Not Part Of The Package

11 August - Found myself on a little bit of night exploration with ze Germans for a while - had a pint or two (that's pronounced pInt) but decided that i'd rather crash out earlyish than latter - maybe i'm getting old but the appeal of crawling around a foreign city guzzling as much booze as I can doesn't really appeal so much these days. Still miserably wet and with no signs of clearing it looks like i'll be in for a sodden week. Lots of beggars in Cork - many of the Eastern European persuasian - terrible how all those Lithuanians and Poles and Czechs and, god fordbid, Slovakians, have invaded the west of Europe. Who the hell do they think they are taking advantage of their EU passports to flitter through the porous borders. Never usually bothered by being asked for money but when a long haired guy with a more expensive iPod than mine is asking for a couple of euros and cigarettes it's kind of irritating, especially when the refusal is followed by a thinly veiled threat to be 'careful with [my] things'. You dare threatenme!!! Such is the life of a tourist. Despite the danger of being rained on I thought it would be wise to get out of town and took a ride down to Kinsale - not too strenuous although the chafing started to make itself felt - impromptu toilet break was interrupted by a home call and the discovery of delicious blackberries growing by road (don't know if you're supposed to eat 'em but I did and they were good). Upon arrival in said harbour town had some stew, had some beer, took some photos and rolled back. It's a slightly relaxing kind of trip at the moment - perhaps a little dull? I shouldn't really be having those kind of thoughts - one thing i'm glad of is that i'm not part of a budget package tour - had a brief chat with a group of smokers at the hostel and whilst they're being given a good tourist view of the country they're being shuttled around the country at an alarming speed and they're all stuck with each other and I can tell you that i'm glad i'm not stuck with them. I'm not being negative, truly not.
Finished 'The Last Don' by Mario Puzo - a pulpier mafioso book I do not know - one day, when i'm a best selling author i'm going to make sure that I don't find myself typecast into one subject - how many different books about the mafia can you write? Ditto with Clancy and taut politicalthrillers and Francis and horses, King and horror. But hey, they're doing what they love. And f**k, Predator is an awesome movie.