Sniffle Sniffle

Both ladies in the house are not well. With flu like symptoms for Tracey and a head cold for Lucy!! I wish them both a speedy recovery!! Granny & Grandad Owens are coming to visit with uncle Davey, auntie Eilish and Uncle Eddie...

Spring Clean & Gardening

Well it's that time of year again when we get the flower beds ready, start cutting the grass, warming up the hedge trimmer for cutting the hedges, this year we are doing an extra special spring clean and painting the outside of the house, painting the deck and many more chores!! We have a special occasion on in July! Easter is just around the corner!!

Boom Ka Ka Boom Ke Ke Boom

Clive here! This week I bought a Djembe drum! For over a year I have been going to irregular drum circles. Both Tracey and I camped last year at one of these drum circles. They are a lot of fun.
The Djembe drum comes from west Africa and is headed by goat skin or cow, mine is cow as it produces nice high pitched tones. There are three main tones on the Djembe, bass, rim & slap notes. It's the very complex rhythm patterns that make the drum come alive. When drumming in circles we drum to polyphonic rhythms. I have drummed rhythms from Ghana, Guinea & Sierra Leone amongst others! It's not everybody's cup of tea but I happen to like it. Shown below is a picture.

Happy St Patricks Day!! Happy Mothers Day!! Happy Birthday!!

It's been a great long weekend holiday do far, yesterday we had St Patricks Day!! It's almost traditional at this point that it's raining for the day. We went to Newbridge for the annual parade, we met up with some family for a few pints of Guinness, we watched the Ireland rugby game, had some food in Stella's and then it was time for us to go home. Thanks babe for allowing me to have a few drinks...
Today is mothers day, I wish Tracey a very happy 1st mothers day, my own mum and Stella also a very happy mothers day. To mark the occasion we are all out to dinner. It will be my turn to drive today and allow Tracey a well deserved few glasses of vino!!
This weekend also marks a very special occasion for uncle Larry, h is celebrating his 80th birthday.. This is a major milestone in anyone's life. He can be seen below opening his present, a new laptop!! For most if his life he worked for An Post and when not working he travelled many countries.. Happy birthday Larry!!!

Enniscrone 10K - weekend away

A great weekend away in Enniscrone Co. Sligo so far! The main event of the weekend is a 10K run. Jay, Davey & I all ran. An impressive 40.58 by Jay, 45:57 for Davey and 48:46 for me. Everybody was very happy with their times...
Enniscrone is a nice holiday village and we all hired an apartment for the weekend! Jay has a holiday home here so we'll be calling round later for a BBQ..
Special thanks to all the ladies who supported us from the sideline!

Finding Emo

Today we all went for a quick stroll around Emo Court. It is literally a 10 minute drive from our front door. The estate is centred around a large mansion house which was designed by James Gandon who also designed the custom house in Dublin along with the four courts. The park itself is based around a 10 hectare lake and is the second largest walled park in Europe after the Phoenix park in Dublin... We'll be spending a lot more time there this summer. We would have loved to stop off for tea in the tea rooms but no dogs allowed...
It's a beautiful spot for picnics, cycling walking etc....

Weekend Update

Clive here! It's been a very relaxing weekend here in Bracknagh! I had plans to make a start in the garden but whilst the sun was shining the grass was still wet. On Friday Tracey went to a friends 40th birthday dinner at fallons restaurant in Killcullen followed by drinks afterwards. Tracey's nephew Sean turned seven so we went his birthday party on Saturday.. No party photos as we forgot our smart phone / camera...
I also spent a lot of time getting all of my musical gear ready for sale!! I managed to sell 3 guitars in one day yesterday.

Encore electric - sold
Magnum acoustic - sold
Les Paul special edition - sold
crafter semi acoustic - for sale
Line 6 Spider II 150 watt amp - for sale
Zoom G2 effects pedal - for sale
SX acoustic - for sale

why the big sale? I have been looking for a Taylor acoustic for some time now - to be more specific the model I am looking for is made from Hawaiian wood and produces sweet tones in the mid range... They are not cheap so am trading some assets!! Another thought is to have Chris Larkin custom build a guitar, he is well reputed guitar craftsman who builds to order!! Anyway, more on that again, anybody want to buy 2nd hand music tackle:)

Am toying with the idea of going for a run today, I injured my hip a couple of weeks ago and can feel my fitness fading away on me!