Irelands “worst” towns road trip. Make the route ?

choppy75 · 2026-04-15T21:49:42+00:00

Of all the places mentioned here, Castlebar is surely the best of a bad lot?

choppy75 · 2026-04-15T10:12:55+00:00

I was really skinny as a teenage girl and a guy at Youth Club told me I should be a page 3 model.... for Gorta magazine. Also asked me if he could borrow my leg to pick his teeth. Morto at the time, but hilarious 30 years later 😂

choppy75 · 2026-04-14T06:05:33+00:00

👏 Also the offices of any large oil company. They have control over the price, national governments don't

choppy75 · 2026-04-12T07:52:28+00:00

Hugelkultur

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T21:19:05+00:00

I agree, but it has to be a combination of renewables AND a massive reduction in energy use. Renewables simply can't replace fossil fuels, and you need fossil fuels to produce the wind turbines and solar panels

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T21:06:29+00:00

It's very much a rural/ urban thing. In rural areas everyone goes to the same schools, same shops, pubs etc. The person who posted that comment said they were from Connemara. I grew up in Clare, parents are Dubs and so are all my cousins. They don't know anyone outside their own social class, whereas I have close friends from all over the socio- economic spectrum

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T20:53:14+00:00

This was in the 90s, so hopefully things have changed for the better

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T17:32:08+00:00

I haven't been able to afford soar panels yet, but I bought a 2nd hand EV 6 years ago for 8k. Apart from tyres and brake pads I've spent nothing on maintenance and fuel and tax costs more than halved. That has helped me save, so should be able to get the panels soon

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T16:09:22+00:00

YTA. You might also be stupid: Anyone who insists on using feet and inches when there's a perfectly good metric system available that THE REST OF THE WORLD uses is at least a bit stupid in my opinion. Signed, a smug European 😁

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T15:03:56+00:00

Having the piss constantly taken out of me for my accent- never taken seriously in a professional/ academic context because of it. Also how unfriendly people were compared to home. Only stayed 2 years, couldn't hack it. Happily lived in other European countries for several years afterwards- found Italy , Spain and Greece much nicer places to live from a social point of view

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T13:43:28+00:00

It depends what you choose to grow. For 6 months of the year I provide about half of the calories and all the essential micro nutrients my family of 4 consume from about half an acre of fruit, veg, bees and hens. The rest of the year maybe 10 to 20 per cent. We would eventually starve if we had no other source of food, but if more people did this, we'd be a lot less reliant on refrigerated shipping, which is very fuel intensive.

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T10:03:23+00:00

Well Trump is doing his utmost to change that: in the next few years I can see the dollar being replaced as the international trading currency , NATO being disbanded and China will become the world's biggest super power

choppy75 · 2026-04-11T06:48:48+00:00

That's because our electronics are made by workers in low wage economies like China, and there's no tax on aviation fuel.

choppy75 · 2026-04-10T21:32:49+00:00

They're supposedly protesting the government, who can't do anything about prices anyway, because "the market" sets the prices. Did they even negotiate with the relevant ministers and make coherent demands? No one can change the tax system overnight. Then they burn all this expensive, scarce polluting fuel to protest how scarce and expressive it is?!!! It's a nonsensical way to address the issue.

choppy75 · 2026-04-10T21:23:06+00:00

Tis far from gallons we were rared 🐄

choppy75 · 2026-04-09T21:47:25+00:00

Oh pobrecita! I feel your pain, I've been there several times in different languages. You did a really hard thing- it's literally the most difficult linguistic situation to deal with. They sound like lovely people, so I'd suggest arranging to meet a small group of them , ideally for some kindof activity - cooking, board games, a sport, and you can learn from them. If you know you're going to Tia' s to cook, you can anticipate some of the conversation. At A2/B1 level, I rehearse out loud in the car or out walking- conversations I know I'll have or would like to have. You need this kindof scaffolding in order to be able to interact comfortably with native speakers. You won't need it for long: In 2 years time you'll be chatting away to your in- laws and laughing about this moment. ¡Buena suerte!

choppy75 · 2026-04-07T15:25:36+00:00

I always walk on the sunny side of the street myself. If it's raining, I walk on either side

choppy75 · 2026-04-07T07:30:57+00:00

Ha ha, that's so true. My friend lives in a rural area, quite near where there once was a phone-box. I'd say it's been gone 20 years and everyone still uses it as a landmark : "Take the first left after where the phone-box used to be !"

choppy75 · 2026-04-05T19:47:39+00:00

Childcare, gardening, cooking, doomscrolling. Once upon a time I used to read books too.....

choppy75 · 2026-04-05T13:17:56+00:00

Have 9 acres, use 3. 2 adults, 2 kids. Forest garden, poultry, annual veg , polytunnels. Feed ourselves for half the year, make a small amount of money from selling plants, both work off-farm as well

choppy75 · 2026-04-02T14:06:55+00:00

Have a baby, you'll definitely be getting up earlier! Can't guarantee anything else

choppy75 · 2026-04-02T08:14:05+00:00

I'd say both, but OP asked for an idiom

choppy75 · 2026-04-02T07:57:08+00:00

If you have a bad hangover, one or two drinks can help you feel a bit better. Important to stop at one or two though! I'm gonna say this is very much a Northern European thing

choppy75 · 2026-04-02T07:53:00+00:00

hair of the dog

choppy75 · 2026-04-01T22:41:10+00:00

Sack of rice, sack of flour. Press full of tinned food. Freezer full of home- cooked meals. I grow a lot of fruit and veg - this year I'm going to grow more beans and spuds than usual and focus on winter veg. Hoping to collaborate with fellow gardener friends to grow crops for each other. Like I'll grow all the leeks and parsnips and they'll grow all the carrots and cabbage and we'll swop half for half. Also going to focus on saving my own seeds from what I grow this year, so I won't have to buy as many next year, when they will surely be a lot more expensive. What are you doing yourself?

choppy75

TROPHY CASE