Cork Chamber Orchestra

Myself and Clair went to Galway on Sunday to see Mom play a concert with the Cork Chamber Orchestra. It was brilliant. Most of the orchstra is made up of the staff of the Cork School of Music and they are deadly. You can see a lot of familiar faces like Adrian, Ruxandra, Máire, Patsy and Tomas, just to name a few. The concert sounded fantastic, and they had a brilliant flute soloist who played a piece by Poulenc. Mom is hiding in this photo behind the deputy leader, and my camera went dead before i could take another.

Gourmande

I've learned a fantastic new word. "Gourmande". It's a French word for which we have no exact translation. One would use it like this: Say you're out in a restaurant and you've just had the biggest dinner in your life and you feel like you're going to explode or possibly need to be airlifted out of the building to have a lie-down, and then you see the dessert menu and it has something crazy tasty on it that you have to have even though you're running the risk of death. That's gourmande. Me and Clair and Emily gourmanded the feck out of it for the weekend.

This picture was taken in Galway where we spent Sunday gourmanding our way through a hippy street fair eating everything in sight. Fabulous.

My favourite incedenct of gourmanderie was in Govindas on Saturday where we all had the usual fantastic main course then we split an entire cheesecake 3 ways even though we were all dying and kept having to take breaks and it took the bones of an hour. This picture represents the hallucinations we were all having by the end of it.

Clair hits the Big City

Myself and emily had a visit last weekend from the lovely Clair, freeloading jobless bum from Cork like. Here she is in front of the spire with a shady character behind either checking out her butt or eying up her bags. While taking the photo I was wearing a massive Winter coat and hat and gloves. Clair is nuts.

Half Soverign

Again, my spelling may be totally wrong here, but this is Hugh's parents' horse, Half Soverign. He's the biggest race horse I've ever seen. he likes eating jumpers and yawning. Here he is nibbling on Hugh's Mom's cardigan. They own a 12th of him, which i think is the tail. He'll be starting races soon, so start collecting silly hats.

Paddy's Day Adventures

Myself and Hugh spent Paddy's Day in London with the wonderfull Niamh Roche, Andrew Gillespie, Orla and Brian O'Kane and associates. This picture appeared on my camera somehow. It's the milennium wheel on the Thames (I think), but it's usually not that kind of colour or quite so blurry. Mysterious.

Hemel Hempsted

I hope I've got the spelling right. This is Hemel Hempsted, a town near Hugh's parent's house north of London. It's a cool town full of mainly computer game shops and canals. It's excellent. Here's a picture of Hugh in front of some nudie models sporting his poker face.

The canals are full of ducks and there are little weirs every now and then. To help the ducks travel between levels there are cute little duck bridges, cause they are too posh to flap. Chuh.

Beware Toads!

We came across this sign in England over the weekend. Unlike Australia where the signs are like "Beware savage crocodiles" and "Beware car smashing kangaroos", this sign means "Watch out chaps, you might squish and innocent disgusting toad". In celebration we had Toad in the Hole for dinner. Unfortunately it's made of sausages, not road kill. Harumph.

Advertising Genius

This is a sign i found on my travels the other day. It was conveniently places alongside a vending machine. How could i resist? It didn't attract any additional customers though, how disappointing.

Ice Shot

Check it out - this is my latest "hostess with the mostest" nick nack. I got an ice cube tray which makes ice cubes in the shape of shot glasses! Therefore one can enjoy the coldest of cold spirits after one's extravagant 4 course meal. Amazing. Note also the kitch miniature saucer.

I Love Ireland Posters

Myself and Hugh went to the Trinity Music and Drama Ball in the Hilton (how posh) last Wednesday and I'm glad to report that i found a fantastic poster of Ireland in the Wee hours. Hurrah.

Shoe Theft Rampant!

Oh my God, riots in the front room! Here is terrifying evidence of the theft of the green shoe of one Roisin "The 'Fro" Magee. The show is still at large and the Gardi are treating the theft as suspicious. Note how despite the carnage going on about her, Roisin as ever manages to give the all important 2 fingers to the camera. I am helping in the background by creating a loud distraction.

Miss Orchestra Finalists 2007

Yes indeed, it's that time of year again. The Miss Orchestra pageant is in full swing and girls and cross dressing wind players alike are donning their finest black clothes and practicing sitting really still with poker faces. The hottest rivalry this year is between Catherine "The Height" Humphreys and Jessie "The Honk" Grimes. Here we see them warming up for the "Unaided Distracting Performance Face" round. Rumour has it though that the "Freestyle Reassembling Dropped Music" round will be the clincher for these two.

Genius Vandalism

In all the dart stations in dublin there is a yellow line painted on the ground that you must stand behind so you don't get hit by a train. There are little signs everywhere telling you this. Some gifted young lads did this to a sign in the Glenageary station where i get off on the way to work. Clearly they have some rare Cork blood in their veins as they nearly got Langer into it. Nice.

Glorious Weather

This one goes out to Charlie and Jane in Australia, cursed with searing heat and sunshine for 12 months of the year. Check out what ye are missing out on lads. Beautiful. Note how we still hang up washing on the off chance of a miracle. It's hard to make out here, but there are also gale force winds.

Diabolically Clever

This is a photo from after the Trinity Orchestra Concert before Christmas. As a musician it's a constant pain trying to look after an instrument, so myself and Sophie found the perfect place, really really high up on a shelf. Excellent. This moment captures our evil glee now that we had 2 hands free for pints.

Hugh Monster

By day, mild mannered Hugh, orchestra overlord, trombonist, kind to children, fondness for animals, gentleman. By night, crazed cookie fetishist, dribbling maniac, blue fur. You're number's up, Hugh "the Cookie" Lydon. It's back to Sesame Street where you belong.

Taking over the World

For a while now myself and Humphreys have thought of taking over the world for the laugh like, and I believe we have found the perfect convincing face for doing it. Who could say no to such an angel as this? Little would they suspect that we would be doing it for wreckless amounts of cash and booze. The perfect crime. Mwaw haw haw. Apologies for cutting out the top of Catherine's head, but the fringe still needs some work.

New Hair

I've decided to take a new direction with my hair. I believe that 80's rock and roll will return, so it was this or a mullet. Big hair is back. Throw away those instruments and take up a casio keyboard.