Ahhhh.
Glad to be back home, alive and well being a nice bonus. The drive up was horrendous, took 6 hours of arse numbing tedium.
Was stuck behind two bad crashes, three sets of massive road works, two huge tractors on country bendy roads and several herds of livestock...
The place was lovely though, Achill Island is one of those rugged lumps of rock in the Atlantic that can be beautiful or stark, depending on the time of day, the weather and how much you have to drink!
My dad outside the parent's rented house. Nice view eh?
Of course the weather changes at the drop of a hat, you could be getting fried by the sun one second, then fleeing from a category 4 hurricane the next.
My mother and two of my many adorable cousins
I did end up suited up for this little event.
My one and only suit
And my brother did also, as unused to suits as I am, he had never even worn one before.
Notice my bent knees and awkward stance to take off a few more inches from my height.
We didn't look too bad that day though.
I swear I never felt as tall as I did at this wedding. Just about everyone was a lot shorter than me. I was asked "just how tall are you" about 20 billion times.
With the shoes I was guessing 6ft 3.
My line was that I wasn't growing, everyone else was shrinking.
The strangest question I was asked was "What is your favourite part of your own body" and I surprisingly realised it was my torso
Look daddy, I'm a torso
There was tomfoolary with a Dr.Who type scarf which belonged to Adorable Cousin #3.
Speaking of Adorable Cousin #3
The island itself has more sheep than anywhere else I've ever seen. They rock. I invented a game for the little cousins (all 9 of them) to play to annoy their parents. Basically every time you see a sheep in the road you shout "SHEEPS!"
SHEEPS!!
It's not much of a game, but it annoyed the parents a lot and that's considered a victory.
Needless to say, I revel in the 'cool uncle' postion my cousins have placed me in and I try to live up to it as much as possible. It's more fun than a box full of puppies on crack.
It was a fantastic weekend of family togetherness. We all get on so well and there were many of these:
Group Hug!
Also Adorable Cousin #5 decided that as she was turning 10 she needed a boyfriend, so she went for the younger man.
The ring bearer, or 'Lord Of The Rings' as he was called on the day
He's 6. Guess he likes the older girls.
The wedding itself was great. Lovely ceremony, even if it was a little disconcerting. My cousin Lorna is only 7 months older than me and is now married.
With our family, any gathering is a party and when there's reason for a party...boy do we ever push the boat out.
Arrived at the place to an Oysters and Guiness reception. Basically trying to make everyone horney as fuck.
I'd never eaten Oysters, I tried them. And no I never will again. But it was a good experience none the less.
Free booze all round for the 200 or so guests. They made us wait 3 hours for the dinner, which ment no-one had eaten for about 6 hours. So everyone seemed to get trashed from the free booze.
Food was ok. Dancing and partying was better. The reception closed up at 3am. We where then all hunted out into the 'Residents Bar' where it continued till they served breakfast at 8am.
Damn good party let me tell you.
The island is good for hangovers, nice sea air.
Went fishing, caught a few. Had a laugh. Overall a great time.
Even the drive back didn't seem as bad. Though my arse was as numb as the teeth on a coke fiend.
There are more stories, such as my mother falling while chasing Adorable Cousins #1 & #7, resulting in a concussion, crutches and a lot of embarassment.
The whole "Rocky 5" fight between my cousins Boxer dog and a Ram.
The Saturday night country club/disco where we consistantly just laughed our arses off at it all, including the cops who arrived for a pint while in uniform.
The 'Fun-Fair' which consisted of 3 rides, one of which was for the ages of 3-7.
The 'midges' that ate us alive at every oppertunity while fishing or swimming.
The 'Guess the Lenght of the Speeches" pool we ran between two tables which was 90 in total. I guess 29 minutes. They were 29minutes 3 seconds exactly. I blew the lot on drinks for the table I was at, resulting in some drunken antics.
But they would take forever, so I'll save them for another day.
How was your weekend?
Glad to be back home, alive and well being a nice bonus. The drive up was horrendous, took 6 hours of arse numbing tedium.
Was stuck behind two bad crashes, three sets of massive road works, two huge tractors on country bendy roads and several herds of livestock...
The place was lovely though, Achill Island is one of those rugged lumps of rock in the Atlantic that can be beautiful or stark, depending on the time of day, the weather and how much you have to drink!
My dad outside the parent's rented house. Nice view eh?
Of course the weather changes at the drop of a hat, you could be getting fried by the sun one second, then fleeing from a category 4 hurricane the next.
My mother and two of my many adorable cousins
I did end up suited up for this little event.
My one and only suit
And my brother did also, as unused to suits as I am, he had never even worn one before.
Notice my bent knees and awkward stance to take off a few more inches from my height.
We didn't look too bad that day though.
I swear I never felt as tall as I did at this wedding. Just about everyone was a lot shorter than me. I was asked "just how tall are you" about 20 billion times.
With the shoes I was guessing 6ft 3.
My line was that I wasn't growing, everyone else was shrinking.
The strangest question I was asked was "What is your favourite part of your own body" and I surprisingly realised it was my torso
Look daddy, I'm a torso
There was tomfoolary with a Dr.Who type scarf which belonged to Adorable Cousin #3.
Speaking of Adorable Cousin #3
The island itself has more sheep than anywhere else I've ever seen. They rock. I invented a game for the little cousins (all 9 of them) to play to annoy their parents. Basically every time you see a sheep in the road you shout "SHEEPS!"
SHEEPS!!
It's not much of a game, but it annoyed the parents a lot and that's considered a victory.
Needless to say, I revel in the 'cool uncle' postion my cousins have placed me in and I try to live up to it as much as possible. It's more fun than a box full of puppies on crack.
It was a fantastic weekend of family togetherness. We all get on so well and there were many of these:
Group Hug!
Also Adorable Cousin #5 decided that as she was turning 10 she needed a boyfriend, so she went for the younger man.
The ring bearer, or 'Lord Of The Rings' as he was called on the day
He's 6. Guess he likes the older girls.
The wedding itself was great. Lovely ceremony, even if it was a little disconcerting. My cousin Lorna is only 7 months older than me and is now married.
With our family, any gathering is a party and when there's reason for a party...boy do we ever push the boat out.
Arrived at the place to an Oysters and Guiness reception. Basically trying to make everyone horney as fuck.
I'd never eaten Oysters, I tried them. And no I never will again.
But it was a good experience none the less.
Free booze all round for the 200 or so guests. They made us wait 3 hours for the dinner, which ment no-one had eaten for about 6 hours. So everyone seemed to get trashed from the free booze.
Food was ok. Dancing and partying was better. The reception closed up at 3am. We where then all hunted out into the 'Residents Bar' where it continued till they served breakfast at 8am.
Damn good party let me tell you.
The island is good for hangovers, nice sea air.
Went fishing, caught a few. Had a laugh. Overall a great time.
Even the drive back didn't seem as bad. Though my arse was as numb as the teeth on a coke fiend.
There are more stories, such as my mother falling while chasing Adorable Cousins #1 & #7, resulting in a concussion, crutches and a lot of embarassment.
The whole "Rocky 5" fight between my cousins Boxer dog and a Ram.
The Saturday night country club/disco where we consistantly just laughed our arses off at it all, including the cops who arrived for a pint while in uniform.
The 'Fun-Fair' which consisted of 3 rides, one of which was for the ages of 3-7.
The 'midges' that ate us alive at every oppertunity while fishing or swimming.
The 'Guess the Lenght of the Speeches" pool we ran between two tables which was 90 in total. I guess 29 minutes. They were 29minutes 3 seconds exactly. I blew the lot on drinks for the table I was at, resulting in some drunken antics.
But they would take forever, so I'll save them for another day.
How was your weekend?
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
cool photos... family gatherings can be a blast... i like em tall... so nothing to worry about
how's things mr sexy torso?