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| Friday, 16-Dec-2005 00:00 |
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Mozambique Holiday
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Cleaning prawns
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My Sea Pike @ 6kg
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Me & Jean with our new fish species shot
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Us with the resorts' chef - regular fish buyer
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Rob's King fish
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Me cleaning & filleting my fish
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Fish market - local buyers wanting fish 4 christmas
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View from our chalet
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Another shot of the awesome view
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Jean and Rob invited me to join them on their annual Mozambique holiday - thanks!
Spearfishing and relaxing was the main order of everyday. I am still a beginner and learning but managed to shoot 4 fish, but only land 2 on the boat. Largest and first was a Sea-Pike weighing 6kg, second a Cuta around 2.5-3kg!!! Small I know but shows how accurate my aim is......
Weather was ok. Sea was rough on most days - not the expected dam-like calm! But managed to have a few good days at sea. Rob and Jean shot some almighty fish and plenty of them. Rob was dubbed the King of King Fish as he always managed to shoot some big ones with us not even spotting them on most of the occassions.
Otherwise I managed to fit in one scuba dive and saw some really cool things like Pineapple fish, Ghost Pipe fish, paper fish etc.... I injured myself trying to load my spear gun (bruised my chest) so kinda did girly things for the rest of the holiday that did not involve jumping around or breathing deeply. Muscles still recovering!!!
A hectic cyclone managed to chase us home towards the end with gale force winds blowing rain and sand everywhere. Our chalet got soaked to the bone (rather wood) all our stuff got wet, dirty and sandy. Drove us to pack up in these hectic conditions just to get out of there and on our way home. Worried that the rivers might flood and consequently get stranded in Mozambique until the waters receed. Rivers were not flooding at the time so made it home.
We also took a day's break from spearfishing and went bird watching in some native forest (inland about 3 hours) and I managed to see some cool birds. Rob saw 2/3 new ones - hectic for him as he has seen almost all birds to be seen in southern Africa. I managed to glean 11 new birds from the whole holiday. Even the ellusive Narina Trogen!!!!!
All in all a great time was had by all.....Hope you guys like the pics.
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| Wednesday, 23-Nov-2005 12:00 |
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SCOTLAND TOUR.....
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Old Edinburgh
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Edinburgh Castle - Scot statue
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Edinburgh Castle
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Edinburgh Castle - Church with war heroes
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Very, very cold!!!
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Christmas celebrations - switching on the lights festival
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| Friday, 4-Nov-2005 00:00 |
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Carron's Visit to Ireland!!!!
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Carron came over from London to come and spend some time with Jen and I. It was really great to see her and we all three had a really great week-end (even though I was getting sick!!!). Carron - you look fantastic and I really like what you did to your hair!!!
I met Carron at the Spire on friday night and we went back to my place to chill and relax and catch up a bit. Carron was really tired from a hectic week at work so just wanted to relax and have an early night - suited me cause I was getting sick and had a really sore throat - hardly slept a wink that night!!!!
Carron and I did a city tour the following day - Jen was working until early afternoon. We went and saw some of Dublin city's popular sites such as Christ Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral (went inside and it was really beautiful), Guinness Store House - just skipped the reading part and headed straight up to the top for our pint of Guinness. Carron doesn't like it at all and pulled such a funny face of disgust! So I drank about half of the pint and some coke and we then moved on to the next stop. We were interested in going to the zoo but it costed too much and would have taken to much of our precious time! So we had lunch at a really nice little place inside Phenix Park.
Then it was off to Dublin Castle for a guided tour which was really great and interesting. Got to see Dublin's second river the Black Poddle (if memory serves me correctly) underneath the castle, which kinda dried up and got pushed down to the water table when they built the city.
Then we met up with Jen and headed off to my place so that I could get dressed and ready for work - no one could replace me and I had to go even though I really did not want too, and felt really bad and sick by now. On the way to work we stopped off at Mc Donalds (dreadful I know but Jen and Carron really felt like some of that food.....). I then went off to work. Jen and Carron were supposed to meet up with me after work to go out to some local pubs etc, but work ended really late (2am) - Murphy's Law and Jen and Carron had settled at Jen's place and just wanted to chill and go to sleep. A bit disappointed but probably all for the best cause I was really, really sick now!!!!
I caught a cab to Jen's place and we all three stayed over together. Got up fairly late and decided to go and have a traditional Irish breakfast in a small bakery/breakfast place near the city centre (spire). Really good food! We then walked up to Grafton street to show Carron the shopping streets and some more of the city. Then wondered back through Temple Bar and took a break in a really nice ice-cream and milkshop cafe - was really good to sit for a while. Then we were off to find the "Hags with the Bags" and take a pic of us with them. We had just been to the Molly Malone statue dubbed the "Tart with the Cart" by the locals.... She sold shell fish and fish by day and did "other" things at night!!!!
Then back to my place to chill and chat until it was time to take Carron back to the airport. Played around in the bus a bit!!!
It was great catching up and seeing each other again.
We miss you Carron and look forward to seeing you again. God bless and all the best for 2006!!!!
Vics
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| Wednesday, 12-Oct-2005 00:00 |
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Penney's Coat!
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Really warm (slightly padded) and comfy. It does have a zip up the front and the funny button things over the zip - seems like this style of buttons is the in thing cause most jackets/coats have them.
Only cost €20!
Hey Sam and Mom, please let me know if you like your coats! If not I will return them and continue the hunt for another.
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| Wednesday, 5-Oct-2005 00:00 |
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Guided hiking in the Wicklow Mountains
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Hi everyone, been a long time since I updated my webpage.
Today I went hiking in the Wicklow mountains with 6 other guest and a proffesional hiker/guide of the area. We had people in our group from Canada (Sandra & Fred), Kate (Norway), Sue (England), Anna (Australia), Erin (Alaska) the guide (Andrew) Irish and me (South African)! Cool mix.
We started out from the Wicklow way lodge and headed out for what was to be appoximately 6 hours of hiking. We first came across Lough Dan - beautiful inland glacial lake (contains the only population of Arctic Charr - type of Salmon, waterlocked in Ireland).
One of the farmers, whoes land we crossed, is doing some cool conservation by fencing some areas of his property to keep out sheep and Red Deer to increase the chances of Horse Cheasnut and some other local native trees re-establishing! There is quite a bit of Rhoderdendron around in the lower reaches, alien and taking over the disturbed areas. Doesn't sound like Ireland has an active program to remove these aliens - however they are doing some stuff out west where it is pretty bad. Pitty the majority of action only takes place when the problem becomes a serious one!!
We then climbed up and around Brown Mountain and across a sadle to Cannturk on which we had lunch! The air up there was pretty chilly and we managed to find a outcrop of rock behind which to find shelter for lunch. Packed lunch (included in the trip) was a really nice roll (ham, cheese & tomato), excellent soup, small tub of yoghurt, chocolate muffin & bar and a toffee sweet! We then headed off to climb our highest peak, Scarr Mountain at 641m! On the way we saw Glanmacnass waterfall across on the next mountain slope. The views from Scarr peak were amazing to say the least. We had excellent Irish weather, a bit overcast with the sun popping out occassionally while we were on top! Coming down was better as we warmed up and the wind dropped!
The moutains in Wicklow are predominantly blanket bog land - very squishy and mucky!!! We found a cool example of Spahgnum bog moss, Sundew plants (adapted to life in the bog by becoming insectivorous), and some dying bog cotton.
Hope you guys like the pics.
Vics
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| Sunday, 10-Jul-2005 00:00 |
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Shopping in Dublin with Jen
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Jen came to sleep over last saturday night. It was so great to chat to someone who speaks the same language as you. We blabbered on all night and all of sunday while shopping for some stuff. Jen wanted to get specifics like black pants and shoes needed for work, while I just went along. I ended up buying alot of stuff and Jen only a bag and shorts (really nice ones).
What I bought:
1) Really nice black flared skirt - gypsy style & white strappy top (expensive but looked really nice and I liked it a lot) & black slip on shoes that are really comfortable and to go with skirt.
2) Black shirt that does not need ironing - ment to look creased - suits me just fine.
3) Nice black going out top with beaded detail - kinda looks like something from the east - very nice.
4 & 5) Another going out strappy top. Shades of green.
6) Another, meant to look creased, green and white shirt. My new black jacket over my shoulder.
7, 8, 9 & 10) My very cool and very warm black jacket (also available in white). Padded jacket, very comfortable, looks stylish and very warm - good for winter. Not waterproof so more of a fashion jacket on cold but rainless nights/days.
11 & 12) Jen's cow socks she bought a while ago - she was having fun.
Please only look at the clothes. My hair is terrible and I am not very photogenic. So there - concentrate on clothes!!!!!!
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| Friday, 8-Jul-2005 00:00 |
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Pasta Fresca - my cashier job!
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One of the Chefs
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Piotr (P), Agnas (P), Andrea (I), Elaine (Ir); ??; Chef (I), Me
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Luca & Me at my station - He missed the earlier photo shoot
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I went into work today for the lunch shift. Usually lunch is quite - evenings are really busy and caotic. I took some pics of the people I work with - the majority are polish or italian but all speak english very well. There are three managers - Elaine (Irish); Sandro (Italian) and Rafal (I think polish). Today Elaine was on duty - she is really cool and always friendly, laughing and smiling - don't quite know how she does it - she has some really good pep up pills she takes for energy (will get you some mom - try them out) - perhaps that is why - or she could just be in a good mood cause she was going on a date tonight.
Here they are (P - Polish; I - Italian; Ir - Irish; ?? - don't know his name - think he is polish). Will take more at a later stage.
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| Wednesday, 6-Jul-2005 00:00 |
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My room and flat mates!
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This is my room and my flat mates. Will try to take some better ones later. Just to give you an idea. My room is pretty large with built in cupboards, a bed with a nice mattress, huge table (used for everything) and tables and a hideous sofa/chair thing. I gave my selves to my flat mates cause they did not have enough clothing space so my table is my desk and dressing table (corner by the window). None of the doors stay open by themselves, you have to wedge something under them - really annoying. The kitchen and bathroom are small but nice. Kitchen has everything except a microwave, which is fine the oven works well to heat up things. The bathroom has a shower and a bath - huge bonus!!!!
Jana is from the Czech republic and Chris from France. They are really cool and we all get on well together. Hopefully Chris will teach me some french but he wants to speak english all the time to improve his skills. Told him he will have to reply in english and me in french - then we both learn. Jana and I also want to go over to france with him when he goes home once a month. He said we could stay at his place (he has his own apartment) and he will show us around - cool hey. Just have to save some money - get a visa and decide on a date and we're off.
All the pics of me in black are of me in my restaurant clothes - dress code = all black!!!! Check out my cool new black pants, shoes and jersey - not good pictures of me though - not the most photogenic in the world - in fact I deleted a few of me.
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| Tuesday, 28-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Night out drinking Guinness!!!!
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I met up with a couple of girls in the hostel and we decided we needed to go out and have a guinness, one of the girls was leaving the next day and she hadn't had one yet. Soooo out we went - Jo (Australian - studying to be high school teacher), Nara (Brasilian - also studying in London business stuff), Amy (I think that's her name - USA - working on cruise ship that docked in Ireland), Reshila (Indian living in London studying to be a primary school teacher). We had a great time and then managed to persuade a bouncer to let us in the back way to the dancing club. We danced to a few songs and then called it a night - was never intended to be a long one as some had to get up early to do some last minute sight seeing and get to the airport.
Guinness is actually not that bad, I quite like it, however would only be able to drink one pint in one night. 1/2 pint is more like it. BUT I had a whole one!!!!!
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| Thursday, 9-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Polo Wicklow 6 June - 19 June
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Recent crop of new foals
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Going to get the horses in the morning
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Leading at least 4 at a time
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This is some of polo wicklow. The horses are great and the grooms (all spanish) are also cool although we barely understand each other.
Daily activities: Get up around 7:45am and go and fetch the horses from the field (4 at a time). They sleep out at night during summer. We then have to excercise them - which entails riding one and leading 3 others!!! Hectic - you have to canter for 30 min straight with all three other horses trotting next to you. If they have to play a match the same day or played the day before you have to walk them for one hour. Then I had to clean tack, stables and make sure everything is organised. Lunch for 2 hours - more for the horses I think than the grooms. After lunch we have to excercise them again! Put the stables up to dry them overnight and take the horses out into the field.
Wicklow is very green. There are trees and bushes surrounding almost every field! It looks really beautiful, especially on a nice sunny day! You could see the sea from the top field where we excercised the horses. Really nice. They have 7 wind mill type constructions far out to sea - probably for wind generated energy??? Don't really know. The town is cool, small but ok, kinda like Bredasdorp back home. Nothing really to do except go to the one club that all the young people hang out at. They also have a really old jail - the main tourist attraction of the town. Will go on the tour when I start making some money! Looks really interesting with actors and all.
Well that's about all for the horse riding job and Wicklow for now. Apparently there are some nice hikes and walks in the mountains here so I will definitely be back for that.
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Good luck with the learning french! 
