back to green

After three years spent in Poland and the Czech Republic, I have come back to Ireland. smile.
Because the time felt right,
because if you give too much time to people to forget you, they just might...
because family and friends are everything...
because I don't want to back to this scarily scruffy dentist ever again (the cheapest dental care I ever received, mind you..)...
because I want to try something new in terms of work beyond lesson planning!

I have attended the 'Go for it' set-up-your-own business course and found it really helpful.. it made the idea of starting a business a lot more achievable and concrete.
I am going to start a freelance language business, providing tuition in French and English as a foreign language (E.F.L) to young learners, teenagers and adults, as well as doing some translation.... It is very unlikely that I'll make a living from it, but not trying would be silly..
The business will be called 'wordsboogie' as i am terribly uncreative when it comes to finding names...
however, all suggestions welcome!

I also want to get into the community sector.. ideally, i'd ike to deliver different types of E.F.L workshops to ethnic minorities (via music, broadcasting, cooking, making crafts etc.)..
Ideally, because the reality of it is that there's no money there and that all the work is done on a voluntary basis, not that i have something against it, but it's useful to have a paid job in our modern world, innit?!
I'm going to look at different options, take the time it takes, and get somehting sorted I'm sure!!

I have felt so much support since I have come back, it's truly wonderful!!
I am very thankful and feel very lucky to know such beautiful people!


Fo now, I am now teaching at a residential international summer school in Dundalk...
saving some pennies and earning a few wrinkles!!!

models Fernando and Marina at the fashion show

A lot of stress but some good times had as well!! Managing ok, doing yoga every morning!! (i 've only recently started yoga but absolutely love it.... it's three in one, as much as kinder surprise is chocolate, a toy and a surprise, yoga is a sport, an art and a philosophy!!!)

Will head over to France mid-August to visit my dear aunt Jojo who's not too good at the moment and also to help mum who's up to her ears fighting a system that does not grant decent rights to people with heavy disabilities.
Big respect to you Mum!
I'll also get to see my dad who will have by then become a pensioner! Some rest and peace of mind well deserved!

Looking to go to the Glasgowbury festival this weekend.. the line-up's good and the company should be great, add a bit of good weather, and that's a bit of heaven you've got there!

Just finished reading Vertigo, the novel which inspired Alfred Hitchcock.. brilliant read, recommend it!


Time to go...

peace out

wordsboogie

A Winter diary - Zimni Denik

after months of silence, the boogie's back...

.. with my first solo photography exhibition 'A winter Diary' or in Czech 'Zimni Denik' (without the accents..).
The images will be up in Brno and more precisely in the Centre for free time in Luzanky from April 21st to May 11th.
There will be an opening at the same location on Monday, April 2I started it when I arrived in Poland1st at 8p.m.
Provided the weather's good, we will have access to the gardens, where Barry will be playing some music. Large helpings of tea and wine will be provided!
I'm really looking forward to it.
it feels great doing something other than teaching! I'd almost forgotten I've got hobbies!You can find the photographs on exhibit by going to my Picasa

I started putting this album together about three years ago when I arrived in Poland and I've been collecting snaps since then.

The collection is called 'A Winter Diary'.
Winter is more often than not a period where we can reflect and get introspective... and hopefully feel cosy inside...
(we're far too busy drinking cool pints in beer gardens during the summer for this kind of stuff!)
I have always felt that winter, no matter how cold it may get, has a beautiful and calming quality to it, like a soft breeze whispering that it is all going to be ok... When I can spot this in landscapes, I get snapping, even at the height of the summer!

I'd like you to tell me which picture you like most by posting a comment at the end of this post.
Thanks.


... On some other news, the boogie is moving back to Northern Ireland in mid-June..
interesting times ahead!


lots of love
peace out

changement de decor...

Changement de decor indeed...
After being given a week's notice to move out of our flat on Mendlovo Namesti (and being made a lame offer to relocate to another flat at the heart of panelak town- how much communist heaven can you ask for?!), we've found another flat, right in the centre of town.. and are now ready to move, yet again...
So before we lock the door one last time, here's a wee blurry snap from the living-room window... really had a fabulous time in this flat!

On a different note, winter's lowly but surely settling in. There have been a couple of intense snow days... yet, it's all pretty much thawed out by now... many Czechs are in the starting blocks, snow boots on!
gotta go to the shop and get some mulled wine spices.. it's this time of year!
Apart from this,
- going to Prague to see Stars Of The Lid on Saturday 15th of December.. should be intensely tranquil... odd combination that, isn'tit?!
- done and dusted- I have finally read angels and Demons as well as The Da Vinci Code...
'it's a common misconception to believe that...' oh come on Danny, can't you pull some synonyms out of your box of tricks, nevermind how deep, dark and ritually pagan that place is!!
- been re-listening to some of The Magnetic Fields stuff, and oh man, I had forgotten how good they sound (especially on headphones, no doubt there!)..
- planning to go and watch Irina Palm and 'Elizabeth the 50-year-old-Queen-that-looks-30-cos'-Cate-blanchett's-hot'... (good reviews on europeanfilms.net , the site seems to be down momentarily though..)well, keen on waiting for another week for the latter and make most of the Spalicek cinema 50 crowns for a film offer...
yeah, every little helps...
- going to Watch the documentary Spellbound... now!

he coughs collages

that of course makes no sense
and that's alright for now, let's face it, it's Saturday evening, autumn's definite;ly settled in, it's grey east west north and south
and yeah, it's kinda pissing me off, I suppose
cranky time of year for me and others for whom lack of natural light's an open doorway to dark shades of introspection....

anyhoos... time's passing so fast i feel i got no grip over it..
too busy to take time management classes or any smart arse's advice
but apart from spending too much time on the kind of trivial crap i usually thrive on, there have been some interesting -and needless to say time-consuming- experiences:
here's a quick summary:

- eating lunch and dinner in France- homecooking joy...
a fantastic week's holiday, time well spent, food well digested.. and even a quick visit to Belle-ile, and oh man, that's got to be a good thing... sea, sex, mussels and chips, and cycling cramps...
couldn't really ask for more, could you?!

- My Cup of Tea, a collage exhibition.
Organised by the Art Class of Luzanky, Brno. We all worked on our collages for about 4 lessons.. unsurprisingly enough, time was an issue here as well, as we didn't have so much of it.. the general theme was tea/ cup of tea..
it was the first time I worked from scratch, as opposed to remix an image. That was very interesting and thoroughly enjoyable. The result could have done with more work, but respecting the time limit was quite a positive challenge too, as it can be quite difficult to put a full stop to a collage.
- visited Moravsky Krumlov at the end of October. The is pretty derelict but there's a wonderful charm to it. The rooms that are well-kept are all dedicated to the painter Alfons Mucha, known worldwide for his legacy in Art Nouveau. Yet, advertising posters portraying voluptuous women are not what the exhibition's mostly made of. Indeed, it focuses on the Slav Epic- a collection of 20 canvases of most impressive dimensions.... it's a long tale of oppression, fighting, fear and glory, all set in the Slavic countries of Europe. Most certainly worth a visit, for art and history (on arrival, you're handed a booklet that explains each and every painting. available in English, French etc.)






- Visited Vienna that same weekend- Home of some of the most classical architecture in Europe/ clean/ affluent/ very white.
Strolled down a flea market, which is always great for photographic opportunities...
Visited the Schiele exhibition in the Leopold Museum, which is part of a huge complex of museums called Museum Quartier.
This is a truly wonderful place to visit and get lost in.. only drawback.. exhibitions are about 9 euro a pop...




- Went looking for deers in a forest south of brno... unfortunately, the photographs are out of focus.. but it was fantastic to witness a whole herd of deers.. i don't think i had ever seen deers before... It made me feel very privileged... moreover, walking in the forest at this time of year is simply a treat, autumnal colours make for a stunning scenery!

- have been working on photographs. I'm hoping to exhibit them inthe near future in Brno. I'm just hoping that the print quality will be decent enough.. fingers crossed.. the images are on one of my picasa albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/annesophiecocault/ADiaryOfMissingYou
- not much happening since then, unfortunately.. very little time, and energy levels have been going down big time... it's time for vitamins I think!


http://www.nataliedee.com/110904/vitamins.jpg



hoping to be back soon
peace out

Druids bless Elvis!

Currently working on a summer school in North Dublin- I've been on a good few excursions over the last 5 weeks.. one of the 'highlights' was the Hill of Tara, which I had thought to be fairly dull until 'County Meath Elvis' and his compadre arrived spreading the love and freaking the kids out... the front man's not really to be admired for his guitar playing dexterity but, oh man, does he have soul.... and humour!
Visited loads of other places, all to be found in any (absolutely any) tourist guide for Dublin...

Thanks to Barry's sister Grainne, we got to spend a couple of days in Clogherhead, located just off Termonfeckin... (once you say that name out loud, you can't get enough of it... 'termonfeckin, termonfeckin.... well, thats enough now..)




and there again, walking on the beach, you get to wonder: what are some folks on about?
Totally un-green, but it does make for a picture I like!

Indeed, television's bad, but man, drop it somewhere else!

Had an amazing time at the last Dry County show.... oh, some hot dancing had!
Sorry I can't link to the band's Myspace (I'm staying in a boarding house by the school, and there's some kind of parental control that won't give access to most sites... is my soul any more healthy for that? i doubt it... imagination's far worse than facebook, innit?)
anyway, here's a link to a nialler9's blog entry dedicated to dry county, (that blog is just brilliant by the way..) wee pix of Sir Porter, photograph by BEW

also had the pleasure of going back to belfast last weekend, where BEW performed on both evenings.. I was at the Black Box (always a good venue) and did some dancing to some very, very dirty but oh so hot beats!! for more details, go straight to dodgystereo.blogspot.com
Pictures to be seen there as well.

During that weekend, Conal and I drove to Brown's Bay, walked around for a bit, which was fresh and calm...
We headed to the Gobbins after that, and that was simply splendid... I seriously doubt that any descriptions or photographs could do the place justice.. simply astonishing!!!!
don't you just love it when Nature takes over and leaves you contemplating, breathless??!!!
A very inspiring place, with a real eerie atmosphere, something in the air, in the ground, in the sea, or in the stones, I couldn't say, but definitely a very special feeling..

so please people, by all means, don't you go dump your nasty rubbish out there....

Rock on
sing to the Sun God
leave a few coins in Elvis-from-Meath's cap

peace out

on my way to Baile Átha Cliath

After spending three weeks in Belfast, It's now time to get busy earning again!
I'm going to be based in Sutton, North dublin for the next seven weeks... I'll be 'edutaining' a group of French kids...
Some terrible sins I must have committed in my previous life!

The last few weeks have been really full on but I'm leaving today feeling that I got to touch base with some wonderful people here! Although the weather's been pretty nasty, there's a lot of warmth in relationships...
and what do I like most but that feeling?!

Now, as to what's going to happen once the summer's over... it does look like Barry and I will be heading back to Brno, for another year of English Language teaching...
It's not a matter of not having tried, but finding a job other than a call centre position is very difficult around this part of the world...

That actually reminds me of an article I read about the 'New Northern Irish economy' some time ago, where the headline read 'Northern Ireland's losing its graduates'...
there's a point there... Being qualified is far from being a guarantee that a job will follow! More and more people find themseleves having to move to get the job they're qualified to do.. it's a pity (to je skoda!) but that's the way it is at present.. and fingers crossed, things will turn around at some point and we will all live happy everafter... well, here's to hope anyway!

Anyway, I might as well believe that going back for another year abroad's the best thing right now...
There is something to be said for genuine positivity and hope! If being a dark realist prepares one for the worst, being confident that things are going to be ok and looking at the positive before the negative may just prepare one to a less traumatic life.....

oh man, can't beat simple pleasures!!

peace and happiness to you all


tree trunk- Mikulov- on a sunny day... earthy goodness!!

brno... belfast

Alright, so.. the bags are packed, the shoulders are about ready to be hurting over the next couple of days..
the travel nervousness's kicked in too...
butterflies in the stomach...

I'll be travelling to Prague tomorrow morning with mr Cullen.. one idle afternoon and evening to be spent there, before flying to sunny Belfast on Friday morning..

looking forward to it? yeah, sure..
a bit at a loss with emotions, the leaving and arriving ones..? oh, yeah.. oh yeah!!

surf the wave and go with the flow...
live and let live... se laisser vivre...
accept that the future's got a lot in store that I can't control...
(oh, damn it... that i find so frustrating!!)

after all, the best things that have ever happened in my life were totally random and certainly were out of my control...
just as my favourite photographs were not staged, but captured a moment that the photographer didn't provoke...
let live...
and snap!!

to all of you people
to the dreams.. NA SNI!!!!!!!!!!! (cesky)