the little man in my life; Murphy, my Australian Shepard (that's a breed of dog just in case you didn't already know!)...he's the rockstar in the house! Sports wise, I LOVE skiing and rock-climbing, non sport & everyday loves include...MUSIC (in a HUGE way), cooking (I'm a bit of an auld domestic goddess in the kitchen even if I do say so myself!! :), gardening (absolutely love it as it's sooo relaxing and eating your own fresh organic veg and herbs is not just delish, but very rewarding! :), environmental issues (my house runs on solar and hydro energy, have to get rid of the Merc though, even if I don't drive it very often, I feel a bit bad about it...on a very un-environmental note, I do like watching Formula 1 now that Schumacher is after packing it in, it got so boring since Mikka Hakkinen retired that I actually stopped watching it and changed to watching winter sports and friggin 'Dancing Stars' ...(in German!! :)......things that piss me off: people who throw their rubbish on the ground instead of putting it in the friggin bin which is within sight; people on mobiles while they're driving in the city; politics; hung over snowboarders on piste; gossip mongers; unreliable people, uncomfortable ski-boots!! :)
my mates who supply me with Ballymaloe Relish...I'm half way down my last jar!!! :) ....the pix below are of someone EVERYONE should meet...Murphy...AKA Murph the smurf...AKA the little boss!!...AKA the rockstar...AKA the best lookin doggie in the world EVER since the invention of the 'Best Lookin Doggie in the World Ever' competition! :)
I'm on a bit of a Scandanavian buzz at the moment as I've been finding some great new music...I've become a bit fixated! Apart from my current obsession, my musical tastes are too varied to mention,BUT at the moment I'm listening to ALOT ALOT ALOT of Rufus Wainwright, I love him! Calexico (just LOVE them and cool guys to boot!) and Iron & Wine. Let's not forget El Rondo and The Kelele Brothers! :) ...'Eres Tu' is a damn good song! Also listening to alot of BellX1, Paul Noonan's voice just makes me want to melt!! :) what else, what else...em...The Frames, Amadou et Miriam, Bobbie Gentry, Turn (cos Ollie is just THE Don!), Stina Nordenstam, Mike McGoldrick, the wonderful Kate Rusby, Sigur Ros, Fiona Apple (...cos she's great), Mum, David Kitt, Elvis Costello, Nick Drake, Arcade Fire and more Rufus and more Ron!!! Looking forward to hearing Lisa's stuff now that she's gone solo too...it's an interesting time in music, isn 't it just great!! The weathers good here at the moment, so I have alot of Chet Baker blaring out of the office as it always puts you in a good mood and I'm quite partial to Stevie Wonder's 'Innervisions' too at the moment!! Listening to Chet Baker always reminds me of one of my favourite places in Ireland...The Courtyard in Schull, West Cork...open fire...pint of Guinness...ALWAYS great tunes...just lovely! Also reminds me of my favourite restaurant in Ireland; 'Chez Youen' in Baltimore...THE best seafood and a red wine list to die for!!! By the way, the Guinness is NOT the same here as it is in Ireland! Oh..I nearly forgot...John Martyn! How could I?? 'You curl around me, like a fern in the Spring'....music to get it on to if ever there was!! :) Ha! :) Couldn't find the aforementioned song ('Go Down Easy') on youtube etc, so I loaded the next best thing below...John Martyn with Danny Thompson playing 'Solid Air'....lllluuuuurrrrvely! I'm off out now to buy myself a double bass....ciao! :)
I'm not at all into violent movies but I have to say that 'The Godfather' trilogy is my favourite possession in my DVD collection!!! I also like 'Life is Beautiful', 'Chocolat', 'The Bridges of Madison County' (it always makes me cry tho which is a bit off putting but I guess it brings out the romantic in me)...then there's 'Spinal Tap' because it's so daft, 'Father Ted' (the best comedy in the world EVER!)...and I'm addicted to '24', but the trick is to buy the whole season on DVD then watch it all together...I couldn't handle watching one episode a week on TV, that would just do my head in!! I must say that I thought 'Batman Begins' and 'V for Vendetta' were great movies too...and then of course there's the epic movies like 'Star Wars' and 'Lord of the Rings'...I saw 'The Jacket' recently, which was a bit of a strange but good movie PLUS Adrien Brody is a nice piece of eye candy!! :)
I don't really have any favourite TV programmes as I don't watch alot of TV (given the fact that it's in German and I just can't be bothered!! :)...I love the Discovery Channel in general though. I've started watching F1 again and prior to that, was watching ski jumping and alpine ski races throughout the winter. When I was living in English speaking telly land, I used to love 'Later...', 'No Disco', 'Other Voices' and recently I've been catching up on 'Live from Abbey Road' on the internet...'Father Ted'..because you just have to love it!!Also, a bit of Podge & Rodge...as one does! :)
mmm...this could be a tricky one as most of the books I've been reading over the past few years are holistic health books. I have a huge pile of books about history and religion that I really want to start reading but just don't have the time at the moment. Apart from that, it's all gardening books (as I've spent any spare time I have out there in the past week) and National Geographic magazine every month. I've really fallen behind with my reading...I used to eat books for breakfast up until a couple of years ago...ok..I have to change that! Update (29.04.07): started back into 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' again yesterday....so interesting but such hard work!
my family (which obviously incudes Murph!), and people I admire for having well oiled feathers. Then again, I'm fickle, cos I'll worship anyone coming over to visit me from Ireland bringing Ballymaloe Relish and Durrus Cheese with them!! :) I'm sooooo easily bought! :) That's why I'm very happy that two of my Austrian friends moved to Dublin last October! Thanks Alex and Lisi...ye're my heros!! :) Update: Alex is not one of my heros anymore because he said the colours I used on this page cause eye cancer! :(