One of the more tiring aspects of hitchhiking is a need to be sociable and make conversation with whoever is driving you. It would be considered poor form to accept a ride, hop into the passenger seat...
The behaviour of the English people I had run into was making it very difficult to nail down a theory that the reason my trip so far had been such a bizarre success, was that Irish people were crazy....
One guy, seeing that I was hungry, insisted on buying me a huge lunch and when I thanked him for his kindness, he simply said, 'Pass it on.' I liked this selfless concept - repay me by rewarding someo...
I'm against the death penalty. I believe that it is a mistake to show that killing people is wrong by killing people. However I'm not against the random killing of people who snore.
What followed was a great treat for me. This was Irish traditional music as I had hoped to see and hear it, spontaneous and from the heart, and not produced for the sake of the tourist industry. As I...
Terrific idea. Two days of advice on how to cope with married life from a body of people who have never been married, and don't indulge in any sexual activity. (Now don't scoff - it's true, they don't...
Size isn't important', he quipped.I have never adhered to this view. As far as I'm concerned, people who say size isn't important, aren't big enough to admit that they're wrong
SAIORSEFrom Saiorse, a name of Irish origin,Meaning 'freedom'Faces problems head onAdmired for its originality, dedicated to worthy causesA kind and generous fridgeIt always stands firm for its princi...
How do you manage for money?’ I asked.I was given two simultaneous replies of ‘We get by’ from Ian and ‘Don’t ask’ from Neil. I favoured Ian’s reply because it had less-sinister connotations. ‘Don’t a...
Always good to have slept with at least one person on any committee on which one sits. It's the British way.
Heavy lifting is good for the soul but bad for the back, and tends to interfere with lolling about.
I was in a hurry, because packing is something which you always do at the last minute. Anyone who packs two days before departure should seek counseling.
Stella explained that when he had arrived, because of his English accent, she had assumed that he was me, and had asked where his fridge was. She didn't tell me what his reply was, and we can only haz...
Taking coffee in a tea-room always brings me a certain amount of extra pleasure in that I feel I'm beating the system. It's like having spaghetti in a pizza house, chicken in a steakhouse, or having a...
There are two words I don't want to find myself uttering as an old man, and they are If Only.
My gameplan is not to have a gameplan.
Running twenty-six miles is no fun.I think it was possibly an American who came up with the adage 'if it ain't hurting, it ain't working'. It would be nice to think that shortly after he uttered those...
I was beginning to understand how the Irish mentality worked. The more foolish, illogical or surreal one's actions were perceived t be (and mine surely fell into one of these categories), the wider th...
I was born into the wrong generation. How I would have loved to have been a dashing young man in the 1930s and 1940s when dance bands and orchestras played at dancehalls, and you could hold your partn...
