Saturday, September 30, 2006

Soppy Laundry

CORK - I arrived back at school on a warm and sunny Irish afternoon (see pic below). Our first week of classes was relatively light, but people keep telling me it only gets tougher as the years progress. Bring it I say.

The air in Ireland seems to be damper than I remember. Dishes take 2 days to air dry, my facecloth is perpetually wet, and the laundry has no hope. It costs a fortune to run the dryers here so my buddy and I resolved that the best way to dry our clothes is simply to wear them!

(Suggestions are welcome)

Aerial view of somewhere close to Cork airport..

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Delivering babies


HALIFAX - I helped deliver my first babies this past week. Strangely enough, they each had 4 legs.

Under cloudy skies on a warm but damp Wednesday, Cliff, Sarah, and I went biking in Gore with a friend (Mike) whose family owns a whole whack of land in that area. Afterwards, Mike showed us around his farm (the silage, the wood doctor, the milking parlour, etc.), while I (the city boy) caught up in the excitement of being on a REAL and functioning farm peppered Mike with questions. And then.. we came upon 2 cows - both of whose water just broke.

Another Farmer (Paul) came by and after he put on his shoulder-length gloves to reach in the cow and pull out the calves' hoofs, he tied ropes to their hoofs and got us to start heaving. The first one came out no problem but the second cow's baby was inverted (hind legs first). We had to use a pulley to help her out, and she must've been pushing pretty hard cuz half way through the delivery, she started defecating all over the place. Her huge a$$ all of a sudden started spraying crap everywhere with firehose ferocity. Paul ended up with a pile of $hit on his head, but the rest of us fortunately got away unscathed.

I then looked down at my hands and saw a streak of blood across my palm. Shucks.. I must've torn my skin while pulling on the rope. But then, I wiped it off and realized it wasn't my blood! Even better.

An hour later, I was at an Ethiopian restaurant eating and sucking on dinner with my hands. Yuum yuummm.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Tour de Cape Breton

Back in T.O. now but before leaving NS, we hit up Cape Breton for some good times. Highlights include:
  • Freedom of not wearing a watch for 6 days
  • Jumping off a 60 ft cliff into the Atlantic
  • Kent & Giselle's wedding
  • Natural water slide at Three Iron
  • Camp food
  • Playing Mad Gab w/ Donald and his Dutch + Maritimer + farmer accent
  • 3 day bike trip around the Cabot Trail, which involved..

    • 300km total distance
    • 15:20 hrs total riding time
    • 60km biked in the rain (4hrs)
    • 5 Mountains climbed (North, MacKenzie, French, Hunters, Smokey)
    • 9 Powerbars
    • 7 Powergels
    • 5 Tylenols
    • 21 Advils
    • 27 pee stops
    • 0 flats
    • 2 casualties (1 human + 1 bat)
    • 2 moose sightings
    • 6/6 starry nights
    • 4 weird dreams
    • 77.5km/h max speed
    • countless muscle cramps
    • Worst segment = coming off the Englishtown ferry and almost getting blown over by the wind while crossing the waterway during torrential rains
    • Best segment = flying down North Mtn and smelling burnt rubber (my brakes)


Mark B jumping / falling / flying into the Atlantic










We climbed it!









Joe's Scarecrows








Catching a breather half way up MacKenzie