Can Ireland be the next Saudi Arabia ?

Ireland... and its green grass, you can find all over the place. May be this grass can be the new source of richness for Irish, it turns out a Canadian company has developed a new process to create ethanol from the left-over of corn/cereal production, which means basically been able to make ethanol from cellulosic material. Some scientists have tried to calculate the yield by using switchgrass. And now we can dream of producing bio-fuel just by lawn mowing your garden. May be a whole industry could emerge in Ireland, based on shamrock-fuel ?

Snow in Ireland

What to say, yipeeee, snow in Ireland.

Chichin is dead RIP

Seen in Tracks (Arte)

Les Rita Mitsouko - C'est Comme Ca
envoyé par candyraton

4 THINGS

WHAT 4 JOBS I HAVE HAD:

Supermarket assistant.

IC mask engineer

4 PLACES I'VE LIVED:

Auvergne (Hauterive/Clermont) - France

Where I grew up, green hills, lovely food. And the place i've done all my studies.

Alpes (Grenoble/Nice) - France

Mountains, where I started my working life.
A view from my window at the time:

Lombardia (Monza) - Italy

A short stay in Italy, but quite interesting, and my first taste of living abroad.
Can't speak a word of Italian, but at the end i did understand it. And it's where i discovered Italians were crazy about soccer.

Munster (Limerick) - Ireland

Where I live at the moment, temple of Irish rugby, despite a bad reputation (stab city), a nice place to live, and quite close from the surf and diving spots.


4 PLACES I'VE BEEN ON HOLIDAY:

Red Sea
My first scuba diving holidays, in hot water, lovely to just need a t-shirt to dive.
Excellent though i had to wait the last dive to spot an octopus.

Corsica

Again scuba-diving holidays.

Spain
My first scuba diving holidays abroad... nice.

Royan - France
Where i used to go on holidays with my parents, when i was (very) young, probably the reason why i love the sea so much.

4 FAVOURITE FOODS:

Omelette with potatoes and some cheese.

Raclette, recipe fro winter survival made of cheese and charcuterie.

"Bleu d'auvergne" a cheese originated from the hills i grew up.

Andouillettes a tasty French sausage made from the colon and stomach of a pig.

4 PLACES I'D LIKE TO VISIT:

New Zealand
For the next world cup and see France win it :-P.

Iceland
To dive in Silfra

Quebec
To see a hockey game, meet people speak "quebecois" and so much more.

Sweden
I like cold countries.

4 PLACES I'D RATHER BE:
NA at the moment.

And you ?

ASM - Munster [2]

Few pics of the french supporters:

The Fox is here to stay in Ireland.

Thomond Park is still under re-construction, but that did not change a bit the atmosphere.

The stadium is going to be fantastic with 26000 places ( and the city deserted the match day )

ASM - Munster [1]

So "les Jaunes et Bleus" ( the yellow and blue ) came to Thomond Park ( still under renovation ) to face mighty Munster in the Heineken Cup.

Great game, even if i would i have prefer to see Clermont fist team, with the like of Mignoni, Bonnaire, Rougerie...

The atmosphere was great ( as usual in Thomond Park ), with people singing The Fields of Athenry
:

Lyrics

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
"Michael, they have taken you away
For you stole Trevelyan's corn
So the young might see the morn'
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay"

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young man calling
"Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free
Against the famine and the Crown
I rebelled, they cut me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity"

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely harbour wall, she watched the last star falling
As the prison ship sailed out against the sky
For she'll live in hope and pray
For her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

or the Munster's song, Stand Up and Fight:

STAN' UP AN' FIGHT (TOREADOR SONG)

Thanks a lot! I'm sure glad to be,
To be where I c'n see
So many friends o' mine.
How've I been doin'? How've I been doin'?
If you really wanta know de truth,
I'm doin' fine!
Seventeen decisions in a row,
An' only five on points; de res' was all K.O.
Jackson an' Johnson, Murphy an' Bronson,
One by one dey come,
An' one by one to dreamland dey go.
How's it done? You ask me, how's it done?
I got a trainer man who taught me all I know.
Sure feels good to have him in my corner,
Hear his voice a-whisp'rin' low:
"Big boy, remember, you mus' remember...

Stan' up an' fight until you hear de bell,
Stan' toe to toe, trade blow fer blow,
Keep punchin' till you make yer punches tell,
Show dat crowd watcher know!
Until you hear dat bell, dat final bell,
Stan' up an' fight like hell!"

When you fight out in de open air,
In a patch o' light de ring looks small an' white.
Out in de blackness, out in de blackness,
You c'n feel a hun'erd thousan' eyes
Fillin' de night.
Cigarettes are blinkin' in de dark,
An' makin' polka dots aroun' de baseball park,
People are quiet den dere's a riot!
Someone t'rows a punch
An' plants it right smack on de mark...
Someone’s hurt, you kinda think it's you.
You hang across de ropes
Da's all you want to do.
Den you look aroun' an' see your trainer's eyes,
Beggin' you to see it through,
Dey say, "Remember, big Boy, remember

Stan' up an' fight until you hear de bell,
Stan' toe to toe, trade blow fer blow,
Keep punchin' till you make yer punches tell,
Show dat crowd watcher know!
Until you hear dat bell, dat final bell,
Stan, up an' fight like hell!"

Few french supporters have come for this occasion and we had a great week-end, touring few pubs (Clohessys, Nancy Blake, Flannerys in Catherine Street and Durty Nellys )

More with some pics, next post.

L'Auvergne debarque a Limerick.. J-6

Next Sunday, ASM (Clermont Auvergne) is playing Munster for the Heineken Cup in Limerick. Last Sunday night, Clermont beat the Lliannell Scarlet (semi-finalist last year after eliminating Munster ) 48-21 ( seven tries including 3 from Aurelien Rougerie ).....

This past week end i have start the training to be cox'n swain.
So what is cox'n swain ?
Definition: A person who usually steers a ship's boat and has charge of its crew. Under defined by CFT ( the Irish scuba diving federation ), it's basically, the person who's in charge of the diving boat, insure the safety of the divers on-site, and on the journey on and from the diving sites.
So last Saturday we spend the day lecturing about knots, charts, boats, and Sunday we had some boat practice in the Shannon estuary ( man over board, attach a buoy ...)

Sea safety:On the Royal Navy Lifeboat Institution website, there is load of informations about boat, driving safely which can easily be downloaded.The sea safety is accessible online.