http://ireland-stories.ie how other cultures see us - and how we see them Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:43:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's almost a year since I wrote this blog, and so many things have changed in that time. As I write, Tibetan peace flags are blowing in a San Francisco wind outside 'my' room, and mellow jazz is playing on a local radio station. An orange coloured cinnamon and clove candle is ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=240 Last night we had a midnight feast...We didn't set out to have it, unlike Kasia's birthday which we celebrated a week after Jan's, and unlike the dinner we've planned for Sunday week for no other reason than it seems like a good idea - and Gail and Jan have been nagging ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=237 Last week I was arrested in the middle of the kitchen by a radio interview with Jocelyn Bell Burnell. I had never heard of the astrophysicist till then, despite the fact that what was essentially her work won, in 1974, a share in the first Nobel Prize in Physics ever awarded for work in ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=238 Today I'm back to looking at stars, albeit on the internet as the weather is so bad at the moment you can't see beyond a blanket of grey cloud above us. It was the weather that set me off on this trail today. The river was high and full and brown ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=236 On Saturday night we celebrated Jan's 28th birthday with a strange mixture of familiarity and newness. The familiarity comes from the tradition, now quite well established, of celebrating birthdays together in the house - a properly laid table, varied food (from 'Let's Eat In', which delivers excellent Indian, Chinese, Thai or ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=235 My car, Fred, has broken down - again and again and again. My feet, particularly my left foot, has broken down in sympathy. My friend, Gerti, maintains that life is trying to tell me something - "Like, rest, Noeleen!" Fred's problems have ranged through the exhaust coming off, the alternator needing to be ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=234 Today I was visiting Wicklow.com and discovered that Alan was not only writing about a campaign that has touched my heart and conscience, along with the hearts and consciences of millions of other people around the world, but he has an Adsense advertisement for it up on his site, and is encouraging ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=233 The Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults training course is over, the General Elections are over, the appointment of a new Government is over - even the good weather is over, at least temporarily. It's a soft grey day today, and it feels like the beginning of a weekend in November, ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=231 On Wednesday, 4th April, An Bord Pleanala - Ireland's Planning Board - decided unanimously to refuse permission to Pizarro Developments to build on the floodplain downriver from our community. Their decision was posted on the Board's website at http://www.pleanala.ie/DCT/217/S217906.DOC on Tuesday last. Pizarro had submitted four applications for the same site, two ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=230 It's funny the lessons you learn when you're trying to teach... A couple of weeks ago, one of the tutors in our CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching) course started the class by telling us a story. It was a tale of when she'd first gone to Budapest, where she taught English for a few ... http://ireland-stories.ie/?p=229