It will all make sense
Started the new job yesterday – did this. Jealous much?
However do also note the travelling laundry basket to the right. Not all fun and games eh? But at least I no longer have to do this on Saturday mornings or at 9 o’clock at night.
Happy New Year!
Photo right owned by Alotor (cc) Pat Kenny robbed me of part of my adulthood. I’m not saying I particularly looked forward to the period in my life when I would prefer to stay home on a Friday night but two kids later you go through phases where a bottle of wine and your feet up is ther perfect Friday night. Sadly there were also two nine month phases where the bottle of wine didn’t even feature. It would have been nice to have had compelling television to watch with that glass of wine but I was robbed by Plastic Pat. To be fair his impact was probably diluted by all the other chat shows that were on and no doubt fists were often shook from the direction of Montrose in the direction of the BBC and Jonathon Ross when all the good guests plumped for Wossy on Friday rather than Pat. How galling it must have been that Wossy is recorded on Thursday so many of them were probably actually available. Is it possible that Pat’s lack of sense of humour and disapproval of the celebrity machine preceded him?
Well a new era in light entertainment beckons for the Irish people with Pat’s announcement last Friday that he is retiring. Of course I didn’t watch it. I heard it on Twitter first but nothing would tempt me to watch it. Nothing. The only time I ever watched it since Pat came on board was for the Toy Show.I did it for the kids and the ideas!
Maybe in the future as I settle down with a bottle of wine I’ll look back at the early teens of the 21st century as the golden age of Friday night entertainment on RTÉ. To help us get there I have a wee poll below. I felt that a lot of male presenters’ name were being bandied about so, with a big obvious nod to positive discrimination, my choices are all Irish female television presenters. Have at ye!
So Saturday morning I says to Himself, “Why don’t we buy a barbeque and invite a few people over?” I figured at that late stage most people would have their Saturday night plans sorted. All this time while we sat at home, being all domesticated, convinced all our peers were out raving it up, it turns out they’re all looking for stuff to do too. All jokes aside though it was great to have everyone over to see the new place and I think everyone was well fed: we cooked up lamb kebabs (big thanks to KH for helping make them), mediterranean cous cous salad (the recipe for which is no longer on the BBC website since they dickied it up) and the ubiquitous chocolate fudge dolled up with some strawberries and cream. Himself has just arrived home from London so I gotta go…
Nowhere particularly interesting. And it looks like I am not going anywhere particularly interesting either! Boohoo. No climbing the 12 pins for me. Himself has gone off, rucksack on his back.
A whale of a time I won’t be having one but if you are interested maybe this would be your bag:
The Atlantic Whale Foundation is in the process of recruiting volunteers from across Europe to work on whale watching boats and to help out with the European Festival of the Whale this summer in the Canary Islands. We are sending this information out to organizations and individuals who may have an interest in participating. Please find below details of this summers programme:
The Atlantic Whale Foundations’ aim is to promote environmental awareness and scientific research dedicated primarily to cetaceans and the marine environment but also branching out into other areas. This summer you could help us by joining the team for 1-8 weeks and doing one of the following:
A. Volunteering on the whale watch boats. Volunteers work in one of two areas:- as research guides studying the bottlenose dolphin and pilot whales communities visited and talking with the whale watching tourists; or as children�s animators running on board research and conservation workshops. All volunteers choose which area they wish to focus on and are expected to help in the development of didactic materials interpreting research findings for use on the boats.
B. Volunteering to help run the European Festival of the Whale (July- August 2003). Activities include education workshops, beach activities, attempting Guinness world records, murals and other public art work, organising and running key events such as the Whale and Dolphin Parade and World Music Concert; designing and preparing exhibitions. All volunteers on this programme get to go on the whale watch boats and assist in research gu iding or education al wor kshops.
C. Greening La Hidalga (July- August 2003). Over the summer we will be �greening� La Hidalga, our research base. This will give training and hands on experience in installation of solar panels and windmills to generate heat and lighting together with a number of recycling projects including using grey water for irrigation purposes. All volunteers will be able to assist in this in their down time and those so motivated can work on this project full time.
A maximum number of 200 volunteers from across Europe can be accepted onto the programme next summer so applications should be sent in as early as possible.
Further details may be looked at closer on our website: www.whalefoundation.org.uk (details for application are found under the Volunteering section!) Any Ireland based queries to work with us this summer are to be made to:
atlanticwhalefoundation@europe.com
Please do not hesitate to contact us, we are looking forward to hearing from people with a genuine interest in the environment and having a unique summer with the whales!
Jay McConnell,
Atlantic Whale Foundation. —