Ireland words & pics 2

My own brain is a mystery to me. All morning, The Spice Girls' 2 Become 1 has bounced around in my head. I've never owned a Spice Girls song. I don't know how on earth I was exposed to this particular track for long enough to be able to run lyrics in my brain. And more importantly, I don't know what it means (the fact that it's in my head, I can work out what the lyrics mean, honest). Not that it has to mean anything, it could just be a couple of synapses on loop. But we're compelled to search for meaning in mystery and this, for me, is a bit of a mystery. The cure, however, is simple: decent music from a far removed genre. A little De La Soul should the trick.

Anyway, Ireland. The guys picked me up in Cork, late I may add - due to golfing, and we headed towards the town of Kinsale, heaving with the celebrations of the Cork Jazz Festival. This was Halloween. Kinsale's nestled in a small natural harbour on the South coast - beautiful but it was dark, so no pics unfortunately. It was the first time I'd seen James Wicken since he graduated in '98 - 7 years is far too long to be away from friends. He's lookin' well though and doing his bit to save the world by working for WaterAid.That's James in Lill's, the local local pub, where the old men looked upon our reunion revelries with humbug disapproval. We didn't mind too much as we still got the typical Irish lock-in. The dark curtains go down for when the cops drive by and we all just continue drinking. Very civilized.Life in the flat in Castletownsend was fantastic. Sort of like having a big flat at university but with more energy and less sleeping in. The days were spent golfing by some (not me) and sightseeing by others. The end of the day was spent chilling out in the living room. On the last night in Castletownsend myself and Luke cooked up a feast - the ultimate chicken & mushroom pie - we even made little pastry Guinness pints (see on the right side of the pie?).

We decided to shoot off north a day early, to take in the Ring of Kerry (well worth it, though requiring its own post). I like these last two shots: the first is a ruined cottage right next to the town house where we were staying. Ireland is full of beautiful, decaying cottages while hideous new builds go up everywhere. It's very sad. The last shot is the exit from behind our townhouse on to the one main road in Castletownsend. It really was an amazing wee town. I'll probably put up a few more pics of it later.