Ireland - The Cliffs of Moher

By now we were headed south of Galway, having picked up my brother Aidan, and on the road to see the Cliffs of Moher, a natural wonder of the gaelic world. Here, Nikki and myself pose with the cliffs in the background.

Next you see myself and Aidan. At all natural wonders of the world (such as Grand Canyon), I have to give Aidan a bearhug. Just goofing around. Wouldn't be the same without it.

Next while i am videotaping the events, someone .... to remain anonymous, is surreptitiously taking my picture ...

And what am I videotaping

Ireland - onward from Connemara

Here we find some ancestor's ... and this was the last of Connemara

Onward we went, south of Galway, to county Clare ... and headed towards the cliffs of Moher. Traversing Clare, you will cross the Burren, a bare landscape of plants and flowers that dot the rocks, until you reach the coast line where we preen for photo's.

And is it a bird? is it a plane? No. The forlorn figure in the background, is my brother, Aidan, searching for a quiet spot to pee. Remember we are on the coast ... howling wind ... which changes direction !!!

Here is an example of the rocky coastline. So beautiful. You have to go and visit. Really.

Next we see the 2 desperado's ... Aidan and myself.

After this we arrived at the famous Cliffs of Moher !!!

Ireland - more of the same as we head to Connemara

The local Whole Foods store, or what is left of it, after they ran out of organic eggs. These irish do like their eggs !!!

After a while, some of the locals take an interest ...

Now we start to delve into Connemara country ...

And this leads us to Delphi .... no oracle needed here .... jaw dropping beauty instead.

What more could you ask for, in a savage wilderness

Well perhaps its time to "Eat, Pray, Love"?

The Irish version of an ashram in connemara ... a church for travellers .... "Stop, Pray, Buy-A-Pint"

Ireland - the west continued

Some local traffic, although for the most part the roads were narrow but quiet

then the odd local castle or tower was visited

then we saw more beautiful and wild coastal views, this time Achill island, I believe

And for some more flavor, traditional cottage or sheds ... sort of like barns

and after all this coastal stuff, we then went to Sligo, where we missed our buddy Leonard (doing Yeats) by one day. Bummer. Sligo is the home of all things Yeats - Yeats festival, Yeats Summer school, yadda yadda yadda. We went to the museum at the Yeats Society in town, which is the red brick building on the left below.

After that, the only excitement left was seeing a belgian "cinquecento" in Ballina, on the way back to Stella Maris.

And lastly a windswept beach shot, taken outside the hotel, with me wearing my achill island cardigan. I had to buy something as we left 100 degree weather in NY to arrive in 50-70 degree weather in ireland, complete with wind and mist !!!

Ireland continued .... the west is alive !!!

Well, the focus of our trip now was in touring the west of ireland ... both Connemara, the Mayo coast and Sligo or Yeats country as it is better known (after WB Yeats).
First Mayo coastline .... gorgeous

And a video of the local area

 Next we enter the irish speaking area, or "gaeltacht" as it is known. No english spoken here !!

Conversing with the locals in Irish can be difficult, so better use the services of a reputable translator such as our 2 friends below

After that, a visit to the local wise man !!!

Then we see a pocket of resistance to big oil & gas. Apparently Shell is running a pipeline from offshore drilling rigs to land, but at very high pressure (something only done in the Niger Delta i am told, and thus quite risky, from a local point of view).
Here are various pics

After the oil & gas, we need a refill ourselves. Lo and behold, an old friend ....

We saw a Cayman in Ireland, about 10 boxsters (often with English registrations though) and 3 911's. That's more than I saw from coast to coast in the USA, when we made our trip a few years back.

Ireland - "The Vacation" - visiting the "wehshht"

Well, we just had a marvellous 10 days or so in Ireland. Home to see the folks, for their 40th wedding anniversary (Happy 40th to Denis + Brid), and to see the rest of the family. We also took the opportunity to discover ireland a little, and for me to retrace steps of old haunts on the west coast of ireland (or as we pronounce it, the "wehshht"), while for nikki, to learn something new and discover new places and see new things.
Here is a little bit of rain to start things off .... Ireland would be a great country, it was once said by a wit, if it had a roof.

Next we have green countryside. Oodles of it.

Next a local

Next a local town, perhaps Ballycastle, Co. Mayo.

And where would we be, if we did not include a church or 12 ;-)

After that, all that is left is to visit out accomodation for the next three nights .... a little hotel, on the ocean, on the northern Mayo coast, private and quiet with great food & service, run by an irish woman and her american husband, and a true treasure .... The Stella Maris hotel

From our window, we had an oceanfront view to die for ...

And a nice room to boot

That's about it for the debut to our tour ....

Truro, Cape Cod and Blue Hill, Maine trip

We went to Cape Cod, for a wedding at the end of June (in Truro, at the Truro Vineyards) and after that, for a week we visited Blue Hill, Maine.
The wedding on Cape Cod was of a friend of Nikki's, Liz, who was marrying her girlfriend, Suze. It was a wonderfully moving ceremony, and we had a great time. Certainly one of the most meaningful weddings I have been to, and in the context of equal rights for lesbian and gay couples, very important. Prior to the wedding, which was on in the evening, we visited Provincetown and found it to be eclectic, quite portugese in flavour (we had a great portugese brunch), and full of life. We stayed at a motel, on a bluff above the beach, and some of the shots in the video, were taken here. Very 60's style motel, but clean and close to the beach as well as the vineyard, thus suiting our needs.
On Sunday, we left early to get past Boston, and head to Maine. Good idea it was, and no traffic was encountered. Over the next week, we appreciated the warm weather (NY was in the middle of a heatwave while we were in the 70's and 80's) and wonderful produce. Our cottage was on the ocean, 20 yards from the water. It was at the bottom of a private road, and at the top of the road was an organic farm selling the best snap peas, greens, raspberries and strawberries. Heavenly. We also met up and become reacquainted with an old high school friend of Nikki's, Louise (a great artist www.louisebourne.com and here is an example of one of her pics ... "from bakeman beach"),

who helped us find this paradise, as well as host us for a great lobster and crab dinner. The photo montage I made starts with a video Nikki shot overlooking Blue Hill with the ocean bay below, and the various islands and inlets nearby. The Orb provide the tune.

a nice 917 video

I found this nice 917 program video ....
enjoy ... gives a nice overview of the program


Porsche 917 from Mee on Vimeo.

Jim Garfield, motoring around "the Glen", and being admonished by the pace car for going slow. Jim, ever the cute one, was slowing up so that he could speed around the track (pace cars at front and rear, tried to limit speed to 60mph) at least for a bit.
Old Skool footage !!!

Watkins Glen, Legends of Motorsports with Bobby Rahal - video

Some video of the green fury, which is a replica of the swiss championship winning 1974 RSR, and which you can rent for a cool $12k, not including tires and racefuel. Peter Dawe is the man to contact as he rents it out and provides support. You pay for any damage > $70k, is the deal.
Beautiful car. The real deal was offered by Canepa in SoCal for $695k.




some pics of the car

and another

and again

and more

and lastly

Hershey 2010

Some pics from the Hershey swap meet. Music is apropos, don't ya think? Great weekend, met lotsa people, had a great drive down with Steven (the Enforcer with his 997 GT3RS) and Eric with his 3.2SS RS clone, complete with special cams .... cars cleaed out of the way when they saw the barely legal GT3RS behind them.

Irish Rally Navigator - Berry Meade for president

This guy is so funny, he deserves to be president of ireland. My friend Curt Egerer, in Michigan, discovered the comedy genius of Barry Meade here, and I hope i am helping to popularize him, at the same time.

Metro PCA Spring Fling @ Collectors Car Garage

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of going to Bedford Hills, NY, to attend Metro PCA's spring fling. Got there early, circa 8am, for a show starting at 9h45am (I know, but I was just checking out the joint and figured I'd grab a bite of breakfast in town). Well they had already started, so I pull up to park. Dude says, you have to turn around and park in town and get the shuttle bus. I say, why can I not park here. So he says "do you want me to ask?". I said sure, please. He gets on the radio and says "O'Donoghue doesn't want to park in town, he wants to park here." What a troublemaker I am. Anyway guy says park in rear as people's choice is in front. No problem. Just an inkling of PCA-itis that annoys people, I think. Anyway, they did put on a good show and credit is due to organiser Lee David Auerbach, who is a great guy. He is in one of the pics, when the 2010 GT3RS arrives ... he has a beard and is of generously stocky proportions. Met Jim Garfield as planned. John Lamorte was there with his viper green 73RS. Oh baby, what a car. Star of the show.

Can you say quack, quack !!! Got a nice ducktail shot ...

Met some other guys ... Gerry Murray with his fab 993 was there. Also met Rich from Long Island, and his lovely wife Elke. Working on him to join us at Hershey in 2 weeks.
After it was all over, myself and Jim headed over to Katonah, to have a beer+burger @ Oliver's pub. Very decent indeed. Guinness for me and Pleasantville Pale Ale for Jim.

Here is some video of all the pics. Hope you enjoy.

Cars n Croissants today

Went to Cars n' Croissants in Chatham NJ today. Great cars and people. Abi Singh is organizer and kudos' to him for starting this up. For so long, we had serious envy when hearing about similar events in LA or other parts across the nation.
It was my first time, and I met some nice people. I was looking for the owner of the white 964 and only realized who he was, when he was leaving. Oh well, next time, Rob (redcoat) !

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy birthday Dad. Hope you enjoy yourself tonight. Here is a little "Ode to Denis" on behalf of Audrey and a friend of hers, who is on vocals !!

Did you know that your birthday is just 3 days after Steve McQueen !!

Enjoy .... love NnK

Porsche Magnet

I found this today, courtesy of Art Adams, on Vimeo. Cute ....

Saturday in March --- time for bbq?

We ate on the porch, Saturday, owing to the wonderful and balmy weather with nary a bug in sight

threw some sausages on the grill

the we walked to see how the sleuss gate was doing at Hempstead Lake. On our way we could see that the beavers had been busy munching on birch trees

Next I tried to clean out a little, any obstructions, around the gate

Looking at the lake, you can see that not all has quite melted yet --- but most of it has ... a film of ice on the surface it about it

You see below the beavers little pad

and then we went to check the flow of water from the lake, in to the stream. All was good.