Mistaken Identity!

After a couple of days of our new rooster's hen-pecked performance, we decided to check him out in more detail only to discover that Reginald was actually Regina. It turned out that Pat - who had supplied the rooster - was in a bit of a rush that morning and picked up the wrong bird.

All was put right this afternoon when we returned Regina to her flock and picked up Rocky and introduced him to the Hockey Girls. No messing this time -Karen pecked at him once and he grabbed her by the back of the neck and Wham, Bang, Thank you Mam!! Then off to strut his stuff around the pen, and see if any of the others were interested.

Still on Calf watch and despite regular checks, went down this morning to find that the second cow had calved on her own without any problem while the last of the ewes had just started to lamb - luckily Keith arrived before I had to get my hands dirty!

Along with the day old chicks and the ducklings which arrive on Friday it is a busy place at the moment - helps to keep one's mind off the economy and another bloody war.

Another addition to the CV!

As we sat in the sunshine with our mid-morning coffee (it was 15C by 11.30), Keith called to tell me that one of his cows was about to calf and did I want to watch.

Within 5 mins I was in the cowshed - sleeves rolled up, blood, shit and afterbirth everywhere -helping to get the calf jack in place to help the poor cow deliver a very large calf which had started in an awkward position. Not sure how to describe this new skill on my CV but it was a challenging 20 minutes or so. The calf was a heifer which is good news - worth a lot more than a bull calf - and seemed in good health - it was so big with such long spindly legs that it was having trouble standing to feed. As a result, I spent half hour this evening bottle-feeding it as Keith was hand-milking the mother.

As if that wasn't enough for one day, our new rooster arrived today as well. A very smart speckled Maran cockerel who seemed very sure of himself - until he met the hockey girls!!

They seemed less than impressed and gave him a very hard time -Karen in particular was very agressive.

However by bedtime they were a little more accommodating and allowed him into the henhouse. Hope they are all well when I go to feed them in the morning.

Had originally planned to name him Rocky after the hero of Chicken Run but given his performance today, Linda has decided to call him Reginald.

Don't know how I cope with such stressful days - and Keith has two more cows which should calf in the next day or so.

Spring is definitely here

Wednesday 23rd March - 16C at Moyhill this afternoon and the weather is settled until the weekend at least. Pity its still snowing in Toronto


Have been getting the veg plot ready for planting and digging a new plot for the potatoes and Jerusalem Artichokes. Linda ordered a variety of seeds and tubers from Irish Seed Savers before we left and they were here waiting for us when we got home - all we have to do now is plant them!


The hens have settled in well and the egg production is back to normal. We are getting a rooster this week to keep the girls happy and ensure that we don't sleep too late in the morning. If he is too noisy he will probably end up in the pot.


We are planning to raise some goats for meat this year and will probably raise some hens and ducks for the freezer as well. Could be tempted to try another couple of pigs but we still have at least half a freezer of pork to get through before I dare suggest this.


So life is back to normal - had our first Burren walk - on the green road at Fanore - on Monday and managed to spot some of the earliest wild flowers although the atlantic winds were a little cooling.

St Patrick's Day

This time last year we were at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun with our Canadian friends and their kids for St Patrick's Day. It rained from dawn until dusk and the entertainment team worked very hard to keep us amused with green beer, dancing competitions, Irish quizzes and a variety of games. After the evening karaoke (did we really sing Hotel California??) I somehow ended up in the mirror pool in the lobby with a 6ft 2in mexican leprechaun on my shoulders and still managed to stumble through the beach disco - although my drinking buddy Mark sloped off early to bed (lightweight)!

This year was a little less lively - champagne, guinness and the Ennis St Patrick's Day parade - but still good fun and in brilliant sunshine.

We brought the hockey girls home last night and I was welcomed this morning with 3 fresh eggs - we thought it would take time for them to settle in but apparently not.

Moyhill - at last

After 69 days travelling, we made it home to Moyhill yesterday afternoon - according to my notes we have packed and moved on 31 times, been on 9 flights, 8 ferries, 3 trains, 2 long- distance buses, 8 minibuses, 26 assorted taxis, songthaews, tuktuks etc. and visited 7 countries - it's good to be home!

Back in Blighty

Gales HSB, Whitebait, Steak & Kidney pudding, Shrove Tuesday pancakes - and that was just one meal!! After 8 weeks travelling in the East, there are certain things which are very welcome.

While Linda is in Scotland where it snowed on March 9th, I am in Port Solent - sunshine and 12C - helping my folks look for a new home as the town house is no longer a viable option. After a couple of 'read my lips' conversations with estate agents we managed to view about 8 properties in two days only to agree that the first one we saw was the ideal place.

Now we are faced with the challenge of English house purchase and conveyancing practices - I hate to admit that the Scottish system is better - but it is! Luckily I remember how to play the game so hope to work it to our advantage particularly since the agents seem less than the smartest people I have come across!

Just realised that this time last year we were arriving for our all-inclusive holiday in Cancun with Linda's BMW driving, CC&Coke drinking banker cousin and family and friends. Don't even need to look at the photos to remember what a good time we had - but I am still looking forward to getting back to Moyhill on Sunday.

Stocking up

After a day in London to catch up and change from summer to winter clothes - it was below freezing on our first morning - we decided to pop over to Reims to pick up some champagne - our supplies having reached danger level. Great deal from Eurotunnel - £40 return - and a clear drive to the terminal meant that we arrived early only to find that the service was disrupted. Despite initial fears of a 3-4 hour wait, we managed to get on the shuttle just over an hour late - thanks to all those daytrippers who decided to cancel and take the refund.

Since it is three years since our last 'champagne run' we decided to head straight for our favourite Cave only to find that they no longer produce our 'house' champagne. This of course meant that we had to start from scratch -tasting as many as we could - trying to find a replacement. Think I managed 17 tastings before I realised it would probably be better to get the car to the hotel car park before I had any more!

Reims has changed quite a bit in the last three years - they have managed to complete the installation of a new tram system which wasn't even started when we were last here. Perhaps they could offer some advice to Edinburgh City Council.

Thanks to our sterling tasting efforts we managed to select a new 'house' champagne, loaded up the car on Sunday morning and headed back to Calais with enough time to allow us to stop and buy a few bottles of wine as well. Less than 27 hours on French soil and back in London in time to reorganise and pack again ready for our separate trips to Edinburgh and Port Solent this morning.

Heading Home

Despite an evening arrival in Bangkok, we still managed to get to our hotel within 2 hours of touching down - pity we couldn't manage the same at Heathrow. We only had time for dinner, sleep, repacking - again - and breakfast before we headed back to the airport and our EVA air flight to Heathrow.

Didn't seem to be so many packs of single men on the return journey and the dayflight was relatively painless - even managed to watch a couple of movies. Unfortunately our arrival at Heathrow confirmed why it is an airport to be avoided at all times. It took us 60 minutes from landing to make it to the immigration desk - huge number of UK and EU citizens being herded around like cattle in a terminal which is always like a construction site. At least - I thought - our baggage would be waiting for us when we had been processed by the Border Agency officer who could neither smile or respond while examining my passport. I felt a degree of pity for the weegie at the next desk who had drunk at least half of his litre of duty free vodka and greeted the officer with a cheery 'all right pal, how's it going' and then couldn't understand that he was supposed to hand over his passport. There was still no sign of him in the baggage hall 20 minutes later when our bags finally appeared.

Next year we will have to find a better route which allows us to avoid Heathrow altogether!

Penang

With a couple of days to spare, we decided to stay in the heart of Georgetown which - despite the major changes to the surrounding city - seemed largely unchanged from my only previous visit in 1976!

This is our third World Heritage Site of the trip and it seems to be a much better example for how such sites should be managed than those in Laos.

The Yeng Keng Hotel was converted from an early Anglo-Indian bungalow which was owned by the President of the nearby mosque. It was refurbished in 2008 and opened last year and it is without doubt the best hotel we have stayed in on our trip. It is situated in the heart of Georgetown and has been retained many of the original features of the 19th Century building - they also added modern bathrooms, AC and a large plunge pool which is unusual for a city centre boutique hotel. They also had some of the friendliest staff that we have encountered.

We both enjoyed Georgetown - it brought back memories for me of Singapore when I first worked there in 1975 - not least because of the food - nasi lemak, roti canai, assam laksa, malabar fish curry and many more washed down with Anchor beer and followed by ice kacang

Our last week

Before we left London we had decided to spend our last week at the beach and took up a very generous offer from David (my cousin)and Laurie to stay with them at their new home on Langkawi.

Not sure if they expected us to stay for so long but they were very hospitable and in addition to sharing their fabulous new home also took us around the sights of the island and also for an overnight trip on their yacht to one of the nearby islands.

With plenty of cold beer, a pool in the heart of the house and a 42inch HD tv to watch the 6 Nations it was as close to paradise as I can imagine. We had a wonderful time doing very little, relaxing by the pool and wondering what the weather was like at Moyhill!

It is less than 2 weeks until we will be home and I think Linda has already started making lists of what we need to do. We left Langkawi this morning for a couple of days in Penang on our way back to Bangkok and our flight home.

Old Friends

We had arranged to be in Bangkok to meet with Jimmy C and Mrs C - Barbican neighbours who spend each February on Koh Samui. Leaving Jimmy to organise a night out is always a risk - no matter how enjoyable - as he has the capacity to consume copious amounts of alcohol to no apparent effect.

Having travelled to Thailand for more than 15 years he certainly knew all the best places to drink and has figured out a 24 hour happy hour routine by moving from place to place! Luckily we were all on relatively good behaviour and managed two consecutive nights out without casualties although we did manage to set a new record bar bill for the trip - despite the happy hour prices!

The road to Bangkok

Our journey from Don Khong involved a short long boat ride across the Mekong followed by a minibus to Pakse Bus Station - very strangely our driver refused at first to stop at the bus station for us and insisted that he would only drop us in the town centre. Then when I offered him small tip to change his mind he agreed but refused the tip - very Lao?

The VIP bus service to Ubon Ratchatani (in Thailand) is run by a Thai/Lao joint venture and unfortunately we ended up on bus no 2 which was the Lao contribution -not the safest nor the most comfortable 2 hours on the road. When we reached the border we were turfed off the bus to walk through the two immigration offices and across the border and a clear demonstration of the difference between the economies of the two countries.

The bus station at Ubon was very busy and a long way from the town centre. We avoided the entreaties of the Tuktuk drivers and picked up an airconditioned pickup truck for the journey to the hotel. Ended up with dinner in the hotel - which was surprisingly good - as we couldn't find anywhere else open on Sunday night. In addition to the great food we had a great conversation with a French couple who had been on the same bus from Laos. He was a diplomat - currently stationed in Bangladesh - who had first been posted to Laos in 1975 just as the communists took over. They had some amusing stories about the changes they had seen and we had a very entertaining evening.

Taxi ride to the airport the next morning and our first AirAsia flight which left ahead of schedule, got us to Bangkok on time and a very speedy taxi trip meant we were in time for lunch. A 24 hour journey whic included 7 different vehicles - would have been easier to fly direct from Pakse but the Lao airline ticket prices were five times those of AirAsia and we'd have missed all the fun of the border crossings!

Si Phan Don - 4000 islands

The number of islands varies with the season - and the height of the Mekong - but there are definitely thousands of them. We stayed on Don Khong - the largest one - not as popular as Don Khon and Don Det but definitely a great place to relax. Mr Pon's Guesthouse was our home for 5 days and I think we ate in his restaurant at least 5 times. Don Khong is very relaxed and most visitors are there for a day or so on their way south to the smaller islands which attract mostly backpackers.

We managed one day trip by boat to see the waterfalls at Somphamit and Khon Phapheng which prevented the French from developing a trade route to China along the Mekong in the 19th Century and a couple of cycle trips around the island but otherwise managed to relax on the riverside deck at the guesthouse.

On our trip to Don Khon we discovered that Elvis is alive and well and travelling in Laos while our fellow travellers complained that the noodles that they had for lunch must have been made with 'virtual' chicken since there was no obvious sign of the real thing. We have met quite a few interesting people on our travels and the German man who joined us on this trip was full of stories of his 30 years of travelling in Thailand and Laos - he has enjoyed it so much that he is planning to retire to Northern Thailand because his pension will go a lot further there than in Munich and the opium is cheaper! There was also a Dutch couple, a pair of Belgians and a Swedish backpacker who all ended up with us at Mr Pon's restaurant for dinner when we got back - think this was the biggest bar bill of our trip (at least until we meet Jimmy C!)