Grass is always greener on the other side

I was asked recently by a dear friend about homesickness, I must admit I was stumped for a answer right away, I wanted to help but I had to sit down and think about it for some time, then I realised why I did not have an answer, homesickness is so personal to the person feeling it that it’s difficult to give proper advice other than a hug.

I remember back to my own situation when I moved to Ireland from Wales, how much I longed to be back there, it almost drove me to hate the country that I now call my home. Looking back on that part of my life I realise how difficult it was for me. Thinking about what I missed still makes me miss it a little. What I missed might seem strange for some people but some are all too common. The most important thing I missed for a while was my friends, this is a common problem for anyone moving away from their home, the sudden transition to having friends that call around or meet you in the pub to having none is quite a shock to the system, It took me a while to realise however that many of my closet friends had left my home before I did, yes I still had friends but the close ones had mostly much left for Uni or to a different country. My solution to this was to visit friends when I could and in the process of doing that make new friends in my new home, it’s not easy but sometimes you do find what you’re looking for.

Important to every living being is a need to be social, well with no friends in your new home its difficult, but once I started hanging out with a few of the lads from work, I was taken out to the local spots in Thurles and in Upperchurch. I started to fit in nicely I still missed people back home but I had a social life, even got myself a girl friend, for me this was kind of lucky, she was a local art teacher and when we started to hang out I really found my feet in the local area, I made new friends joined up with local clubs and right up to the day I moved from Thurles to Limerick me and her where together, many of the friends I had made where also still around, but i moved and made new friends, kind of fickle in a sense but the friends i made in Limerick are still good friends to this day.

Slightly more personal to me but something I missed so much was the mountains, yes this might sound strange but I missed Snowdonia so much. Ireland to me just was not the same, Co Tipperary was hilly but nothing majestic like Snowdonia. I had also developed a sneaky suspicion that Ireland was sinking, everything was a bog and everything was damp, I would not be surprised even to this day if I had to abandon ship cause the country was going to sink. Anyway, mountains and also the sea, I was brought up on Anglesey which some might know, is a small island on the North Wales coast, on the mainland was Snowdonia where I did my rock climbing and walking and around the island was beaches where I went and chilled out. I suppose thinking about there was lots about the local area that was different for me, mountains, beaches where missing in Tipp and there seemed less trees. In the end I could do little about this, I cannot change landscapes. There is always the knowledge that the mountains, the sea and the trees are not going anywhere, and will still be there when i visit or decide to return home, it is strangely comforting to know that.

The was other things i missed that I'm not going to include, some were just silly but I still missed them, others could be said were for my own good, in hindsight Ireland was still the best move I ever made.

Over time the sickness will get better, I remember the few first times I was home I cried a little every time I left Holyhead on the ferry, then sometime a few years back I got on the ferry, waved goodbye to Holyhead (I'm my mind) and looked forward to arriving in Dublin, it took some time but I had finally realised that Ireland was my home, and I was kind of happy to arrive back.

Article i found with some good advice http://www.shelteroffshore.com/index.php/living/more/dealing-with-homesickness-living-abroad-10290/

The European Festival Experience

Sorry for the delay to a new entry but I am still recovering from what was the best fun ive had in a long time, you see I went home to Wales to partake in the glorious tradition of a music festival.

Wakestock 09 took place on the Llyn Peninsular back home, a mix of wakeboarding and music, with the traditional added extras of drink, drugs, music and of course mud. What made this festival special this year though for me was it was a change, I had never been to this one and I was curious as to what it might hold for me, I had been warned beforehand that it was full of chaves and might not be a good one, I was however very much surprised, rather than what the warnings held (chavstock) the people that I met were some of the happiest and friendly people I’ve ever come across at any festival. Even during Saturday’s downpour in which tents where uprooted and flew past ours spirits were high, it was truly amazing. The crowd was young I will admit but they accepted me as a fellow festival goer and nothing more so I did the same and I realised something, while your on that site we are all the same.

So it was a good festival, and anyone who is a friend on facebook will see from the photos, it was pretty crazy, this got me thinking what is it that makes us go for four nights, in a tent, in mud, off our tits surrounded by what start of as strangers?

I think its different for everyone, but I think doing this once a year is a massive release that you do not get at home, you are in a field with people who have exactly the same frame of mind at the time, you do things you would never do at home and that’s excepted because your at a festival and the idea is to have fun, solong as you don’t hurt anyone else its all good, we put up with the weather because we have no choice, so instead of winging about it, we make it into a play thing, mud slides, mud dancing, mud fights. Much of what is unpleasant about festivals is either ignored as part of the process or made into a game, or your just far to fucked to care, and all this is good because then you have max fun.

The music is a important part of any festival, hell it was “The Super Furry Animals” that made me want to go in the first place, but lets face it, I remember three bands, in the end for me the music took second place to the rest of the fun and the people, so I went off and enjoyed that, SFA I did see in possibly the worst rain and mud ever, and it was still amazing!

So in all most people I met there are now on my facebook, and we are all suffering withdraws, we want to be back there so intense was the experience, don’t get me wrong, ive been to plenty of festivals but most of them I was glad to get home and rest, not this time, Wakestock was just far to much fun and I want to do it again next year, the good news is the class people I met at this years festival are all planning the same, so a repeat of the hedonism is sure to happen.

Flying is easy

Flying is easy, this was my thoughts last night while drinking Bourbon and beer to celebrate the 4^th of July, it was not a random thought either, however you might be forgiven to think that this was simply drunk or drug fueled.

All this stems from a irrational and misplaced fear of flying that has had me pretty grounded to this island for too many years, however that changed a month ago when love finally got me on a plane, yes love for a girl I had met and a fear of letting someone down, both of them made me walk down that gangway even though my brain was screaming at me to turn around and find a nice Irish girl. I remember finding my seat and wondering what the fuck I was doing in this cigar case, so I sat down and closed my eyes and prayed that they would just close the doors and remove the choice of running, they did and my panic got worse.

As you can imagine my first flight was full of anxiety and panic, I never quite settled for the seven hours, every knock every rumble set me in a panic but I was looked after by the nice people at Aer Lingus right up to disembarking at Chicago O’Hare (I never did get to meet the hostess again). The worry for me was, as I looked for my internal flight I still did not want to go back up, I did not care that it was only just over an hour of flying to Minneapolis, it was still in the air, in a confined place, it just felt wrong. Still the girl I was seeing knew I had landed so avoiding it again was not possible, it was tempting to get the blue line into the city and stay there but I remembered a promise so once again, up I went.

I remember putting my headphones on, looking over at the pair of amazing legs that belonged to the girl on the window seat and thinking to myself “hmmmmm” . wtf I was supposed to be scared, not eyeing some girl up, I went back to my music and I left her to read her book, it crossed my mind though, that maybe flying is not so bad, amazing how wrong I was, I’m not sure what got to me, I think it was the aggressive banking over the city in a small plane, or the fact my brain was in overdrive, but I started praying, this was worse, much worse than the other flight. Thank god it was only an hour (they got in early).

In the end I had another three flights left, a week later I flew from Minneapolis to San Francisco, I spent most of the flight upset and angry after a incident so I did not really care where I was, or the bumps, strange noises, low cloud that hid the city on landing, I was just happy to be leaving Minneapolis for the weekend and to meet Paul and the family after so many long long years. I had a great weekend. On the way back to Minneapolis after a few days I got the red eye service which leaves at 12am and arrive about 6:30am, for a three and half hour flight, it knackers you, but the strange thing was, while on the flight I realised that, I had no worries, I was calm, and I was able to fall asleep. I got off the plane and I was smiling in the knowledge that I had had my first ever “pleasant flight”

The following Friday I was ready to fly home, I had just spend three amazing days in Chicago and was broke, smelly (bloody humidity) and for the first time ever looking forward to settling down on a plane, only issue was everything was delayed. Chicago had been hit by the most violent thunderstorms I had ever seen. Despite this though I was not worried, I have to admit to a little fear when we flew, the turbulence was very bad but it only worried me a little, more that it would make me sick or that I would need to pee before he turned off the seatbelt light. I had finally got over my fear of flying.

I have been thinking lately what this means for me, a whole new world of adventures could wait. I’m going to have them adventures as well, but first I need to change a few things about my life at home, money needs to be tightened, my life needs to get more positive, things I must do in order to keep my drive up, I’ve already started planning my next adventure which will be Demark in September, London is also on the cards now, possible New York for Christmas, Christ I’m excited thinking about itJ. In the end, I was lead over to the states on false ideas, she was not the girl I thought I knew but I still have to thank her, I fell in love with America and I got over my fear of flying, i had a amazing time and this has now opened up a whole new world to me, a world which I plan to see. If I had not met her I would not be doing any of this.