Ireland and beyond...

Got back from Ireland on Friday morning, it was a supprisingly good holiday actually, I was expecting to be sitting around the hotel, wandering the streets and trailing behind my parents as they went house-hunting over there. More or less as soon as I arrived we had a phonecall from my mum's cousin to say that their daughter (my second-cousin) had been planning a night out in Westport for me to come along to. This showed a new side to Westport that I've not seen before, a nightlife that doesn't involve two pubs full of creepy old men. Instead there are a host of new vibrant bars, clubs and pubs filled with younger generations. Sure there were still the odd creepy people there, but they didn't bother us too much. I discovered Bulmers Cider (sold as Magners over here) as a good refreshing drink, depite me not liking 'ordinary' ciders.
I didn't take many photos, but there is an 'Éire 2006' set on Flickr you may want to browse.

Tomorrow I'm off to Somerset with a University field trip. It's probably going to suck since it's a Geology field trip. I just know I'll be following our slightly-alcoholic lecturer around the Mendips looking at rocks. Nevermind, I'm sure we'll make our own fun.

Couple of things

Not really got much to say, still in Liverpool over the Easter holidays. Avoiding revision, trying to get as much time in the Land Rover as possible, learning a few new recipes to cook when I go back down to London.
Saw a friend's band the other Saturday night in the Magnet on Hardman Street. The gig was good, they've improved their live act since I saw them a few years ago. Probably going to see them again this Thursday at (i think) Bar Hannah down the road from Magnet.
Anyway, off to Ireland on Friday with parents, they are house hunting, I'm going to enjoy the Guinness and get out and about with my camera weather permitting. After that I'm off to Cheddar in Somerset for a week's field trip for College. I've heard reports from people that it isn't too bad compared to last year's field trip. Seems to be a fair amount of freedom, I'm looking forward to pubbing it with coursemates again.

On another topic, Apple's Boot Camp looks pretty neat. In a nutshell it is Apple's official patch that allows Windows XP to be installed on the new Intel Macs. It works by allowing a partition to be created non-destructively on your Intel Mac and allows you to install Windows XP on it, then when starting up your Mac, holding down the Option/Alt key will show a new bootloader allowing you to choose which OS you want. In my opinion there is no real choice, it's OS X all the way, but there are some of those Counterstrike junkies that need their fix even after getting a Mac. I don't have an Intel Mac, if I'd waited a month or two before getting my iMac G5, I could have got a swishy new Intel iMac, but Apple refused to give a definate date of release, so I missed out. G5 iMacs will be supported for a good few years yet so I'm not too bothered.

Planet Earth is cool, the BBC really know how to make documentaries. The Photography (or is it filmography when on TV?) anyway, the shots they take are fantastic. Some take months of waiting and tracking of the subject before a 5 second sequence can be recorded. For one shot of some Camels in the Gobi desert the film crew walked over 100 miles following several of the total 200 of these camels across one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. It makes you feel guilty for not watching it knowing how much trouble people have been through to film it. At least they'll have enough stock material to last a few hundred years!