Gazing at the Moon.

Decided to write a few lines on the old blog here. Its been a few weeks since the last blog post, nothing much to write about except that i was on holidays for a week there at the start of august, Costa del sol very nice but was a bit too hot for me. i stayed in the hotel most of the time then the Irish bars all playing English football on there big tv’s. It had been sixteen years since I last took a holiday so it was bit different for me.

Don’t think i will take as long as that again to have my next holiday.

Nothing much happening just those hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean, wouldn’t do to get in the way there. I guess it disapproves the climate change deniers the fact that the vast numbers that make up humanity are having a profound influence  on the climate of the earth. Will be back writing on the blog soon, take care in the meantime.

“Dunkirk” a review of sorts.

Here’s one that hit the cinemas recently the tale of the British evacuation of their expeditionary force from France during the early years of the second world war. Its referred  to as the “Miracle of Dunkirk” by Time magazine. There are explanations for this “miracle” mainly that Hitler lets the brits go. The movie is controversial in that it displays the action as a valiant rearguard operating under a hail of Luftwaffe bombs and strafing. No action is made to stop the evacuation by the  German “panzer” divisions which surrounded the allied forces. This is a mega blunder by the Germans who could have won the war there and then had they captured the British expeditionary force, there would have been no army to defend Britain. Hitler would do this again – stop the tanks and this was on D-day. Some lack of action by the Germans led to decisive events which changed the outcome of the war.

Anyway back to the film. Its well “shot” cinematically with three subplots, the guys on the beaches, the people in the boats and the Raf flying overhead, these gradually come together towards the end of the film. Its well acted with the main character being a soldier trying to escape the mayhem at the beaches. Its worth the ticket price but its not a masterpiece either.

 

On a “Spar” car park

Here’s one thing that happened to me lately, was shopping in local spar store where I bought this “chicken” on a stick, I have forgotten the right name for it. I proceeded to eat it whilst in the car park of the store and a small bit went down my windpipe, I started to gag and choke and looked toward a man parked alongside for help. However the man was oblivious to my situation and proceeded to drive off, leaving me still gagging I managed to cough it up and my situation quickly reverted back to normal. I couldn’t believe the attitude of this man who was parked alongside who wouldn’t help and just left me to my own devices and drove off. You could say no one cares anymore  but i haven’t come across many situations like this, I’m glad I didn’t need this man’s help. Will take smaller nibbles in future.

 

Absent Summer.

Here a subject on which to write a few lines. Our summer doesn’t look like a heat wave at this stage maybe the weather will turn around but its not looking likely. Have to decide where I am taking my holidays yet but ballybunion looks like a miss. Don’t really like it too hot, sweat like mad and all the water that has to be consumed and not forgetting the sunburn that nearly always happens despite the creams. We haven’t got a decent summer in along time ok got a few days but its just that a few days. The last decent summer I remember was way back in 1995 the temperature reached over 30 degrees celsius really warm great for our own tourism sector.  What do we put our cold summers down to ? Climate change, someone messing with the weather or something else ? One thing that can be said is that our summers are not like they are supposed to be, sometimes they are more like the winter. Enough said I think.

Looking North.

In the aftermath of the british election, the conservative party (uk) have chosen to ally themselves with their “friends and allies” in the north’s Dup (Democratic unionist party as they call themselves). The Dup expect to receive more than £1 billion(in the next two years) in extra funding for the north for their support of the minority conservative government in confidence votes. brexit negotiations and so on. The prospect of a border poll is also ruled out during the tenure of this tory government, hardily surprising considering the Dup and its ” klu klux klan” associations. One wonders what sort of trouble is coming due to the conservative/dup link up  but with sectarian marching season in the north nearly upon us, you are quiet likely to find out.

At least one item gets the “bin” and that’s the british pretence of being “honest brokers” or any idea of them being “impartial” in the goings on of the north. Otherwise the Dup’s “billion” doesn’t sound like that much especially as it is over two years which is £500 million/year despite all the cuts made by the “Tories”. The only question how does the Tory/Dup linkup last, brexit negotiations will be over in two years time, there is a possibility of a referendum/election being called at that stage or will the Tories/ Dup last until 2022 ?

One has to wait at this stage.

here’s a link to what the Tories/Dup have made public.

 

Transformers.

Went to see this Friday night at the Omniplex Crescent shopping centre, didn’t know what to expect but found out in short order. This film fell flat in no time especially with the opening set in King Arthur’s England, not very original to say the least. The “Transformers” are once again involved giving “Merlin” a powerful staff with which to defeat Arthur’s enemies the saxons. This is then hidden away to prevent the evil decepticons from using it. The film goes on and on and its a real mess with the actors look like they are only doing it for the paycheck. Its really a recycled story and Anthony Hopkins part is just the stereotypical Brit.

Its a big budget feature with lots of sights and no originality. Maybe it is just for the kids. The cinema seems to have emptied out since the summer began. This film won’t bring them back.

Tourism Expert says Dublin/Ireland a “Rip off”.

Tourism expert Michael Hall speaking at a conference in Sligo, says that he wouldn’t dream of coming to Ireland if it wasn’t for business or for conferencing. He found the country very overpriced, emphasising that he spent over €400/night for a hotel room in Dublin (pricey even for Dublin) and didn’t enjoy the stag/hen groups which frequent the city. Ireland admittedly is not the cheapest country to visit with only Denmark being more expensive (in the EU). Mr Hall is originally from England but now resides in Australia, had other gripes as well – delays at the airport, garda taking a case against Stephen Fry for blasphemy and so on. Guess it is a matter of personal taste what someone might like may not be to the liking of someone else, but he doesn’t sound like someone that knows Ireland a great deal and has quite pricey taste. Looking at Trivago and Booking.com you can get a reasonable hotel room for €100 a night in Dublin which is still pricey but along way from his €400/night sojourns. Maybe Mr Hall is not the expert he thinks he is.