A Weekend of Work

Well, so I went out to the pubs with Brian on my birthday Wednesday night not intending to drink that much just a couple pints then head back home. We went to our staple bar the Excelsior where the bar owner Peter the Eggman has become our major friend. He is deputy mayor, on the city council and digs our family. Sweet. He lent us his nice power drill and gives us names, contacts etc for everything. He even offered his home shower...we'll see about that one. After having a pint there we decided to check a few of the bars with younger crowds, by Peter's suggestion. Most of the oldies that frequent the Excelsior are the Irish types that are drunk enough or have old enough accents that what they hoot and holler at you while talking inches from your face is damn near incomprehensible. Brian and I are well past running out of replies, such as nodding and saying "Oh, yeah". We went to a new bar down the Street whose name is Irish and so I can't spell or pronounce. But it was great. Cram packed on Wednesday night, live music playing (3 older gentlemen with a fiddle, an accordion and one other instrument I can't remember) The whole place was just decadent in its decor. Quite a fun place that we will have to try again. We then decided to move on to our other staple bar McCaillon's. Here we know the bartender/owner as well Adrian who we have now run into at the hardware store. (I mention this last bit because it makes me feel like a local) He was getting fixings to keep his German Sherpherd in the yard while they are away on holiday. He told us we should buy a Jeep already. Hah. What kind of budget does he think we have? And clearly doesn't understand the whole eco-friendly nature of our project no matter how many times we've explained it to him. Anyway, we went down to McCaillon's and there were a few younger and a few older gentlemen there. We got into a great conversation about the fascist regime of drinking age in the States with one old man that drew in the rest of the gentlemen sitting at the bar. One lived in Vancouver for 12 years and so we talked a lot about Seattle. The other man Brian Cavanaugh was a great guy with whom we discussed English/Irish politics/history and other sorts. Closing time for the bars here in Buncrana is a mere 12:30 but, but Brian and I found out the secret. Because the two men, Brian Cavanaugh and Donny in addition to Adrian the barkeep and the two of us stayed up drinking (thanks to Brian Cavanaugh, he bought us rounds) until 2 15am! It was grand. All in all it was a good birthday. It made for a rough morning, but we still got a lot of done yesterday. I also learned from Peter the Eggman, that the reason everyone here misspells my name (they all assume Shawn or Shaun). I was thoroughly confused by this and he explained that saying Sean the way we all know me to be called is spelled Shawn or whatnot, but to pronounce my spelling of the name there should be a mark above the A that draws it out. So that my name is actually pronounced Shan (rhyming with flan) Good to know I suppose. Thanks parents for messing that one up! Anyway, time's up for today and I'll try to write something more interesting tomorrow. (everyone knock on wood, it hasn't rained since tuesday, and we need one more day to complete the roof). Cheers.