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Monday, August 09, 2004

From the earliest days of Crowded House (and then some archaeology to unearth the Split Enz stuff I was too young to have listened to at the time), I’ve been impressed and moved by Neil Finn’s music.

He’s just about to release a new album with his brother Tim (no mean musician and songwriter himself), and you can listen to the new single here.

It’s tender and uplifting, and getting news of it in my mailbox has made Monday morning a lot better than it might have been.

Friday, August 06, 2004

Richard Ford reading at the Lensic last night was just brilliant – warm and urbane but with a clarity and precision to his prose that made me very jealous.

He read a couple of extended passages from his forthcoming novel – the third in the Frank Bascombe trilogy that started with The Sportswriter and continued with Independence Day.

As well as his spare and beautiful prose (I think only Martin Amis can match him for this), he manages to be funny and wise while absolutely nailing his characters and their world. Ford’s soft Mississippi accent was great to hear – and that’ll be the voice in my head now when I’m reading his stuff.

It’s enough to make me think about writing fiction, but also enough to scare me horribly.

Friday, August 06, 2004

Seems I’m not the only who likes the challenge of riding up to the ski basin – this Sunday they’re holding the annual Hill Climb Race.

The fastest time to the top (3,300 vertical feet in 14.7 miles – that makes it over 4% gradient) is 53 minutes and 55 seconds, or an average of 16.3 miles per hour.

Don’t think I’ll be doing it this year – but I’ll definitely keep riding it in my own time, getting nearer the top each time (I hope).

Get the full story from our local paper, the Santa Fe New Mexican (free registration might be required).

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

OK, so every blogger who’s gone wireless has posted one of these posts: ‘Oh wow – I’m surfing from the garden – it’s great.’

Now it’s my turn. The Airport’s still on its way, but the wireless card arrived today (Linksys 11g Cardbus card because my old TiBook only supports 11b with the original Airport Card slot), and it was ridiculously simple – slot the card in, head down to Sun Mountain Bikeshop (and its partner store, the Back Door cafe next door), and Bob’s your digital uncle.

The biggest problem was that the optical mouse got confused on the glass table. I hope setting up the base station tomorrow will be as easy.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

— New Mexico has the highest per capita number of deaths by lightning of any state in the Union. It’s monsoon season here now, so the hot and sunny mornings give way to big storms in the late afternoon and evening. Two state troopers were struck by lightning (but fortunately not badly hurt) while helping drivers stranded in a flood here earlier this week.

— State Governor Bill Richardson this week attended a presentation to mark the shipment of green chile to New Mexico troops serving in Iraq. The 505 company (named for the telephone area code for the whole of the state) are donating $25,000-worth of green chile, packaged in what they described as the world’s first single-serving green chile sachets. Anything to cheer up the reservists and enlisted men who I’m sure would much rather be anywhere else than Iraq right now, although I don’t know how much competition there was from outside the state to be the first to issue green chile in single servings.

— Buying a carnita from Roque in the Plaza on Friday, I overheard a tourist identify himself and other Texans as ‘your favourite neighbours’. Roque, a native New Mexican and a polite man, declined to comment.

— Signs that America is at least four years behind Ireland in the maturity of its mobile phone usage: lots of guys are still wearing their phones on those dodgy holster things on their belts, and almost all the phones I’ve seen here are silver. Weird.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

An old friend of mine (an Irishman married to an American woman) maintained that it was over all 20% easier to live in most parts of the US than to live in Ireland.

Things worked a bit better, there was a greater commitment to customer service, and the cost of staples was less.

A couple of days into the giant list of things required to make a real life here, and I’m beginning to see what he means. I’ve now got a driving licence, bank cards are in the mail, I’m insured to drive the car and I’ve got a new mobile phone. I also found an adapter for my laptop, and our new neighbours came over with beers and homemade apricot jam as soon as we moved in.

All of this was completed without incident, and with a real sense that people wanted to help.  After the institutional rudeness and incompetence seen throughout the immigration process, the reality of life here (at least in small but big enough Santa Fe) is pleasantly different.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

My visa for the US was approved today after 3.5 hours of scary waiting interspersed with paperwork and questions – a pretty good definition of hell.

The whole room in embassy was filled with uncertainty and responsibility without control – the classic stress-inducing combination – with plenty of people being turned away ahead of us, computer malfunctions, and sundry departures from the stated requirements.

But I’m approved – it was great that Buendia was there as well – and now I just have to go back tomorrow to pick up the visa (the computer problems meant they couldn’t give it to me then and there).

Doesn’t seem quite real yet, but I’m in – and leaving next week for a new New Mexican life. Right now it feels like I’ve been flattened by a train, but I’m delighted.

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

I was one of the hundreds of thousands who spent part of the weekend on the Luas. Despite being clearly designed by a Wexford man – the floor looks disconcertingly like the Cusack stand during a Leinster hurling final – the whole thing is great.

With the sun shining on Sunday afternoon, you could almost be in another city – one with a real public transport system. And one with a few places most people on my tram had never even heard of – Cowper? Ballaly?. And a few that confused us – Kilmacud looks like it’s the Irish for ‘middle of nowhere’, and the Stillorgan stop is about 50 yards away from the Sandyford stop, and nowhere near the bowling alley.

But as we zoomed back into town – there are a lot of stops but the thing really accelerates between them – and rounded the elegant curve of Harcourt St, I was glad to have been on it during its opening weekend.

Now can someone remind my why the two lines don’t meet up?