HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
All Hallows Eve
Posted on October 31, 2015
Did you know that the traditions and feast of All Hallows Eve originated in HX? Seriously. MB would not tell you all a lie. MB, as ever, speaks only the truth. But maybe you need to see some more proof before you are convinced. Seeing is believing, is it not, Mr Thomas? Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Treat
Posted on October 30, 2015
The challenge this week is ‘Treat’. Like having a treat – to eat (MB seems to be a poet, and he didn’t even know it!)
Anyway, MB was back in the homeland in June and was in the Grange stone circle on the morning of the Summer solstice sunrise. Where else would he be on that morning?! Heard this lady play an Irish air on her violin while standing in the middle of the circle. Was truly stunning. A real treat. MB did not know her personally, she was not local. Seems she was/is a member of the Irish National Chamber Orchestra and had traveled from afar to play.
The Irish air she played was/is called ‘The Chulainn’, which MB is almost 100% sure is written about a warrior from Irish mythology called Cu Chulainn. Must investigate that some more at another time.
The Chulainn air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwxga8udIio
Rock me mama!
Posted on October 30, 2015
Back home in HX, the two favourite types of music of the natives are: country and western. Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Careful
Posted on October 23, 2015
Michelle’s photo challenge this week:
This week, show us something careful — a photo taken with care, a person being careful, or a task or detail requiring care.
‘The Sideline Cut’
MB returns to the Irish sport of hurling for this week’s challenge, and specifically to an aspect of the game called ‘the sideline cut’.
When the ball is knocked out over the sideline during the course of a game by either team, the referee awards a ‘sideline cut’ to the opposite team. It’s a bit like a golf shot but much more difficult to execute, given the nature of the implement with its broad edge (a hurley). Even in top games the amount of fluffed shots is very high. To get it exactly right requires great care and skill.
Execute the strike poorly and the ball will dribble embarrassingly along the ground for just a few yards. Hit it correctly, at the precise point required underneath the ball and at exactly the correct angle with the hurley stick, and watch the ball soar majestically into the air and into the far distance. At approximately the same angle as a well-struck 8-iron in golf.
MB caught this player taking a sideline cut at a recent game when he was home in September, just as the hurley is about to make contact with the ball. Can not remember how it turned out.
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I know them
Posted on October 23, 2015
Like many, MB has watched the refugees streaming into Europe on his TV screen over recent months. He didn’t realise until today that he actually knows some of them personally.
Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – (Extra)ordinary
Posted on October 16, 2015
Cherri is asking for unexpected ‘interestingness’ in this week’s PC. MB has selected a shot from trip to Goa, India, in April of this year.
Went for short walk one night and encountered this scene on the street, that all but MB seemed oblivious to. Interestingness with a capital ‘I’ for MB – but not for the locals. The two guys standing next to the cow just sum up how little notice the locals actually take of a cow sitting on their street at night.
A little bit of history – Part 1
Posted on October 15, 2015
MB once read an article on Ireland by an English travel writer. The writer described Ireland as the country with the greatest abundance of history per square mile on the entire planet. In the opinion of MB, the description is probably true.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Happy Place
Posted on October 9, 2015
Regardless of life or work or travels, MB is always back home in HX for the Summer Solstice Festival. The home locality is always a happy place in the opinion of MB with its stunning green landscapes around ever corner, but during the festival weekend it is particularly so.
One of the festival events introduced in recent years is ‘The longest walk for the longest day‘. It entails a 2 to 3 hour guided walk around some section of the local lake or adjacent localities, on 21 June, the day of the Summer Solstice, the longest (daylight) day of the year. Regardless of weather, and it was a rainy wet evening on 21 June just past, there is a great sense of happiness & feel good during the event. The below photo was taken by MB when the walkers reached the summit of Knockfennel, the highest hill adjacent to the lake, and the happy smiley faces are a give-away.
For those who may be interested in gaining everlasting youth (everlasting youth – really MB?), the hill in the background of the photo (on the other side of the lake) is called Knackadoon. Knockadoon hides one of the four entrances to the fabled Irish Land of Everlasting Youth (a really happy place), called Tir Na N’Og in the Irish Gaelic language. Each of the four provinces of Ireland has one entrance, and the province of Munster has it’s entrance at the hill of Knockadoon at HX.
The tale of Tir Na N’Og is well known to every Irish schoolchild who reads of it during school years. Many believe that the story is just some old Irish mythology blarney. But HX locals know better. And if you ever caught sight of MB and his youthful looks, you would certainly agree that there must be some truth to the tale. MB is one of course one of a few village elders (even though MB is far from an elder) entrusted with the exact location. And only those most deserving, after a lifetime of good deeds and faithful HX service, are taken at dead of night and totally blindfolded to the entrance cave to arrest the ravages of declining years. But as ever in HX land, MB and the elders are sworn to secrecy. So very sorry dear followers that MB must cut this story short and move on.
The walkers on the Longest Walk For The Longest Day – 21 June 2015, at the top of Knockfennel:
60 Minutes
Posted on October 9, 2015
MB’s recent post At The Match was mere days old when pirhana-like US TV Show ’60 Minutes’ latched on and without so much as a ‘Thank you MB, let’s share the treasure‘ released news of their upcoming programme on the Irish sport of Hurling. Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Boundaries
Posted on October 2, 2015
HX Report 