Strength

A beautiful day

Only in Ireland

This is a collision between a Dublin Bus and a Dublin Tram on Wednesday 16/09/09

Now look at the Second photo .... 

Friday Rant

This morning I had a few things I wanted to get off my chest and now I can't remember what all of them were, but we'll start with the first.

"We" were called in to Em's teacher, because as it happened the other night, Em asked if we could adopt a baby girl and I said if we won the lotto we could maybe adopt a baby girl but we would adopt a baby from China, and she asked why China, so I told her about how in China because of over population they are only allowed one child, and most people want a boy because boys can work, so if they have a girl they either abandon them or kill them.  Which is the truth and you can read about it on the Internet.  But of course my beloved Em went to school and told her own version of the story, she always makes everything so dramatic, and of course she has a Chinese girl in her class who got upset (which you can't blame her).  So D was reprimanded in the morning and I had to face the music after school.

Now I know that we have to be careful of what we say, but surely telling my child the truth is allowed?  That is one thing about Ireland is everyone is "afraid" of the truth, everyone knows about these things but nobody talks about them, and that is why the Catholic priests got away with molesting young boys for so many many decades.  Everyone knew it was happening but were too afraid to challenge the Catholic church and expose them.

Oh yes the other thing I remembered about wanting to rant about this morning was "stereo typing", yesterday we had our boiler serviced, the guy arrived 45 minutes late, but you get used to that in Ireland, anyway he was a very pleasant 24 year old Irish Lad who had the gift of the gab.  When he arrived he asked me if I was from New Zealand and the first words that came out of my mouth were "No, Australia", and then I corrected myself and told him I was from South Africa.  For all his 24 years of age he knew quite a bit about South Africa from people he had met, some of it totally hogwash but some of it true.  Anyway we had a few discussions about Irish and South Africans while he was waiting for the "rads" to warm up, and when I said to him something about "all South Africans" he cut me short and said "are racist" which made me very angry and I soon put him right.  I thought that is like saying "All Irish people are Piss cats" or "All Nigerians are Drug dealers", there is good and bad in every nation, so why do people always paint everyone with the same brush?  If I said I worked for Superquinn people automatically think you work at the till, why is that????  I know I have done it before too.

My last rant for today.  DO PEOPLE IN IRELAND NOT KNOW WHAT A YIELD SIGN IS OR HOW TO USE IT????  I don't know how many times I have had to avoid an accident because some idiot has shot through a yield sign, and it happens to me every time I go to Dundrum!  I always park on level -1 and then when you come up the ramp you have right of way and the people approaching from the left have to yield, there is a BIG yield sign painted on the floor, but almost every time I come up the ramp someone comes speeding through the yield sign.  Then another place is secondary roads leading onto a main street, and bus lanes, there are certain times of the day that cars can use the bus lanes, and if you use the bus lane at the end of the bus lane is a yield sign, so if someone is in the normal lane you must yield, but most drivers in Ireland think the bus lane is the fast lane and use it to overtake traffic and then when they get to the end quickly shoot in front of oncoming traffic so that they have to brake.  I don't get it, surely you have to know what a yield sign is to pass your Drivers licence, or wait were you also one of the 2 million drivers that were just handed a drivers licence for having driven without one for twenty year, 90% of Irish drivers would fail their licence if they had to take it at the Johannesburg Testing ground!  Here is what the RSA (Road Safety Authority) in Ireland say about a yield sign:

"The Yield upright sign shown is just one version of this sign. Other versions are the same shape and colour but might say 'Yield Right of Way', or 'Géill Slí'. If you see a Yield sign on the road, usually near a junction or roundabout, you must give way to any traffic on a major road ahead and you must not proceed out onto the main road until it is safe to do so. It is better to be safe than sorry, make sure you allow enough time to complete your manoeuvre."

A fancy affair

My friend turned the Big 40 on Friday (must ask her what that is like), and I have been invited for High Tea at the Radisson. I love the Radisson especially the one in Tahiti - it sounds like it is going to be fun, a bunch of ladies all dressed up to the 9's having tea & Cake and if the weather is nice sitting outside in the sun. Thanks for the invite; I am really looking forward to it.

Actually that is my second invitation to a tea party, my friend Judy in London is having her birthday party in a garden in London and the theme is "Alice in Wonderland" and the Mad Hatters tea party, I wish I could go but it is the week-end that Emily has rehearsals for her play and also my friend Lynn is coming over from London and we are off to the "Kiss" concert on Friday night, oh well I will just have to throw my own tea party some time.

Whitney Houston ... Disaster

D got tickets last year July I think for Whitney Houston, I haven't really been a great fan of hers but of course I know all her hits, and after seeing Tina Turner I thought it may be good.  I was impressed on Friday by the news that she had come over to Ireland on the ferry (or fairy as she called it), due to all aircraft being grounded due to the Volcano in Iceland.  I had not heard any reports on her previous concerts, so went with an open mind.

We had good seats, Block B row 24 seats 78 and 79 so a good view of the stage.  When she first came on stage you could hardly understand a word she was saying, she was mumbling, she sang one song and then change from the strapped on mike to a normal mike, maybe that was the problem.  Anyway I don't want to go into too much detail on each song, but overall she sucked, when she was singing "I will always love you", she would take intervals during the song, and with her back to the audience, check her make up, have a drink and who knows what else and then sing another sentence, then do something else.  This also happened in some of her other songs.

To the ladies who were sitting in Row 25, Block B round seats 80 on, I know she was bad but that did not give you the right to get trashed and talk on the top of your voices through the whole show, you ruined the good parts of the show which means I will only remember it has being bad and thinking that there are so many woman with bad breeding in this place, no wonder you had no men with you at the concert, in fact you probably have no men at all!  And what were you all thinking getting up and thinking you were the best dancers on earth and strutting through empty rows dancing, you really should give up drinking and buy a mirror because you looked like total idiots.  And once again thank you for ruining the good bits of the show, I doubt whether I will go to another "Diva" show in Ireland again.

A last thing about Whitney is that her earlier hits that made her famous, like "I will always love you" were actually cover versions, I will always love you was Dolly Parton's song, and "The greatest Love of all" was first sung by George Benson, she did do justice to the songs but they were still never hers to own!

Talking of which I saw George Benson back in 1982 or 1983 at Sun City and he was Brilliant, even got his autograph.

More Volcano Photos

These photos are on National Geographic and were taken when the volcano first started erupting back in March:

Volcano Chaos, pictures from the Land of "Fire and Ice"

Here are some more photographs of the Volcano, this was was published in the telegraph.

Iceland sits astride the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Tectonic Plates, explaining the island's earthquakes and volcanic activity.


Below is a photograph on the Irish Times website

I found this on National Geographic:

 

Volcanic Chain Reaction?

Photograph by Hans Strand, Corbis

Not far from Eyjafjallajokull glacier, the much larger Mýrdalsjökull glacier (satellite map) hides the fiery, gently sloping Katla volcano that lies under the ice.

Considered one of Iceland's most dangerous volcanoes, Katla last erupted in 1918 and could be roused by the nearby rumblings that began over the weekend, scientists warned Monday.

"Historically, we know of three eruptions in Katla linked to eruptions in Eyjafjallajokull," Magnús Tumi Gudmundsson, a professor of geophysics and civil-protection adviser, told the AFP news service. For now, though, the giant's sleep appears undisturbed.

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published February 19, 2010

In a satellite image released today by NASA, two neighboring Russianvolcanoes are seen erupting at the same time.

Surprising as the picture may be, the simultaneous eruptions of the Kamchatka Peninsula's Klyuchevskaya and Bezymianny volcanoes isn't all that shocking, according to geologist James Quick of Southern Methodist University in Texas.

"Kamkatcha [map] volcanoes are very active, so it's not uncommon for more than one of these volcanoes to be erupting at the same time," Quick said.

In fact, the volcanoes' close proximity makes it more, not less, likely that they'd explode in unison, he said.

Though there's no "great pool or pipe of lava connecting them," he said, the volcanoes lie above the same active subduction zone, an area where onetectonic plate is diving under another. So if the gnashing of the plates sends heat, lava, gas, or ash up through the earth toward one of the volcanoes, chances are the other might get it too. (See plate tectonics pictures.)

(Also see: "Pictures: Chile Volcano Erupts With Ash and Lightning.")

Among the Most Active Volcanoes on Earth

The recent simultaneous eruption began on February 11, when 16,000-foot-tall (4,835-meter-tall) Klyuchevskaya erupted.

Scorching lumps of rock shot more than 1,000 feet (300 meters) into the air, and tall plumes of gas and steam billowed up to 20,000 feet (6 kilometers) above sea level.

Around the same time, 9,500-foot-tall (2,882-meter-tall) Bezymianny was sending up plumes that were smaller and thinner than its neighbor's but still dangerous to low-flying aircraft.

Volcanoes on Kamkatcha are among the most active anywhere on Earth, in part because they lie along the Pacific Ring of Fire—an seismically active arc stretching roughly northward from Chile to Alaska, then westward to Japan and southward to the South Pacific.

Twenty Volcanoes Erupting Right Now?

On a global scale, simultaneous volcanic eruption is a constant.

According to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, there are about 20 volcanic eruptions happening at any given moment. Some, like Italy's Stromboli volcano, have been erupting continuously for more than a thousand years.

"At one point in 2005, there were five eruptions within the United States all happening at the same time," Quick said.

"We had one in Hawaii, one in the Marianas (map), Mount St. Helens (map), and two in Alaska. You could have pointed at any one of them, and they were erupting."

Heres another photo from National Geographic of Iceland

Doom & Gloom or is it ...

I guess sometimes the world just has to slow down, especially when things happen that they have no control over, earthquakes in china and now a massive volcanic eruption at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland.  Things beyond our control, the fascinating thing about this is, we get to see it - can you imagine when the last eruption happened in the 1800's, how did people get to hear about it?  And even see it or see images of it, wow - so flights have been grounded, I know this is catastrophic for a lot of people but we have to look at the up side of these things as well.

It got me thinking, what happens if this volcano does carry on erupting for the next 2 or more years and all flights are grounded, will people look at other forms of transportation maybe tele porting (beam me up Scottie), or do we have to go back to the way our forefathers travelled and go by boat.   My father travelled a lot in his life time, the first successful flight by the Wright brothers was in 1903, and the first passenger carrying aircraft was in 1935, flights would also have been very expensive.  So seeing as my father was born round 1896 and travelled to Australia in the 1920's and also travelled to various places during the first world war he would have had to have gone by ship.  He also travelled to Europe, and in those days the ships probably didn't go as fast as they do today, so a trip from say England to South Africa would have probably taken a few weeks.  I am sure it would probably take less than a week today.

To get back to my original point, we would all have to start travelling by boat or drive.  Hmmm how long would it take to drive from Ireland to South Africa, and which route would be the safest, that would be a logistical nightmare trying to plan that, I think we'll go by ship - but as it will take about a week to get there and a week to get back, we could probably only spend a few days.  And Australia, oh my word you would just arrive, say hi to everyone at the port and get back on the ship to sail home.  Then of course there is the matter of getting your sea legs, over coming bad weather at sea and the boredom and of course the expense of spending all this time on a ship.

I think for the moment we will just stay here! By the way this amazing photograph was taken by the National Post.

Saturday - San Martino delle Scale & Monreale

We found it, well we probably took a route that was a lot further than the one we should have, but the views were spectacular.  We also found this little village San Martino delle Scale, which actually reminded me of Switzerland more than Italy, from the top of the hill you looked down on the Monreale Cathedral which looked amazing.

Monreale is really all about the Cathedral, it is the pinnacle of achievement of Arab-Norman art, and it reminded me of the Alhambra in Spain but of course on a much smaller scale. It was founded in 1172 by William II and a Benedictine monastery was built next to it.  The cathedral is famous for its remarkable interior with the magnificent gold mosaics representing episodes from the old testament.  

We spent most of the day in Monreale and then went back to the apartment to pack, our wonderful week in Sicily had come to an end, but we had to come back as there is just so much more to see. 

Friday - No Where ...

Not sure what happened on Friday, I had not made any suggestions on where to go because it was my birthday and time to relax.  I though D might come up with a suggestion, which he did, we were going to Monreale.  Although it was "Good Friday" it was not a public holiday, although a lot of companies would have closed at lunch time to allow there employees to head home.  We set out towards midday and tried to find Monreale which ended up in disaster, we eventually ended up in the middle of Palermo with peak hour traffic and then just went back to the apartment.

We then went down to the beach in Capaci and then to find a restaurant for dinner, we ended up at this place on the main road, however no one could talk English and waitress rail roaded us into having food that we did not really want (or that I didn't want) and of course it cost us more than our weeks groceries had cost.  I was a bit p*d off, but decided that tomorrow was going to be a better day.

Thursday - Segesta and Castellammare del Golfo

 D leaves all the holiday planning to me, he thinks because I buy the travel books then I must decide on the itinerary as well.  Sometimes it's great, but sometimes not, which you will read about in my next post.  So first back to this one, Segesta looked amazing in the "Eyewitness Travel" book, so Thursday morning, back into the car and off we go.  This is what the Book had to say: 

"According to legend, the ancient capital fo the Elymians was founded on the rolling green hills of the Castellammare del Golfo area by exiles from Troy.  Segesta was constantly at war with Selinunte and was frequently attacked.  Yet the majestic Doric temple has miraculously survived sackings and the ravages of time, and stand in splendid and solemn isolation on the hill facing Monte Barbaro.  The city of Segesta was built above the temple on the top of the mountain.  Here lie the ruins of some building and the well preserved 3rd century BC theatre, where ancient Greek plays are performed every other summer." 

We arrived at the ruins in Segesta, parked the car and went to get tickets, I think you are supposed to start at the temple, but after yesterdays climb I saw that there was another hill to climb and decided that is what we would do first, just after having our morning ritual cappuccino.  This time armed with frozen bottles of water, and no heavy bags we set off.  We walked past everyone who was waiting for the bus to take them up the hill, now the bus only cost an extra €1.50 but it was an achievement yesterday and today it would be even more so.  Well half way up the first stretch of road, I contemplated going back for a bus ticket but decided no I could do it, and this time I was well ahead of Em.

By the time we got to the top which must have taken about 45 minutes, it was so nice to look back on what we had achieved, also as you were climbing the view of the temple just go better and better, which you would have missed out had you taken the bus.  So my mind is made up, from now on I walk and the higher up the better.  We reached the summit and the ruins of ancient Segesta and the theatre, which is absolutely beautiful and so well preserved.  When you sit in the theatre you have the view of the hills and the sea which is stunning.  After spending about an hour on the summit we headed back down to the car park, this time we had to promise Em an ice cream if she would do the walk to the Temple as well as today her little legs did not want to do any more walking. 

We decided to have lunch first and then head to the Temple, at most of these places we were the only English speaking tourists, everyone else was mainly from mainland Europe or Italy.  After lunch we climbed the road to the temple, I must say it was a little bit disappointing because the views on the climb up the mountain were so spectacular, the closer you got the less you saw.  Also the temple was barricaded so you could not enter it, just knowing how long it has been there was awe enough for me. 

We then headed back towards Palermo and decided to see if we could find a nice beach on the way back, as the one in Capaci was just so dirty, I was also worried with all the trash lying on the beaches how many needles maybe buried in the sand. 

We first headed down to the ancient city of Castellammare del Golfon, on the Tyrrhenian Sea but it was just a fishing village, another ancient town but decided to find a beach.  Not far out of town was a nice beach, which was a lot cleaner than Capaci, but still not 100%.  Emily was off and in the sea water in no time, while D and I just lay on the sand and soaked up the sun, I didn't think it was hot enough to swim, but then I am not a kid anymore.

After about 2 hours we headed back to our new home.

Wednesday - Cefalú

Cefalú

We woke up and decided to go into Palermo, which was a really bad idea, I can only imagine what it must be like driving in countries like Egypt when you face traffic in Palermo, thank goodness I don't drive in foreign countries.  Once we had eventually made our way out of Palermo again we decided to head East to Cefalú, which is first mentioned in 396 BC in an account by Diodorus Siculu, but thge city is more famous for its medieval monuments. 

We found parking and then headed into the old city, once again found a pavement cafe and had some lunch and then decided to go and see the Tempio di Diana a megalithic construction with a portal dating from the 9th century BC.

As we started to walk up this steep pathway, D said he was going back to the car to put money in the meter and get his camera, so Em and I continued walking, it went up and up and up and up, normally I would give up half way up but with it just being Em and I, she kept saying come on mom, so up we went we eventually reached the Tempio di Diana, looking down from there, I realised how far we had climbed, the view was beautiful and the photos don't do it justice.  I waited for D, because I wasn't sure whether he would follow, he probably thought I would never do it.  When he arrived at the top huffing and puffing, I think he was just a wee bit shocked to see me there, it was a great sense of achievement and I was so pleased I had done it.

If we had a map or read some information we would have seen that we could have actually climbed up further to La Rocco, which is the top of the Rock where there are ruins of a 12th - 13th century castle. 

Once down the hill we walked along the streets of the Ancient City, to the Norman cathedral built in the 12th century, it was beautiful.  But all these Catholic churches around Europe just make you realise what opulence the catholic churches have, the Gold leaf and wealth is surely a sin, especially when there are so many of their people living in poverty.  

We walked down to the Marina, and it was so beautiful to see the old men sitting on a bench chatting away, this is what life is all about.  We took a slow walk back to the car, popping in and out of designer shops.  I saw a beautiful bag, which I thought might be a nice birthday present for me, but it was €247.  Why do I have such expensive taste, anyway gave that one a miss, I guess if I was working I wouldn't feel to guilty about spending the money, but as I told my mother in law all I spent was €10.00 on an apron, dish cloth and tot glass.

We got back in time to get a few groceries and went back to the apartment to make dinner and relax, another beautiful day.

Tuesday - Trapani & Erice

Trapani

Tuesday morning we headed for Trapani, we arrived as usual just before siesta time which is from 13:00 to 16:00 every day.  The shops all shut up shop and everyone heads home or wherever for a few hours, needless to say the traffic is always murderous.  Trapani is a port where you can take ferries to a few of the smaller islands, we never went to any but spent the afternoon exploring the quaint little village.  Had lunch at one of the little cafes and just walked around.  We were heading back to the car when we saw a group of brass band players getting together, so we decided to see what was going on.

From Easter Sunday right up till the Sunday of the rising from the dead, they call this holy week and each little village re enacts the days leading up to the Crucifixion, and of course the big reenactment would be on Good Friday.  We happened to land up in the middle of the "Procession of the Madonna", it was quite moving.  Everyone gathered outside the church to watch the procession, they even had the TV cameras and reporters there.  Once the procession was over we went into the church where they had again done statues to represent each phase of the Crucifixion, very beautiful indeed.

Erice

We left Trapani at about 18:00 and headed for Erice, we had stunning sunshine the whole day, but by the time we got to the top of Monte San Guiliano where Erice is situated, the clouds had moved in.  Erice is an ancient city and has preserved a lot of it's medieval character.   It got really cold while we were up there and everything was closing as well, so we did not stay long and then headed back to Capaci.