This doesn't really have the shape of a proper blog: traditionally there would be a sidebar with links to archives, an RSS feed, and so on, but Weebly doesn't seem to have very good tools for doing that and it makes the layout look unpleasant. On the other hand, it looks a bit more like a modern-day website and behaves reasonably well on phone screens and resizes nicely. So - here's a link to an RSS feed, and the "categories" and "archives" widgets. I may come back and edit this or move things around, but here you go for now. If anybody has any advice for how to do this better (I'd rather have the front page as the blog, and then have another page with all of the linky stuff, but haven't figured out how to make that happen yet) then please let me know. I'd also like to have posts tagged by author, but this doesn't seem easy to do either. I suppose Susan's and my writing styles are different enough for you to figure out who's writing what, and we'll try to put a Category on from to show who's writing so it's easier to search. T Categories All Archives
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We were driving back from Limerick today (no pictures: I snapped a couple of interesting manhole covers, but apparently the old SD card reader doesn't want to talk to the new laptop, and I only brought the other kind of USB cable. There will be a techno-rant coming up later.) and Susan asked me about the poetic form. I've never read The Wasteland, but for some reason I have the last 40% of Wendy Cope's AABBA version of it committed to memory...
By Susan Olij We woke up in a three bedroom irish cottage on the 17th of July, 2018. My ills, aches and pains have died down. My bag mostly unpacked, Tom’s toiletries bags unrolled and hung. It’s really really quiet here, unless the cottage kitchen’s kettle is boiling, all we could hear is our own tummy rumblings and squishy digestive tracks settling down. We left Singapore 15 days ago, with two 20 kilograms roller Marmot bags, a backpack each, and my 15 years old Prada nylon bag. We packed our belongings into boxes and they’re in storage somewhere in the heartlands of Singapore. We gave our apartment keys back to our landlords and wished our friends and their 3 children good luck taking over our home. Tom and I have come out on the other side of moving and traveling stress. The battles of will, of speed and lots of our differences, strangely felt far behind us now in this little cottage. Last night something was wandering around outside in the back yard, Tom thought it was a cat, I had to look and what we saw was not a cat, but a red fox, probably hungry and looking for food. A highlight to our arrival here in Bunratty, county Clare, Ireland. Bunratty has a medieval castle and a folk park. It's walking distance from our cottage. There is also the so-called 'The Original Dirty Nelly Irish pub, where I had my first (half pint, don't laugh) of Guinness at. I consider a whole half pint an accomplishment, excluding the mild hangover later. Later in the week, post lots of sleeping, some home-cooking and laundry,we drove to nearby Stone circles, Medieval Village of Killmalock and spend the day at a Lough (pronounced Loch like Loch Ness) which is Irish for lake. Lough Gur, the enchanted lake seen here has never looked so glorious. We had the luck of amazing blue skies and sunshine, perhaps rarely seen in Ireland in general.
Links for more informations if you're so inclined: Medieval Kilmallock Lough Gur Hello - is this thing on? It seems kinda retro to be setting up a blog in 2018, but I refuse to document my life on Facebook any more, and so here we find ourselves. Not sure whether that'll prevent people from monetising it, but if I'm paying for the hosting then perhaps there will be a little Less Evil (tm) in the world.
If you're here then you probably know at least some of the background: I've lived in Singapore since 2001; been in the same job since 2004; and complained about not enough new things happening since, ooh, at least a decade ago. Susan and I have finally taken the big leap into the unknown and are taking a "sabbatical" - less of an opportunity to do some research than to quietly avoid having a mid-life crisis, maybe learn a new language or two, and to step back and take a long hard look at things from a different perspective. So - what's the plan now? I think it's to learn how to live with myself not being consumed by work; to see some new places; and maybe to learn a new language. And to sleep a lot and read some books, of course. Okay - so this seems to be working. We're tucked away in Bunratty (see shiny map widget below!) for a couple of weeks of decompression after moving out of Singapore. Lots to catch up on; lots to meditate about. Is the entire concept of writing a blog sooo last decade? Does this look all right?
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