R.I.P. Frankie Manning

Frankie Manning

Those of you who know me know that I dance quite a bit. Out of all the dance styles I do, it is Lindy Hop (the grand daddy of all swing dances) that I dance most.

So, I was saddened this morning to wake up to the news that Frankie Manning, one of the original father's of Lindy Hop had passed away. He was a few weeks shy of 95. The whole Lindy Hop community from all around the world were all getting ready to gather in New York to celebrate his 95th birthday next month. Now it looks like it will be a memorial gathering instead :(

Those of you who don't dance Lindy Hop will probably have never heard of Mr. Manning. But for Lindy dancers, Frankie was the great ambassador of the dance and an inspiration for all Lindy Hoppers of all levels. He was still giving classes and shaking it with the best of them up until last year when he injured himself.

Here's a famous footage from the 1941 film "Hellzapoppin" featuring Frankie (he's the guy in the mechanic's dungarees) and his fellow Lindy dancers (known collectively as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers) doing what they do best:





RIP Frankie.

I'm still here!... Unlike the Irish economy

I'm still floating around! I've been so incredibly busy in work in the last couple of months I've had very little time to do anything exciting or even to find anything interesting on the interweb to blog about.

Speaking of jobs, I came across this recent youtube video that I just found so incredible I had to share it (no its not the Susan Boyle, Britain's got talent video). I knew the Irish economy was bad but I never knew it had gotten this bad!





I'd hate to be the interviewer. What I find interesting in the video is the considerable lack of Irish faces in that queue and the number of people of "foreign" decent. I suppose you can't say that people aren't willing to work.

If this is the type of crazy competition that is going on for a (probably low paying) till job in Londis it looks like I may have left Ireland at a good time.

Vancouver Fog

It's been really foggy here for the last week or so. As a result there have been some amazing photo's showing up of the fog in Vancouver. Unfortunately non of these photos were taken by me :(

Non the less, these photos are so class I've decided to share them. If these photos are yours and you want them taken down or at the very least want some acknowledgement for them then drop me an email and let me know.



The above photo was taken from Cyprus Mountain (one of the three local mountains). It was taken either by Scott Miller from the Vancouver Sun or Blair Kent. Can't really tell which one of them this particular photo belongs to since both took almost identical photos. Apparently this has led to a bit of an argument as to who took the photo. But as the comparison done here shows, there are actually two photos which are almost identical.

Now some more photos.... I actually don't know who or where these photos came from (as these were emailed to me). So again, if you own them or know of who took them let me know and I'll credit the appropriate person (or remove them if you so wish).

Happy New Year!

Better late than never.... Happy New Year!

Mormon Wedding

Last week just before we were meant to make the road trip back to Vancouver again (this time thankfully the roads were clear all the way up to Vancouver and quite uneventful) I went to my first Mormon Wedding.

We never actually got to go to the actual wedding ceremony, only the reception. Apparently if your not part of the Mormon faith you are forbidden to be present at the ceremony. The groom converted to Mormonism for the girl. So, it turned out that the groom's parents were also not allowed at the wedding ceremony. Only to the reception. I was told that the groom's father (understandably) was not impressed.

For the most part the reception was ...err... reserved. The complete lack of alcohol probably had a little to do with that as well. I wasn't too concerned about the total absence of alcohol but then I found out that no coffee would be served either! So it would seem that Mormons don't drink alcohol or caffeine. I suppose that's why they allow polygamy. Got to have some sugar to sweeten the deal somehow I guess.

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, the lucky girl was wife number one and probably will be the only wife (barring a divorce or some kind later on down the line). I believe the US Mormons (in Utah anyways) gave up the right to polygamy so that they could join the union back sometime in the 1890s.

The couple in question were very young. No older than 20 and 21. So that meant a good few of their guests were also within that age range. So when the dancing started it sort of looked like a high school disco.

In short, it was a nice wedding if not a little more sober than I'm usually used to for a wedding.

The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 3 (Finally entering California)

After filling up the car and ourselves we were off again. This time in snow free conditions... or so we thought.

After a couple of happy snow free hours on the road, just as we were about to hit the mountain pass that would have taken us to the Californian state line we were presented with lots of enforced snow chain requirement and snow chain inspection signs all along the highway.

At this time I was driving so that the lady friend could take a break from driving and get some shut eye. Fortunately she was woken up by her dad calling her on the phone and she noticed the signs too. We decided to go buy snow chains at one of the little towns before we hit the mountain pass. It was one thing to lose control and spin off the road into a snow bank but its entirely another thing to lose control and spin off the side of a mountain!

Also, I wasn't aware that you would be asked to turn around by the cops at the snow chain inspection stop if you didn't have snow chains. If she hadn't had woken up I would have happily kept on driving until we hit the mountain pass ignoring the signs about snow chain inspection oblivious to the fact that we would have been told to turn around without them.

So, we found a Wal-Mart and decided to pop in there to buy chains. While in there we met a guy who was also buying chains because he got turned around at the inspection point. We also got talking to another guy who lived in the town who was buying chains and other supplies for a road trip himself and his wife were going to embark on the next morning. Upon hearing that we were going to attempt to drive over the pass that evening (it was about 10pm at this stage and there was a storm warning for the pass) he warned us against doing it saying that it was far too dangerous. He said that "only idiot drivers and crazy trucker try going over the pass at night".

It so happened that himself and his wife owned a B&B in the town and it was closed for the winter season. So he offered us a bed for the evening free of charge to dissuade us from attempting to go over the pass that evening. We were a bit iffy at first but eventually took him up on his offer as we were quite tired from driving all day.

As it turns out the B&B was a really nice place and the guy and his wife were super nice people. If anyone is ever travelling through Oregon, passing through the little town of Ashland and are feeling tired, you can't go far wrong popping into the "Chanticleer Inn" for the night.


(The B & B we stayed in)

We set off early in the morning to face the mountain pass to the California state line expecting the worse. As it turned out once again it wasn't so bad. The snow ploughs had once again done their job in the morning and we really only had to concern ourselves with the roads being all gravelly due to being torn up by people not removing their snow chains when they should have.


(The mountain pass)

Six very uneventful hours later we finally made it to our destination in California... only 2 days later than expected and one day before Christmas eve :(

The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 2 (Washington to Oregon)

The roads through Oregon were not forgiving. We had hit Oregon just after a really bad snow storm had hit it the night before. There was a mandatory snow chain rule being enforced on all roads within the city at Portland. Unfortunately we had previously decided against buying snow chains for our little trip. However, fortunately, we were not required to go into any cities in Oregon as the I-5 highway ran right by them.

The snow and ice on the highway was really bad so I can only imagine what it was like within the city where less cars were traveling.

We managed to get through Portland without any incidents. Again we were driving at a max speed of about 20 to 30 mph. If we went any slower we would have more than likely gotten stuck in the snow and if we went any faster we would lose control and spin.

Speaking of spinning. It was just shortly after passing Portland that we had our worst spin off. We were driving on a perfectly straight stretch of highway going up a little incline, when out of nowhere the car just lost control and started to slide and spin. This time no one was at fault and also, this time there were lots of cars on the highway. We more than likely just hit a really bad patch of ice and that coupled with our rather non snow conditioned tyres and lack of snow chains the car lost it.

We luckily were at the outer lane at the time and didn't spin into the middle of the road but instead into the snow bank beside us. This time we managed to bury ourselves quite good. No amount of pushing by little old me alone was going to get the car out. Luckily this time around we spun off the road in the middle of the day and there were lots of cars on the road. Two cars eventually stopped (probably out of pity watching me struggling in vain at trying to push the car out by myself) and between myself and the drivers of the cars we managed to push the car out of the snow bank while the girlfriend/wife of one of the other drivers directed the traffic around us as we backed out of the bank back onto the highway again. Upon finally getting going again I had to run after the car and hop in while it was moving because we couldn't risk stopping because stopping would mean possibly getting stuck in the snow or else slipping back down the little incline on the road.

I can now say I've run down the middle of a busy highway chasing after a car in America.

After about 8 or so hours of extremely tense driving and keeping the car wheels perfectly straight the snow disappeared and the roads were drivable once again. It was at this stage we decided to pull into somewhere to get something to eat and to fill up the tank as we couldn't afford to pull off the highway previously at the risk of getting stuck in a snowed in town and having no way to get back onto the highway again.

Interesting side note. Apparently Oregon is one of two states in America where you are not allowed to fill up your car yourself. You have to let the petrol pump attendants do it. Your breaking the law otherwise.