Day 17-Saturday 4th June Wexford

Awoke at 6. To go on or stay? It seemed silly to come all this way and not get a feel for the place. i have never been to Southern Ireland and may not be back for awhile so i decided to explore the town, Listening to Irish radio was a culture shock. I sort of expected radio 4 is ubiquitous and you can tune in but there is loads of other stuff.They were talking about company pensions crisis over here and how not only would contributions need to be put up but they are contemplating a "short term" reduction in the region of 10%. Now that I am going to be reliant on a pension that sounds like bad news if the UK government catch on to such a great idea.

Hylje is the one in the middle of the picture. I am moored alonside Ostrea. Its not so much that she won't be going any where- more a case of can't go anywhere I suspect.:-

Radio RG1 was enthusing about the sheep shearing championships going on in Kilkerey. i though it was a spoof, but it was clearly the real thing. the current world champion is Doug Smith from New Zealand. He sheared 504 sheep in 8 hours, and together with his brother they managed 1066 in the same time. The record for a single sheep is just under 20 secs! As I'm sure you will know he was using the Bowen technique named after the world famous Godfrey Bowen.All the sheep farmers there were in good spirits partly because the price of sheep is high because of a world shortage. 60% of the wool produced in Ireland goes to China and most of it is used to produce carpets.

Being moored up to the fishing boat meant that it was a short clamber onto the quayside.The wide pedestrian area and open train track gave the place a very European feel. The thing that surprised me was the quality of some of the new buildings.

 My image of planning control in Ireland was one of laxness and the rural areas being full of bungalows in the middle of nowhere. firstly, i went to see the new Wexford Opera House. It was built on the site of the old Theatre Royal. It is a big building and from the sea it competed on the skyline with the church spires. The young lad who told me where to moor my boat yesterday said it was not popular at first because it was too modern, but now everyone likes it. The entrance is a bit hard to find. It is within the frontage of a modest terrace, which is actually new.

At the top is the sky view cafe, which has great views out to the Irish Sea. I had a coffee and listened to "Juliette" by Dire Straits followed by "Tubular bells" by Mike Oldfield a couple of great old classics.

 The interior was well finished and there were some  fine carpet tapestries by a 30s artist Mainje Jellet. the big one was a study of " wave motions and sea turmoil". I got it completely.

Now I am being absolutely honest when I say I have never taken a photo in a men's lavatory before and its not something i intend to start doing but it looked great. Time for a makeover of the Crooked Spire, which is our samba band's hangout. I'm sure they'll be up for it.

Next i had a look at the Whites Hotel. It had a great open , light and interesting lounge foyer.

I remember seeing a poster made up of interesting Irish shopfronts. There were some promising ones here. However in the one sold cheap tools and other stuff it had some ready made grave markers at 39 Euros each. Is this an Irish thing?

There are a lot of old buildings too. Selsker Abbey is supposed to have been built by Alexander Roch who when he came back from the Crusades found that his true love had entered a convent because she had thought he wasn't coming back. What does a love struck war hero do/ build an abbey of course. I liked to think that the heart depicted in the stone work over the entrance was symbolic of his love for her.

There were some good galleries too. This is a cultured and affluent town. I like my art to have a sense of fun in it and if it isn't there I'll make it up. i liked the image of someone grappling with a bike. it reminded me of my efforts to get my folding bike in and out of Hylje!

There was sculpture of a lady lying down that I thought should have been entitled "bad Hair Day", rather than "Evolution".

There was another sculpture of a rowing vessel suspended in mid air by the oars. It begged the caption. " How do we get back into that boys?"

I used my bike to find the boat club where there was free Wifi and showers and to get some petrol. I thought my bike parked on the forecourt made a great picture. You can't tell anyone to " fill it up" nowadays, but I'd have love to say it to someone.

had a long chat on the quay side with a young guy who had a modern Moto Guzzi. It turned out he had 3 other older Guzzis and another BMW motor bike. he ran a trips around the harbour business with his father. it was good to find such an enthusiast. he knew the things inside out like I used to.

tonight there I shall probably go to see Pierce Turner at the Arts Centre. He is billed as an unorthodox singer songwriter, described by Hot press as "Joyce with a voice. Yeats on skates" I'll tell you if it lives up to the billing.