World Neighbor - St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland

My buddy and I took a trip to Ireland over St. Patrick's day. My friend had some relatives that we were going to stay with so we could travel on the cheap. We traveled with his mom so that she could visit her sister and family back home. We were only a short walk from the town's main pub in Gallway. We decided to go hang there with the family and locals for St. Paddy's day. The owner was a cousin of my friend so we were planning on being "locked in" with some of the other regulars after the standard closing time.
We had a blast. I was drinking apple cider. My new Irish friend Joe was telling me that if I drank too much cider I would go mad. It was so good, I just couldn't stop pounding them back. We were all hanging out and singing songs. Our new Irish friends were singing traditional Irish songs and my buddy and I were singing old standards. We were arm in arm swinging back and forth singing/screaming at the top of our lungs. The owner cooked up some bangers (sausages for the uninitiated Americans reading this) and we scarfed those down in quick order.

I had to go to the bathroom and I got up with my cider and went to do my business. They all gave me a hard time because they all leave their beers when they go to the toilet. My buddy joined in on the fun. "Are you sure that's cider boy-o?", "Hey Mary another round of piss for my friend over here", etc… It was pretty funny. I couldn't even get a word in edge wise to explain that everyone in the States took their drinks with them or else the drink would be thrown out (just another example of how the States are much less personal I suppose!). At one point at the height of my stupor I started getting all lovey-dovey and decided that I had to call my girlfriend (at the time). I headed outside to the town's public phone and called her up. She listened to me as I slurred through my speech about how much I missed her and how I couldn't wait to see her again…and she married me anyway!
We finally staggered out of the bar when the birds were singing and the sun was just peaking it's head up over the horizon. We slept the entire next day and got up to hit the town for some dinner. Our livers were screaming at us to take it easy, but we had to have some Guinness for strength after all!

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World Neighbor – The Blarney, Roof Dancing and More Irish Fun

Our trip to Ireland was a whirlwind. We made a point to go to Blarney castle to kiss the Blarney stone. We climbed the old stone castle and stood in a short line. We made the trip with Phil’s cousin Patty. She was first up. An old Irish gentleman was in place helping the tourists get into position on their backs, stick their heads over the ledge and kiss the Blarney stone upside down. When Patty jumped into position, the Blarney man said “well she sure is an eager lass isn’t she?” Patty just laughed and tapped him on the arm as if to say “oh you dirty old man”. She puckered up and kissed the stone. I was next up and I had put some Chapstick on my dry lips prior to climbing up the castle steps. When I got into position and pecked the old stone the Blarney man said “Oh boy he’s slobbering all over the stone he is”. He made a big production about taking a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping off the stone. I retreated red faced… but then I heard him repeat the same routine about 15 minutes. The old showman had to keep the crowd entertained!

We took off, made a short stop in Waterford for some crystal and went back “home” to get ready for a fun night. Patty’s husband Sean was DJ’ing at a local pub that evening so my buddy and I went along to help him set up. The three of us shoehorned ourselves into his small car with his two large speakers and DJ equipment. We road off down the country roads to the town and started the process of setting up the equipment. The pub owner told his son to take care of my buddy and me so we ordered up a few pints and settled in. My buddy Phil decided to switch over to the “mad cider” after a few pints. He asked for the pub owner’s son for some ice in his cider. The boy returned and, “plink”, dropped in a cube. Phil looked at him and asked for some more ice. The boy obliged, “plink”, in went another ice cube. Phil started laughing. “Boy-O, bring me a bucket of ice and make sure it is full to the rim”. He popped a couple of punt on the bar and the boy happily obliged.


We were having a great time hanging with all the locals and enjoying the music. There was a line for the WC so Phil got the idea to head out back to take a leak. When he came back he had a devious look in his eye and told me to follow him. We went out back where I saw a little ladder against the side of the bar. We climbed up onto the roof and had a drink. Before too long a few of the locals were up on the roof with us and we all started singing along to the music. We packed it up and went back down just in time for the last song of the night. The lights went up, the National Anthem of Ireland played and everyone sobered up for a few teary eyed moments. It was a pretty inspiring scene.

World Neighbor Deals With Difficult People

So at my day job I work with a guy who is an equal opportunity grouch. He is one of my customers and I am his supplier. Unfortunately he knows a lot about the industry and he works for a company with a culture that values condescension. This makes for a dangerous combination. He berates everyone on my team (and often people in his own company). As you can imagine this makes working a great joy. I’m not sure how people like this tick. I guess we all have to realize that people like this have incredibly low self-esteem and are miserable. Still I would like to haul off and clock this stooge sometimes. …just a little life lesson on a micro level. If we have these issues at a personal level how in the heck are we supposed to work things out between different ideologies, cultures, countries, religions, and politics? Well…call me an optimist but I think we can do better with all our relations. We will always have people that are difficult to deal with and we will just need to learn how to boost their self esteem enough to bring them along. Best o’ luck to you all – I know from first hand experience that it is no easy assignment.

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World Neighbor – Danish Rocket’s Red Glare

I went to visit my friends in Denmark in a suburb of Copenhagen. I visited in early July and my friends took me downtown on July the 4th. We visited Tivoli and rode some great carnival rides, enjoyed some excellent food and listened to some great music. Later that night I got a great surprise when we went down to a big gathering of folks by the harbor. My friend said something to a few folks that were gathered in the middle of a large group. Suddenly they erupted in smiles and laughter and came over to shake my hand and introduce themselves. Then someone handed me a small Danish flag and a small American flag.

I was still not sure what was going on. Although I did notice that the crowd was getting much larger and many people were carrying American flags. I obviously knew it was July 4th but why did people in Denmark care? My friend explained everything with a very simple and obvious history lesson. Since the States helped defeat the Germans and liberate Denmark in WWII the Danish still celebrate and honor July 4th with a great fireworks show and a show of solidarity. I felt very patriotic and I even choked up a bit when the fireworks above started detonating with the sound of the United States national anthem playing in the background. The Danes were waving their American and Danish flags and I learned quite a bit about the Danish people from this one event. This is a great culture that celebrated the good and didn’t forget the bad. People in the States could learn a lot from this view of life.

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