Green is BACK

Well - after 5 years - I am back in Galway.

Apt that I should have created a video piece that uses the pretty city as a backdrop.

This time in Galway has been very different for a number of reasons

one of which is I now talk to homeless people here.

This music video is entered into Moby's competition on genero tv (a website that runs comps for anyone to make music videos for up and coming or established artists) - for his latest single Wait For Me. Vote for it here : http://genero.tv/watch-video/3650

Jacarandas

I don't know if its the jacaranda's but my hayfever has retutrned since i got home. on a brighter note i've enjoyed the weather..no thats a lie - it was 36 degrees yesterday and i was thoroughly incapacitated. but it was worth the long journey to come home - not that i had a choice of course i would have been deported if i had stayed in the UK any longer.

i am glad to be back in g'town, but i have no friends here. actually that is also not quite true. i have people i know through theresa - a lot of people, and aman who used to live next door - i have seen more of him but of course he also knows theresa better. so since i've been back i have been designated driver twice - have gone out twice and have had a good time as well as a cigarette and nothing else hangover. its appaling this smoking inside - really it is.

i hope to catch up with a few people in cape town when i get down there quite soon - i'll be in touch about that. tried to write an article for the latest laugh it off annual - but am only surviving the experience because theresa is editing is for me. my problem is that since there is so much i could say about ireland (and i would say it better than write it) its hard to focus on one thing without trying to explain how great the beaches are and how weird the language sounds and how cool their sport is.

hope to see you soon, whoever you are

x
clea

night ut in london

hello! this is really the last installemnt of my affairs overseas - and i don't think this blog ever really caught on - however who can blame people when i had subject titles as enthralling as "sunday." and worse still if it continues back home it'll all be "jobless" "jobless" but no actually i am positive about all that - obviously since its the start of it all anyway - and with that happening - the holidays and beach time - me sorting out all my photos and trying to make sense of the bollywood - learning new editing software and brainstorming a cooking program with theresa - possibly actually writing these short stories i want to write - and job hunting job hunting jobhunting - which i've now had more experience with since being in ireland - it can only be an interesting time-plus i'll be practising my driving and going to the gym -you know me - it could very likely happen- which is maybe a bit more concrete than vague ideas about filming - but i suspect it will all happen in good time.

i had a good time - i am still having a good time - tomorrow night i'm being treated to a hotel room and dinner from my generous uncle who's working in london at the moment! i mean the good times continue - and i am looking forward to seeing fmaily - filming in g'own hitting the beaches and career ladder - its all important to celebrate it now whilst i am still young and hopeful.

i just want things to be going well for everyone you know?

edinburgh

yes for all of you who didn't have a single word to say about my french travels - i am now in edinburgh where you can speak the language - so act surprised damnit! its my most impulsive move to take!

i am here for two nights at a hostel called castle rock - its right by the castle. tomorrow i get a free walking tour of the royal mile - whatever that is.

it took 7 and a half hours to get here by bus the same or even more as it takes to get to london - ahh well - after sleeping on a flat futon my back was well prepped for the journey.

have been staying at my aunt lynne's in yorkshire, wakefield - and my cousin oll came up from manchester with me on the train and we had a birthday dinner for him with his brother phil but his new wife helen had a migraine unfort. so i haven't seen her yet and unless i make a trip up to leeds...

oll stayed till this morning so it was cool to hang out with him for a few days even if we were a little bored in good ol wakey.

am reading a book set in edinburgh on lynnes advice - and its her book - the philosophy club by alexander macaul smith - hopefully i won't have much time to read it if you know what i mean.

so apparently i am mad not to have gloves, newcastle is as rough as a badger's behind and never go into the rose and crown there as you may end up seeing things.

ahhh england (yes i know i am in scotland now) i saw a kid leave the train station with his dad - he throws his empty drink bottle onto the pavement with glee. no, son, a policeman might fine you. he walks over to a garbage man - please sir, ever so polite, can i put this in your black plastic bag?

it got dark at 4:30 - by 5 it was pitch black. its all very well being dark at 5pm, but to see the stars in the afternoon? thats a bit weird.

details of france

so as an aid to helping me remember what i did in france - now and in the future - ! i'll give you a brief day by day report...

Thursday: Ryan air is delayed again - not serious. beauvais airport like a shed but serves its purpose - also the hour trip to paris goes through pretty fields. french fields are different from irish fields (well illustrated from the height of an aeroplane)
they are smoother and more colourful - irish fields are smaller, stragglier but much greener. after negotiatingthe metro i had an OJ and then met up with jan at his apartment. had the best introducion ever to france as got to visit an episerie - a huge supermarket deli like place filled with amazing products - ended up eating apricot cheese on baggettes and drinking red wine (finally some wine!) started rezding henry miller's sexus as was tired to hit to the town.

Friday: Visited Musee D'Orsay - lots of impressionism which suited me - and the Louvre althought i decided no to go into the exhibitions as i thought they wouldn't actually interest me - so i went on this stroll throught tuilleries garden and got ripped off by a sketch guy - walked on this recommended walking route - my feet were soaking and aching so i kept sitting down - eventually came to the beginning of the walk but luckily there was the george pompidou center which houses the modern art galleries so ivestigated that. missed meeting jan because he was late so while i was running around trying to find a phone card he was with his friend bicycling round the area with his friend shouting out Clea!? to any girl that walked by. His friend Hugo accompanyied us for an Italian restuarant dinner and then we walked to notre dame.

Saterday: Saw the place de la concorde along the champs elysee and to the arc du triumphe - climbed that and had views of the eiffel tower etc - setting sun...every hour on the hour the eiffel tower's lights go mad (its know as the orgasm) and then went to walk by the tower itself... sat night went to the play my dinner with andre - supposedly in english but a 3 hour 20 min performance all in french - and they eat a four course dinner prepared by a diff chef each night while they discuss things like theatre and rlaity - i understood about 5 percent but all credit to them they held my attention - also that was aided by being in the front row and chewing some refreshing gum. then we were whicked away by ja's rich friend in his bmw and went to a little bar in saint germaine for a drink.

Sunday: don't remember...at some point i watched "the dreamers" about the 1968 riots in paris. i also watched the woody allen match point at some stage - oh dear its all getting confused. possibly also visited luxemburg gardens - very beautiful - ate roasted chestnuts...had a crepe for supper -

Monday: I went to Sacre Coeur and montmartre and climbed many many stairs and took picture and generally had a good time - also watched farenheight 541.

Tuesday: went to fontaimebleu by train - eventually - after not knowing where to go or how to get there - had a little magically dinner alone .. watched french tv

Wednesday: checked ut the castle in fontaimebleu and the gorgeous gardens, got back to paris and went to the museum where claude monet's impression sunrise is displayed. watched jules et jim - also truffaut
went to jan's friends house in bastille for supper and met some cool people from all over europe and knwoing may languages and stuff.

Thursday: back to dublin - met up with karen - had great supper and chat. had fantastic bath (hadn't bathed in months only showered what a luxury!)

Friday: today! met hannah and said goodbye - she is visiting shen in dublin.

will update if i remember what i did on sunday!!!

TO FRANCE

Hello fair friends

i nearly had a heart attack this morning as the embassy almost didn't open but eventually after waiting for 2 hours i got my passport back with my visa intact - woohoo!

going to brave the metro system tomorrow to get to jan's wh i svery kindly desperately trying to fnish an essay for my benefit.

wish i was going to europe continent for longer now!

but you know -

slan
clea

3rd last day in galway

hi - sorry to burden you the reader with all those descriptions last blog.

now, it may be raining, the blues might be playing in this here internet cafe, george bush may be a texan baddie "in this here great country of ours" and the american guests can only sustain an interest in my country for five seconds "you're from south africa, really? wow we have been there/know people from there/are you from johannesburg?...this is great coffee"

but i'm on my way to get a boerewors roll at the local market stand - must ask them where they get it from in SA cos it is fantastic - and i may be slightly hung over in one eye - my right eye which ahs astigmatism always goes so blurry when i drink - and this morning its like sore, shame

what was i saying - oh yes it was supposed to be my last big night in galway and then my boss springs it on my at 9pm last night - you're on the breakfast shift with me! thanks - well guess maybe we are similar in some ways cos i now suspect she is sometimes just as scared of telling me things as i am of telling her things - or asking her - which i did about dublin but hey like only on the tuesday evening for god's sake of course she would say no - and i ignored the fact that my horoscope said to ask her on saterday.

ahhh so i am fierce excited about france - and just hope i keept enough of my irish accent to impress the family when i get back - or annoy them - i can just see nathan now saying - clea stop saying, "Sure, its a fine day" "sure, i'm gasping for some tea"

hmmm

bit incoherent this morning - well had a good night anyway - not really hungover - not really - fancy dress/ryans birthday etc - so my sort of farewell is a lunch tomorrow at richardsons - better get my withnail and i dvd back from ryan before i leave. fianlyl took some pictures of people - so you will think all my friends are weird as they are all dressed up for halloween,

cheers
clea