Dongguan Jon
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
The places we take with us
Monday, November 4, 2024
Gratitude
Twoscore and six years ago, my mother drove herself to a small clinic in Umtata and brought me forth into this world; for that, and for many other things, I am grateful.
I'm grateful to the government of Qatar, who decided yesterday afternoon to call a school holiday for my birthday (it was actually for the local elections, but I'll take it).
I'm grateful to International School Manila, who will be welcoming us to our new job and home in July. We're excited for a new adventure in Southeast Asia, and hope to visit many new islands, beaches, and dive spots. We'll be living in Bonifacio Global City, which sounds like a bubble of western urbanity in the middle of the craziness of Manila. We're looking forward to walking to and from work, and to working with our good friends from our days in China, Kim and Jay, who started there this year. We're also very grateful to Kim for helping us through the application process, talking us up with the administration, and answering all of our questions about the school and life in Manila.
[I keep misspelling grateful as greatful; I'm going to just let that slide from now on, as I'm not sure that the word shouldn't be spelled that way anyway.]
Learning about the transition to Manila so early in the recruiting season has left me feeling a little adrift, as transitions often do. The unexpected blessing of a day off in the middle of the week opened me up to these feelings of great-full-ness, so I'll sign off by hoping that the US elections go the way any rational person would expect them to, and that I'm greatful to any of you who are still reading this!
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Col Ceathracha!
It was a little off-centered, so I had to adjust the 150 ton capstone (largest of any in Europe) before we took the photo. |
Old shit!
Lots of other old things to see: abbeys, priories, castles, ancient stone circles, and chalets. |
16th century Irish warriors went barefoot and bare-legged! |
Cute, colorful seaside town of Kinsale. |
The courtyard of our hotel in Cork, featuring a natural waterfall! |
Ancient bog elk from Kilkenny Castle, with antlers spanning over 3 meters. |
Ridiculously large toilet, made for a royal visit before they really knew what to do with toilets. |
Boats, jaunts, cable cars!
Wildlife!
Dolphins!Seal colony on Blasket Island |
Whiskey!
Pubs!
Good food, good drink, good music, and good craic! Taught the youngster to play hearts, and visited Sean's bar, the oldest bar in Ireland, and maybe the whole world after they finish the archaeology. |
Epic Battles!
White walker attack! I held him off for a bit... |
Then milady came in to finish him off. |
And we claimed the Iron Throne for our very own! |
Miscellaneous!
We really thought we found my dad at in the backyard of this hostel... |
Epilogue
The cousins took off, and we moved to a sort of dingy (but huge) suite and lived it up for our last few days of summer. By lived it up, I mean we got some massages; spent some time in the spa's "thermal suite", which had themed showers and water jets I won't soon forget; got some room service; moseyed around Dublin a bit; Rani got a new tattoo...Wednesday, July 24, 2024
The King in the North!
An early morning flight to Dublin, and we were on the road: TO THE NORTH! |
The trip was a blur, but we made it to Portstewart, and one of the nicest AirBnbs in which we've ever stayed. |
PS has a pretty spectacular beach, and they tried to warn me. |
but I didn't listen |
My first beach horse-and-cart! |
We visited Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge: a dicey hike and walk across a 1-person rope bridge, with lots of sea-birds to view. |
I found this big old rock jutting out into the sea, and called lightning to break it up into these cool geometric shapes |
And was proclaimed "The King of the Causeway"! |
Ireland doesn't have nearly as many courses as Norway did, but there was a pretty nice one nearby on the Ulster University campus. |
I liked it so much that I called forth a Monkey Puzzle tree to help them diversify their arboretum. |
OMG pub food! Got my fill of ham (for the moment), and we are definitely getting tired of potatoes. |
Quick visit to Derry and the Derry Girls mural. |
Roads are fun here, too! |
Grianan of Aileach, a cool round fort. |
Loughareema, the disappearing lake, had disappeared when we went by. |
Johann the goat, commemorating the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001. |
Cushendun caves, another GOT filming site, where the Lady Melisandre gave birth to the shadow. |
Fun mural with poem outside Mary McBride's, where I had my favorite burger of the whole trip. |
The Ballygally Polar bear (don't ask, cause I don't know). |
And in to Belfast! Shipyards, the Titanic experience, political murals. Our bus stop had a cool name, and we almost got run down by a fleet of Amazon vans. |
Glass of thrones! A collaboration between the producers of the show and Belfast tourism. Stained glass showing scenes from the show, crowdsourced from fans, arranged mostly by house. Pretty good, and a good reason for a walk up and down the river. |
Fun warning signs! |
Our time in the North was short but full. We moved on to an appropriately named suburb of Dublin to await the arrival of Rani's cousins, and the penultimate stage of our epic adventure. |
Peace, Jon