Better Late than Never People!

Steven Terence Harbott Reports:

December 2005 -
With Northern Ireland conquered it was time for the Limekiln hard stuff to make there way to Edinburgh for the holy grail of new year party's the Hogmany. With lead-foot Dalton at the helm of the rental car, the team made quick progress to Glasgow for the first stop. After seeing the sights, (Ed Note: of which there were buggar all! ).........we then continued on our journey to Edinburgh.
Once there it was time to make our way to Pyedog (James Saunders) & Kates flat. Unfortunately this one bedroom flat which was going to be a cosy fit for the 5 of us, got a whole lot cozier as accomidation was not just double booked but triple booked.........nice work Pyedog!.But hey we 'were' all friends here so the 6 of us piled into the phone box size of a lounge and set up shop.
It could have been worse i suppose as we found out from Jenny Dickie & her partner Scott who were part of the lucky group to be staying with us in Hotel De Pyedog. These 2 poor souls had just been through the day(s) from hell. Having just endured the grueling flight from NZ, they went to pick up there car which they stored at a friends place, the thing promptly blew up and they had to wait for a tow truck to for a hour or so to get taken to the scrap heap. To cap things off upon arriving at James & Kate's absolutely shattered looking for a good nights sleep they find a flat full of drunkards ready to rark it up.

www.flickr.com

Anyway back to us...as I know you are all on the edge of your seat looking forward to what mad-cap adventure awaited us next. As is often the case the dress rehearsal is often better than the big day, as the night of the 30th proved. We hit town harder than a bouchers fist on Dunnies jaw (Ed Note: Sorry Dunny, Steve was struggling for a analogie). The team was all in great form as we pub crawled along the main stretch of bars. Sneaky D (Dalton's new nickname) was even seen making a new friend as witnesses claim to have seen him having a dance off with some fudge packer in one of the bar we visited. It was something straight out of American Pie 3 with Sneaky D playing Stiflers role to a tee. I told duChats that rainbow flag above the bar was a bad sign!!!!



After all piling drunkenly into the lounge we were left wondering whats more uncomfortable than packing 6 people in a small lounge. I knock at the door at 8am answered the question...... packing 7. Lo and behold Manu stood before us after his flights to Paris got cancelled due to snow. He then managed to change his tickets and join up with the team at the Hogmany. The numbers were gathering nicely.

After a brief bit of sight seeing it was back to the task at hand. After a few warm ups drinks at the flat it was time to join the masses at the street party to celebrate the hogamny. 200,000 converged onto the main street to see in the new year. The place sort of resembled a large carnival with a massive Ferriswheel all sorts of different rides and carnival games. Thankfully all that was missing was the carni folk with their small hands & cabbagey oddor. With the Scissor Sisters and Texas playing in the background & proabably the most impressive fireworks display I have ever seen around Edinburgh castle, it was certainly a memorable night.



The whole tour myself & Duchats had talked about when we were going to have a random run in with someone from back home. (Ed: I can't remember that convo?) Well it happened twice to me on that night. Upon coming back from the very few portaloos scattered around for the peasants, I randomly bumped into some Friends from the Brownzy. Crooksy, Hamish and Kirsty. Special mention must be made here to Crooksy who was even wearing a Brownzy Tour T-shirt on the night.......Respect!



After the street party we hit the local bars to finish off the night. After a few hours in the bars I felt (Ed: at around 2pm, if i remember correctly) the end was near so I declared the innings close for the tour. Still there was the small problem of finding my home and after getting completely lost the second random run in happened as I bumped into Beast (Kieran) & Pat from varsity days in the wee hours of the morning. What are the odds. (Ed: 200,000 to 1)
With the hoildays drawing to a conclusion all that was left was to get make the long trip back to Dublin and back to the real world. Still it was a great break and a good time was had by all.

Harbott

Ed: Ben du Chateau

Go the Lake

Good luck to the Westlake boys' in the coming Tri Series clash. The lads over here will have a few for ya!!!! Thanks to Neil McAlpine for supplying the propaganda!!!

Mow time

Drunk and Hairy.......

Glasgow Video

Harbott Reports - The Belfast Experience

With the boat trip out of the way, it was time to start migrating north for the new year. After hitching a ride with Manu to the city of Dundalk I jumped on a bus to catch up with the rest of "the Limekiln Massive" in Belfast. Once there the team went straight into German tourist mode. With our trigger fingers firmly on our cameras we did the Belfast bus tour. The cameras were snapping like ill temped alligators as we passed the Church's and murals which told the colorful story of this tormented city's' past. Belfast was a very interesting city it has to be said. Armour plated police cars, servalence cameras all round town and barbwire all around the cop shop certainly tells the story of a time not so long ago, and certainly puts my up bringing on the means streets of Sunnynook into perspective .

Other than the obvious it's other claim to fame was the Titanic being built there. For some strange reason they were very proud about this fact. So much so that they are planning to build a theme park on the waterfront to celebrate the Titanic's association with the city.........bags not jumping on that ride first!!!! You have got to love the Irish though for putting a positive spin on things. After catching up with Emma and the Belfast girls and doing a bit more sight seeing around there town of Carrickfergus and exploring the castle it was time to hit the road again.

Next stop Scotland!

Steven Terence Harbott

Harbott Reports - Shannon River Drunken Santa's Xmas

Steveo writes about his Xmas adventure in Ireland.

The first part of my Xmas New Years tour began in the middle of Ireland at the Shannon river. A mate of ours Seamus (he is actually a kiwi) came up with the idea, on the piss, of having a orphans Xmas boat trip. After flicking out a email to all and sundry in this hemisphere enough responses came back to fill 3 river boats. The dates were booked and then we were on our way. The trip down was a interesting affair. If only the Guinness book of world records were there to watch us smash the record for most people in a 3 seater transit van with 11. We met up with the rest of the crew mates, who had congregated from all parts of the British Isles. In total there were 20 little Anzac Xmas orphans reading themselves for 4 days of drunken deborchey up the Shannon river.

As the boats launched I gingerly cracked the first Guinness (sorry Murphys to DB friends who might be reading) , I knew I had to draw on my NZ new years binge drinking experience to survive the next 4 days. To be fair I had done myself no favours as the Snap printing work party was the night before and with only 3 hours of sleep under the belt and the promise of bugger all to follow in the next few day I new things would be tough, but hey.... I've never been one to turn down the corporate donut. In all honestly the body goes into drinking autopilot anyway at this time year.

Once boarding the boats the uniforms were handed out to the members. Being Xmas what else could the uniform be but Santa Suits...... Brilliant! if there is one thing that I like more than a drinking sessions, it's a dress up drinking session (just like a four day floating Globetrotter party). The next few days were spent rampaging up the Shannon river pulling into little towns, pub crawling through the bars, shooting the shit with bemused locals, hitting on everything that moved then moving on. Basically Santa uniforms were compulsory at all times so by the final days they were looking a little worse for wears. The drunken Santa's proved to be a big hit so much so we made the front page of the local rag in this one town called Ballenmore (Photo at top right). I guess they were a little short of news on that day.

But all good things must come to an end as there is only so many drunken hakas, break dancing Santa's and bullshit stories about being jipped by the All Black selectors that the locals could take. So it was time to leave on a high, farewell my new friends and move on to phase 2 of the Xmas/New Years tour, Edinburgh with the rest of the Flat. More to follow.

Harbott

Happy New Years

Dan and Lisa live from New Years

Hogmany - Edinburgh, Scotland