be an arb dude named dave. if aliens landed on earth, the dodgy one in their clan would be named dave. a few pints later and the night was coming alive... a few more pints later and it was 8am in the morning. vague memories of the evening include meeting the local porto community and being introduced to dolly the blow-up sheep (?).




woke approx 3pm singing “no, nae, never, no nae, never no more” in my head, so had a guiness for breakfast. was introduced to the flatmate, declan (go figure). headed out to the local pub after a few more and was pleasantly surprised to see that spurs had been victorious for the 3rd time on the trot (seriously). headed off to the “hole in the wall” and drank more guiness. then stumbled off to the local night club. now the brilliant thing about ireland is that no smoking is allowed in the pubs and bars. this however is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” kind of law as the air is open to invasion by any number of pungent odours... none worse than the flatulence of folk whose tummies have not yet acclimatised to the local guiness... jon you were bad that night bugger. needless to say, no irish girls came near us – they could just smell we were foreigners.

the weekend started and ended with guiness and all i got to see of galway was the inside of pubs... awesome weekend. crawled back to dublin and met up with work on tues for our xmas lunch. more guiness and you know the rest of the story. a feew days later i had another learning whilst in the throws of the most painful labour pains ever... never take genuine irish guiness lightly – there is a time and a place for heros and the local irish guiness isn’t one of them. i gave birth at approx 5.45pm on friday afternoon to a 5kg lump of tar.

this weekend was therefore quieter... bar sia friday – nothing to report. sat spurs – they won again (four in a row – what’s that all about?) and then cruised into the puzzle on a buzz of excitement and disbelief. clapham grand beckoned and that is where we ended up. the evening soon deteriorated in a crescendo of bad michael jackson cross eminem dance moves, grannys (mark – lift your game son), and polish ossie marlons.

enough of the past 2 weeks, what does the new year hold? i hear you ask...

well xmas i’m off to my aunt’s/cousin’s – will be wicked to see them again... and eat some decent food.


27th – 29th off to dublin (just beers this time) with porto, gareth and jon.




30th work.

31st (hogmany).

1st back in london and spurs.

2nd it’s skiing in bulgaria for a week.

south america is the destination in april for 3 mths of back packing.

so it’s been a year of chilli peppers, simon and garfunkel, rem and the violent femmes; of keane, jack & ben, and snow patrol; of papillion, the elephant files, life of pi and vernon god little; of brighton to amsterdam, essex to madrid; of sleeping under bridges, under the mat outside the front door at work, and under a curtain at the hilton; it’s been a year of boozing, memory blanks, hedge jumping, white stretch limos and the mystery of the missing keg (?); of 80’s and tiger tiger, 195’s and the warehouse; walkie and the slug; pacific oriental and onanon; of marriage of close ones, preganancies and births, break-ups and tough decisions; of retiremtent, heartbreak, despair and spurs; of church, alpha, the bible, philosophy, infinity and the finite, reincarnation, and zero or one or both; and of friendships and memories.

thanks you all for your friendship over the past year and for making 2004 such a brilliant year. i hope to remain in your blessing in the forthcoming year.

a final learning i picked up from 3 dudes down the road...

don’t be a “knob, my friend”. “come alive” and “take a chance on life” because “the opportunities are endless”. “do it”.

merry xmas and have an awesome new year.

later
d

and the time will come when you realise that we’re all one,
and life flows on within you and without you.