This week seems to have flown by and its hard to believe we are at the end of August and at the time of year when the season starts to wind down, we have had a fairly good week and ran all our tours, I have even had 2 days off, as I think I mentioned Monday was spent servicing Celtic Princess and then most of Wednesday was taken up cleaning out the guttering around the house – not an exciting job but strangely enough one I quite enjoyed, it made a pleasant change from driving! We are working hard to tidy the place up particularly after the break in and also because we are having more guests soon – my parents are heading over the week after next and that will give us just the lift we need also it starts to make us think of the end of the season and a well earned break!
We have a few nice things to look forward to this winter and one of the nicest will be my parents’ Golden Wedding anniversary which we will celebrate in grand style – I hope! We have not finalized our holiday plans yet but suffice to say we are hoping to be heading toThailand again – now that really does cheer me up! The Weather here is continuing to depress with rain at sometime nearly every day but we are well used to that after the last 2 seasons. One thing that does irritate with all this wet weather is that the coaches are having to be cleaned every day, I have to be honest and say that I’am now heartily sick of bus washing, indeed it has now gone to the point where I often wait until the morning before the tour and if it is raining again I only clean windows and mirrors as by the time any customers see the bus it will likely be as bad as ever after the drive from home to Limerick!
We had a good night out on Thursday and saw a great band in Smyths that we last saw about a year ago – Whitewater, I think that they have really come on and whilst I was impressed with them last time, this time they blew me away – they seem to have developed their style to focus on more edgy music from the normal pub fayre , one track that grabbed my attention (and probably bored Chris!) was The Doors track L.A Women in its’ entirety and they really did it justice, I don’t know what the rest of the pub thought to it but fair play to the lads for playing it as the great Morrison intended! Check out Whitewater if you ever get chance also the drummer played a solo which had to be heard to be believed – all in all a cut above what we often hear and backed up with a superb PA system which isn’t always the case with pub bands!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Richards Blog 25.08.09 – “I’am tired I said, you always look tired she said”
This week a good excuse for using a lyric from one of my favourite Elbow songs – Fugitive Motel. Things are always tough at this time of year but I suppose I just feel particularly burned out at the moment, business is good and that’s why I’am tired, whenever loadings go up I end up using my coach for tours, Chris will drive it if she is forced but I think it is a bit big and shiny for her still! We work things so we each get at least one day off per week in addition to Fridays but that goes out the window if we have to put 2 coaches on a tour or I means if we are fairly busy Chris gets extra days off but that’s just how it goes at this time of year! Things will get easier for us at the end of next month as our Galway tour will finish as the Corrib Princess ends its’ season then so at least Thursdays will be a little easier. We hope to continue our other tours until the end of October subject to demand and then we will be offering our weekend tours until November so still plenty to do!
After our disturbed break last year we have not made any firm plans for holidays but just thinking about them is keeping us going! We are both desperate for time off as we have still not got the house put straight after the break in, I actually got a day off yesterday but spent it servicing Celtic Princess and trying to get a part for the heating system on Chris’ coach – still it made a change from driving! Also her coach still has a bit of a makeshift mirror, we are awaiting the arrival of a mirror glass from Spain - someday soon!
I have just finished a great re- read “Welcome to Hell’ by Collin Martin – an absolutely fantastic story of ones mans’ struggle against false imprisonment in a Thai prison, it is absolutely terrifying but equally un-putdownable! One thing that amazed me is how much torture and abuse the human body and mind can endure. If I ever go back to Thailand I don’t even intend to get a parking ticket!
After our disturbed break last year we have not made any firm plans for holidays but just thinking about them is keeping us going! We are both desperate for time off as we have still not got the house put straight after the break in, I actually got a day off yesterday but spent it servicing Celtic Princess and trying to get a part for the heating system on Chris’ coach – still it made a change from driving! Also her coach still has a bit of a makeshift mirror, we are awaiting the arrival of a mirror glass from Spain - someday soon!
I have just finished a great re- read “Welcome to Hell’ by Collin Martin – an absolutely fantastic story of ones mans’ struggle against false imprisonment in a Thai prison, it is absolutely terrifying but equally un-putdownable! One thing that amazed me is how much torture and abuse the human body and mind can endure. If I ever go back to Thailand I don’t even intend to get a parking ticket!
Richards Blog 15.08.09 – After the storm!
I suppose we are gradually getting used to the events of last week and slowly clearing up and repairing the damage that was done, it is still really hard leaving home every morning but I suppose it has forced us to tighten up on security, I think the healing process could be a long one though.
Business wise it has been a good week and loadings are finally what we would expect for this time of year and (fingers crossed) our coaches are behaving themselves. I have been to The Cliffs quite a lot lately and I’am heading back that way today. Wednesday was a bit of a stressful day as we had the Ireland v Australia football friendly in Limerick, however as usual I had a plan and for once it worked – I tried to delay our return to Limerick as much as possible to avoid the worst of the traffic, I actually arrived back a Limerick Station at 7.30 – not too bad but then just had time for a quick coffee before collecting some passengers returning from The Ring of Kerry at 8.00 and transferring them back to their hotel – a long day! I arrived home about 8.45 then had to wash and fuel my coach – its tough at the top!
After all that has gone on lately we felt that we deserved a good night out and had a great night on Thursday with a lovely meal and a few well earned drinks in town. Yesterday was spent with more clearing and getting a new tyre fitted to my coach, we have a fairly busy weekend and we are actually full for tomorrow’s tour – typical we have loads of space today but have to turn away business for tomorrow!
Business wise it has been a good week and loadings are finally what we would expect for this time of year and (fingers crossed) our coaches are behaving themselves. I have been to The Cliffs quite a lot lately and I’am heading back that way today. Wednesday was a bit of a stressful day as we had the Ireland v Australia football friendly in Limerick, however as usual I had a plan and for once it worked – I tried to delay our return to Limerick as much as possible to avoid the worst of the traffic, I actually arrived back a Limerick Station at 7.30 – not too bad but then just had time for a quick coffee before collecting some passengers returning from The Ring of Kerry at 8.00 and transferring them back to their hotel – a long day! I arrived home about 8.45 then had to wash and fuel my coach – its tough at the top!
After all that has gone on lately we felt that we deserved a good night out and had a great night on Thursday with a lovely meal and a few well earned drinks in town. Yesterday was spent with more clearing and getting a new tyre fitted to my coach, we have a fairly busy weekend and we are actually full for tomorrow’s tour – typical we have loads of space today but have to turn away business for tomorrow!
Richards Blog 08.08.09 – If I only had words!
Today I have to be honest and say I feel more down than I can remember feeling in years, I’am on our Cliffs tour and we are very busy indeed we have both had to work, so why the misery? Well here goes …….
Last week was fairly busy and although we were busy we were a little down after our guests leaving, however as usual we snapped back into the work routine and the week flew by then before we knew it it was Thursday and we were looking forward to our weekly night out, I was on my favourite Galway tour with my coach and Chris on the Cliffs with hers, all was good with the world as I headed home to sort the e.mails and get changed before Chris arrived. I pulled into our yard and headed to the back door only to notice it had been broken into, it took a couple of seconds to register but quickly a black feeling fell around me, we had been burgled! I tried to remain calm and walked around the house to find virtually every room had been totally ransacked. I needed to talk so I rang Chris and told her to pull over before breaking the news. She arrived about 15 min later while I was on the phone to The Garda and for one of the only times in my life I was struck dum, we just hugged then went inside to inspect the damage, we had some well hidden cash taken although fortunately we never keep business takings at home – they go straight into the night safe at our bank, also quite a lot of personal items and jewellery were taken and much of our furniture was damaged by the ruthless searching that had gone on.
All this is bad enough but it is the feeling of violation which I never understood – it really does cut you to the bone and stays no matter how much you try to cut it out it occupies most of your waking hours, we couldn’t face sleeping in the chaos on Thursday night and decided to stay in town once the place was secured. We phoned our friends at The Absolute Hotel and they kindly gave us a complimentary suite so we had a takeaway pizza in grand style in our room before doing the only thing we could think of in this situation – go for a drink! We settled into one of our favourite haunts – Nancy Blakes and had a few drinks which did make us feel a bit better – but not much!
After a good breakfast we returned home to start clearing up the mess and take stock of what was missing, we actually probably got off quite lightly but it doesn’t feel like it at the moment! Friday was also spent trying to catch up with paperwork and cleaning coaches but to be honest our heart wasn’t really in it and if ever we needed time to ourselves it was yesterday but as usual business came first!
Today we awoke shaken but not stirred and had to face a busy day with both of us out on tour, it was really hard leaving the house for the first time but the show must go on! however fate had not quite finished with us yet, Chris had to meet the train from Dublin which managed to be 50 minutes late after that she met an unmarked white van on a narrow section of road in the Burren and pulled over as far as she could but the van still kept driving and smashed her mirror. Normally she would take all this in her stride but when I met her at Caherconnoll she just broke down and I cannot blame her – my heart is really bleeding for her at the moment – I think women are probably more affected by the feelings of invasion of privacy and I think the break in will be in the back of our mind for years to come.
You might be wondering why I have not mentioned the perpetrators of this hideous crime but to quote the words of one of my favourite Christians song “If I only had words”
Now as some of you might know I’am not a very religious but I do firmly believe in Karma and also that in the last few moments before you leave this mortal coil everyone will take stock of their life and their achievements so I think that whoever did this will recall ruining peoples lives and taking their hard earned cash and hopefully this will ensure a life of eternal torment, hopefully happier thoughts next week folks – the only way is up!
Last week was fairly busy and although we were busy we were a little down after our guests leaving, however as usual we snapped back into the work routine and the week flew by then before we knew it it was Thursday and we were looking forward to our weekly night out, I was on my favourite Galway tour with my coach and Chris on the Cliffs with hers, all was good with the world as I headed home to sort the e.mails and get changed before Chris arrived. I pulled into our yard and headed to the back door only to notice it had been broken into, it took a couple of seconds to register but quickly a black feeling fell around me, we had been burgled! I tried to remain calm and walked around the house to find virtually every room had been totally ransacked. I needed to talk so I rang Chris and told her to pull over before breaking the news. She arrived about 15 min later while I was on the phone to The Garda and for one of the only times in my life I was struck dum, we just hugged then went inside to inspect the damage, we had some well hidden cash taken although fortunately we never keep business takings at home – they go straight into the night safe at our bank, also quite a lot of personal items and jewellery were taken and much of our furniture was damaged by the ruthless searching that had gone on.
All this is bad enough but it is the feeling of violation which I never understood – it really does cut you to the bone and stays no matter how much you try to cut it out it occupies most of your waking hours, we couldn’t face sleeping in the chaos on Thursday night and decided to stay in town once the place was secured. We phoned our friends at The Absolute Hotel and they kindly gave us a complimentary suite so we had a takeaway pizza in grand style in our room before doing the only thing we could think of in this situation – go for a drink! We settled into one of our favourite haunts – Nancy Blakes and had a few drinks which did make us feel a bit better – but not much!
After a good breakfast we returned home to start clearing up the mess and take stock of what was missing, we actually probably got off quite lightly but it doesn’t feel like it at the moment! Friday was also spent trying to catch up with paperwork and cleaning coaches but to be honest our heart wasn’t really in it and if ever we needed time to ourselves it was yesterday but as usual business came first!
Today we awoke shaken but not stirred and had to face a busy day with both of us out on tour, it was really hard leaving the house for the first time but the show must go on! however fate had not quite finished with us yet, Chris had to meet the train from Dublin which managed to be 50 minutes late after that she met an unmarked white van on a narrow section of road in the Burren and pulled over as far as she could but the van still kept driving and smashed her mirror. Normally she would take all this in her stride but when I met her at Caherconnoll she just broke down and I cannot blame her – my heart is really bleeding for her at the moment – I think women are probably more affected by the feelings of invasion of privacy and I think the break in will be in the back of our mind for years to come.
You might be wondering why I have not mentioned the perpetrators of this hideous crime but to quote the words of one of my favourite Christians song “If I only had words”
Now as some of you might know I’am not a very religious but I do firmly believe in Karma and also that in the last few moments before you leave this mortal coil everyone will take stock of their life and their achievements so I think that whoever did this will recall ruining peoples lives and taking their hard earned cash and hopefully this will ensure a life of eternal torment, hopefully happier thoughts next week folks – the only way is up!
Richards Blog 01.08.09 – We have had guests!
I think I mentioned last week that my sister Linda and her partner Russ were coming to visit, they arrived late on Tuesday night and me and Chris went to Shannon to collect them from their Ryanair flight from Birmingham, they were only staying until early Saturday morning so it was a flying visit. I tried to get Wednesday off to spend the day with them and very nearly succeeded, we had a few people coming on the train from Dublin for our Cliffs tour but in total we had 20 so ample room on Chris’ coach, however since it was a fairly busy day I thought I had better come in to Limerick to cover in case we got any late bookings or the train was delayed, so I brought our guests with me and guess what? For the first time this season the train was heavily delayed in fact it was 50 minutes late! So with quick thinking we decided that I would head off on tour and do the pick ups then take our passengers to Caherconnoll where they could have a coffee or do the tour while Chris would follow on when the train arrived with her passengers to Caherconnoll where we would put all the passengers on her coach and I would then be free to head home with our guests (we actually stopped in Ennis for a pub lunch on the way back).
This just shows how whenever we arrange anything during our season you can be sure something will go wrong and spoil the best laid plans! It was great to have some company though and Linda and Russ joined me for our Galway tour on Thursday and it being race week in Galway we had a great time even just admiring the Ladies’ fashions made it worthwhile but also there is always a great buzz about Galway during race week, we felt it was only right that we should have a bit on the feature race and we chose 4 fairly good prospects – none of which was even placed but never mind! We all had a good night out on Thursday with a superb meal at The Texas Steakout followed by a few drinks and a bit of live music.
Friday was spent relaxing and doing a bit of shopping as well as the inevitable bus cleaning before another meal out to our favourite Indian Restaurant Spice of India for another superb meal.
I took Linda and Russ back to Shannon this morning and whilst it was tough saying goodbye it had been a nice break from our routine!
This just shows how whenever we arrange anything during our season you can be sure something will go wrong and spoil the best laid plans! It was great to have some company though and Linda and Russ joined me for our Galway tour on Thursday and it being race week in Galway we had a great time even just admiring the Ladies’ fashions made it worthwhile but also there is always a great buzz about Galway during race week, we felt it was only right that we should have a bit on the feature race and we chose 4 fairly good prospects – none of which was even placed but never mind! We all had a good night out on Thursday with a superb meal at The Texas Steakout followed by a few drinks and a bit of live music.
Friday was spent relaxing and doing a bit of shopping as well as the inevitable bus cleaning before another meal out to our favourite Indian Restaurant Spice of India for another superb meal.
I took Linda and Russ back to Shannon this morning and whilst it was tough saying goodbye it had been a nice break from our routine!
Richards Blog 25.07.09 – What a week!
As you might have guessed things haven’t ran entirely smoothly at Barratt Tours this week! We have been having problems with a blow in the exhaust system on Chris’ bus – Celtic Pride and it really has tried the patience of all involved, we now have it back and I may well give it an outing tomorrow to see how it goes. We coped well without it last weekend with the ever trusty Celtic Princess and my coach Celtic Star but on Tuesday things took a sharp turn for the worse, I was driving home after our Cliffs tour when I hit a large pothole – nothing unusual in that here but what was unusual was the banging coming from the rear suspension, I took it very easy home and on inspection found 2 broken spring pins and a missing shackle on the rear spring so Star wasn’t going to shine on Wednesdays’ Cliffs tour and with Pride already under repair we only had Princess which seats 15 and guess what? – we had 22 bookings! The parts for the spring had to be specially ordered and would only be in on Friday so we were a little stuck.
Thankfully we called in the help of our friends Martins Coaches who kindly hired us a lovely 49 seat Van Hool so I drove, Chris guided and it was just like the old days, at least we were to have 2 coaches for Thursdays’ two tours as Pride was ready to collect from repairs except on the way home a further fault developed – stuck again! Martins came to rescue and provided the same coach with a driver for the Cliffs as I had to go to Galway so Chris guided on the hired coach – and so the week ended – thank goodness!
Friday (our day off!!!) was spent organizing repairs and parts and again Martins helped us out and did a great job so I have my coach back today so I feel a little happier and relieved! We are now back to our full compliment of coaches and ready to face another (hopefully easier week). We had more upheaval at home to cap all this hassle off but I’am saving news of what has been going on at Silvermine View for a while! We are really looking forward to next Tuesday as my sister Linda and her partner Russ are coming to visit so Thursday night should be a good one – we need to let our hair down a little after last week!
Thankfully we called in the help of our friends Martins Coaches who kindly hired us a lovely 49 seat Van Hool so I drove, Chris guided and it was just like the old days, at least we were to have 2 coaches for Thursdays’ two tours as Pride was ready to collect from repairs except on the way home a further fault developed – stuck again! Martins came to rescue and provided the same coach with a driver for the Cliffs as I had to go to Galway so Chris guided on the hired coach – and so the week ended – thank goodness!
Friday (our day off!!!) was spent organizing repairs and parts and again Martins helped us out and did a great job so I have my coach back today so I feel a little happier and relieved! We are now back to our full compliment of coaches and ready to face another (hopefully easier week). We had more upheaval at home to cap all this hassle off but I’am saving news of what has been going on at Silvermine View for a while! We are really looking forward to next Tuesday as my sister Linda and her partner Russ are coming to visit so Thursday night should be a good one – we need to let our hair down a little after last week!
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