St. Patrick's Day

Hello all,


Last night John and I went to the Boston for one pint to celebrate his return from Bristol. I completely forgot that it was St. Patrick's weekend, we do live in the Irish section of London, and the Boston IS an Irish pub. OH, such a big mistake. We went in and there was a traditional band setting up, Irish people everywhere, and Guinness . . . ahhhhh Guinness!

So we sat down at a large table, just the two of us, and John went to get us drinks. All of a sudden, four full blooded Irishmen come sit at our table and I had to inform them not to take my boyfriend's chair. It threw me for a minute but then I remembered that in Ireland, people shared tables all the time.

John brought our drinks back and the band began to play. Amazingly, every song they played the whole pub knew, and sang along as loud as they could. People were dancing jigs, pounding the tables, stomping the floor . . . much to John's worry, he being a staunch Englishman and all. I mentioned to one of the Irishmen that I wanted to hear 'Black Velvet Band' a traditional Irish song. They shouted it out for me, all four of them as loud as they could, to the band and they played it. Soon John and I discovered that their names were Henry, Michael, Paul, and Gary. Not much longer after that their friends came over, all was forgiven where John being English was concerned, and we had us a nice party. Hey . . . it is St. Patrick's Day!

It was my round next and as I was waiting for my drinks at the bar I turned and the lead singer was right behind me. I introduced myself, when asked about my heritage said American with some Irish, and requested that he play 'The Wild Rover', the song I taught my American students to sing for their Language Arts Heritage Unit. He then went up, said "This is for a lovely Irish American in the audience." and played my request. Everyone in the bar was singing along, including myself.

I got to sit there, surrounded by Irish men and women, listening to Irish music, pounding tables, stomping floors, and even dancing a jig with a few Irish women once. It was a blast.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Dog Racing versus Horse Racing

So last weekend we all went dog racing for Helen's birthday. Growing up near Santa Anita and Hollywood Park I have certainly been horse racing . . . . but dogs?????

I have to say I enjoyed it. You could get much closer to the dogs than the horses. Before the race you could hear them barking, stand right next to the track, hear them panting as they zoomed by, it was really exciting.

I won the first race only, which was neat, and John won the second. What made it really amazing was that he bet on a dog with the name Freddie in his full name. As most of you now know, John's new nephew is named Freddie Wiseman. After our mutual wins we did do rather poorly, but enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

John headed off to Bristol this past weekend and I stayed in town. A similar crew went out horse racing and my friend Kyla and myself came along. There was an Irish band playing at the track, it being St. Paddy's weekend and all, and the food selection was definitely better, but I think I enjoyed the dogs more. You could barely see the horses, understand the commentator, and well . . . I didn't win one race darn it!!!!

Helen has promised we will go back to the dogs soon. I hope so, my poor little heart can't take another night of being a betting loser.