Haven’t heard about this oil spill? Have a quick read and get back to me.

Caught up? Good.

Now on to my point. These Guys came up with an innovative solution to the problem.

Hay. Pure and simple.

If you don’t fancy heading over to the page to watch the video, here it is.

So it’s like I’ve been saying all along – Men in sheds will save the world, and they’ll get it done today with duct tape, hope, dollar store tools… and hay.

Both of the welding tests have to be evaluated before they are sent to the certification board so I can get my papers.

I was waiting for a phone call today, and if I did not receive a phone call, I was to assume that I had passed the evaluation and my pieces were winging their way to FETAC so they can send me my papers.

Man I am happy as hell. I love passing tests.

For those of you out there that don’t know, ever since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, they have been trying to transfer power from London to Belfast in a process know as devolution.

The main issues have been:

1. The dismantling of the paramilitary (terrorist) groups in Northern Ireland.
2. The removal of the British Army and it’s bases.
3. Establishment of Power Sharing between the main political parties.
4. The devolution of policing and other services.

There are more issues than that, but those are the main ones.

The paramilitaries have disarmed (mostly).

The army are gone.

Power sharing is here.

And as linked above, the police are devolving.

There’s no point fighting any more on the part of the terrorists. All you’ll be doing is killing other Northerners. You can plant bombs, shoot cops, whatever it is you want to do… but there’s no point.

You’re not fighting for Britain or Ireland any more.

All you’re doing is blowing up your own people. Which is fairness, is what you’ve been doing this whole time.

It’s over. There are years of healing to go yet. I give it two generations before no one gives a shit any more.

It’s over lads. It’s over.

This here’s my booth. After the jump the first pictures of my first welds.

My first plate of welds. I’m rather proud of it actually. What I’m learning is Manual Metal Arc Welding; Sometimes called stick welding.

You basically take a stick of filler metal coated in flux and run 105 amps through it. Then you earth the piece of metal you want to weld, then strike an arc (by tapping or dragging the rod across the metal) and lay down the filler.

Here’s a video of basically what I was doing today.

I’ll update weekly for the next 8 weeks as my welding course progresses. Learning, progressing… all for free. God Bless Fas.

Today I went into town to do something that I always look forward to. Every time it rolls around I’m more than happy to get it done, even if it’s difficult to pay for.

I’m talking of course, about an eye test. I love getting my eyes test, and sleep deprivation not withstanding, I had a blast. I know this all sounds really dorky, but I genuinely enjoy it. I didn’t go to my usual guy, which is kind of annoying because my usual guy has an unusually soothing voice, but I digress…

As is par for the course these days the hardest part was trying to get what I wanted for a price I could afford. With some finagling, a gentle nudge of a 25% discount [supposedly only for the over 60's], and a mid sized thwack from my medical card I was able to get a very nice pair of glasses, with decent lenses for 80 euros. Not bad at all.

They’ll be available for collection on the 18th of this month, so I’ll try and get a picture up around then.

Other than that I paid the rent and got a haircut. The before and after pictures for the haircut I will post somewhere in the next few days if I can manage it.

Tomorrow is the second day of my welding course, and the first day we actually start welding. I’ll try to remember to bring the camera.

I am working on getting character bios for some of the characters of the fictional Irish city: Castlefinn City.
The first [and hopefully more] of these will be posted soon along with an illustration of each character drawn by Frank.

Nonsense to waiting, and enough hanging about. Let’s blog this shit.

I flew home today… Hardest thing I ever had to do. I love you Kimberlee.

Click through for trip pictures.

Over Ireland. Totally forgot to take a picture of Dublin airport. No such problems with immigration – Through in 15 seconds.

Under the pier at Huntington Beach. The Pacific is cold.

They were selling this in a real store. Next to the Ever clear.

We watched the tide come in to destroy this sandcastle. We witnessed the exact high point in the tide. It swept in, filled the moat then backed away. It was beautiful.

Desert. Nom nom nom.

An airship, above a doughnut shop. On 7th by Pacific Coast Highway. A very American moment indeed.

Yep. They still sell these over here. Anyone else remember these? Early 90’s…

What would you do for a klondike bar?

Gotta put cool whip on pie.

A Mc Donalds in the Wal-Mart, next to the American flag. They sold American flags too.

Kimberlee’s son with twinkies and my red gatorade in the background. It’s some tasty stuff the gatorade. The twinkies… chemical goodness.

Had fish sticks and tater tots for dinner.