Bits and Bobs

I keep thinking "once this next busy period is over, I'll get back to my neglected blog", but before the anticipated end can come, another busy period starts up. And round and round it goes.

I think this is my life now: just feeling tired all the time. Perhaps retirement will finally allow me to feel rested. Only 26 more years to go!

In amongst the busy, I had a holiday to Mexico.

I went to Melaque to visit my dad who lives down there part time. I was there over St. Patrick's Day which happens to be a big celebration in this part of Mexico. Part of the area is called San Patricio in honour of the St. Patrick's Battalion, so they use the saint day to pay honour to both the saint and the battalion. As my dad actually is Irish...

I can honestly say that I never expected I'd match in a St. Patrick's Day parade. I really never expected to be marching in in Mexico!

I also decided that I was going back to Tanzania later this year. I was planning a trip to Mongolia (and it's still definitely on the list for a future trip), but Jifundishe is short-staffed for a month in the Fall and Anande knows how to twist my arm. Fine! I will sacrifice my travel plans to help them out. And by sacrifice, I mean jump-at-any-excuse-I-can-to-go-back.

Soon, my love. Soon!

On a slightly related note, I love this video.

Like many places divvied up by colonialism, Kenya and Tanzania contain many of the same tribes that are now separated by a border. So, while the video is of Kenya, much of it is familiar to my time in Tanzania.

I'm also loving the new video from Childish Gambino (Donald Glover). Every time I watch it, it is so hard to look at anything except him because he's a) a damn fine dancer, and b) the only person or thing that is always in focus. But make sure you look past him and see what is going on in the blurry background.

There's so much I want to say about this video, but it's late and I should be in bed. Instead, I'm just going to link to this article on Bustle which covers a lot of items I want to comment on.

A Tour of Norn Iron

So much to talk about but so little time.

In the meantime, Harp Lager and satirical news site The Ulster Fry teamed up for "Pure Here and There". Harp released a bunch of cans for the various Northern Ireland* counties and Belfast, and the lads at The Ulster Fry "travelled" around Northern Ireland in a Harp van filming commercials. Days have been long and busy these past few weeks, so I've been watching these videos on repeat a LOT.

*In the some of northern accents, 'Northern Ireland' tends to sound a wee bit like 'Norn Iron'.

You can see all the videos on The Ulster Fry's site (start at the bottom to watch them in order) but I wanted to share my two favourites with you,

Co. Armagh (my favourite because a. I've got family there and b. there's an appearance by Rory Best)

Co. Antrim (I laughed so hard at the Larne joke that I scared the cat)

Go. Check out all the videos over at The Ulster Fry... just don't use any of their 'facts' at your next dinner party ;)

For Ed

W. B. Yeats

I had the pleasure of being Ed's neighbour for almost seven years. I attended Remembrance Day services with him for a few of those years. This past October was five years since he passed away and I still miss seeing his friendly face in the hall.

For your service, Ed, I thank you.

Dear October

Dear October,

You are going to be a great month. To be honest, you don't even have to do anything and you'll already be better than September because September was the month that I had to put down my cat, Linden. He had a tumor growing in his mouth/brain area and while I knew the end was coming, it still sucked major donkey balls.

Yes, September sucked.

It was also the month in which I backfilled for my boss which is always a good experience. Except we had major changes to a project while she was gone and I had to do all the estimates... shit.

Not to mention, we already short-staffed so I was doing her job and all of mine. I left the office late and then continued doing work from home.

Oh, and they forgot my sub pay for the nine days she was away.

The pay will be rectified on my next pay, but... ugh!

It's also the month that some of my favourite Swiss people went home.

At this point, October, you don't have to do anything. Just let me get through the month unscathed and I'll like you just fine.

On the upside, you're also the month in which Canadian Thanksgiving occurs.

And a German friend I met in Ireland is going to be passing through.

And I'm applying for an overseas job. I don't hold out much hope of getting the job as I'm woefully unqualified based on their requirements, but Donald Trump was (still is) woefully unqualified and we know how that turned out, so... who knows? Could be!

Cheers, October.

Sunday Sundries

Today turned into an unexpectedly long day and now I'm still dealing the emotional after math of Game of Thrones, so you get one thing tonight. One!

A friend posted a video on Facebook about a mbira but it didn't look like a mbira. It's called an array mbira and sounded nice, but it made me long for 'normal' mbira music. In my searching to find some, I came across this video.

It is so beautiful. It's one of my new favourites. Sadly, this version isn't available for sale anywhere! It's only the radio edits which are all electronic music. The single he released is still nice but it's not this one *sigh*