The Gambling Buddhist

Festival of Fools

2010-05-02T16:47:00.002Z

Rainy Belfast Sunday. In a place known as Bob Marley Square innocent magic happened. People crowded around performers wo made us laugh and cheer and forget our own little bubbles for a while. Children joined in and a French guy pulled down his pants to play bum-off with the performer. This is a form of sumo wher each person tries to push the other out of a small circle by pushing with his backside.
The Festival is under threat in these austere times. Its funding from the Arts Council has been cut by a third. It may not happen next year or the following.
I hope it does. We need all the innocent magic we can find.
http://www.foolsfestival.com/

The Road to Hell

2005-05-16T18:53:00.000Z

Well the Fianna Fail government have lived up to their reputation once again as a bunch of chancers and gombeen men with the approval of the controversial M3 motorway which is set to desecrate the ancient site of Tara. Read Indymedia for comments and take the poll at this site.
The Republic's government seems to be of the opinion that everyone should be within 5 miles of a motorway. Whether this affects quality of life, heritage or environment does not seem to matter to them. The real reason for their continued support for this road building madness is perhaps the huge amounts of money they and their supporters gather from the Irish (and European) taxpayer. Look at the collossal amounts of money spent so far on the great infrastructure projects. Not one of these roads was built to budget. Most are twice or more than their original estimated cost.
I'll be down at the protests.

Skellig

2005-04-18T20:15:00.000Z

Well we finally made it to Skellig Michael - that lonely, mysterious island off the coast of Kerry!
After a marathon drive down from Belfast on Friday we arrived at our camp site on Valencia at about 11.45 after calling in to The Point Bar for a quick refreshment and a look at a picture of Gerry Adams and happy family pictured with the bar-owners and kids. The campsite was close to a field of sheep who bleated frantically on our arrival. They probably thought we were the farmer bringing goodies. It was a terrific sound. I swear each one of those sheep has a distinctive bleat. They also like rubbing themselves against the metal gates. Not the most restful of nights! Next morning was glorious. The last couple of times we've gone down to Kerry the weather has either been crap or we've missed the sailing. Today we got down to Portmagee in plenty of time. Even so we only got on because of a couple of cancellations.
It takes about 45 minutes to get out to the Skelligs. On the way I chatted to a South African couple with their child. They were interested in the local bird-life. Mainly gannets and razorbills and kitiwakes.
Little Skellig is passed first. I don't think anyone has ever tried to survive on this rock. It hosts the largest colony of gannets in Ireland. You can smell the guano from some way off. A little later the jagged bulk of Skellig Michael looms up. We had a couple of hours on the island - enough time to climb the 600 steps to the monastic settlement. They've done a lot of restoration work on the place. The beehive huts have been restored and you can see the original cruciform crosses. Pity there were so many gabbling tourists but then again what are we?
I took off down another set of steps for some solitude and was shat on by a passing fulmar.
Kitiwakes abound and in the sheltered landing cove we saw a seal playing in the clear blue water.
How the monks made it out there in their leather coracles is beyond me. They would have been cut off for most of the year.
If you fancy a good read on the history of Skellig buy or borrow Sun Dancing by Geoffrey Moorhouse. He mixes fact and fiction to give a feeling for the place.
L and I then repaired to Dingle where I met an old work mate starting of a new but still boozy life there. I also met a school fellow whom I hadn't heard tell off for a quarter of a century. Strangely my workmate had just split up from his sister back in Belfast.
That's all the Irish World Heritage sites done now. I'll have to find other reasons for going back to Kerry. I don't think that'll be hard!

The Artist's Date

2005-04-09T11:11:00.000Z

Went on my first Artist's date a la Julia cameron last night. Went to an Ulster Orchestra concert at the Ulster Hall. Most of the audience were middle aged or elderly. It's unusual now for me to feel one of the younger people at any event! The Ulster Hall is looking pretty tatty now. A makeover is well overdue. Still the place has a lot of history going back to the big anti-home-rule rallies of the early 20th Century. For me - I saw my first concert here. Thin Lizzy in1977. I swear the place looks exactly the same.
I don't know what I think of classical music. I find myself drifting in between the melodic or exciting pieces. I watch the expressions on the musicians faces, notice that many of the women players bring their handbags out on stage with them or watch the audience. Maybe the purpose of the boring bits is to give me an excuse to sit motionless in the same place for long periods of time and simply think.
Following the concert I had an hour or so to kill so I headed up to Lavery's Bar. I used to come here quite a lot when I was younger. It's become more of a bloke's bar now with Gerry and his pals betting on American racing. The bar staff don't let you smoke at the bar now. I got told off. It's only a matter of time now before they introduce a smoking ban in all public places. I'll miss smoking cigars with a pint. In Lavery's Back Bar they were playing old punk classics. A completely blootered fella was dancing on his own to 'My Sharona'.
I went up to the new QFT. Took me a bit of time to find it but it is impressive. The old place was like a shebeen without the drink. The new place is all plush seats, coffee and wine bar chic. I was there to watch Sky Blue. I had thought it was going to be a film about pollution, environmentalism etc. Turns out it's an anime cartoon. Great animation but the story-line and characters are straight out of a Marvel comic. The audience were all young geeky student types.
So am I more creative... Don't know. In some ways I just felt like a sad loser wandering around on my own.
A cooky middle-aged woman approached me during the concert interval to find out if I was married and to tell me of her relationship with a cellist 24 years her junior with 4 kids. She didn't think it was going anywhere.

Racing

2005-02-17T19:18:00.000Z

Things might get tricky for Sinn Fein if they are found to have connections to the big money laundering operation uncovered by the Garda today. What with Republicans being implicated in the murder of Robert McCartney things have not been going their way recently.

happiness and Distraction

2005-02-11T19:02:00.000Z

Some say happiness is what humans seek in life. I'm convinced its not. I think its distraction we crave. Take me for example today. I did some good work and was feeling happy as Larry off early downtown to visit my favourite library after having a sausage, egg and bacon soda. What do I do? Check the share price of Bioprogress on my mobile. It had gone up another 3 points. A nervous kind of impulsion overtakes me. I feel I have to buy these shares because they WILL go up tomorrow. I take myself in hand saying 'Don't chase money...it only leads to ruin and a wasted life'. But my piece of mind is destroyed. If we were programmed to seek happiness all the time I don't think I would have put myself through this.

Spent a pleasureable afternoon reading the Irish Naturalist of 1915. The guys who wrote in these periodicals were true naturalists - people like Praeger and Scharff really knew their flora and fauna.
In 1915 the last native Golden Eagle was shot in Mayo. The previous year another had been shot at Ardara.

You Are Me and I am You and We are all One

2005-02-07T19:30:00.000Z

I used to see this written on a wall every day I travelled up the Antrim Road from school. I think it is a basic truth. We are all of the same essence even though life and circumstance have shaped us differently. Our basic consciousness is the same. It is this consciousness that we sometimes (rarely in my case) grasp when we meditate.
Successfully through to my second week without gambling. I can feel a difference. I can feel myself focussing more on my work and on things that are important. I still visit share bulletin boards out of curiosity - perhaps also to perversely test myself.
Liz has done three seperate pregnancy tests all of which were positive although the line is faint. However the hormone level should increase during this week.
Its strange being in work alone knowing that Brad shared the same space only a week or so ago and now is gone forever. I get a feeling we're just on different sides of some great valley.
The anti-road campaigners are going to be allowed to submit evidence to the Oireachtas inquiry. This is good news as the narrow terms of reference were being used to exclude them up to now.

6 Months

2005-01-29T13:51:00.000Z

I will meditate for 20 minutes prior to switching on this infernal machine which has fed my addictions for years now.
Read this guys journal to put some perspective on your troubles.
L. is on tenterhooks waiting until Friday when she can test herself. She has been eating some unusual foods (for her) such as champ and pies.
There will be a lengthy debate on the M3 on Wednesday. I hope they throw the idea out lock stock and barrel.

Happy New Year

2005-01-06T22:50:00.000Z

Northern Sea

Do we all enter the new year with raised hopes? We can slew off all the bad stuff of the last few decades and start afresh. More disciplined. creative,courageous?
Well I'm still in that mode although my gambling continues. I am using money now gathered from winnings - although I have lost 4 days on the trot!
My father is 75 today. Still able to climb hills and do gardens. Tomorrow we'll have a celebration in a local restaurant for him.
The New Year beckons - disasters, joys, boredom, contentment. Bring it On!

Weirdness

2004-12-17T17:17:00.000Z

Belfast Murals - Ardoyne

Sometimes I have these weird days which can turn out well or can be total disasters. Today I was going to lay 3 horses at fancy prices risking over £1000 but I backed them instead netting a healthy profit. In the last race I took it right up to the wire only changing my mind shortly before the off.
Interested in the work of Stephen Batchelor at the moment. He has written a new book - Living with the Devil which looks at how we get into destructive patterns of behaviour. He likens these cycles to the rounds of Samsara - the repeating cycle of existence in Buddhism. Both are literally the road to nowhere - we cannot grow in any way. He likens our position to the Devil in Dante's Inferno who is pictured frozen in a wasteland.
I often feel this way as I follow my urges and compulsions which ultimately get me nowhere. The trouble is you can know something but still not have the motivation or the strategies to do anything about it. Batchelor mentions Paradise Lost and the Inferno a lot as well as the Buddhist term 'mara'. Mara can be seen as the part of ourselves which tempts us off the path we know is right. It is a powerful force and not all bad. It is the part of ourselves which clings to our 'identity' and 'selfhood'
It was interesting that the Buddha never ceased to be tempted by 'mara' even after enlightenment.
My partner is still taking the nasal spray to inhibit her monthly cycle.
Tonight we head up to Cushendall to the Cave House for a short retreat. V short as we have to return tomorrow night to await the arrival of our Antipodean guests.
BTW the photo shows a mural of a mass rock. In the days of The Penal Laws (18th and early 19thC) it was forbidden to hold the Roman Catholic mass. Believers had to worship secretly outdoors often using a rock as an altar. There are hundreds dotted around the Irish countryside.

2004-12-02T22:16:00.000Z

Liz under Tree

Ah the folly...

2004-10-29T22:26:00.000Z

Bog Cotton

I'm back from the real world for a while! Thought I had found a foolproof system and was making around two hundred pounds a day until I hit a bad patch and lost most of my winnings in an afternoon!
Thankyou Anthony for the invitation to post to your new weblog. I'd be pleased to. Perhaps the best way would be to post a permanent link. I'm not quite offe with the technicalities of all this myself so would welcome any tips.
Been out and about at the Queen's Festival. Watched Nollaig Casey play sublime fiddle at the Elmwood Hall last Sunday accompanied by the ever-dry Arty McGlynn on guitar. Then Sean Keane joined them with singing and whistle playing.
Tonight went on a deliberately solitary foray to Clonard to listen to Rautavaara's music. Nearly fell asleep during some of it and sat bolt upright at other times. Great colour and tones. A woman thanked me for my insights. Probably mad.
Tomorrow I hope to get out and about again - the Ulster Way beckons.

Zen and Life

2004-10-15T22:20:00.000Z

Knobstone

I'm sitting here on a Friday night. It's 11.25pm here in Belfast. I've spent the last few hours looking at my computer screen. I first watched an episode of Phoenix Nights - a comedy series I like. I love that Northern English sense of humour. I then visited a few web sites. I always look in on littlegreenfootballs. I find it fascinating (and also scary) that there are people like the contributors to this site out there. They mentioned a campaign by the Guardian to affect the voting in an American constituency - towards Kerry. Of course te denizens of lfg are a little to the right of Attilla. However I signed up to the Guardian proposal and will soon send an e-mail to someone in the US to tell them why I think they should vote in a particular way. It will be interesting if I get a real Bush supporter!
Then I listened to a Dharma talk by Paul Haller of the San Francisco Zen Centre. All meditation (indeed life) is a continuous mistake he suggests. I think I agree. Think how many times we beat ourselves up when we try to acheive something we really believe in or think we believe in. I know I always think I'm cocking something up whenever I meditate.
The picture is of a standing stone near to the Ulster Way. It looks over towards Ailsa Craig. Its shape is somewhat phallic (or is it just me?). Ireland is littered with such stones. It's amazing they have stood in the same place for so long without disturbance. This one is fortunate in that its well off the beaten track. There are quite a few sites dedicated to the standing stone.
I'm finishing off a Heinekin beer can. I have to move and sell a piano tomorrow so farewell for now.

From Headless Cross to Black Hill

2004-10-11T17:32:00.000Z

Liz Through the Looking Wall

Saturday was a Walking Day. Myself and Liz headed up to Headless Cross car park a.k.a. Linford carpark to begin the next stretch of the Ulster Way. The car park overlooks a broad plain and undoubtedly this is what drew a small crowd of model aircraft enthusiasts - men in early to late middle age controlling a variety of buzzing craft.
The weather was clear with a little cloud. We were blessed with fantastic views over the North Channel to Scotland.
We crossed Scawt Hill meeting a man who I strongly suspect was collecting 'magic mushrooms'. He said he was up there to walk and take photos. Why then the wicker basket. I have a very suspicious mind!
We passed a phallic-shaped standing stone which looked over the brow of the hill towards Ailsa Craig. Ailsa is also known as 'Paddy's Milestone' for the returning Irish traveller knew he was close to home when he spotted the island.
Mushrooms of all kinds and colurs littered the ground.
We walked as far as Black Hill before turning back. The days are getting shorter now and we really only had to around 7pm before dark.
We rounded off the day by visiting the Meeting House - a pub on the Brustin Brae (great name!) Road. We were a little reticent about entering the place as we don't know the village (Cairncastle) and sometimes these little pubs can be unwelcoming. Not so with the Meeting House! Inside there was a friendly singing session - traditional songs interspersed with modern rock ballads. There was good food available and nicest of all an old man came over to Liz and I to offer us a seat in the packed bar. It turned out he and his friend were ramblers themselves - the East Antrim Ramblers Club. He it was who told us that Linford was locally known as Headless Cross. He didn't know why it was called so. I can only imagine at one time there was a broken cross at the site. There is a mass rock not too far away. An internet search reveals a lot of references to Black Sabbath! Other places with the same name occur in Worcestershire, Dartmoor, Shotts (Scotland), Bolton and Derby.
My daily routine has changed with the opening of the Zen Centre. I used to wake at 8am, get breakfast, then go to work. Now there is a sitting between 7am and 8am so we try to get down there a few times a week. This means getting up at 6.15am. Oy vey!
Today I also spent two hours doing tai chi. If I don't watch out I'll get enlightened and no-one will hear from me again!
The campaign to stop the M3 ploughing through Tara was aided by a mini-festival there on Sunday. Stuart Townsend has added his support to the growing campaign to halt this madness.

Back to Square One

2004-10-07T20:21:00.000Z

Lone Tree

Pride comes before a fall.
Lost around £311 today on the horses. Luckily I had slowly built up slightly more than this amount over the past couple of week so I haven't gone into fresh money yet. Makes it all seem a bit pointless though.
I usually bet on a few horses in every race varying the stakes. I also bet on several potential correct score outcomes with the possibility of backing heavily at very short odds if my initial picks are incorrect. What I also included in my plan was that if I ever lost £100 in a session I would lay the favourite in the next race for £100 to make up the loss. Today I was down £71 when I decided to lay Blythe Spirit at odds of about 2.8. I stood to lose £194 if the horse won. Every horse won today at Wolverhampton!
Laying is a bloody dangerous business especially if you get a run of favourites against you. Luckily I didn't chase my losses - the next favourite also won.
I feel gutted about the waste of time involved in building up a bank only to see it disappear in an afternoon.

A Road Too Far

2004-10-06T17:34:00.000Z

Tess grappling with stick!

We all know Ireland has been undergoing an economic boom for the past decade or so. The Celtic Tiger is now one of the richest statee in the world. A far cry from the 'Banana Republic' Bob Geldoff used to sing about. People are now flocking into Ireland from all over the world. Previously emigration was the byword here.
All this prosperity has come with a price. This new money has to be spent on something - and the thing the Republic has spent it on is roads. Wide laned motorways now span the country. Everywhere has to have a bypass. The God Car has to be appeased. With poverty so recently in the background there is little opposition to the tarmacing of our country. Hey we might lose our economic prosperity if we don't keep building and becoming more and more competitive.
The latest scheme though has disturbed more than a few people. It is a plan to build a motorway through perhaps the most sacred and revered site in Ireland - Tara.
Tara is where the ancient kings of Ireland used to meet, it is where St Patrick converted multitudes to Christianity, its where a famous battle against the British took place in 1798. Archaeologists have located scores of valuable historical sites lying in the path of the motorway.
And why do we need this motorway? Well, to get more cars into already congested Dublin.
Instead of building a rail corridor to take people out of their cars the government wants to speed them along into the city and to hell with our heritage and our fresh air.
There is a legal challenge to this madness and there will be onsite opposition. I'll keep you posted.

First Friday

2004-10-01T23:03:00.000Z

Moss and lichen

How important is friendship to you? Who are your friends? Can you make real friends after the age of 25?
I know that the only people I really feel at one with are people I grew up with. They are people I went to school with or people I went to college with. They seem to know me in a way no-one else can know me. I try to make friends with others but it seems false.
I went last night to the Inter-faith Forum. this is an organisation bringing together people of different faiths and none to hear about other faiths and beliefs. Last night they had a woman from the Christian Scientists. They seem to believe that if we realise that we are divine all illnesses or errors can be healed. Indeed they say that you cannot progress in their faith unless you heal other people. We listened last night to a woman who had been searchig all her life for an answer. She believes she has found it through the works of Mary Baker Eddy. I have yet to read the book given out freely last night.
She sounds like a 'scarf woman' - the term I give to post- menopausal woman who believe in fairies etc.
However there is something that resonates. Intelligence, I believe is 'divine'. Maybe intelligence is a loaded word - perhaps I mean 'self-consciousness'. This is something we share with all other humans. It is something special. Something which maybe ultimately seperate from the physical.
Today I listened to Dr Ian Paisley - the elder. He appeared at a 'Celebration of Age'
Like the rest of the panel - Sam McAughtry, May Blood, PJ McClean etc he was humourous and moving. He signed a copy of his book 'Grow Old with Me' for me.
Tonight - the first Friday of the month used to be a time I would go out with some old friends to a bar. We would talk, argue and drink. We haven't done this for some time. Tonight I went down alone to the John Hewitt Bar and watched curly headed women flirt with an open chested long-haired blonde guy - then watched the latter drink sadly alone. I listened to the Panama Jazz Band and thought of what I should be challenging myself to do. Set up an IVS workcamp and dive.
I'll leave you with the sub-text [takes a bit of time to load]to the coalition war effort in Iraq ( and yes I do feel for Tony with his heart complaint!)

Flu-ridden

2004-09-29T18:18:00.000Z

Natural Sphinx - near Sallagh Braes

Feeling pretty dire today. There is a virulent flu going around and boy am I smit!
The days are getting shorter now. It's noticeably darker at 7pm. There is a real autumnal feel to the place. Trees are already turning orange and gold.
Work at the Zen Centre is continuing apace although I haven't been down recently. It's strange how committee meetings for this organisation nearly always turn into shouting matches. Perhaps its because it touches the very heart of some people's spirituality or perhaps there just argumentative buggers!
Anyway the next big event is the arrival of Robert Kennedy a zen Jesuit in early December. Looking forward to see how he melds these two spiritualities.
Listening to a fado artiste Mariza - fabulous voice. Some of her songs bring a tear to my eye aswell as alump to my throat together with raising the hair at the back of my neck. Hold that thought!
Gambling wise I've been pretty good. Won back about half my losses so far backing value horses. I'm still prone to impulsive bets though like the £30 I've wagered on ten different scores in some of tonights Champions League matches.
Leave you with something that tickled my funnybone

Season of Mushrooms

2004-09-27T17:27:00.000Z

Mushroom Family

A week or so ago I continued my journey around the Ulster Way. Starting from the lonesome Starbog Road on a dullish Friday afternoon. I had to lift Tess over stiles at first something she hates. Whenever we came to a wall or stile later on she made sure she jumped over herself!
The Way led across soggy bogland with views over Larne Lough. I had a moment of trepidation in one place when I saw a field of cows and what looked like bulls. We skirted gingerly around this field. None of the bovines paid us the slightest heed.
We passed a soggy boreen on our way to Sallagh Braes. Sallagh overlooks the North Channel and the town of Ballygally. It is a semi-circular cliff-face. Looking down I had the impression of a giant amphitheatre. Smoke rose from a farmer's bonfire. Undulations in the land evoked thoughts of burial mounds and ancient settlements. The area was one of the first settled in Ireland by all accounts. A little further on is Linford Ancient Site - a place which still has to give up its secrets to archaologists.
This is autumn and the fields were filled with mushrooms of all types including the infamous psilocybin or 'magic mushroom'. If I were twenty years younger I might have picked and dried these beauties!
We walked for about three hours passing a natural rock formation dimly reminding me of the sphinx.

Return from the void

2004-09-26T16:50:00.000Z

Slemish - St.Patrick's erstwhile home

Haven't posted for a while. Since August I've been on holiday in the Alpujarras in southern Spain with family - the first family holiday I've been on since I was a kid. Itwas fun. We rented a small cortijo near Trevelez, the highest village in Spain. Getting there was a bit traumatic though. My sister's partner, Louis, is a bit of a demon driver and we lost him on the way. Unfortunately we had no map and Louis was the man with the knowledge about where we were staying etc. Thank God for mobile phones! After numerous mishaps and a hair-raising drive round switchbacks (driving, of course, on the wrong side of the road!) myself, Liz and Mairead arrived in Bubion at about 2am.
Later we climbed Muracen - Spain's highest mountain with me getting severe sunburn on my ankles.
The final few days of the holiday were spent in busy Benidorm with a visit to World Heritage town Elche or Elx.
Recently been losing substantially playing Texas Hold'em poker on the Betfair site. Lost about £300 in a week. Bought a book about this type of poker but didn't bother to read it before I started! The other players must have thought their day had come!!
Belfast Zen Centre had its first public use of the new facilities at Cathedral Buildings. A trauma group - the Wider Circle used it last Thursday. The place is still pretty bleak although the floors have been sanded. Still needs painting and where are the loos?
Bought a few cups and a teapot for the place as my contribution.

Blueberries and Sunsets

2004-08-02T22:05:00.000Z

Continued along the Ulster Way yesterday - a 600 odd mile traipse around the north of Ireland. A fine evening found us up Shanes Hill Road at Ballyboley Forest. Through a bunch of spruce trees and over a stile or two to a vantage point overlooking Larne. The last time we were up here we could see as far as Scotland to the north-east, the Mournes to the south with a hint of the Isle of man on the horizon and to the west Slemish and the Sperrins and of course Lough Neagh our inland sea.
This evening though we had haze - whether pollution or innoccuous heat haze or a mixture of both I don't know.
Every month here seems to have a dominant colour. In May the yellow gorse or whin dominates. This month its the purple of the heather and the thistle. The darker bell heather mixes in with the lighter type of heather ( I can't remember the technical term!)
I picked blueberries. I never realised they were so common here. My memories of blueberries focus round Norwegian forests where on rare visits as children we coloured our hands and faces purple with the juice.
We walked over to the cairned top of Agnews Hill and decided to stop there as the sun was declining rapidly.
Walking back we watched as the sun set directly over Slemish- St Patrick's Hill. White moths fluttered around us as we made our way back to the car. Black slugs began their dusk feeding.
Today I completed the stetch of the walk with Tess, my sisters dog. I drove up the lonely and desolate Starbog Road past the quarry where a couple of years ago a local man was pulled into the crushing machine and killed.
Tess had to be lifted over the stiles but frolicked madly in the soft mossy grass. We saw frogs.
The weather was misty but warm- no spectacular sunsets this evening!

2004-07-21T14:46:00.000Z

The nature of reality often comes into mind. The greatest mystery being why is there anything rather than nothing?
I've come to the conclusion that God dissolved himself aeons ago into the fabric of the cosmos so that He could experience true liberation. After all if you control everything how can you be free?
The universe now progresses along its evolutionary path according to certain basic physical laws. We experience them. We are the echoes or pieces of the original divine conciousness.
Besides having cosmic thought s I am walking the Ulster Way- a 600 mile or so path around the north of Ireland. I will post the odd picture of my travels

Rest & Recreation

2004-07-19T21:12:00.000Z

Just returned from a trip to the West with The Beloved and her daughter. Called in with the Daughter's father in Barna Co. Galway. He took her for the day so myself and Liz did a little touring around Oughterard and the lovely Lough Corrib. Ended up camping in a remote spot by the lake that night near Glann. Just the sound of fighting terns from a little islet offshore. In the morning a swim in the soft lake water - alright it took me about ten minutes to immerse myself! My expressions were somewhat gargoyle -like. but once I was in it was bliss.
Next day we set off for Kerry to try for the second time to get to Skellig Michael. http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=757 Skellig is a rocky island off the coast which was inhabited by monks from around 400 AD. It has no springs and very little greenery. The perfect place for a monk to escape the pressures of 6th Century life. It's bloody hard to get to. the conditions have to be just right before the boatmen will venture out. Last Friday was not the day. We arrived as low fog shrouded the islands and surrounding hills creating bizarre mysterious cloudshapes - the 'teasing mists of Skelligs' - perhaps I'll write a song!
Next day we headed north to visit friends on the island of Inisbofin. Neither myself or Liz had been on the island before. The sun was splitting the trees as we headed off from Cleggan (perfect weather to land on Skellig!). Cars have to be left behind. The islanders have managed to bring a few battered wrecks onto the island where there's no road tax.
On the island we feasted on the most beautiful leg of lamb - bought from a butchers in Clifden - beside the Celtic Shop. A local fisherman left a few mackerel which we fried in butter and smeared with harissa and soy sauce. Delicious!!!!
Next day we lounged on the East Side beach - I roasted my balding pate. It's now a kind of pinky purply colour.
Long drive back to Belfast where we learned that one of Liz's erswhile mates had died of liver failure at the age of 38. North Belfast is a place of tragedy. Liz went to another funeral today of a woman in her early 40s - the mother of 7 kids who committed suicide last week. One of her sons had killed himself last year.

The First Post

2004-07-02T21:48:00.000Z

2nd July 2004
What does a gambling Buddhist put in a post? Can there be such a thing as a gambling Buddhist. Am I a Buddhist? I attend a sangha here in rainy Belfast on Tuesdays and sometimes Sundays. At the zendo we sit in silence for 30 minutes then walk in silence for ten minutes then meditate again for 45 minutes.
On Fridays usually I gamble and lose quite a lot of money. Today I didn't lose. I actually made £14. Last week I lost £345.
As a Buddhist I see my gambling as 'grasping'. - chasing after an illusion that cannot ever bring real happiness. What it does bring is momentary gratification. Like any addiction it gives the illusion of power for a few moments before inevitably reality sinks in.
Throughout the lifetime of this blog I'll try to give an insight into the mind of a gambler albeit one who wishes he could lead an 'alternative' life.