Road Bowling

Did you know that in Ireland then have a game called "road bowling"?  I kid you not, they all go stand out in the middle of the road and roll a very heavy ball down the street.  They don't put any signs and there is no notification.  You will be innocently driving along and go around a corner to find a group of people (usually all men) standing around with a huge ball.  Apparently there is quite a lot of money in this sport.  The use clumps of grass and dirt to mark the spots where the ball stopped.  Then whomever rolls it the furthest is the winner, or as far as I can tell.  If they ever thought about starting anything like it in the states the cops would be all over you.

Today I went in the ocean.  That's right, on February 19th I went in the Atlantic.  I can't say I went swimming as it wasn't really like that.  Heidi and I walked down to the water straight down from Carbery Cottage.  It's quite rocky down there with no sandy bits.  The tide was out and so we had to walk down where ever we could to get the water.  I then proceeded to strip down to my swimsuit bottoms and a tank top.  The rocks were kinda sharp so I ended up going in with my hiking shoes on.  The waves were rather rough coming onto the rocks which made me nervous about letting go and diving in.  I didn't want to come crashing back on the sharp rocks.  So I devised my brilliant plan: I crouched down on the rock and held on with my hands.  Then when the waves would come in I would stick my head under the water.  I only managed to do this twice before my head went numb.  But I went swimming in the Atlantic in February.  I think that's a pretty awesome accomplishment.  And it wasn't in some lame part like going off of the Caribbean Islands.  No, it was off the coast of Ireland.  Yeah, beat that :)

This past week was pretty busy.  We had a full house on Wednesday just for the one night.  So there was us getting the rooms ready for them to come and then stripping them down after they left.  For me this meant lots of vacuuming, mopping, dusting, making beds, and ironing.  I don't mind doing any of it, I was just bummed I didn't get to go outside. I really like doing the outside work in the fresh air.  It was ok too because we had some horrible rain this week.  Yesterday was especially terrible.  It just poured all morning.  As soon as the sun came out in the afternoon I jumped at the chance to go for a quick walk.  Oh, I just had a poached duck egg for lunch.  That I got out of the duck house this morning.  The duck house is really gross because that's how they like it.  They actually get scared when we put fresh straw in for them.  They enjoy living in their own filth.  This has the unfortunate effect of making their eggs really gross to pick up.  I have to take them in and wash them off as they get horribly covered with their own waste.  But after that they taste delicious.  And no one eats the shell anyways.

This week was really fun.  Heidi and I went out with some locals on Wednesday night and played a lot of pool.  I actually didn't do too bad, i mean I probably sunk at least two balls every game.  Last Sunday was the usual at Eileen's.  She had a really good Scottish guy playing.  He's a local and plays frequently.  I'm excited to see who will be there tomorrow night.  Otherwise the week has been fairly uneventful.  On Monday I am going to stay with Julia's daughter Emma who has an alpaca farm about thirty minutes from here.  She has two little boys name Luca and Reuben.  I am going to go help her and her husband with some outside and inside work.  The boys are 7 and 9 (I'm pretty sure) and love to play games.  I'll be there until Thursday or so.  It will be nice to have a bit of a change in scenery.

On Wednesday I bought my plane tickets to London!  I'm going there from March 17 to the 28.  Then I have a few days free before I go to my other WWOOFing job in April.  I can't wait to see Rachel as i haven't seen her in almost three years.  She is of course having a party to celebrate my arrival two nights after I get there.  It should be a blast!

Ok, well I'm off to finish my book.  Hope everyone is staying sane at home.  Love to you all