Whiskey in a jar-o!

Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I recently had the pleasure of setting my foot, for the first time, on the Green Isle of Ireland. If you're dyslexic, you might have hard time telling Ireland and Iceland apart, but trust me, having visited both this year, Iceland is icier, and The Emerald Isle is greener and warmer! Ireland was indeed so warm and sunny, that our motto for the week became "By Golly, we have not drunk a drop, and the Sun has shone upon us each and every day!!"

Upon arriving in Dublin, I rented a horse-less carriage, along with a very helpfull guide called Mildred (she said she was a G.P.S., but that must be a peculiar Irish honorary title I am not aware of, and of course a gentleman never asks further).

My main object, of course, was to visit the 3 distilleries still operating in Eire, and buy me some liquid souveniers!

First day I drove to Central Ireland to visit the Townes of Killbeggan and Tullamore. Although the disttilleries there were no longer operational, they did feature museums about Whiskey History.
The most important items learnt:
1) In Ireland they do not use smokey or peaty fuel to dry the wheats
2) Irish whiskey is distilled 3 times, as opposed to twice in Scotland and once in the newer
Colonies (so called Bourbon whisky)
3) Irish whiskey is spelled with an 'e'

Old copper pot still, and barrel makers making
their barrels, in Killbeggan

The Grand Canal, a man-made canal from
Dublin to Ballinasloe, runs through Tullamore

Day 2, back in Dublin, I enjoyed a refreshing
B52 as per The Society's rules & regulations

Day 3 took us down to Middleton, home to
Jameson's whiskey, in Grande Olde distillery

At the end of the tour, I volunteered for a
Tasting Jury, sampling 3 Irish, 1 Scotch and
1 Bourbon, and I was awarded this handsome
diploma for my bravery & service.

Day 4: After a night in the very pleasant and
pretty town of Cork, we headed up to the Cliffs
of Moher (of The Princess Bride fame!) and
onward to Galway, also a very nice town.
(Lady Anna seen here showing her lack of vertigo.)

On Day 5 the road took us further North, and accross some kind of an invisible border, into the Ulster Territory. In (London)Derry one could still see some tension between the protestants & catholics. We attended a lively musical show in a local public house. Later I walked around in the Bogside, site of a rather sad, Bloody Sunday a few decades ago. The murals of Derry are quite world-renown and touching.

The northern-most point of the trip, on Day 6
we reached the Giant's Causeway, a curious
hexagonal stone formation, where we
apparently run into Elwood Blues!

And close by, the oldest whiskey distillery in
the world! It shall celebrate 4 1/2 Centuries
next year. Carry on, Sirs, carry on!

After Bushmill's, we headed down to Belfast. It was a nice enough city, but nothing special to write to the Society about.


That's it for this Travel Report. We'll be waiting for other contributions shortly. Untill then, keep on exploring & experimenting; for God and Country!

Yours truly etc
Paddlewick, Esq.

Mms. & Messrs. of the Society;

it occurs to YT that the fabulous Google Bros. has created a Tool of Utmost Suitability for the Education & Entertainment of the Society. Said Tool, one Google Earth, allows one to store places of interest, to paint the broad strokes of one's foreign experiences, and to exhilarate one's Fellow Members with the piquant details of Hidden Locales.

However -
It also occurs to the same that our most Esteemed Board of Notices does not support the attachment of said Maps, making them available to all Members to Edit.

Has anyone chanced upon a solution to this dilemma?

WW, HMCE

Costa Ricans Ohoy!

This past weekend Wensworth & Yours Truly had the pleasure to entertain a couple from the costarican clan here in these northern shores, Mr. & Mrs. De la Cruz, Esq. They were passing through on a magnificent vessel, the Star Princess, en route on a Baltic cruise. They stopped in Helsinki for mere half a day, but we did what we could!
Wensworth picked them up in his favourite carriage, and I was able to join them a bit later, having returned from the Eastern Provinces (celebrating the pagan Mid-Summer festivals). We took our guests to a few churches, some monuments, lunch, and an out-doors museum. Here are some pictographs for Your viewing pleasure:

Mr. Alvaro making a daguerreotype of the Senate Square

Wensworth and the De la Cruzs' inside the Church of Doom
(german: Domkirche, swe: Domkyrka)

Waiting for the typical butter-fried muikku dish.
Incidentally, the finns exclaim "Muikku!" instead of
"Say Cheese!" when taking the photographicks.

Mrs. Maria-Elena at the Sibelius Monument

Mr. Alvaro & Mrs. Maria-Elena in middle-ground,
with Wensworth operating the Photographick Apparatus,
in the back-ground

Wensworth explaining something or another in the
back-yard of a typical finnish domicile (not his)

Mrs. Maria Elena at Wensworth's carriage,
in front of the Star Princess

We hope they had as good a time in and around Helsinki as we did, and we heartily wish they have a most enjoyable cruise, weather and fortune the rest of the way!! Welcome again, and may your memories be fond!

Onwards & Upwards!

Paddlewick, Society Cruise & Hospitality Co-ordinator

P-wick, SCHC, eyeing aforementioned vessel. Such a headquarters it would make!

Oriental Mysteries

June -07

Having deemed the CWC expedition a resounding success, and a locale well worth further investigation and investment, yours truly is now on the way back to the gentle embrace of the Society Headquarters - but only briefly, in order to fill in grant forms and sponsorship requests for further escapades.












The way back winds through the far east, the City of Emperors (and of Exhaust Particle Laden Air). Glimpsed only briefly, the vast city evokes awe and regret simultaneously, both for past glory and for future troubles: this dragon grows too fast for its good. One is particularly impressed by the lyrical euphemism for 'military might' (ref. illustration, bottom right).

Counterweight

April and May -07

The mission has been a success: I have found my local liaison, and we proceed to observe the peculiarities and curiosities of this rugged land. Everything is taken care of; yours truly must only watch arrangements unfold in rapid succession and enjoy them with grim determination.

Our first expedition head out into the rugged reaches of the Royal National Park. This low-growth headland of calciferous stone and sandstone has provided the locals with ample seafood for millennia, and the same have documented their stalky exploits with life-size rock drawings of their catch.

We do not have the fortune to make the acquaintance of the wildebeast, despite various more or less odorous spoor and occasional hiss in the bushes.

---

The second expedition embarked into the vastness of Kakadu National Park. Daring uncivilized accommodation, marshes, mosquitos and ever-looming avians we plunged our path deep into the tropickal regions, encountering landscapes of low-lying waters and tiered rocks ascending into nearly mountaineous heights, all in colors of such vividity that one can merely deeply regret the limited capability of our Imaging Apparatus every time one lays eyes on its Renderings.

The local flora contorts itself into shapes alluring to the mathemagickal mind, while the fauna mostly lurks.

Again, we had little contact with the native man, but his flaming footprint was evident everywhere. The lowlands are burned traditionally to renew the forest and prevent larger fires.

(All images courtesy of the Emeritus of Mysterious & Alluring Imagery, Undercover Expedition Unit.)

Exploring Fisk-Arse, or "There and Back"

Get on your Bicyckle and Ride, sir!


The esteemed map-reader Mr. Squirrels

This past weekend, a friend of mine, a certain Mr. Squirrels, esq, and I, took a pleasant locomotive trip out west. Once we reached Karjaa, some 90 km from Hellsinki, we stepped off and unloaded our bicyckles. A short jaunt later, we found ourselves in the village of Fiskars, the home of sturdy home utensils many here in Finland seem to love. The village is small, sprung up around a small waterfall for industrial purposes. Now it is mainly home for many artistes and handicrafters.

Yours truly in Fisk-arse

We had a nice piquenique by a lake. Good olde Jeeves had pre-packed some delicious sandwiches along. Afterwards, we started our way back towards Helsinki, passing through many a bucolic landscape. The weather was very pleasant, almost summer-like. Visually, however, the fields that would later on in the summer-time be gently wawing with golden wheat, where now yet but just dusty-coloured flat stretches of unremarkable soil.
Unfortunately my bicyckle suffered a severe tyre damage about half-way through. But, like any good Society member, we were Always Prepared to deal with such misfortunes, and the proper pressure was soon reinstated.
All in all, some 125 km in the saddle does give one a rather good impression of one's peripheria. We shall be doing more bi-pedaling this summer, in and around Southern Finland.

Yours truly,
W. M. Paddlewick, Director of the Society Bicyckle & Crosscountry Division

Upholding the Tradition

While the discussion on the Official Rules of Realm Points rages, yours truly took the generous view: this flaming concoction, ordered and quaffed in Hong Kong, marks a new spot on the globe with the unofficial House Rule of downing a B52 in any Capital, Major Site of Interest, or Other Suitable Location. It is a pleasure to report that the whole compared favorably to some of the Colonies, and the mix was slightly larger than a thimble, but one of the more memorable downings it was not.

Wensworth, HMRSSE MIO

Mission Reportage

Tuesday, 5th of May

Dear colleagues of the Society;

while HMRSSE special section rules forbid me from divulging the full extent and impact of my secret mission, items of interest to the Society as a whole can be presented for future referral, once screened by the appointed official Mission Censor. (Who is a Royal Paine and Barrier to the Free Flow of Information, but, then again, the censor is no more than a victim of necessity, and there are times when necessity does, indeed, arise.)

One of the items that good old MC let through, only slightly edited, is the following photographique of mysterious metallic artefactes left by unknown entities on a flat rock surface, encountered on perimeter expeditions of our target area. More documentation is safely locked in the good old travel chest, and one looks forward to the time one may give a Speculative Lecture of Scientific Disposition on the nature of the radiative thinges.

Wensworth jotting down a few observations on
his Note-Book, at riverside Bårgeaux

Tidinges from sunny Bargo

Dear exploratory fellowes,

hearty greetings by Paddlewick & Yours Truly from the heart of the quaint historickal centre of the township of Bargo. Despite the promising name, few establishments of dubious but desirable pleasures have presented their facades to us; instead, turned away by the famed Culinary Palace of Molluscian Delightes, the setting sun finds us sipping beer - or, in P's case, the juice of Eve's fruit - on the riverside.

Illustrated accompaniments will follow as soon as my good Jeeves manages to finish with his furious scribblings.

Wensworth, FHMSSE

Good points on the previous entry, old chap.
I would almost want to suggest a separate, but almost equal "Territorial Points" system. They would / could perhaps count as a 'bonus' to the motherland, or 1/2 point, or just a Territorial Point.

So, in practice, we could file various ambiguous locations under this system, and they would be recognized as such.

A Territory could be a place that is a) geographically far from the 'Mainland', and/or b) culturally rather different. Thus even the Åland Islands could be counted as a Finnish Territory Point for, say, an American gentleman visiting. Likeways Guam, or Puerto Rico, would be bonuses 'added' to one's U.S. point...

What say ye?

Ta ta!
Paddlewick

Let's make a rule

Dear explorer colleagues!
Every now and then the question arises, what, exactly, does constitute a so-called "country point"? I.e, when does a person have the bragging rights to say they have 'been' to a certain country?
Let's discuss and make our Society rule for once & all. Please voice your comments and thoughts below.

Some issues:
- if a person travels through a (narrow piece) of country, without leaving the coach or train, that shouldn't be a point
- if a person leaves the train station or airport for a couple of hours about the town, does that count? How about walking both sides of a int'l border?
- how about territories that are quite different from the ruling entity? For example, would Puerto Rico be considered simply another trip to the good ol' U.S? Or Greenland or Reunion Island Denmark & France, respectively? Or should territories like this get at least 1/2 point?

Other issues?
Let's try to solve this, and see who has the biggest bragging rights!

Yours truly,
Paddlewick, esq.

Wensworth reports

Dear Gentlemen, and dear, dear regrettably few Gentleladies of the Society;

In the interests of maintaining the hallowed traditions of the SS&E, your wayward fellow retroactively reports of his recent visit to the charming, rustic, and most historickal realm of Slovenia.

As each and one of us certainly knows, once in a while one hits a blue note, a brown study, and any number of other curiously colored abstractions; to put it shortly, one realizes that one's stay in one place has exceeded all reasonable expectations, one requires the fresh breeze of the far oceans, the gentle zephyrs of unseen mountains, one must stir from one's stagnation, air one's hide, shake off the gathered dust in order to acquire renewed appreciation of one's surroundings.

Often this may be the case even without the unwelcome attentions of the various leech and pest nattering of the trifling expenses one has incurred and whose expunction one has sensibly postponed to relieve the poor noggin of undue stress.

Thus it happens that yours truly arose one fine morning, and, after Jeeves' blessed pick-me-up'er, decided that the far reaches of Slovenia were where one would feel at peace of mind. I bade J pack up the old portmanteau, trusted myself to the care of the local expeditory service, and proceeded to stave off the pursuing melancholies with remedial g&t therapy.


Now, Slovenia is one of those places where, no doubt, Odysseys flitted with his fleet feet to get away from it all, Aristoteles retreated to from his poison-supping proclivities, and any number of huns, nuns, and barbarians passed through on their way from A to B. It is one of those places a bit to the side of all the hectic activities of war, peace, and whatnot. It fairly exudes the aroma of historickal retreatfulness. This is noted by many, and they proceed to follow tradition, and to occupy one's intended lodging. Yours truly was flabbergasted to learn that one's prime spots were all taken, veritably packed like tins of herrings, some of the unfortunate ones brimming over and falling out of the windows. Trusty J did manage to secure accommodation in some seedy hovel on the edges of Ljubljana, but this was decidedly not the grand entré, the majestick hawk-like descent onto the unsuspecting society, one might have intended.



Still, one must take these things as they come. Compensating any hardships, all this Presence by the Masses was greeted by the locals with merriment and festivity; streets were filled with bands on stands, performing local and exotick song and dance, beer flowed freely, the heart-warming chatter of the multitudes lounging about on warm summer evenings along canal and cafe assaulted the ear like the surf of the sea (when said does this in the pleasant, mostly swooshing way, not the pounding surf of doom variety). The old section of Ljubljana is endearingly cobbly and somewhat wobbly, the old buildings secrete puddles of hospitable charm, and the castle mount commands with dominating presence the riverside establishments and venues. Most rues of the unfortunate arrival were absolutely wiped away.

(Your reportatory narrator finds it necessary to fade out for the while. I shall fade like the wind, but will present for your enjoyment a picture J scratched up while YT was enjoying the more cultural aspects of the night life. J says he was considered quite the little artist in his youthful years, dabbing pigment here and there to considerable adoration of the teacher-kind.)

Live sine-curvacious musick

These two Finnish gentlemen performed last week here in the Colonies. The experience was rather interesting. I like it when the sonique base (as opposed to the architectural base) rattles my rib-cage... But let's see what others are saying:

Q: Can you describe your music?
Pan Sonic: Compare it to a food. If our music was a food it would be well done Japanese sushi, raw fish. That's how we would like our music to be, very simple and pure. We are also trying to avoid using too much production which is comparable to using spices and preparing the food. Sushi is quite similar to our music, just raw fish and a little rice.

Or:
Seeing Pan Sonic perform live has never been a letdown for me. Sometimes it's noisier, sometimes it's more ambient, but it's always loud and intense. The Mercury Lounge show was a top performance, a study in contrast between utter brutality and perfect calm -- brutal in the sense of a near-intolerably loud barrage of essentially pure noise (I still don't know how people go to Pan Sonic shows and seem surprised at the decibels!), but calming because if you yield yourself, there's nothing quite like letting your mind and body wallow in the sound. (Micah Stupac)

And on a different note: the first female space tourist!

Ta ta
P-wick

Hoax of the day

Some cheeky bastards have the nerve! Is nothing sacred anymore? An institution such as the British Museum deserves better ;) Where is this Mr. Banksy, and why has Scotland Yard taken him in already (for some in-depth 'questoning)??


Pfft.
Pwick

Flight of Fancy

One evening last week I met with two other ex-patriates in order to sample and savour excellent single malt whiskies. Naturally we went to my favourite single malt whiskey proprietor, Keen's in Mid-Towne Manhattan. This watering hole has a long tradition of entertaining the most distinguished clientele. Unfortunately modern anti-smoking laws prohibit a gentleman from lighting up his favourite clay-pipe to accompany and enhance the whiskey. But nonetheless, the whiskey was good. All 3 of us chose the Whiskey Flight, a sampling of 4 whiskeys. By a stroke of luck, our goode bartender decided to replace the 10-yr Springbank with a 34-yr version, for the same price! Which was nice. After the whiskey was imbibed & enjoyed properly, my compatriots decided to have a round of beer, while I opted for a soothing Port. Although I usually don't hold the Sandeman Estate in the highest regard, I must complement their 2000 LBV! Should you find a bottle at your purveyor, I highly recommend purchasing one for the cool evenings by the fireplace.
That's all for now; perhaps Wensworth will entertain us next with some tales from the Adriatic?!

Ta,
Paddlewick, whiskey connoseur

One night after imbibing

Poetry underground :)

citius, altius, fortius

Gentlemen, the age of supersonique travel is getting nigh. This could considerably shorten my travel time between the Olde and New Worlds!

P-wick

Furry Lobsters!

Albino hairy monster from the Deep!
Could this lead to water-proof mittens?

Rooibos tea with soy milk recommended

Oh, another cosy yet a little dull winter evening spent at my humble quarters in the village of Kallio. Suffering from slight insomnia, my greatest delights ( in particular now that my beloved television has passed away - I knew it was coming, but aye, these things always seem to come as a surprise in the end. Perhaps I shall get a cat instead - or finally finish my thesis...) remain a nice cup of Rooibos tea with just a hint of soy milk and a rather gothic view of the Church from my window that I've become so familiar with during the past year. Good for the soul this shall be? Well, friends and strangers alike, I certainly hope so. Good and kind spirits are what we all need at these difficult times!

So, I would like to thank dear Walther for the magnificent time I had during my wee visit to the New Yorke! I must say I was so impressed and had the most cracking time ever - especially after that little ennui with my stomach had been overcome. Great city, great company, what more can a modest lady like myself wish for!

Yours Truly,

Lady Anna Poppins

P.S. For Health and Safety, remember to wash yer hands Carefully before you have yer daily Tea!