We were forced to take a day off today, didn’t really feel like it, but we are at the mercy of the roster planners in Benny’s job for our days off, and this was it. We both get way too melted, working the hours we both do, if we don’t take the breaks when we get them. So we decided to drive up to Donegal, on to Killybegs and up through the Gaeltacht (a totally Irish speaking area) as far as Glencolmcille. To say the scenery was spectacular, honestly, it was out of this world.

The light wasn’t great today, so I didn’t go too mad with the camera, but I grabbed this one of a street in Donegal for your inspection…

The next shot is taken in the Gaeltacht area, rather near where we stopped for our packed lunch and flask of coffee. The mountains in the background are our own Sligo moutains, poor Knocknarea looked so tiny! (That’s the one that we look at out the back of our house).

The next one I took out of the car window, we were near a little town called Cill Chartha.

And this last one was taken around the Glencolmcille area, I nearly froze to death taking this…

And then, in typical Louisian ‘run before you can walk’ fashion, I drove all the way back from Donegal to Sligo. I feel the kind of tiredness I would imagine effects people who have ‘hit the wall’ in marathons. I find the concept of me weilding such a large and fast moving metal death-machine somewhat hard on my nerves. Extremely hard on my nerves, I overthink it really, but, I am what I am, as they say.

Anois, tá tuirseach mór orm, agus leis sin táim ag dul go dtí mo leaba, oíche mhaith mo chairde.*

*Now, there is a large tiredness on me, and because of that, I am going to my bed, good night my friends (direct translation from Irish into English).

P.S. I know I still haven’t said the name, yawn, but I’m still waiting on the domain name registration. Patience, my pretties, patience.

I didn’t get a chance to fiddle with the webcam today, so it’s still sitting by the monitor, staring forlornly at the grain on my desk. You’ll all be the first to know when I finally do get it working.

I was extremely industrious today, I’m not going to go through each and every little thing I ticked off my list, but suffice to say, there’s a lot more bubbling about up there than there was before I started this morning. And so it goes every day that I study about starting a business. As difficult and daunting a task as some of it is, I’d much rather be learning this than relearning how to do any of the jobs I’ve done previously. To say this is nowhere near as tedious is to understate it quite a bit.

Benny went back to work today, I felt so sorry for him. I could not praise him highly enough for his ability to dedicate himself to something he finds so tedious. At least this time around he’s getting financially rewarded for his efforts. The bonus’s etc. that he’s getting now that he’s out of the newbie stage are at least taking some of the sting out of it for him.

Our week together last week has strengthened both of our resolves to make this company a success, we got a taste of being back together, working together and spending time together every day, and it was intoxicating. I think we had forgotten a little just how good it is for us to be in each others presence like that. It wouldn’t work for every couple, but it definitely does for us.

I did make a little progress on the website front today, so hopefully tomorrow I will be able to reveal the name. Again though, it’s genuinely not that exciting. It’s visual, it’s evocative, and it’s simple enough to be memorable, and the decision had to be made when it was made, so we’re happy with it from that perspective. It has some personal resonance for us too, which helps when it is essentially a symbol of our vision for our future.

Anyway, it’s off to bed for us now, we’re going to file some revenue forms tomorrow and take a little car journey, I’ll bring the camera and hopefully get some time to share a little of it tomorrow evening.

Take care all xxx

* I’ll translate that straight off, for those of you not familiar with Irish English – ‘load of me hole’ means something similar to ‘load of shite’. It also denotes extreme irritation by something which you are now utterly fed-the-frack-up with.

So what is the load in question? My new webcam, which clearly, very, very clearly states on the box that it is Vista compliant. But it doesn’t appear to be, because the audio is horrific, it fails to save properly and, it just doesn’t work, ok? And there are no, big fooking surprise, drivers for vista on the website. There are drivers for the model just below it (which was the one I intended on buying but Argos had replaced it with this one in the new catalogue), but none for the one I shelled out for on Saturday. Gah. Large, steaming piles of Gah.

Anyway. It ate up all of my blogging time, and left me with a stay away from the computer taste in my mouth. So we watched a documentary, went through some old photos of Benny’s time in Russia, and now we’re off to bed.

Talk to you all in the ‘morro.

I am nursing a full, full tummy. It is a very happy tummy. I made my ham and egg hash tonight, and it was sensational. The way it works is thus: chop up three medium sized cooked potatoes into biggish dice, about a 100 grams of mild cheddar into dice also, mix together with some diced cooked ham, two small butter softened onions (guess what, diced), with a good splash of Worcestershire sauce, a good blob of ketchup (or tomato relish, or salsa, or whatever you have in the fridge), a sprinkle of beef gravy granules, some chives and a little dash of chilli powder (and the usual salt and pepper).

Spread the mixture onto a shallow baking dish, like the kind of dish you’d use for a quiche (butter it first to stop sticky/burny nastyness). Put it into a hot oven (around 210c) for ten minutes or so (use your own best judgement according to how hot your oven gets), then pat down two little areas on the top with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each. Pour a little butter melted with tabasco on top of them and pop them back in for approx. another 15 minutes. If there are any gooey areas on the top, and you’re like me, and don’t like gooey white on your egg, you can spoon a little of the potatoey goodness onto the wet bit while you’re getting your plates etc. ready. I suppose you could serve it with some crusty bread, or whatever variation of that takes your fancy, but you’ll need a big appetite if you do! All of the quantities are totally up for debate, if your not mad on gooey melted cheese just don’t put too much in. Fabulous. Mmmmmmmmm.

Benny had an unexpectedly pleasant surprise in terms of his bonus this month so we decided to ‘treat’ ourselves to some little housey bits and pieces we’ve been pining for since we got here. I left behind a lot of my cooking utensils with Darren and I’ve been sorely missing my non stick wok-style frying pan since we got here. I got a gorgeous, quite good quality one in Lidl today for ten euros. We also picked up some nifty little ‘breakfast boards’, a pack of six little wooden boards, like small chopping boards that you can use as a ‘plate’ for fruit, toast etc., they were only three fifty, and I usually eat off the board I’ve prepared my toast on, so I thought, why not?

We also picked up a set of cutlery, stainless steel, lovely simple, elegant design, to set a table for six – for only twenty three euros! They were too good to pass up on, we spent ages looking for nice ones when we moved down first (the ones that came with the house were, well, a bit worse for the wear), and found nothing that we liked, at any price. To get the perfect set for twenty three quid, when we spent seventeen on a crappy pack from Tesco that fell apart and started showing bronze patches after three months of use, we’re pretty chuffed. It’s the small things though isn’t it?

I’m in great form this evening (don’t all faint now). I got a bit of time off the computer today, Benny got stuck into the vat and tax research, and figured out which exact equipment he wants for himself, so I got to sit back a little. I enjoyed it immensely. I’m also going to enjoy the next few days – we’re off to Cavan tomorrow morning and then on to Meath the day after for Benny’s friend’s Birthday bash. Needless to say that means I wont be able to post – unless, (and I suppose there’s a possibility, given my level of addiction), I wriggle off down to the internet cafe I used to use when we were living there mid-move.

I had a delicious shower this evening as well, and afterwards re-discovered the sublime pleasure of sprawling on bright blue sheets, under a bright blue sky, letting a sunbeam finish drying off in between my toes. Yum. I was definitely a pussy cat in a past life, in fact, some would say I still am one, just very cunning at disguising it.

I also put on my furriest, warmest, squidgiest socks afterwards, comfort levels are definitely optimised this evening.

I realise how much of a pain in the butt I’m being not revealing the company name, and I’m sorry, I just need to wait until the domain name is registered, and that’s giving me a headache. I should be able to reveal it on Sunday, hopefully we’ll have made up our minds by then.

So now, I’m off to enjoy a pleasant evening of whatever we decide to do, I shall talk to you all again just as soon as I possibly can,

Take care all xxx

Spent a long time today working on business related whoha. It managed to melt all over our evening as well, which isn’t so bad as we’re both taking a little time off over the weekend. I don’t recall anything fascinatingly exciting happening, nor any massively exciting thoughts rampaging through my brain. Starting a business with your partner involves a lot of talking, nothing new to me and Benny as we’re a very talkative pair at the best of times, but there’s so much to cover, so many ideas that have to be bounced back and forth.

We got a great big shop done in Lidl, enjoyed a bit of a debate over ancient aliens – brought on by a documentary we watched, which in itself wasn’t particularly good but got some good dialogue going. He’s downstairs getting the pints of water for bed and the cod liver oil and passiflora ticture – the nightly routine. I forgot to mention I played at being his hairdresser again the other night and the result is exceptionally pleasing to the eye. Well, I always find him pleasing to the eye, but a nice do’ is always good. Well, I hear him taping in the alarm code, so I better rap it up,

nighty nite all, xxx

Wow, I just drove to Rosses Point and back. I’m as high as a kite! That’s the first time I’ve driven at 80 kph, weird, wonderful, scary, nice. I enjoyed it. Didn’t stall once this evening, just a few noisy gear changes and a bit of loud cursing when I realised for the first time how hard it is to keep to 50kph while keeping your eyes on the road at the same time.

Typical me, I picked a wet night to do my first bit of driving outside of the housing estate, didn’t bother me though, but then it wasn’t completely dark, it was that half-hour-after-sunset light.

So, we sent the registration papers off for the company name today. Tomorrow I’ll be establishing the domain name (and hopefully the bare bones of the site) with the aid of the ridiculously helpful and lovely Mick, whom you may have seen commenting here from time to time. Once I have the domain name up, then I’ll reveal all. Damn it though, it’s not even that exciting given all the build up! – I think the real fun part will come when you see the site

As you’ve probably gathered at this stage, we’ve decided to go for the internet shop rather than the bricks and mortar format, for the time being at least. It really makes more sense for the time being, gives me a chance to get to grips with how fast I can produce the goods, and, frankly, whether it’ll sell! Then, once established, we’ll start putting up some of Benny’s stuff, he’ll be working on it at the weekends etc. and depending on how we go, he’ll be looking at taking it up full time too. Eventually we’d love to get a cottage a little out from the town and set up a small studio for to catch some of the touring folks. We’re not greedy really, just enough to live a quiet life of creative fulfilment and each others company. Mmm. That’s the fantasy anyway – no harm in aiming high, so long as your careful I reckon.

Sorry, goo-fest over. What else happened today? Oh yes, we handed 375 euros over to the mechanical men. Never a nice sensation, handing that much money over to someone who puts the phrase ‘you’re fleecing me, arn’t you?’ into your head in such vivid, blaring, surround sound. But such is the price for a new exhaust and timing belt, and the fitting there in, apparently. Thank god Darren’s Dad wrangled such a good price for it, that’s all I’ll say. Combining today’s amount with the initial service it’s now 100 euro over the original maximum amount we had to spend on it back then. Not too bad really, when you consider we really had to buy it as a matter of urgency back then.

I finished Joseph O’ Connor’s Sweet Liberty: Travels in Irish America yesterday, what an excellent book. Joseph O’Connor is one of those authors you feel absolutely confident you’d have a really great session with. He’s the quintessential intellectual, self destructive young Irish male though* – smart as hell and witty with it, pining to be understood and not really knowing how much. My favourite kind as it happens. Read it if you can ever get your hands on it, I broke my bollox laughing the whole way through.

Good day all in all, Mick’s intervention has saved me days of heavy duty research and potentially a fair few bob. We registered the business name, and I drove a good twenty minute round trip. Definitely a good day

*At least he was when he wrote it, late twenties possibly?

We came up with our company name today. Torturous activity, and as anal as it may sound, I’m not giving it away until it’s registered, which we will begin to process tomorrow. We’re both pretty chuffed with it anyway, it was tough coming up with something which covered as much ground as we wanted it to whilst still being memorable and image provoking. It popped into my head when I was lying on the bed in a sunbeam, like the good little pussycat I am.

Oh god have I got kitty fever at the moment. Well, he does too. But this is a no pets house. I reckon I might be able to swing the landlady with my ‘I’m like a professional they way I train them’ line. Well, I amn’t, but I know how to train a puddytat. And there’s no wallpaper for he or she to scratch anyway. It’s horrible to say it, but, the budget would have to be consulted before any decisions like that could be made anyway.

Pleasant day today, a little easier on me than Benny, I’m more used to brainstorming on creative things than he. As I said on the couch earlier, if I had have tried to learn Russian all day I’d probably be feeling something like him. A good deal of the morning was spent bringing him up to date on all my research (via a bit of show and tell in front of the computer), so, again, more info for him to process than me.

We left the car in for it’s exaustoplasty today, dreading the bill, d r e a d i n g it.

And this evening we went for a gigantic walk around the town, something we’ve been meaning to do since we got here, but haven’t really gotten time and/or weather to do up until today. It really is a pretty small town, and so underdeveloped and dilapidated in so many places. We’re here for the scenery and the peace, so it doesn’t really bother us. Still irritating to think of the lack of funding that’s given to the west by the Dublin centric government though.

I left it way too late to write this evening, and I have drank one or two beers, and the brainganglia doesn’t do so well on the beer. It turns down the colour, contrast and volume of my thoughts. Well now, that’s not entirely true, it actually loosens them up a bit, shrugs them off for a play in the light-show of the music I’m listening to. It’s always a light show. But with a few beers it’s a light-show away from me, possibly somewhere above me, or down a few steps to the rear, to the basement of my brain, yep, it might be there, the darkness would show the lights off better. I can truly let the music wash me when I’m relaxed, and in these tense days, a drink or two unwinds the coil.

I’m aware when I’m writing this that someone might have an alco siren going off in their head. I’m aware I’m modifying what I’m saying about it because of that. That’s not really fair, for either of us. I love the freedom alcohol gives me, the various moods it can induce, that’s a gift of a thing if you can control it, like every other high and low of life, if you’re in control, they’re all there for the experiencing, for the enjoying. It’s all about the balance, and I have it, so I’m not going to feel crap about odd time I drink a little more often than normal.

And so to bed, take care all

* The song of that title came on just as I was trying to think of a title for tonight’s post, it is most definitely on my top five songs of all time, the theme tune to many tough times in my life, ‘what is happening to me, crazy some would say, where is my friend when I need you most, gone away. But I wont cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world, somehow I have to find, and as I try to make my way to the ordinary world I will learn to survive….’ (lyrics by Duran Duran)

I forgot to mention yesterday that the exhaust fell off the car. I had it booked in to the garage for Monday morning anyway so the timing wasn’t bad. Fingers crossed that a) it doesn’t take to long to get a replacement in, and b) that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Other than that I have absolutely nothing to say for myself today. I am paying for the beers. A lot. In fact, writing this much has required a huge effort of will. I was actually yawning the whole way through typing that sentence, I’m going to go and curl up on the couch again. If I can get up the energy to get off the chair. Which could well be beyond me. Wish me luck… *heeeeeeave, groan, stretch, yawn, whimper, thud, and repeat*

I found that out, plus a whole load of other stuff earlier on today. Thoughts have been flying, Benny has been caught up in them. Several million beers on the deck later, we’re finishing off in the av room, things are looking good though. We have focus for next week while he’s off. It’s all good, and we’re listening to Andy McKee again, so it’s hard not to feel energised and at peace simultaneously. Will be back tomorrow, take care xxx

Today, come hell or high water, I’m going to figure out whether the Epson r1800 or 1400 is the machine for me. I’m up, I’m set, this is my pep talk. If the internet breaks later, it was me, I googled too much.