January 12, 2006:

:: WHAT'S NEW? ::

Still savouring the memory of my vacation last October.
My home town, Dublin, is exploding with condo development and traffic jams everywhere you turn. The EU has done wonders for the economy, but real estate and cost of living are through the roof!
I made a list of historic pubs I wanted to visit, and meandered through downtown most days just browsing in bookstores and heading for a glass of Guinness whenever the mood struck me. Heaven! Great visits with aunts, uncles and cousins and a bus trip out to Westport and Cork.

:::

England was lovely, shirtsleeve weather in October (!). Had three days in East Sussex staying with friends in Winnie-the-Pooh country. Absolutely gorgeous. And how about those English trains? The new ones are quite spiffy and very fast. Zoom zoom...

Then four glorious days in London to explore some of the best bits in between visiting long-lost cousins with new spouses and babies. Bought day passes for the bus and Tube and just threw myself into the massive river of humanity, usually at peak times, just to experience the rush and the view from the front seat on top. Got off when something looked interesting. Lots of good places to nosh, explore and just sit and marvel at one of the world's most amazingly huge cities.
See Gallery page for some new pics.

The trip home was so much fun I didn't want to get off in Toronto. My seat-mate was a lovely lady in her late 60s named Grace who was on her way to visit the polar bears in Churchill. We had a great time swapping life stories and drinking the champagne they started pouring before we even left the tarmac at Heathrow... Oh how I love business class. :)

:::

Had ten terrific days in Nashville, which was super-hot (in the high 80s most days) until Wilma sucked all the hot air down south and drew a chilly cold front over Tennessee.
It went down to 45 degrees and the rain started a couple of days before I left. Brrrr. I was very glad I had packed the polar fleece! Check out the new demos and also the Gallery for a few new pics.

Caught the mother of all songwriter rounds at the Bluebird, with

Bob Welch ("Hypnotized")
Roger Cook ("I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing")
Jim Peterik ("Eye of the Tiger")
Chas Sandford ("Missing You")
The lovely Bekka Bramlett got up and blew the roof off the place before they were done.

Wow! Amazing stuff.

It was great to see the #1 video from Montgomery Gentry featuring the
same Takamine guitar as my new road guitar... yummy!

Big shouts to newlywed Jerry Vandiver for taking time out from his busy sked to buy me breakfast and introduce me to Schmooze Central (otherwise known as "Noshville" which serves the finest yummiest fried potato cakes this side of Ireland).

:::

Then it was off to Toronto to visit my most wonderful friend Corrine in her funky little flat above the shops on The Danforth. I snoozed most of the days away, recovering from the jet lag and organizing my massive pile of clothes I never used the whole time. Wound up sending the enormo-suitcase home on the Greyhound. I was not sorry to let that monster go!

Went to see an exhibit about Catherine the Great at the art gallery (since moved to Montreal for Spring 2006). Goodness me, the gilded coronation carriage was quite a stunner. She was the original Queen of Bling-Bling, that is for sure.

:::

Wound up my trip with a couple of days soaking in the hot springs in Banff with my friend Terry. We had been trying to organize this Girlie Getaway since the kids were born, umm, about 16 years ago now. Finally did it! There is absolutely nothing better for a wrecked back than a night-time float in hothot water with snowflakes drifting down onto your face and the Rocky Mountain air in your lungs like drinking in some very fine champagne. Ahhhhhh... God's Country.

Everywhere on this trip I heard the lovely songstress KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and Cherry Tree"
(and I do mean everywhere...). The girl is on fire!

What I've been reading...

The History of the Ginger Man :: J.P. Dunleavy
Born in New York but very much a man of Ireland, Dunleavy wrote a wonderful
book called "The Ginger Man" which I've read so many times my copy is falling apart.
This autobiography has some great inside stories about Brendan Behan
and the rest of the mad intelligentsia who hung out in Dublin in the late 40s and 1950s.
(Plans in the works to do an oral history with my Mum who hung out with them too!)

I actually bought..
Dublin Through Space and Time: Joseph Brady + Anngret Simms, eds.
The first in a series from the most excellent Four Courts Press, a must-have
for anyone interested in the history of Ireland's thumping great heart of a city.

Still nibbling away at...
Gotham (a terrific history book about New York City):: Edwin G. Burrows & Mike Wallace