Richards Blog 27.03.10 – Reflections on old Siam and Manchester!

Well I made it through last weekend and our first tours with no problems and we were quite busy, thankfully we are busy again today and I write this at Caherconnoll Fort enjoying a good cup of Irish tea.Thailand seems every inch of 6000miles away now but we have some great memories.

Our customers often ask us why we visit Thailand and there is no simple answer, there are so many reasons, the first has to be the weather, we always visit in January and February which are the coldest and bleakest months inIreland and also of course when our business slows to a near standstill. This year the weather was glorious in Thailand, we had highs of 37 and it never dropped below 25 – beats minus 12 any day! Also we never had much rain – about 2 days in 60 aint bad!!

But personally my biggest reason for visiting is because it is different, I know that might sound an obvious observation but I struggle to think of anything that isn’t totally different to what we are used to here except possibly, though sad to report, fast food! One thing that absolutely fascinates me is how everyone seems to get along with no state aid, there can be no doubt poverty is rampant but no matter how humble these peoples dwellings are (and believe me many are unbelievable!) the Thai people have a capacity to use one facet of their human nature that so many of us Westerners have long since abandoned – the smile! I don’t know if religion is responsible or just a different attitude to life but in 2 months of driving in Pattaya City (which must be second only to Bangkok for traffic!) I saw no road rage and none of the hatred and abuse that we suffer every day in our jobs here! I saw a great example of a coach doing a crazy, illegal and dangerous u turn on a main highway, a Thai Traffic Police officer came up to the driver and guess what happened? Both the driver and the officer had a laugh at the situation and instead of giving the driver a dressing down in the manner that we expect here (probably peppered by threats of prosecution, court and eternal damnation!) he stopped the traffic and let the coach continue his turn!

I would never suggest that works everywhere but it sure leads to less aggravation and in all that chaos the traffic flowed well! I soon got used to the Thai way of driving and initially when someone pulled out in front of me I would honk and tut but as time went on I just waved and smiled – doesn’t that make a happier world!

Now talk of driving brings me to point out that I was actually riding a motorbike all the time, I hired one from the company we always use which is run by a lovely Thai lady, about 95% of hire bikes are scooters and I really hate most of them so I went a step up and got a Honda Phantom, a uniquely Thai bike, they are like a small cruiser not fast but fun! I managed to get the oldest one I think and it was the 2 stroke version which was great fun and always fastest off the lights! Needless to say I fell for it and found myself cleaning “my” bike and even giving it a tune up one day, I even asked the lady to let me know if she is selling it and I might be a buyer – sad I know, I’am just a sucker for old vehicles with character! I shall give you more motorcycle diaries (wasen’t that a film?) next week.

Now regulars might be missing my music ramblings, a couple of things to report back in December we had a last minute trip over to Manchester to see one of my all time favourite bands Doves in a triumphant homecoming to Manchester Central (great venue!) and I have to report it was absolutely fantastic, particularly when they went back to their roots and played Space Face by their former band Sub Sub, took me right back to the days before X factor and everything when music was part of a scene rather than being the instantly forgettable and manufactured dribble that we have to endure today, as the lads said “my god its full of stars!” if you like trippy, baggy Manchester music check it out, it is on itunes! More about Manchester next week!



Me on my bike in full Thai wet weather gear!

Richards Blog 20.03.10 – Back to work and what a winter!!!

I honestly don’t know where to start! Well first of all the mundane stuff I’am back at work for our first Cliffs tour and have a good load and the weather is nice.

I think my last blog was written in Blarney and we were anticipating my lovely parents Golden Wedding anniversary, well I’am delighted to report the night went off marvelously and I even made a short speech which even though I say it myself went well! We then headed back to Ireland to prepare for this season and I caught up with a few jobs on our coaches before we headed off on 23rd December with our new car on the night ferry to Liverpool from Dublin, on reaching Liverpool the weather looked a bit grey and continued to deteriorate as we headed up the motorway and we were in a blizzard within an hour, at that point the radio travel news announced that our normal road over the Pennines – the A66 was closed so we had a considerable diversion via Carlisle in tricky conditions. Once we aarived we had a very nice family Christmas and headed away for New Year to Bimingham and more snow but had a great time at our favourite New Year party at the Jam House (a superb live music venue).

We were due to leave for Thailand on 6th January and true to form it was still snowing hard, we checked in at Teesside Airport for a KLM flight to Amsterdam but were later told the airport was closed and we had to go on a coach transfer to Newcastle (oh, a coach- what a pleasant change!) By the time the runway was cleared at Newcastle we had missed our connecting flight to Bangkok at Amsterdam and so had to spend a night there (kindly paid for by KLM) and caught the flight the following afternoon so we arrived in Bangkok one day late, we then settled into the serious business of enjoying our holiday and had a wonderful time in fact I will post more stories of the trip and some pics soon.

Fast forward now to our last week and we had had a great night out with friends for drinks but during the night Chris felt unwell and was rushed to hospital, it turned out she needed an operation and had to be kept in for a while, we had to change our return travel plans but at least we had a few days to recover. The healthcare Chris received was absolutely superb at The Bangkok Pattaya Hospital so thanks again to all there. Chris is now well on the mend and seems to be in good health now probably better than she has been for a long while now.

We had to change our return flights and returned to Newcastle by Emirates via Dubai – a long haul but as comfortable as cattle class can be! We then had to collect Celtic Princess from Durham as it has been having an overdue makeover so we headed back via Liverpool to Dublin ferry and arrived home on Thursday at 9 at night.

On arriving home we had more misery which we expected really, our neighbour had contacted us way back in January to tell us that we had a water leak at home and there was water gushing from the eves. On inspection he found that a pipe had burst in our loft and the resulting flood had brought two ceilings down, the burst pipe was due to the extreme weather, we had temperatures as low as minus 12 in January!

Whilst we knew about the damage nothing can really prepare you for the mess and even though the flood was 2 months ago the smell and damp remains, we are now faced with finding a builder and having extensive work done to both our bathroom and bedroom, this is in addition to the thousands of other jobs we have to do in preparation for this season. More to come about my first tours and the holidays next week!



The Scene at Newcastle Airport



Happy days on holiday!

Richards Blog – 29.11.09 – Another season !

Well once again I’am writing this in a slightly damp Blarney on our final tour of 2009, as usual I have mixed feelings – its hard to switch off after 6 months of continuous work but I think it will truly dawn on me in the morning when I might just have a lie in! I think I have said this before but this has truly been one hell of a season for all the wrong reasons, so I think I will mention the low points followed by the highlights (if I can think of any!)

Lowlights:

Well first of all has to be Chris’ mother unfortunate illness (she is much better now) which meant we had to cancel our holiday to Thailand and spend about 3 months apart – that really was tough.

Coach problems – yesterday was the anniversary of when Celtic Pride broke down on our last tour of 2008 and it has honestly taken until last month to get all its’ problems finally cured – its going great now though! After that we have had various niggles and even the trusty Celtic Princess has had one major problem this year but well again now! One night particularly sticks in our mind I think, it was in July when we were having our garden landscaped, we both got in from tour, me with Celtic Star, Chris with princess and we discovered that the gardeners had managed not only to cut through our water supply but also the mains electricity for good measure! While chris was sorting that lot out I had a look under my coach as it had developed a distinct clunk on its rear suspension only to find a major component broken – off the road then! We then had to pick Chris’ coach up from our mechanic only to find that it developed another fault – off the road then! So there we were sitting on the bench outside the house at ten o’clock still with no power to do e.mails and no water and two broken down coaches with a big group booked for our Cliffs tour the following day – for once we were both lost for words! Needless to say we got all sorted and hired a coach for the following day – the show must go on but I cannot remember feeling as low in a long time!

Next bit of misery happened early in August when we were burgled at home , not only was a fair bit of damage done our visitors got off with some cash and personal items – to be honest we are not really over that now!

Now the weather, we have had three miserable seasons now but this year the summer never really happened and we had to endure endless days of rain, indeed at the moment we are facing the worst flooding Ireland has ever seen, thankfully we are ok as we are on high ground.

Business has been poor both because of the weather, the decline in tourism ad the decline of Shannon Airport which is looking to become critical if Ryanair follow their threat of taking away a further 18 flights, it is beyond me how our government can allow this to happen – flights mean business and personally we have never been busier in Limerick than when Ryanair were at the peak of their operations – this is a fact and whatever it takes to keep this business should be done, we can repent at our leisure over this one! Also we are facing ever more competition, some of it fair but much of it very unfair, but we well used to fighting now.

Highlights:

First must be the recovery of Chris’ mother and seeing her return to full strength.

Also a happy memory is the outrageous night out that we enjoyed in London in memory of Michael – Chris’ late brother, in particular a very drunken Malaysian meal which I feel he would of thoroughly approved of!

Taking delivery of my new Coach – Celtic Star and bringing it from England – despite a very difficult journey!

The visits of family over the year – my sister and Russ and my lovely parents later – these provide a welcome tonic and break from the routine!

Collecting our new car Mercedes (new to us!) from Sheffield and driving it across, just love looking at that 3 pointed star on the bonnet as you glide along!

Last one is the anticipation of my parents Golden Wedding celebration next weekend, it will be great to have all the family together on such a happy and momentous occasion.

So, I suppose it hasen’t been as bad as all that but it sure has felt bad at times! The only way now is up and we have some great plans for 2010 but in the meantime you can now book all our tours for next year at 2009 prices, so go on support Irelands’ smallest and most resilient tour company!

Richards Blog 22.11.09 – Additions to the fleet!

Our 2 newest arrivals, watched over by Celtic Spirit (Bertie!)

As ever it has been a bit hectic at home, for all we are only running weekend tours we have had a heap of jobs to get our coaches ready for next season also Celtic Princess is heading over to Englandat the beginning of December to have some overdue bodywork damage fixed. At the same time as that visit we have a lovely occasion to attend – my parents’ golden wedding anniversary so really looking forward to that.

We finally have our new car on the road and it is going to be operated as a limo – watch this space for more info, we are absolutely delighted with it though and in case you forgot it is a lovely Mercedes E Class. Our garage is rather full at the moment as we have had another arrival, regular readers might remember that I like classic cars and in fact I’am a bit of a sucker for lost causes! I heard about an old Fiat 600 lying in a shed from a friend and needless to say I was tempted to go and have a look and there lying forlorn and covered in dust was the cutest little 1967 Fiat! For all it is cute it has suffered from some amount of corrosion and would once have only been fit for scrap however I came to the conclusion that if it had survived 40 odd years it really deserved to be saved and so – you guessed it! A deal was done and we went to collect my new prize on a trailer behind Celtic princess last week, it is now safely in our garage and unbelievably I managed to start it the other day so it has been added to my list of “to do” jobs!

I’am actually writing this in Blarney on Sunday and having an interesting day as we have had the foulest of weather this week and much of the UK and Ireland is flooded at the moment indeed Cork (where I’am heading this afternoon) has been very badly affected so I will let you know what it is like!

We are currently making plans for next year and we are heading to Dublin next week for a meeting with our friends from Irish Rail with a view to launching a new product from Dublin that will offer great value – so as ever, watch this space!

Also next weekend marks our last 2009 tour so if you thinking of a trip to Blarney book for next Sunday and you will get a special deal if your quick!

A quick update, visited Cork and floods in the area were bad but thankfully the City Centre was OK on Sunday!