michael lambe

Some family photos from Britain and Ireland… My dad had two funerals, one in the church he attended for 43 years in Middlesbrough and one back in his home parish of Skerries before being buried in the family grave at Lusk. As you can see from the photos from the reception – I have a [...]

I watched this on DVD last night. It appears to have won lots of awards. Well deserved. This is a gentle romantic fantasy from Ireland about two coma patients who have met only in their increasingly bizarre dreams… and then fall in love. I especially liked it when they suddenly began speaking in Japanese (funny [...]

アイルランドの空と女のこころ。
Now in case you don’t know it Ireland really is a very beautiful country. And the reason it is so beautiful is because it is so green. And the reason it is so green is because it rains all the time. Well, not all the time – but a LOT. Now having been too long [...]

Hello! Hello! I just got back from Ireland today and am still pretty fatigued, (as I write I am holding a cold compress of frozen peas to my incredibly bloodshot right eye) so I won’t be posting all my pictures today. Ye shall have to wait till tomorrow for the full run-down. But just to [...]

Occasionally, I receive comments on this blog of a colourful turn of phrase and I don’t publish them. Just to make things clear, let me explain my policy on “bad language”. I think there’s a time and a place for it and this blog isn’t it. To be precise; any variation on the f-word is [...]

Just checked out the prices to Ireland this August and… it’s going to cost me at least ￥２００，０００！That’s roughly 1,000 of your Earth pounds. (I don’t know what it is in imperial dollars…) Ouch.
I could just stay in hot and humid Kyoto this summer, I suppose. Or I could find a buyer for this:

A lady [...]

My old friend Mickie Potter came online the other night and after brief salutations and updates on current affairs (so-to-speak) I happened to mention I was toying with the idea of a trip to Ireland this summer. Unbelievably I haven’t been back there since the golden summer of 1991.
“I’ve never been to Ireland” says M. [...]

The first warm day in a long time today. Hope it lasts. Obviously the cherry trees appreciate it. I saw my first cherry blossom of the season down by the Kamogawa today. It’s one of the earlier varieties so we have yet a while till blossom-viewing party-foolery begins. Here’s a couple of clickable pictures and [...]

I had an excellent night last night. One of those seemingly magical nights when you’re with just the right people, and you never want it to end – which is why I didn’t go home till 5 in the morning.Oops. A friend told me she’ll be leaving Kyoto and moving back to Tokyo soon, so [...]

Happy Saint Piran’s Day! Way back in the Dark Ages, when Ireland was overrun with saints working miracles, raising the dead, and generally showing off and making nuisances of themselves, the High King at Tara decided saintly standards were slipping and set up some quality controls. Saint Piran, was thrown (literally “thrown” mind you) out [...]