The only way to travel.....

......at this time of year.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!!


From BB, LL & PP xxx

Wintery Wonderland......

........we have had a shed load of snow over here - between 6 and 10 inches for most of the last two weeks.


The people on our estate really know how to do snowthings (with Pinky thrown in for some scale reference).

The countryside has been looking beautiful and the roads have been a welcome challenge.

Last weekend got to make the most of it starting with the Christmas shoot on Saturday. I didn't have my camera so don't have many pictures of any of it unfortunately.


I had been reliably informed that this was going to be quite a booze-up and I was not disappointed. I thought this lot would be a special drink to go with lunch but it turned out to be our elevenses, served with hot soup and bread rolls. 

Here's one I had to put out of it's misery - 

A lot of people also had hip flasks with a variety of different moonshines and by the time lunch came around I was well oiled and I think most people were as well.

Lunch went on for about four hours and was delicious, with plenty of grog flowing all over the place. 


Highlights, some of which I can actually remember myself, include breath-freshening peppermint booze (50% WOOF!!), unsuccessful attempts at shotgunning cans (Guinness for me - don't recommend trying that at home) and a massive snowball fight  that lasted for half an hour or so.


LL's cousin Lucy and her Jack Russell Tinker left with us and the five of us (including Pinky) went to the pub (the first one wouldn't let us in) for a totally unnecessary pint. Then back home where I passed out sharpish. Apparently Lucy was in the igloo at some point but I don't remember that at all. 


Sunday started with a bang. A repetitive BANG BANG BANG inside my brain. I was desperate for a drink of water but could not get out of bed so had to ration the small glass I had by the side of my bed over a few hours. We got up and had breakfast and LL informed me that we were going sledging - oh yes.


We went over to her brothers house where he had piste bashed a hill in his field the night before and armed with a variety of sledges ranging from an awesome home made wooden two-seater, to an unmade-up plastic box , we went crazy on the hill for a few hours.

I made sure all the kids gave me sufficient goes on their sledges but found my favourite was a plastic sign with the front cut into a point. Here is a video of me in action on it (first time I have put on a video so hopefully it works) - 

Here is LL racing, and whooping the arse of her nephew on the same beasts.

Pinky enjoyed herself too.

Knackered and aching afterwards but was brilliant fun.


Now I am meant to be flying back to England tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will allow.


HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! Hope to see you in 2011 if not before. 

Last few days....

...have been good ones.


As well as all the usual awesome stuff I have been getting up to, I got the call to go shooting on Wednesday afternoon with CK where we walked around his folks' garden for a couple of hours, peppering a few pigeons with the shotguns. Kablammo!!! Luckily for the birds of County Down they will all live to see another day. Great day for it in the snow and the sun. 


On Thursday I got my friend FF to take me tree climbing. He is a tree surgeon and as it is something I plan to get myself into I thought it would be a good idea to go up a tree first to see what it is like. I have what has proved up to this point to be a healthy fear of heights and was worried I would not be able to get up a tree, or worse still, get back down once I was up.


I went over to Seaforde where they have another nice view of the Mourne mountains - been there done that.

When it was time to go up the tree FF went up first to get the rope up. He has all the kit and the skills and I knew I was in good hands as he shot up.

Where's he gone? Whoah Nelly!!

At this stage I think I shouted up that this first time up I only wanted to go really bloody high, I didn't need to go up to the twig level and would be happy sticking to the branches. I hauled myself up afterwards and got about as high as he was here - more than high enough for me. I was pretty happy with my ability and skill. Then, before he had me out walking along the twigs, I said lets go down (slowly) and get some lunch.


Luckily FF's mum had put on some soup so I didn't have to rely on his culinary talents alone. FF had taken me into his kitchen for a coffee before we went out and had offered me some mealworms. I thought he was joking until he showed them to me - these of course being raised to feed some of the animals in the butterfly house. Then we started talking about eating insects and he said he had been given a book about it, and as well as that he just so happened to have some large edible ants lying about the place as well. 

I can now say that I have eaten an ant. A giant toasted one at that. I am in no rush to eat another one and mealworms will have to wait for another day.


Suitably impressed with my high levels of masculinity, I thought I was on a roll and the only thing for it was to go and get some tools from the hardware store. Off to Jacky Brown's I goes and came home with these - 

A new hatchet and blowtorch for me. LL had better behave herself from now on or else. I have used the hatchet to make kindling to light the fire with but in all likelihood the blowtorch will only be used to burn excess feathers of pheasants and toast the top of creme brulees which is OK with me.


That night LL had a wine tasting evening and as a swallower not a spitter I was undeniably merry before too long. Of the wines that caught my eye was this - produced by one of the less well known and certainly less popular of the Saints.

Saint Bris - the patron Saint of circumcision. Just when the monks thought that a life of abstinence and spiritual contemplation was going to be tough enough, Saint Bris came along and really burst their bubbles. 


Dinner party at CK's on friday with great food and wine, cigars and sloe potcheen (a local moonshine made from potatoes and great for stripping paint), and a new game (for me) on the snooker table - called Freda (I think) where you have to throw the white to hit a single red ball before it stops moving or you lose a life - awesome fun and a lot easier than real snooker. Good fun.


After all of the fun man stuff I had been doing karma was bound to come and bite me on the arse. True to form LL had organised a babysitting trip for me to her sister's house down south where for one night only we were looking after five girls between 2 and 7 years old. It turned out to be a very good laugh and the girls were all very well behaved and stayed friends for most of the time at least. I made it out of there without having any makeup applied and only had to sit through the first half of the best of Abba CD whilst they were showing off their dance moves.


Home at last and able to relax. Well done Matt winning the X-Factor. I always thought he was the best one. 


What next? 

Beautiful day in NI today....

.....bit cold mind.

New Earrings......

.......Eat your heart out Pat Butcher.

I was given a brace of pheasants at a shoot the other day. Apparently you are not a proper country man until you have given a back, sack and crack to some dead game birds.


I turned the radio on and began the plucking proceedings, not knowing what the hell I was doing. 

Pinky was enjoying eating and choking on the odd feather, the same cannot be said for me. 

Halfway through and I had torn one bird to bits, filled up a plastic bag with feathers, a head and some feet, and made a mess of the kitchen. One more to go.


Having plucked, decapitated and made legless the second bird I had to shove my hand up their backsides and scoop out all the stuff inside - of which there was way more than I thought there would be. Retchety retch!!


I had to singe off the remaining feathers and hairs but having no blowtorch, I went to buy some meths from the petrol station but they didnt have any. I then tried to get some cognac from the local off licence and the girl didnt know what it was and I couldnt see any so that was no good. In the end I held them over our living room fire for as long as my hands could bear and LL could hold Pinky back. 

Looking good(ish). Then into the freezer they went. Will make sure they get munched soon. In all it took me a few hours including excursions. 


I am a pheasant plucker, not a pheasant pluckers son. And I'll pluck another pheasant when I'm finished with this one.