Sunday, June 29, 2008
Learning Irish
Fáilte! (Welcome!)
I've been working away on my Gaeilgh for about a year now, so I thought I would put up some links that I have found really handy. The problem with learning this language is that many written words don't match the pronunciation. For example 'teach' meaning house is pronounced 'cha'. So some audio sites are really useful, especially if you can download them as .mp3 files and listen to then when you have a bit of spare time. There's another small snag, there are quite big pronunciation differences between Northern Ireland, Dublin, Munster and the west of Ireland, they even use different greetings.
The BBC has the site that I have found really good, with 30 sessions of about 15 minutes each, called Giota beag (a little bit) and Giota beag eile (a little bit more). It's in Ulster Irish, so if you are Dublin you will have to forget Cad é mar atá tú? and use Conas atá tú? (How are you?)
The same BBC site has some fun games with Colin and Cumberland (his dog) which gives good repetition and some amusing graphics. Also on the BBC site is a series of listening and writing lessons called Bitesize aimed at Irish language GSCE pupils, and it includes Foundation Level and Advanced Level.
Youtube has a couple of videos that I like, from Jesjes1, you will find several more if you check this first one Hello, Please, Thanks, Goodbye.
Trinity College has some soundbites on this Interactive Irish Lessons page. While these are useful, I prefer to hear the words in a conversation.
One Minute Irish comes from www.radiolingua.com It seems to need iTunes on your computer and didn't find it on mine so I haven't taken it further.
Dennis Doyle, an Irish harpist and professor has a lot of links on his page.
Finally, for a bit of fun, here are some amusing clips on Youtube. These are not in Gaeilgh but I really like the Irish accent in English. How to Speak Norn Iron and Potatoes.
And for some good Irish music, I enjoy RadioLiveIreland with streaming music 24 hours a day. Most people will have heard and enjoyed Ronnie Drew who founded The Dubliners. He is very ill with cancer and this year a group of bands got together to make a tribute song for him that hit the tops in the Irish singles charts in March 08. You can see and hear it here on Kila's page. Also, there are a lot of free Irish and Celtic mp3 downloads available here from download.com.
In NZ here are a couple of handy sites: the Auckland Irish Society and Scéal (Irish News).
tóg go bog é! (take it easy!)
Slán!
I've been working away on my Gaeilgh for about a year now, so I thought I would put up some links that I have found really handy. The problem with learning this language is that many written words don't match the pronunciation. For example 'teach' meaning house is pronounced 'cha'. So some audio sites are really useful, especially if you can download them as .mp3 files and listen to then when you have a bit of spare time. There's another small snag, there are quite big pronunciation differences between Northern Ireland, Dublin, Munster and the west of Ireland, they even use different greetings.
The BBC has the site that I have found really good, with 30 sessions of about 15 minutes each, called Giota beag (a little bit) and Giota beag eile (a little bit more). It's in Ulster Irish, so if you are Dublin you will have to forget Cad é mar atá tú? and use Conas atá tú? (How are you?)
The same BBC site has some fun games with Colin and Cumberland (his dog) which gives good repetition and some amusing graphics. Also on the BBC site is a series of listening and writing lessons called Bitesize aimed at Irish language GSCE pupils, and it includes Foundation Level and Advanced Level.
Youtube has a couple of videos that I like, from Jesjes1, you will find several more if you check this first one Hello, Please, Thanks, Goodbye.
Trinity College has some soundbites on this Interactive Irish Lessons page. While these are useful, I prefer to hear the words in a conversation.
One Minute Irish comes from www.radiolingua.com It seems to need iTunes on your computer and didn't find it on mine so I haven't taken it further.
Dennis Doyle, an Irish harpist and professor has a lot of links on his page.
Finally, for a bit of fun, here are some amusing clips on Youtube. These are not in Gaeilgh but I really like the Irish accent in English. How to Speak Norn Iron and Potatoes.
And for some good Irish music, I enjoy RadioLiveIreland with streaming music 24 hours a day. Most people will have heard and enjoyed Ronnie Drew who founded The Dubliners. He is very ill with cancer and this year a group of bands got together to make a tribute song for him that hit the tops in the Irish singles charts in March 08. You can see and hear it here on Kila's page. Also, there are a lot of free Irish and Celtic mp3 downloads available here from download.com.
In NZ here are a couple of handy sites: the Auckland Irish Society and Scéal (Irish News).
tóg go bog é! (take it easy!)
Slán!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
All Blacks vs England - Eden Park
I was fortunate enough to drive a busload of people from a courier company to Eden Park last night to watch the All Blacks in action and they gave me a free stand ticket. This was my first live All Blacks watching, all the other times have been on TV (delayed, as I am too stingy to have pay TV).
The seat was on the end of row X, at the top of the South Stand with only 2 rows behind. The view was pretty good, but the only screens were some 21" sized monitors hung up on the roof. They were too small to read the writing of who scored. The sound system was inaudible. All around the field are electronic advertising boards, flashing constantly annoying messages, especially when the action is on the far side of the field. These boards are in a continuous strip, an Air NZ ad has a jumbo jet flying around the field leaving the words spinning. I was really hoping the system would halt and show 'run-time-error'.
Now for being in the crowd: you would think they could sit down and watch the game. No, they are constantly getting up and squeezing past everyone with their view-blocking bodies. Need food, need drink, need toilet. Thanks to one man for spilling beer on me. A Mexican wave started up in the terraces and did about 5 laps, accompanied by bottle and debris throwing. At least all the beer bottles were plastic. A lot ended up on the field.
The traffic was the usual jam-up, with 35,000 people coming and going. Heavens knows what it will be like when the stand is extended to hold 60,000 people for the World Cup.
The game was good, but I will stick to delayed broadcasts on my couch, thanks.
The seat was on the end of row X, at the top of the South Stand with only 2 rows behind. The view was pretty good, but the only screens were some 21" sized monitors hung up on the roof. They were too small to read the writing of who scored. The sound system was inaudible. All around the field are electronic advertising boards, flashing constantly annoying messages, especially when the action is on the far side of the field. These boards are in a continuous strip, an Air NZ ad has a jumbo jet flying around the field leaving the words spinning. I was really hoping the system would halt and show 'run-time-error'.
Now for being in the crowd: you would think they could sit down and watch the game. No, they are constantly getting up and squeezing past everyone with their view-blocking bodies. Need food, need drink, need toilet. Thanks to one man for spilling beer on me. A Mexican wave started up in the terraces and did about 5 laps, accompanied by bottle and debris throwing. At least all the beer bottles were plastic. A lot ended up on the field.
The traffic was the usual jam-up, with 35,000 people coming and going. Heavens knows what it will be like when the stand is extended to hold 60,000 people for the World Cup.
The game was good, but I will stick to delayed broadcasts on my couch, thanks.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Capri Car Club, Taupo Long Track Sprint Day
This Capri Car Club sprint meeting is pretty much the last event of the year as winter sets in. Here's the foggy scene at 08:30 in the morning. The fog lifted by about 10:00 so the organisers could see the whole track, and we all got about 3 dry runs, although the track was cold, damp and slippery. The long track is great fun, almost nothing to hit if you do a spinner.
After lunch it rained, I did one run and found it was a better idea to photograph those that liked doing spinners. I managed to keep the car pointing the right way all day.
Here are a few random shots in the rain.
Kevin Hirst was going well in his Locost 7, he found the kitty litter a bit muddy in his last run.
Anton Jayasekera ran well in his Toyota Levin, with one particular corner causing a couple of 360s.
An enjoyable dinner with 10 from SCCNZ that evening.
