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Paul Maher
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Welcome to my Web site!
Hello, This is my first ever attempt at a web page I hope ya like it. It is basically so that my family and friends can stay in touch with me while I am away and it means I dont have to send group emails any more just a link so people can ignore it if they want . To the left and above you should see links to a Photo album and some other things that I havent really finished yet, so the links might be broken, but the album should work. IN place of the letters I have been sending, i will probably write little notes every now and then just so that the page has something different on a regular basis. Due to the quota given to me by the free web hosting service I am using, I will have to be very selective regarding hte pictures I will be able to show on the photo album. So as more are added older ones may be deleted. I am sure most of you couldn't care less, but thought I would let those who could know. (That senence sounds better spoken than it looks written.) I will try to update it on a regular basis informing people of my movements. 02/04/03 Well not much to report, Villach had yet another festival this weekend. This one was called Honky Tonk, which basically meant alot of bands in a lot of Pubs and seemed to have very little to do with country music. One ticket got you in everywhere. A friend Ian, from Ireland, came over to visit for it. The quality of the music was pretty hit and miss. Some bands were little more than wedding bands, however, the Lücke had a great band Postel and Potsch which were simply brilliant. Two guys with guitars, trumpets, washboards and bells...the were simply brilliant.. We also went to Lublijana on the Saturday which was as always nice, a very cool city. The weekend was only spoilt by Ireland losing to England in the Rugby, so depressingly badly on Sunday. Was in Graz for paddys weekend. Great city, full of students. Is european city of culture at the moment. but didn't get to see much of that as we spent most of the time in pubs. Left the last one at 7.00 o'clock in the morning. Which is not remarkable until you consider i was back in villach, for work, that same day.. Would have been there earlier only Anatol who was driving my car while I was asleep in the passanger seat, so we got lost in some Kaff when he took a detour off the motorway to find petrol. However, we stumbled across some beautiful scenery and so the detour was well worth it. As ever no camera present, so no photos. ....... Also managed to get up in the mountains again, and even managed to do some windsurfing in a lake near here. Temperature of water was only 4 degrees, which is damn cold!!!!! But had suits on so went swimming aswell. Have a few photos wil try to get them up as soon as developed. Will be in Ireland, 4th of April to the 7th to visit family. Might see some of ya there. Regards, Paul. 14/03/03 Have not been travelling as much as in previous letters. But, since I last wrote I have been to Paris twice. A wonderful city if you can avoid stepping in dogshit. It was snowing there at the start of January, which apparently is really unsusual, one parisian I know who has lived there for decades said he never saw snow in Paris before. The city looked spectacular under a fresh blanket of snow, and at christmas time with the minimilist lighting that the city council seems to provide around the tourist areas it was really beautiful. But, like a big feckin' eejit, every time we went out for a walk in it I forgot to bring my camera, so no cool pictures of paris in the snow. Also managed to get to Zagreb, since I last wrote, which is a really cool city. The best part being that the trams are still running when you come out of a disco at 4 oclock in the morning....( By the way for those Irish speakers who think my use of the term disco to denote a nightclub is a bit farmerish, I have to tell you that in over here a night-club is a strip bar/brothel...this gem of information I learned only after numerous converstions where I spoke about the great time I had in a nightclub the previous night, it received strange looks .....I now use the term disco...it receives less funny looks..... Also managed to visit Munich and Venice( again!) in the meantime as well as various Austrian cities... However, the main reason I have not been travelling as much as previously is because, I have taken up snowboarding and have been spending alot of time in Carinthia at the weekends, (on my ass mostly). It is also quiet an expensive persuit so it means that have not had much money to do much else. Managed to go snowboarding in Grenoble though , which was beautiful and discovered, what many of you have suspected all along, that I am now officially Goofy.... (Goofy is a snowboarding term to indicate that you prefer leading with your right foot, as opposed to your left, this is a big deal as you have to change the whole set up of the board and can't just get on any board (85% of snowboarders are regular, meaning they lead with their left foot).(For non-native english speakers, Goofy also means silly or ridiculous). For those of you who want to discover whether you are regular or goofy, if you are a skate boarder or a wind surfer then you already know. But the best test for the rest of you is to take your shoes off, run, and then try to slide across the kitchen floor in your socks. Whatever foot you lead with indicates whether you are goofy or not. Anyway enough goffiness. Spring seems to have sprung here and the snow is all but gone in most places. Some of the lower ski resorts will be closing down soon. So will have to find a new persuit....Was asked to go windsurfing recently...but the water is only 1 degrees above freezing so gave it a miss...know another guy who is planning to go diving this weekend... some of the guys here are mad i tell ya....( Oh yeah... interesting, at the end of WWII the Germans put loads of munitions and weapons on to the centre of the frozen lakes here, then as the ice melted the munitions sank to the bottom, a friend, Anatol (german), went diving hre fro the first time recently and he said it was unbelievable. He heard the stories but he thought they were exaggerated, but apparently not. There are tons of grenades and crates lying around within easy reach. Tourist are just taking a few dozen grenades home with them as souviners, there is also supposed to be tons of missing Nazi gold stolen from Italy in one of the lakes and there were lots of expidition in the 70's and 80's to find it. But it was never found.... Anyway, Since the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month people around here have been celebrating Fasching which is a kind of festival that ends on the first day of LEnt. It seemed pretty tame at first but here in Viallch they had a really big parade on the final weekend and the day culminated with a massive drunken fancy dress/orgy in the town that went on all night.... This involved almost every native dressing up and then falling down repeatedly...although I htink the second bit was uniintentional. Naturally we got in the spirit and will post some photos up as soon as I get them. Other than that have no news. Am working away on my project and having a good time in general. Regards, Paul .
This page was last updated on 03/16/03. |